don't · leave · me · hanging · on · the · telephone

My boss decided to throw a small thing at the end of my last day with cake. It was a totally sweet gesture but well, you know... offices. This kind of event forces co-workers together for a totally awkward moment.

And really, what's the emotion you're supposed to conjure up for this sort of scenario? This part is missing in my Life Manual. Acting cheerful seems disturbing and hurtful, implying that you're really excited to be getting out of your situation (even if you are). Gratefulness seems like the better way to go, I suppose. I thanked my boss profusely for the cake and was glad she served up a non-alcoholic beverage as well.

What more am I supposed to give, when The Co-workers Who Hate My Guts(tm) huddle in their own corner, don't say a single word to me at my own going-away celebration, proceed exit as quickly as possible and then decide to talk behind my back about how I wasn't "cheerful"? I wasn't aware that I'm supposed to feign happiness at such a display of impolite behavior!

(And really, are they so stupid to think I wouldn't hear about it? If it's one thing I'm amazing at, it's knowing what people are saying behind my back. Always good to know the score, you know?)

I wish I could say I'm upset by the incident, but I'm not. After all, I'm off to greener pastures and they're going to be stuck in the same old patterns. That's one thing I can be genuinely cheerful about.

Pop Recon returns to WPRB this Friday 4/25 at 7:00 PM ET with two archive interviews featuring ANTIETAM and SCRAWL.

These interviews have been transferred from the original reel-to-reels, and mostly likely, unheard since their original broadcasts. We hope you'll tune in for these great, rare interviews and music from the artists.

Tune in! 103.3 FM on your radio dial, or visit WPRB on the Internet at http://www.wprb.com/

» Louisville, KY transplants ANTIETAM formed in 1984 -- on the day of the Kentucky Derby, as the story goes. The group released a string of records on Homestead and Triple X, then quietly hung up their hats to focus on other projects. Antietam has recently regrouped and their new album, "Opus Mixtum," is out now on Carrot Top.

This interview, taped in March 1990, catches the band right around the release of "Burgoo" (Triple X).

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=antietam

» Tough and noisy, Ohio rockers SCRAWL might have defined a lot of riot grrrl's characteristics without knowing it. The group raged their way through seven albums for Rough Trade, Simple Machines, and Elektra. Though they called it quits in 1998, the group's recording sound just as fresh as they did nearly twenty years ago.

The interview was taped in January 1990 at the Elm Club on the Princeton University campus, shortly before their show with Love Child. Needless to say, if I (Maria T, that is) could devise a time traveling machine I would certainly go back to see this one.

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=scrawl

ABOUT POP RECON
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pop-Recon/8493783673
Pop Recon is a monthly arts & culture series on WPRB. Pop Recon features new, on-the-scene interviews with musicians, writers, and more, and mixes them up with rare interviews unearthed from the station's vault. Like the title suggests, Pop Recon seeks to take an in-depth look at the world of popular music.

Pop Recon is produced and hosted by WPRB's Maria T (from the radio program Her Jazz), and is broadcast on WPRB the last Friday of the month at 7:00 p.m. ET. In addition to the broadcast, Pop Recon's archive will be available for download via podcast. Pop Recon is WPRB's first foray into the world of podcasting.

ABOUT WPRB
http://www.wprb.com/
Founded in 1940, WPRB is the oldest college FM radio station in the U.S.; it is a non-profit, independent organization operated by a staff of nearly 100 volunteer students and community members. WPRB can be heard on the airwaves throughout New Jersey and most of the Philadelphia metropolitan area by tuning into 103.3 FM or anywhere in the world via streaming audio at wprb.com or on iTunes radio.

WPRB is my favorite place in the universe -- it's turned me onto bands, taught me new things -- in short, changed my life. (I've been a devoted listener for 15 years; a DJ for 6.5! Wow!)

For the first time in it's 65+ year history, the station is changing it's business model to a member-supported station. From Sunday 10/7 to Sunday 10/14 -- which means, *right now* -- WPRB is hosting it's first-ever membership drive. You can find more details online here:

http://pledge.wprb.com/

On Tuesday 10/9, from 11 AM - 3PM EST, I'll be on the air helping WPRB out with the membership drive. I'm what they call "on-air talent" -- I'm not doing an actual radio show, but you'll be hearing from me throughout those hours to learn how you can make a pledge, and of course, let you know why supporting WPRB is so gosh darn important.

