News and Reviews 2025

2025 is the 20th anniversary of Arcane Radio Trivia. (That's MMXXV to you romanophiles.) In May of this year, the odometer rolled over 3,000 posts. It's a moment to reflect upon. I stopped writing new intros to this annual wrap up a few years ago, somewhat fixating on a sentence I willed into existence in the hazy final months of 2015... " it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 3,025 posts.

Links to all 20 years of News & Reviews:

2025	2024	2023
2022	2021	2020
2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014
2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008
2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I started off 2023 with a story about WPIR, and later interviewed Jeffrey Riman who was music director back in the 1970s. I did a deep dive into the history of WLFR, Lake Fred radio and finally told the tale of why WTSR had to changed it's call letters. (Sorry about that) I also interviewed the host behind Riot Radio and found a kindred music geek. I'd like to thank Jay Allen for letting me quote him at length about inductive coupling, and Kyle Davis, the great nephew of Roy Parks who reached out to chat with me about The Skyline Boys. I still need to get back to some folks about more interviews; these articles don't write themselves.

 
Most Popular Posts:
On 11/23/25 some AI bot hit the blog pretty hard, about 75k hits in an afternoon from Singapore. But it didn't skew the numbers, it scraped everything equally. Anyway, the burden of time allows old posts accumulate more clicks than the new posts. So my most popular posts are always older posts, and really haven't changed in over a decade. Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to garner hits comments from it's legion of former students. But the articles within each year vary quite a lot. But the posts I enjoy writing the most are not always the ones that get read the most. Here's the top 5 for 2025:

1. O.B. Kirkpatrick's Instructograph 
2. Wisconsin School of the Air 
3. Bellarmine College Radio 
4. Inductive Coupling and the Select-A-Tenna
5. WIFX - Jamestown College Radio 

Best Zine
Because of Slingshot I get to read a lot of Zines. I usually don't know what's coming in the mail, but I enjoy the mystery. This year I really liked The Scumrag and Fluke is always a great read of course. But that last issue of Restless Legs Inquirer was a revelation; that was underground lit at it's absolute finest. (I reviewed some of those in the last issue of Slingshot #141.) Radio Dies Screaming is Dynamite Hemorrhage back with a new improved name. Restless Legs and Jay Hinman unfortunately retired their zines this year. Next years list will inevitably be much different.

• Radio Dies Screaming [LINK]
  
• The Scumrag [LINK]
• Restless Legs Inquirer [LINK]
• Hiroshima Yeah [LINK]
  
• Fluke [LINK]
  
• Ear O' Corn [LINK]
  

Best Radio Show:
I've been back on the webcast wagon for a while. I do miss spinning the dial in new places and finding unexpected things. I did that west coast drive last year, maybe again next year.

• WGXC [LINK] 
• WWNO [LINK] 
• WMSE [LINK] 
• Left of the Dial on WFIT [LINK]
• Also on Louder Than War [LINK] 
• Operation XRAY on Tuff City Radio[LINK] 
• Dusty Finish on KCHUNG [LINK]
• Downtuned Mag [LINK]
• EVR East Village Radio [LINK] 
• Punks in the Garage on WAIF [LINK] 

 Top 10 Records of 2022
Usually my top 10 is comprised of full-length albums, and is format agnostic. My definition of "full-length" is utterly at my discretion. I was once a purist but ever more often, new bands don't seem to believe that LP stands for Long Play. Maybe because of the internet we are hearing bands earlier than we would have in the before time. Maybe our attention spans are irrevocably lost. But I can't abide by renting my music. (#boycottspotify) The world is changing and I don't think I'm going to change with it this time. The long play album has been a dominant audio medium for over half a century. Perhaps this is my hill to die on.

1. Mclusky - The world is still here and so are we [LINK]
2. Upchuck - Silver [LINK] 
3. Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – In the Earth Again [LINK]
4. Melvins - Thunderball [LINK]
5. Pissed Jeans - Half Divorced [LINK]
6. Benzo Queen - No Gods No Masters No Sleeves [LINK]
7. The Austerity Program - Bible Songs 2 [LINK]
8. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons - Live in Philadelphia [LINK]
9. Rats Department - Culture Shock [LINK]
10. V/A - Blow, the Jesus Lizard Tribute  [LINK]

Notable mentions: Gaytheist - The Moustache Stays [LINK], Gans - Good for the Soul [LINK], Batwave - Klaus Warfare, Special Guest - SSRI [LINK], Blandad - Blonde Lobster [LINK], Piss - Three demos [LINK], O Zorn! - Vermillion Haze [LINK], Ash Barrett - Uncaged [LINK], Great Panic Roger - Anger Box [LINK], Inner City Witches -  The Law Is Not in Heaven [LINK], Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out [LINK], Rak - Mood Killer [LINK], Common Wounds - All Night Blood [LINK], Waxx'd - self titled [LINK], The Armed - the Future is here... [LINK],  Hundreds of AU -  Life In Parallel [LINK], Winners - You Deserve This [LINK], Bleeth - Marionette [LINK], Empty Heaven - Swear [LINK]; Mares Of Thrace - The Loss [LINK], Die Spitz – Something to Consume,  Florida Man – Plastique [LINK], Mutlee - Kick It Down, Dead Rat Society - Reflecting Light And Causing Chaos [LINK], Iran Iran - Dog Trammadol [LINK], Reds - The Truth of Impermanence [LINK], The Hammer Party - Classic American Plastic [LINK]

