Christmas, Pt.2

And here's part two of the festive show...  Merry Christmas Merry Men and Merry Women and I'll be back live again (every Thursday at 8pm) from 12 January onwards.

Christmas, Pt.1

With decorations going up in October, Christmas spirit was lagging by the start of December.  To get people back in a frenzy of festive cheer, I trawled through every Christmas song ever recorded and selected only the very best for this two-hour show.  So, no Chris Rea or Last Christmas.  Rather, there's Flaming Lips, Sharon Jones, Leadbelly, Mogwai, Low, Jose Feliciano, and a replastered version of BandAid.  To download the show, click on the above title or image.

Nirvana, Pt.2

Definitely one of my favourite shows to do, I'll have to revisit Nirvana more often.  For part two, there's some Neil Young, some Foo Fighters, some fecal matter, and some Hole - the last two being rather similar.  I have a stab at Kurt's main influences, playing songs from the Replacements, Os Mutantes, Daniel Johnson and Husker Du - maybe unwise, but who's to say?  Click on the above title to download this part of the show.

Nirvana, Pt.1

To coincide with Nevermind's 20th birthday, I devoted a show to Nirvana.  Listening to songs I hadn't heard for years made me remember how much fun it was to be a Nirvana fan in the early '90s.  Your feet were to be tapped rather than dragged.  Mixed in with my favourite Nirvana songs is the first record Kurt ever bought, the first riff he ever learnt on the guitar, some Shocking Blue, some skewy jazz, some Jackson 5, and - for reasons which will be explained - 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater.  Click on the title or the photo to download the first part of the show.

Staying 'live

The last few shows have mainly been live so there's been a fair bit of skipping and adverts appearing out of nowhere.  Unfortunately I can't upload the live shows as they're not recorded, but I'll start putting the playlists on at some point.  Recent shows have been devoted to cars, sunshine and rain, and last night's show was two hours straight of some thirsty, furry, fiery Aussie music.  Also, I'll aim to upload the Nirvana special in the next few days.

Banned, Pt.2

Here, I get carried away by my own power and indulge in a lengthy desccription of Stagger Lee after playing the version by Lloyd Price.  I also let my guard down and listen, for the first time, to Chinese Democracy.  Nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be although the Chinese, as one might expect, took exception to the lyrics and banned the whole album.  However, in the unpopularity stakes at Chinese HQ, Guns n' Roses fall short compared to Bjork.  For the Dalai Lama, who's a huge fan of the unhinged Icelander, I play the Girl's Blouse remix of Hyperballard.  Click on the above title for the download.

Banned, Pt.1

With China deciding to remove Take That and Katy Perry from the internet, I thought I'd take a look at the songs which have incited censorship and consternation over time.  Starting with a stick of blackpool rock courtesy of Lancashire-born rapscallian George Formby, and passing through Shirley Bassey and Link Wray, there's also some Cat Stevens, Jerry Lee Lewis, MIA, and the Bangles.  Banned for inciting hatred against gingers, insulting people with stutters, or hosting lyrics of a highly sexualised nature, these are the songs deemed too dangerous to play.  You have therefore been warned.  Grab a drink, download the show, and prepare to become demented by both confusion and rage.  Click on the above title to download the first half of the show.

Skipping and Silence

The last couple of shows have been live broadcasts - my first attempts - so plenty of clunking, skipping, stuttering and silence.  For last night's show (22 September), I tried to muddle through as many different styles of music as possible going from Bilja Krstic to the Pixies to Tennessee Ernie Ford to the Black Crowes to Gonzales to Death in Vegas to Coco Rosie to LCD Soundsystem to Ananda Shankar to Bob Dylan to Charlie Mingus to Feyd to Amerie to Nirvana to Freska to Deadbeat to Go Home Productions to John Martyn to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters to the Herbaliser featuring Fabian to The Magic Flute to Smokey Robinson to Low to Metallica to Hank Williams to Billy Bragg taking in soul, reggae, lo-fi, metal, jazz, electro, opera, country and lots more along the way.  Next week I'll be back to pre-recording, due to timing rather than a general sense of surrender, so the show will be downloadable once again.

Air Guitar, Pt.2

For those who like their widdle, here's the second hour of my Air Guitar show.  There's an eruption, a sweet dream, a motherkiller, and some Ratatat.  Download the show by clicking on the title above.