I've written a small thing on that particular subject over at my blog -- which I'm going to link now and spare you the longwinded message:

http://herjazz.org/maria/2007/10/03/1072

(A small FYI: the new station logo was designed by me.)

I sincerely hope you'll consider making a pledge, hopefully during my hours! I cannot begin to tell you how much your donation would mean to not just me, but the community of volunteers at WPRB who have kept this station alive, year in and out.

The AFI released its Top 100 American films; boldfaced are the ones I've seen. What have you seen?

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singin' in the Rain
6. Gone with the Wind
7. Lawrence of Arabia
8. Schindler's List
9. Vertigo
10. The Wizard of Oz
11. City Lights
12. The Searchers
13. Star Wars - intentionally have not seen it.
14. Psycho
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard
17. The Graduate
18. The General
19. On the Waterfront
20. It's a Wonderful Life
21. Chinatown
22. Some Like It Hot
23. The Grapes of Wrath - John Ford is a genius, why is this so low? Fuck you AFI.
24. E.T.
25. To Kill a Mockingbird
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
27. High Noon
28. All About Eve - Speak of the devil, just caught a snippet of it this afternoon...
29. Double Indemnity
30. Apocalypse Now
31. The Maltese Falcon
32. The Godfather Part II
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
35. Annie Hall
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai
37. The Best Years of Our Lives
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
39. Dr. Strangelove
40. The Sound of Music
41. King Kong
42. Bonnie and Clyde
43. Midnight Cowboy
44. The Philadelphia Story
45. Shane
46. It Happened One Night
47. A Streetcar Named Desire
48. Rear Window
49. Intolerance
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - how does this count as an American film?
51. West Side Story
52. Taxi Driver
53. The Deer Hunter - I still can't believe this won an Academy Award and not Apocalype Now!
54. M*A*S*H
55. North by Northwest
56. Jaws
57. Rocky
58. The Gold Rush
59. Nashville
60. Duck Soup
61. Sullivan's Travels - probably one of my favorite films ever?
62. American Graffiti
63. Cabaret
64. Network
65. The African Queen
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
68. Unforgiven
69. Tootsie
70. A Clockwork Orange
71. Saving Private Ryan
72. The Shawshank Redemption
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
74. The Silence of the Lambs
75. In the Heat of the Night
76. Forrest Gump
77. All the President's Men
78. Modern Times
79. The Wild Bunch
80. The Apartment
81. Spartacus
82. Sunrise
83. Titanic
84. Easy Rider
85. A Night at the Opera
86. Platoon
87. 12 Angry Men
88. Bringing Up Baby
89. The Sixth Sense
90. Swing Time
91. Sophie's Choice
92. Goodfellas
93. The French Connection
94. Pulp Fiction
95. The Last Picture Show
96. Do the Right Thing
97. Blade Runner - I can't wait for the theatrical release of the "official" version this fall!!!!!
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy
99. Toy Story
100.Ben-Hur

FRIDAY NIGHT IS ALL RIGHT...
...for an ALL AGES MARATHON, that is!



We're back with another show this week and we couldn't be more excited. We're holding our crazy all-ages shindig at SURREAL SOUND STUDIOS. It's a triple record release party for RED ROCKET, LEE, JAE-WON and VOODOO ECONOMICS featuring EX MODELS (Troubleman Records) and THE APES (DC, Birdman Records).

There are many things which make this show special, the first of which is the show time. This show is on the earlier side! Doors open at 6:30PM (first band at 7) and will be over by midnight! So if y'all roll up on late side you'll miss out on most of the show. Please, please, please, please take note of the following set times!

11:00 - 11:40 Ex Models
09:30 - 10:30 Lee, Jae-Won & Red Rocket (more on this in a sec!)
08:45 - 09:15 Voodoo Economics
08:00 - 08:30 Normal Love
07:00 - 07:30 Apes

As mentioned, this is a record release show! Lee Jae-Won and Red Rocket will be playing a "round robin" set in which the bands will switch off with each other after a couple of songs. If you attended the Starpower City/Danger!Danger! Comp Release Show earlier this summer, you saw a similar thing in effect. It was easily one of the best things we witnessed this summer live performance-wise, so don't miss out on catching this unique situation again!

