village voice radio

''there are a zillion other threads I should probably answer one of these days (and maybe will)''

hehe...cool chuck! so if we listen to VV radio you'll become an ILXOR 4 LIFE. do i understand you correctly.

I have occasionally thought about listening to VV Radio, but haven't actually done so because the programming descriptions don't give you any idea what's going to be playing at any given time (actually, I just looked again and the uninformative program titles that used to be there seem to have disappeared altogether, so unless I'm missing something there's now no info at all). Assuming there is some kind of schedule, if I had more of an idea of what I was going to get and when, I might check it out, or make a note to check it out when it comes on. As it is, I'm not willing to just turn it on and hope something good is playing.

Aside from more info, I think it would be cool if you got your editors/critics to put playlists together (perhaps you do this already), so if people want to hear what everyone's talking about re: the New York rock scene/electroclash/contempo jazz/avant R&B/hair metal/whatever, they could do it... (like, you have all those articles linked on the page; what if there was a playlist next to each article?) And why be limited to what's on now anyway; why not let people choose what to stream when?

(probably there are awful logistical difficulties involved with any of those ideas heh heh, but anyway)...

As it is, it seems a bit random (now playing... Derek and the Dominoes followed by Arrested Development followed by Dave Douglas followed by Stones followed by John Mellencamp... maybe I should say random with boomer leanings), and you can get random elsewhere on the net. Presumably people who are likely to click on VV Radio are also likely to be more informed/motivated about music than most; why not cater to them.

Just my $0.02...

yeah, i picked up with the stones, mellencamp, b-52s and then martina mcbride? i had to shut it off. too painful.

i don't care if I hear what's happening deep in NYC, but i couldn't take it anymore

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go.to/stevek

(like, why isn't there a Consumer Guide playlist? Tracks from the albums under full review plus Pick Hits etc)

now playing:

sweet - ballroom blitz
pm dawn - set adrift on memory bliss
freddy fender - before the next teardrop falls
lana lane - project shangri-la
tik n' tak - don't turn back
gloria estefan & miami sound machine - dr. beat
liz phair - supernova
funkervogt - this world

The idea of a random mix of good stuff is fine but it's not something that I'd listen to when I can go to wfmu and plow through playlists from a dj who speaks to my heart. The Liz Phair sounded really good though.

I love that you're publishing Meltzer and Greg Burk, and I wish there were playlists from each of them. I'm also really glad that you're publishing Mark Sinker.

Hmmm.....Guess I don't know what Dan and Ben mean by "random" (just that the songs aren't all from the same genre, or that you don't know what you're getting in advance, or what?); I always thought one of the fun things about listening to radio was being *surprised.* (Maybe that's "boomer" of me? Though, lemme see, in the past hour or so, I've heard "Murphy's Law" by Cheri, "Drano in Your Veins" by the Styrenes, the Lana Lane and Tik N Tak and Funkervogt and Liz Phair and Dave Douglas tracks mentioned above, plus the Kills, Roxette, the Wiseguys, Britney, Beenie Man, and two tracks from *Africa Raps,* which would make for a extremely broad definition of "boomer leaning," I think.) Don't know how logistically feasible Ben's other ideas are or aren't (I'll forward this link to the Voice's new media guy, and see what he says); I'm a writer and editor, not a radio guy or an Internet guy, and I just kinda fell into this by accident (though it's FUN -- sort of like making the biggest mix-tape of my life, when you get down to it. We do try to link the songs to reviews that've been published in the Voice, but we're very inconsistent about it; it's kind of hard to do, given lack of financial resources/ manpower/etc. (Nobody's paying me anymore; I pick the new songs that run in my free time, pretty much. And the weekly "program titles" Ben mentioned above were probably my show and Robert Christgau's show, which the company couldn't afford anymore as of last December.)

Oh yeah, also, Dan, the Voice hasn't actually published Meltzer or Burk lately, though I'm not opposed to the idea. (Maybe other Village Voice media papers did? I'm not sure.) (By the way, right now Voice radio is playing "USA Nails" by Blood Brothers. Okay, I'll shut up.)

OK, so "boomer" was based on a too-small sampling ;o)

I was thinking about the random thing actually. It's not that I want to know exactly what's coming next, or all the music I hear to fall into a narrowly-defined genre, etc. Being suprised is good, a lot of the time. But I do want to have some idea of what I'm likely to hear, that there's some guiding sensibility behind what I'm hearing. Whether that's genre based, historical, thematic or the product of a critic's personality, whatever.

Perhaps there is a sensibility behind the VV playlists, but right now I have no idea what it is. I just have to wait for the next song to pop up, and hope I like it. A little guidance would help, is all.

Well, nobody has ever accused me of having a personality or a sensibility, I guess. But like I said, Ben, I pick the songs myself....And if you want Cliff Notes, I have written a couple books and a few music reviews over the years. (Which may or may not help.)

So you did say that! Sorry, reading too fast. I stand corrected.

What Ben said.

Both Meltzer and Burk had articles on the VV radio page.

So I've been listening to this over the last few days and it comes in just fine on my machine, and the mix is quite good. It doesn't matter what it is that comes up next in terms of genre, as long as the songs are good, and they are. The only real thing on my wishlist as far as this goes is that it would be good to have a "last ten tracks played" feature somewhere in there; I tend to listen to it while I work...either at the office while writing or off across the room, or at home while in the kitchen...and because of that I tend to not get the chance to see who/what is playing as it's happening.

Now Playing:

Faith Hill - Beautiful

"As long as you understand that the World Cafe, on for a couple hours every morning, was definitely not my idea.)" - HAW HAW! Anyhow, I've listened a couple of times, but have to admit I'm pretty devoted to WFMU. It's worked fine for me though.

VV Radio is driving me nuts!? Anyone know who those female rappers were who did that song "Trinity"?

Northern State!

Second-worst album I purchased this year, behind the new Ryan Adams.

oh, boo. Northern State is terrif.

Northern State = (