This American Life: Chimp Happy Valley

The original cheetah enjoying his retirement

This American Life is one of the most celebrated speech radio shows to be found on any network anywhere. If you are a subscriber you will know that there is something about the perfectly paced stories, the use of first person narration (emphatically feeling like storytime for grown-ups) and the excellent use of music (often from America’s best alternative bands) that feels right. Unlike other radio documentaries found elsewhere the stories never feel too dense, and the conversational tone set by presenter Ira Glass means that his world feels warmly familiar. 

A couple of weeks ago was #350. The theme was human resources exploring the uneasy interactions between humans and their institutions. This show is separated into three different acts telling different stories: the prologue has Ira talking to a human resources specialist about how to fire people; act one examines ‘The Rubber Room’, where US teachers go when they are suspended; act two looks at the conspiracy behind American real estate (TAL often appeals to the Trot inside us all), but the real magic comes in act 3.

The final act sees reporter reporter Charles Siebert talk to Ira about retirement homes for chimps. Apparently there are thousands of retired entertainment and medical industry monkeys in sipping cocktails and playing crazy golf all over the States. I was very pleased to hear that those previously engaged in the medical industry love endless reruns of E.R. and House on the telly. That factling, and much more chimp retirement trivia, means that I will be dining out on this item for WEEKS. 

Listen to this episode here or, if you haven’t done so already subscribe here.

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

Saturday Night…
I’ve got a new favourite radio station. It’s called WFMU FM, it broadcasts from East Orange, NJ across the river into NYC. It describes itself as ‘freeform radio’, which means it lets the presenters choose the music they play. Of course, this sometimes results in a load of self indulgent tosh (by which I mean stuff I’m not interested in). However, it also results in some fantastically exciting radio made by obsessed, enthusiastic experts.

Prime among these is the tremendously monikered Mr. Fine Wine. He presents Downtown Soulville, a Friday night sweatbox session of some of the most joyous, uptempo, obscure soul 45’s I’ve (n)ever heard before. Often played off really crackly vinyl, and always chosen with love, the show (and an hour long podcast, in which form it’s become required Saturday evening cookalong soundtrack music chez Hall) just bursts with fantastic stomping instrumentals, unheard of artists crying soulful entreaties, and back catalogue obscurities from artists like Tina Turner and Little Milton. Mr Fine Wine is obviously a soul nut, but not blinkered – one show sees him playing Chuck Berry and reminding listeners afterwards ‘Remember the rule – if I say it’s soul, it’s soul.” To judge by the unlabelled acetate played recently, given to him by his Uncle Maurice, it runs in the family.

If you’ve got even the slightest interest in soul music, you need to hear this show. But before you do, please make sure you’ve got room to move before you start, as rugs will most definitely be cut, moneymakers will be shaken, and midnight oil will be burnt. Terrific.

…and Sunday Morning
And after the late night sinning, comes the early morning redemption. The same station also host a Thursday evening gospel show, Sinner’s Crossroads, hosted by Kevin Nutt. If ever there was a podcast that would make a churchaphobic non-believer feel a little bit sanctified on Sunday morning it’s this (and not the happy clappy inclusive live from a soulless concrete tepee somewhere in the home counties they insist on clogging up Radio 4 with on a Sunday morning).

Beautiful acapella quartets, ranting down home preachers from the earliest days of broadcasting (including brazenly naked instructions for the faithful to send in cold hard cash) and joyous high octane gospel choirs are all pulled out of the archives. They all go to show that, while the devil might have all the best tunes, a bunch of flat topped true believers channelling the holy spirit through the medium of intricate bass parts and call and response harmonies runs him mighty close. Hallelujah!

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Skank Around The Kitchen

 

DJ Scratcha: The Grimey Breakfast on Rinse FM

This is still work in progress, but Scratcha makes me laugh A LOT. Scratcha does ‘The Grimey Breakfast’ on the absolutely incredible Rinse FM. A lot has been written about Rinse all over the web—it is the home of so many of the best black music heads in the UK at the moment including Roll Deep, Skream / Zinc and Benga, Boy Better Know and Plastician—but not enough people have been shouting about the weekday 8-11 slot. 

Some things work, and some things go on way too long, but when it’s right it’s very right. Often in a very wrong way. Recent features include a summer special where listeners split up with their girlfriends / boyfriends on air (because you don’t want to have a girlfriend in the summer right?), and this morning was a phone in about the perils of ‘going down’ for both girls and boys. Eat that Terry. 

The music is amazing (kinda like a really upfront 1Xtra breakfast minus lame R’n’b plus some killer underground hits), and—without getting all grown up on it—it’s really good to hear a show that hasn’t been neutered in the age of compliance and censorship where young people can talk how they talk.

As he says ‘it’s breakfast—start your day with a nice white pearly smile’. Wow. 

Check Rinse on their website, or listen to the podcasts here (Scratcha comes round pretty regularly).

This Is An Un-American Broadcast

I still haven’t quite figured out how NPR works. I know there are a bunch of stations around the US, each operating on a real shoestring budget. They’re called ‘affiliates’. And as well as their own output, they also take shows made centrally by the NPR organisation. As anyone who’s ever listened to any NPR stations in real time can tell, there’s a world of difference between the stuff made locally and that brought in from the centre.

