Altrok Radio Music Update #201

Firstly, the important stuff:

Altrok Radio is at http://www.altrokradio.com

Please remember to tune in whenever you can - every hour you listen turns into more visibility for the station; we show up higher in search listings, and such like that. And if you'd like to help us keep the stream running, check out the advertisers if they appeal to you; your interest actually helps fund us.

Now then, in addition to the outstanding Altrok Radio music mix that got us an Editor's Pick nod at Live365 and at About.com, we've added features we know you'll like...

Mondays at 11:30am Eastern (with a preview at 0730 GMT) you get to hear Sean Carolan (often referred to in these dispatches as "me") showcase the new music we've added this week on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase. New stuff, classic stuff, and Jeff Raspe with his Altrok Radio Underground Pick Of The Week...

And on Friday, it's Altrok's Eighties Friday: music from the eighties that mattered then AND now. An eight hour playlist that features some of the best that decade had to offer, drawing from all the music that was available at the time (yes, even from the seventies.)

But for now - we've got songs to let you know about.

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from:

- Ladytron
- My Device
- Foxboro Hot Tubs
- The Fall
- Pat DiNizio
- Carbon-Silicon

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Cloud Cult - Everybody Here Is A Cloud
- Elvis Costello - No Hiding Place
- The Duke Spirit - Lassoo
- The Long Blondes - Here Comes The Serious Bit
- Mates Of State - Get Better
- Nine Inch Nails - Echoplex
- Poi Dog Pondering - Lemon Drop Man
- Princeton - Eminent Victorians
- Sky Larkin - I Was A Teenage Hand Model
- Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Oceanographer
- Stereolab - Three Women
- The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards, It Did
- Weezer - Pork 'n Beans
- The Young Knives - Counters

Our Featured Classics:

- The Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night (Trent Reznor Remix)
- The Church - One Day
- The Clash - London Calling
- The Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
- The Dukes Of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl
- Freur - Doot Doot
- Mission Of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
- Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
- Wire - Drill

- Sean Carolan
Altrok Radio
On your computer now at http://www.altrokradio.com

On the radio Fridays at 10pm, at 90.5 The Night

Altrok Radio Music Update #200

Firstly, the important stuff:

Altrok Radio is at http://www.altrokradio.com

Please remember to tune in whenever you can - every hour you listen turns into more visibility for the station; we show up higher in search listings, and such like that. And if you'd like to help us keep the stream running, check out the advertisers if they appeal to you; your interest actually helps fund us.

Now then, in addition to the outstanding Altrok Radio music mix that got us an Editor's Pick nod at Live365 and at About.com, we've added features we know you'll like...

Mondays at 11:30am Eastern (with a preview at 0730 GMT) you get to hear Sean Carolan (often referred to in these dispatches as "me") showcase the new music we've added this week on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase. New stuff, classic stuff, and Jeff Raspe with his Altrok Radio Underground Pick Of The Week...

And on Friday, it's Altrok's Eighties Friday: music from the eighties that mattered then AND now. An eight hour playlist that features some of the best that decade had to offer, drawing from all the music that was available at the time (yes, even from the seventies.)

But for now - we've got songs to let you know about.

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from:

- Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong
- The Ting Tings
- The Duke Spirit
- The B-52's
- Midnight Juggernauts
- Nine Inch Nails

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Autons - Election Singer
- Blood Red Shoes - Doesn't Matter Much
- Coldplay - Violet Hill
- CSS - Rat Is Dead (Rage)
- Danny & Dusty - New York City Lullaby
- Foxboro Hot Tubs - The Pedestrian
- Gnarls Barkley - Charity Case
- Ladytron - Ghosts
- Lismore - More
- The Long Blondes - Century
- My Morning Jacket - Touch Me I'm Going To Scream
- Radiohead - Nude (Bathing In The Icefloe Mix by Thomas Dolby)
- Young Knives - Up All Night

Our Featured Classics:

- The Bongos - Skydiving
- Buzzcocks - Fiction Romance
- Killing Joke - Kings And Queens
- Stan Ridgway - Drive She Said
- The Specials - Ghost Town (12 inch version)
- Talking Heads - Life During Wartime
- Tears For Fears - The Hurting
- The Three O'Clock - Half the Way There
- Vicious Pink - Cccan't You See

- Sean Carolan
Altrok Radio
On your computer now at http://www.altrokradio.com

On the radio Fridays at 10pm, at 90.5 The Night

Thomas Dolby's Golden Age Of Radio(head)

It's hard for me not to want to keep an eye on Thomas Dolby. He kept making interesting records years after the mainstream industry wrote him off as a one-hit wonder, and then, when it became clear that making records was a sucker's game, he became part of the Web's fabric by becoming CEO of Beatnik, a Silicon Valley tech startup. Chances are, if you've got a ringtone on your cellphone, he was behind the technology that put it there.

So leave it to Dolby to turn something as mundane as wondering how far outside his house he could go before he lost his Internet connection, into art.

