EuroBlog, Greg & Charlotte Visit.

We had a great time with Greg and Charlotte, Marissa and Mariah last weekend. They are from Phoenix, so the girls were enthralled with lightning bugs, frogs, and big trees here in the jungles of Cackalacky. Here's a photo of the girls with their lightning bugs.

Lynne and I are finishing plans for our European Vacation this summer; 2 weeks of cycling, Tour de France, and the International Sexually Transmitted Disease Research conference in Amsterdam. We are indeed very excited! We even started a EuroBlog to share with you all, see it here. Many plans, but mostly looking forward to being there and enjoying the scenery. I'll be looking for Nederbeat Records and exploring Amsterdam by bike. Hope to upload some photos from my Flickr site too, I hope it'll be easy.

My Radio show will be subbed by Andy Ligouri and Sam Hunt while I'm gone.

Later! Check the blog, it should be interesting... I hope.

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Originally uploaded by biovarg.

My trip to NM... Chris Toenes and I went to NM for a long weekend, had a blast! Now I'm experimenting with Flickr to see if I can upload a picture. Here's Santa Fe. --Robby

Crazy Summer Arrives

Please Visit my friend Enrique's blog. Good friend, and always great with the music stuff.

This Spring has been great; lots of in-town stuff and little travel, and Lynne's been working hard on her PhD. This is all about to end soon as tomorrow Lynne's headed to New Mexico for a conference (Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists in Albuquerque). Lynne'll then head to Phoenix. Chris Toenes and I are headed out the following weekend to NM while Lynne's in Phoenix, then we all convene with our friends the Selsuns in Albuquerque, then back home. The following weekend I'm in Atlanta, helping Jonathan work on/move into - their new home! Very exciting for them, they need the space. The weekend after that Greg, Charlotte, Marissa, and Mariah Meyers (Lynne's Sisters family) will be here for about 4 or 5 days, it'll be nice to have them here, it's been a while. The weekend after that we're headed to Germany for our week-long bike trip, 2 days with the Tour de France, and a week in Amsterdam. Holy Moly it's going to be a crazy summer.

However, I'm looking forward to all of that activity. For our Europe trip, I've begun a new blog, to hopefully post daily (or close-to-daily) activities whilst we are in Germany on our bike trip, and maybe Amsterdam too. I'll add the days in as soon as I get info.

CD of the Week: P. Miles Bryson's Megalomaniac Decorator's Quarterly. A gargantuan mish-mosh of found sounds and thriftstore finds: imagine those 101 Strings songs mixed with stereo test records and little bits of 50s "how-to" records. Even the cover has a mock-Good Housekeeping magazine cover on the front! Perfect. On each listen I begin to think that the sounds are actually coming from within my own brain. Frantic, scratchy, mixed up and glitchy, with random bits of orchestra sounds. Reminds me of Venetian Snares a bit, but Bryson uses almost ALL found sounds. Some of it seems hastily put together, but I kind of like that; electronica and mix stuff sounds so carefully worked over sometimes (to my untrained ears). The sound levels can be really uneven too, but that's ok, on the whole it's a good record. The track names are enormous... take, for instance, track #1: "(A Brief But Incongruous) Introduction On How To Wander Aimlessly And Achieve The Newest Impossible Cosmetic Conspiracy". Good listening on an iPod on the bus.

Too Much Music? Friends Say Goodybe.

A bunch of great shows this month, so many in fact that I'm going to ditch out on some really great ones. Rather than being negative, I'll tell you what I have, and am going to see, rather than what I am not going to see. Saw Dirtbombs, Snatches of Pink, and the Spinns at the 506 on the 4th of May, Snatches were loud (as always), Spinns were understated and pretty darned good, but the Dirtbombs delivered. I think I've seen 'em about 4 times now... and everytime I hear that double-bass, double-drum onslaught I'm floored. Before the show I met my friend Mark Johnson at CD Alley (fave record shop in Chapel Hill!), and Mick Collins was shopping for vinyl! I heard that he got a Hendrix live boot and some garage comps. Go figure!

Upcoming Shows: Dave Schmitt benefit on the 21st at the 506 featuring a band with Kevin Dixon, Dex Romweber, Groves, Anthony, and other friends. Mr. Crispy's Killer Filler band (my new local fave), too. Andrew Bird on the 26th at the 506... if you haven't heard Andrew Bird's Mysterious Production of Eggs, you should... it's fantastic. Raveonettes on the 27th at the Cat's Cradle... I like them a whole lot, they're poppy sounding, much like Jesus and Mary Chain mixed with the White Stripes? Is that a bad description? Spoon on the 2nd of June, that new record Gimme Fiction is fantastic.. I've previewed it up at the station and just got it yesterday... Regardless, I haven't had a month of music like this in a long while.

CD of the week: Gimme Fiction by Spoon. Good golly this is a great CD; Spoon have kind of crept up on me in the past few years, with Girls Can Tell and Kill The Moonlight. I find their music really interesting, and great singing too. The songs have tension...dark and light elements, and fascinating instrumentation. I smell a couple of hits on this one, we'll see how that pans out. Not much more I'll say about it, but they're great and give them a listen, you won't be disappointed.

My friend Emily is leaving the School of Government (graduating with her MPA). CONGRATS! Still, it'll be sad to see her go.

