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Philbin’s Top 7 Albums of the Library
I don’t need to remind you that we have a lot of music in the library. Most of could spend years rifling through albums and still miss some incredible gems. So for the musically curious DJ out there, I and the rest of the assistant MDs have come up with a list of our favorite albums in the library right now. So please read and stay tuned for more to come.
7. Dillinger Escape Plan – Calculating Infinity - RR25,332A
Math-core
Okay, Okay, I admit, I’m a Dillinger Escape Plan hipster. I loved them when I first heard them, which right before they released Miss Machine back in 2003 and I got to see them when I was 14-15 years old. That was when they were still playing in small clubs, blowing fire into the crowd, and picking people up from the crowd by their throats while screaming in their face. It was intense, it was insane, and it was beautiful.
Since then they’ve release quite a few more albums, gained quite a few more fans, and picked up a bit of suck on the way. Yes, I’ve listened to their more recent albums and seen them live recently, so I’m not just pulling the hate from out of my butt.
So Why Do I dislike them now? Listen to Calculating Infinity. Listen to how very little seems to make sense. Listen to the chaos, the complete lack of choruses and verses (in the traditional sense), and the courage it took to create such unique music and then try to market it. Now, DEP just isn’t the same in my eyes and I just don’t think they could ever go back to the musical brilliance that is Calculating Infinity.
6. Daughters – Hell Songs - RR31,513A
Spaz-core
Where DEP drops the ball on the spastic hardcore genre, Daughters picks it up and then proceeds to rape said ball while on some weird ecstasy trip behind the dumpster of an abandoned orphanage, all while slithery, snake demons from the lowest level of hell laugh and mock at the ball’s inadequacies.
That’s how I feel about Daughters. Before Hell Songs, Daughters was a scream-core band with guitars that sounded like their players just purchased whammy pedals and refused to not use them on every-single-second of every song. Then, they released Hell Songs and the lead singer dropped the screaming and chose to just sing like an enthusiastic evangelical preacher is doing a bad Elvis Impression, which sounds a thousand times scarier. Daughters will creep you out and make you feel like you need to take a shower afterwards and I love it.
5. Candira – Process of Self Development - RR13,503
Rap-metal-jazz-ambient-core/ “Urban Fusion”
Being unique plays a big factor on whether or not I like a band’s music and to say Candiria’s Process of Self-Development is unique may be a bit on an understatement. Very few bands have had the balls to combine genres in such an apparent manner and this album specifically makes almost no attempt to try and mold sounds and styles of each kinds of music. The result is an album that may have a hardcore-rap-metal track with low tuned guitars, breakdowns, and in-your-face vocals followed by a simple jazz track with horns followed by a long ambient track with jungle rhythms. The combinations seem abrasive at first, but it forces you to listen and wonder what may be next. I would describe listening to this album the entire way through as an “unpredictable trip” or a “truly unique experience”.
4. Death – Sound of Perseverance-RR6,998D
Death Metal (obviously)
Most metal heads know that Chuck Shuldiner and his band Death were pioneers of the genre and more than qualified to hold the title of “Fathers of Death Metal” even though it isn’t particularly true. So, I’ll address the rest of this review to those who don’t “get” Death Metal. If you don’t, then I would recommend to you Death and the album Sound of Perseverance. Death showed that that death metal isn’t all about unpleasant lyrics and chug-chug guitar rhythms. No, Death approached complex, mind-opening lyrics while introducing us to evermore complex, interesting song-writing and structures. While death metal is difficult for most people to open their hearts to, Death can easily silence the critics and show that it can be treated like art just like anything else.
3. Billy Cobham – Spectrum - JZ286L
Jazz-fusion
I have a love/hate relationship with Fusion. While I can appreciate the mastery that is required to play it, I find it boring and better suited for elevators than my Ipod. Though if asked me if I liked Jazz fusion, I would say “Yes”. Why? Because of the early days of Fusion, when it was raw, powerful, and a truly great representative for both of the genres.
Billy Cobham’s Spectrum is a prime example of that. If you listen to the album, you can hear that mistakes were made and that it wasn’t perfectly produced, but who cares? No one, because all the elements that made up the band seems to come together in one giant mass of jazzy-aggressive-rock awesomeness.
2. Meshuggah – Nothing - RR10,599E
Goddamn Metal
I was hesitant on putting this album on the list because, if you know anything about metal , you know Meshuggah. From what I understand, those who know metal, most like Meshuggah in some form and those who don’t know anything about metal, hate Meshuggah. Regardless, Nothing was the album that got me to love metal in a very serious way and I have never looked back. So… there.
1. Morphine – The Night - RR8,729H
Jazz-rock
A friend of mine would ask “<insert band name> 1 through 10?” and I would rate the band with what would usually be a “7” or an “8.5” if I liked the those bands. This led to think of what bands I would give a perfect 10, a band that I love so completely that I wouldn’t change a damn thing, and only two bands came to mind. One is the Swedish metal band Meshuggah and the other is the jazz rock band Morphine.
Morphine is just one of those bands that never fails to make me feel something when I listen to them and The Night is a shining example of that. It doesn’t matter if the feeling is sorrow or happiness, morphine has its way of reeling me in with their low frequency jazz rock. Highly recommended.
Do you have what it takes?
Not unlike a Ricola commercial, each semester we put out THE CALL. We search the land for the finest metal heads and hipsters, bros and ravers, those musically inclined and those we think are just cool.
