Well it has been a number of months since my last post and therefore a number of months since the podcast began. I've managed to cover a broad range of producers and artists and breathed a new life into the show. Its a little more inspiring to think that what your putting out there is actually being heard by several hundred people spread out all across the US, throughout Europe, Palestine, South Africa, China and Japan, NZ and the aussies, Brazil, and on up through south America and the Caribbean.

Thanks to evetone that's been listening and especially those that responded somehow.

so it goes

Well, like I've said before, I've missed a few shows lately and haven't been all that motivated. So, I get this podcasting thing rolling and finally I have a good reason to put together some serious shows again. Still with a lot of things on my plate (why I've been missing my shows recently) I tried to figure out a good topic to cover.

First thing came to mind was Lee Perry & the Upsetters, but that's a HUGE undertaking. In any case I'd be more likely to do a series, which would take a lot of preparation work. The reason LSP came to mind is that I haven't really done a focus show on his stuff in about 5 years. As I've collected more and more things over the years, I've thought of doing another focus show, but there's just been too much damn music to approach it.

So, realizing that was beyond my reach with my setup in disarray and needing to spend time working on the house, I looked for a more focused topic. Browsing around, I came accross Max Romeo. On the cusp of Perry & co., but specific enough to cut a chunk off. Some old rocksteady stuff as well, a few riddim connections with other artists, and of course plenty of prime Lee Perry productions.

While working around the house, another thought came to mind... what about I Roy? God knows he rode some sick riddims, things like Pablo In Cowtown, Movie Star with Errol Dunkley (which I don't think I've ever really stretched out on air) and quite a few others... But, again, that seemed a bit much to get together in the two busy days before the show.

So Max Romeo it is. I spent some time working through the list, collecting some things he did with the Emotions. Tracking down some of the other things he did with Niney, Bunny Lee, etc. Trimming out some of the multiple versions of tunes he cut at the Black Ark.

A few hours in, I checked my work email to find an announcement about the Pledge Drive going on this week. Damn. Always a pain. I'm not going to waste a good selection of tunes on a show where I can't build up the mix over the course of the 2 hours, so fortunately I can drop it now and spend time on other things. (I'm retiling the basement this weekend, then I'll have my shish back in order, finally.)

Thinking ahead, there's plenty of folks I've never really focused on, and plenty of folks I could do again in a better or different fashion. Never done Slim Smith. (lots of riddim runs there) Duke Reid / Treasure Isle. Man, let me think about what shows I HAVE done thus far...

Producer focus shows:

Yabby U
Glen Brown
Niney
Perry
Joe Gibbs
Coxsone Dodd / Studio One
Bertram Brown
Harry Mudie
Phil Pratt
Tappa Zukie
Alvin Ranglin
Keith Hudson
Bunny Lee
Clancy Eccles
Roy Francis / Phase One
Derrick Harriot
Winston Riley

Artist focus shows:

Johnny Clarke
Horace Andy
Leroy Smart
Barry Brown
Linval Thompson
Jacob Miller / Tommy Cowan
Justin Hinds /Jack Ruby
Burning Spear
Wailers, Wailers, Wailers
Prince Far I
Big Youth
Ken Boothe
Alton Ellis
John Holt
Delroy Wilson
Dennis Brown
Culture
Augustus Pablo
Peter Tosh
Abyssinians (Manning brothers)
African Brothers (Sugar Minott & Tony Tuff)
Gregory Isaacs
Mikey Dread
Junior Delgado
Barrington Levy
Revolutionaries
Scientist
Freddie McKay
Gladiators
Cornell Campbell
Heptones

Suggestions on possibilities I've missed?

mr music man

Well, just a bit to say today about the radio show... So, I've been doing this bi-weekly radio show at WHPK for the last, what, 7 years? Its been a nice opportunity to play a lot of my favorite tunes, get to know my music collection and put it out there for the people.

WHPK is a rather humble affair. The broadcast range is minimal and the management of the station is flaky so there's not much progress in getting things upgraded or even repaired for that matter. They've been talking about broadcasting online for years and the (student) management just doesn't have the where-with-all to get their act together and make it happen. Despite these limitations, its generally been an enjoyable experience.

I've often felt let down when playing out in Chicago. At times I've put together events with the DJ doing the show after me, Mic Bill, in various locations around the city. We had a regular gig at "Some Like It Black" coffee shop, Orly's restaurant, and spun in places like Sinibar, The Note, King Solomon's Minds, and other Chicago spots. The problem from my perspective is that people just don't want to hear some obscure roots music out in the dance. They want to hear latest-greatest tunes or hip hop. This is what makes me enjoy the radio so much. I can get in there, do what I want to do, focus on what I want to, how I want to and let it ride.

Problem is, there just aren't that many people listening to WHPK at any one given time. There just can't be. Its a small station, and my show is on a Friday afternoon, so we definately have our regulars, but even a lot of people out around Chicago don't know of what we're doing on Friday afternoons. All of this has kind of made me lose inspiration for doing the show. I've always said that the main reason I do the show is for the recording.

Well, now I finally have a method to get these shows out to a broader audience. I recently put up a sort of hidden page on my website where I posted about 20 shows as MP3s. I posted messages on several message boards pointing people to the page and got about 500 hits in about a week. Soon after that, I discovered podomatic, and put up several shows there. So far I've gotten some nice response and I look forward to putting up many other shows there over the course of the next few months.

In any case, its all like a breath of fresh air for me musically. I finally feel like I have a real outlet to convey music to people. Most of my shows this year have been disorganized "throw away" shows, basically to pass the time on air, and now I feel the drive to put in the heavy focus that it takes to prepare a well planned focus show.

