As a student-run station, one of the things that WPRB encounters is a turnover of operations during the summer. College kids — I guess they all just can’t be slacking around on campus in the summertime! Our very own Ian Auzenne (“Random Acts of Music”) is down in Lousiana, currently hosting a cable access show while he’s away from WPRB. You can check out the debut episode after the jump.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoM7IY694yA&hl=en&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00]
Monthly Archives: June 2008
This Week's Top 30!
Tune in every Friday at 6:00 p.m. for the Top Ten show, brought to you by A.K.A. Music in Philadelphia.
The full list is behind the cut — enjoy!
01 Religious Knives Resin (No Fun)
02 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti-)
03 Gnarls Barkley The Odd Couple (Downtown)
04 Endless Boogie Focus Level (No Quarter)
05 Lines Memory Span (Acute)
06 Tommy Jay Tom’s Tall Tales Of Trauma (Columbus Discount)
07 Astral Social Club 7″ (Dirty Knobby)
08 Photon Band Back Down To Earth (Transit Of Venus)
09 War On Drugs Wagonwheel Blues (Secretly Canadian)
10 Vivian Girls Wild Eyes 7″ (Plays With Dolls)
11 Notwist The Devil, You And Me (Domino)
12 Love Is All Love Is All Play 5 Covers (What’s Your Rupture)
13 Sic Alps A Long Way Around To A Shortcut (Animal Disguise)
14 Fabulous Diamonds Fabulous Diamonds (Nervous Jerk)
15 Aufgehoben Khora (Holy Mountain)
16 King Darves The Sun Splits For The Blind Swimmer (Destijl)
17 Oxford Collapse The Hann-Byrd EP (Comedy Minus One)
18 Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis Spectrum Meets Capain Memphis (Birdman)
19 Apples In Stereo Electronic Projects For Musicians (Yep Roc)
20 Last Shadow Puppets The Age Of The Understatement (Domino)
21 V/A Rmxology: Delicious Vinyl All Stars (Delicious Vinyl)
22 Mincemeat Or 10 Speed All Critters (Self-released)
23 Jandek Glasgow Friday (Corwood Industries)
24 Public Record Public Record (High Two)
25 Pink Reason 7″ (Fashionable Idiots)
26 Yelle Pop Up (Source-Etc)
27 Mingering Mike Super Gold Greatest Hits (eMusic)
28 Sloan Parallel Play (Yep Roc)
29 No Age Nouns (Sub Pop)
30 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles (Last Gang)
New Pop Recon Airs Tonight At 7PM!
A new episode of Pop Recon airs tonight on WPRB at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. It features interviews and music from Brooklyn’s Oxford Collapse (Sub Pop) and Philadelphia’s Pattern Is Movement (Hometapes).
Pop Recon is produced and hosted by Maria T (yours truly). It’s a monthly arts & culture series on WPRB featuring new, on-the-scene interviews with musicians, writers, and more, and mixes them up with rare interviews unearthed from the station’s vault. Like the title suggests, Pop Recon seeks to take an in-depth look at the world of popular music.
If you miss an episode of Pop Recon, fret not: program archives are available in podcast format.
WPRB Goes To Popped!
As many of you know (or at least, the 150 who picked up goodie bags from our table), WPRB went to the Popped! Music Festival this past weekend. Here are some insights from the intrepid staff who packed up the car and headed to the City of Brotherly Shove.
Special thanks goes out to the Princeton Record Exchange for supplying us with their awesome, instantly recognizable yellow shopping bags!
Chloe The Intern
We had a nice little table in a shady spot, and gave out bags of very nice free stuff until we realized that only two hours of the day had passed and we were running out of bags. So, being the quick thinkers we are, we decided to have an impromptu freestyle rap battle to give the bags away.
We tried really hard to spread the word, but it didn’t really work out; I did, however, ask Mr. Lif to come, which is probably one of the high points of my life. He was going home though, and the only person who showed up was this guy wearing short shorts. Hey, at least we gave it a shot. We got to see some of the music too – my personal favorites were Crystal Castles and Dan Deacon. Both of them had everyone going insane. Dan Deacon’s set was cut 15 minutes short but he still managed to give one of the most memorable performances; he made a sort of cyclone of people in which I almost died, and a bridge of audience members which you could run under. Crystal Castles’ vocalist Alice Glass was one of the best performers I’ve ever seen, too.
Sunday we went over to the World Café for a pretty substantial lineup. Twelve bands performed, many of which were local. My favorites were Tickley Feather, O’Death, and Daniel Johnston. Tickley Feather’s set was incredibly relaxing and beautiful, and the only way I can explain O’Death’s was an experience. One band member’s ukelele broke, the violinist’s bow was frayed down to a few strings by the end of the set, and the drummer’s cymbal had to be taped down and replaced about five times. I highly suggest seeing them live. Daniel Johnston went on very late, and was great. I actually hadn’t listened to much of his stuff, and I knew very little about him, which I regret. Everyone there was just so happy to be seeing him. His voice gave out halfway through the set, but he kept going; his last song was “Devil Town,” and everyone sang along with him. At one point, in between songs he told the audience about a dream he had where a man was being put to death for trying to commit suicide, and he was on trial. Then, Daniel said, “And this guy was me! And I was saying help me, help me!” It was wonderful.
