Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: 1924 (Part I)

(French Olympians from 1924, found here)

It has been the custom of the Dickenbock Report to take two hours each year to look back one hundred years. We looked previously at 1922, & last year at 1923. In both cases, the Report was two hours long. Since the show is now an hour long, we'll split our reporting over two weeks.

What will we report? Of course the news of one hundred years ago. But also the music of the time. Blues, jazz, folk, classical - all produced & a great deal of it preserved. We'll explore the different trends & genres over the course of the two episodes.

The first part of The Dickenbock Report's special 1924 Report airs tomorrow (Sunday) on XRAY FM - 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere. Just not everywhen. No streaming services one hundred years ago.

This Week In Self Help (August 23 25 + 27)

(image from here*)

The image above is of the Unisphere in Queens, New York. It's outside the Queens Museum, which I went to in the summer of 2004 when my girlfriend was working in New York for the summer. It had taken us so long to get to Queens, & we weren't really there to visit the museum, just for something she needed, & I was tired, so I didn't really appreciate it. I have shared the image tho because it's on the cover of one of the records I played on Self Help Radio this week - this one. When I got the record I was like, hey! I've seen that in real life!

But let's go back a week.

On Friday the 23rd I subbed on The Songcircle on KBOO. I played lots of new releases. You can listen to that show on the KBOO website. You can listen to it & download it even on the Self Help Radio website. Please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access the file there.

On Sunday the 25th there was an episode of The Dickenbock Report on XRAY. It was Kiss & Make Up Day, & you can listen to that show on the XRAY website. You can listen to it & download it if you'd like on the Self Help Radio website. Please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access the file there.

On Tuesday the 27th there was an episode of Self Help Radio on KBOO. It was the continuation of my Indiepop A To Z - the 75th installment! You can listen to that show on the KBOO website. You can listen to it & download it as well on the Self Help Radio website. Please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access the file there.

The KBOO file contains this week's episode of Corporate Standardized Programming, which was another morbid affair playing music by folks we lost recently - in this case, late May & early June of this year. Should you wish to listen to the show all by its lonesome, you can do so - & download it too - on the Self Help Radio website. Please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access the file there.

& that was the week that was.

* Image by Ajay Suresh licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Thirty Years

It was in August 1994 I had my first radio show. I don't know the exact date - I should - but it was in-between semesters at the University Of Texas at Austin so there were lots of late-night shifts to cover.

When I first stepped foot inside of KXRX in the summer of 1994 - when it had just changed its name from KTSB in the hopes of getting an FM license later that year - I had no desire to deejay. I had been bored at my work that summer, I saw a KVRX flyer, & I thought, what the hell, let me see if they need any help. & I ended up reviewing a lot of CDs for them.

A very nice fellow named Sam invited me onto his show to help out. He gave me an hour to fool around one night & my gosh it was fun. The program director at the time, a fellow named David, offered me my first show - Thursday mornings 5 to 7am - for the fall semester. & I was fucking hooked.

After KVRX, I started volunteering at KOOP. When we left Austin, I did a radio show at WMUL in West Virginia. After we left Huntington, I deejayed at WRFL in Lexington, & helped out at the low-power station WLXU before we moved again. Back in the D/FW Metroplex I got to do a radio show at KNON. & here in Portland I have been so incredibly lucky to have KBOO, XRAY, & Freeform Portland. It has truly been an embarrassment of riches.

& it all began with seeing a flyer for a KVRX meeting (which I didn't attend) on a tree on a very hot July day in Austin. & me walking down to the station & meeting a fellow named Andrew who was very happy to give me CDs to review. & then that extraordinary community inviting me in. & I've found that community over & over as I've gone from radio station to radio station.

Radio people are the best. Having fun on the radio is the best. I never knew it would be the thing that I would love to do most in my life. It happened almost by accident. It happened because of a flyer & a thought about getting to listen to lots of CDs. It might not have happened.

But it did. Thirty years ago. How amazing it would be if I could be doing this for thirty more years!

