Tales From the Drop Box Episode #99! We are approaching 100 episodes of this podcast in just two years and, looking back, I note that this podcast has covered a tremendous amount of musical ground. I am truly looking forward to Episode 100 because it feels like I have reached an important milestone in bringing to you the music I love – really love. Unlike morning radio where the DJ has no interest or clue about the music being played, I personally select every track. I personally do the research for every podcast. I am learning and then sharing. Clerks at record stores used to provide this function i.e. the sharing of secret information about cool music. The late 1970’s and early 1980’s was magic time because record stores were everywhere. This was a time when you could go down to your local store just to hangout and whomever was working would just say – hey – have you heard the K-Tel’s record? How about the Modernettes or Pointed Sticks? Let me play them….. . I had several stores to choose from in Vancouver B.C. and I shopped in them all – Quintessance, Friends, Zulu, Kelly’s, Collectors R.P.M., A&B Sound, and my favorite – Track Records. I must give a special shout out here to Phil S who was the owner of Track Records. I spent literally thousands of hours in his store when I was in college. Thousands of hours. While Phil may not have enjoyed them all, he was the best example of someone who actually cared about the music, was willing to spend time talking about all kinds of music, and who introduced me to numerous bands that I still love today.
As for this podcast, this is my effort to recreate that experience. I would love to actually have a discussion, but in the absence of a personal connection, this is my naive effort to do precisely what Phil did for me a long time ago – introduce you to a variety of new music and some old tunes so you can share with the people you know and care about. If you go way back in this blog, I used to write reviews for my friends of records I was listening to so they could also check them out. As technology progressed, so did I. Writing reviews is time consuming, and this podcast is my shorthand effort to say to my friends, and to you – hey, have you heard….?
Doing anything 100 times and enjoying each moment of the process just feels good. As Episode 100 is going to be one of those special episode dedicated to one artist, and in this case, dedicated to my favorite band of all time, I figured these notes would be a good time to reflect on the previous episodes of this podcast and where we have traveled in the past two years. Politically, there has been an evolution of the podcast notes that really caught me off guard. I never thought that I would be so overtly political as normally, I have little interest in politics. It has always been music. Not because I am not willing to give an opinion, but rather I never thought that I would be compelled to publicly add my voice to those who protest the treatment of fellow Americans by a president that has no moral compass. I think I have documented the sea-change in the political discord and discourse.
As I look back on the sheer number of unique artists that are represented in these podcasts that are not played on commercial radio in the U.S. (FM or Satellite) and are from around the world, I am most proud of the diversity encompassed by the more than 1450 different artists I have played on these podcasts over the 100 Episodes. While I haven’t gone back and added them up by number of artists per country, a scan of the track lists reveals that the majority are from the U.S. but there are healthy slices from the UK, Australia and Canada. Not to be left out, I have also featured a number of bands from the rest of the EU and multiple artists from Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, and Finland. There have been a couple of artists from Japan, and one from China. Every episode of this podcast has featured a female fronted band or artist at the beginning and end of the show and a number of them sprinkled in the middle – except 1 (which was truly an accidental omission. I thought the vocalist was female, turns out I was wrong. Darn Yawpers!).
I hope the massive variety of bands, many of which release albums and tracks on vinyl and through Bandcamp, are not only interesting to the listener, but such interest also compels you to seek out and find these records and then support these artists. I believe these podcasts provide ample evidence that there is a tremendous amount of exceptional music produced by amazing artists that is not only available but is worthwhile to purchase.
Finally, as it is Thanksgiving this week, I am very thankful for my supportive and caring family, my staff (at my day job!) and the tremendous people in my life. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by so many kind, caring, and loving individuals, who give me much more than they receive and I am humbled by these relationships.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Here is what you’ll find in Episode #99:
- Nail Art – “ Barbara Goldin” (Nail Art)
- Gold Class – “Bully” (Drum)
- Gun – “She Knows” (Favorite Pleasures)
- Crooked Colours – “Flow” (Vera)
- Quiet Hollers – “Broken Guitars” (Amen Breaks)
- The Loranes – “Get Free” (2nd)
- Mando Diao – “Good Times” (Good Times)
- Gang of Youths – “The Heart Is A Muscle” (Go Farther In Lightness)
- Les Tigres – “Coral Blue” (Who Called?)
- Single Mothers – “High Speed” (Our Pleasure)
- Tracy Bryant – “Parachute” ( Parachute b/w Protect Your Head 7”)
- The Shyness of Strangers – “Didn’t Mind” (Time)
- Prawn – “Cricket In The Yard” (Run)
- Gang of Four – “Damaged Goods” (Damaged Goods b/w Armalite Rifle/ Love Like Anthrax 7”)
- Whitehorse – “Nighthawks” (Panther In The Doll House)
She’s like look at this pollution man it’s turning us to plastic we won’t even have to wait for AI isn’t that fantastic . . . I wrote a song on a broken guitar and I played it for them they told me it was out of touch but I thought I had my finger on the pulse of the nation’s youth, of a girl like you, of a few home truths I thought you already knew
KFR