Modern Jackass, Modern, Half assed…

Dearest donkeys,

I have left yinz guys high and dry for too long! It is with great joy that I announce a special (themeless) show this weekend. That’s right, this Saturday, June 30, at 12pm-3pm PACIFIC, I will be nursing a head cold with the best remedy – chock full of random new hits.

A lot has happened since we last met. MCA died. I started Season 4 of the Wire. And foie gras is, well, I guess still technically legal in CA for another 12 hours or so as of the start of this next show. SO! What say ye, carve yourself a slice, a tranche if you will (oh how I will!), of delicious soon-to-be-outlawed duck torture and sit by your favorite radio station (kzsulive.stanford.edu) all Saturday afternoon to the mellifluous sounds of yours truly on anti-depressants. Wait… no really, that was an honest mistake. I meant to type “anti-inflammatories”, which is still not true (??… I have a cold!), but my honest first instinct was to type “anti-depressants”. Wow… just……… wow.

Enough jibber jabber! I apologize for making Modern Donkey/Jackass so half-assed this quarter, as unfortunately, I’ve become “part of the problem”, or “the man”, or “actually able to make rent again”. So please, while I’m 9-to-5ing my life away, I hope you’ve been bulking up on musical things to school me with. I only divulge the request line on air, so tune in kiddos for a chance to hear your favorites (/me dropping the ticket giveaway binder…again). If nothing else, rest assured that laughter causes me to go into endless coughing fits. Please save your best material for when a song’s about to end and I’m getting on the mic.

Oh how I’ve missed you all!

-wormzy

Episode 12 on closers is now up!

Better late than never, right? Well, in this case, maybe not. But I’m posting anyway!

Last week, we aired our final episode of the quarter. Thanks so much for an awesome season which was made truly exceptional by all your comments and support. And hate mail. What better a way to say goodbye for now than to explore the role of album closers?! (That’s not really as quizzical a statement as my punctuation would suggest – I actually couldn’t decide if it was a statement or a question.) No better way. Playlist and entire show are posted below?! No really, they are.

In the meantime, while mentally conditioning yourself for future seasons, be sure to check back at the blog for inane musings on just about anything your average modern donkey would venture to, um, muse. Like bands. Like the band Muse. Well, maybe not the band Muse (why not?!) but loads of other insane ramblings and forays into punctuation and usage. Musage. Definitely musage.

Follow us on Twitter to get succinct, less inflammatory updates instead! But I’m warning you – I use all 140 characters.

Click play below to hear “Closers – 04/04/12” plus an extra hour at the end of random new tracks!

Download it. (right-click, select “Save Link As”)

Playlist for “Closers”.

Playlist for “Hidden Track – An Hour of New Tunes”.

Parting is such sweet sorrow! Preview for Episode #12

Ah, can you believe it? We’ve reached the last episode of the season! Between my temporary funemployment turning quickly into a “where’s the rent?” monthly happy dance, and my need to settle into my brand new SF digs immediately (the cat has been happily recoiling in horror under the blankets since we moved in two days ago), my radio time will be drastically reduced in the upcoming quarter at least. Fret not, similar to my cat’s penchant for asphyxiation, donkeys have, like, at least 9 or 90 lives or something. So I’ll be back in action before you know it (and before sooomeone comes out from under his pillow fort!)

And so, in honor of the last show of the quarter, I bring you – LAST SONGS. Songs that end an album. Often times, classical composers save explosive pieces for both first movements and last movements – beginning and ending with a bang. This is certainly seen in modern music as well. Other times, albums are written like books/films, where the penultimate song serves a bit as a climax, and the last song is a resolution. And sometimes, the last song leaves us absolutely confused, unfulfilled, and even upset. Being the last sounds we hear before the anticipation for the next album (which could take years), these songs actually have a really important role.

And so what better way to pay homage than to misinterpret the shit out of them?? Join me tomorrow for the final hurrah of the season! Thanks a billion, and all comments, thoughts, and cloying death threats welcome, as always.

Episode #11, special family tribute, is now up!

Hey donkeys!