Epilogue: The reason I have the notable mentions is for my own future reference. The decision to pick a top 10 at a point in time is rakish and somewhat arbitrary. In ye olde radio days I made a top 30 every week. Ten seems inadequate. The albums that stick with me for the long run are very hard to predict. The Ike Reilly album Salesmen and Racists became one of my favorite rock albums of all times, but I barely noticed in 2001. Whereas a few years earlier, the Dalek album Negro Necro Nekros melted my face off immediately and was my entryway to hip-hop. It is only in retrospect that we can understand art separately from the scalar of time.

News and Reviews 2024

We are now in year 19 .... Annually gather my thoughts and I revisit my my statement from 2015... " it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 2,980 posts. The odometer will finally roll over 3,000 some time next year.

Links to all 19 years of News & Reviews:

2024	...	2023
2022	2021	2020
2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014
2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008
2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I started off 2023 with a big research project into the publication history of TAB books. (Many of you surely own a few.) But then in September I did a little research project on cassette magnetic shields. I also dug deep into the weird history of George Garabedian and Mark 56. I had a great time with those three in particular. But I think my favorite was The Lost Lost World, where I researched the various radio theater interpretations of the 112-year-old book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It got me back into radio dramas a bit. Then I traced the history of metal radio back just a little bit further than before. I had a great interview with Ron Harris, formerly of WCPR, but that was only just posted.

 
Most Popular Posts:
The burden of time allows old posts accumulate more clicks than the new posts. So my most popular posts haven't changed in over a decade. Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. It garnered another 12,700 hits of it's own. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to get comments from it's legion of former students. 

My biggest post of 2024 was a biography of E. Rodney Jones, The World's Greatest Disc Jockey. That was closely followed by an interview I did in February with the host of Soul Express, Dean Farrell. I doubt they ever met but in soul music they have a definite kinship. My interview with Erik Hanson, host of The Local Show at WHCM a close third. But at this moment the WRKZ post is accumulating hits the fastest. 

Best Zine
Because of Slingshot I get to read a lot of Zines. There were some awesome ones this year. I really liked Restless Legs and Fluke of course. But that last issue of Restless Legs was a revelation, underground lit at it's absolute finest. I reviewed some of those in the last issue of Slingshot #141. Radio Dies Screaming is Dynamite Hemorrhage with a new improved name.

• Radio Dies Screaming [LINK]
  
• Restless Legs [LINK]
  
• Hiroshima Yeah [LINK]
  
• Fluke [LINK]
  
• Ear O' Corn [LINK]
  
• Copy This Cassette! [LINK]
  

Best Radio Show:
I've been back on the podcast wagon for a while. The bit of travel I did in 2023 was radio-free time I mostly spent napping I do miss spinning the dial in new places and finding unexpected things.

• The Local Show - WHCM [LINK]
• Had a great interview back in March.
  
• The Lost Highway - Waieke Radio [LINK]
• Unpredictable playlists exploring dark corners with a punk rock zeitgeist
  
• Left of the Dial -   KWNK [LINK]
• Brilliant sides of punk and noise-rock
  
• Radio Free Midwitch Show - RFM [LINK] 
• It's not new but I've just discovered the archive and wow. It's as random as random gets. Screaming, shouting, beeps, blips, retro keyboards, drones, broken guitars... it's the dogs breakfast.
• Turn Me On Dead Man Podcast [LINK ] 
• Every episode is different but great sides in drone and psychedelia
  
• All Hex Broken Loose - Radio Valencia [LINK]
• From Joe Henderson to Max Roach and it works
  
• Retrospect '60s Garage Punk Show [LINK]
• Just what it says on the tin.
• Riot Radio [LINK]
• All the punch rock 7" goodness you didn't know you needed.
  

Top 10 Records of 2022
Usually my top 10 is comprised of full-length albums, and is format agnostic. My definition of "full-length" is utterly at my discretion as to number of tracks, or length in minutes. But generally EPs, Singles, re-releases, and demos get sifted down the the notable list. I've gotten more flexible on this as the digital age seems to be driving shorter release formats. But if you release 3 rad singles in a year, an album that is not.  

It was truly a great year for music. The increasing affordability home recording software and gear is really democratizing music. However, I'm noticing two things. 1. an increasing "sameness" to the production style, which may be related to the software packages. and 2. an increasing number of streaming only records. Will Laut's Lost and Found, while truly brilliant is only on streaming services today, no physical media, no downloads to be found. So I demoted him from the top 10. 

The world is changing and I don't think I'm going to change with it this time. The album has been a dominant audio medium for over half a century. While that is clearly changing, I'm old and I'm not on the boat. I'm staying right here, where LP stands for "Long Play" and I have the attention span to prove it.

