Untitled (#96)

Source here. Originally recorded on February 20th, 1998.

I kind of like the unlabeled ones. There's a complete lack of setup, and so it makes for a kind of choose your own adventure listening. It's also clearly a choose your own adventure creation, as the lack of an overarching theme allows for anything to be explored.

1. Buzzing of various kinds
2. Gentle guitar, ungentle background
3. Violins and Turntablism
4. "You're Lumpiest"
5. Grinding voices
6. Orbital mechanics
7. "So Upset"
8. Sonic Chisel
9. At some point, we dropped a beat
10. Television, Movies, Comics
11. Ambient Chill Out Kinko's
12. Scraping out the crates
13. Surf guitar AI

Added by Ian F-R: This show includes a record, "Sleepy Eyes" by Simeon, near the beginning (the "gentle guitar" as well as crunchy guitar soon after). I knew Simeon from my job at the time screen-printing t-shirts.

It also sounds like we did that thing I like a lot, where I transfer an older show to a tape reel and then we send it through FX. I enjoy the swooping crunches near the center of the show's timeline.

XmasShowXDU (#87)

Source here. Original Airdate December 18, 1997.

We did a number of Christmas shows in 1997, mostly because we got lots more time to fiddle around during the holiday break due to many people being simply gone. This seems like a practice run for the longer show a week later.

That said, the source material spans a good century of popular Christmas cheer (although a mid-century version of "Let It Snow" shows up time and again). Shows like this require an astonishing catalog of sonic stuff. Nowadays, something like this would be easier to assemble; what with keeping everything as digital files and tagging and whatnot. Alternately, the various formats (vinyl, tape, CD, computer) lend their own sonic overtones to the mix, and the process of searching through deep, dusty boxes leads to much serendipity.

Ultimately, there's no one right way to do this.

1. Can it beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2. Bad idea, Beck
3. Too many competing fanfares
4. A shockingly ahistorical account of Christmas in early America
5. Sonic Youth, Back from the North Pole
6. Let it snow let it snow letitsnowletitsnowletitsnow l e t i t ssssssnnnnnnnooooowwwww
7. Santa might be feeling a little unwell
8. Keeping the Christ in Christmas
9. Rescue Santa!
10. The Rocket has failed
11. Turn that racket off!
12. Kittens of sugarplums.
13. Did we ever manage to rescue Santa?
    

Computer Error! / Sick Technology (#85)

Source here. Originally recorded on December 12, 1997.

This one is all about those blasted computers and how they're always either completely taking over the world or breaking down and leaving us stranded in the median of the Information Superhighway. Lots of talk in this one. Talk about computers and talk from computers. Music about computers and music made by computers.

HAL 9000 samples figure heavily.

Overload warnings abound, for you as well as in the audio itself. It is possible to listen to too much of this all at once. Care should be taken. You may have to unplug completely at the end and take a little break from anything electronic.

1. Virus Warning!
2. It's over 9000!
3. Fire the Torpedos
4. I am putting myself to the fullest possible use
   
5. You've got mail!
6. I know it's a bit silly.
7. Zero Gravity Toilet Instructions
8. Computer Aquarium
9. Drills and Doors
10. Still testing the AE-35 unit
11. Passing Tube Train Pods
12. A contemplative moment inside the engine room
13. It's always been human error.
    

The Nuclear Family (#82)

Source here. Originally aired on 11/13/1997.

Let me start by saying I totally love Ian's announcement at the beginning that WXDU is a peace-loving organization and does not condone the use of nuclear weaponry, despite the contents of the show. That totally makes my day each time I listen to it, because it's like the perfect combination of cheekiness and sincerity.

Just after this it almost seems like dead air. One might be inclined to skip the really quiet bits. It builds a little gradually.

This is all cold-war era stuff. So the music and whatnot will be familiar to a certain age (those people are probably not reading this, but whatever). This is more Nuclear, and less Family, but the actual explosions are easier to articulate than the metaphorical ones. There's an inexplicable amount of stuff from a multiracial acceptance album; and an antique one at that, because it uses the words "Negro" and "Mongolian" liberally and earnestly.

1. STRUM AND DRAG
2. A very quiet beginning
3. No atheists in foxholes
4. Nuclear tourism
5. Duck and Cover!
6. Shopping list
7. An antiquated digression on race while the bombs fall
8. "It's like Titanic, but with nuclear weapons."
9. It doesn't get much more majestic than this
10. That funny in-between look
11. What's the point of building it if you don't use it?
12. It can destroy any city (in Texas)
13. Stupidity has a habit of getting its way

TKDF Reports Live News (#77)

Source here. Originally broadcast on October 9, 1997.

80% of any blog is apologizing for infrequent posting, so I'll forgo that there and hope you have us in your automatic reader and this just pops up as a pleasant surprise. I'll try and knock out a few of these over the break, and send them out in measured fashion.

This is sample-heavy, and somewhat localized to the at-the-time North Carolina home of the show. These are not intrinsically bad things. Some of the less-local news is very newsworthy, and in particular snippits of Negativland's legal troubles feature occasionally. Percussive Morse Code compliments robotic telex.

1. To Protect and to Serve a Voice Synthesizer
2. A lack of crowd control
3. Absinthe of Malice (Nectar of the Goths)
   
4. News, Reported
5. This is Yhaoo News.
6. Everybody Quiet!
7. Dean Smith is Stepping Down
8. Unabombermultiplex.
9. The History of Howland Island
10. The Tape Fell Into the Wrong Hands
11. Students and Alumni
12. Junior Rodeo Storm Warning
13. We now return to our reporter in North Carolina.