(thread moved from general)

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I bought some excellent albums this past year. Ok, none of them got any airplay on any station I ever listen to...

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Right. If the record companies were smart and not so much focused on short-term gains, they would be utilizing this new technology (digital audio/mp3's..) in order to advertise the lesser known bands. Radio stations sound so alike from coast to coast. There is a large gap which could be filled by having more experimental radio stations that open up the listeners to newer bands/music, but in the absence of that, mp3's/internet are doing the job. The record industry needs to relalize and embrace this.

-mark

Totally agree. Onesidezero and Systematic put out my two favorite albums of 2001. I haven't heard them once on the radio.

I'm proud that I've never been a tool of the radio. However, I've actually been turned on to mainstream bands with it. don't forget that flip-side.

Many of my favorite bands have never ever been heard on radio, or very seldomly. I've also never cared about it. It's sad that they aren't promoted, but I also realize something: the vast majority of the population won't like them, no matter how much I do! I write music reviews for my college paper. I wrote a 5/5 star review for the debut album of Abandon Jalopy (check it out). I really doubt anyone went out to hear that one, even though I had front page of the reviews section. If I had been reviewing a mainstream act, maybe it'd be different.

The nature of most record buyers (early teenagers) is to listen to something catchy. Sometimes they'll buy that highly played album and find out that that catchy tune is unrepresentative of the rest of the album and they won't listen to it anymore (case in point: Blind Melon).

I don't know. It's hard to say what deserves airplay and insane promotion. If everything were promoted equally, there would be far too much stuff out there for people to choose from. The sad thing is that it seems there are only two levels of promotion hyped and shushed.

I totally agree about the radio thing, though. Every station sounds so familiar. I'm from around D.C., and have switched from WHFS to DC101 and heard the same song at the exact same time. I think it's a conspiracy.

Not really showing any point, but on the subject of radio, I thought someone might find it interesting. Seems that in the first 6 months of 2001, "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction was played 12,000 times on the radio.

Some of my favorite bands that probably never has or never will be heard on radio:
Screaming Trees (2 songs in 18 years doesn't count)
Abandon Jalopy
SadHappy
Critters Buggin
Extra Virgin
Unified Theory
Wellwater Conspiracy

Okay, maybe some of these have been heard once or twice on someone's local station, but I doubt any of it's been widespread.

In reply to:

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Extra Virgin

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...the band, or the album by Olive?
-mark

the band

Extra Virgin and Abandon Jalopy are the names of bands formed by former members of Blind Melon.

I guess I'm lucky. My music does occasionally get played on the radio because... I go and play it there. I've been a guest DJ on my local college radio station twice now, with one more spot coming up in a few weeks. 50,000 watts of my jazz collection, beaming all across Houston...

Hey, by local college radio station, do you mean sort of like a club at your college that runs the little room in some basement that they broadcast out of? Or is it more official. Sure, I've DJ'd on my college station, and played the hell out of my favorite stuff, but nobody but the people in my area are going to hear that. I doubt anyone is even listening to it.

But your school is probably bigger than mine. If you get to broadcast over Houston, then you definitely have a larger pool to get listeners from I've got a bunch of tourists and retired people listening to our airwaves (in Williamsburg, VA)

When is the next time you're on? I like jazz, and anything new would be nice.

The rest of the Blind Melon album is easily better than their "No Rain" hit single (as a whole). too bad about the suicide. They were a fairly underrated band IMO. I can usually tell with one song if I will like the rest of a band's material. And that doesn't just mean liking the one song. Some bands will take two or three songs - and I can usually tell before hand which those will be. I've been very lucky I guess. Or I'm extremely talented and picking up on what I like right away. Of course there are albums that just grow on you the more you listen to them.

For instance, I have loved everything from Pulp. I wasn't that thrilled at their newest album. After the third listen I think it's brilliant. Different, but brilliant.

Bruno

Yeah, some take a few listenings to get used to. Those are the best I think. You can appreciate them more. It's not interesting if you hear everything upfront. Even Nirvana had subtlties.

Yes, "No Rain" was definitely not representative of the rest of that album. The sad thing is that their second album is a masterpiece in my opinion, but because it was so different and unaccessable to most people who heard "No Rain", it didn't do well. It's a darker album, almost entirely about his drug addiction (by the way, I know it's picky, but it was an OD, not a suicide). I probably listen to that album all the way through about 3 times a week. sometimes more.

Also, if any of you like rock saxophone, I give you one name: Skerik

If anyone here has heard that name before, I will be extremely impressed.