Plans are going forward to go to NM with Chris in early June, and looks like Lynne and I will be getting ready for Amsterdam.

Conservative, Who Me?; A Weekend at the Bike Races

Recently read this article by James Howard Kunstler, made me think about our current climate and environment. I encourage you to read it as well, it's very thought-provoking.

I don't drive to work anymore, I'm fortunate enough to be able to take the free bus to work every day. Lynne and I also got a Honda Civic that gets 40mpg, which is great. I also really hate SUVs; for environmental reasons as well as safety, I think they are a ridiculous waste of gas and not as safe as they are touted to be. Don't you find it ironic that many people who consider themselves "conservatives" are the same ones who drive SUVs? I'd say half of the SUVs in my town have "W" stickers. How "conservative" is it to drive a car that burns gas at 11mpg? If you are going to be a conservative... conserve, don't waste. And do we really need this much car? I could go on, and most SUV owners that I know don't want to hear it. A mild amount of research on the 'net will show you what I'm talking about.

My Aunt Mary Lou, who died a few years ago at the age of 90, told me the biggest problem with America today was greed. We are obsessed with getting things, consuming, convenience. It goes from the top down. Well, read that article I linked above, it says it better than I ever could.

On a lighter note, the bike races are this weekend... heading down to Georgia to see the Tour De Georgia, meet up with Jonathan, Stacy, Isabelle, & Ian. We're staying in the ersatz-German town of Helen. Should be fun!

CD of the Week: The Alternative to Love by Brendan Benson. It's pop and 60s-based somewhat, kind of like New Pornographers and Matthew Sweet, with other elements (XTC? Beatles?) added in as well. Also some singing is a bit like the Apples In Stereo. Again, Enrique (my major source of new artists) put a song on a comp a while back, and this cd came up to the station just a week or so ago. There are some songs I'm just really in love with, esp. Cold Hands (Warm Heart), really nice keyboard elements in there. Very well-crafted album, I'd rate it as highly as that A.C. Newman Slow Wonder record I mentioned in another post.

That's it for now, until next week...

Yellow Dusts; Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy; Dutch Loons

Spring is still in full-force, covering our cars and lungs with thick pollen. It's warm and breezy, and brings back memories of somewhere else.

Got a call the other night, some pre-recorded message from a senator, complaining how the "left is infiltrating our state and local governments... and such arch-liberals as Howard Dean are behind this. Can you sit back and let this happen?!" Being a well-informed citizen, I listened to this pre-recorded speech all the way through. The message got more angry, paranoid, and bloodthirsty as it went on. When it ended I was locking the house and closing the blinds, hoping to hide from these liberals he spoke of, envisioning that they were coming after all of us with pitchforks and torches. Some actual fellow got on the phone after the message and said "Would you want Howard Dean to be president, Al Franken to be senator, and Janeane Garofalo to be a state representative?" Thinking about just how ridiculous that would be, I replied "Yes, yes I would". There was a silence, then a chuckle "Uh... you must be a democrat." "Yes I am." I replied "I have to tell you, that message was so paranoid, bloodthirsty, and hateful, you guys are doing a disservice to both the republican party and the whole political process. Stop being so paranoid and help out your community in better ways." There was a long pause and then "Thank you for your time, Mr. Sampson..."

CD of the Week is BBQs Tie Your Noose. I'm reviewing this for WXDU, so here are my notes so far:

This is a great cd. Sloppy rockabilly/garage, much in the same vein as Flat Duo Jets, rooted in late-50s, early-60s reverby rock and rockabilly, yet manages to evade the modern rockabilly pitfalls, and has a freshness to the guitar playing that offsets the pounding drumming nicely. Songs range from almost soul (tr. 5 sounds like a rockabilly version of a Sam Cooke song!) to garage. The singing is varied and interesting; subtle, quiet, loud, falsetto (check tr.11) ... pretty remarkable for this day in age. BBQ is a one-man band project from Mark Sultan (Les Sexarinos, Spaceshits). Recorded live, with no overdubs. It BBQ is from Montreal, Canada. If the website is correct, this is BBQ’s 3rd full-length release.

I'm thinking that the next purchase might be the new Spoon album Gimme Fiction, which so far has sounded FANTASTIC. My good friend Chris lent it to me, I'll probably get it tonight if I'm anywhere near a CD shop.

Radio show this Sunday (9-10pm east coast US time), a special Dutch-only Who's Got The Cuckoo, featuring Q'65, Outsiders, Zipps, Jay Jay, Motions... and others. Fun!

Marlene & The Cuckoo

Marlene was here this last weekend, lots of fun going to dinner and hanging out at the Full Frame Film Festival (thanks again Liz!). Shot the bbq show with Crispy and Hoppy Saturday, that was a whole bunch of fun, and Judy was along as well.

I'm scheduled to dj the "Who's Got The Cuckoo" this next Sunday, the 17th of April, from 9-10pm (eastern u.s. time). I'm doing a special on Dutch music (Niederbiet) from 1965-1968, including the Outsiders, Q65, Cuby + Blizzards, Rob Hoecke, etc. Listen in at www.wxdu.org!

Lynne took the weekend off to hang out with Marlene, now she's back again studying.

More news when I get it...