1. Chat Pile - Cool World
2. Soft Play - Heavy Jelly
3. Jesus Lizard -  Rack
   
4. Fontaines D.C.  - Romance
5. Human Impact - Gone Dark
   
6. Blacklisters - This is not at album by BLKLSTRS;
7. Penny Rich - On and On
8. Melvins - Tarantula Heart
9. Big'n -  End Comes Too Soon
   
10. Normans - Normans 
    

Notable mentions: Will Laut - Lost and Found;  Snakebite Sermon -  The Coffin and The Cross ; Skeeter de Milo - Bread; Dust Worship - Friend; Norillag - The Union of Death; Common Wounds - All Night Blood; Braces - Serotonin; Frontierer - The Skull Burned; ISTA - Megawatt; Initium - II, Flak (self titled),  Killing Joke - Honor the Fire Live (3LP), Killing Joke - Live at Lokerse, Dälek – Negro Necro Nekros (re-release 2xLP), ISTA - Megawatt (single), Orphan - "singles", Initium - II, Abandon - Assailable​/​/​Agonism, Cura AB - The Campaign , Doom Beach - Burden, Sunrot / Body Void - Split, Kublai Kahn - Exhibition of Prowess; Consumer Culture - Log Off (single); Urine Hell - Already Dead Tapes; Twenty One Trillion - 18,17,16,16,15; TODD - Purity Pledge;Doom Beach - Burden; Moiii - Moiii; Boucan - Deux; Consumer Culture - Log Off (single); Uniform - American Standard;  Softsun - Daylight in the Dark; Massa Nera - Pioggiadanza Sessions; End of Age - Narcoleptic Hallucinations; Normas; Dead Pioneers - Dead Pioneers ;

News and Reviews 2023

We are now in year 18, (a Harshad number), and I stand by my statement from 7 years ago... "it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 3,398 posts. The odometer will probably roll over 3,400 this year.

This was the first year Google tried to censor one of my posts. It was an old one from 2019 about KRAB [LINK] which is totally on-brand. Some conservative folks are such delicate flowers, so deathly afraid of bad words and people unlike themselves. Anyway, Google undid the doings and the post has returned to normal.

Outside of this blog, I edited the memoir of a 1930s union organizer and started yet another writing project I'll get into another day. (I'll post about all that when I'm closer to a publication dates.) I also have been writing zine reviews for The Slingshot Collective for a couple years now. It's lovely to see my mad scribbles on newsprint.

Links to all 18 years of News & Reviews:

2022	2021	2020
2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014
2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008
2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I started off 2023 with a big research project into the publication history of TAB books. Many of you likely own books from TAB, but had didn't know their catalog was so long and wild. I certainly had not. I found hundreds. I bought a few more too. I found a can of dirty and used Ruby Fluid in a junk shop with resistors floating in it and discovered their 100-year long history. I wrote a definitive history of the Toronto Radio band. But I think my favorite for the year was researching the radio history of a Leon Russel Bootleg cassette I found. The recording is excellent and the history fascinating.

 
Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in over a decade.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. It garnered another 12,700 hits of it's own. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to get comments from it's legion of former students.  

Best Zine
Because of Slingshot I get to read a lot of Zines I might not otherwise discover. Due to the publishing cycle I sometimes write reviews for zines published in the prior year. Sorry for the delay, but it's a thing.  Anyway some quick favorites for the year are below.  Fluke is was and continues to be an outstanding zine year after year. Invisile Eye only debuted in 2022, btu the first 2 issues are excellent. TAZ was a new work and deeply impressive. But the one I've read the most was the trifecta from an anonymous Oogle zinester.

• TAZ [link] from the Rogue Writers Guild
• Fluke #20 [link] from Fluke Publishing
• Invisible Eye #2 [link] from Fluke Publishing
• A set of 3 from an anonymous writer [link]
• Let me Put My Pants on
  
• All the People I've Peed With
• Thread Direction is for Assholes
  

Best Radio Show:
I've been back on the podcast wagon for a while. The bit of travel I did in 2023 was radio-free time I mostly spent napping I do miss spinning the dial in new places and finding unexpected things.

• Retrospect '60s Garage Punk Show [LINK]
• Jumpin' Joe's Basement Show [LINK]
• Dynamite Hemorrhage show [LINK]
  

Top 10 Records of 2022
Usually my top 10 is comprised of full-length albums, and is format agnostic. The definition of "full-length" is totally at my discretion as to number of tracks, or album length in minutes. But generally EPs, Singles, Re-releases, and demos get sifted down the the notable list. I've gotten more flexible on this as the digital age seems to be driving shorter release formats.

