CMJ » Kodi McKinney

Rocks Off! Concert Cruise: Prong @ Queen Of Hearts

Kodi McKinney — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:23:23 +0000

Between the slight chill in the air and the rain drying from just hours before, a mid-October Friday hardly seemed like the best time for a metal show on the open seas. But as metal bands go, Prong never gave much thought to convention, as it broke out of New York City underground in the early ’90s with a trademark blend of thrash metal and industrial groove that helped kick-start a whole new approach to heavy music. Prong’s headlining engagement on a Rocks Off! Concert Cruise—aboard the canopy-equipped Queen Of Hearts—was its first in the NYC area in five years, and it would take a lot more than a potentially rainy fall night to put it down for the count.

The ship was crammed with a modest but dedicated crowd, and everyone was beyond excited for Prong’s return and unfazed by the single-location time commitment a boat cruise demands during CMJ Music Marathon. Many were also quite intrigued by the openers, who were two unsigned workhorses cut from very different cloths. For Sleeping Or Jumping’s hyperactive math-metal flies right in the face of traditionalism, and Brazilian death-thrash band Eminence took many of Prong’s influences along darker, more desperate-sounding directions to find its sound. But after a beer or three mixed with clear views of the night skyline, sheer amplifier volume brought everyone together as each band conspired with the act before it to up the intensity.

For Sleeping Or Jumping felt like the court jester of the three bands, as the Boston-based quintet careened off of poles and walls while barely missing a beat. In fact, the band’s math-metal (meth-metal if we count occasional trips to grindcore-style hyperspeed) could easily be discounted as a Dillinger Escape Plan copy if not for its sheer demented ingenuity. Yes, the players’ weird time signatures and willingness to injure themselves live are both there, but For Sleeping Or Jumping somehow felt like a more musical approach to the noisy Calculating Infinity-era of DEP if anything—though more post-hardcore and Deftones-infused than the average metal snob would likely guess. The band played every song from its new Dead Languages EP plus an older track, and while the mosh pits weren’t ready to start just yet, it was clear from how riveted everyone in front of the band was that For Sleeping Or Jumping made new fans that evening.

With the crowd set up nicely, Eminence eagerly tore through the audience with fury that wouldn’t have felt out of place at a Sepultura concert. But in contrast to Brazil’s most famous metal export, it feels like the best for Eminence is yet to come. The boat was Eminence’s debut on U.S. soil, and with a new record due out next year to be produced by Terry Date (Pantera, Deftones), it was all the more noticeable when the one new song the band played got the most intense audience response of the set. By the time the band went into the title track from its most recent album, 2008’s The God Of All Mistakes, moshing was erupting in pockets before the stage.

Those mosh pockets merged into a violent soup just in time for Prong, who played as if commanding an entire arena to thrash. Founding singer/guitarist Tommy Victor was in top form, and recent drummer Art Cruz (ex-Winds Of Plague) powered the crowd into a maelstrom. Playing for just over an hour, Prong never left any question as to who was running the show. And its prime-cut-packed set featured a perfect mix of tunes from its early milestones and its comeback album, Carved Into Stone, but it hit its apex at the modern classic “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck,” as the members of For Sleeping Or Jumping dived into the pit once the opening riff fired off, taking fans down with them in a pile of sweaty bodies.

For the people who were there, Prong’s return to New York was an instant CMJ classic, raising the profile of both openers and giving everyone in attendance a night to remember in a unique setting. And from the excited photos and tweets getting shot all over the internet from locations somewhere on the Hudson that night, it seemed clear that anyone who balked at the time investment of coming to a boatshow had reason to regret their choice.

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Pop Radical: John Maus Disrupts The Regime Of The Sensible

Kodi McKinney — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:59:57 +0000

Photo by Mark Blower

John Maus is standing in Manhattan’s expertly decorated, businessmen-filled Eventi Hotel wearing a loose-fitting parka in the middle of May. He’s fresh from a headlining performance at Brooklyn’s Glasslands Gallery the night before, leading up to a full summer tour. The show “was OK,” he says. “I didn’t feel like I had enough energy, you know what I mean?” It’s hard to imagine him ever running short on energy, as he bursts with manic inspiration among the stoic capitalists nearby, ideas and opinions spilling out of his mouth almost faster than he can articulate them.

