Spent The Day In Versailles, Kentucky

It's pronounced "ver-sails," not "ver-sigh," like those hipster French people say.

My camera was at the ready, snapping things I thought were interesting.  At one point, a tween or maybe she was a teenager already saw me take a picture of something & she said, "Are you not from here?"  I fibbed a little - I didn't want a lecture from a smarty-pants denizen - & said, "I'm from a town over.  But I like taking pictures."  That seemed to satisfy her.

Pictures!  Eventually ones I like will make their way to my stupid Tumblr site.  But it takes a while for me to sort through them.

There was a bonfire, though.  I hope those pictures come out.

Self Help Radio 082515: Indiepop A To Z # 48

(I got most of the images of album/CD covers from discogs dot com.)

Here it is: episode 48 in the series called "Indiepop A To Z," from King Midas to Kristallin.  Can I tell you?  I am four songs away from finishing the letter K.  Isn't that crazy?  Four damn songs!  It's annoying.  But.  I'll be back at the end of the year to finish the letter K & start the letter L.  This dumb series is not going to go anywhere.

Oh but this may interest you: of the twenty-seven songs featured of this week's show, 8 come from artists in the United States, 7 come from England, 3 come from Germany, Sweden & Norway have two apiece, & there are ones from Scotland, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, & Canada.  That's some globe-trotting right there!  I don't think this is atypical of indiepop, by the way - I just think it's the first time I've tallied it up.

The show can be enjoyed now at the Self Help Radio website.  The playlist is below.  Pay attention to password info on the site!

& as always, thanks for listening.

(part one)

"From The Pipeline" King Midas _From The Pipeline_
"A Picture Of Dorian Gray" The King Of Luxembourg _Royal Bastard_
"I Don't Know What I Can Save You From" Kings Of Convenience _Quiet Is The New Loud_

"The Village Green Preservation Society" The Kinks _The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society_
"Mod Boy" The Kirby Grips _Bored, Lonely, & A Little Pissed Off: A KALX Radio Compilation_
"Nilsson" James Kirk _You Can Make It If You Boogie_
"Total Hangover" Kissamatic Lovebubbles _Picnic Basket (A Shelflife International Pop Compilation)_
"Sad City" Kissing Book _Lines & Color_

"A Day Like This" The Kissing Time _Baby I'm Yours_
"Boy Meets Girl" Kisswhistle _Steady As She Goes_
"How To Break This" Kit _Unshakeable Faith_
"Polaroids" Kitchens Of Distinction _Strange Free World_
"Brittle" Kitten Factor _Popular World_

(part two)

"How Long Can This Go On?" Kitty Craft _Catskills_
"Deep Sea" Kittywinder _Livre Des Monstres_
"I Was A Janitor" Klas _To Sleep & Love_
"Never Underestimate The Ignorance Of The Rich" Klaxon 5 _Bellissimo! Él Singles Part One_
"Why I Write Such Good Songs" Kleenex Girl Wonder _Why I Write Such Good Songs_

"Hot Winter Rain (Demo Version)" Knabenkraut _Seven Fantastic Cats 7"_
"Idiot Wizards" Knight School _Revenger_
"The Joy Of Sex" Chris Knox _Yes!!_
"Frantic Romantic" Kobus Gaat Naar Appelscha _Frantic Romantic_
"B.L.O.S.S.O.M." Komeda _The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains_

"I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You A Rose Garden)" Kon Kan _Move To Move_
"Was It You?" Kosmonaut _The Matinée Summer Splash!_
"Pocket Calculator" Kraftwerk _Computer World_
"The Legendary Bang" Kristallin _Review III (Marsh-Marigold)_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 48?

Because indiepop is so twee, here's a picture of a cute cat, which I got from here.

Look, I know it's a little weird that every four months the show deviates from the whole "here's an arbitrary theme" format & features songs in alphabetical order about a genre of music that most anyone listening knows almost nothing about.  "Indiepop" as a genre has never really been a force in music, & it has happened that now people use the word "indiepop" to mean "pop music made by independent musicians," which means anyone trying to sound like Katy Cyrus who hasn't made it big yet is an "indiepop" musician.  That's not really true, but indiepop itself isn't really fighting back, so what the hell.  It can mean what you want it to mean.  What it means for me is bands like the website twee dot net feature.  I use that list as a skeleton for my own show, where I add bands that have influenced or have been influenced by indiepop.  My list is a lot longer than theirs, which is probably why I'll never finish the series.

Hey, I'll understand if this is not your thing.  But I might finish the letter K today!  (I won't finish the letter K today.)  It might feel like a milestone to have covered hundreds of bands from the first eleven letters of the alphabet in forty-eight shows!  (But it won't, because I won't finish the letter K today.)

It's on from 4 to 6pm today on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexingtown, & online at wrfl dot fm.  I'll archive it tomorrow on the Self Help Radio website, where, by the way, you can listen to almost all the previous installments, what? Yeah! Maybe you'd find them easier on this table of contents page which indicates that I've been doing this for ten years.  Ten years!  That's insane.

Maybe you'll listen today though?

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 48: What Has Not Yet Been Said

It has been a relaxing week at Self Help Radio HQ, since I've just been listening to songs by bands in alphabetical order that I already know & like, & then deciding which ones to play on the radio.  I do this (never-going-to-be-finished) indiepop a to z project every four months, give or take, & I am required (by me, mostly) to write something about it, & there's very little I haven't said.

Perhaps the saddest thing, to me, is that it's a kind of sound that seems to be on the wane.  Saying that, I am already aware that I might just not be looking for it as diligently as I used to, or that the stuff that my radio station gets (which I try to keep up with) is from bigger labels, so the indiepop that makes it through is the exception, not the rule.  But I confess I don't even know which labels I should be watching these days.  Am I asking for help?  Maybe!

My bad.  I just went to a couple of labels' sites & saw there was tons of stuff I could be looking at/listening to/buying.  Of course I haven't listened to it, I was just looking - what if the stuff on these labels has changed?  These small labels are run by people, not corporations, & sometimes peoples' tastes change.  So why can't a person running a label decide they want to change from indiepop to electronica?  Not such a stretch.

Most tragic to me is when labels had a personality - I'm thinking of some from the 1980s, mainly - & then they got bought up by a corporation & just start releasing stuff to make money.  Some diversify, & that dilutes the sound; others just plain sell out.  I'm not mentioning specific labels here because of two reasons: a) I may be talking out of my ass (see above); & 2) I don't want to start an argument.  Everything on the internet is about taking sides, & I'm a terrible partisan.

What to talk about, when I talk about indiepop now?  I wish I knew!

He's Embarrassed Enough As It is

My wife was talking to our dogs about whether she should wear pants on our nightly dog walk.  She decided that the dogs are embarrassed enough about her & me as it is.  & not just about us - about each other.  She listed a few things the dogs are probably embarrassed about when it comes to walking with each other.

Personally, I just hope we get home in time to watch Fear The Walking Dead.

The show is being taped - or DVRed, as is the case now - but I kinda like watching television shows in real time.  (Especially the show Real Time.)  So I'll see it anyway.  But still.

Oh shit - this is the sort of thing I do that my dogs are embarrassed about!