I trust you had a safe yet rambunctious New Year's. 2009's all right thus far, though the weather in Vancouver is still enough to mess with everyone. Aside from the streets and sidewalks that will never be cleared until the next rain, the roads are growing monstrous potholes, as the busride to the station took a few nasty bumps along the way. I ran into Gavin outside the station, where he was waiting after spending some time earlier in the afternoon on campus tending to other matters. As I suspected, he used to drive a taxi (only until recently due to some surgery), so he explained some of the worst roads to be on when the weather turns.

I scampered up to the booth where Henry was spinning his final show with a few friends; due to his masters work, his time was being encroached with mostly lab time, so he surrendered his time slot, offering to fill-in when necessary. We shared a few words on air as warm wishes were extended and he closed with a Magnetic Fields song.

My show was pretty much self-contined on the iPod, starting off with a quick tribute to Eartha Kitt before diving into some electronic dance. I aimed for a consistent feel throughout half the show, which expanded into a grander theme when I found out that In Flagranti were pretending to be an act or two in my selected songs without my knowledge.

Aside from that, Inglorious Bastards took care of the tail end of this episode; the soundtrack to the film is a pastiche of styles, which gives that road trip feel as many adventures are encountered. I've only seen parts of the film, so news of the DVD re-release is completely welcome.

Gavin filled in some more details about Freddie Hubbard's life and his fireball personality. I had no idea that in 1992, Hubbard had lip surgery to deal with an infection, which ended his performing career. Gavin covers a lot of brilliant facts about jazz on his show, but during songs, he often tells me more about the players and their characteristics, which made them sound like the cool cats you think they are. I only wish I had properly checked out the liner notes to Red Clay before spinning one of the songs, since having Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson in you band makes the entire sound swing.

And now: don't bore us, just to get the chorus — the playlist:

The fifth night of Christmas, the final night of Hanukkah and the first night of black ice on the roads in Vancouver, already caught in the crossfire of every possible winter storm system (as evidenced by the wonky radio programming last week; my fill-in whilst I was out east, fighting the flu, was unable to get to the station due to a foot of snow her way). All this converged on the ultimate episode for the year 2008. UBC campus was pretty much closed, meaning all the DJ's after 5pm relied on each other to get into the station.

I was reluctant to pull yet another list of the best songs, best albums, best music, best whatever else to add to the pile. After juggling several lists, I slid more towards songs I had neglected to play in the past and then fuse a few threads together to give a narrow focus on songs you would've heard in the year but mixed in some harder to find gems to flesh things out.

Naturally, it was time to pull one of the best soundtracks of the year out; after debating on using WALL·E as the hub around a children's music themed episode, or waiting to see if Thomas Newman's score would be nominated for an Academy Award, I opted for it after a recent rewatch during one of my prolonged flights. Amongst the fantastic graphics, the surreal story and feisty robots, the sound design behind the film was phenomenal and all credit goes to Ben Burtt, a veteran audio auteur.

Due to the empty nature of the building, as the hosts passed the booth onto the next host, there was often a great deal of chatter over the holiday season's events and what the future may hold. It's great to have a moment to bond with people you only have fleeting moments with as the shows change, so if there were moments where songs didn't properly lead into each other, just know it was intentionally negligent. Based on the weather and usual yuletide activities, it's hard to say how many people would be listening live. As well, with the weather outside icy, most radios were tuned to the news, like the taxi I had to take home after the buses couldn't make it up the hills along West Point Grey.

The last tidbits of sound were thrown together at the last minute as a quick audio snippet of the 1985 leap second was added (since 2008 will have its own, otherwise known as 23:59:60 UTC), along with the standard Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, leading us to another Scottish treat, the sound of ships sailing along the North Sea during Hogmanay, the New Year's Eve celebration. I like a little audio pastiche every once in a while, so I'll try to come up with a few more as time permits.

And with that, the songs that close the year.

Nothing helps calm the rising tide of holiday anxiety than by listening to a really frantic collection of strange music somehow pegged to the baby Jesus' birth.

