Altrok Radio Music Update #199

Firstly, the important stuff:

Altrok Radio is at http://www.altrokradio.com

Please remember to tune in whenever you can - every hour you listen turns into more visibility for the station; we show up higher in search listings, and such like that. And if you'd like to help us keep the stream running, check out the advertisers if they appeal to you; your interest actually helps fund us.

Now then, in addition to the outstanding Altrok Radio music mix that got us an Editor's Pick nod at Live365 and at About.com, we've added features we know you'll like...

Mondays at 11:30am Eastern (with a preview at 0730 GMT) you get to hear Sean Carolan (often referred to in these dispatches as "me") showcase the new music we've added this week on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase. New stuff, classic stuff, and Jeff Raspe with his Altrok Radio Underground Pick Of The Week...

And on Friday, it's Altrok's Eighties Friday: music from the eighties that mattered then AND now. An eight hour playlist that features some of the best that decade had to offer, drawing from all the music that was available at the time (yes, even from the seventies.)

But for now - we've got songs to let you know about.

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

- British Sea Power
- Hot Chip
- The Breeders
- Does It Offend You Yeah
- The Mystery Jets
- Tokyo Police Club

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Be Your Own Pet - Creepy Crawl
- Broken Records - If The News Makes You Sad Dont Watch It
- The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever
- Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
- Pat DiNizio - Any Other Day
- The Fall - Is This New
- Hadouken! - Get Smashed Gate Crash
- The LK - Stop Being Perfect
- Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
- Plugs - That Number
- The Presets - This Boy's In Love
- The Ting Tings - Fruit Machine
- Twisted Wheel - She's A Weapon
- XX Teens - How To Reduce The Chances Of Being A Terror Victim

Our Newly-Added Classics:

- Julian Cope - Me Singing
- Joe Jackson - Pretty Boys
- Japan - Quiet Life
- Meat Beat Manifesto - 10 X Faster Than The Speed Of Love
- New Order - Leave Me Alone
- Siouxsie And The Banshees - Israel
- The Sound - Wildest Dreams
- The The - My Heart Would Know
- The Wonder Stuff - Don't Let Me Down, Gently

- Sean Carolan
Altrok Radio
On your computer now at http://www.altrokradio.com

On the radio Fridays at 10pm, at 90.5 The Night

What's On Where Now? (An Altrok Radio Station Primer)

There's a lot of different flavors of Altrok Radio now. Here's what you have to choose from:

• Our stereo station is the one with a new eight-hour long playlist that we upload every day. It's in 64k MP3Pro, which means that with the right decoder for WinAmp, or the right player for Windows or for Mac, it can be heard in CD Quality. Click here to start it.
  
  
• Our mono station has the same daily playlist as the stereo station, but doesn't include specialty shows or other special events. It's there if you've got a slower connection (like dialup or old-school ISDN or DSL) but even though it's in mono, the decoder brings it to you in (mono) CD Quality. Click here to start it.
  
  
• Our FM Showcase features all the new tracks we're adding to the playlists for the stations above; it airs every Friday at 10pm at 90.5 The Night, at (logically enough) 90.5 on your FM dial in central New Jersey. You can hit that link to listen to them live, or to play back the FM Showcase on demand (at relatively low quality.)
  
  
• Our 128k FM Showcase station plays the latest FM Showcase (and most of the previous one) on a continuous loop, in the highest quality we can play on the Web. There's no special decoder needed, but you do need a really good connection; if you've got one, click here to start it.

To keep all this stuff alive, click here for details on how you can help.

For No Readily Explainable Reason, Here's Four Yorkshiremen

Thought you might appreciate the original version of the classic Four Yorkshiremen sketch; it was originally performed on Rediffusion London's "At Last, The 1948 Show", and was covered (!) by Monty Python on their Live At The Hollywood Bowl concert film. (It's not often a comedy sketch merits a "cover version", but it's a really great sketch, and technically, Python had half the "original artists", so it's kind of like New Order covering Joy Division.)

The cast of "At Last, The 1948 Show": Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Marty Feldman.

(It appears that Barry Cryer pours the wine.)

It's Royalty Time For Altrok Radio...Care To Help?

Every year, around this time, I renew my web radio account with Live365. That, you might suspect, costs money, and it does - about $400 for our main station (the one with the eight-hour playlist in 64k MP3 Pro) and about $250 total for our other two. Consequently, I'm coming to you for help.

Some of you have already helped by becoming VIPs, and in doing so you've shaved about $60 off our bill by joining up and listening. If you'd like to do that - and if commercials and advertisements annoy you, I do recommend it - there's a link below.

For those who haven't done the VIP thing, don't worry - I'm happy to have you as a listener, and want to keep you listening. The thing is, though, that because the record companies are raising our rates, there won't be as many free listener slots in the future.

