The Mid-Summer Slackfest Continues...

Vacations can be tiring.

You know that's a true statement, right? If it's not the actual work of making all the things that are supposed to happen on a vacation happen, it's all the work involved in making sure everything you normally keep tabs on every day doesn't collapse during the few days you're away. (Or fending off the notion that it's capable of doing that.)

But hey, it's a vacation, and so off I go. But in the meantime, there's a plethora of new music I've already picked for the first update to go up when I go back into "work" mode.

Firstly, the new Duels album, The Bright Lights And What I Should Have Learned, is an awful lot of fun, and it gives me great delight to say that it's a good listen from top to bottom. You've gotta believe there's an altar in their tour bus where they regularly make sacrifices before the graven image of Mick Ronson - and for me, that's a feature.

New Pigeon Detectives and Yes Boss have found their way into my inbox as well, and it turns out I jumped the gun when I started playing Soundpool way back when, so I'll just have to play some more.

So let that whet your appetite a bit, and in the meantime, kick back with a bit of the ol' Altrok Radio blasting out of the wireless speakers near the inflatable pool for a while, hmm?

Altrok Radio Music Update #124

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from:

• The Futureheads
• Mission Of Burma
• Gnarls Barkley
• Mew
• The Sunshine Underground
• XTC

Plus we've got newly-added music:

• Actualities - Good Luck
• The Boot Room Allstars - Ring Of Fire
• Grand Ole Party - Look Out Young Son
• Moving Units - Paper Hearts (Demo)
• The New Shapes - Got To Get This Message Through
• Persephone's Bees - Paper Plane
• Pony Up - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die)
• Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Number
• The Rifles - She's Got Standards
• Scritti Politti - Throw
• Serena-Maneesh - Drain Cosmetics
• Sonic Youth - Reena
• The Stevenson Ranch Davidians - Nature Boy
• Supercreep - Mushroom Cloud
• TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
• The Vals - The Last Time
• The Wombats - Lost In The Post

Our Newly-Added Classics:

• The Boomtown Rats - She's So Modern
• Julian Cope - Sunspots
• Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Not Sleeping Around
• Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two Headed Love Child
• R.E.M. - Can't Get There From Here
• The Slickee Boys - Pictures Of Matchstick Men
• The Smiths - Hand In Glove
• The Sound - Party Of The Mind
• Talking Heads - Artists Only
• Ultravox - Wide Boys

Dramarama Thursday At The Loop Lounge's "Start!"

Pat Pierson, who with Brian Molloy presents the weekly "Start!" every Thursday night at The Loop Lounge, clued me in on a bit of scuttlebutt...

Dramarama's coming to town, and they wanted to shoehorn in another show, and so they have - at "Start!".

According to Pat:

It's a last minute type of thing & it is a special not-advertised below-the-radar gig for the band.

John Easdale & company will be landing on the east coast this Thursday and are heading north to their old stomping grounds to kick out the jet lag jams.

And yes, Brian Molloy & myself will be spinning in the back before & after the show. So it's double your pleasure & more bang for your buck, or whatever they say in the biz.

Assuming planes keep to their schedules and other hardships don't befall the crew, they'll be taking the Loop Lounge's stage at midnight this Thursday (7/13).

Altrok Radio's Mid-Summer Slackfest

Summer is a time for swimming, tanning, getting together with friends, and generally enjoying the time of year before there isn't any more of this time of the year to enjoy.

Which makes it a difficult time to compile a solid slate of new music every week - and so, the fallout from last week's 4th Of July celebrations is that, this week, there won't be any new picks on Altrok Radio.

...but fret not. After all, we cram enough into every week that it's likely you haven't heard a lot of the new music we've featured. And then there's the rest of the library, which is only taking a momentary breather from getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. We're big on the "bigger."

We'll likely have a couple more slack weeks over the summer - specificallly the weeks starting July 31 and August 14 - but now you know, and that's better than not knowing, right? Sure it is.

So we're planning next week's extravaganza. Right here, by the pool. As soon as we're done with this margarita. Or maybe the next.

Kindergarten Rocks!

Did any of you see me on TV? Me and Jacko Nautilus spent the last six weeks in Germany pumping up for the US world cup appearance. We expected to be there until the end but our teams embarrassing display left us with little to do except fight with bands of soccer hooligans. They thought they were tough right up to the point Jacko starting tossing kegs of jagermeister around like they were soccer balls. It was all over Euro TV...

Hurray for Public Education!

Back in May my son's elementary school had a spring dance. On a Friday night we went to the school and the K through 5 graders were treated to an evening of drinks, snacks and loud music, supplied by a hired DJ. For two hours the kids danced and jumped around like nuts, all jacked up on sugar. The DJ played straight up top 40 hits, some of which were fairly racy, which I found most amusing. I'm sure many of the parents were familiar with a number of the songs he played and the crunky/dirrrty/naughty nature of most. I sure that's why most of the parents had a good time too.

When Green Day's Holiday came on, I could barely contain myself, but I managed not to make too much of a scene. When the Go Go's We Got The Beat was played, I noticed a good number of moms instantly started to wiggle a bit, then realize they weren't at a frat party from 1982 and quickly distracted themselves with another cookie. Of course the highlight was when YMCA was played at the end of the night and everyone, every kid and parent spelled out Y-M-C-A along with the song. It is very funny to watch several hundred people of all ages singing and dancing along to the gay national anthem in a public school. Can all of these people be unaware of what the song is about?? There's no way private school kids are having this much fun.

I'm sure O'Reilly will be dedicating an entire show soon to how liberal communities are brainwashing their kids with anti-Bush/pro-gay propaganda in kindergarten...

We never had dance parties like this when I was in kindergarten. Too bad. Imagine how much cooler I'd have turned out.

I wonder what the parties are like for the junior high students? I can't wait to find out. Good chance Snoop might be there...

Altrok Radio Music Update #123

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from:

• The Rifles
• The Majestic Twelve
• The Organ
• Graham Coxon
• Eagles Of Death Metal
• Killing Joke

Plus we've got newly-added music:

• Boat - Last Cans Of Paint
• Conner - Up To You
• Eskimohunter - Surfing At 32F
• The Evening Episode - New Love
• The Futureheads - Fallout
• Green Arrows - California
• Larytta - The Money
• The Longcut - A Tried and Tested Method
• Mew - Special
• One For The Team - I Promised I'd Grow Up
• Peter & The Wolf - Strange Machines
• The Psychic Ills - January Rain
• Smoosh - Rock Song
• XTC - Where Did The Ordinary People Go

...and in our Classics Spotlight:

• The Bluebells - Cath
• The Chameleons - Tears
• The Fleshtones - R-I-G-H-T-S
• Local H - Bound for the Floor
• Mission Of Burma - Academy Fight Song
• The Mission - Severina
• Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday
• New Order - Ceremony
• Suicide - Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne
• tv21 - Something's Wrong