I knew it was an OD, though it did slip my mind when I was writing that reply.. But, it's not much of a stretch to consider an overdose as suicide.

I don't have their second album yet. It's on my wanted list with about 4-500 other albums right now. I don't know how I could not like it though. After listeing to a complete album you get a much better sense for other complete works than you do going by one song for the original set.

BTW, one local station (it's gone to crap in the past 10 years) used to play Screaming Trees all the time. I'm guessing in the mid-90's. Now they just play shite: Nickelback, LinkinPark, LimpBizkit, Staind and a bunch of other complete and utter worthless garbage. I only ever listen to the radio in the morning when my alarm goes off. Oh, and while I was without a changer in my car, before getting the empeg, for a few weeks. Every now and then they'd have something interesting on one of their evening programs. Like when they did most of an hour chatting with and about Hooverphonic early last year or the year before.

The station in question is Toronto's Edge102. They used to use their own call-letters, CFNY, but decided to license the "Edge" branding along with some other stations in the US. There's another Edge in Buffalo, and the personalities are very different, but the playlists are almost the same.

Now every now and then I pop onto some web sites like NME or sometimes cruise around from link to link on places like All Music Guide. I've got enough artists that I already know I like to keep me busy buying music for a long while yet. But it's nice to find other stuff I really enjoy that I hadn't been exposed to before.

Bruno

When is the next time you're on? I like jazz, and anything new would be nice.

I'll be on Monday night, February 11, 9-10pm. The station is KTRU (91.7FM for most of Houston, also on 91.5FM, which is a lower-power transmitter that's closer to campus). My set is going to be something along the lines of "Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton: 1920's New Orleans Jazz".

No, he's talking about a pretty big station (50 MW). By "local college", he means Rice University and the station broadcasts across Houston. You used to be able to listen to it here: http://noise.ktru.org/ but I can't make it work now. Maybe its a temporary thing.

Heaven knows, they seem to have enough trouble making the main transmitter work. It's a wonder that the web page works at all. Still, warts and all, it's kinda cool to know that people can pick up the station from well outside the city limits.

For anybody who's interested, there are actually all kinds of interesting politics that happen when students find themselves in possession of a high-wattage radio station in a large metropolis...

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2001-01-11/feature.html/1/index.html

"Some of my favorite bands that probably never has or never will be heard on radio:
...
SadHappy
..."

Heh... OT for OT, but I was (supposedly) the first person to ever play the "Depth Charge" single on the radio. (At least that's what Skerik told me...)

Of course that was like 1991 or something. Heh.

You're kidding me! Do you know Skerik? That man is the greatest rock saxophonist I've ever heard. Then again, I can't really categorize what he is. He's...Skerik!

I finally got to SadHappy's web site and ordered their three remaining albums while I could (fortunately I'd gotten "The Good, the bad..." about a year ago.

Do you know what he's up to now? I'd been waiting for the new Tuatara album for months and finally bought that too. Is that his main focus these days? Is he still playing with Critters Buggin?

God, I can't believe you've talked to him. Man, I sound like such a gushing fan If you talk to him, let him know that he's got a lot of fans. There are a few other sax players in my section in school who listen to him, and we're all the way in Williamsburg, VA.

Uh... I think you're confusing "met once" with "best friends." heh...

I had a radio show up in Bellingham and Sadhappy was playing a benefit downstairs. He happened to come up while my show was on and wanted me to play their newly recorded single. He hung out for a while... talked with him on-air. Cool guy.

I last saw him on stage about 6 months ago, here in Seattle. He played a little with the Minus 5... last I heard of him, he was playing with "Les Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade." good stuff...

...Anyway, just wanted you to know they've been on the Radio at least once.

Hehe, okay. That's still cool, though

Yeah, I just heard from someone that he was playing with Claypool. That's fantastic. I never was one for Primus, though. Just couldn't get into their stuff. But I've heard that band is different.

Glad he's still playing though. He's fantastic. Have you heard SadHappy's cover of "Giant Steps" by Coltrane? He sure rips it on that track. Damn...

Well, I've always been one for Primus, but Les' solo stuff is very impressive in it's own right. He's much more experimental with the material he plays solo. Man, his version of "The Awakening" is fantasic... And here's a weird treat... Skerik plays Pink Floyd's Animals in it's entirety on the Flying Frog Brigade's Live Vol. 2

Man, until now I had no idea SadHappy recorded anything past Depth Charge. Damn... Too bad about that album being out of print. I see that they have a fourth CD, but no Skerik.