So if you'd like to help keep free listenership available, or if you just think it's worth throwing a couple of bucks my way every now and again - whether you're a VIP or not - there's a way for you to help, too, and in a more direct fashion. (Short of just sending me money, which I'd feel kind of creepy about, because I'd like to be sure you know the money actually goes where I'm telling you it's going...)

Live365 has a gift certificate program that lets you buy a certificate and send it to the person of your choice...and if you appreciate what I've been doing at Altrok Radio the past few years and can spare some money to help make sure it stays alive and healthy, this would be a great way to help us keep it going directly.

Here's the link:

https://store.live365.com/orders/orderform-giftcert.live

They'll need an email address to send the gift certificate to, and you can use this:

pledgedrive -(at)- altrok -(dot)- com

(Remember, replace " -(at)- " with "@", and " -(dot)- " with "." and make sure there aren't any spaces.)

They have three price points and one area where you can fill in your own value - and $5 is as welcome as $100. We're not trying to scare you or gouge you, we just need (and truly appreciate) the help.

My goal is to cover next year's royalty fees on the main station - about $340. Anything above that would be used to either expand the station's capacity (more disk space for longer daily playlists at higher quality) or add to our side stations' capacity, or get applied to the following year's royalty. I'll keep you posted on progress here at the main Altrok Radio site (where, of course, you can check out our advertisers and tune in, both of which also help us.)

By the way, the link for becoming a VIP is:

http://www.live365.com/rewards/pm?tag=muddychannel

So, summarizing:

Buy us a gift certificate (any value will do):

https://store.live365.com/orders/orderform-giftcert.live
(use pledgedrive -(at)- altrok -(dot)- com for the recipient)

Become a VIP and remove ads from the station while helping us:

http://www.live365.com/rewards/pm?tag=muddychannel

Hope this explains what faces us, and helps you to help us. Thanks, and keep listening!

Music Update #198: Now With The FM Showcase In 128k MP3!

Firstly, the important stuff:

Altrok Radio is at http://www.altrokradio.com

Please remember to tune in whenever you can - every hour you listen turns into more visibility for the station; we show up higher in search listings, and such like that. And if you'd like to help us keep the stream running, check out the advertisers if they appeal to you; your interest actually helps fund us.

Now then, in addition to the outstanding Altrok Radio music mix that got us an Editor's Pick nod at Live365 and at About.com, we've added features we know you'll like...

Mondays at 11:30am Eastern (with a preview at 0730 GMT) you get to hear Sean Carolan (often referred to in these dispatches as "me") showcase the new music we've added this week on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase. New stuff, classic stuff, and Jeff Raspe with his Altrok Radio Underground Pick Of The Week...

Every Friday, it's Altrok's Eighties Friday: music from the eighties that mattered then AND now. An eight hour playlist that features some of the best that decade had to offer, drawing from all the music that was available at the time (yes, even from the seventies.)

NEW: The FM Showcase gets its own dedicated station! You can hear it anytime, in high-quality 128k MP3, here:

http://www.live365.com/stations/hubcity?site=live365

But for now - we've got songs to let you know about.

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

- Kaputt
- MEN
- The Fashion
- The Courteeners
- Sons And Daughters
- Foxboro Hot Tubs

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- B-52's - Pump
- Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
- Carbon-Silicon - The News
- Mike Doughty - I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing
- The Duke Spirit - The Step And The Walk
- Factory Floor - Bipolar
- The Fletchers - Disorder
- Forward Russia! - We Are Grey Matter
- The Handcuffs - Mickey 66
- Hot Chip - One Pure Thought
- Jonjo Feather - I Suppose
- Ladytron - Black Cat
- My Device - Fountain Of Youth
- Chuck Prophet - Doubter Out Of Jesus (All Over You)

Our Newly-Added Classics:

- The Fall - Couldn't Get Ahead
- The Jam - Happy Together
- Love - A House Is Not A Motel
- R.E.M. - I Believe
- The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
- The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
- Split Enz - History Never Repeats
- The Stranglers - Ice Queen
- Ultra Vivid Scene - Staring At The Sun

- Sean Carolan
Altrok Radio
On your computer now at http://www.altrokradio.com

On the radio Fridays at 10pm, at 90.5 The Night

New Service! The FM Showcase At All Times, In High Quality!

Each week, whenever we actually produce a new one, the Altrok Radio FM Showcase shows up on our main Web station on Mondays. But maybe that's not enough...

...so we've made up a new channel strictly to play it back in high quality 128k MP3. Here's the link to the page - press the big Play button, and enjoy.

Here's the catch: only five people can listen at a time, unless you become a VIP...but then you can listen to it, and to the main Altrok Radio stream, without having to endure commercials. Sorry, them's the rules. (There's only so much I can afford, y'know...)

