Me and my rhythm box

So one of the (few and far between?) great things about San Diego is, interestingly enough, the radio stations. Perhaps it is the proximity to L.A., but the main radio stations down here are not complete and total crap! They have a propensity towards '90s grunge (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Bush etc.), which just takes me right back to high school. They don't cut off the freaking songs or talk over the intros, and the local music hour is not something that makes you want to run out and buy earplugs. The station i'm speaking of mainly is FM 94.9, KBZT.

Weekday nights from 10:00 at night to 2:00 in the morning, they have Big Sonic Chill (please come back, Midori, we miss your tiny voice), which is just what it sounds like to you, only probably better. A good 85-90% of the songs are totally enjoyable, plus you get to make fun of their self-advertising mini-spots: "Carnal... kinky.... salacious." –Hilarious! But they definitely play the goods: Boards of Canada, Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Air, Portishead, Cat Power, Maps, et al. Good for Nat, since those are the hours when he is usually trying to get all the studying done that he'd put off all day/week. Very chill indeed.

But the best part, the crowning glory, is Swami. If you are like us, and not going anywhere on a Saturday night (don't front, you know you stay at home too!), don't miss this rockin', swingin' program. Swami plays the oldies but goodies, the kind of songs that would actually be playing on the stereo of the Coolest Party Ever, and probably only on vinyl. Everyone would be smiling, and actually dancing, there would be tiki torches out back by the pool, where the men would be in porkpie hats and rolled-up jeans and the ladies would be in vintage swimsuits and have painted toenails. Someone would hand you a Tom Collins, and you would go and have a limbo in the rumpus room... He plays lots of '50s and '60s stuff, originals of songs you didn't even know were covers ("Love Buzz" is a prime example, even though i still think Nirvana's version is much sexier), surf guitar jams, old R & B, the occasional punk anthem, jump-n-jive, doo-wop, you name it. Seriously, try and stop your body from moving when you listen to Swami. Go on, try it!

::waits patiently::

Yeah, see–you can't. Let all the children boogie.


Also worth noting:
The other night, as we were fleeing along the bandwidth from some Feist song or another, we stumbled onto something great: the 11th Hour program on 105.3. Listening to Apoptygma Berzerk ("Nonstop Violence"!), Siouxsie, Bauhuas and Sisters of Mercy all in one fell swoop brought us right back to everything i loved (the eyeliner, the Amaretto sours, the music) and hated (the clubs, the clothing, the 'tudes) about the goth/industrial scene from back in the day. it was like i was twenty again. You could practically smell the clove cigarette smoke wafting from the speakers...

Now the only thing we have to do is figure out how to pull the plug on the Sunday morning Bob Marley-fest they got goin' on every week on 94.9... EVERY WEEK! Seriously, i have had to start training myself to set the alarm to "buzz" instead of "radio" on Saturday nights so that i don't have to wake up to "Buffalo Soldier" or some extended bootleg version of "I Shot the Sherriff". Ugggghhhh. No offense, but the only 2 Bob Marley songs i can handle are "Natty Dread" (for obvious reasons) and "Could You Be Loved". Beyond that, i think i've heard enough for the rest of my life, thank you. Sorry to all the Marley-o-philes out there. i know you love him; i know he's great. But if there's one thing i have had enough of in San Diego, it is Bob freakin' Marley. Oh! and Sublime, but don't even get me started on that one. ::shudder::

p.s.) This is all just personal opinion, obviously. Nothing i say has any merit, so feel free to write it all off as dreck, and carry on!