1. Chat Pile/Nerver - Brothers in Christ
   
2. Tojo Yamamoto  - 山​​​本​​​東​​​条
3. Better Lovers -  God Made Me An Animal 
4. Ex Everything - Slow Change Will Pull Us Apart
5. Canyons - Pro Rock
6. Godflesh - Purge
7. Pile - All Fiction
   
8. Great Falls - Objects Without Pain
9. Big|Brave - Nature Morte
10. Will Haven - VII
    
    

Notable mentions: Chat Pile - Bulls on Parade; Soft Play - Punk's Dead, Killing Joke - Full Spectrum Dominance, Overkill - Scortched,  Therapy? - Hard Cold Fire, MSPAINT - Post-American, Eyes - Congratulations, 68' - Yes, and​.​.​., Torpor - Abscission, Ken Mode - Void, Flooding - Silhouette Machine, Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert, Negative Blast - Echo Planet, Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretin, Nights Like These - The God City Session,Dark Canyon - Deadman, Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel, Gentilesky - Ways of Seeing, Urine Hell / N​Ü​DE split, Nailbomb - 1000% Hate (deluxe edition), Glossa - Panic Breathing the Mystic Smoke, The Company Corvette - Little Blue Guy

News and Reviews 2022

We are now in year 17, (a nice respectable prime number) and I stand by my statement from 6 years ago... "it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 3,375 posts, a decade-and-a-half in the making. Clearly I still have too much free time. I did a radio show on WLOY, and I even managed to get published this year on old school newsprint aka dead-tree media, with thanks to The Slingshot Collective. 

 
Links to all 17 years of News & Reviews:

2020	2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014	2013
2012	2011	2010	2009
2008	2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I started off 2022 with a dive in to an old WECS radio schedule, and some antique radio repair. Then the tale of an illegal satellite launch and a quick piece on the Glaskarten archive. It wasn't a very productive year blog-wise but I still found time for deep dives into both Herman Darewski and Jack Ruby of all people.

 
Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to get comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. In 2022 My most popular post was the one-sentence post referring to my Quarantine Takeover show on WLOY. That probably has more to do with WLOY than myself but it's good motivation to do it again.

Best Zine
With thanks to Slingshot I got to read a lot of zines while under quarantine. The best hands-down was Dynamite Hemorrhage. I want to read every back issue, I a subscription. Jay Hinman contributes to the punk cannon in the same way that Koenig and Coley did back in the 1980s. Their original writings on commerce and art rock remain the foundation of the last 40 years of punk and indie rock music criticism.

Best Radio Show:
I'm still hooked on The Primitive Show on WVKR. I keep trying to make contact for an interview but no luck so far. On that topic I saw that Chimurenga also is now running a radio program and I'd really like to chat with them about it. Maybe I need a section on most-wanted stories.

 

Top 10 Records of 2022
Usually my top 10 is comprised of full-length albums, and is format agnostic. The definition of "full-length" is totally at my discretion as to number of tracks, or album length in minutes. But generally EPs, Singles, Re-releases, and demos get sifted down the the notable list. Aside from all that preface, our obvious descent into dystopian collapse has made for a great year in music.

1. Chat Pile - Gods Country
2. Pile - All Fiction
   
3. Society - Pollution
4. Gospel - The Loser
5. Cronies - Slow Wrist Grave Shift
6. Wire - Stepping off too quick
7. Idiot Child - Idiot Child
8.  Ken mode - Null
9. Nerver - CASH
10. Crowd of Chairs - Defluencer
    

 

Notable mentions: Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture, Weeping Hour - Drone (single),  Negative Capability - Negative Capability, Gilla Band - Most Normal, Chatpile - Tenkiller Soundtrack, Human Impact - Imperative (single),  Sppn - Lucifer on the Sofa, Russian Circles - Gnosis, Pyrithe - Monuments to Impermanence, Black Magnet - Body Prophecy, Melvins Bad Mood Rising (single),

News and Reviews 2021

We are now in year 16, and I stand by my statement from 5 years ago... "it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 2,900 posts, a decade-and-a-half in the making. Clearly I still have too much free time. I even managed to get published this year on dead-tree media, with thanks to The Slingshot Collective. It's been a long time since I've seen my words on actual newsprint. It feels good. I also got interviewed on 92.9 WOOM in Philadelphia and was invited to do a show at 1620 WLOY. After I unpack my lathe I plan to take them up on that. Anyway, it's the end of the year, and a fine time to take a look back at 2021

Links to all 16 years of News & Reviews:

2020	2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014	2013
2012	2011	2010	2009
2008	2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I started off 2021 strong with a nice post on the radio coms used by the January 6th Capitol insurrectionists. I wrote a nice long post on Radio in Fukushima, a really long interview with Michael Nevradakis, and a deep dive into PCBs in capacitors in radio equipment. Posting less often has allowed me to open up and dig deeper, do more research and write more long-form articles.

 
Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to get comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. In 2021 My most popular posts were all older posts, I wrote an explanation on DMACs MPOEs, MDFs and IDFs back in 2015 and it became weirdly popular this year. Also my post The Eiffel Tower is an Antenna got a spike of traffic in January I can't account for. Capitol Riot Radio was actually my most popular post of 2021.

Best Zine
With thanks to Slingshot I got to read a lot of zines while under quarantine. I think my favorite this year was Razorcake. It is it's own phenomenon, virtually a magazine at this point. I've also read Slingshot for years now, I have always been pleased to find their paper in random bookstores and venues around the country. They always seem to cover topic no one else has. It's always worth reading. Fifth Estate is fabulous as well but also basically a magazine in it's own right. I think that New Wave Chicken was the zine which surprised me the most. Issue #9 had an article by Mark Ottens that was truly epic. That kind of writing really validates zines as a media form to me.

