It's July. It's been 2 months. I'm very busy.

Contrary to popular trends at WCBN right now, I will not gripe about how much I hate the Art Fair. In fact, I don't really mind it that much. It only lasts a few days, and in those few days I can cross downtown streets without peril (admittedly, that depends on one's concept of peril) and in general enjoy a slower pace of life in this already slow-paced small town.

It did occur to me today that ArtFair should really be staged outside of town, on some fairgrounds or something, but then how would local businesses be able to capitalize on it? However much some people complain it does break up the monotony of daily life in downtown because face it, this is a small, mostly boring town. Oh yes it is.

One more comment: ArtFair isn't as bad as football Saturdays, so I'll take ArtFair, thank you very goddam much. If it inconveniences your drive, don't drive. It's not as if there's no other way to get into town.

Now, since today is Friday, readers are reminded that the horrible radio show known as Tight Pants is on WCBN today, and will be as fresh and exciting as a new bag of old records, because that is precisely what I have. Listen for vinyl selections of The Buzzcocks, Davie Allan & the Arrows, The Falcons, Hound Dog Taylor,and more.

The new WCBN movie schedule is posted on the website, and I'll be on for an extra hour tonight doing the 6 O'clock Shadow. If you're looking for a way to escape or undermine ArtFair, then tune in to Tight Pants from 3-5:30pm and stay on for the 6 O'clock Shadow at 6pm.

88.3fm

WCBN Ann Arbor

13 is my lucky number

I have nothing better to talk about today, so let me direct you elsewhere: WCBN's bookface page, WCBN's blog, my favorite place to read, anywhere.

I first heard this song 20 or so years ago on WHRB at some ungodly hour of morning when they used to have nightly punk programming during summer called The Record Hospital. Actually in looking up these links it's evident the show still exists, which is great. Long live college radio and the outlooks it forever changes. Anyway, I am certain that every DJ who has ever played this song has taken a perverse pleasure in doing so. I certainly have. I'm not really sure what's up with the images accompanying it but whatever.

Enjoy The Child Molesters. That's all I've got for today.

Omni: from the not so lucky country, back to US.

Americans make great music. There might be a lot of shitty things we hate about this place, but no one can argue that we make some of the greatest fucking music ever produced by the human species. Many of us are descended from British settlers, and the language we speak is still called 'English', but now it is they who emulate us. This is no great revelation. For instance, The Rolling Stones have never been anything other than a rhythm and blues band, trying their very hardest to emulate their idols: Chuck Berry, Scotty Moore, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, the list goes on, and on, and on. Led Zeppelin were the same.

I hear people comment with some degree of incredulity that it is the Europeans- the Germans, for example- putting together all these collections of American music and then selling it back to us. The Bear Family label is a good example, not to mention all the hundreds of rockabilly comps like the Desperate Rock'n'Roll or That'll Flat Git It serieseses.

I'm not really leading up to any major point here, only that...DUH! We humans frequently take for granted what is easily accessible or at least familiar, and rhythm and blues, rock'n'roll, country and rockabilly certainly are that to Americans. It isn't really surprising then that an Australian label is now giving us back some of the bitterest, weirdest, not-square-est country music we've ever made. I'm talking about Omni Recordings, a project of basically one guy who happens to have a taste for American country music and has licensed quite a wide range of it from Columbia and other original labels. In many cases, he is using the master tapes and reissuing recordings that were previously available only on 78s. A friend of mine who works for Allmusic got this as a promo, and I decided I could no longer be aware of the great shit Omni was doing without asking for some of it for WCBN. As a college radio station, it just isn't in our budget to go out and buy everything we want, so we have to ask for freebies. That is how things work. In the old days, radio was free advertising for record companies.

So I wrote to Omni, and I asked nicely and said please, and would you believe, I received a reply saying they were trying to cut down on promos because postage was so expensive from Australia but what the hell, since I made a great case for WCBN. Two weeks later a box arrived, with 12 CDs in it. It was far more than we expected, and then last week another bigger box with even more goodies in it arrived, and all we've done is fax the guy some money for the international postage. We now have practically the whole Omni catalog.

This post is basically me urging all three of you to buy something from Omni. Even if you don't like country, there is probably something there you will like. He is reissuing Bruce Haack, for example, for all you vintage electro heads. Keep the man solvent so WCBN can keep playing more great American music. And all music. On this phony, dying-music-industry-created "record store day", be glad there are still labels out there making great stuff available to you.

What a nice young man...