Maus is clearly possessed with a considerable intellect, which aids him both as a musician and as an academic. Born in Austin, MN, he studied music composition at the California Institute Of The Arts under such avant-garde luminaries as Morton Subotnick and James Tenney. Since then, he’s become a Ph.D. candidate and instructor of political philosophy at the University Of Hawaii At Manoa, financing his coursework and touring by a stipend. And his first new album in four years, We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, builds a potential breakout release on the boundary-pushing synth-pop he’s become known for while hinting at a tricky philosophy lesson within its title.

“That comes from this philosopher that I was really interested in,” Maus says. “So everything you know—consume, communicate and enjoy—that’s kind of what the world says, right? All art and all thought is ruined if we just give over to that. We’ve got to struggle to try and interrupt that somehow with something else, you know?” That creative philosophy carries over to Maus’ mindset as a musician. “It maybe sounds ridiculous or whatever, but I’ve always kind of suspected that there’s something radical about pop, there’s something aggressively disruptive about degenerate punk rock,” he says. “I think all art in a sense, if it’s genuine, disrupts the regime of the sensible.”

Maus and certain allies of his have been disrupting musical sensibilities for several years, largely by experimenting with the limitations of pop structure. He’s played live keyboards for Ariel Pink, no stranger to confronting his audiences on record or in person, and he’s also played with Panda Bear, perpetually growing with and outside of Animal Collective as a whole wave of indie musicians struggles to catch up. Alone, Maus creates music that reflects the wild intelligence driving him, often invoking odd lyrical mantras; the new album’s “Cop Killer” repeats lines from the Body Count song, a reinterpretation that Maus says is about “the police in our head.” His solo work also shows an obvious fondness for the electronic sounds of the 1980s. Though where any nostalgia is concerned, he is vocal about his intent to do more than adopt an old fashion.

“Where I’m coming from or what I’m thinking about isn’t so much about nostalgia or some idea of retro,” he says. “It’s about these possibilities that have already been opened up in the kind of popular music tradition.” For Maus, this includes the use of synthesizers and harmonics that sound distinctly ’80s but still hold relevance decades later. “These things still live today and still speak today, and sometimes the work necessitates their mobilization.”

Maus’ inspiration does not end with the 1980s, as he’s immersed himself in works stemming from the German Romantic tradition, the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and classical music. He appreciates these other historical forms, but unlike those of the ’80s, Maus recognizes an inherent weakness in trying to work them into today’s pop conventions. “That’s what’s interesting about these older languages, like Mozart and Haydn and stuff. You can’t really because it’s a tonal language, because we no longer have the dimensions of thematic development or tonality in the sense of a whole symphony that’s about a journey from C minor to C major. We don’t listen to that dimension of it anymore,” Maus says. But if you are going to cop styles from those times, “you’re going to have to be more on the abstract.”

The deceptive simplicity of Maus’ approach to songwriting—“I just spend most of my time at a keyboard just noodling around looking for some kind of surprise”—underscores We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, which shows Maus both at his most anthemic on songs like “Believer” and at his greatest state of compositional unity between pop songcraft and experimental influences. It’s his strongest record yet, and maybe it’s because he’s mastering ways to blur the lines of what a pop song is. “I think there’s definitely conventions to popular music, like a periodic rhythm would definitely be one,” he says. “Maybe it’s our task to wrest the radical from the periodic.”

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Com Truise – Galactic Melt

Kodi McKinney — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:33:53 +0000

It would be unjust to pigeonhole Seth Haley’s debut LP as chillwave, as there’s so much more going on with Galactic Melt than that. Com Truise does make electronic music with ’80s-influenced production flair and loads of synthesizer work, but that’s where the similarities trail off.

Less crossover-friendly and mostly instrumental, Galactic Melt opens with the ominous grit of “Terminal” and “VHS Sex” before allowing the distinctive keyboard stabs of “Cathode Girls” to take over. This certainly isn’t music to hit the beach by, and it’s also not as concerned with maximizing texture as chillwave is, creating some of its most intriguing moments with negative space.

Com Truise’s bass throbs often hit like bombs because there’s such slight instrumentation around them, and the synth lines guiding the drums through “Flightwave” bring on a feeling of weightlessness every time they drop out. Though unafraid to sample warped vocals or confront the darkness within its own depths, Galactic Melt still reaches its greatest heights when Com Truise cuts through with an unexpectedly epic melody. Try listening to “Glawio” without a sense of awe at this producer’s developing powers.

