The Mosher Pit

[I'm starting to get tagged for memes on FB more often. It's ok, I haven't been blogging here enough lately, right? Pregnancy is so distracting. Anyhow, I've forgotten more concerts/shows than I can remember--life of a former music critic, I guess.]

Here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you’ve seen in concert.

Should you choose this challenge, here’s what you do (if you’re doing this through Facebook, anyway):
Copy my note. Click on “notes” under tabs on your profile page. Select “write a new note” in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Once you’ve saved, don’t forget to tag friends (including me) on the right.

1. Duran Duran
2. Depeche Mode
3. Sting
4. U2
5. Nine Inch Nails
6. The Damned
7. Nick Cave
8. Radiohead
9. Siouxsie and the Banshees
10. The Faint
11. Cyndi Lauper
12. Bella Morte
13. Gary Numan
14. VNV Nation
15. GWAR
16. Conjure One
17. Dead Can Dance
18. REM
19. Poison (Mike Nelson’s brother was responsible for this.)
20. Psychedelic Furs
21. Concrete Blonde
22. David Bowie
23. Peter Murphy
24. The Rollins Band
25. The Cure
26. Tapping the Vein
27. Erasure
28. The BoDeans
29. Apoptygma Berzerk
30. The Pixies
31. Low
32. Strawberry Switchblade
33. Corrosion of Conformity
34. Apocalyptica
35. The Dresden Dolls
36. Social Distortion
37. Covenant
38. The Smithereens
39. Love Spirals Downwards
40. Debbie Harry
41. And One
42. Carfax Abbey
43. Cracker
44. Ego Likeness
45. black tape for a blue girl
46. Stromkern
47. The Gossip
48. Voivod
49. Rufus Wainwright
50. Voltaire

Posted in Music by: Helen
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Because Kelly A. tagged me, and I haven’t done this one in a while and for some reason have never picked my first favorite band:

Using only SONG names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to at least 15 people and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist:
Duran Duran

Are you a male or female?
Girls on Film

Describe yourself:
Notorious

How do you feel:
Hungry Like the Wolf

Describe where you currently live:
Planet Earth

If you could go anywhere where would you go?
Ordinary World

Your favorite form of transportation:
The Chauffeur

Your best friend is:
Friends of Mine

What’s the weather like:
Hold Back the Rain

Favorite time of day:
New Moon on Monday

If your life was a TV show, it would be called:
All She Wants Is

What is life to you:
What Happens Tomorrow

Your fear:
Come Undone

What is the best advice you have to give:
Reach Up for the Sunrise

Thought for the Day:
New Religion

How I would like to die:
Red Carpet Massacre

My soul’s present condition:
Shadows on Your Side

My motto:
My Own Way

[Tags will appear in Facebook. But if you're one of my blog readers who doesn't regularly tune in to Facebook, consider yourself tagged too, but only if you want to be.]

Posted in 80s, Memery, Music by: Helen
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Even though I didn’t actualize on my DJness until this past decade, I actually got my start at WMWC, the a.m. college radio station at Mary Washington. My friends Beth and Jason helped me produce a comedy/commentary show we called “The Montana Report,” and I was Montana Fountainbleu–probably my first of many alter egos that I’d later parlay into internet-pen-names and various short-story protagonists. I’m not sure that we were ever as funny as we thought we were, but we sure entertained the hell out of each other, at least.

Elder son is attending a radio camp at WGMU next week, and I can’t wait to ask him if they still have pots and carts–that is, potentiometers and NAB cartridges. I doubt it. I was on the tail edge of analog production in those heady late 1980s-days, both with regard to yearbook layouts and radio show logistics. I went the print route, and as such, I know all about how desktop publishing completely changed publication production. But aside from being much more comfortable with CDs and mp3s than with vinyl (even though I originally learned to spin and mix on vinyl), I haven’t kept up with what’s happened in broadcasting over the years.

And since Elder Son has been ruminating over producing a podcast–possibly even two–and I really like his ideas, I thought I’d give him a leg up on understanding how broadcast radio works. The best podcasts generally seem to come from folks who have an understanding of radio broadcast, and if Elder Son takes a liking to the medium I’m willing to invest a little money in making sure he has the tools to capture content to his heart’s content.