Sunday, April 10: Another record fair at Weber's. (Next one July 10.) I broke my usual rule of avoiding the collectibles or pretty much any record priced higher than $1. The reason some people have this rule is obvious: because if they didn't, they'd either go home frustrated because they couldn't buy all this stuff they really wanted but was out of their price range, or they'd go home knowing they were going to spend the next six months eating out of dumpsters and hitting up relatives to pay the rent.

There was this one dealer with a corner spot who had hundreds of 45s, in stacks and in boxes, no sleeves, no order, no prices. They were filthy and beat up. How much did he want? A dollar a record! Crazy record fair motherfuckers: I swear I am not imagining that you think I was born yesterday because I am a girl. Well then, kindly bend over and suck my dick. Come back when it's quarter to four and you still somehow have 40 boxes of records to carry back out of the basement.

Anyway, close to the crazy man, there was another man, with one box of quarter 45s and a table of newer, pricier stuff. I made the mistake of looking and got a Talking Heads album of demos they made for CBS in 1975, before they had Jerry Harrison. I also got a 3-CD box of live New York Dolls from 1973-1974 (sound isn't bad) and the Bruce Haack LP "Electric Lucifer". It's not an original, it's the first reissue, but I am not a collector, I am a listener. I also picked up the Dick Hyman "Age of Electronicus" LP, which is Dick doing whacked out versions of the day's hits on the Moog. For instance, check this one out:

There's lots more great stuff in this list but I can't remember what it all is right now. Anyway, you don't need a list. You're probably wondering if I'll ever upload an album and post a link to it on this blahg. Hmmm. I wonder, too.

Now, back to the title of this post. I think my eventual stack ended up totaling in the $60 ballpark, but the nice man at this table knocked quite a bit off, asked me for $40, and said me and my accompaniment were the nicest people who had been at his table all day. Aww, shucks. What a nice young man.

Lightning Strikes!

One post per week. Maybe then you'll click on the ads enough that this will be worth my while. No just kidding. Saturday April 2 the B-Side hosted Providence's Lightning Bolt. It is my belief that much of the audience did not know what hit them.

Instead of setting up in the middle of the floor, as they are known to do, the duo stuck with convention and used the stage. Presumably half the crowd was just there for a spectacle and expecting insanity, so they created it. The last time I got so crushed by an audience surging towards the stage was probably the time I saw the Ramones about a million years ago. Funnily enough, that was in Providence. Anyway, there wasn't really enough room to move for people to get out of hand, but somehow a few of them managed to levitate out of the mob enough to crowd-surf. They nearly destroyed the suspended stage lighting in the process. To their credit, NZ staff on the premises did not freak out or try to stop people from...uh...dancing.

Well. It's been some time since I was pressed hard against so many sweaty youths. As much as I enjoy it, this time I opted out of elbows in the throat and armpits in the nose and heads in the chin, and retreated to higher ground behind the mob.

For some time I lived far away in an exotic land where rock & roll was still new, fresh, and forbidden, and on the rare occasion a band managed to play a few songs on a stage before the authorities shut them down, the teenage audiences would lose their minds and go into this frenzy of emotional release. They needed to blow off steam and rock music, the heavier and louder the better, was their way of venting, rebelling, escaping, shocking, and banding together. In writing this appears to sound tame and obvious, but this was a society where expressing your individuality was frowned on, where no normal kids would dare to scream in public or behave in any way that might embarrass their families.

In a weird way, this crowd last night reminded me of those days when it was clear the kids didn't care what was in front of them as long as it was loud and they could rip their shirts off and scream their lungs out and then go home and change back into their public persona.

Are you still reading this? Wow, thanks, I guess. This is why I don't post every week. Who wants to read it, anyway.

WCBN Fundraiser and the fabled power increase

Dear John, I guess it's been a long time since I last wrote. The thing is, I have something to tell you. It's WCBN's annual on-air fund drive, and they really need money.

You might have heard WCBN talking about increasing its transmitter power. It seems like a long time since they first mentioned that. In fact, it's only been two years, but this is a process that can't happen overnight.

First, the station needed to conduct a feasibility analysis. With only zero full-time paid staff, and a part-time engineer, this was not a job that WCBN could do itself. It had to hire a firm, and that cost a lot of money.

Then, once the study was complete, an application to the FCC had to be submitted. Once again, the firm was called upon to carry out this task. The application might have been submitted sooner, but in the year between the feasibility study and the application, WCBN lost its only paid employee, a half-time engineer. This slowed the station down, impeding its actions, communication with the firm, and appropriation of the necessary fees, but nonetheless, an application was submitted to the FCC for a power increase. This application also cost thousands of dollars in fees.