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John Maus And Puro Instinct @ Mercury Lounge: June 29, 2011

Kodi McKinney — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:30:36 +0000

John Maus photo by Kodi McKinney

He wasn’t at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday night, but Ariel Pink’s presence was inescapable. The lo-fi provocateur’s influence could be felt across a bill filled with musicians he’s collaborated with: original Haunted Graffiti keyboardist John Maus, girlfriend and dance artist Geneva Jacuzzi, and the young, buzz-heavy new band Puro Instinct. There was a sense of the unpredictable in the room, and as to be expected with Pink and his cohorts, and a sense of weirdness to come.

Geneva Jacuzzi led into her set by piping in music for rubber-bodied opening contortionist The Amazing Amy before taking the stage over. A mysterious fusion of goth and vaudeville, Jacuzzi’s stage persona mixed with her songs to come off like a demented Charlie Chaplin fronting New Order. Her performance was quite simple from an instrumental standpoint, relying on prerecorded backing tracks and an onstage mixer, but her mesmerizing combination of crowd interaction and choreography commanded the audience’s attention.

Geneva Jacuzzi photo by Kodi McKinney

Jacuzzi’s performance set the bar high for John Maus, but as the room filled further and crowded the stage in anticipation, Maus entered and detonated in a way barely suggested even by his impressive albums. He screamed, shook his fists and rammed his microphone into his body repeatedly throughout his well-paced set, ending with triumphant new single “Believer” and making sure to include the newly timely “Rights For Gays.” Although Maus is not directly confrontational onstage, the sheer catharsis in his stage presence came through at a brutal level of intensity. Maus might be personally shy—he rarely made eye contact with crowd members in distinct contrast to Jacuzzi’s stare-downs—but he cuts his emotions loose with such visceral abandon that it seems to superheat the air around him. Even though these songs were also prerecorded and cued live by Maus, he’s such a force of nature that a live band could have been overwhelming. It’s as if you’re watching him perpetually get really close to turning into the Hulk, eyes bulging and veins popping with pure feeling, equal parts musician and nuclear reaction.

Although Puro Instinct was the headliner, the late timing of its set and the fulfillment that came with Maus’s show meant a slightly thinner yet still respectable audience. They couldn’t come close to matching his energy, but the sextet’s summery dance-pop went down smoothly and served as a solid close to the evening. Featuring the sister duo of singer Piper Kaplan and lead guitarist Skylar Kaplan, the band started shakily at first but held together as Skylar steadied her intricate guitar lines and Piper openly paused to figure out what was next on their setlist. The other members of the band were more polished than the sisters, but Skylar’s growing talents left a lasting impression; if Puro Instinct can hold together past the initial hype, it’ll be interesting to hear how she progresses. As a performer and songwriter, Maus was the most memorable part of the night and increasingly appears to be at the top of his game, both on record and in person. But Puro Instinct have a ceiling that they’ve barely scratched, and having people like Maus, Geneva Jacuzzi and Ariel Pink around them shouldn’t hurt in their efforts to eventually realize their potential.

Puro Instinct photo by Kodi McKinney

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College Radio Day Plans For Allied Airwaves

Kodi McKinney — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:50:19 +0000

As news continues to travel of stations being sold by respective governing universities, college radio is caught in a tumultuous state. But in the midst of these troubles, supporters are rallying to win over new converts with the first-ever College Radio Day, set for October 11. Co-founded by general managers at two stations, Rob Quicke from William Paterson University’s WPSC, and Peter Kreten from Saint Xavier University’s WXAV, it’s a multi-station attempt to bring together devotees and the uninitiated in hopes to remind both why college radio matters. CMJ spoke to Quicke about what College Radio Day is about, the history it looks to respect and how it will stand out on radio dials across the United States and Canada.

How are stations and programmers responding to the idea so far?
So far, stations are responding very well. We officially launched the website June 6, and we’re approaching 37 college stations who have registered so far. So we are hopeful that this will catch people’s imaginations and stations will register for the day. I think this idea has come at a very important time, and so far, the stations we have contacted have been very excited. I also think that the idea is pretty simple as well; the aim of College Radio Day is to raise a greater, national awareness of the many college and high school radio stations that operate in North America by encouraging people who would not normally listen to college radio to do so on this day. It is hoped that those people who do tune in like what they hear and stay listening.