Thanks for an awesome show this week! Your stories about how your family’s taste influenced you made the show so special, as always. We heard quite the range of songs and anecdotes, including some wise words from frequent contributor Nik Furious, as well as some thoughts from my parents who were kind enough to come on the show during their visit from NYC! We heard an example of the wedding folk music from my mom’s home town (we’re not gypsies, I sweaaar!), and learned that my father’s idea of teenage rebellion against his anglo-loving family was to join a folk dancing troupe (NOT GYPSIES, I SWEAAAR!) where he met my mom.

And further learned that all of this family history may have been changed had Eartha Kitt successfully wooed my grandpa. A video of her trying her wiles on other unsuspecting dashing grandpas.

For the full stories, click play below to hear “It’s Cool to Love Your Family – 03/28/12”

Download it. (right-click, select “Save Link As”)

Playlist for “It’s Cool to Love Your Family”.

Preview for Episode #11, It is Cool to Love Your Family

So… before Feist was Feist, she released an album called “Monarch”, recorded in her dad’s basement, or something. Long story short, yours truly Dr. Wormwood acquired an original copy of this album one night some 6-7 years ago, when in a hilarious turn of events, my dear friend Aroon was mistaken for a close friend of Leslie Feist herself. (She was kind enough to sign some stuff and not blow our cover, probably because any one of us could have consumed her in one bite.)

Needless to say, after a night of feeling like a rock star (groupie), I went home (to my mom who was still awake) and popped the CD in (to my dad’s stereo). The first track was appropriately titled, “It’s Cool to Love Your Family”. Yeah, I had dreams of saving enough money to move out (because a full-time job in NYC is equivalent to subway fare, rat fare, and the occasional hot pastrami on rat). But right then and there, as I overlooked the um, majestic Queens skyline – where the Federers and Nadals made faces at the Mets, and where a wee Wormwood was born some twenty-ish years before – I was listening to Feist’s words.

And so I bring you a very special Modern Donkey this week – IT’S COOL (IT’S COOL) TO LOVE YOUR FAMILY. Did your parents make you listen to music you hated as a kid? Did it turn out that some of that music was actually great? Are you embarrassed now to have ever made fun of Freddie Mercury (or your dad trying to sound like Freddie Mercury? or most of your relatives trying to look like Freddie Mercury? or that they weren’t trying at all and really Freddie Mercury may have been a Turkish Genghis Khan procreative equivalent given how everyone and their goat looks like him over there?) Or maybe it wasn’t your parents, but a sibling, someone who played you a song or two that really shaped how you listen to music today. Who were they? What were the songs? Are there songs that always make you think of a specific family member?

Anecdote away, mein lieblings! Would love to hear any stories and thoughts. And fret not, just like my (2)7th birthday party, my parents may or may not show up on Wednesday. So tune in for a very special donkey, and thanks as always!

Episode #10 on “Variation on a Theme, Part 2”, is now up!

Huzzah donkeys!

We had a great 10th episode (double digits!) in our second and final installment exploring THEME/MELODY VARIATION.  Lots of great tunes, including plenty of solid indie rock, loads of chill electronica, and um, metric tons of absolutely miserable singer-songwriter tracks. In short, a pretty typical MD set.

Missed the show? I KILL YOU. Listen below as part of your penitence. Thanks a metric ton, as always!

Click play below to hear “Variation on a Theme, Part 2 – 03/21/12”

Download it. (right-click, select “Save Link As”)

Playlist for “Variation on a Theme Part 2”.

Reminder! Episode #10 on Variation on a Theme Part 2 airs Wednesday!

That’s basically it. I’ve heard “brevity is the highest form of flattery and/or patriotism”, or something, so here’s to that!

This week we’ll continue sampling songs that exemplify melody variation quite nicely, and some that do so quite poorly. Thanks for the excellent suggestions last week, and feel free to leave any more that may come to mind.

See you Wednesday! For a recap on the theme, check out last week’s preview post, and feel free to listen to the show as well. I sincerely hope all of this expounding on theme variation and repetition won’t make you guys notice just how often I recycle my jokes. Thanks for tuning in!

Episode #9 on “Variation on a Theme, Part 1”, is now up!

Hi everybody! (Hi Dr. Nick/Wormwood!)

