Mini-Vacation

This Friday, May 28, Sophie will guest DJ on Tight Pants while I travel to Chicago for no apparent reason other than to get out of one burg and into another for Memorial Day weekend. Perhaps I'll head out to see Andre Williams at Schuba's on Saturday night. Maybe I'll check in with Eleventh Dream Day at the Hideout on Sunday. In between, I'm sure I won't go to any record stores, because I really hate records and everything about them. I hate the weight of a big, heavy, old one when you hold it in your hands. I hate wiping it clean before placing the needle into the grooves, which I also hate. I especially hate the totally conceited artwork and reading material that comes inside. These bands actually think you want to know who played on their stupid album and how it was recorded! Sometimes they even have pictures or posters! And lyric sheets that you don't even need to squint to read! And don't even get me started on the seven inch little records with the big holes.

See you next week!

More silly hogwash

There are two principle types of people in the world, and they can basically be sorted with the following questions:



1. Beatles or Stones?

2. Dogs or cats?

3. Analog or digital?

4. Night or day?

5. Chicken or lasagne?



Which one are you?

Bollywood night with WCBN, April 14, 2010

A bunch of people wanted a list of the songs we featured for WCBN's free night in Bollywood, so here they are, in the order in which they were screened! The song title is first followed by the movie name:

Choli Ke Peeche- Khal Nayak (1993)
Mitwa- Lagaan (2001)
Meri Jaan Balle Balle- Kashmir Ki Kali (1964)
Dhoom Taana- Om Shanti Om (2007)
Yeh Dosti- Sholay (1975)
Yaamaa Yaamaa- China Town (1962)
Aasman Se Aaya Farishta- An Evening in Paris (1967)
Mourya Re- Don (2007)
Duniya Mein Rehna Hai To- Haathi Mere Saathi (1971)
Baawre- Luck By Chance (2009)
Dard-e Disco- Om Shanti Om
Ghost Dance- Gupi Gyne Bagha Byne (1968)
Dekhoji Ek Bala- China Town
Dil Usey Do Jo Jaan- Andaz (1971)
Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke- Brahmachari (1968)
Aaja Aaja- Teesri Manzil (1966)
Lekar Hum Diwana Dil- Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973)
Jaan Pehechan Ho- Gumnaam (1965)

Tight Pants soon to be even more annoying

It's Friday. Two posts in one week! This is to make up for the several months I have spent nobly ignoring this "blog".

Today's radio programme will be the last boring one for a while, I hope, because on Sunday the Ann Arbor record fair returns to Weber's on Jackson Rd. Actually, it returns four times a year, but I've been so broke for the past year I have avoided it. This Sunday I have taken half a day off from my job, where I work, in order to fill my old messenger bag with as many 25-cent 7" little records as it can hold. I suppose I might browse the LPs as well, but greater variety is assured with the 45s.

TTFN. I have to go crank-call my job on my day off.

Blogging really is silly.

OK OK, I will try harder. It's the same as a diary, man. Sometimes you feel like writing in it, but usually you don't.

Tonight (as if anyone was reading this "blog") WCBN presents a collage- no, a compilation- of song & dance scenes from movies of the Indian subcontinent. I personally spent innumerable hours of my time scanning innumerable Bollywood films for exciting musical scenes, and then innumerable hours importing them into iMovie (the only program we have that will do this, I guess) and innumerable more transforming it into a compilation that flows and plays on a regular DVD player.

Not being a Mac expert, I was not able to produce as good a result as I had envisioned, but hopefully no one else will really notice all the imperfections. You'll all enjoy the show, drink beer, and clap when it's done.

WCBN's free night at the movies is the second Wednesday of every month at Arbor Brewing Company. It starts around 9pm and there's no charge at the door. Hope to see you there.

-Kristin

Jay Reatard died on Wednesday, but I won't make a big deal out of it or launch some big tribute show today. Nick already covered that ground yesterday. Maybe when we hear more details about the tragedy- what killed him at 29, for example- we'll revisit it. Most people presume drugs for someone that young, and I always go through this stage of denial where I say, no, he was too cool, he wouldn't be so lame as to kill himself accidentally by drowning in a puddle of puke or suffering heart failure induced by overconsumption of cocaine and pills. But what would be more reassuring? Certainly not a heart attack before 30.

The Power of College Radio

Friday, September 11

College radio is not a high-tech operation. Most DJs are alone in the studio, picking records & CDs, cueing them up, previewing them to see if they'll transition well from the last song, and all the while keeping track of the songs so they can tell you once in a while what you've been listening to.

All that can go to hell in a heartbeat if you have a skipping record or an unexpected guest or malfunctioning equipment or a long-winded phone caller. With experience and imagination, disaster may be averted or transformed to triumph.

Cue Inki's Buttcrack (Rapeman): A 7 inch little record with a big hole, released in 1989 on SubPop as a limited edition installment to their monthly singles club, (posted on this blog). I am lucky enough to have one of these, but it's warped, with a visible curl turning up the edge of the record.

I'd never had a problem playing it though, until yesterday. It seemed like a good idea to open the show with it- it is instrumental, has this slow buildup that you can talk over, and then morphs into a righteous ear-boxing of a song. But because of a very minor (and fixable) technical problem, the intro to the show was practically derailed by the needle jumping up and down and refusing to stay in the grooves.