Best Radio Station:
I've been using the Radio Garden app (not a sponsor) to listen to radio stations. Lately I've been listening mostly to NPR. Special shout out to Ted Woodford's Youtube videos. It's the best repair show since Car Talk. Somebody give that guy a radio show. I'm looking at you CFMU. 

Best Radio Show:
I've been digging deep into the archives of some older college radio shows on WRSU, WVKR and WMFO. The internet has made it possible to binge listen to radio shows that came and went decades ago. It's become just another stream of content in the void. Inevitably Mixcloud will ruin it with embedded ads but I'll try to enjoy the new golden age for now.  Notably No Format with Jeff Wertz on WRSU, and The Primitive Show on WVKR.  If you want to try a program still on air try and Desperate Hours on WMFO. I've been catching that live and I also found the Flat Circle Radio Hour on WPRB to be eminently listenable. It's an ostensibly free form program, but without the sound-clash chaos. Early and modern electronic music blend into world beat and jazz with a certain continuity of time and texture you rarely find.

 

Top 10 Records of 2020
Generally the top 10 full-length albums, is format agnostic unless your format prevents me from hearing it. The definition of "full-length" is totally at my discretion as to number of tracks, or album length in minutes. But generally EPs, Singles, Re-releases, and demos get sifted down the the notable list. Aside from all that preface, our slow descent into dystopia has made for a good year in music. This could have been a top 20 this year.  The Ghost Is Clear Records got multiple spots. They totally killed it in 2021. I am also enjoying the rash of remastered and re-released punk and hardcore LPs this year.

1. Poster Boy - Posterboy [LINK]
   
2. Human Impact - EP01 [LINK]
   
3. NAG - Observer [LINK]
   
4. Infinity Land - Honest Comedy
5. Pressed - Mirrored Body [LINK]
   
6. Personal Style - S/T cassette [LINK]
7. Dug - 35:35  [LINK]
8. Justice Fetish - I Hope This Keeps You Up At Night [LINK]
   
9. Christian Fitness - Hip Gone Gunslingers [LINK]
   
10.  End You - Aimless Dread
11. Mononegatives - Apparatus Division [LINK]
    
12. Macros - Brain Tattoo EP [LINK]
    

Notable mentions: Bronson Arm - Conscious Confuser [LINK]; Bronson Arm - Tedious Compan; Scenario - Sounds In Sequence, Tunic - Exhale; USA Nails - Split w/ Pet brick; Cemento - Streebla, Norse - Blu; Knub - Knub, Hiraki - Stumbling through the walls; Ozzuario - Mental Hell; Drah - RMX; Domkraft - seeds [LINK]; Melvins - Working With God; Ismatic Guru - (self titled); Lavender Hex - Bunch of Flowers;

News and Reviews 2020

We are now in year 15, and I stand by my statement from 5 years ago... "it seems both impossible and inadvisable to have gone so far down the rabbit-hole." This blog began in April of 2005. As of this date, that works out to more than 2,885 posts, a decade-and-a-half in the making. Clearly I still have too much free time. But it's the end of the year, and a fine time to take a look back at 2020.  In a word... #FU2020

Links to all 15 years of News & Reviews:

2020	2019	2018	2017
2016	2015	2014	2013
2012	2011	2010	2009
2008	2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I'm very pleased with the series I've been doing on LGBT radio. There are a some white papers out there, and literally two text books.  So my articles therefore become some of the only solid source material available on this topic on the free internet. I have more planned, and that project will continue into next year. I was also very pleased with my dive into the Black Panthers radio program, The People's Information Slot on WLIB. I only wish I could find more source information. Back in March I was able to contact and interview Elliot Swanson, the former host of the John Fahey Half-Hour back in 1971. That was the most fun I had with an interview in a long time. It reminded me that interviews sometimes produce raw, original research; the building blocks that radio history needs. So I did a few more interviews this year, including the ones with with Kait Moon, Rafal Alumairy (coming soon), and Frank Boscoe.

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to get comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. But this will probably be the last year that I can track this. Blogger has forced me to move to google analytics and removed it's native metrics. Google analytics is wholly devoted to ad revenue, which is not the data I was looking for. Simple questions like "What sites are referring my readers?" are now buried under an absurd stack of obtuse metrics and square miles of white-space. Sometimes less is more.

Best Radio Station:
I have been listening to as little news as possible, so no NPR lately. As neofascist toadies take over our government I have found the news too grim for regular consumption. Then my car CD player jammed. Anyway, because of those events I spent a few months listening to a few CDs on infinite repeat:

• Jackie MacLean - Right Now!
• Human Impact - Human Impact
• Officer May - Smoking in A Minor 
• Glassjaw -  Coloringbook

I waited for months and got a new car radio, a Pioneer DEH-S1200UB. It was only $70. Strategic error. The screen is dim, and genuinely difficult to read in the daylight. It actually makes the radio hard to operate. I fiddled with it for months before surrendering and watching an instructional video to figure out how to flip it over to the AM band.