Self Help Radio 082724: Indiepop A To Z # 75

(All images from Discogs.)

Seventy-five of these shows! Too many bands & tunes to count! I mean I could count. Oh god I'm going to try to count aren't I? Please Gary don't.

This morning I continued the Indiepop S series with artists from Scott & Charlene's Wedding to Sedaiós. I also asked for help during KBOO's membership drive. You can help here if you're so inclined. Or if you like to donate by phone, you can text K-B-O-O to 44321. It's nice to support a radio station that lets me play lots of indiepop on the radio!

You can listen to this show in two places: One is at the KBOO website. The other is at the Self Help Radio website. If you choose the latter, you'll be able to download the show but you'll need a username & password. Those are SHR & selfhelp.

Look at what I played in glorious alphabetical order! We'll continue in four months.

Self Help Radio Indiepop A To Z # 75

"Footscray Station" Scott & Charlene's Wedding _Para Vista Social Club_

"She's So Lovely" Scouting For Girls _Scouting For Girls_

"Pillowmint" Scrabbel _Scrabbel_

"Green Beer" Scrawl _He's Drunk_

"In Rhythm" Scream + Dance _Sharon Signs To Cherry Red_

"Her Name I Don't Remember" Screen Prints _Perfect City (Twenty Songs 1998-2000)_

"Pick The Cat's Eyes Out" The Scrotum Poles _Messthetics # 1: UK '77-81 'D.I.Y.' Bands R-to-Sh_

"As Times Change" Sea Lions _Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sea Lions But Were Afraid To Ask_ 

"Secret World" Sea Stories _Secret World_

"Solace" The Sea Urchins _Stardust_

"Melancholly Molly" Seablite _Lemon Lights_

"Kernel" Seam _Kernel_

"Prove To Me" Seapony _Falling_

"Lost & Found" The Seashell Sea _Pop American Style_

"Beatrice" Seashells _Sunshine Eyes E.P._

"Treetop Love" The Seasick Crocodile _Hey! Where'd The Summer Go?_

"Begging Bowl" The Seaside _LemonLime Volume One... A Pop Compilation_

"Fall" Seaside Stars _The Magic Of Stereo_

"There's Nothing To Celebrate" Second-Hand Furniture _Game, Set, Match..._

"Amelia Star" The Secret Goldfish _Ave Marina: Ten Years Of Marina Records_

"God Save The Runaways" The Secret History _The World That Never Was_

"Waking Life" Secret Owl Society _We Will Glow_

"Loveblind" Secret Shine _After Years_

"Girls Don't Count" Section 25 _Always Now_

"Perdo El Cap" Sedaiós _Resolen Problemes_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 75?

Bluto is a twee kitty.

Tonight on Self Help Radio on KBOO is the seventy-fifth (!) installment of the Indiepop A To Z series. I started the series over two decades ago & it probably should've ended many years ago. After having a couple of the episodes on another show on KBOO, that show's programmer said to me, "Will this never end?" We're in the letter S. You make that call.

When I started this, 1982 was twenty years away. Many of the great indiepop bands had only recently existed. There still seemed to be lots of indiepop compilations. Since the rise of the mp3, & Bandcamp, many indiepop bands exist in smaller markets, & compete with so many other niche genres. Not to mention that the name itself - "indiepop" - is more like to be used to describe a band that sounds more like something commercial instead of a band featuring Amelia Fletcher. If ever finish this, what will that music world look like?

These are thoughts I had while listening to music for this week's show. I wonder about the future of indiepop. But I know I'll keep doing this until I'm not doing radio anymore - or until there's no such thing as radio. Luckily that's not the case!

Self Help Radio 12-2am tonight 90.7fm in Portland kboo.fm everywhere.

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 70: Can't Talk Going To See X Now

(image found here)

Blah blah more indiepop this week blah blah. Also more pledge pitching - donate at KBOO's website please!

Now I gotta run - I was very lucky to get tickets to see X on what they're saying is their last show ever in Portland. I love the new record. Am going to be glad to see them. I never have!

Chat more later bye.