The original idea for College Radio Day was a proactive celebration of the medium of college radio. But, as recent events have shown [WRVU, for example], there is also a need to stand up and unite against colleges and universities who are electing to sell off their student FM stations to make some quick money. When they do this, they are silencing the voices of their students forever. Think of all those future generations of alums working in the media who will simply vanish. It is ironic that colleges, who encourage their students to ‘find their own voices’ as students, would effectively silence such voices by selling off their campus radio stations. Also, college radio stations provide an important link to their local communities, and that sense of localism will vanish too.

So, College Radio Day is now really trying to reach two audiences: people who would never normally tune in to college radio, and now college administrators who need to be reminded of the importance of what they have in their student radio stations.

What was the logic behind setting it in early October?
Two things; first, it just seemed like a good time considering how many events happen in the fall semester. Second, there is also a connection to having the day in the second week of October, as the first student operated radio facility in the United States began broadcasting on October 14, 1920 (WRUC). So October was a convenient and also symbolic choice!

What are the guidelines for participating stations, and how will their programming differ from a typical day?
First, it’s completely free for all North American college and high school FM, AM and online stations to register. We ask that stations simply broadcast that day as usual, but bearing in mind that there will probably be a larger than normal audience that is listening. We hope that many stations will use that day as a showcase for their best content, whether it be special content such as interviews, band performances or other stuff. We will, though, provide professional College Radio Day sweepers and IDs so that they will sound as part of the national movement of what we are doing on the day. We also ask that they air our keynote radio feature, “College Radio In 2011: Its Past, Present And Future,” which is now very topical considering the recent station sell-offs. We will also be providing optional College Radio Day news bulletins throughout the day for stations to air if they choose, which will detail all the activities that are occurring across the country. Should be action packed!

How will you work to make stations and outsiders aware that this is happening?
Word is getting out already, thanks to social media. I was surprised when the Chronicle Of Higher Education called for an interview last week, before we officially launched. We have about 10 student staff, based at WPSC, who are busy organizing this event over the summer. We will also be sending out mailings to all stations in North America over the summer. We also sincerely thank our official supporters CBI, IBS and USA News Network, who have endorsed the event and promoted it with their members.

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UPDATE: WRVU In Jeopardy As License Quietly Changes

Kodi McKinney — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:30:37 +0000

1984: Joe Strummer with WRVU DJs.

Update: The VSC and Nashville Public Radio announced in a press release that WRVU’s license was sold today to WPLN, Nashville’s NPR affiliate, for $3,350,000. The sale replaces WRVU’s spot on FM radio with WFCL, a new classical station under Nashville Public Radio’s control. Though WRVU will continue broadcasting online, it will exist solely in that format until fall 2011, when it will gain control of WPLN’s HD3 channel according to the deal’s terms. 91.1 FM is scheduled to begin broadcasting WFCL’s programming at midnight CDT.

Vanderbilt University’s WRVU might be on the verge of losing a protracted battle to save its frequency.

A search of the FCC’s database shows that Vanderbilt’s broadcasting license—91.1 FM Nashville, registered to Vanderbilt Student Communications Inc. (VSC)—is now assigned to the call letters WFCL. The change was made on June 1 and suggests that WRVU’s license may have been sold by the VSC. 91.1 FM Nashville was still broadcasting WRVU’s signal at press time, six days after the call letter change was enacted.

“This is all news to me,” Sharon Scott, interim president of support organization WRVU Friends And Family, said to CMJ of the registration change. “We haven’t heard a thing about this until now.” VSC president Chris Carroll said he was waiting to hear from an attorney that handled the FCC filings and declined to comment otherwise.

The VSC announced last September that it was “exploring the migration of radio station WRVU to
exclusively online programming and the sale of its broadcast license.” Scott said previously that the VSC had reached “no final decision” on the sale at the end of its final meeting of the academic year in April, but the current group of board members would still be able to vote via email until July 1.

WRVU alumni, staff members and supporters have been vocally opposed to a sale of its broadcasting license. The Pledge Nothing campaign has urged Vanderbilt donors to pledge lengthy suspensions of donations to the university until plans to sell the license are abandoned. Most recently, WRVU general manager Robert Ackley pledged to eschew donating for eight years. Alumni speaking out in opposition include CNN anchor Richard Quest and Facebook’s vice president of technology, Jeff Rothschild, both former managers at WRVU. Public Enemy’s Chuck D also came out publicly to support WRVU during Record Store Day, joining artists such as 10,000 Maniacs and Jason And The Scorchers.