Best Radio Show:
I'm breaking my own rules and picking a show I only discovered this year, but aired 40 years ago. "Hard Implosion" on WGBT which last aired in 1978. I spent hours listening and re-listening to a few tapes of that show to research the playlist of a proto-metal radio program and I really got into it. I never thought I'd enjoy listening to Budgie, Hawkwind, and Black Sabbath again. 

 
Top 10 Records of 2020
Generally the top 10 full-length albums, is format agnostic unless your format prevents me from hearing it. The definition of "full-length" is totally at my discretion as to number of tracks, or album length in minutes. But generally EPs, Singles, Re-releases, and demos get sifted down the the notable list. Aside from all that preface, our slow descent into dystopia has made for a good year in music. This could have been a top 20 this year.

1. Human Impact - (self titled) [LINK]
2. Uniform - Shame [LINK]
   
3. Idles - Ultra Mono
4. Algiers - There is no Year
5. Reptoid - Worship False Gods [LINK]
   
6. Accacia Strain - ...And Life Is Very Long
7. USA Nails- Character Stop [LINK]
8. Struggles with Syntax - UK Garage Floor Fillers Vol. 4 [LINK]
   
9. Heads - Push [LINK]
10. Bitter Branches - This May Hurt a Bit [LINK]

Also Notable...  Human Impact - Contact (single) & Human Impact - Transit Subversion (single) [LINK] (single); Thelonious Monk - Palo Alto (live); Pile - 10 Yr;  Jars - Self-Isolation Demos; Johnny Hobo & The Freight Trains - Live at Double​-​A's [LINK]; Teeth - Writhe (single) [LINK]; Kryptograf - Kryptograf; Scarlxrd - Fantasy Vxid;  Deftones - Ohms; Kids - Suh'm [LINK]; Belk - Belk [LINK]; Easy Prey – Relentless Struggle [LINK]; Lié  - You Want It Real [LINK]; Taiwan Housing Project - Sub​-​Language Trustees [LINK]; Days N Daze - Show Me The Blueprints. [LINK]; Loathe - I Let it in and It Took Everything [LINK]; Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion [LINK]; Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today; Help- 2053 [LINK]; Eye Flys - Tub of Lard [LINK]

News and Reviews 2019

Best Posts:
I'm very pleased with the series I've been doing on LGBT radio. There are a some white papers out there, and literally one text book.  So my articles are some of the only solid source material available on this topic, on the free internet. I have more planned, stay tuned. Back in October I wrote a solid piece on the now forgotten Daytime Broadcasters Association. Back in August I wrote up a newly discovered radio script for Adventure Theater. I got to be part of a Nielsen study and back in the Spring I wrote a long-needed biography for Brian Rust. Good times.

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to earn comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. In third place a 2010 post on Barn Dance programs remains popular. My readers continue to debate if I was unfairly harsh to Kevin Metheny. I think not, but he died in 2014 so I have hopes that's on the wane. I am pleased that Noise From Neville comes in 6th, as eventually finding the man himself led to two more WRIU centric posts [LINK]. Altogether it's blown past 1.3 million page views.

Best Radio Station:
I have been listening to more jazz than anything lately. So WKCR remains at the top of my list beside KMHD, WZUM and the mysterious online station Black Artistry Radio.

Best Radio Show:
I've been rocking episodes of Blues Before Sunrise on KMHD and the Moth Radio Hour on NPR. It's not adventurous but it's where I am at right now.

Best Zine:
I read Keith Rosson's Avow zine compilation The Best of Intentions. It features selections from Avow issues #1 through 10, and the complete issues of #11 through 16. If you haven't read it, let me tell you it's 288 pages of punk rock life vaguely similar to Burn Collector and Cometbus. I've also been devouring everything published by Amphetamine Sulphate. These are not zines per se, but more like novellas and chapbooks. But long live indie publishing.

Top 10 Records of 2019

1. Matana Roberts - COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis
2. Austerity Program - Bible Songs
3. Metz - Automat
4. Tool - Fear Inoculum
5. Tanith - In Another Time
6. Whitechapel - The Valley
7. Pile - Green and Gray
8. Long Sought Rest - Sacred Objects
9. Multicult - Simultaneity Now
10. Girlband - The Talkies

Also Notable...  Human Impact (coming 2020), Sacred Reich - Awakening; Overkill - The Wings of War,  Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind, Black Midi - Schlagenheim - Show Me The Body - Dog Whistle, 70 cm³ Of Your Chest - When I Was A Dinosaur, Bats - Alter Nature

News and Reviews 2018

It's been a shorter year for me blog-wise. There has been less research, less writing but so much going on elsewhere. However, when I have posted it's been longer, delved deeper and weirder unearthing some truly arcane deep dives. I'll keep it brief and focus on the highlights.