Actually, this episode was completely horrific in the early stages as I tried stuffing the show to the gills with every possible genre and funny bit I had. Considering that early Saturday, I maybe had two Christmas songs in my iTunes and by the evening, it had turned to twenty hours worth, there was a veritable avalanche of carols that made me twitchy.

Because, like most of you, I can't stand the same thirty or so songs you always hear. If it was up to me, there'd be more sacred hymns, tearjerking ballads and bizarre murder stories in the holiday canon, but ninety minutes of all that along with the usual spattering of deranged nuggets of joy sounds atrocious. Christmas mixes are tenuous things since most of the time, it sounds incoherent.

I scaled back, allowing the first half hour to be kinda psychedelic, segueing brilliantly from what the previous show was doing with noise pastiches from local heroes the Value Village People. The second half hour started off electronic before the stylistic overload crept up into the final third.

For a handful of my friends, the Star Wars Theatre (3000?) rendition of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas kicks off the holiday season, though starting off with that random slice of yuletide splendour will scare most people off. Also in the stable are Low's sublime Christmas release, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet's quirky quicky and Morphine's drowsy B-side.

Not helping matters was the fact that a half hour until airtime, I was still at work, downtown, stuck on a phone call that went on for hours. Thankfully, I had all my toys with me, so I hailed a taxi to the campus for the first time (which ain't cheap) and managed to get there in time to collect my wits, check the records, say hello to everyone who was still there and test the turntables.

The cool thing was that the music department hauled out the super collection of tinseltown tunes; there were hundred of shiny discs, black discs and other musical media. I used a spate of them during the background randomly. Messing around with so much music provided ample distraction and you can tell in the first half hour that I was still wound up from the rush of the day, tripping over words like my tongue was swollen. The clocks in the studio were widely varied, making time estimates wonky and I jettisoned my Italian tracks at the end for more Shadowy Men, just 'cuz I wanted to.

I'm sure there's more but my net connex is proving wonky tonight, so let's cut to the chase.

I wish this show could've gone a bit longer, but them's the breaks. Seems like any of the programs before me get their time eaten by the show before and I'm left with the tightest 90 minutes to wiggle with.

Nevertheless, this was a solid piece of the genre cake as I stayed mostly electronic. Fittingly, so was the music as most of the discs I found in the library were old and fairly unplayable (compact discs do not age gracefully), so the bulk of the show came off the iPod. However, it was only yesterday that I found a used vinyl of the Thief soundtrack (the trailer as heard during this week's broadcast), which helped greatly since all I had from Tangerine Dream was the Heartbreakers soundtrack, which is nice on its own but that film was rather insignificant, especially in contrast the blazing white glow of Michael Mann's debut film. There was a lot more I could've tackled regarding Mann and his audio æsthete, but you have to hear the music from time to time and not so much from me.

The Modular Recordings snapshot was semi-intentional; I had hoping to drop a remix of The Presets' This Boy's In Love but sometimes, people need to be able to find what song they hear easily. At some point, I'll play you Cut Copy's remix work of the Presets, one long languid day. (As eluded during the show, here's the Exclaim! profile on Cut Copy in wake of their 2008 best-of lists.)

Not sure what else to say but man, I play a lot of Amon Tobin. I need to switch over to Richie Hawtin for Canadian electronic music, or find other sources of fresh national technologies.

This is my playlist; tell me yours.

Going into this week's show, I thought the entire proceedings would have gone overly whimsical. (Starting with Tiny Tim can do that.) The first half hour had a serious eighties college radio vibe, despite the fact that most of the recordings came from the past few years. The station had a single by These Electric Lives that I hadn't heard before, so coming up with Soda Water as a replacement was a fantastic upgrade. The Oxford Collapse song had been burrowing in my mind for a while, which is odd since most of their stuff straddles the nostalgia line too closely for me to truly appreciate.

