Blog: Altrok's Rantcast

Here's a full accounting of all the releases we're playing the most at Altrok 90.5 HD2, as of yesterday... 1 NADA SURF The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy Barsuk 2 ENVY CORPS It Culls You Tempo Club 3 SHINS "Simple Song" [Single] 4 BLACK KEYS El Camino [...]

I love woot.com and its many-headed hydra-like manifestations . Each day they put up new items to sell, and each day they accompany those items with descriptions that are usually worth that item's purchase price on their own. For instance, this thankful acknowledgement that the Bon-Home Heat & Dry Dish Rack should not be confused with Bon Iver. (Ever notice we don't play Bon Iver on Altrok 90.5 HD2 ? Notice it.)

Panda. I hear he likes Altrok 90.5 HD2 , too. So don't mess with Panda.

Here's Altrok 90.5 HD2's rundown for 2011 (technically 12/15/2010 - 12/15-2011) with each band represented by their highest charting track during that period, as determined by airplay on the station. We couldn't afford Price Waterhouse for the tabulations, but the software we used seems pretty solid. (Update: Okay, so we screwed up on The Drums. We like The Drums.) 90.5 - Bombay Bicycle Club - Shuffle 90 - Digitalism - 2 Hearts 89 - Blood Orange - Forget It 88 - Foals - Spanish Sahara 87 - Radiohead - Lotus Flower 86 [...]

Over at News From Me , Mark Evanier pontificates at length over the proper way to prepare and deliver a pie to the face. Seriously, it's no laughing matter. Do pore over it while tuned to Altrok 90.5 HD2 , where (by the way) the Christmas music will wait until Christmas Eve...

I can't ever help being a sucker for the Olympics ; I blame Jim McKay . Especially the opening ceremonies, which are generally an exercise in making billions of people look at an avant-garde art exhibition. Often, they'll wonder why it is they're watching, but they certainly watch. I try not to ever miss them, myself. The London Games in 2010 will not be an exception, but may have a bit more rhythm than usual, since Underworld will be responsible for the original music. This might be very [...]

Kids, The 6th Annual Melody Bar Reunion will be on Saturday, February 25th at the Elk's Club in New Brunswick, from 7-12. Matt Pinfield and all of your favorite Melody DJ's will be spinning all your old favorites from back in the day. Come out and have a great time, like we have the last five years! See you on the dance floor! Stiffy

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them X were on the Jerry Lewis Telethon in 1982. Sadly, their introduction by Casey Kasem isn't on this clip, but...finally, vindication is mine!

And so, here's The Grip Weeds. You're welcome.

My initial reaction (sadly, a knee-jerk one) to the announcement of the Stone Roses reunion was kinda negative. But then again, Ian Brown's been making good music lately. Perhaps this one's worth giving a shot. According to FMQB's article, Liam Gallagher's giddy. So there's that, then.

I wasn't sure what the best title for this column should be. The Rusty Show, the Old Codger Show, the Terribly Pathetic Show, the I Feel Sorry For Anyone Watching This Show. All kinda work. Yes, I am referring to the VH1 Classic presentation call That Metal Show. From time to time as I flip through the channels I'll come across this sad show and wonder why is this on the air. It's painful to watch. It seems to be the complete antithesis of anything Metal related. Each episode features members of a long lost and [...]

A few days ago R.E.M. announced they were retiring the band. After 30 years or so, they had done it all, seen it all and decided their time was up. On one level I was very sad, and the news of their exit was a cold stab to the heart. One of the greatest American bands of the modern rock era and of all time was to be no more. The tone of the announcement signaled there would be no reunions. This was the end. The entity, the spirit, the force that was R.E.M. was forever gone. On [...]

An originally terse announcement on R.E.M.'s official site has been expanded to include each member's comments, but the sum of it is this: R.E.M. have decided that Collapse Into Now was their last album, and there will be no more. There's no need to question this. As Michael Stipe very correctly quotes in their farewell message, 'the skill in attending a party is knowing when to leave'. They leave behind them an awesome body of work, some of which is likely to continue to surface as though it were new in 25th/30th/50th anniversary collections. [...]

Here's a bit of an experiment... These are the songs we're playing a lot lately on Altrok 90.5 HD2. The links go to Amazon, and if you click on any of them and buy anything, you help keep Altrok running (we get a portion of the proceeds.) Interested? Click away. (While you're shopping, why not listen to Altrok 90.5 HD2 ?) Heavy: Blood Orange - Forget It - Coastal Grooves [...]

(From an idea by Rob Pastorio-Newman; originally published at Altrok.com on May 25, 2001 ) ALTROK scans the farthest reaches of the broadcast spectrum in order to bring you, the ALTROK reader, breaking alternative radio news. Today, we'll focus on Numbers stations. According to the Numbers page at DXing.com , Numbers stations are "stations that do nothing but read blocks of numbers, usually using a woman's voice, in a variety of languages and on innumerable different frequencies. All available evidence indicates that some of these transmissions may be somehow [...]

As we attempt to dig our way out of this blackout, there's a light beckoning to us from the end of this tunnel... ...it's an All Eras Melody Bar Reunion , and it's happening Sunday, September 4 at The Court Tavern . There are many DJs (Drew, Iron Mike, Sean Carolan, Ed Wong and Trent among them) and two dance floors: Classic tracks will rule the underground floor. And since the Melody was all about [...]

At Altrok 90.5 HD2 , we've suddenly got a whole new set of streams, mostly because our brand spanking new streaming server got set up a bit early, and we wanted to take advantage of it as soon as we could. We're slowly updating all the existing links, but the hurricane's slowing us down a bit. (Hurricanes, go fig.) So here's your direct links for Altrok 90.5 Radio online... Good Quality (64k MP3) Better Quality (64k AAC+) [...]

Music is an almost infinite landscape of creative opportunity. The possibilities of sounds and combinations of are all but unlimited, and much less so now given the power of technology. Even within the very narrow scope of pop music, and within that rock music, the variety of content goes on and on, decade after decade. Just like snow flakes, no two compositions are ever the same. Well worn and highly straight- jacketed sub genres like punk can still be made to sound fresh, even after almost 40 years. But in a broader context, the pop music landscape [...]

This weekend, a quiet celebration occurred up on channel 186 ( Cablevision reckoning). The VH1 Classic channel played host to a weekend filled with of MTV 's most memorable in-house video, although by and large bereft of the music videos that made up the bulk of its programming back in those days. However, the pinnacle of the celebration was the warts-and-all, commercials-included re-airing of MTV's first hour of broadcast, notable also for the complete inability of the broadcast's minders to insert Mark Goodman 's breaks in the right places between the videos. That [...]

In the wake of WRXP 's zombification and impending demise, I made a relatively feeble attempt to draw disaffected listeners to my little slice of spectrum via social media. Hey, I run a radio station, I do that, though I wish I could do so without sounding like such a dork. In response, Mike Black (a fellow WHTG-FM jock in the 80's and 90's, and more recently a winner in the viral video sweepstakes when he had the bright idea to do a stop motion video of the effect [...]