Rock Lottery 2012!
What if everything you did, you put yourself on a 24-hour deadline? This was the idea at our first ever Rock Lottery held at the Waldorf hotel on Jan 29th, 2012. We took 25 of our favourite Vancouver musicians, gave them some breakfast and coffee, randomly pulled names from a hat to assemble five totally new bands, and gave them a day and a half to write a 15-minute set. The tracks below were recorded from the floor at the final performance, and showcase an incredibly diverse range of musical genres and abilities.
The Rock Lottery was also a triple-whammy effort from The Association of Very Good Ideas, Instruments of Change, and Girls Rock Camp Vancouver. How can you not create something awesome with all three of these organizations involved? All funds raised went to the creation of a new Ladies Rock Camp to be held in a women’s prison. For more information, visit http://forbiddenflutes.com/instrumentsOfChange.html
Thanks to all you amazing musicians and volunteers who made the magic happen! And thanks to The Waldorf!
What They Whisper, We Will Shout: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The Last of The Gelflings: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download The Leavings: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Dave and the Guardian Storage: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Team Band: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadNoise and News
For all you noise-heads out there, my new series is devoted to digesting the often overwhelming daily news in a new format. A noisy format. Since I spend much of my day working at a radio station listening to various news clips from various sources, I have tossed a random smattering of news clips in with some music I’ve made/mixed in Ableton Live. I need an excuse to learn this program properly and make weird music, so here we are: Noise and News!
Frontier Radio: A Media Democracy Day Special
The following short radio piece was created and recorded by a team of ten people totally new to radio. At a workshop yesterday for Media Democracy Day, we threw participants into the thick of it, challenging them to script, plan, and record a short radio piece on a topic of their choice. They chose to discuss and review the panels they had attended for Media Democracy Day on November 12th. This piece will now be used for podcast, broadcast, and has already been transmitted on a low-power radio transmitter, representing the spectrum of radio options in independent media today.
Thanks go to all the participants for jumping in so readily, and to Brady Marks for co-hosting the workshop with me.
Tin Can Radio
Long time no see! This is a special episode resulting from an experiment, in which I built a radio transmitter. With the help of the Tin Can Studio in Vancouver, we arranged for 3 full days of radio mayhem, driving around in an Airstream trailer and broadcasting to whoever lay within a 5-block radius. The sounds below are the live raw files from our broadcast. Beware – it’s a different style of radio than my normal podcasts, as we threw the fancy production out the window in favour of spontaneous live energy.
The first link is the archive from host Matty Harris, featuring live noise performances, and interviews on the topic of “How Radio Changed My Life.” Matty is one of my favorite campus/community radio hosts.
The second link is from the day I hosted, featuring interviews about Media Democracy, live music performances, discussions about Headbanding, and the city coming by to shut us down, and then leaving, at which point we started again.
Matty live from the Tin Can: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Sarah live from the Tin Can [83:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Matty live from the Tin Can: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Sarah live from the Tin Can [83:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Episode 9: Back Into the Loving Arms of Meat
For all of you recovering vegetarians out there pecking away at organic, grain-fed, ethically raised chicken – this podcast will help explore some issues that might be on your mind. Issues like “how do I shop at a meat counter without embarrassing myself?” and “Which type of sausage is best for snacking?” and “What does it feel like when a butcher is nailed in the back with a giant pork loin?”
Warning to the faint of ear – I did visit a butcher shop for this one, resulting in some intense sawing and grinding noises. They’re kind of gross.
Episode 8: On The Subject of Rocking…
Finally, a new show! A show that explains what on earth I’ve been doing these past few months. A show that will make you spontaneously bear children. Or perhaps just donate to Girls Rock Camp Vancouver, and let other people bear children so they can go hang out at rock camp.
Half of any meager or large donations to this site will go to Girls Rock Camp Vancouver. You can also donate on their (our) site and none of it will go to Life After Radio. Rock on.
New band "Push" masters the art of rocking at camp.
Silence, and some ideas for enjoying it.
This month, I am taking a wee break from my dear podcast. In its absence, please feel free to fill an hour of silence with:
- more silence
- one-person rock outs
- multiple-person rocks outs
- eating corn, as it is in season
- listening to Arthur Russell’s instrumental record “Tower of Meaning” which generally makes me stop everything and just sort of think about how things could be.
- sitting by a river with no books or anything entertaining
- attempting to communicate with plants
- putting things on your turntable and trying to guess if they will fall off or continue spinning, and then watching them spin for a while, if they remain.
If any of you become particularly enlightened during this hour of absence, please tell me about it.
lifeafterradio@gmail.com
Miss you,
Sarah
p.s. here is my current favorite wall of noise. courtesy of Her Jazz Noise Collective.
Episode 7: The Home Jams Mix Tape
Longest show ever!
This one is a music show, something I haven’t done in a while, which is strange, considering how much of my life is taken up by music. For this episode, we bring you a festival of home-recorded gems from Vancouver and not-Vancouver. Pedals, loops, tape hiss, dictaphones, 8-tracks, special voices, digital audio experiements, MIDI, 16 year-old angst, and cats.
Please remember to support your podcaster. Button up top.
See you next month!
Happy Canada Day. And now, some Americans.
So i didn’t want you, listeners, to get all “you run away for a month and come back with eleven minutes?” on me. For this reason I am calling this show a “non-podcast.” Think about it outside the boundaries of the podcast. I went to Portland, I came back with some sounds, and need to keep you all occupied until the new real show comes out on Sunday. So here is Portland, or at least the part of Portland that includes screaming children playing drums, and a lesbian art show.