CITR's archives had plenty of options for most of the artists I had lined up, though sometimes what I brought with me worked better. It's unfortunate that Bat for Lashes isn't in the library, since their debut stands as one of the strongest in recent memory. As the college sound floated up into the darkened clouds, I had to locate a few Canadian acts to both fit in and then lead us elsewhere. The recent fund drive delayed new playlist adds for a few weeks, so a great backlog is finally clearing, allowing me to tear into the new work from Sebastian Grainger (formerly of Death from Above 1979) and The Buttless Chaps, allowing me to land back in the salt of the earth.

...and dive into the Sacred Harp choral style, as featured in the recent documentary Awake, My Soul. CITR's music co-ordinator Mr. Meat had told me that he added the soundtrack specifically for me, which was gracious. Upon first listen though, I snapped to attention as the a capella choirs half-chanted, half-sang their notes. Taking a good chunk of hymns I knew — for those who may have known, one fact I don't advertise all the time is I used to be a church organist, though in the Lutheran tradition — the melodies and arrangements became almost Gregorian though brilliantly imprecise. I love the fact that the recording sessions were treated as field recordings, whereby the song leader (who changes each song) calls out the song or page number and everyone goes through the first verse in solfege then barge into the actual words on the second verse. Add to the fact that the songs are known by their melody instead of the song title, which better reflects the flexibility that hymns have as songs can take lyrics from other hymns, and standards such as Amazing Grace are known by locations (in this case, New Britain), the Sacred Harp tradition seemingly remixes the entire canon I'm familiar with.

The new-folk versions that followed weren't as immediate but it's great to see how the old gospel influence develops over different genres. And in many cases, certain artists gained their first exposure to this style as part of this project and discovered a way with music they hadn't necessarily been exposed to before. I can imagine some of you may be daunted with the idea of hearing religious themes; in that case, you can always unlisten to the words and pick out the character and unspoken message or history of what's being sung. If I had time, I'd like to sketch out a series of shows that explore the various parts of music and this soundtrack stands as a great way to highlight the human voice.

And with that, the playlist.

Hmm, another round of gold. Funding drives do no wonders to my memory.

This is the second (and final) episode as part of the 3rd annual CITR Fund Drive, representing the point where the station hit the 90% mark of its goal towards $15 000 (which was eventually achieved on the morning of the penultimate day of the drive; as of writing, the total is over sixteen thousand). Naturally, the rhythm of the show was substantially better than the one last week. Upgrades appeared in the forms of: new music; the occasional and better prepared notes; and stronger comfort in pitching the plea for cash.

And, for the first time ever, I even had a caller pledge, though he didn't want the radio free gak prize pack. I have to figure out a more enticing offer the next time the drive comes along; I even added a copy of Caribou's latest (and 2008 Polaris Prize-winning album) Andorra at the behest of the station manager, who I spooked into appearing on air as she updated the totals board (sorry Bren) but no takers.

The money theme in the show was somewhat subtle yet fluid, starting off with the New York City garbage strike audio clip I had forgotten to use last week. I had Blondie's take on the Nerves' classic Hanging on the Telephone cued at one point, but after some idle chatter about one DJ spinning too much Cher (!?), I opted for the less travelled artists.

The profile on Jerry Goldsmith went all right, though tracks were pruned as time ran tight. Goldsmith remains a difficult artist to fully profile since he had composed thousands of tracks for hundreds of productions over his lifetime. Nevertheless, I did cover some ground with his sixties lounge style and his early eighties sci-fi fare. I forgot to mention an earlier profile I had on Goldsmith's score to Planet of the Apes, but in hindsight, I tend to overplay that card.

After my shift, I took my shift on the phones, though things were quiet throughout the evening. My work on the finale poster was printed out finally, which I hope to upload for you soon. The pilgrim drawing remains a little suspect and badly laid on the poster but the typography's all right, considering I had to work with an unfinalized roster. I hung out with the crew that was there 'til 1am and somehow, managed to get a lift home.