At this point in the story we have just arrived at 2010. The application was approved, but WCBN was still a long way from seeing permission to effect a power increase transform into the purchase of a 3000 watt transmitter (tens of thousands of dollars), the purchase of a compatible antenna (thousands of dollars) and the construction of a taller tower on the top of U of Michigan's Dennison Building (thousands of dollars, permission to build, god knows what else.)

It is now 2011. The permission slip to increase WCBN's power, if nothing is done, will expire at the end of 2012. We don't plan on doing nothing. We have a new engineer. We are negotiating with U of M for placement of the new tower, transmitter and antenna. It is likely that we will have to move them to a different U of M building, in which case we will have to submit a re-application to the FCC for transmitter relocation. This is likely to be approved, but...have you guessed what I'm going to say next? It's going to cost us more money.

The point of this is to respond to questions some DJs have received from listeners regarding our past discussion of the new transmitter (an oversimplification in terms) and assure the public that we have every intention of following through on our plans to increase our power. However, Rome wasn't built in a day, and this process- without multiple paid professionals working at WCBN full-time- will take us until the deadline. We will have to apply for grants, loans, whatever is available, and in the meantime, we will keep appealing to our listeners for donations.

Our fund-drive raises somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 annually. That's enough for our usual overhead. It will never be enough on its own for the power increase, but that doesn't subtract from WCBN's daily dependence on your generosity for the station's operations. Please stay with us, and help us continue to produce the programming you crave every day for another year.

Sincerely,

Kristin
WCBN Program Director and host of Tight Pants

Record Fairs

Every quarter year, the Ann Arbor record show comes to Weber's Inn. The fliers in fact call it a "Monster" record show. Having only one record show to compare Weber's to - the truly monstrous WFMU record fair - I disagree with its self designation as a monster show, but it's pretty good anyway. Weber's Inn is a hotel/restaurant/convention center on the road heading west out of Ann Arbor. Their billboards sport such catchy phrases as "MEAT WITH FRIENDS" and pictures of, what else, meat. If I had larvae to escape from I'd probably get a sitter and book a weekend at Weber's. I'd invite a special friend and soak in a hot tub and then do some other stuff too.

Oh, anyway. The record show. If you can dodge the many exhibits aimed at weenie collectors who buy records to look at instead of listen to, and buzz directly to the budget 45s, you'll crap yourself at the megatude of little records with big holes just waiting for you to take them home. You can hear some of the newestlatest on the last Tight Pants in January. They include such gems as Del Shannon: "Don't Gild the Lily, Lily"; the 5 Du-Tones: "Divorce Court"; Little Johnny Taylor: "I'll Make it Worth Your While"; and Led Zeppelin: "Immigrant Song" which must be played at 33rpm.

Once I win the lottery or whatever, I'll be able to show off all the wrapped-in-plastic never-to-touch-a-phonograph-needle record ripoffs I pick up at real monster record shows in exotic lands but for now you'll have to be content with little scratchy jukebox singles on WCBN. If you want to comment, tell us about the last fun things you took home from a record show!

To Rock, or Planet Rock

One fine day in 1957, my grandmother was headed out to the general store and she asked my wee mother if she'd like anything while she was out. Having just heard Chuck Berry for the first time, my mother asked for the single "Rock and Roll Music". Imagine her horror when my grandmother returned home and deposited into her hands a copy of the Royal Teens' "Short Shorts".

Now, "Short Shorts" was the hit song, but on the flip side there was an instrumental entitled "Planet Rock". The story goes that the little country store did not have any Chuck Berry, and the old folks, not being hip to the new fad that was sweeping the nation, opined that my pre-teen mom would be just as happy with the Royal Teens since there was a 'rock' in the name of one of the songs. Hell, she probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

As long as I can remember, there has never been a 45 of "Rock and Roll Music" in my mother's maroon box of seven inch little records with the big holes, but in addition to "Short Shorts" there are several Elvis records, the obligatory Beatles records, a couple of picture-sleeved Rolling Stones and Animals, and many more.

I'll be Frank. Some of these records stink. But this is a box of nostalgia, so that's not really important. When we were kids, my brother and I did so enjoy playing every record in the box, both sides, at all four speeds available on the 1970s Dual turntable we had. Let's not dwell too much on how bad that was for the needle- the turntable is long gone, anyway. And the records?

Well, what do you think the mail lady just dropped on my doorstep the other day, but a box of 45rpm little records. Their maroon box expired and my mother decided to ship them to me. Some of you might have heard me abusing your ears with them last Friday on Tight Pants. You can get a replay on that as soon as the archive of the show is posted. I can only wish WCBN had 16rpm turntables so I could play "Alvin's Harmonica" for you at that speed, but one thing I could never do as a child was play three of them at the same time. This, and many other reasons, is why I love college radio.

