Jim McGuinn Knows Which Way the Wind Blows

In compiling some e-clippings, I ran across this video of WXPN, Philadelphia's Jim McGuinn promoting their event, 885 Essential XPN songs.



Jim is host of XPN's YRock, XPN's nighttime programming that is a bit younger and cutting edge. Y100 was Philadelphia's alternative rock station up until a year or two ago when it went Reggaeton. It's a similar idea to when they started playing classic/adult rock about 15 years ago -- play songs that have been retired by other stations as they are still hits in that city.

I love seeing Bruce Warren in the background reprising Allen Ginsburg's role in the original video.

Enjoy a visit to xpn.org if you haven't already. These guys do a great job.

Sonic Youth Rules the Earth, Closes McCarren Pool

I happened to catch the incredible Sonic Youth at McCarren Pool's final show before the renovation last weekend. The band delivered on its reputation with a set that commenced with two previously unheard songs and drew on all periods of the band's career.



My period of Sonic Youth is 90s, and from the album "Goo," they performed one awesome song, Lee Ranaldo's "Mote." They seem more professional now, able to do really wild stuff with less effort. Sonic Youth shows no signs of age whatsoever, except for Thurston's self-deprecating remarks. Other highlights included "The Burning Spear," "Hey Joni" and "Silver Rocket" and songs from Rather Ripped, Washing Machine and Daydream Nation!

Thanks to Smells Like Records... for the tickets!

I also attended the recent Wilco show, so I began and ended McCarren with some real classic rock. Sorry I missed MGMT!

After the show, I met up with David Browne, who included me in his book "Goodbye 20th Century," the first comprehensive Sonic Youth biography since "Confusion is Sex" in the 90s. I did some promotion for the book with college radio and some blogs over the summer and I would like to thank and mention a few here.

My Old Kentucky Blog did a cool haiku contest

a fine example:

"Youth's noise creation
Helps her daydream her days in
A Daydream Nation."

Yuppie Punk (including picture of Nelson and Sonic Youth!)
Future Hall of Fame
College Radio stations reviewing it: CITR, WTJU, KRSC, KCRW, KMSU, WMPG, WHUS and WXPN

Non Comm 2008 Report

Last weekend, I attended the Philly Non-Commvention, a gathering of community radio music programmers and their accordant promotion people, and music artists. These are the radio people formerly known as "granola." WXPN, Philadelphia hosted the event and other attendees included folks from WFUV, New York; WJCU, Cleveland; KSUT, Ignacio; Maine Public Radio; WFHB, Bloomington; KTBG, Warrensburg; KUT, Austin; KDHX, St. Louis and many others I am spacing on. I was there promoting and gathering content for this blog of course.

Shows

The most astonishing show of this year's convention was The Hold Steady. Ingrid Michaelson was immediately impressive with her GIANT setlist and memorable hooks. Astrid Williamson, Dr. John, Jakob Dylan and Interscope's "interesting" Carney were among the other bands we checked out.

Below is a bit of vid I took Paddy Casey performing a morning showcase in the hotel. The nighttime music was at the fantastic World Cafe Live facility. Vibes to Bruce, Dan, Quyen, Roger and all at WXPN for putting on a great conference and 15 years of growth for the station in general.

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Swag

The swag at the conference was unfortunately, lacking. As many public and community radio stations get larger items to use during fund drives, the convention package still only includes cds (in a promo knapsack). Reprise/WB Records sponsored a t shirt.

In the convention bag, there were cds from: Dr. John; A Taste of Triple A Sampler #42; "Sweet" by Pacifika; WTMD, Towson's Live CD; a Rykodisc sampler that promised to make the next 25 years "as storied as our first"; Peter Buffett's "Imaginary Kingdom" -- isn't he a new ager? I would love that stuff to come back. Kitaro was the first artist I promoted.

Back to the bag: FMQB Progressions Sampler #113; "Within" by Alyssa; Live Volume 2 from KTBG, which amazingly features Snoopy on the cover! WXPN Local Vol. 2; the Ike Reilly album; a great sampler from SonyBMG Legacy/Commercial Music Group ("This sampler goes to track 11"); the latest from Rachael Sage, Chandelier. She will break through at some point... Rachael Sage seems to have an endless ability to promote herself, which is a great talent to have these days.

Finally, Scarecrow Collection's "Radio Frequency Disaster" had a sticker affixed saying "#1 on Sirius Ch. 17" and "Nominated for a Jammy." They went for adds June 9.

Jefferson Pepper's American Evolution had a nice package I haven't opened yet that amazingly, had a quote from Cashbox on it! I thought they were out of biz!

Also on the old school tip, Jacqui Naylor is being promoted by Harvey Leeds, now indie and Michael Plen had a sampler from his Shangri-La Music included in the package. Full Disclosure: I'm old school and was there promoting Amie Miriello alongside Danny Buch.

Has anyone seen the t shirt w/the picture of a stegosaurus on it? The caption reads, "All My Friends Are Dead."