Though, to be honest, most of the time we are exhausted by the time we print out the application form, so we usually just pick from the people who wander in and put their name on a whiteboard. It seems to work pretty well, since we’re pretty awesome. Do you have what it takes?
Can you truthfully fill out paperwork about your musical interests?
Can you write your name on a whiteboard?
Can you survive the rigorous 20 minute interview process?
Do you have what it takes to go to a weekly training meeting and get HANDS ON experience at your trainers show?
If you answered yes to all of the above and thought that Nickelback was actually a bad answer, then you should:
- Stop by the station and grab an application
- Fill it out the form
- Turn in the form and sign up for an interview time
Applications are due January 20. Good luck!
My Little Facebook Page
Let’s face it, sometimes going out in the big bad world can be a scary idea, especially when Facebook can treat you like this:
(Why would Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash fight?)
But today, we take back the power! Let’s bring our show profiles into the 23rd century. In case you didn’t know, you can tie your DJ profile and show into a Facebook Page so you can publish things to it from the Facebook account you are already on 24/7. Some people already have, here is a short list so you can see what you can do by integrating Facebook:
As before, once you are signed in as a DJ you can always edit your show, by clicking the “My Shows” link on the right panel. Clicking the title of the show takes you to the show page, where as clicking edit and rent do their respective actions. If your show is missing, you can claim it by going to its show page (like the ones above) and click the claim link in the helpful box that appears. This page is kind of mysterious looking:
…
Relax! Some things are straight forward, others, mysterious. Detail is what shows up as the descriptive text for your program. Promo is the image that appears behind the text on our beautiful schedule. If you want a promo it should be at least 450 pixels wide and 50 pixels tall. You can upload larger, but only upper left 450x50 will be used. Then, at the end, is the mysterious “Facebook ID” box. When you enter the ID of a facebook page into the box, you will connect your show profile to that page. KMNR.org will set your show details to the description you set for that Facebook page, and display the feed from your page on the show details.
If you haven’t already, its easy to make a Facebook page. Because Facebook doesn’t recognize college radio as a viable medium for Facebook pages, you’ll have to get creative on the categorization, to pick something that sounds cool. Once you’ve got everything set up (Facebook is very helpful in that regard) snag the FB ID by inspecting the page URL. For example my page has the ID 181371645208485 which is at the very end of the URL. Just take the numbers and paste them into the box. Hit submit you will be shown the form again. Since the detail about your show is taken from the description of the Facebook page, that will now be missing. If you change your mind, simply clear the Facebook ID field.
From there, post whatever you like to your Facebook page. You can even get fancy and post tweets to your Facebook page in the same way you have them post to your regular Facebook profile.
Oh the places you’ll go!
Improved! Posting Playlists
Two meme posts in a row? I have a problem. Oh well, let’s soldier on.
Today’s update makes it easier for DJs to post playlists to KMNR.org. It is pretty awesome, so your favorite DJ should have no excuse for not telling you what songs they played during their show. Feel free to call them at 573-341-4272 and berate them (nicely) for not doing so. If you’re not a DJ you can probably stop reading now and probably just head over to the playlists section and see what’s been played recently.
If you are a DJ, you’ve probably already activated yourself as DJ on KMNR.org but if you haven’t, sign in through facebook or by registering an account and slip over to the DJ activation page (Below your name, click Control Panel, then Activate As DJ; You’ll need the secret code that is at the bottom of every rent e-mail) Once you’ve done that, the sidebar should look something like this:
Give that a little click-a-roo and you’ll end up here:
Click the ‘PERFORM MAGIC’ button and you will be whisked away to KLAP where you will see the familiar start a log form, with some of the boxes already filled in! (If you look before the click, the contents that will appear in the boxes will be right below)
Fill in the rest of the fields appropriately: your real name goes in the name box and put your show name in as close to the one on the website as you can. Then start log, and do a kick ass show. When its over, commit the log and it will auto-magically be pushed through the tubes to KMNR.org.
Read it and weep. Thanks to the lovely people that modified Facebook’s discontinued SDK.
New Music In The Week Of Skyrim
Williamsboy - Alone With You
Mandala - The Visitation (The Magnetic Fields, Jens Lekman, Nick Drake)
The Hours - I want More EP (Kasabian, Duran Duran, French Kicks)
.Said The WhaleNew Brighton Ep (The Shins, Fruit Bats, Rah Rah)
Oh No Not Stereo - In Case of Stares Use Fire (Set Your Goals, All American Rejects, Sum 41)
Bleeding Knees Club - Virginity
Megadeth - Th1rt3en
The Jigsaw Seen - Winterland (The Kinks, Guided By Voices, XTC)
Grubstake - Anyhow (Gogol Bordelo, Black Lips, guided by voices)
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time (yeah yeah yeahs, Electro-pop, weird shit)
Built Like Alaska - In Trouble Times (Grandaddy, Telekinesis, Sparkelhorse)
Garrett J. Brown - Priorities
The Color Pharmacy - Texatonka
Wise Blood - These Wings (Panda Bear, James Blake, Ariel Pink, Zomby)
Ski Lodge - Ski Lodge (Vampire Weekend, Smiths, Shins)
Cass Mccombs - Humor Rosk (Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, Bert Jansch)
Owen - Ghost Town (Kevin Devine, J Mascis & The Mountain Goats)
Pert Near Sandstone - Paradise Hop
Justice - Audio, Video, Disco (Daft Punk, MSTRKRFT, DJ mehdi)
Bands In parenthesis are Recommended If You Like.