Cody (Station Manager)
What follows are my own highlights from Saturday, 6/21, at Popped!… and whether they were worth it, or not. Overall, a good, clean time was had by all, and congrats to the lucky and speedy 150 or so people who managed to snag music gift bags from us before we ran out!
Worth It
- Just Barely: Dan Deacon orchestrating a human cyclone of kids running around in an ever-expanding circle, with a semi-naked overweight trucker dude in the center (he was wearing Speedos).
- Free drinks in the VIP area (from Coca-Cola to Skyy).
- Though I Looked Pretty Dumb: taking up to 5 minutes after they were done to realize that Ting Tings did that iPod commercial.
- VERY Worth It!: Running into ‘PRB listeners who’d grown up listening to us, and meeting those who’d never heard of ‘PRB.
Not Really Worth It
- $3 herbal-infused bottled water from Ayala.
- Vampire Weekend.
Maria T (Publicity & Promotions, etc.)
I have decided to commemorate this event with a haiku.
At Popped! did I
Drink enough or not enough
Lifestyle bevera…?
And of course, no post would be complete without some visual evidence. All photos courtesy of Maria T.
Working the audience.
Do they love our station, or just the bumper stickers?
Chloe The Intern and Alex T The DJ.
DJ Lance Loud interviews our lone rap battle contestant.
We taught you how to give a station ID.
L-R: Lance Loud, Chloe The Intern, Station Manager Cody, Alex T The DJ. Working hard or hardly working? You decide!
Transformers 2 Filming on Campus (Shia Labeouf to Guest-DJ on WPRB… jk)
Transformers 2 arrived in Princeton last Sunday evening, and have been filming a 3-day shoot here on the Princeton University campus. According to the Daily Princetonian, three of the main stars (Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox, and Ramon Rodriguez) were all on location for the shoot. Pictures and video below the jump.
From what this reporter could gather, director Michael Bay was calling the library a “classroom” and the University chapel a “dorm.” Nevertheless, here are some shots of the on-set action, on Monday.
Youtube clip of first take of Shia/Sam walking out of Firestone Library scene:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCfm5EbcBTs]
Some random shots of Shia Labeouf, as well as one of Shia walking with director Michael Bay, as they discuss that oh-so-difficult “rushing out of the library/classroom and looking confused” scene::
2 Awesome Post-Popped! Activities
Here are two awesome events happening after the Saturday edition of Popped! we at WPRB are pretty psyched about.
9PM: England Belongs to Twee! at the Khyber (52 S. 2nd Street)
OppositeLand comes to life! Nerdy twee kids meet, dance, and drink it up with big ol’ skinheads and oi punkers. Easily one of the best DJ nights in Philly. This month, Herbie from Brown Recluse Sings is their special guest! (You might remember Herbie from when I covered Jon Solomon’s show a couple weeks back.) This is a 21+ event, sorry!12AM: “Nadastrom” at Pilam (3914 Spruce Street)
Baltimore club DJ/genius Dave Nada joins forces with Matt Nordstrom. We have seen Dave lay waste to entire dancefloors. This might be a FREE event. This is an ALL-AGES event, yay!
Stay up until sunrise! Sunday’s Popped! show doesn’t begin until 3PM — that’s plenty of time to catch some ZZZ’s.
WPRB Top 30 for this week!
Hey Listeners! Julia Factorial checking in with our Top 30 for this week. I’ll be holding down the music department this summer so you’ll be hearing from me quite a bit. If you’re curious what the Top 10 sounds like, you can tune in to the TOP 10 show, airing every Friday afternoon from 6-7PM. It’s sponsored by A.K.A. Music in Philadelphia – chances are, if you’re hearing it on WPRB, you can buy it at A.K.A.!