Best Posts:
It was only a few weeks ago but it felt very worthwhile to go deep on FCC's Operation Gangplank. Back in September I spent some time researching Radio Station Bombings and found out that KPFT was not alone in having been a terrorist target in the US, that WEDR, KMAK, KFWB and WKRL had also been bombed. My piece on Maximum Rock N' Roll took a lot of research, but not as much as the Golden Mike Awards which I wish was more complete. I also was very pleased to discover the first radio station build by a black radio engineer [LINK].

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is what I call the post that Reddit built. It remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 96k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to earn comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. In third place a 2010 post on Barn Dance programs remains popular. My readers continue to debate if I was unfairly harsh to Kevin Metheny. I think not, but he died in 2014 so I have hopes that on the wane. I am pleased that Noise From Neville comes in 6th, as eventually finding him led to two more WRIU centric posts [LINK].

Best Radio Station:
I have been listening to more jazz than anything lately.  I often head over to KJAZ.FM, a bebop focused online station that never dissapoints. Also on speed dial are WZUM, KSDS, KCSM, and WKCR 

Best Record Store:  
This year I visited the Original-ish Rough Trade record store on Talbot Road in Notting Hill, London. What could possibly be cooler than that? Rough Trade was my source for so many imports in the 1980s and 1990s, it was great to see the head waters of indie rock.

Best Radio Show:
I've been rocking episodes of Radio Found from KBOO. It's either crazy randomness or random craziness. It only airs every second and fourth Thursday from 10pm – 12am PST, which is a bit hard for me to catch so I just stream it off his blog. Also totally digging Noise Floor, a program on the online station Under Noise. I am also really big on the Irresponsableful channel on YouTube.

Best Zine:
Noise Widow, they're only up to issue three but they are all pure gold. The most recent one has interviews with Scald Hymn and Plagues, Noise Cribs and I don't even write for them.

Top 10 Records of 2018

1. Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin 
2. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
3. Pile - Odds and Ends
4. Heads - Collider
5. Sleep – The Sciences 
6. Idles – Joy as an Act of Resistance 
7. Barren Womb - Old Money / New Lows
8. Vein - Error Zone 
9. Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician
10. Anal Trump - The First 100 Songs

Also Notable... Jesus Price - Only Self, Miss World - Keeping up with Miss World, Mudhoney - Digital Garbage, Oh Sees - Smote Reverser, Wristmeetrazor - Insecurity Checkpoint, Melting Hand - Faces of Earth, Sumac - The Deal, Clutch - Book of Bad Decisions

News and Reviews 2017

It's been a shorter year for me blog-wise. There has been less research, less writing but so much going on elsewhere. However, when I have posted it's been longer, delved deeper and weirder unearthing some truly arcane deep dives. I'll keep it brief and focus on the highlights.

Best Posts:
I was perhaps overtly proud of my post on radio stations in Kerouac's novel On the Road. But for over a decade that's been the hard, immutable core of Arcane Radio Trivia: Obscure facts, wholly ancillary to the rest of the story.  As a fan of Samuel Beckett I was very pleased to finally write a lengthy post on his radio plays. I've been meaning to get to that for years. In Sixteen Sepia Spielers I write up an infamous 1947 Ebonmy magazine article I've used as a source a dozen times. I even wrote up the Jazz Man Radio show and had the pleasure of corresponding with the legendary Cary Ginell. I also quite liked by two-parter on Radio Free Paris back in April.

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular posts haven't changed in years.  Since 2009 the most traffic has gone to a post about Peter Tripp.  This is due to a completely coincidental link on Reddit. It was re-blogged by many others and remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 90k+ hits. I did eventually collate a list of all Radio Wake-a-thon records here. My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to earn comments from it's legion of former students. It remains a top hit on Google. In third place a 2010 post on Barn Dance programs remains popular. My readers continue to debate if I was unfairly harsh to Kevin Metheny. I think not, but he died in 2014 so I have hopes that it's over.

Best Radio Station:
This year I've listened to two stations more than any others 88.3 WMTS and 88.3 WBGO. It's taught me three things.
   1. I am not as discriminating about jazz as I thought I was.
   2. I passionately hate jazz vocals
   3. I am far too snobby about my noise rock.
I can actually listen to WBGO at length alternately enjoying and/or despising songs or even segments of songs depending on if and when the tin pan alley, show tune vocal begins. (Jazz vocals are a vestigial organ of the jazz genre and can be amputated without harm in almost every case.) By comparison, WMTS has a very solid schedule of innovative programs, including some abrasive and noisy gems. I also have spent a lot of time streaming Under Noise, and KUPS. For all of the above, I can thank the TuneIn App on my Roku.

Best Radio Show: 
I am very taken this Fall with a mid-day program on 91.7 KVRX, I Give a Heck. This  They describe themselves as follows "Fidel Cashflow and newly enthusiastic A Shramp Named Karl will be bringing you the best of post-punk, and noise rock, the weird of the weird. Two weird dudes playing weird tunes."  It's accurate but their taste in punk, noise punk and prog-punk is bar-none. Also digging lately Mystery Train on WRUR, The premium Psychedelia on Dementia 13 at CIUT, Dot Dash at WRAS, the long-running Dare Waves on WRUW, and some back to back shows on CJSR on Monday nights: Vlad Thee Inhaler's Sci-Fi BBQ, Basement Bricolage, and Imaginary Landscapes. Vlad  piques your curiosity then melts your brain, then for the next 4 hours you hallucinate local music and the RCMP asks for your passport.