We had a great show this week (complete with a special guest!) which was part 1 of a two-part series on VARIATION ON A THEME. We began our exploration of songs that base their sound around taking a melody and repeating it, building on it, varying it, sometimes creating a massive soundscape from one simple motif. This is commonly found in classical pieces, but also in modern rock, classic rock, electronica – many different genres through many different times. Next week we’ll showcase some more examples, old and new, so please tune in again!

For those of you who couldn’t catch the show, which may or may not be everyone, as apparently there were some iTunes stream issues at the station, the episode is posted below as usual.

Also, to add insult to technical difficulty injuries, we had a bit of a mic problem during my chat with special guest Cheyenne in the first half-hour of the show, so some of my commentary may require you to pump up the volume a bit. Be sure to pump it back down for the remainder of the show, although yes, I am most charming when I sound like I’m going apeshit. Just ask my boyfriend/mother/cat/therapist/cat-therapist.

Click play below to hear “Variation on a Theme, Part 1 – 03/14/12”

Download it. (right-click, select “Save Link As”)

Playlist for “Variation on a Theme Part 1”.

Bonus round!

The hippest thing imaginable – a really nicely edited video of Brooklyn Organ Synth Orchestra performing a cover of the very Oldfield movement we showcased on the show! Brooklyn! Synth! Girls in thrift store/American Apparel-esque unflattering outfits! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?! (ok, it actually is pretty cool…)

An excerpt of one orchestral version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. I think the first violin has chunky glasses? Kind of hip? No? No?? No.

A really great multi-player/single-guitar cover of my favorite-new-release-to-mispronounce Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”.

Preview for episode #9!

Greetings listeners!

This week will be great. In fact, it’s maybe my favorite theme of all. The theme even has the word “theme” in it, like some kind of hideously edited self-referential loop. Which is something I’m often called by those I’m arguing with, so this really couldn’t be more perfect.

And so I give you, part one of a two-part series where we explore VARIATION ON A THEME. Historically, classical musicians have often used simply melodies, or motifs, that they then build on over and over in within a piece as it grows. Then there was Wagner, whose operas are considered to contain some of the best uses of leitmotifs, or repeated melodies specific to certain events/people/objects which return whenever those things appear in a scene. But what about those of us who don’t enjoy the opera, and instead enjoy, say, Battlestar Galactica reruns over burritos? No problem, because variation on a theme is everywhere, including the Cylon army! (this is my new marketing technique – throw in nerdy spoilers that appeal to approximately 2 people you know, and alienate the remaining, um, 7 people you know)

And sure, there are plenty of pop songs that repeat a chorus, a verse, an alarmingly sensual soaring sax solo. Sure. But this week, we’re most interested in those songs that really take a melody and just keep building on it. Maybe more instruments are added, maybe the melody gets warped a bit, maybe another melody gets thrown in only to come back to the original one now more explosive than ever. Maybe a bridge is thrown in, and also a chorus, and also a ver–DAMMIT no! This is different than the general pop song, I swear. Here’s a sad little number that’s a nice example of modern theme variation/building. Bonus points to anyone who suggests a track that doesn’t leave us suicidal.

Comments/ideas/soaring sax solos welcome, as always. See you Wednesday, and thanks for tuning in!

Episode #8 on “Song Twos” is now up!

Hello donkeys!

Excellent show this week, thanks for tuning in as always! To recap, we explored SONG TWOS, or the second track of the album. We heard a lot of excellent tracks including some classical tunes, which helped us explain why these tracks are almost always standouts – once we get passed the introductory overture, artists reassure us that the rest of the album is worth listening to by throwing us a killer second track.

Or something. Here’s where my nightmare comes true in that I’ve had my iTunes (aka Winamp) on “shuffle” for the past 10 years, and none of my album-order thoughts, of which I have many, make any sense. But what is Modern Donkey if not a platform for unnecessary exposition on things that no one intended to be, um, exposed?

What I’m trying to say is… I never said I was right.

(I probably said I was right.)

Click play below to hear “Song Twos – 03/07/12”

Download it. (right-click, select “Save Link As”)

Playlist for “Song Twos”.

Bonus!

Bjork – Joga (live), a particularly moody, aberration-from-the-rest-of-the-album’s-feel track 2 (and the video quality is just not crappy enough to identify the first violin as John Oliver!)