The story goes that, a few weeks ago, he wandered down to the beach behind his house (he has one - the whole technology thing was apparently very good to him) and sat down for a bit to check out the connection. Waves lapped against the beach, seagulls squawked at each other - generally, a pretty idyllic situation (except that it was pretty cold outside; he's brought a blanket to huddle up in.) While there, browsing the net randomly, he happened upon the news that Radiohead were making the component tracks for their song "Nude" available to the public, who were invited to submit their mixes. He grabbed a track and hit play, and the single track, which was silent for much of the time up until that instrument's part came up, wound up working so well in the environment he was in that he sampled the ambient audio and set to work on his own remix...then submitted it, pretty much the way anyone else would.

The thing I find most endearing about the story is that Dolby is clearly - and I mean this in the best possible, most empathetic way - a geek for the ages. Anyone who turns technology into art is aces in my book. So, as it turns out, are Radiohead, for having the foresight to offer the remix program in the first place.

Listen for yourself:



And that, by the way, is the other cool thing about it - I don't have to just rell you about it, I can post it myself and encourage you to vote. So yes, there's a bit of electioneering going on here...

[You'll be able to catch it tonight on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase, at 10pm Eastern at 90.5 The Night - do listen online if you can't tune in on FM.]

Altrok Radio Music Update #199

Firstly, the important stuff:

Altrok Radio is at http://www.altrokradio.com

Please remember to tune in whenever you can - every hour you listen turns into more visibility for the station; we show up higher in search listings, and such like that. And if you'd like to help us keep the stream running, check out the advertisers if they appeal to you; your interest actually helps fund us.

Now then, in addition to the outstanding Altrok Radio music mix that got us an Editor's Pick nod at Live365 and at About.com, we've added features we know you'll like...

Mondays at 11:30am Eastern (with a preview at 0730 GMT) you get to hear Sean Carolan (often referred to in these dispatches as "me") showcase the new music we've added this week on the Altrok Radio FM Showcase. New stuff, classic stuff, and Jeff Raspe with his Altrok Radio Underground Pick Of The Week...

And on Friday, it's Altrok's Eighties Friday: music from the eighties that mattered then AND now. An eight hour playlist that features some of the best that decade had to offer, drawing from all the music that was available at the time (yes, even from the seventies.)

But for now - we've got songs to let you know about.

This week, our Grinders (the stuff we play heavily) include music from:

- British Sea Power
- Hot Chip
- The Breeders
- Does It Offend You Yeah
- The Mystery Jets
- Tokyo Police Club

Plus we've got newly-added music:

- Be Your Own Pet - Creepy Crawl
- Broken Records - If The News Makes You Sad Dont Watch It
- The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever
- Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
- Pat DiNizio - Any Other Day
- The Fall - Is This New
- Hadouken! - Get Smashed Gate Crash
- The LK - Stop Being Perfect
- Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
- Plugs - That Number
- The Presets - This Boy's In Love
- The Ting Tings - Fruit Machine
- Twisted Wheel - She's A Weapon
- XX Teens - How To Reduce The Chances Of Being A Terror Victim

Our Newly-Added Classics:

- Julian Cope - Me Singing
- Joe Jackson - Pretty Boys
- Japan - Quiet Life
- Meat Beat Manifesto - 10 X Faster Than The Speed Of Love
- New Order - Leave Me Alone
- Siouxsie And The Banshees - Israel
- The Sound - Wildest Dreams
- The The - My Heart Would Know
- The Wonder Stuff - Don't Let Me Down, Gently

- Sean Carolan
Altrok Radio
On your computer now at http://www.altrokradio.com

On the radio Fridays at 10pm, at 90.5 The Night

What's On Where Now? (An Altrok Radio Station Primer)

There's a lot of different flavors of Altrok Radio now. Here's what you have to choose from:

• Our stereo station is the one with a new eight-hour long playlist that we upload every day. It's in 64k MP3Pro, which means that with the right decoder for WinAmp, or the right player for Windows or for Mac, it can be heard in CD Quality. Click here to start it.
  
  
• Our mono station has the same daily playlist as the stereo station, but doesn't include specialty shows or other special events. It's there if you've got a slower connection (like dialup or old-school ISDN or DSL) but even though it's in mono, the decoder brings it to you in (mono) CD Quality. Click here to start it.
  
  
• Our FM Showcase features all the new tracks we're adding to the playlists for the stations above; it airs every Friday at 10pm at 90.5 The Night, at (logically enough) 90.5 on your FM dial in central New Jersey. You can hit that link to listen to them live, or to play back the FM Showcase on demand (at relatively low quality.)
  
  
• Our 128k FM Showcase station plays the latest FM Showcase (and most of the previous one) on a continuous loop, in the highest quality we can play on the Web. There's no special decoder needed, but you do need a really good connection; if you've got one, click here to start it.

To keep all this stuff alive, click here for details on how you can help.