NextUnderground This Saturday, With A New Home On The Way...

NextUnderground will be holding court for the next three Saturdays in New Brunswick, so there'll be a place to go for interesting new music once again. (See? That whole basement thing at Tumulty's a few weeks back was a good idea!)

This Saturday, May 31, NextUnderground sets up shop at McCormick's Pub at 266 Somerset St.

Then on Saturday, June 7 and Saturday, June 14, the roving party will find a more permanent home (we hope!) at The Corner Tavern at the corner of Easton and Somerset in New Brunswick (732-247-7677).

All Times 10PM Till Closing.

Each night, some permutation of our core NextUnderground team (which includes DJ Iron Mike, DJ Drew (R/SYN) and myself (Sean Carolan from Altrok Radio) will bring along the best in Alternative DJ Dance Music from Then till Now...and on the 14th, it's Drew's birthday, so treat him mercilessly.

The more that come out, the more Saturday nights we'll be having at our new homes...so don't stay in!

Time and Space: Dramarama at the Surf Club Last Friday

The first time I saw Dramarama was about twenty one years ago, during their smooth gentle ascent to semi-stardom. It might have been at the Green Parrot, but since I don't have my concert list handy, I can't be too sure. None the less, they were a truly one of a kind band, with a talented, charismatic song writing front man in John Easdale.

Over the next few years they produced several critically acclaimed albums with several major hits on each. Big time fame and fortune seemed within reach. Last Cigarette, Anything Anything and others ruled the Melody dancefloor when Pinfield played them. The band had all the right elements necessary, but as happens more often than not, they never reached critical mass. Those few who had a disproportionate say in whether bands made it or not didn't make the effort, or see the true poetic genius that Dramarama held up to be adored.

Almost twenty years later, three of the original five carry on the Dramarama legacy. This last week witnessed the annual Dramarama pilgrimage to New Jersey, their home state. I caught them at the Surf Club in Ortley Beach last Friday.

As I spoke with John before the show, it became clear to me how relaxed and happy the man is after all of the ups and downs and chaos of twenty six years in the band. He told me how happy he is everytime he gets to come back to Jersey and play a few clubs in front of homestate crowds. When he asked, he quickly responded how he'd move back in a heartbeat if it were possible. We'd be very happy to have you back too, John.

The crowd at the Surf Club was moderate in size, and lean on years, but very enthusiastic for the show. They were enough oldtimers present though, and that had to make the band feel pretty good. As I stood near the front of the crowd, I was amazed to look up and see Dramarama after all these years. There was John, and all the songs from long ago. And the songs are great. They make you think, touch your soul, and connect you with your helpless human frailty. Anyone can right songs about girls and getting laid. Very few can write album after album of songs that pour out heartfelt feelings and emotions. John has done it with ease for almost thirty years.

I've said it before, but John Easdale is a master poet. It is a crime that this man and that band were not one of the biggest bands in the world, on par with U2, or the Smiths or someone of that magnitude.

I look forward to seeing John and Dramarama for many years to come. They will always have a warm welcoming crowd in Jersey for as long as they live. And seeing how much fun they had on Friday, I suspect they will be coming around for a long time to come. And Stiffy will be there, front and center.

A Variety Of Things To Hear Over The Weekend...

So, what to plug, what to plug...

• Yours Truly presents the FM Showcase tonight at 10pm on 90.5 The Night
  

• Matt Pinfield is on at WRXP Saturday, Noon-5pm
  

• Michele Amabile does eighties Saturday morning, 6a-10a at GRock

...and all throughout, there's Altrok Radio, ready to test your edge-handling ability. Tune in!

Pinfield: Allright, We Can Confirm, Already!

Press releases have hit the expected outlets, so here's the straight poop:

FMQB: Matt Pinfield Joins WRXP For Morning Drive

His first day's May 28, which just happens to be his birthday, so be gentle (or not - this is rock 'n roll, after all.)

Altrok Radio Music Update #202

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:

- The Courteeners
- The Young Knives
- Sky Larkin
- The Long Blondes
- CSS
- XX Teens

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
- The Cure - The Only One
- Dirty Pretty Things - Hippy's Son
- The Futureheads - Radio Heart
- Katie The Pest - Pretty Special
- Late Of The Pier - Space And The Woods
- Mates Of State - My Only Offer
- My Device - Super Tonio!
- Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000
- Pendulum - Propane Nightmares
- The Pigeon Detectives - This Is An Emergency
- The Radio Dept. - Freddie And The Trojan Horse
- Sunny Day Sets Fire - Brainless
- The Ting Tings - Shut Up And Let Me Go
- The Video Nasties - Gobi

Our Newly-Added Classics:

- Billy Bragg - Greetings to the New Brunette
- The Chameleons - A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days
- The Dead Milkmen - Instant Club Hit
- Ministry - I'm Falling
- The Pixies - Gigantic
- R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower
- Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)
- Joe Strummer - Trash City
- Visage - Fade To Grey

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

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

Pinfield Chatter Begins To Crank The Rumor Mill

Well, we did some hinting yesterday about how it'd be nice if Matt Pinfield did some radio...now the rumor mill has ground into full gear on this thread at the New York Radio Board.

We cannot confirm or deny, but we'll tell ya what we can do...

We'll have a chance to talk about it a bit - or not, depending - when we spend some time woolgathering about the ol' days, tomorrow (Saturday) at noon on 88.7 WRSU. (We might even start early, depending on when live Rutgers Alumni Day Parade coverage ends.) I'm breaking out some old vinyl and so's Matt, so even if you're not all that interested in inside baseball, there'll be some great music played. I might even pull out an an old aircheck or two...