Air Guitar, Pt.1

Late August is my favourite time of the year.  Not only is it my birthday, it's also my mate Raj's birthday, and Michael Jakson's as well.  But more than that, it's the Air Guitar Championships every year in Oudu, Finland.  This year was an incredibly special event with the first female winner since the championships began.  In anticipation, I hosted this two-hour show devoted to all things guitar.  We go from Steve Vai to Steve Howe, Peter Green to Paul Gilbert, John Frusciante to Jimmy Page.  There's also ten minutes of howling and wailing on Funkadelic's Maggot Brain (Alternate Mix).  Looking up the song on Wikipedia, it gives the name's origins as either guitarist Eddie Hazel's nickname, or a reference to singer George Clinton's decomposed dead brother.  So there you go.  The show can be downloaded by clicking on the title above.

On Fire, Pt.2

Like an eternal flame, the show keeps on burning.  For another hour and ten minutes anyway.  Download the second half of the show by clicking on the above title.  No Eternal Flame on the playlist, but there's some Noisettes, Nirvana and Flotation Toy Warning, and the show closes with LCD Soundsystem's version of Jump into the Fire, the penultimate song of their final ever gig.

On Fire, Pt.1

Fire season begins in Moranbah around the beginning of August.  For two months of the year, there are more burn offs than burn outs as the local fire fighters create breaks in the local scrubland.  To promote fire safety awareness, I dedicated this two-hour show to songs about fire with songs from L7, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Elvis, Daft Punk, Geno Washington, Wolf Parade, Bruce Springsteen and the ridiculous Fire, Inc.  If you want to find out if the show's smoking, or merely deadwood, then click on the title above to download the first part of the show.

4RFM - The Lowdown

My Off the Record show is broadcast every Thursday between 8pm and 10pm on 4RFM.  This is our local station out here in mining-town, Queensland.  Established back in 1998, the station broadcasts to Moranbah, Dysart, Glenden and Nebo and it supports a wide variety of DJs and music.  You can tune in one minute and it's country, the next minute blues, and then a few minutes later there's a heavy metal band covering Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Whatever the case, there's a quality control to all the output.  Not through tight guidelines or anything, but rather as a direct result of the station's free-spirited nature.  The DJ's get to play the music they love - no restrictions - and the end product is good music all day long.  If you go to the station's website by clicking on the link above, there are instructions for streaming the station live.http://www.rockfm.com.au/

Salut France, Pt.2

Part two, or part deux, starts with some Eurovision, finishes with Nouvelle Vague, and there's some new electronic music from KZA and Remain in between.  Click on the title above and you will be taken to the download.

Salut France, Pt.1

With my second show coinciding with Bastille Day, it was time to get out the old Charles Trenet and Django Reinhardt records (with the help of itunes) and devote the show to French music, old and new.  Befitting an event where a scaled-back prison was stormed and seven prisoners released, there is some mild revolutionary music from Francoise Hardy, Praline, Daft Punk and DJ Cut Killer (my token two-minute nod to French hip-hop).  Mr Oizo also makes an appearance and I cheat a little, playing some Errors, Arcade Fire and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  Clicking on the title above will take you to the download.   

A-Z of Music Pt.2

For the second part of the show, there's one song with two letters (Ug by Mr Scruff), one song with the same word repeated twice (Pata Pata by Mama Africa), a bootleg, some gospel, some soul, and some Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  Not much talking on this, my first show, because: a). I was scared; and b). I had to get to Z before the two hours were up. 

A-Z of Music Pt.1

My first show for 4RFM and I thought I should give it some kind of theme.  For a while I considered debuting with a show themed around beginnings.  It didn't take long to realise how bad an idea that was.  After playing Start Me Up and Like A Virgin I'd begin to hear the barrel being scraped pretty quick.  So, eventually I chose to compile an A-Z of songs I thought could act as an introduction to the boutique, bespoke (?) style of music I'd be playing on future shows.  The show begins with a New York-based Israeli group playing vaguely Balkan music and it finishes with the faintly Irish-sounding Melbourne group Dirty Three playing a tune dedicated to the zither.  Download it by clicking on the title above.

The Front Door

I thought I would begin this blog with a door.  I would say there are a few thousand people out there who may be able to recognise this door but the chances of them reading this blog are pretty slim.  In fact, if you are reading this blog and you do recognise the door then you are most probably unique.  It's the front door to 3 Saville Row, home of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Apple Studios, and the famous rooftop where the Beatles played their last ever gig.  I was in London a couple of  years ago, as I am every Christmas, and I decided to take this photo.  Not sure why, as I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles, but if you understand, even vaguely, why I did it then you may enjoy my radio show Off the Record.  The show broadcasts globally (ie. you can stream it on itunes) from the 4RFM studios in Moranbah, Queensland.  I'll be uploading each of the shows to this blog page and I'm hoping, if it does anything, to at least prove I have more than two listeners.  (Although that's not to make you feel less special, mum and dad.)