I also had to step in after The Jazz Show since the show afterwards, Vengeance is Mine had a night off due to the host being ill, so I had to prepare the overnight broadcast. Instead of relying on the usual BBC Worldwide feed, I tried choosing a mix of other fantastic podcasts, but after a browser crash, I opted simply for a spate of the most recent Funky 16 Corners podcasts, which remain a source of frustration to subscribe to via iTunes. I did a quick blurb after fading out The Jazz Show theme and hoped that no other crashes transpired overnight.

You don't need to punch no monkey for the playlist.

The quick recap: I have no memory whatsoever whether I mentioned this on prior episodes, but I was a guest on Shake A Tail Feather during the station fund drive (which is still going strong for a few days more). He proposed that we cover an introductory show about soul and R&B music, exploring the early roots of both genres and giving examples of what soul music is.

We figured out early on that our ambitions could barely be wedged into our two hour show, especially as we talked plentifully about music along with the ever-so important donation information. We had each brought in a wide selection of music; I brought most of the Southern and New Orleans music whilst Jason focused on earlier works.

The show flew by quickly; we had waited in the lounge, listening to a bit of the collegiate sports broadcast with the other volunteers before tuning into Linda Bull's selection of modern Italian soundtrack and orchestral music (Linda hosts Give'em the Boot on Tuesday mornings, along with a bluegrass show on Co-op Radio, CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver).

By midnight, we got the call from the next host that he would be 15 minutes late, so I took over the controls quietly as Jason packed and scrambled to catch the last express bus. I wound up taking a very delayed local one myself.

Not sure what else to write up here, since I still have to prepare my actual show, so here's the playlist.

Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves: (Doin' The) Boom Boom (MOJO Presents: The New Dictionary of Blues and Soul)
Ruth Brown and Her Rhythmakers: I Want to Do More (Blowing the Fuse: 1956)
Roy Montrell: (Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone (Blowing the Fuse: 1956)
Huey "Piano" Smith: Free, Single and Disengaged (New Orleans Funk, Vol. 1)
The Mar-Keys: Last Night (Stax 50th Anniversary)
Booker T and the MGs: Green Onions (Stax 50th Anniversary)
William Bell: You Don't Miss Your Water (Stax 50th Anniversary)
The Chantels: Maybe (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Sam Cooke: I'll Come Running Back to You (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Jerry Butler and the Impressions: For Your Precious Love (Blowing the Fuse: 1958)
Ray Charles: What'd I Say (Blowing the Fuse: 1959)
Isley Brothers: Shout (Blowing the Fuse: 1959)
Chuck Jackson: I Wake Up Crying (The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection)
Mary Wells: You Beat Me To the Punch (Sweet Soul Music: 1962)
Allen Toussaint: Gotta Travel On (What Is Success)
Otis Redding: A Change Is Gonna Come (The Definitive Soul Collection)
Al Green: Back Up Train (Back Up Train)
The Radiants: Voice Your Choice (MOJO Presents: Chess Classics)
The Fifth Dimension: Stoned Soul Picnic (The Very Best of ...)
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Tell Me (100 Days, 100 Nights)
The Fifth Dimension: Love's Lines, Angles, and Rhymes (The Very Best of ...)
James Brown: Funky President (People It's Bad) (Make It Funky - The Big Payback: 1971-1975)

You can download Soul 101 as an MP3, though I threw on this on my podcast for those of you who don't always read the blog [120.3 Mb, 131:23]

It's the third annual CITR Fundrive (donate now) and my inaugural take on the whole endeavour on soliciting funds live on air. Since the bulk of my dialogue was pre-written, I elected not to write up anything else, relying primarily on old notes. Since I had no idea how much I'd be talking, I had way more music queued than time to play; regular listeners can calculate that with about 10 minutes less music, I spoke for 10 minutes more than usual, which left me rather parched...especially since I'm actually recovering from a recent sinus infection that had me homebound and somewhat rested today.

This show became a best-of due to many reasons; mostly due to the fund drive formatting, but parts related to my lack of laptop and a delay in its replacement. I did have a loaner from work but it has its own unreliable history along with lack of space for me to restore anything from my backup drive. Thankfully, the iPod had a good chunk of this week's show preloaded and I could recycle the bits I had for the previously aired songs whilst giving updates. However, Cancon leapt up along with a few playlist requirements thanks to the new Dears and the CFCF EP.