All Songs Considered is one of NPR’s hidden gems, and possibly the best music radio show currently broadcasting. Presented by Bob Boilen, a man who never lets his obvious love of the music he plays prevent him from sounding anything other than lugubrious, the programme is usually a round up of current releases. The writer Barney Hoskyns recently mentioned a genre called ‘NPR Artists’ and I guess those are the acts All Songs Considered champions. Majoring in the kind of songwriters operating in the field that used to be called ‘Americana’, they avoid the US mainstream, and are all the more interesting for that – everyone from Bob Dylan to Fleet Foxes, Amadou & Miriam to Neko Case, Anthony & The Johnsons to Franz Ferdinand have all been recently featured.

There are a number of great things about the show. Firstly, it’s podcast without any edits – which means you get the tracks featured in full, rather than just the intro & fade out. Secondly, they have an irregular series of guest DJ shows, where an artist comes into the studio to talk about influences and current favourites. These are entertainingly shambolic, and usually accompanied by the sound of Boilen shuffling through a pile of CD’s as he attempts to find the track being discussed. Recently Bonnie Prince Billy showed up and talked about how much he loved The Monster Mash, Randy Newman raved about Ray Charles and Portishead revealed a hitherto unsuspected Hendrix influence.

However, the best thing about All Songs Considered is their series of podcast concerts. Full length and unedited, they’ve given me some of my favourite listening of the last twelve months. Tom Waits, Orchestra Baboab and Spiritualised have all featured. And I’ve listened to the show featuring Leonard Cohen at the Beacon Theatre in New York least once a week since it was first posted.

There are drawbacks with the show. Black music is mostly noticeable by its’ absence. But given that you can find hip hop, reggae, house and any number of other Black styles all over the internet, it’s carping to berate the show for a single failing. Instead, celebrate and enjoy a unique show – not only in the American broadcasting landscape, but across the interweb as a whole.

The Man From The Ministry

Ross Allen

Firstly, in the interests of full disclosure I need to make it clear that Ross Allen is a mate, and we worked together back in the last century on GLR, when I produced his ‘Destination In’ evening show.

However, if I had no knowledge of the man and his curious taste in quality knitwear, I think I’d still be flagging up his latest radio incarnation. Hailing from the eclectic end of Dance Music Boulevard, The Meltdown’s content is pretty much dependent on the mood Ross is in when he hits the studio, the music that’s excited him while he’s been playing out that week, and the MP3’s and white label CD’s he’s been passed while out and about in nightclubs far and wide across the globe.

Managing to play a mix of exclusive super cool previews, current leftfield remixes and classic old tunes without coming over (like some radio DJ’s we could mention) as trying too hard, there’s always a sense of the crate digging fan boy about Ross’s presentation. It’s a feeling that he’s playing the music because he loves it, and he wants the listener to love it as well. Combined with the ability not to take himself too seriously, it makes The Meltdown one of the most enjoyable shows on the Ministry platform. Hell, one of the most enjoyable on radio, period.

Ross Allen – The Meltdown, Ministry Of Sound Radio Monday nights 6-8pm GMT  and listen again.

The Afternoon Show (…In The Evening)

grouper

A short post for you today. I love most things American and independent musically… once upon a time the place to hear anything from Matmos to Mice Parade was on BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It, or (in the case of electronics) Mary Anne Hobbs’ Breezeblock, and of course in the excellent Wire radio shows (surely the subject of a forthcoming post).

Now I have discovered that the ultimate independent record shop trolley dash of a radio show comes from WNYU out of New York (the station that also broadcasts ‘Beats In Space‘).

They bill it as ‘three and a half hours a day of pure, unadulterated, adventurous New Sounds’, and it works absolutely perfectly at the time zone adjusted UK time of 9pm-12.30am. The hosts Kayla and Jonathan and unobtrusive but totally on it, and the music they serve up is completely compelling.

Now that we have Spotify for all the major label stuff out there, the only releases that remain hard to track down are the independent stuff. The Afternoon Show makes this work reachable for those of us who can’t get our geek on at Rough Trade on a daily basis.

The picture above is for an artist called Grouper that they introduced me too this week. It’s swoonfully badass, as were five or six other records from the same show.

Dirt E. Business

Indiefeed is a great idea. The format is simple. It’s series of podcast channels that cover a variety of different genres including indie pop, blues and alt rock. Each podcast contains one track, with a bit of info about the artist, release and where you can get hold of it. As the name suggests, the music is either self released, on independent labels or just  available from MP3 download.  The philosophy is also simple – give the artists some shine, and the audience might follow up by buying a download, going to a show, or just giving them some love.

I’m afraid can’t comment on most of the Indiefeed output, not having the first foggiest about what makes a good indie pop or alt rock tune. However, I know Indiefeed Hip Hop rocks!  Hosted by underground stalwart Dirt E Dutch, a/k/a The Dutchman, the series covers classic artists and neophytes alike, all displaying a level of verbal dexterity sadly lacking in most mainstream rap at the mo. So, recent editions have featured the return of Chubb Rock, a great collabo from B-Real of Cypress Hill and Damien ‘Junior Gong’ Marley, and posthumous beats from the late J-Dilla. But I’ve also been introduced to new artists such as Triple Ave, Mic Crenshaw and Sammy Cook.

The best place to check this out is via iTunes, where the archive goes right back three years. Myself, I wait until I’ve got a long journey and chuck a load of the episodes into a playlist, then hit shuffle. Dutch is a great presenter, the kind of voice that fits the music and who is obviously up on his subject without boring you with excess knowledge. The kind of voice you want from the radio, in fact, but get much too rarely. Go check it.

Oh, and if you get a chance to check out the other Indiefeeds, be sure to let us know what you think of them.