Entries categorized as “Post Mix” 59 results

Paige Miner writesInternational Jukebox: How English Music is Changing the Scene Across the World

by Paige Miner

There were a few things that puzzled me when I first arrived in France in late May. First are the massive amount of roundabouts - they make up almost every intersection here, and there are about 30,000 in the entire country of France. Meanwhile, I can count on one hand the amount I know of in my home state of Illinois.

Among the things that I didn’t expect were the tiny dollhouse-sized mugs of espresso after every meal, and never quite knowing what to expect when ordering off of a menu in a language I barely speak. But as I hopped into my rental car -- stick shift only, mind you, which I left to my father to drive -- it was only natural for me to start fiddling with the radio.

After working for four years in radio while in college, I learned the ins and outs of the American radio industry. I can recite laws and regulations for radio in the States, and list radio stations I have loved and grew up with. As a self-proclaimed radio geek, the medium fascinates me.

In my new series, International Jukebox, I will explore how American and Anglophone music affects non-Anglophone listeners, how to discover new radio stations and music in a new culture, and how listening to new music improves a language, and finally, a playlist for all your language-learning needs.

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Brad Morgan writesRed, White, & Blue: An American In Cuba

Words and Pictures by Bradley Morgan

In April, I took a trip to Cuba. I have some friends who had visited and I consulted with them when I was planning my trip. They told me about all the fun they had and gave me recommendations on how to make the most of the trip. Going to Cuba just sounded so exciting and carried a certain level of danger, intrigue, and sex appeal because it is such a taboo for Americans. This trip, for me, would be an opportunity to further understand my identity as an American and my relationship with a world unknown to most Americans.

It is very easy to travel to Cuba. You can fly directly from the United States (I flew out of Miami) and obtaining a tourist visa is as easy as entering your credit card information on a travel site. A visa is obtained by making a specific declaration of your intended visit whether it is for education, to visit family, journalism, or whatever else. What declaration you make in this process determines what is legal and illegal for you. For me, my declaration was to support the Cuban people. This meant that I had to spend at least six hours a day going to places and doing things that benefited the people and not the government. This meant not staying in hotels, going to museums, and not lounging at the beach all day.

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theironkurtain writesMusic as Memory: KMFDM and Pig at the Ogden Street Music Club, Buffalo NY (Nov. 19 1997)

by Kurt Conley

KMFDM and Pig
November 19,1997
Ogden Street Music Club (652 S Ogden St)
Buffalo, NY

It only seems right that this new series is propelled by my memory of music. During a recent cleaning spell in our new condo, I came across an old photo album filled with the concert tickets stubs I’d kept over the years. They span an era starting in the late '90s, when I first started going to shows in earnest, all the way up to the mid 2000s.

The only reason I don’t have more parallels the advent of online, print-at-home, and now mobile tickets, which lack that tactile quality. No waiting for them to come in the mail, putting them in a safe location until the show. As convenient as it is to have your tickets on one’s phone, I’m still nostalgic for that time.

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Jack Ryan writesThe Other Davy Jones

The Internet is an incredible thing. You have more access to information at your finger tips than your ancestors did at any other point in human history, rendering research in in music trivia easy and making any mystery surrounding your favorite artists is pretty much non-existent. That’s not the case when it comes to Davy Jones.

If you're scratching your head at the that statement, you should know I’m not referring to the lead singer of the Monkees. I’m also not referring to David Bowie’s career before he was famous. The Davy Jones I’m referring to is beyond obscure, with a Wikipedia entry that barely stretches past one sentence and no reference or articles published about him on any music website, magazine or blog.

Depending on whom you ask, Davy Jones was either a black American or Canadian soul singer who got his break on the British music scene in the early ‘60s. It’s anyone’s guess as to how he ended up in England. Maybe he was a soldier who was stationed there as part of the NATO military build up in Western Europe during the height of the Cold War. Maybe he was just an average black man who was sick of being kept down because of stateside racism and decided to look for opportunities.

His biggest hit was “Amapola,” a rocked-up version of a popular jazz standard from the late 1930s. While he never became a huge star, he had a minor following that led him to playing packed dates at concert halls around the UK, including some dates in Liverpool in 1961, where a little known beat combo by the name of “The Beatles” were his backing band.

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Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesAround the Web: Books About Music | Jackie Shane

• Josh Friedberg has put together a list of 10 Conversation-Shifting Contemporary Books About Music (PopMatters)

• The Story of Jackie Shane, Re-Emerging After Four Decades Away from Music (New York Times)