Irregular Streams: The Cast Grows Up

That said, I was recently sent a podcast by @CBMyers that omits all of the discontent above. There is a music company called Truth & Soul Records that has access to a world famous record collector named Phillip Lehman and a few talented DJ’s from Brooklyn. Together, they have compiled about 16 podcasts that encapsulate a period of Funk/Afro-Funk that has regretfully gone unheard…seriously, Shaft would be fucking pissed.

My recommendation is track #1 – Live at Williamsburg Hall. But I won’t walk you through it – go blow your own mind.

Podcast: Truth & Soul Radio

Conor Kelley on Comedy Death Ray Radio

“Man, I wish we had taped that conversation!”

You’ve said it at some point. We all have. The quote is most often heard bouncing off cheap drywall in college apartments, circling four-hose hookahs and drowning in Mickey’s forties. Ten times out of ten, if the referenced conversation were actually taped and played back, it would be about as interesting as the post-college lives of the people you had it with…not very. We may not be as funny as we think we are, but some people actually are that funny. That’s why when someone has the wherewithal to get some talented people together and press record, it becomes eminently listenable.

Comedy Death Ray Radio was created by Scott Aukerman, a former writer on HBO’s cult favorite Mr. Show with Bob and David. Aukerman is one of those underground comedy staples that has built up a rapport with the funniest people in the business through his years of writing and live improv. All of his friends and comedy partners make up the guests each week on this hour to hour and 20 minute-long podcast. Since its inception the guest list has included names like Aziz Ansari, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Andy Samberg, Donald Glover, Jerry Minor, Nick Swardson, Andy Richter, Michael Cera, David Cross, Ben Stiller and many, many others.

The funniest contributors are the ones that enter and leave the studio completely in character. Paul F. Tompkins as Andrew Lloyd Webber is particularly ridiculous, foppish and hilarious. Jon Daly’s mash-up character Bill Cosby-Bukowski is completely off the wall. What could be funnier than a black comedian/drunkard poet who treats the Huxtable children like Bukowski treated his women?

CDRR has little to no format. It begins with a 20-minute conversation with Scott’s primary guest, at some point more guests, who may or may not be in character, will amble in, and it typically ends with some sort of free form question and answer game. The structure of the show is more or less irrelevant. What matters is that these brilliant comic minds are feeding off one another in a live setting. Comedy Death Ray Radio is perfect for a car ride, walk to work, or any other time you feel like laughing. Check it out.

Podcast: Comedy Death Ray Radio

Koz on Howler’s Live:

Someone once told me to download a Podcast of a Trey show from 8/7/08, and I did. I liked it, of course, but it wasn’t enough to draw me into the world of Podcasting. Like Kevin, I too was put-off to podcasts until, well, just this week when the idea to write about them was suggested. Something about having to sort through it all, guess what might be good, download it to my iPod, listen, and possibly hate it. It all felt like an ordeal not worth whatever the outcome might be. And it was already easy to tape trade or download Trey shows. Then my father played This American Life for me on a long car ride. Again, I enjoyed it. Political humor by the best political humorists. But still, I wasn’t hooked. The fisherman’s hook grabbed my cheek, but didn’t puncture the skin and drag me kicking and screaming to shore. The pull wasn’t strong enough. Dry land, to a fish, is death.

So when I was told to check out Howler’s Live Podcast, I was not excited. Hell, I even had to ask for help when trying to figure out how to find the damn thing (technologically inclined, apparently, is not on the list of ways to describe me). When I finally did find it, (go to the iTunes Store and search for “Howler’s” – yup it’s THAT fucking easy), I thought “Here I am downloading what seems to me like no more than a radio show I could get the equivalent to on my morning car ride to work.” But then I read the description. “An episodic series of live performances and interviews with some of the best unknown bands from around the world.”

I ignored the fact that the stream is based out of a music venue in Pittsburgh, and began scanning some of the different episodes. The opening theme to Howler’s Live is immediately gripping. It’s simple but funky. Jazz, blues, soul combined into two looped bars of groove. Each episode contains live performances and interviews of two bands, one local and one from out of town. There is little introduction beyond “enjoy” from the host, a man known simply as Bengt. His main goal is to let you listen. But the best part: there seems to be no predestination of genre aside from the limit of what bands roll through Steel Town. In Episode 110, the screaming thrash of Liturgy opens the show, but the country acoustic folk twang of the Beagle Brothers awaits the patient (or the impatient, like me, who skip ahead). Episode 112 jumps from the psychedelic rock of Morningbell to Mon River Ramblers’ bluegrass. The other 13 episodes are more of the same: different.

The downside, perhaps, is that each episode clocks in somewhere between one hour and three, so you never know what your time commitment is going to be. It depends on how long the band played, how much fun the interview was, and of course, how much you care. Also, Bengt is pretty relaxed (or, maybe, lazy) about the whole thing, so new episodes are sporadic at best. But I’m willing to wager a bet. For those of us sitting at a desk, in a cubicle, with a picture of our girlfriend on one side of the computer and a picture of our college band on the other, we’re not going anywhere for a while.

If the fluorescent lights were any stronger we’d be getting a tan. The phone’s not ringing, business is slow. The scenery out the window isn’t changing: just a bunch of cars and a mattress store across the street. The Excel spreadsheet won’t update itself, but that sound of the clicking mouse and the tapping on keys could drive a man insane. What better time than now to open our ears?