Anyway, check it out, and let us know what you think.

In My Head: My Device, "Fountain Of Youth"

So yeah, you're gonna hear this on the next new Altrok Radio FM Showcase, which may be this Friday. (We'll see.) But to save you the heartache of waiting, go listen to My Device's "Fountain Of Youth" at their MySpace page. You'll be glad, etc.

(Of course, we're playing lots of other great music, for connections fast and connections slow(er), all night long. Some things are just hard to give up.)

When We Say "Good Music", What Do We Mean? Today, It Means This...

Every now and again, it makes sense for us to put out a list that shows, exactly, what you'll hear on today's eight-hour Altrok Radio playlist. We don't want to inundate you with it here (though we do post each day's list with fair regularity at our MySpace page) but figured you might appreciate the update every once in a while, and it's been a while, so...

---

A Flock Of Seagulls, The A Sides, Au Revoir Simone

The B-52's, Babyshambles, Barnacle Bill, Big Audio Dynamite, The Black Keys, Bombay Bicycle Club, David Bowie, The Breeders, British Sea Power, Buzzcocks

Carbon-Silicon, Cazals, The Charlatans UK, The Clash, The Comsat Angels, Elvis Costello, The Cure, Justin Currie, Cut Off Your Hands

Damn Shames, The Dead Milkmen, Death Cab For Cutie, Depeche Mode, Peter DiStefano, Yeah Does It Offend You, Dogs, David Dondero, Dr. & The Medics

Eliza Doolittle, Brian Eno, Eulogies

The Fall, Firewater, Flowers Forever, Friendly Fires, Frightened Rabbit, The Futureheads

Generation X

Hammer No More The Fingers, Harrisons, The Horrors, Hot Chip

Icehouse, Intaferon

Joy Division

The Killers, King Crimson, The Kooks, Kubichek!

Ladyhawk, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, Lemuria, Let's Active, The Libertines, Look See Proof, Louis XIV, Love Ends Disaster!

M83, The Maccabees, Made For TV, The Magic Numbers, Ida Maria, Maximo Park, Mekons, Mezzanine Owls, Midnight Juggernauts, Motel Creeps, Moving Units

Nada Surf, The National, The Never, New Musik, New Order, The New Violators, The Nice Outfit, Nine Inch Nails, No Age

Operator Please

Philpot, Plastiscines, Emma Pollock, The Presets

R.E.M., Radio 4, The Ramones, The Raveonettes, Red Vein, The Replacements, Romeo Void

The Shackeltons, The Shell, The Shins, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Sound, Sparks, Spoon, Stuffy & The Fuses, The Sun And The Moon, The Sunshine Underground

Talking Heads, Tapes 'n Tapes, Bram Tchaikovsky, The Teenagers, The Shaky Hands, These New Puritans, These United States, Those Dancing Days, The Ting Tings, To My Boy, Tokyo Police Club, Trash Yourself & The Toxic Avenger

Vive La Fête

The Waterboys, We Are Scientists, We Start Fires, West Indian Girl, Paul Westerberg, The Whip, Amy Winehouse, The Wonder Stuff, Roddy Woomble, The World Record

Yello

---

So whatd'ya think? Let us know.

(And if you do like what we're putting out for you, take a look at our advertisers on this page - they keep us running when you show 'em some interest.)

TUNE IN For Naughties Non-Friday...It's Like Eighties Friday, But Naughtier.

We all live in the naughties.

(There's twisted logic here: "Naught" is a word for zero, and since every other decade in a century can have a good sounding name, the first decade should as well. "The Zeroes" and "The Oh-Ohs" might have their supporters, but for me, these are "The Naughties".)

So, as you well know, we do Eighties Friday every week, playing the best tracks in our library that the Eighties had to offer. Every non-Friday, we play the stuff we've got available right now, and we're trying to make it as good from today's perspective as Eighties Friday would have been from the perspective of those halcyon days.

"But, Sean," I hear you say (because of the voices I hear in my head,) "all of these new songs are weird and scary! How could I be comfortable listening to them?"

And the fact is, they *are* weird and scary. They're as weird and scary as the classic tracks we play all day every Friday were when they first came out...and you loved 'em then.

I see no issues here...(but then, I wouldn't)

Don't worry - every few songs, when you worry you'll never hear something you recognize, you will...'cause I think those classics still have a relevant place alongside the new stuff I've picked for Altrok Radio. That's always kind of been the point.

Maybe you'll hear a song that goes too far. Stick around anyway, 'cause the next one'll probably blow your socks off.

Stay tuned. See what's next. (That's why we're here.)

You know the place: http://www.altrokradio.com

-Sean