12 December 2012

Holiday for Skins










It's that season, once again. The season when the venues of various decades-blogs' contributors erupt in a friendly competition of musical whatsis. Two years ago it was guitar riffs, last year it was guitar solos. And now it appears that Simon has called it for this year -- drummage.

As much as I enjoyed contributing to last year's community throwdown, I might have to sit this one out -- merely spectate. It's at times like this that I realize that my "rock" enthusiasm isn't what it could be, and perhaps never was, because I'm hard-pressed to think of any candidates that I'd nominate for this thing.

Jazz? That's another matter entirely. Funk breakbeats and tracks? That would take a while -- in fact, I wouldn't know where to begin.

But the topic reminds of a related oddity we had around the university/community radio station where I had a show for about 5 years. When I'd work the late-morning slot, it meant that my shift butt-ended with the format change-over in which the Classical crew came in and took over. That is, providing the DJ showed up for his or her shift. Which was a constant problem, because the classical DJs were the station's worst when it came to being chronically late or not showing up at all. Which of course left the preceding DJ stuck in the booth and on the airwaves, manning the helm under a station manager or format chief could make it in to take over. Which resulted in my being late for my office gig many times; with other DJs being late for class, if not missing it completely. Naturally, this didn't go over well. After a while, it became common among DJs in the Rock format to retaliate against the situation by wrecking the Classical slot they were forced to fill -- picking the worst discs out of the Classical bins and spinning them in their entirety. Yeahyeah, I know I know...not the most mature or professional thing to do. But the rationale was: if the Classical division didn't care about its format and its listeners, why should anyone else?

At any rate, this one was a unanimous favorite for such occasions...




Which was an entire disc of former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo banging the kit along with Vivaldi. Yep.

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