The radio free gak prize pack at airtime was as follows: any pledge over $101.90 included a copy of the Fountain soundtrack (as composed by Clint Mansell, not as whoever I said during showtime, and performed by the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai — I have not yet seen or heard the film or soundtrack but I'm tempted to open one of the copies lying around), a button I made and some Finnish salmiakki candy. As well, anyone who would've pledged $20 on top of any additional gift would have it hand-delivered (within reason) instead of having the donor pick it up from UBC campus.

However, there was only one caller during my show and he took a tax receipt, so I'll leave the existing gifts for next week and try to throw some more into the gak prize pack. This may rely on me coming into the station to make a mixed CD, along with hitting up a friend for some silk-screened shirts. Podcast listeners are wholly encouraged to donate despite the lack of immediacy offered by the prizes, though the logistics of getting those gifts out would need to be sorted, since the existing fund drive budget does not include postage costs. Still, I'm on the board with $170, which is a good step towards $15 000. At the end of my show, the total amount collected was over $6000 – fantastic for 5 days.

Naturally, the technical faults appeared, sensing the time was ripe to directly solicit the listenership as things broke down. The primary CD player refused to open and the secondary started to skip during certain songs, meaning that I had to creatively cue things so that the third player was the primary, using the second one for short songs on trusty discs. As well, the turntables were a fiasco and a half, as the left turntable was only mono in the left speaker and the right turntable's levels were bleeding already when nothing was playing. That meant that the Max B. track was in double mono for the last half of the song as I tried to figure out how on earth the mixer was miswired (again) and scrapping my other vinyl selections. I was forced to rely on my iPod heavily, which is ironic since I was moving away from relying too heavily on using that as my primary device as I got comfortable with my show. Someone pledge more money now to get that stuff fixed!

Of course, the entire show wasn't a "clip show"; the last 20 minutes included my first profile on Ennio Morricone, which had been long gestating but the sheer size of my collection is already monstrous, and I barely have the surface scratched. The five tracks I played covered a wide range of his wilder and generally known compositions, including some of his spaghetti Western works plus some more psychedelic pieces. I should devote a whole show for him in the future and Morricone was one of the few acts that survived completely on my iPod after my stolen laptop.

Adding to the madcappery of the show was a good friend photographing me during the last 45 minutes. Due to his time, he'll send all the photos for me to sort through, so there's bound to be a few keepers, along with evidence of my moustache for November.

I touched upon Burli briefly as part of my pitch appeal, and there's a world of information on its history and its founder Stefan Ellis along with the interconnectedness with CITR, but it shows how community radio can extend further into the community. I have a couple other stories similar to that I can share next time.

Meanwhile, here's what was heard.

As announcements go, this will be short and sweet. November is a notoriously busy time of year for charities and fundraising; the United Way campaign is underway and I'm still growing a moustache for Movember, for which I have to post a photo of my current status, which is vaguely walrus-like in growth.

However, the main crux of this is post is the third annual CITR on-air funding drive, which started this past Thursday and goes until November 27. We're targetting $15 000 CDN and after one day, we're almost at the $2000 mark. This is my first fund drive and I'm in the midst of preparing not just some special shows, but also some prize packs for the first few donors.

How to donate:

Donate by Phone: call +1 604 822 8648 (UBC-UNIT) between 7am - 2am Pacific from November 13-27. Visa, MasterCard, personal cheques, money orders, cash and direct deposit are accepted.

Donate Online: visit the UBC Development Office and please enter CITR Capital Campaign in the field marked "I would Prefer to Donate To". When donating online, please state the name of your favourite show in the comment column. radio free gak is easy to spell.

Donate by Mail:

UBC Development Office
Suite 500 5950 University Blvd.
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3

Donations can also be made in-person between 8am and 8pm at CiTR Radio offices. As well, donations can be made in monthly installments through direct deposit, which will ease the pressure on your bank account.

