We are moving

Rock Geek FM has left WEFT and is looking for a new radio station. Our blog has also moved to http://rockgeekchic.com/blog, using a new set of providers that will allow us to upload all our past shows.

Onward to victory over the forces of Justin Bieber. Unless Cristy likes Justin Bieber...

Thanks for listening!

Radiohead B-Sides

In the words of guest host Philip Graham, "Tonight's show will be devoted to obscure Radiohead B-sides and such, studio cuts that somehow never made it to any of their CDs. The quality of these songs is uniformly excellent, leading to a repeated, inevitable, head scratching question, "Why didn't they include THAT song? ....I have 48 such songs in my collection, ranging from their first album to their latest, , so there may very well be a second part of this themed-show, if William and Cristy are willing..."

What a great way to make it across the divide between 2011 and 2012! Thanks, Philip.

Listen to or download all four hours below.

Part 1: 2-Hour MP3
Part 2: 2-Hour MP3

Rádio Macau

In the words of guest host Philip Graham...

"This show will be about one of the world's greatest rock bands that you never heard of, Rádio Macau. Why haven't you heard of them? Well, they're Portuguese, and the rock traditions of other countries, outside of England, don't travel easily to our country. It's our loss.

Rádio Macau formed in the early new-wavish 80s, had several iconic hits and has continued brilliantly right to the present day. Lead singer Xana is one of the great voices of rock 'n' roll (think Brian Ferry after a sex change operation). How good are they? Their masterpiece, 2000's Onde O Tempo Faz A Curva (Where Time Curves), predates Radiohead's Kid A by several months, and yet cuts that album, and sets the stage for many experiments to come in the following decade."

Listen to and download the two-hour-plus MP3 here.

dedicated scholars

Many New Shows

We have uploaded some new and old radio shows for your enjoyment.

John Martyn (with guest scholar Philip Graham) (16 August 2011) (Note: this MP3 has some volume problems at the beginning due to the complex nature of community radio stations. Skip ahead.)
Rolling Stones (with guest scholar Honcho) (5 September 2011)
The Upper Register (with guest scholar John Gehner) (12 September 2011)
Re-uploaded by special request:
Songs About Champaign (1 November 2010)

Songs About Bees

On the roller derby track and behind the microphone, she goes by the moniker Polly Nator, revealing a deeply rooted fascination with bees, insects, and all the little creatures that aid in pollination. As guest hostess, this star entomologist dazzles us with insect education, and spins two hours of songs about, mostly, bees, but also arachnids, insects, and other arthropods.

Listen to the lecture / discussion and rock broadcast here.

Gene Clark

Here is the sad story of master singer-songwriter and Byrds co-founder Gene Clark, as told to William by Philip Graham, rock scholar. Listen to Gene Clark's life and work, from an early Byrds demo through his final recordings.

Procol Harum

Dr. Philip Graham, rock scholar, leads a rigorous discussion of the works, personnel, and history of Procol Harum, from their peculiar name and explosive, immediate success through their continuing contemporary relevance and most recent releases.

Radio Free Anderson

Freestyle soundtracks, Austin psych, retro, and some astonishing early bullshit that forever destroys the punk cred of Lou Reed.

netfiles.uiuc.edu/gillespi/www/20110221anderson.mp3

Sorry, Lou.

Robyn Hitchcock

The irrepressible Dave Witzany joins us for a Valentine's Day show dedicated to a songwriter we truly love: Robyn Hitchcock.

Songs With Mellotrons

We dedicated a two-hour radio show to the Mellotron, which was a popular keyboard instrument using tape loops as a sound source - the first sampling keyboard, (analog) - popularized in the 1960s in "Strawberry Fields Forever" and many other songs. Though we couldn't totally avoid King Crimson, Zombies, and early Genesis, the show focused on recent examples. Featuring incidental mellotron music by Paul Kotheimer. Afterward hear a bit of a live in-studio concert by Santah. Download the playlist.

Byrds

Professor Philip Graham, the world's preeminent Byrds scholar, joins us for a lively conversation about the surprising, important legacy of America's first folk-rock, raga-rock, bluegrass-rock, and country-rock band.

Scott Walker

On a stormy 11/22 Honcho emerged from the mists to collaborate on a long-awaited Scott Walker show.

We covered Walker's career in chronologic order, touching on every solo album along the way.

Get serious.

Songs About Champaign

On November 1, John Steinbacher of Smile Politely Radio joined us, expertly mastering the WWII-era WEFT mixing board, and hosting a show of songs by national artists that mention "Champaign" (Illinois), and then, to fill the remaining hour and 45 minutes, songs by national artists that mention other downstate Illinois communities, songs by downstate Illinois bands that mention Champaign, songs with "Champaign" in the title that are about something else, and bands that have the word "Champaign" in their name. At no point was REO Speedwagon played. Nor, apparently, does anybody have anything to say about "Urbana."

