Now Hear This » Podcast

Fairytale of New York

Michael — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:09:37 +0000

The greatest Christmas song ever.

Happy birthday Joe!

Michael — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:10:43 +0000

Joe Strummer would have turned 56 yesterday had he not left this mortal coil criminally early. The Clash’s influence on my beliefs about what music can do and what it should strive to be are impossible to put into words.

I had an opportunity to pay tribute to Mr. Strummer on KALX in Berkeley last night. A brief search around the internet made it seem like The Clash was well represented in the myriad tributes across the blogosphere so I decided to focus on his post and pre-Clash output. Both are as deserving of further investigation as “London Calling” and “I Fought The Law” are deserving of repeated plays.

Give it a listen:

Joe Strummer birthday tribute podcast (48 MB)

Songlist:

“Get Down Moses” – Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (from Streetcore, released almost a year after his death and #1on my 2003 Top Ten)

“Straight To Hell” – The Clash (from Combat Rock)

“Keys To Your Heart” – The 101ers (Joe’s first band, from the soundtrack to the recent documentary The Future Is Unwritten)

“Slant Six” – Joe Strummer (from, barring the soundtrack to Walker, his first post-Clash album Earthquake Weather)

“Coolin’ Out” – Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (from their second album Global A Go-Go)

Joe, you are sorely missed…

Cuppa podcast

Michael — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:15:00 +0000

Just in case none of you bother reading all that stuff on the left I’ve been doing DJ shifts under the Cuppa Joe moniker on KALX in Berkeley for a bunch of years now. Sadly my current shift (9:30 to midnight every Thursday) will expire in a couple of weeks but I’m hoping to get another spot soon. It’s part of the station’s mission to have Cal students on the air most of the time and while that makes it hard on us “community members” who love spinning records and running our mouths I have to applaud the policy.

While typing up the previous blurb about Vampire Weekend’s limited edition 7″ it occurred to me that posting this set from my show on March 13 would be a nice way to celebrate a timelsot I’ll sorely miss (seeing as how it contains the song from the VW video and all).

Track list:
The Dodos – “Fools” (from Visiter on French Kiss)
DJ Paul V – “Tequila Lip Gloss (Lil Mama vs. The Champs)” (from the Best Of Bootie 2007 compilation discussed here)
The Coasters – “Charlie Brown” (from the Loud, Fast & Out of Control compilation on Rhino)
Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk” (from their self-titled record on XL)
Binky Griptite & The Mellomatics – “Mellomatic Mood” (from the 7” single on Daptone)

PODCAST (10 MB)

Music Picked By My Kids

Michael — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:30:00 +0000

So those are my two boys. This photo of them frolicking in the Pacific Ocean was taken in late December. We Californians may be wimps when it comes to weather but I gotta bet there aren’t too many folks on the East Coast wearing their bathing suits outside right now. Anyway, it’s time for a bit of shameless self promotion (as if blogging weren’t enough of a self indulgence): I have a regular DJ shift on KALX in Berkeley every other Wednesday from 6 to 9 PM. A regular feature on my show is “Music Picked Out By My Kids” when I play four records that the boys have picked (usually at random) from my record collection. It’s an interesting (and challenging) exercise creating a set that flows nicely without having control over the source material (well, I do pick the tracks). Hope you like it.

The installment from January 10th features:
Zap Mama – Gbo Mata (Station)
Buffalo Daughter – Silver Turkey
Smashing Pumpkins – I Am One
Lydia Lunch – Spooky

Get it here (3.8 MB)

PS: I really need to come up with a better name for the segment so if you have any suggestions I’m all ears