Blog Posts by Robert of the Radish

dahmer.jpgLike film, music can convey a myriad of emotions, including those of the vile and disgusting sort. And once in a blue moon I find myself being pulled to this dark side of music.

Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the most notorious serial killers in American history, and his life and crimes have inspired many songs.

Dahmer murdered 17 young men between 1978 and 1991, and the gruesomeness of his crimes captivated the nation. This is a man who lured mostly homosexual men of color back to his north central Milwaukee apartment.

The apartment, #213, became one of the most inhuman crime scenes ever discovered when Tracy Edwards, Dahmer's intended 18th victim, escaped and waved down police. Dahmer's reign of terror was finally stopped, two months after police bungled a chance to save victim number 13, Konerak Sinthasomphone .

What was found in apartment 213 included corpses stored in acid-filled plastic vats, severed heads in the refrigerator, and what was to be an alter made from human skulls and

gunfireThe ultimate percussion instrument is probably the handgun. Any sound above 65 decibels can cause hearing loss, and a gunshot tips the scales at around 140dB. This should give you a pretty good idea of how difficult it is to record the audio produced by a gunshot. Although most gunshot sounds found in recorded music are not produced by real guns, some are. This playlist contains both flavors.

We all know the role the gun plays in film, but it also has a place in music. However, the gunshot sound is utilized only by a small fraction songs in comparison to the attention it receives on the big screen.
Granted, most gunshot sounds in music fall squarely within the gangster rap genre, where lyrics dealing with violence take center stage.
Although these are well represented in this playlist, it has been overdone to the point of becoming mostly uninteresting.

The gunshot sounds I find the most fascinating come from other genres. I will highlight a few here:

The first track in this playlist is

The word "Dude" is not just for surfers anymore. It has officially weaved its way into American culture and is here to stay. So says Scott Kiesling, a real-life linguist dude at the University of Pittsburgh who has published a paper on the word "Dude".

"Dude" can be used in many situations including:

1. The Greeting: "Yo Dude, what's up?"
2. The Exclamation: "Whoa Dude!"
3. The Commiseration: "Sorry Dude."
4. The Agreement: "Dude" (while nodding head slowly)
5. The Surprise: "No way Dude!"
6. The Disgust: "Dude, not cool!"

In his paper Mr. Kiesling explains "cool solidarity". Basically the hypothesis is that word "dude" lets young men communicate intimacy to other men without fear of being perceived as gay. "It's like man or buddy, there is often this male-male addressed term that says, I'm your friend but not much more than your friend," said Kiesling.

Although mostly men use "dude", some women also refer to each other as "dudes". This is turning the word into a gender-neutral expression that can be

hendrix.jpg

AOR or "Album Oriented Rock" is a radio format that we associate with "Classic Rock".

Ironically, the format was born of the freeform radio movement in the 1960's when DJs had freedom to play non-single tracks from a variety of genres.

The freeform movement happened because it was dictated by the FCC. Broadcasters using the then new FM standard, could not simply simulcast what they played on their AM bands, they were forced to mix it up a bit.

Eventually, the freeform movement became more standard with the inception of song rotation. AOR began to play only select, or "focus" tracks from rock albums as opposed to singles. This format remained strong for decades, and has now spun off into the Classic Rock, Active Rock and Adult Album Alternative.

For this playlist I focused on selecting some of the most popular artists to be played on classic rock stations across the country. These are songs that have been broadcast daily for decades in America, and whose roots run deep in our culture.

LasagnaMusic has the ability to make life better in so many ways. Case in point: The dinner party.

Whenever you host a dinner for friends, or create a meal for family, music can always add to the experience. The key is proper song selection and keeping the volume low to ensure it never competes with conversation.

The simplest rule of thumb is when serving ethnic food, use music from the part of the world where the dish originates. Having a sushi dinner party? Use Japanese music!  Mexican? Try Mariachi. French? Throw on some Edith Piaf.The extra effort will improve your meals dramatically and give you a big leg up in social circles.

With the advent of subscription music services like Rhapsody, it's now simple to go the extra mile and provide fitting music for any occasion. 

This particular playlist works best with immigrant Italian food.

Piles of spaghetti or lasagna, antipasti, meatballs, Italian bread and a big basket-bottle of Chianti, all served on a red and white checkered tablecloth.

Fake Beatles

If you're a digital music freak like me, you understand that The Beatles are absolutely, without a doubt, the largest gap when it comes to downloadable and streaming music content on the Internet.

I have built many playlists around this unfortunate fact.

Try doing a number one hits, or a most influential playlist without the Beatles. It's like going to a football game without the fourth quarter, or going on a date without a kiss. Sure it can be fun, but it's always incomplete.

The Beatles are, after all, the undisputed most important band to ever breathe oxygen on planet Earth. 

For this playlist I faced the problem head on. I looked at all 21 number one hits the Beatles had in America and then found the very best cover versions available on Rhapsody.

I have assembled these covers in chronological order, starting with the Beatles very first hit in America, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and ending with their last, "The Long And Winding Road".

The end result is an interesting mixed bag

Today's playlist contains songs whose titles are palindromes. That is, a word or phrase that reads the same backward as it does forward.

My only requirement was that the word be at least 5 characters in length, with one exception. The song "Bob" by Weird Al Yankovic.

I chose this song to begin the playlist because the lyrics are all palindromic phrases. How cool is that? Sure, Weird Al is a total goof, but a song composed completely of palindromes called "Bob" sung in the style of Bob Dylan is simply brilliant.

And before the comments start, here are some reasons for songs that did not make the list:

They Might Be Giant's "I palindrome I" from the album Apollo 18 does not qualify. The title of the song is not a palindrome, so it is omitted.

"Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" by Crash Test Dummies - I couldn't bring myself to include this as a palidrome, it's 16 characters, but only 1 letter, sorry.

 "Aja" by Steely Dan - Great song, but it's only a 3 character palindrome.

Please add any songs I

punklove.jpgWhile our parents reminisce about teenage love affairs when they hear Elvis Presley or The Beatles on the radio, a new crop of fat and balding 30-somethings are now feeling the same nostalgic tingling when they hear songs by Black Flag, The Ramones, Bad Brains, Flipper, The Dead Kennedys and The Buzzcocks.

Sure, real punk rock is anti-authority, anti-corporate and anti-government, but no one would ever say it was anti-love.

Who can forget classic tracks like "Slip It In", "Oh Oh I Love Her So", "Die, Die My Darling" and "Orgasm Addict"?

This 19 track playlist is the perfect soundtrack to remind you of that high school crush who had the guts to jam a saftey pin through their cheek.

When building the list I limited my choices to bands that were part of the first wave of punk rock, which started in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s. Second and third wave punk was not included.

Sorry, but you won't find Rancid, The Offspring, Green Day or Anti-Flag here.

Back in the day