For more information about the campaign, you can contact the Station Manager citrmgr@ams.ubc.ca or +1 604 822 1242.

Sorry to have missed you last week. As I indicated during the show, I didn't plan on missing it because I also didn't plan on having my place being broken into whilst I was at work either. When I got home an hour before airtime, I realized I wasn't going anywhere and I waited for the police whilst figuring out what to do with a front door that couldn't be secured. I had no physical harm to myself or any loved ones, just a bruised spirit.

This show was pretty much in the bag then, so pardon any staleness or sense of numb anxiety on my part. I was already a few weeks behind on a tribute to Dolemite in light of Rudy Ray Moore's death, but with the extra time available, I was surprised to find some music of his that was actually safe to play on radio.

Henry, the host of the show before mine, had a few overlapping acts with my proposed setlist, so after conferring with him about what he played as I hung out in Studio 1 during the last half hour of his show, I made a few substitutions for Department of Eagles and Deerhunter. The former act has pretty much lost the lo-fi pastichery of their past recordings which I dug, though their songwriting has solidified. Meanwhile, the latter continues to slowly convince me of sheer genius despite the indie trappings.

As you may have heard, some of the songs had little skips and pauses due to either the older quality of the CD's or the players themselves were starting to give out. I was lucky that more of the selections from the Lost Highway soundtrack didn't completely freeze altogether since the machine thrashed with its error correcting in the studio. Distractions continued as the wall clock stopping midway during the show, requiring me to climb up, see what the story was with the battery, reset the time then somehow place the clock back in a way so that it wouldn't fall. As well, one of the other DJ's previously on the air rewired with the turntables again, messing up the channels and breaking the locks on the shelving below, which caused the station engineer to expand his vocabulary. Then there was an eager student wishing to become a station volunteer, which required a quick two minute rundown before a song ended to tell him about what roles were available and how to sign up for a tour.

Since Henry ran a little late with his show and the various times the studio claimed to have, I realized around the time I played the snappy Raphael Saadiq piece that I had to scale my show back a bit. Thus, no concert listings this week and a shortened selection of Angelo Badalamenti songs at the end. The entire show went by in a blur but I suspect it was an aberration based on everything else that was going on.

And a reminder: starting Thursday at 5pm Pacific, it's the third annual CITR Fund Drive, so the next two shows will be leaner, meaner and asking for money. Times are tight for everyone, including the station that seems ready to fall apart at any given moment, so if you can donate, your generosity will be greatly appreciated and not overlooked.

This is your playlist.

When it comes to my Hallowe'ens, half of the chills and thrills arrive in the form of spills.

As I prepared this week's show — all about spooky music with a mix of some campiness and some outright horror — I was getting frustrated with trying to fill 90 minutes of airtime, which usually comprises of 75-80 minutes of music. I fretted over the final cuts on Sunday and set myself up for a pretty solid show. I figured I had a reasonable backup plan in the form of the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack — graciously provided to me by a co-worker on his original vinyl — in case I wanted to swap a few songs, though that score wound up somewhat less ethereal than I was expecting.

Never did I expect to jump on the air a half hour early though, as the previous host never made his shift this week (I should email him and check to see how he's doing). Once I arrived at the station, I found out what the deal was and dove right into the show at 7pm. The basic plan I had was to run with the show as it was and then somehow come up with the last half hour based on my extra tracks and those that were left off.

Whatever my intentions were...well, you can hear that the seams were roughly sewn, especially as I juggled around my tracklist during the last hour and switched sloppily from my iPod to the laptop when I ran out of the homebrew. (Please don't ask what I was thinking when I started snapping my fingers, or tried to snap said fingers, ugh.) There was a quick fade-out of the Throbbing Gristle song halfway through as I finally clearly heard the rather gruesome story being told, which would generally fly all right on a campus radio station though not during primetime. Actually listening to the lyrics, or at least reading them beforehand, is going to be a new habit to learn, considering I was already slightly leery about the Golden Palominos song later on, a track that has bolted me awake one night as I heard Nicole Blackman's eerie tale of a kidnapping.