Best Record Store:  
True vinyl loyalists, Mr. Suit Records has have helped me score some white whales, and a number of other rarities just because that how they roll. They've got a good stock of the news, and a nice  selection of the old. Mike, the man behind the counter is a frequent instagrammer of new arrivals. The most common response is "Hold please" to which he always responds "You got it" and thus becomes an enabler of pickers, record hoarders, and archivists alike.

Best Zine:
Women in Sound is a quarterly print zine dedicated to showcasing the achievements and process of women and non-binary people in live and recorded sound. It fills such an obvious niche in the pantheon of 'zines it's hard to believe it didn't already exist.

Top 10 Records of 2018

1. Unsane - Sterilize
2. Idles -  Brutalism
3. '68 - Two Parts Viper
4. Pile - A Hairshirt of Purpose
5. Glassjaw - Material Control
6. Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
7. Ecstatic Vision - Raw Rock Fury
8. Lung - Bottom of the Barrel
9. Metz - Strange Peace
10. Buck Gooter - 100 Bells

Runner ups...
Nomad Mountain Outlaws - Raccoon Church, Trash Knife - 7", Miscalculations - Kill The Whole Cast, Blessed - II, Skáphe – Untitled, Aye Nako - Silver Haze, Hilltop Gamblers - Midrash, Code Orange - Forever, Spoon - Hot Thoughts, Alter - Pendulum, Algiers - The Underside of Power, Converge - The Dusk In Us, Pissed Jeans - Why Love Now, Cousin Boneless - Revel in the Rubble

News and Reviews 2016

We are now in year 12, and if you hadn't noticed... things have changed.  This blog began in April of 2005. From the middle of that month until early March of this year I blogged 5 days a week. Then there was the great sabbatical of 2016. Suffice it to say, other projects have been monopolizing my time. I still remain fascinated by radio history; so the writing will continue slightly abated.
 (You can see previous years lists at the links below)

2015	2014	2013	2012
2011	2010	2009	2008
2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I wrote about... unknown Polka DJ Bill BeDilion, the phenomena of Somali radio in Minnesota, a briefly famous silver brick, The short-lived CBGB radio show, DJ and multiple-felon Rayon Payne, and radio performer Raymond Robert Myers. I interviewed author K.E. Edwards. I described early broadcasting in Jamaica. I parsed a completely arcane radio reference in Fahrenheit 451, and wrote up everyone's favorite Naval Air station NAR. I also posed two different black radio firsts... Earl Fatha Hines, and Ethel Waters. [Unfortunately it's the same first and only one of them can be right.]

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular post since 2009 has been a post about Peter Tripp. Thank you Reddit. It was re-blogged by many others and remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 90k+ hits.  My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to earn comments from it's legion of former students. In third place  a 2010 post on Barn Dance programs remains popular.  My readers continue to debate if I was unfairly harsh to Kevin Metheny. I think not. But that post remains quite popular.

Best Radio Show: 
I listen to less terrestrial radio than I used to.  I find myself in a popular movement. TV viewers and Radio listeners are moving away from "channels" and toward content providers. People are ultimately loyal to content and platform agnostic. Baseball fans will follow their team to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or that expensive expanded sports package at Comcast. So to that end, my favorite programs right now are actually Podcasts. My two are Actually Happening, and Grapple out of WHYY.

Best Zine: 
My zine of the year is the Summer 2016 issue of Comestible. This issues is about focused on where some of our favorite foods come from. Written by Anna Brones, you can hardly tell it's the handy work of subversive foodies. Her latest work The Revolution Must Be Fed, ships in January 2017.

Best Record Store of 2016:
This year it was definitely Records - the Good Kind in Manchester, CT. They have a nice big selection of classic vinyl, and a surprisingly good jazz CD section. I was blowing thru town on a road trip and also hit Tumbleweeds in Niantic, I also hit Oliver's Music Shop in Danielson, CT on the same trip. Oliver's was the weirdest by far, but my biggest haul was at Records the Good Kind. I also hit Willimantic Records... because you should never skip that store.

Top 10 Records of 2014    

1. Octagrape - Aura Obelisk
2. Melvins - Basses Loaded
3. Jars - Kotobus
4. Qui - How To Get Ideas
5. Candiria - While They Were Sleeping
6. Pink Wash - Collective Sigh
7. Car Bomb - Meta
8. Bleak - No light, No Tunnel
9. Norma Jean - Polar Similar
10. Sky:Lark - LP2

Honorable Mentions go out this year to: My Disco - Severe Remixes, Violent Mae - Kid, Black Table - Obelisk, Child Bite - Negative Noise, Every Time I Die - Low Teens, Russian Circles - Guidance, Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation, Voivod- Post Society, Gorguts - Pleiades' Dust, and Dysrhythmia - The Veil Of Control, Greys - Outer Heaven, Black Crown Initiate - Selves We Cannot Forgive