If WRVU loses its license, the station will be removed from terrestrial radio and forced into an online-only format. Online-only stations have additional operating costs to consider for streaming royalties and bandwidth, as well as decreased audience reach.

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Ford And Lopatin – Channel Pressure

Kodi McKinney — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:44:09 +0000

When Joel Ford of Tigercity and Oneohtrix Point Never architect Daniel Lopatin teamed to form Games last year, it was an intriguing pairing from the outset. Tigercity’s straight-ahead funk-pop seemed diametrically opposed to Oneohtrix Point Never’s texture-heavy soundscapes, and while the duo’s debut EP, That We Can Play, suggested a more vintage take on Ford’s native style, it also held the subtle promise of two musicians building a framework for more ambitious songwriting to come. Now known simply as Ford And Lopatin, the group’s debut full-length, Channel Pressure, makes good on that promise, masterfully hitting pop pleasure centers with just the right amount of weirdness bubbling under the surface.

Unlike the crowd-pleasing dance pop of Chromeo or even Cut Copy, Channel Pressure asks to be accepted on its own terms. Mostly mid-tempo and created primarily with vintage equipment, it harkens back to blown-out electronic hits of the early ’80s, so much so that its songs could have ended up as simple nostalgia in lesser hands. But Ford And Lopatin pulls off a rare trick by injecting enough hints of the avant-garde that Channel Pressure sounds uniquely unfamiliar and retro all at once, scarcely repeating the same change-ups twice. This tightrope walk between pop songcraft and the surreal creates some undeniable earworms; “Joey Rogers” marries Hall And Oates-style soul with chopped-up synthesizer scrapes and guitars ricocheting across the stereo field, and first single “Emergency Room” could soundtrack an old public service announcement if not for the atonal shock waiting in its instrumental break. It’s clear Ford And Lopatin has a gift for sleight of hand with its arrangements, and even though Prefuse 73′s mix helps every piece stand out, its seemingly perfect balance is a product of the players’ willingness to push listeners’ boundaries within recognizable song structures.

Channel Pressure‘s first half is one gigantic slam dunk after another, but in fairness, some flaws begin to show as the album winds down. Ford And Lopatin’s wild experimental streak starts to get compartmentalized into brief instrumentals, producing a difficult chain reaction: As the songs around them get simpler, the record starts to suffer from bloat. Although Channel Pressure is supposedly a concept record, it’s hard to accept that its concept would be handicapped were it to end right after the Babyface-recalling slow jam “Break Inside,” a late-record highlight. But even this fatigue is indicative of Ford And Lopatin’s successes, as it seems 10 tracks weren’t quite enough to contain all of the ideas concocted for the album.

Unusual in being both instantly accessible to casual listeners and aimed at electronic aficionados, the full scope of what Ford And Lopatin has done with Channel Pressure will take a lot of repeated listening to appreciate. The group’s success in making something this retro-sounding with such a stylistically cutting-edge approach deserves to win over dance crowds and convert outsiders, and its relative lack of club bangers is a welcome change of pace from a recently popular emphasis on volume. Deeply rewarding and slyly addictive, Channel Pressure is an uncommon gem, a difficult record that really isn’t difficult at all.

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White Denim – D

Kodi McKinney — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:10:43 +0000

The new rise of garage rock in Austin has been well-documented over the last few years. Fueled by
the city’s famed live music scene, the bands at its forefront seem less concerned with preserving retro aesthetics than steamrolling their audiences in the catchiest ways possible. White Denim rode that approach to underground notoriety with weird velocity on its third full-length, Fits. D suggests that something curious has happened to this band, as it refines Fits‘ bare wires into a clearer, deceptively docile approach in ways beyond increased production polish.

The addition of second guitarist Austin Jenkins to White Denim’s previous trio format may have influenced that shift in sound, as he and vocalist-guitarist James Petralli have a few melodic moments on D that suggest the Allman Brothers as a much bigger source of inspiration than previously guessed. One thing hasn’t changed a bit, however: All members of White Denim can play circles around most of their indie-rock and garage contemporaries. Steve Terebecki has quietly become one of the best bassists in indie, uncoiling distorted lines into most of the band’s best hooks with hyper-dexterity. Drummer Joshua Block also surprises, with tasteful fills and deft changes in time signature combining to form an uncommon presence behind his kit. And it’s clear that the band is still learning how to make the most of Jenkins and Petralli together, as many of D‘s songs seem to have started out as single-guitar arrangements.