1 CRYSTAL CASTLES Crystal Castles Last Gang
2 SPIRITUALIZED Songs In A&E Spaceman-Fontana
3 M83 Saturdays=Youth Mute
4 BLACK ANGELS Directions To See A Ghost Light In The Attic
5 LINES Memory Span Acute
6 WAR ON DRUGS Wagonwheel Blues Secretly Canadian
7 NOTWIST The Devil, You And Me Domino
8 LYRICS BORN Everywhere At Once Anti
9 VARIOUS ARTISTS Verve Remixed 4 Verve
10 BREEDERS Mountain Battles 4AD
11 LEXIE MOUNTAIN BOYS Sacred Vacation
12 YELLE Je Veux Te Voir EMI
13 UNWED SAILOR Little Wars Burnt Toast Vinyl
14 SLOAN Parallel Play Yep Roc
15 TICKLEY FEATHER Tickley Feather Paw Tracks
16 PHOTON BAND Back Down To Earth Transit of Venus
17 TEACHER’S PET Teacher’s Pet Smog Veil
18 GONGZILLA Suffer Lolo
19 PORTISHEAD Third Island
20 SIC ALPS A Long Way Around To A Shortcut Animal Disguise
21 VIVIAN GIRLS 7″ Plays with Dolls
22 KING DARVES The Sun Splits For The Blind Swimmer Destijl
23 ENDLESS BOOGIE Focus Level No Quarter
24 VARIOUS ARTISTS Disco Not Disco: Post Punk, Electro And Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986 Strut
25 MINGERING MIKE Super Gold Greatest Hits Emusic
26 JEREMY JAY A Place Where We Could Go K
27 KURT VILE Constant Hitmaker Gulcher
28 BLUES CONTROL Puff Fusetron
29 SHE AND HIM Volume One Merge
30 MINUS THE BEAR They Make Beer Commercials Like This Suicide Squeeze
We're So Cool
Just a wee news item to share with y’alls: seems that Philly group Man Man were interviewed by Pitchfork today, and they had this to say about, ahem, a particular radio station:
» Favorite Radio Show
Pow Pow: Princeton 103.3 [WPRB]. I actually saw a guy in the crowd today at the show who was wearing a Princeton 103.3 shirt. I grew up listening to that station, and it has completely warped my brain forever. Young influence.
Aw, thanks guys! Happy to have warped your brain.
THIS WEEKEND: WPRB AT POPPED! SAY HI!
WPRB’s hitting up the Popped! Music Festival in Philadelphia this weekend. Please stop by our booth and say hello!
Congrats to all of those who won tickets & passes on our station!
We hear that 3-day passes are SOLD OUT but you can still pick up tickets for the individual events. Avoid ticket surcharges — here’s a list of the box office locations & set times:
FRI 06-20: Kick-off Party
Tix still available at: The Trocadero (1003 Arch Street)
SAT 06-21: Outdoor Show @ Drexel University
Tix still available at: The POPPED! Box Office (33rd & Market Streets)
01:00 The Ting Tings
01:50 Hoots & Hellmouth
02:40 Mr. Lif
03:30 Dan Deacon
04:10 Gogol Bordello
05:40 Crystal Castles
06:45 Mates of State
08:00 Vampire Weekend
SUN 06-22: World Café Live
Tix still available at: The World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street)
Upstairs at World Café Live
04:00 Cheers Elephant
05:00 The Vandelles
06:00 The Swimmers
07:00 Takka Takka
08:00 Sam Champion
09:00 Project Jenny/Project Jan
Downstairs at World Café Live
05:15 Gildon Works
06:15 PWRFL Power
07:15 Tickley Feather
08:15 O’Death
09:45 The Capitol Years
10:15 Daniel Johnston
This Week's Top 30!
Tune in every Friday at 6:00 p.m. for the Top Ten show, brought to you by A.K.A. Music in Philadelphia.
The full list is behind the cut — enjoy!
1 SHY CHILD Noise Won’t Stop (Kill Rock Stars)
2 CONSTANTINES Kensington Heights (Arts & Crafts)
3 APPLES IN STEREO Electronic Projects For Musicians (Yep Roc)
4 BREEDERS Mountain Battles (4AD)
5 ETRANFINATAWA Desert Crossroads (Riverboat/World Music Network)
6 WELFARE MOTHERS Long Brown Hair 7″ (Self-released)
7 PORTISHEAD Third (Island)
8 V/A Disco Not Disco: Post Punk, Electro And Leftfield Disco Classics
1974-1986 (Strut)
9 SANTOGOLD Santogold (Downtown)
10 CLINIC Do It! (Domino)
11 SHE AND HIM Volume One (Merge)
12 KURT VILE Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher)
13 LYRICS BORN Everywhere At Once (Anti-)
14 V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave (Everloving)
15 LUCKY DRAGONS Dream Island Laughing Language (Marriage)
16 PATTERN IS MOVEMENT All Together (Hometapes)
17 BUBBLE/GUM Self-titled (Self-released)
18 LIBERTINES Time For Heroes: Best Of The Libertines (Rough Trade)
19 ROB BROWN Crown Trunk Root Funk (Aum Fidelity)
20 FRUSTRATIONS Glowing Red Pill (X)
21 NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti-)
22 SPECTRUM MEETS CAPTAIN MEMPHIS Indian Giver (Birdman)
23 BLACK TAJ Beyonder (Amish)
24 WAR ON DRUGS Wagon Wheel Blues (Secretly Canadian)
25 TOKYO POLICE CLUB Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)
26 PINK SKULL Zeppelin 3 (Free News)
27 TEENAGERS Reality Check (XL)
28 RUSSIAN CIRCLES Station (Suicide Squeeze)
29 EARTH The Bee Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord)
30 NO AGE Nouns (Sub Pop)