DIRECTIONS TO SURREAL SOUND STUDIOS

OK, so now we've got you all hot and bothered to attend this show, but now you're wondering, "How do I get to this amazing event?" It might be in Port Richmond but getting there has never been so easy. First things first, get thee situated:



If you want full-on Google directions, click the map. For those of you who want to brave SEPTA, your best bet is to take the 5 bus northbound to Frankford & Castor Aves. There's a 6:00PM bus leaving from Front & Market that will get you to Surreal Sound Studios just in time. The 12AM southbound 5 will put you back downtown with enough time to keep partying! Yeah, we can't believe how freaking convenient SEPTA is... this time around.

FRI 9/29
At Surreal Sound Studios (2046 E. Castor Ave, 2nd Floor)
6:30PM, 10$, ALL AGES!

Come celebrate the release of not one, but THREE albums by local bands Lee Jae-Won, Red Rocket and Voodoo Economics on the Starpower City label!!!



11:00 PM EX MODELS (NYC, Troubleman Records)
After going underground for a spell, Ex Models reemerge with Oneida's Kid Millions on drums and a batch of severe--think early Neubauten, early DNA, early Cop Shoot Cop, early presence of life on earth -- that sort of desperation... Forget what you know about this band--it's taken a sharp left into the severe. (Mike Wolf, Time Out New York)

9:30 PM LEE, JAE-WON (Record Release!)
Philadelphia's youngest and freshest band is an assortment of raw fish, Rx, pickled cabbage, suburbs, and high school. These four hyper, A.D.D. boys have swiftly made a name for themselves as the unpronouncable, crazy band out of nowhere who play instrumental music in an exciting and extraordinary way. Those in doubt of non-vocal music have been/will be intrigued by Lee, Jae-Won's attack on the notion that ''instrumental" means ''repetitive". Their ensemble breathes like a frantic heckler trying to buy better rice at a lesser price. To fans of indie rock, they are the thing they've been waiting for, something experimental yet coherent. Lee, Jae-Won is continuously proving to be one of the tightest bands in Philly. The mixture of fighting noise and frantic tonality has stimulated those who find math rock to be heady or those who find jam bands monochromatic.

9:30 PM RED ROCKET (Record Release!)
Red Rocket's live show is a force to be reckoned with. Jumping effortlessly from churning guitar-driven rock to jangly post-punk pop exuberance, their respectable do-it-yourself ethos and unique blend of instrumental noise with melodic danceability is truly remarkable. They're "nice guys," who, while obviously passionate about their music, are easy to identify and connect with. There is no rock star posturing, or worse, snotty indie rock star anti-posturing, here. Red Rocket are real folks playing songs with real energy and real emotion. Expect big things from these gentlemen in the prefuture. (Z Radio)

8:45 PM VOODOO ECONOMICS (Record Release!)
They sounded like my record collection just up and exploded, and shot out all kinds of Rock shrapnel! The basslines were wicked -- one second there were straight funk grooves, the next it was all deep and distorted, sorta like a punch in the gut. Alison Conard -- that's the singer -- spewed out Karen O.-style singin'. She played keyboard and guitar and she was all over, too -- from static-y post-punk to jazz fusion with ease. Dance, electro, funk 'n groove, prog, even -- I shit you not -- Mahavishnu Orchestra! Seriously, it was a total mash of rock and attitude. (Andrew McGowan, PopMatters)

8:00 PM NORMAL LOVE
With the five young members of Normal Love in Converge T-shirts and fauxhawks, seated in front of their music stands, flipping pages of their compositions, hammering away at their convoluted time signatures, the performance looked like a cross between school orchestra and garage band. There were definitely riffs, but the blast beats and distorted solos were nowhere to be heard. The result was less death metal than good ol math rock, like Don Caballero at its most anal-retentive mixed with the scrabbling modal chaos of Coptic Light, especially when the violinist decided to start playing like his violin was one of those guitars thats, like, a double guitar. Satan and Schoenberg probably wouldnt have been pleased, but fans of algebraically complex rock would have found much to love in Normal Loves heaving three-note contraptions and whiplash rhythms. This was metal for slide rules and graphing calculators. (Jess Harvell, Baltimore City Paper)