So watch this space. Elder son might be making a venture into new media before his 17th birthday, and he has just the mom to help him find his audience.

In the meantime, I think it’s time I turned my attention back to producing a podcast of my own.

Posted in Creative, Family, Life, Music by: Helen
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Not an 80s set! Been broadening my horizons lately, and these are some relatively new tunes (modern alternative, I think) I’ve been digging of late, put together into a somewhat coherent set. Enjoy!

Posted in Music, Playlists by: Helen
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Since I’m lame and don’t have a rig anymore, I have to resort to social music sets to get my earbugs out. I love blip.fm — it’s the service I use to embed a tune on the top-right corner of my blog. I haven’t been using playlist.com as much, but that’s more a function of not being in myspace so much ever since most of my missed connections are now on Facebook.

However, I have to dismantle old playlists on blip before I can put together a new one, and since I’ve had a request to restore my Cellar Door set to the current one (those crazy high school friends I’m back in touch with!) I really want to archive the set I chose for my apocalypse party, in case I ever have a chance to spin it real time.

So, without further ado, Helcat’s economic meltdown party from Sept. 16. Actually, it’s been a month, about frigging time for me to post a new one!

Until The End Of The World – U2
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.
1999 – Prince
Love Shack – B-52s
Groove Is In The Heart – Dee Lite
Love Is Noise (DM/DS Death and Glory Mix – The Verve
No One Lives Forever – Oingo Boingo
Til The End Of Time – DeVotchka
Once In A Lifetime – Wolfsheim
What You Feel – The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
True Faith – New Order | play
Welcome Tomorrow – Love and Rockets
All Tomorrow’s Parties – Bryan Ferry
Come Tomorrow – Chicane
Ordinary World – Simon Le Bon & Pavarotti
Save a Prayer – Duran Duran
Let the Day Begin – The Call
Final Man – Covenant
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
All You Zombies – The Hooters
Somnambulistic – Information Society
I will survive – Cake

My favorite discovery during this was Come Tomorrow, by Chicane, typically known for being an ibiza trance act. While you can hear the trance influence in the music, it’s considerably more organic.

Join me any time on blip at http://blip.fm/djhelcat!

Posted in 80s, Blip.fm, Music by: Helen
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Light. Lifting. Toe-tapping in the most unsung-hero kind of way. That’s how we felt last weekend in Annapolis when we ran across Laura Brino playing outside an art gallery at the annual Fall Festival there. The lovely thing about Music from the Streets, or my Found Music series as I call it on YouTube, is that is the randomness of discovery that makes this what it is. But it’s now officially a series, and I’m really delighted to bring you this piece from one of Annapolis’ own. Sorry for the abrupt ending — I like to include a short interview when I can but my batteries were low (and my iPhone seems determined to make a cameo in the bottom of the screen). So, without further ado, enjoy the jazz-indie-folksy stylings of Ms. Brino here:

Learn more about her music at laurabrino.com.

Posted in Music, Music from the Streets by: Helen
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I’m really happy to announce that I’ll be collaborating with Mark Clay in the near future to actually put out some live music again. Good chance that we’ll produce some originals, too, as we both are songwriters. But we’ll also be putting our imprint on some music from the 80s.

Posted in Music by: Helen
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Usually, among my faithy colleagues, I’m the early adopter for most new toys. Being a DJ in my former life, it’s hard to let the control go, so I’d never given Pandora a look until the Very Rev. Nick Knisely, who’s oh-so-very VERY (heh, had to!) asked me why I hadn’t told him about its musicky goodness. I was caught clueless, and sheepish. See, I use Playlist.com to build embeddable playlists, Blip.fm to microblog my various earworms, iLike.com (via Facebook) to get updates from bands I like, and Last.fm to explore music (and I still use gnod, so there). So, I really didn’t think I needed another music tagging service to keep track of.

Nick+ had mentioned Pandora had iPhone integration so I decided to give it a whirl. Oh, Lord. See, I’m a woman of many genres, and finally I have a way to broadcast all of them on separate channels, tune into whichever I want, and share the results in all their crazy mishmoshedness.

So far I’ve set up Radio Helcat 80s, Radio Helcat Industrial, Radio Helcat Bluegrass and Radio Helcat Modern. And I’m quite sure I’m going to have to set up a Baroque channel, a movie score channel, and .. hmm. Eventually they’re going to have to cut me off.