Child Bite "Fantastic Gusts of Blood" (Subterranean Sprawl, 2008)

Oh how pretentious. A record review. What do we think this is, Pitchfork? Oh no, it's a WCBN record review, written for the express purpose of letting DJs know what to expect before they put the disk in the player. Talk about a limited audience.

WCBN finally received a copy of this two-year old Child Bite album. One of my favorite bands on the current SE Michigan scene, Child Bite plays loud, intense shows where band members reel around the stage and things get broken. We just received this 2008 CD, and by now the
lineup of Child Bite has changed somewhat. Although Zach Norton (guitar) and Danny Sperry (drums) have moved on, the main forces behind Child Bite are Sean Clancy's unrestrained bass playing and Shawn Knight's demented vocals (he also plays guitar and keyboards, sometimes at once.) Yes, it's true what people say: he sounds a lot like David Thomas from Pere Ubu. Now that we've got that out of the way, Child Bite is fast, tight rock & roll. You can't really generalize that any one instrument is always in the lead-instead, the keyboard, the guitar, and the bass trade off and complement each other more than supporting or harmonizing. There is a lot going on with not a lot of over-production or added instrumentation.

I can't rave enough about how much I like the bass sound this band has, and how well I think it works on this album, but I don't want to give the impression that the bass overpowers the other instruments. It's just that it's much more than an accompaniment. If you like that sort of thing, you'll love this.

Child Bite is recommended if you like Six Finger Satellite, the Jesus Lizard, or things from the 1980s classified as "post-punk".

See Child Bite Friday, November 26 at the Magic Stick in Detroit when they play Hellmouth's CD release party.

The Bridge is Over

Traffic Entertainment, under license from B-Boy Records, recently released a 3-CD reissue of Boogie Down Productions' first album "Criminal Minded." I'm enjoying rediscovering this record after so many years - it came out when I was in high school - and one of my favorite things about it has always been how KRS cops Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me", changes all the words and then rap-sings the song as he taunts the Brooklyn hip-hop scene.

When I first bought my own copy of "Criminal Minded" I was baffled to discover it contained only instrumental versions of the songs. One of my best friends had the record, and hers had all the lyrics. I even checked to make sure there wasn't something wrong with my turntable, studied the album cover for clues suggesting why my copy was different, but remained unenlightened. I very vaguely remember hearing at some point that because of some dispute between KRS-ONE and B-Boy Records, the album had been re-released, but without the vocals. So I shrugged it off and continued listening to the album on the cassette I made of my friend's copy. Not a DJ at the time, what use would I have had for an instrumental rap record?

A few years after high school, several apartments and roomates later, I discovered that my copy of "Criminal Minded" had suddenly developed vocal tracks! I was mystified! Was this some kind of metaphysical miracle, achieved by half a decade of standing, overlooked, between Blondie and the Boomtown Rats? Was I crazy? Or just retarded? Had my "Criminal Minded" had vocals on it all along, and I just wasn't listening closely enough?

It took me until recently to guess that the disappearance of my vinyl copy of A Tribe Called Quest's first album, "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Wisdom", and the spooky acquisition of vocals by my instrumental BDP record, were probably connected and most likely the work of a former roomate who also does a radio show. I was listening one day and was amused to hear him use the very instrumentals as his music bed. He must have switched his BDP record for mine. It seems plausible enough...maybe the instro copy was by then a collectible, and somehow the original was not?

I'll always wonder what really happened, but now, I can also have both versions of the album, plus a bonus disc of alternate mixes (including the raunchier, rawer, and much better version of "The P is Free") thanks to the music industry's growing re-release culture. I guess it's nice to know that sooner or later, every record we've ever loved, lost or sold will eventually come back to us in some kind of digital manifestation.

Subs for two weeks

Because of an incredibly secret prior engagement, I will be turning over the reins for two weeks to DJs Lillian (or possibly Rob) and Manos. Since there are so many thousands of you following this blog, please give me your feedback. Were their pants tight enough? Did they slack off, perhaps leaving the top snaps undone, letting their guts hang out? Did they just blow it off entirely, arriving in worn out green sweats and Uggs? Or did they breathe new life into Friday afternoons on WCBN, in the form-fittingest pair of Levi's 511s available? Let me know.