Now comes the question of what/who to focus on. I've done quite a few focus shows in the past and I really prefer that format. Frankly with the number of songs I have in my collection, picking random tunes is a mind boggling experience. If you have any suggestions, or focus shows you'd like to hear, let me know.

the way it is

Over the last few days, I've made some big additions to my online presence. Its kind of strange, cuz in real life I don't really feel very social these days. I mostly want to get settled into my new house with my wife, prepare for the winter and the little lady that will be joining us soon. Right now if I could be doing anything, I'd be cleaning up the vacant lot accross the street from my house, preferrably with my Dad there alongside me, swaeting and enjoying getting my hands dirty.

I've been a bit burnt out with doing my radio show lately, basically due to all the other stuff going on in my life. Wifey and I bought a house and have been trying to get it settled. She's preggers, so I've been trying to do most of the big details so she can relax when she gets off work. Work... ugh. Let me not even get in to that subject. Some day when I have a new job...

So, its been nice to get some podcasts set up at podomatic.com I've selected a few show that I've already had converted to throw up online last night and today. I have my better selection at the moment hidden on a page on my site, which some of you already know about. Its been interesting, I got close to 400 hits on the page in 2 days. We'll see how long my bandwidth lasts.

In any case, that's a snap shot of the moment.

algoriddim enters the realm of podcasting

Well, I've finally joined the world of podcasting. I came accross a friend's page that seemed straight forward, and allowed for a decent amount of material. Check out the first few posts:

http://algoriddim.podomatic.com/

enjoy!

Music cataloguer

http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/db/viewtopic.php?t=14796

Im looking for some software where I can easy catalogue my cds and lps. Preferably the software is connected to some kind of online database so I dont have to enter all the records information by hand (keyboard).

Any tips?

----------------------

I've ended up using iTunes as a cataloging tool. Many problems with this though because everything has to be a sound file on your hard drive. But, being able to query for a song or detail is nice and allows you to listen and catagorize at the same time.

The biggest shortcoming is that you can only track so much data, and you can't really track album level info. I've found that I've had to assign id numbers to both albums and artists (stored in year and bpm fields) so that I can link the data exportable from iTunes with external database. I keep album related info in a spreadsheet, and can query the two with Acess, sql, etc.

I heard Roots Natty Roots had a collection tracking function, but I've yet to get a copy.

after thoughts on the dance

http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/db/viewtopic.php?t=14697

I'm just getting home from spinning at a session here in Chicago...

Sometimes when I get home and unpack my things, I wonder whether it was worth it to gather up the energy and go out and play tunes for people. I enjoy conveying music to people, but I feel like people here in Chicago aren't very receptive to roots/foundation/revive- whatever you want to call it. I get so sick of ignorant MFs coming up to me critisizing me cuz I'm not playing Sean Paul, Sizzla or whoever else it is that they happen to know. Hip Hop is the ruling force around here and the Hip Hop of today's got a lot of people trying to act dumb deaf and blind. Time after time I've left a session with a bitter taste in my mouth, wondering why I bothered to leave the house. Not that all the feedback is negative, but I just feel like I'm speaking a foreign language.

I enjoy doing my radio show, primarily because I can try to put something together to the best of my ability and if others don't like it, they dont have to tune in and I don't have to hear about it. I can mix things the way I want, let the dub roll on a bit if I'm feeling it or not speak for 30 minutes at a time and just let the riddims run.

I don't really do what I do for other people's feedback, but when I put a lot of energy into things which I feel are fairly decent and all I hear is the echo of my own voice, it makes me wonder if I should find another outlet.

I don't know, just feeling a little burned out by it all, wondering how much I'd regret it if I wasn't doing my radio show, and if not, what other way is there to convey this music to other people?

worst case scenario

http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/db/viewtopic.php?t=14129

Well folks, looks like the worst case scenario may have happened. I got a new external harddrive the other day and I was trying to get things settled out and located in their new homes on the different drives I have. That meant moving some large avi video files from my trip to Zimbabwe onto an external harddrive, moving my non-reggae MP3s to the new drive, and getting everything reconnected on the proper machines...

In the midst of this, the 300GB Maxtor drive that I keep all my reggae MP3s on, (every single one of them made from CD albums in my collection) is no longer recognized by my computer. It says the drive has 279 GB of "unallocated space" that can be formatted to become usable... That means it can't "see" those thousands of sings that ARE on there. DAMN!! I still have all the data, since I export it for use on my website, but since MP3s store their data in the sound file, I'll have to redo all those MP3s and reassign all those titles and other details! Ouch.

into 06

Well, it has been a bit of time since I've weighed in here. I've been spending a bit of time lately working on my web site algoriddim.com It has been fun to get back into some programming work and do a little of that deep thinking and planning that is required.

riddims

-- a post on one of my favorite hang-outs...

I don't know how many of you on here are fanatics about tracking riddims, but I find it compelling to say the least. I really wish there was a good place that had that info available. reggae-riddims.com is OK, and often points out things I didn't know, but there's so many gaps. I was working on Yabby U's stuff this weekend and there were only like two albums showing up there. I'd like to put my stuff up online somehow sometime soon, I just need to invest the time into getting the code together and get down to it.

This weekend I worked on a couple different artists/producers... Glen Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Dr Alimantado, Yabby U, Michael Prophet, Augustus Pablo, and a couple more. Been working on Pablo today and managed to track riddims for about 500 of the 600 songs I have credited to him.

Its a bit mind blowing when you start digging into this stuff. There's so many links I'm not even perceptive enough to get, I mean, you have to have a riddim in your head already to be able to hear it and recognize it. Sometime you get lucky, but most times it is reliant on you remembering the tune. That means there's always gonna be a learning process...

That's my thought for the day...