But they, like every other social music service, totally lack any songs by Modern English other than that one we shall not name. That’s going to be the barometer, for me, of how fabulous a service is, because I will not rest until “Someone’s Calling” gets the love it deserves. (And for that matter, becomes my ring tone.)

Posted in 80s, Bluegrass, Goth/Industrial, Music, Social Media by: Helen
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Now that I have a Flip camera, one of the ways I’m most empowered to share things I discover with you is through video. Now, I’ve always been a journalist of the writerly kind, so this kind of media is a bit new to me, but I think I’ve got a strong first entry for you: a bluegrass band called Bear Down Easy. According to their MySpace page:

Bear Down Easy was forged in October of 2006 by five ambitious musicians eager to explore the realms of acoustic music. Our original members included Cole Sigmon on bass, Lucas Nelson on lead guitar and banjo, Andy Burke on mandolin, Paul Stroebel on fiddle, and Ian Mulrenin on guitar. When our talented bassist skipped town to work on a fishing boat, his position was quickly filled by Jonah Freedman. As such, our original vision remains, combining original tunes with traditional bluegrass, folk, gospel, and blues. Bear Down Easy lives and performs in Asheville, NC and looks forward to taking its act on the road in the future.

So not only am I a come-lately fan of bluegrass (in the past 2-3 years), I’m well-connected in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, and our bishop has a real love of bluegrass, and while I missed his bluegrass festival this year, I’m going to be sure to tag this in such a way that hopefully he’ll check this out, and lots of other folks will as well. Because even though my specialty is 80s alternative music, I loves me some bluegrass when I’m in country girl mode. This song is called “I Never Got My Dear John” (with an “allrighty” from your truly). We’re standing in front of an office building on Haywood Ave. in Asheville, where the band had set up to play an evening set, and Chris and I wandered up and… welllll…….quite the crowd gathered round by the end.

So, without further ado, a new feature here at helenmosher.com: music from the streets, with Bear Down Easy:

Posted in Bluegrass, Diocese of Virginia, Music, Music from the Streets, North Carolina, Out and About by: Helen
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I haven’t been able to take a decent road trip in a long time. I spend so much of my “vacation” downtime in Philadelphia that even the backchannel routes I take to get there are becoming overly familiar. In those cases, it’s easy to take for granted the journey, especially when the destination has so much energy.

I’m presently in semirural North Carolina, just far enough outside of Charlotte, talking up all our creative pieces. from Etsy and knitting to comedy to public speaking and radio broadcasting with Xiane. I’m here while my son is hanging out in Chapel Hill with his friend.

It’s great hanging out with another retired DJ who’s contemplating going back behind the decks in a virtual environment. I just wish I had a better mixer than i-Tunes at the moment. While my focus remains primarily 80s alternative music (in fact, I registered http://dontyouforgetabout.me yesterday during the .me domain rush while everyone else was trying to get meme.me and aweso.me and all those other .me puns), I there’s a lot of other music I really love, everything from trip-hop and dub to bluegrass and old-timey. Plus I’ll always be just a touch of gothy punky gothpunk because, well, I am, even if I’m showing up in Good Housekeeping next month.

Oh, yeah, I’m showing up in Good Housekeeping next month, speaking of strange places.

And strange places brings us back to the point of this post: When I go to Philadelphia, the path is well-worn in my memory, soothing and comforting. In particular, some portions of the journey still trigger the memory of my journey out of Virginia in 1999, of learning to walk and fly on my own, and it’s a feeling of victory, of redemption. Those are good feelings, but nostalgic; and the drive to Philadelphia is mostly a chore to get to the only place that loves me as much as I love it.

But random road trips like the one I’m on now, where on a whim I decided to visit a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time (and last night, also on a whim, landing in BeckySays’s living room where we chatted until the sun had nearly gone down), and where every turn brings new discoveries–and I didn’t have the camera out today to catch such gems as the dollar store version of a car dealership where no car is more than $995–it’s trips like this where the journey is the destination, and as such, are the best kind.

Follow me on Utterz for media posts tomorrow as Xiane and I visit Asheville, NC.

Posted in Music, North Carolina, Out and About, Travel by: Helen
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