D throws its biggest curveballs early, as the gorgeous folk anthem “Street Joy” sounds like White Denim trying to beat Local Natives at that band’s own game. There’s also the straight-up instrumental “At The Farm” that’s noticeably cleaner, more playful and closer to jam-band territory than anything heard on the already jam-heavy Fits. While it’s not terribly memorable at first, it sneaks up to a satisfying climax and suggests the band would do well on a festival bill with pure jam bands like Disco Biscuits or even Lotus. But the try-anything approach doesn’t always work here: “River To Consider” brings a Jethro Tull-like flute to the forefront, and while it’s a ballsy move, the song itself is a forgettable momentum killer.

Despite that awkward first half, D connects itself neatly back to the crazed energy of Fits with the one-two punch of first single “Drug” and “Bess St.” The latter is D‘s moment of singular brilliance, taking the band’s rock and jam facets and throwing them in a prog blender. It’s the catalyst for the record to rev into second gear, and White Denim gleefully rides that inertia through the fist-pumping chorus of “Is And Is And Is” before finally leaning back for the album’s closing minutes. This band can do some serious damage with the gas pedal down, and while D is undoubtedly a grower, it’s unfortunate that White Denim’s experimental tendencies don’t always lend themselves equally well to good songs. Once the band fully realizes how to work as a quartet, however, its output will be just as impressive as its older, louder work.

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Let’s Wrestle – Nursing Home

Kodi McKinney — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:39:58 +0000

For a band with such a straightforward approach, Let’s Wrestle has been hinting at greater potential for quite some time. With a sound somewhere between Hüsker Dü and the Pixies, the English indie-rock trio is built largely on the wit and hooks of singer-guitarist Wesley Patrick Gonzalez. Over the course of two EPs and debut album In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s, the guys have come across like a band of lovable town drunks: surly, given to odd turns of phrase, yet often charming and clever with hints that they might clean up nicely. That all changes with Nursing Home, as production legend Steve Albini sharpens the group’s teeth into the fangs Let’s Wrestle was always meant to bare.

Albini makes the most of the band’s simple power-trio setup here, keeping it raw and letting the bare edges of distorted bass and guitar up each other’s intensity. While the band’s previous recordings were solid documents of its developing songwriting prowess, Let’s Wrestle had always been much more interesting live, where its earnest, ramshackle energy could be appreciated in full. That vitality is finally fully rendered here, as Nursing Home‘s first half leaps out of the speakers in bursts of speedy, madcap brilliance. It’s the sound of a band poised to go for the jugular, leaving as little on the studio floor as possible with Gonzalez’s wry lyrics careening against strings and drums as if the band cut everything in a fit of first takes.

But it’s the band’s increased introspection, always present but especially pointed here, that really sets Nursing Home apart from Let’s Wrestle’s previous work. Gonzalez is strangely aware of the lyrical persona expected of him at this point, and even though he opens the album with surreal references to Pokémon and Queen Victoria on “In Dreams Part II,” songs like “For My Mother” and “Getting Rest” find him taking a direct and disarmingly honest approach. Yet he recognizes the need to keep his sarcastic side intact, even slyly rebuking himself in the chorus of “I Am Useful”: “I will not let my big emotions get a hold of me today/I’m gonna put an English face on this.”

The heightened seriousness could have cooled off these proceedings, but between the band’s huge hooks and Albini’s ability to highlight them, Let’s Wrestle has made the album it was long threatening to make. And unlike its first full-length, this record’s shorter and sweeter. As if aware the increased introspection ran the risk of weighting the album down, Nursing Home stops at 12 songs, the longest barely cracking three minutes. Even if the title of Nursing Home potentially alludes to a band that’s not quite OK with maturity, it’s easily Let’s Wrestle’s catchiest, most mature record to date.

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A Moment Of Silence As Stations Sign Off

Kodi McKinney — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:42:14 +0000

As college radio stations find themselves in increasing jeopardy nationwide, College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) has quietly organized a grassroots response. If all goes according to plan, hundreds of college radio stations will briefly go dark at noon tomorrow for the Minute Of Silence—an echo of what could ultimately happen as universities sell their stations’ broadcasting licenses and even the stations themselves.