And, of course, do support our NextUnderground night at McCormick's (266 Somerset in New Brunswick) tomorrow evening - following on from the success of last week's outing at Tumulty's, if what I'm hearing is correct, there may be a lot more where that came from.

Pinfield On RXP Today, All Over The Place Otherwise

New Brunswick Legend Matt Pinfield has a trifecta of sorts going on this week. This afternoon, he'll be at 101.9 WRXP with Brian Schock talking about the stuff he's been doing lately...

Tomorrow (Friday), he'll have hosting duties at the Seaside Music Festival, specifically at Hemingway's in Seaside Heights...

Monday, he'll be co-hosting the 2008 Joey Ramone Birthday Bash on what would have been Joey's 57th birthday alongside "Little Steven" Van Zandt and Peter Aschner...[For ongoing updates, visit www.joeyramone.com. Net proceeds from the Bash go to support the Joey Ramone Foundation for Lymphoma Research.]

He might even show up Saturday at the WRSU 60th Anniversary Alumni Broadcast (though the NY Daily News doesn't necessarily think so...)

(And don't forget we're planning on presenting our own NextUnderground night at McCormick's in New Brunswick on Saturday - that's at 266 Somerset St, so come on by and show a little Altrok support...)

All this Matt-centric activity leads one to wonder whether there ought to be some radio somewhere in his future, hm? I know I'm tuning in to the WRXP broadcast...

Altrok Radio Music Update #201

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:

- Ladytron
- My Device
- Foxboro Hot Tubs
- The Fall
- Pat DiNizio
- Carbon-Silicon

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Cloud Cult - Everybody Here Is A Cloud
- Elvis Costello - No Hiding Place
- The Duke Spirit - Lassoo
- The Long Blondes - Here Comes The Serious Bit
- Mates Of State - Get Better
- Nine Inch Nails - Echoplex
- Poi Dog Pondering - Lemon Drop Man
- Princeton - Eminent Victorians
- Sky Larkin - I Was A Teenage Hand Model
- Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Oceanographer
- Stereolab - Three Women
- The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards, It Did
- Weezer - Pork 'n Beans
- The Young Knives - Counters

Our Featured Classics:

- The Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night (Trent Reznor Remix)
- The Church - One Day
- The Clash - London Calling
- The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
- The Dukes Of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl
- Freur - Doot Doot
- Mission Of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
- Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
- Wire - Drill

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

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

Altrok Radio Music Update #200

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:

- Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong
- The Ting Tings
- The Duke Spirit
- The B-52's
- Midnight Juggernauts
- Nine Inch Nails

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Autons - Election Singer
- Blood Red Shoes - Doesn't Matter Much
- Coldplay - Violet Hill
- CSS - Rat Is Dead (Rage)
- Danny & Dusty - New York City Lullaby
- Foxboro Hot Tubs - The Pedestrian
- Gnarls Barkley - Charity Case
- Ladytron - Ghosts
- Lismore - More
- The Long Blondes - Century
- My Morning Jacket - Touch Me I'm Going To Scream
- Radiohead - Nude (Bathing In The Icefloe Mix by Thomas Dolby)
- Young Knives - Up All Night

Our Featured Classics:

- The Bongos - Skydiving
- Buzzcocks - Fiction Romance
- Killing Joke - Kings And Queens
- Stan Ridgway - Drive She Said
- The Specials - Ghost Town (12 inch version)
- Talking Heads - Life During Wartime
- Tears For Fears - The Hurting
- The Three O'Clock - Half the Way There
- Vicious Pink - Cccan't You See

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

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

Thomas Dolby's Golden Age Of Radio(head)

It's hard for me not to want to keep an eye on Thomas Dolby. He kept making interesting records years after the mainstream industry wrote him off as a one-hit wonder, and then, when it became clear that making records was a sucker's game, he became part of the Web's fabric by becoming CEO of Beatnik, a Silicon Valley tech startup. Chances are, if you've got a ringtone on your cellphone, he was behind the technology that put it there.

So leave it to Dolby to turn something as mundane as wondering how far outside his house he could go before he lost his Internet connection, into art.

The story goes that, a few weeks ago, he wandered down to the beach behind his house (he has one - the whole technology thing was apparently very good to him) and sat down for a bit to check out the connection. Waves lapped against the beach, seagulls squawked at each other - generally, a pretty idyllic situation (except that it was pretty cold outside; he's brought a blanket to huddle up in.) While there, browsing the net randomly, he happened upon the news that Radiohead were making the component tracks for their song "Nude" available to the public, who were invited to submit their mixes. He grabbed a track and hit play, and the single track, which was silent for much of the time up until that instrument's part came up, wound up working so well in the environment he was in that he sampled the ambient audio and set to work on his own remix...then submitted it, pretty much the way anyone else would.

The thing I find most endearing about the story is that Dolby is clearly - and I mean this in the best possible, most empathetic way - a geek for the ages. Anyone who turns technology into art is aces in my book. So, as it turns out, are Radiohead, for having the foresight to offer the remix program in the first place.

Listen for yourself:



And that, by the way, is the other cool thing about it - I don't have to just rell you about it, I can post it myself and encourage you to vote. So yes, there's a bit of electioneering going on here...

[You'll be able to catch it tonight on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase, at 10pm Eastern at 90.5 The Night - do listen online if you can't tune in on FM.]