Perhaps it was the radio gods' intention to throw us a curveball yesterday. I was training a new DJ who was thus able to learn three things: always have a backup thing you can put on, such as a PSA about strokes; needles sometimes are mounted to the cartridge at an angle by careless persons before you so you have to twist them to stop the plastic riding the vinyl and jumping over the warps; and the counterweight on the tone arm can be pushed up to 3.5 to force the needle to sit more heavily on uncooperative records.

Of course, some records are just beyond salvation, but yesterday, things worked out just fine. Listen to it for yourself here.

What the hell is Tight Pants?

Not to be confused with current legwear trends, the Tight Pants radio show was named after the Stooges song of the same name- the one which became Shake Appeal once Raw Power was sufficiently sanitized for the public.

Tight Pants doesn't purport to be strictly a rock'n'roll show, but it often is and most listeners seem to appreciate it for that reason. I like to think of it as "Music for Barfights" or like "Soundtrack for Smashing Whiskey Bottles While Standing on Tables and Throwing Chairs." If you listen to the show, you probably have your own description. Feel free to post it below.

Tight Pants made its debut in January, 2006 on a podunk radio station in a cowboy-cum-old hippie town out west. I grew up listening to college radio but was under the mistaken impression that a person had to be a music expert or like wicked popular in the scene or something in order to get a show on a good station like WMBR. It was mostly true that you had to be a student at most of the other colleges to get shows. So I never did radio in my youth beyond the occasional visit to a friend's radio show.

Then I lived overseas for a long time, and then I came back to go to grad school and became consumed by this urge to do a radio show. WCBN was really pivotal in bringing me to UM-Ann Arbor, but before relocating, I shacked up at a relative's for a few months, so Tight Pants was first unleashed onto the unsuspecting public of aforementioned old hippie town. I don't think anybody listened to it. I sure hope they didn't.

Inaugural Post

I applied for what could have been a cool job recently, and one of the questions the bossman asked was, did I maintain a blog? Mildly incredulous, I responded that I had enough work to do without adding to it with something as frivolous as a blog. Apparently that wasn't the right answer. I did not get the job, and that wasn't the only reason either, but here goes...a blog for the program which airs on WCBN every Friday from 3:00-5:30pm. This show is Tight Pants. Welcome.

Tight Pants Archives

2012

Friday, February 24. Sooo many Buzzcocks. PLAYLIST! LISTENNN!!

Friday, February 17. SECOND SHOW OF WCBN 2012 FUNDRAISER. PLAYLIST! GET DOWN! This 150 minutes brought in $800.

Friday, February 10. FIRST DAY OF WCBN 2012 FUNDRAISER. PLAYLIST! GET UP! This 150 minutes brought in $500.

Friday, February 3. Put on your brobes. PLAYLIST!
Take off your pants.

Friday, January 27. Exhausted! PLAYLIST!
Caffeinate!

Friday, January 20. On fire! PLAYLIST!
Burn!

Friday, January 13. Screeam! PLAYLIST!
Yow!

Friday, January 6. Interrupt the DJ! see hear

2011

Friday, December 30. Tally ho, 2011, you were a great year and a horrible year all rolled into one. see hear

Friday, December 23. Say it, don't spray it! see hear

Friday, December 16. O'Ding on caffeine before radio is not a very good idea. see listen for yourself

Friday, December 9. You got to lose. You can't win all the time. Also, heavy metal. see lose it!

Friday, December 2. Flesheaters, DOA, Big Boys and the Black Flag. see hit it!

Friday, November 25. Ding dong! see come on in!

Friday, November 18. Got a couple goodies from Nortonfest 2011.see hear

Friday, November 11. Definitely out of town on this day. Click this archive for very not-tight pants.hear

Friday, November 4. see hear

Friday, October 28. hear

Friday, October 21. hear

Friday, October 14. hear

Friday, October 7. Bye bye Cleetus.see hear

Friday, September 30. hear

Friday, September 23 . hear

Friday, September 16. hear

Friday, September 9. hear

Friday, September 2. hear

Friday, August 26. More new wave! see hear

Friday, August 19. Bye bye Spooky. see hear

Friday, August 12. Flipper! Fuck you!

Friday, August 5. hear

Friday, July 29. hear

Friday, July 22. hear

Friday, July 15. heat

Friday, July 8. hear

Friday, July 1. beer

Friday, June 24. rear

Friday, June 17. queer

Friday, June 10. fear

Friday, June 3.hear

Friday, May 27. I might have been out of town for this. hear

Friday, May 20. listen, commentary coming later...much later.

Friday, May 13. So hot. look listen"

Friday, May 6. Training DJ Ant. look listen

Friday, April 29. RIP Poly Styrene. look listen

Friday, April 22. Earf Day. look lsiten

Friday, April 8. OMNI INFLUX!

Friday, April 1. Lightning Strikes!

Friday, March 25. More fucking Chuck Berry!

Friday, March 18. Give us your money, 2 More Chuck Berry!

Friday, March 11. Give us your money, 1 Chuck Berry!

Friday, March 4. slushaite

Friday, February 25. escuchate

Friday, February 18. In solidarity with college radio out of San Francisco, Tight Pants joins a nationwide simulcast of KUSF in exile.

Friday, February 11. first week in new job

Friday, February 4. whoa!

Friday, January 28. listen

Friday, January 21. listen

Friday, January 14. listen

Friday, January 7. listen