“This minute of silence is just the first step in a broader effort to make the nation aware of how critical student stations are to localism in broadcasting,” CBI president Candace Walton said in a press release. The CBI stated that the Minute Of Silence is designed to increase awareness of how sales of student-run radio stations are affecting colleges and local communities. Walton has also compiled a partial list of stations being sold or transferred to non-student operations for public viewing.

The date was chosen to coincide with Rice University’s planned date to sell KTRU to NPR affiliate KUHF, which will leave KTRU silent until KUHF takes over programming. After the CBI’s initial press release, Walton indicated that new developments between Rice and KUHF may keep KTRU on the air through May. “If this happens, the Minute Of Silence will still go on with added empathy for the students, volunteers, educators and professionals who work at the station,” Walton said.

The CBI represents more than 200 student media outlets. Along with KTRU, several well-known names in the college radio world have been subject to sales or discussion of sales in recent months. KUSF, which had its frequency sold by the University Of San Francisco to the Classical Public Radio Network, is currently online-only pending final approval of the deal. Vanderbilt University is also considering a sale of WRVU’s broadcasting license, which would force WRVU into online-only status if completed.

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Chuck D Urges WRVU Supporters To Fight The Power

Kodi McKinney — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:20:44 +0000

As the official college radio station of Vanderbilt University, WRVU has been broadcasting from Nashville since the ’50s and on 91.1 FM since 1971. But if Vanderbilt’s plans announced last September do not change, the university will sell its broadcasting license, knocking WRVU off the air and relegating it to an uncertain, online-only future. Public Enemy leader Chuck D visited with support organization Save WRVU on Record Store Day—the day after Public Enemy played Vanderbilt’s Rites of Spring music festival—to join calls for the Vanderbilt Student Communications board (VSC) not to sell the station.

In September of last year, the VSC announced that it was “exploring the migration of radio station WRVU to exclusively online programming and the sale of its broadcast license,” prompting a meeting between the VSC and surprised WRVU staffers. The months that followed saw WRVU alumni, staff members, and supporters pushing back against a sale of the license in large numbers. Save WRVU’s Facebook page amassed more than 6,000 fans, and letters in support of WRVU were sent to the VSC and Vanderbilt chancellor Nicolas Zeppos.

Chuck D isn’t the only familiar face showing support for WRVU; musicians and famed alumni have come to the station’s defense. CNN anchor Richard Quest and Facebook’s Vice President of Technology Jeff Rothschild have recently voiced support; Quest was once WRVU’s news director, and Rothschild was once its general manager. 10,000 Maniacs and Jason and the Scorchers are among other well-known musicians standing in support of WRVU.

One of the largest college stations in the United States, WRVU averaged 28,500 listeners between July and October 2010. If a sale of its license is carried out, WRVU would be forced into an online-only format, disappearing from terrestrial radio. Online-only stations have additional costs to consider involving streaming royalties and bandwidth issues; Save WRVU suggests that this may raise annual operating costs even as their audience reach and influence is compromised.

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Radio Profile: WXDU (Durham, NC)

Kodi McKinney — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:00:24 +0000

Photo by J Caldwell

While the rest of Duke University was concentrating on the NCAA basketball tournament this year, the campus’ college radio station, WXDU, was inspired to host a punk rock playoff with the winner determined through online voting. That’s just one way that WXDU holds onto its niche in a school famed for its athletics. CMJ spoke to promotions director Candace Mixon about her station’s history and how its staff works to stand out and keep the attention of the Blue Devils’ student body.

How long has your station been around, and what’s the general mission?

The WXDU call letters and our station in its current format have been around since the first official broadcast in October of 1983, but radio at Duke University of varying content, letters, and AM and FM stations has been extant since the late-1940s. The general mission is both exploratory and educational. We seek to offer music you just don’t hear on other stations, and educate our listeners about the musical genres outside of top 40 hits; we are also extremely committed to our thriving and awesome local music scene. We promote local non-profits through our PSAs and make genuine connections within our community.

What is your programming like?