7:00 PM THE APES (DC, Birdman Records)
When you think of Washington, D.C., rock music, the sounds of such hardcore pioneers as Minor Threat and the Bad Brains usually immediately come to mind -- certainly not noisy, organ-laced indie rock. But that's exactly the style of music that local favorites the Apes specialize in, as evidenced by their third full-length (and first for the Birdman label), Baba's Mountain. Sounding a bit at times like the Brian Jonestown Massacre if they were fixated on Black Sabbath rather than the Velvet Underground, the quartet has no problem creating a sonic ruckus, despite the absence of six strings. Additionally, the Apes have a soft spot for garage rock. But instead of focusing on succinct, three-chord songs with pop choruses like most garage rockers do, the Apes embrace artsy, experimental song structures, as most of the tracks stretch toward five minutes in length. Your speakers are sure to get a workout if you crank such standouts as "The Night Time Reaper" and "Imp Ahh" to the max, and while Paul Weil handles the majority of the singing, organist Amanda Kleinman's lead vocals on "Ornaments and Windchimes" provide a momentary break from all the dense rock. (Greg Prato, All Music Guide)

SAT 4/8
At Tritone (1508 South Street)
http://www.tritonebar.com/
http://www.plainparade.org/
9PM, $7, 21+

LYNNEE BREEDLOVES ONE FREAK SHOW (ex-Tribe 8)
http://www.lynnbreedlove.com
After 15 years as lead yeller of legendary punk dyke band Tribe8,
pioneer of the queer revolution, Lynn Breedlove rocks on. Over the last
fifteen years, fronting the band, writing the highly acclaimed, Lambda
Literary Award nominated urban punk novel, "Godspeed", performing with
the all woman spoken word troupe Sister Spit, and hosting San
Francisco’s queer cabarets, Breedlove has developed an onstage persona
that’s become the audience pick through all of these forms. Regardless
of what medium he chooses, it’s this easy, intimate, improvisational
fluidity that reaches everyone, turns the specific universal, and makes
learning high-minded political concepts fun at last. Lynnee Breedlove’s
ONE FREAK SHOW: Less Rock, More Hilarity is queer, homohop, punkrock
standup comedy on transgender bodies, feminism, family, and "community."

KELLY BEARDSLEY (SF)
Kelly Beardsley moved to San Francisco in 1992 at the age of 19. She has
worked as a bike messenger, locksmith, towtruck, flatbed, school bus,
tour bus and everything in between driver. She has been telling
charming, sidesplitting working class stories at different venues around
San Francisco for the past four years. She is a regular storyteller at
Porchlight here in SF. Her stories have been heard on NPR's "This
American Life," The California Report, KFPA, and Spark TV. She also
participated in StoryCorps with an interview by her mother. She is a
guest DJ on Pirate Cat Radio's Unka Lynnee's Show. She is in the middle
of writing her stories down so that in the next year, a funny book of
stories will be out.

KELLI DUNHAM
http://www.kellidunham.com/
Kelli is everyone's favorite skateboard-riding, houseboat-dwelling,
utilikilt-wearing, stealth gender non-variant, too-many-book-reading
ex-nun stand-up comic. She was profiled in the May 2005 issue of Curve
Magazine which declared "Kelli cracks us up" and was featured in an
episode of this season's Penn and Teller Bullshit on the Showtime
Network. She is one of the co-founders of the Famous Lesbian Comedy Road
Show and Gayety, Philly's own queer experimental comedy performing series.

Kelli is also (are you getting all this) the author of two books, How to
Survive and Maybe Even Love Nursing School (FA Davis, 2001) and How to
Survive and Maybe Even Love Your Life as a Nurse (FA Davis, 2005) and a
contributor to numerous anthologies including Love's Funny That Way
(Sterling Press, 2006), Squeaky Clean Comedy (Andrew McNeil Press,
2005), She’s So Funny (Andrew McNeil Press, 2004), Dangerous Families
(Haworth Press, 2004), and Life’s a Stitch (Random House, 2002). Kelli
is currently preparing for the recording of her upcoming CD, "Something
About (the Virgin) Mary" and pens a humor column for Passional Magazine
as well as the website Phillygaycalendar.com.

LOTSIX (of Shooting Ropes, Brothers Suggarillo, Broken Hipsters)
http://www.lotsix.info/
LotSix is a Philadelphia based musician and performance artist who
refers to her art as "multimedia self-karaoke rock": live singing to
original prerecorded music with projected digital visuals and lyrics.
LotSix treats audiences with smart, funny, rock-opera'esque songs
accompanied by Internet surf style images designed to convey the many
dimensions of angsty wry humor lacing her songs.