One thing I wish I had done was feature the original song by Delia Derbyshire I had selected; a long piece featuring a woman talking about the ocean. A quirky tale would have provided a little break from the increasingly ominous latter half of the show, though Derbyshire's an artist who deserves her own profile very soon.

All in all, this episode should definitely raise the hair on the back of your neck, intentionally or not. I had reluctant expectations going into this show, and I adequately met them at times.

I present to you now your playlist. Please inspect each song for possible razors and other spikey objects before listening.

Up until late Sunday, this show was going to be mostly blues-related, but since I wasn't feeling in a blues mode, I shelved that program and came up with this one, featuring plenty of music from one of the old guard in electronic music: Underworld.

Based on their regular lengthy songs, Underworld easily took up half the show — including their songs from Trainspotting and Batman & Robin — along with the recent discovery within the station archives of the soundtrack to the film Breaking and Entering, whom they wrote along with Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared, a man I should dig up more music for a future episode.

The rest of the show fell into place quite quickly, although relying on the obituaries can appear to be an instant tribute that approaches distastefulness. Still, Neal Hefti's theme to the original (yet very campy) Batman television series is one of those unlikeliest of gems that will never go away. And the Four Tops' Levi Stubbs wasn't someone that immediately struck a chord, but then you listen to Bernadette, as heard in the background during this scene in Madhouse, or just Stubbs himself as the voice of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, and you realize what a powerful voice he had. And as referred to on air, during one of my fill-ins for Shake a Tail Feather, I played their song from Shaft Goes to Africa.

Wire and Crystal Castles provided an unconventional theme as they both had recently cancelled shows in the Vancouver area; I would have fit The Breeders in but time didn't permit. And further in concert tie-ins, I had tickets to give away to Wednesday's sold-out show by Dengue Fever, but no takers. It's a shame; from what songs of theirs I spun during my Asian themed show, their Cambodian songs should sound delightfully exotic. Maybe I should have landed tickets myself...

Otherwise, Mr. Walker called during the early part of the show, indicating that he wouldn't be able to appear tonight after he recovered from surgery. He was relaying some graphic details about the procedure as a segment ended, hence the brief silence towards the first third of the show as I quickly wrapped up the call and prepared one of his older shows for rebroadcast. To conclude all the campy Batman antics — and to soothe the way to the Jazz Show — I wanted to find a quality version of Count Basie's defining take on Hefti's Li'l Darling, but I settled for the The Ray Brown Trio's version, which has a nice languid feel to close the ceremonies.

That's mostly it, save for the playlist, which follows.

It's been some time since I've done a fill-in, but as Anita B was unavailable this week, I stepped into the comfortable shoes that is Samsquantch's Hideaway, the Wednesday evening Canadiana program. And for reference purposes, the Samsquantch appeared on the Trailer Park Boys.

There was no major theme for the show, though the program was bookended by non-Canadian bands making Canadian references; the fact that there's band out of Italy called Vancouver amuses me to no end, though they sound pretty good. Naturally, relying partially on the station's catalogue meant that most of my nationally selected music veered towards indie, though I had a few wild cards in my deck, ranging from folktronica to the noble yet cheesy Rock Encouter, which WFMU brought to the world's attention. I had some other selections for Hayden and Boards of Canada before finding replacements from the station library.

Val, host of Folk Oasis, the show after the Hideaway (and a show I've filled in for in the past), would often hang out as she prepped her show that night and we caught up on what was going down as of late. As her show started, I managed some banter that may have been caught on air, but I excluded from the download since any chicanery came later in the show and may have somewhat inaudible (I'll check and if there's anything good, I'll append or make a separate download).

Compared to Monday's regular show, I sounded far healthier and since work had me on the phone a lot today, my voice was well primed for mischief. It's nice to have a looser time on the radio now and then, since fun is not only a key objective, but it's also infectious. Of course, this led to a minor gaffe or two, especially since I was juggling a lot of CD changes this time around, along with a few records. That and the cart requirements being completely different made for a different challenge in the background as I fumbled quickly to fit certain bits onto the air. The advert at the end should've come a few minutes before but at least I didn't completely forget it altogether.