Songs About Trains

This is as much fun as we've ever had...so much material to fight over and argue about...

Bowie Rarities

To give the listener a unique trip, Honcho and William may have neglected album tracks which cannot, in most cases, be improved upon by David Bowie or by anybody else. Still, with nearly half a century of solid material to edit into two hours, something had to get neglected. We present David Bowie in roughly chronologic order, from 1967 through the turn of the millennium. Commentary aplenty, including a withering dissection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's latest round of draft picks.

Those Darlins at the IMC

They kicked me in the ear; I saw stars. This is the honest truth. When Those Darlins plowed onstage and started into wringing the necks on some guitars, slapping a bass, and shaking the teeth out of a ukelele hole, notes were flying. This combo pretty much bootstomped the mud off of one IMC stage. Nikki was recovering from a broken arm and only able to kick 110% ass but I swear to you, reader, that if she had broken that very arm punching this reporter in the face then no way would I ever put makeup on that sweet bruise. Poor thing was in pain: those cans of Busch just collapsed into crumpled tin when she inhaled them. Jessi got that look in her eye. Kelley was playing that electrical guitar like driving a police car through a brick wall. They smoked us and rolled us over like pigs on a spit. They led; the crowd danced. There was nothing between them and us but a couple half-empty bottles and a ton of respect. After they got into it, they even came out into the crowd and did things I can't tell you. This was no posture, no altar; we were finally getting down to some honest rock and roll, folks. Those Darlins set fire to the place and burned a hole clear through to the sky leaving only a harvest moon and old Jupiter looking down in wonder at the beauty of transience: how the cruel beast of time can now and then be pistol-whipped into the truth of chords. I swear to Elvis and Joan Jett this was the best show I have ever seen.

The Future and Past of Music: Janelle Monae and Of Montreal at the Canopy Club 22 September 2010

It was gratifying to see Janelle Mon´e on the same stage where I saw Funkadelic. Though her music comes to us through a time tunnel from an altogether different millennium, like George Clinton she frames physically persuasive, danceable music with complex, cerebral narrative.

Monae was radiant. She had an electric, formal stage presence -- post-Victorian Gibson girl meets Grace Jones -- with a dignity and drama worthy of her muse Fritz Lang. Above the stage, her image reproduced in black-and-white on two video screens had a grainy newsreel quality, as if we were in the future watching footage of the historic events of the present.

The acoustic space was filled to bursting by a sharp trio playing guitar, drums, and keyboard. The stage was haunted by costumed extras: wraiths, birds, buccaneers, fallout survivors, jet pilots, and queens. Crowded by these ghosts of her nightmarish imagination, Mon´e performed a fantastic set.

I have seen the future: it's a strobe-lit, amplified, dangerous time... but very stylish.


After a steamy Janelle Monae left the stage, the Canopy Club was a hot and fetid tropical locker room. Few bands could have followed her into that sweatbox and pleased me.

Of Montreal gets credit for using some of the best performance ideas of David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, the Residents, Prince, and Pink Floyd (Alan Parker). While a surplus of eight musicians underlined the beat (or just waved their arms in the air), impressively costumed dancers elbowed their way to the edge of the stage. This unwieldy ensemble made even the generous Canopy stage seem unmanageably cramped, with randomly-attired stage hands (one in white t-shirt, one in shirt and tie) dashing back and forth to maneuver into place various large props.

Some of these apparitions that wandered in from stage right were majestic and terrifying, though the best costume designs of any concert I have seen had apparently been given no script other than contorting sexually with two blonde women in gold bikinis.

It's good to see a young band try so hard to do something other than play great songs. I admire the effort to add a dimension of spectacle to alt-disco music. Frontman Kevin Barnes tried to push his magnetism, charisma, and beauty past its limits to lead the crowd into a rave atmosphere of unrestrained sexuality. But in the end this felt less liberating than shallow.

I applaud the effort to have a stage show, am impressed by the disturbingly surreal costumes, but found it all undermined by haphazard choreography and question whether the thin foundation of dance music can support the art they try to build on top of it.

Midway through the set was a moving performance of two newer songs, including "Casualty of You." With a stripped-down instrumentation, disturbing animation, and a biting electric violin solo, this moving ten minutes of the show showed me what the band could accomplish if they did more serious writing.

And then for an encore they did the song about how the singer can "do it." I clapped loud for another encore. From Janelle Monae.

Power Pop: Mixtured

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13 September 2010: Doug Hoepker joins us to play more than twenty power pop classics, launching his new online collaborative mix project Mixtured.

The Rock Inbox

30 August 2010: DJ Tony Money helps us tear the envelopes off a stack of new arrivals as we bring you the Rock Inbox: totally new music. Chaos, madness, ecstasy, and thirty fingers on the pulse of rock.

Radio Freestyle Anderson

6 September 2010: Honcho spins freestyle. Soul, soundtrack, and rare seven inch treasures from the archeology of music. Hear about his trip through the midwest and recent concerts.