At WXDU, we aim to make our ‘eclectic’ programming mean something more than mere randomness. Instead of imitating an iPod on shuffle, our DJs try to bring a wide variety of sounds together into a cohesive set. Our specialty shows, for example, allow in-depth exploration of a particular genre or mode: jazz, garage and psychedelic rock (Who’s Got the Cuckoo?), world (Mondo Mundo), punk (Nobody’s Driving), soul and dance (Funk Disco Dance Friday) and local music. Most recently, we made a take on March Madness to make our own Slam Dance 2011, where we ran a 64-band punk rock tournament with online voting to determine the winner. The “Fatal Four” included Crass, Minutemen, Flipper, and Black Flag. Most shows are playlist shows that draw from recent releases in indie rock, jazz, world, etc. DJs play a certain number of those new releases per hour, and the rest is free reign! In addition, DJs are asked to play one non-rock song per hour and encouraged to work that into a non-rock segment of their set.

Have you hosted any major events recently?

Recently we hosted Jeffrey Lewis—the anti-folk troubadour and comic book artist extraordinaire—and the Junkyard where we were entertained with both song and comic book presentations. The special events we promote and host are largely based on listener interest and reflect the evolving musical tastes of both our DJs and university audience. Recently we have been holding more events to encourage our DJs to interact and talk about music through weekly lunches and social gatherings.

What direction are you guys taking right now?

Our focus is always based on DJ preference and interest. If we have a specialty show one year that everyone is behind, and the next year there is not the energy or interest to keep it up, we let it go. We don’t force anything; we let our DJs, community, and students dictate our sound. Right now we have had a lot of success with using a “College Rock Radio Primer” to introduce various eras and styles of “college rock” to our current listeners. We try to bridge the old with the new.

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Chunklet Magazine – The Indie Cred Test

Kodi McKinney — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:12:07 +0000

“Let’s get this out of the way first. What’s the address of your shitty blog?”

Five questions into The Indie Cred Test, your emotional response to this query will speak volumes about your ultimate opinion of the book. If you’re offended and your pride is hurting, expect to hate everything that follows. But if you laughed and thought of that Tumblr that’s been sitting neglected for two months, keep going.

Conceived and edited by Chunklet mastermind Henry Owings with the help of a sizable group of contributors, The Indie Cred Test is a fast-paced blend of music snob humor, sight gags and surprisingly perceptive pop culture commentary. And that’s not even mentioning the test itself, which looks similar to a practice guide for the SATs. Although a book like this could easily be a self-congratulatory exercise in fan bashing, the Test isn’t only focused on diagnosing people as hipsters and having a few jokes at their expense, and that’s a big part of why it works.

Aware that “indie” is increasingly broadly defined, the Test drags music culture as a whole out in the open and deconstructs it. One sub-test is designed entirely for writers (it hits strikingly close to home), while another is meant for anyone who has ever had his or her own band (all scores are failing, so don’t take it personally). Metal fandom and DJ culture get their own sections, as do movies and literature. And from the cartoonish, goofy test instructions to the impossible score-calculating formula and cred rankings waiting at the end, not even the standardized test format itself is spared from mockery.

There’s a key to enjoying The Indie Cred Test: You really don’t need to take any of the test sections seriously. But when you see fill-in-the-blanks like, “How much do you hate taking requests?” (for the DJs), or you reach the page that asks, “Which of the following bands have you stated that you really like but deep down can’t really listen to by yourself?”, you’ll be hard-pressed to find that at least some of these questions don’t apply to you. It’s a smooth trick of the Test that encourages you to examine yourself without making you feel inferior.

That’s because as tempting as it might be for readers to take the jokes personally, there’s a pervasive spirit of fun guiding the proceedings. While The Indie Cred Test can’t be expected to feel as personal or conversational as Chuck Klosterman’s pop culture musings, a similar sense of his good-natured, tongue-in-cheek banter shines through. It’s an impressive feat that the Test never comes off as condescending, and that’s likely because its sarcastic wit never descends into mean-spirited, us-versus-them snark.

It’s refreshing to see indie culture skewered in a way that outsiders can easily understand and insiders can appreciate without feeling insulted. There’s a lighthearted silliness to what could have been a very condescending piece of work, a breezy absurdity that owes more to Mr. Show-style sketch comedy than anything approaching stereotypical music writing. Not all of the jokes are home runs; one early page contains no less than four PBR references, and while this may be an accurate dietary choice for hipsters seeking cheap beer in expensive cities like New York, it’s still an overplayed stereotype. But when The Indie Cred Test hits the mark, it ties an awful lot of self-conscious scenes together and has fun with trappings even their members may not have noticed. It’s satirical but not hard-hearted, and being able to inspect hipsterdom at book length without descending into vitriol might mean we’re finally moving on.

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