I hope you'll call and harass them on the telephone. You don't call me enough. Usually I am pleased not to have to answer the phone, since I'm busy playing "pong" on faceweb and checking my text-mail. Occasionally, I long for the affirmation that comes with my fleeting chats with you as you call and ask me to play The Offspring. If I could, I would play nothing but Van Halen and Led Zeppelin all afternoon, but unfortunately, the program director is a seething asshole so I can't. Someday I'll start my own radio station just for you all.

I'll be with you this Friday, October first, urging you to go to the free Japanese film at the Askwith auditorium, and the non-free Italian horror film on Saturday at the Michigan Theater. These are things worth doing in Ann Arbor, so I hope you'll take advantage. Then I'll be taking a break to apply for clown school on Fridays, October 8 and 15. See you when I see you.

Pontiac: we build excitement!

I can't help it but every time we drive to Pontiac for a rock & roll show, that 1980s ad jingle runs through my head. Pontiac is so depressing it needs a song like this. Last night we decided we should return to Pontiac in the morning (or just stay overnight) so we could hit this fish fry at a church on one of the state-named streets. The fish fry starts at 11am and goes all day, Thursdays and Fridays! Then on Saturdays, there is a place right downtown where you can get all-you-can-eat pancakes! Then of course there's the pawnshop with a display window that defies description. You have to see it for yourself.

So last night we went to see Shellac at the Crofoot. It's the first time in 15 years I've seen them (unless they were at the Touch & Go party in 2005, but I just can't remember) so it was cool for old time's sake. They look and sound exactly the same, having been crystallized or waxed or whatever back in 1995. They also still do the Q & A between songs. However there were fewer references to Canada and none to ventriloquists, so I guess they were a little different.

No offense if you are a member of Shellac or one of their affiliates- At Action Park is still one of my favorite records and I have nothing but respect for these guys- but blogging is a stupid waste of time anyway, empty chatter that fills up the infinite reaches of interwebspace, so what I'm saying is pretty inconsequential. Why are you even reading this? By the way, if you are, Todd Trainer is too cool for words.

Listen to WCBN-88.3fm in Ann Arbor for a pretty subdued radio station ID from Steve Albini. I don't know what we expected- "Hi there, kiddies, this is your old friend Steve and you're on the air with 88.3 megahertz WCBNFM Ann Arbor! Don't touch that dial or I'll say something really mean!"? Nah, I guess not.

WCBN is transitioning to its Fall schedule so if you're a student and somehow stumbled on this "blog", before you navigate away screaming, read this: we take students and mold them into dorky music snobs free of charge. Join us on Sunday afternoons at 4pm for introductory training in the basement of the Student Activities Building. Go to the WCBN web page for more instructions.

What's new in Tight Pants?

Well, there's this article. But actually, I remember reading this one two years ago, at least, so clearly someone isn't asking AskMen.com enough questions. Let's think of some new ones!

1. Do you consider Zach Braff a role model? What about David Schwimmer?

2. If you answered 'yes' to the previous question, do you think your girlfriend respects you?

3. Do you even have a girlfriend?

4. What kind of underwear do you prefer and why?

5. You do realize these questions (and your responses) are totally insignificant, don't you?

Stay tuned for more nonsense.

The Faux-Hawk

It's probably not even called a faux-hawk any more. They probably have some new name for it. You know what it is: a man cuts his hair a teeny bit shorter on the sides of his head and when he gels up in the morning, with praying hands, he self-consciously shapes the longer part into a crest. When he's done he looks like a chicken. The longer hair sticking up in the middle of his head resembles the far more daring, but every bit as cliche, mohawk, and because it resembles a mohawk but isn't, it is a fake mohawk, or faux (that's French for fake and rhymes with mo) hawk. It's a ridiculous looking style, and it says of its wearer, "I'd like to be more outrageous than I am but I don't dare."

I once cut out of the New Yorker a cartoon of a guy in a barber's chair looking at his new mullet in the mirror and saying to the barber, "no, leave it long in back so I can look like a nincompoop." The mullet, or neckwarmer as we used to call it, is now one of humanity's most reviled hairdon'ts. Anyone who still dares to wear a mullet (it takes balls and/or a complete lack of any sense that it is the 21st century) is guaranteed ridicule by children, strangers, and even old grandmas. Someday we'll look back on the faux-hawk in the same way.

I have to say, there doesn't seem to be any other major men's sport that's as narcissistic as "futbol". I don't actually care much about sports so I'm probably totally wrong. It's one of the only major sports where its players are not required to wear hats or helmets (basketball being the other) so the amount of attention each player seems to pay to his hair is noteworthy. I do like some World Cup action, however, and I can see the faux-hawk is alive and well amongst many of the world's soccer stars. I would prefer to see them all in mullets.

Bring back the neckwarmer!

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