All in all, it was a blast – a nice respite from the federal election mayhem from the night before. Or downer, depending on your political leaning.

And now, for something that's never been done before: the playlist.

Sorry for the delay in getting this entry posted — one factor has been my increasingly unreliable internet connection at home. The new coaxial cable is helping with giving my speeds slightly over dial-up but speeds remain less than optimal.

The other factor for those of you who listen closely is that I had the sniffles, which I tried to obscure on air but failed often. Symptoms later deteriorated to the worst runny nose I ever had that night. My headspace drifted at times, which accounted for the occasional misread bit as I tried to figure out what I had meant when things were written earlier. The iPod had its own little fits, skipping ahead in songs whenever I wasn't looking, though that problem abated after the first half hour.

Kid Koala kicked things off with a song that one of the CBC Toronto folks use when filling in on one of the national morning programmes on Radio 1. After some disco, house and some demo music, the next highlight was the little profile on Monkey: Journey to the West, a Chinese opera that features the main Gorillaz duo with a heavy Oriental feel. One of the Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, led into a segue into Central African music as his recent production work for Amadou & Mariam allowed a sensible change of gears.

I played some Stereolab too, though I debated using the old tour single song versus a song off Stereolab off-shoot (and 2008 tour opener) Monade. Now that most of my 45's are up from Brooklyn, I could've gone with the latter after all. Alas...

The Lalo Schifrin soundtrack to Enter the Dragon was a recent acquisition, perfectly located after reading The AV Club's mixlist on "songs from and inspired by classic cult films" and some comments there. Though there are parallels to my recent bout of blaxploitation scores, Schifrin's score retains its own character, much like his work for the original TV series Mission: Impossible.

Somehow, I had more wiggle time this week, so I managed to fit pretty much everything in, though nailing the timing of the PSA's and adverts still needs to be perfected, especially more so now as placement of these carts is more closely monitored. Those things are going to fairly consistent going forward, just so you know.

On with the playlist.

Time to padlock the basement and rock the garage.

Episodes like this one form organically as I sort through my increasing cachet of planned songs and notice little trends. I can't say whether as of late, I'm intentionally working on creating more focused shows for certain genres or styles, but the past month's worth of programming definitely mark their territory. This one specifically goes for that ramshackle guitar sound, either from a garage, punk, psychedelic, rockabilly or otherwise loud standpoint.

And I kidded you not when I said that I had just arrived back in Vancouver from New York: I landed just before 3pm and needed to go home, unpack and come up with the show, which had been a loose amorphous state during my travels, but I had to buckle down and streamline things. Upon reaching the studio with only a few minutes to spare, I combed through a few replacement songs, which proudly meant including local act (with station connections) the Tranzmitors, though I had to bump the freaky Peruvian song I had lined up.

Admittedly, I used a few too many cues for the Brian Tyler profile, since I had to talk over one of the Red Elvises tracks and forced the Czerwone Gitary to get a quick fade out before cutting over to Gavin — I'll keep that song on reserve for future usage, mind you. Bubba Ho-Tep is such a quirky film stylistically and the soundtrack works itself well with the horror clichés along with satirizing them, much like a mummy that is only quick enough to attack the elderly. Six String Samurai relies heavily on the score to compensate for the low budget placed otherwise on the visuals, though there's enough chutzpah everywhere to give that movie an energy you can power a large city for days.

The set on the Shangri-Las seemed natural to throw into the proceedings, especially since Mary Weiss still manages to convey that same sassy vibe after all these years. I wanted to preserve that as the rest of the short songs kept fluctuating, though I managed to luck out on Canadian content after discovering Diet Cola and The Von Zippers were representing the true north strong and freak.

Now, before I collapse from exhaustion triggered by jet lag and cold medicine, let's give you some playlist love: