hey babies. I made a blog for my Italy trip. You're dying to read it, I know! anyhow, its www.beccadoesitaly.blogspot.com. yay!
xo

and a happy belated hanukkah and a jouyous early boxing day for the canadian folk.

Alright, so the year is very nearly over, which means you should all have been compiling your Top 10 lists of 2006 for the last four months or so. Lists are the only way one can really tell if they like something or not, and so without further ado:

DJ MEGAMAN'S TOP 10 OF 2006:

10. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
This isn't my favorite Belle & Sebastian album, but a sub-par B&S record is still better than most! The songs are so full of joy it's hard not to be happy when listening along.
Fave tracks: White Collar Boy, The Blues Are Still Blue

9. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
Probably the funnest (IT'S A WORD!) record I heard all year, The Pipettes are basically a modernized British version of 60's girl groups like The Supremes or The Chiffons. Pretty much impossible to not dance along with, and plus the girls are super-QT's :-*
Fave tracks: Pull Shapes, Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me

8. The Rapture - Pieces Of The People We Love
This didn't grab me as immediately as Echoes did, but after the AWESOME show at CMJ, I went back and listened to it again and lurved it. It's practically disco with all the cowbell and silly synth sounds, but it's just cresting on that line of almost-cheesy-but-still-awesome.
Fave tracks: The Devil, Whoo! Alright-Yeah... Uh Huh (W.A.Y.U.H.)

7. The Black Keys - Magic Potion
The Black Keys are just two dudes (guitar/vocals and drums) playing dirty blues rock 'n' roll. And they're really good at it. You'd almost expect the singer to be this overweight black guy who's been living in the Mississipi Delta all his life, not a white dude from Akron, Ohio. This album has some BADASS RIFFS that sound like Led Zeppelin sometimes.
Fave tracks: Just Got To Be, Modern Times

6. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Beirut are like Neutral Milk Hotel, only more Eastern European-sounding. That may sound hard to believe, but Zach Condon, the man behind Beirut, has a serious boner for Belarus or something. Regardless, the songs on this are all great, full of accordions and mandolins and trumpets and shit, and Condon really sounds like some kind of gypsy minstrel when he sings.
Fave tracks: Prenzlauerberg, Postcards From Italy

5. Joanna Newsom - Ys
Okay, I didn't like Joanna Newsom's first album all that much (THAT VOICE), but somehow she made this epic prog-orchestral-folk album and it's really really awesome. Her voice sounds less like an elf in a meat grinder and more like... Lisa Simpson this time, which is definitely an improvement, but the string arrangements and intricate storytelling lyrics really make this album stand out.
Fave tracks: Emily, Monkey And Bear

4. Scritti Politti - White Bread Black Bear
Scritti Politti started as a quasi-anarchist post-punk band in Wales in the late 70's, then morphed into a white-boy R&B/funk outfit in the mid-80's, and now is really just singer/songwriter Green Gartside harmonizing his own vocals with guitar and laptop beats. Strangely enough all three incarnations are really good, and this is my favorite out of them. Some of the songs are strangely sweet despite him sounding like he's 14 years old.
Fave tracks: The Boom Boom Bap, Snow In The Sun

3. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
I got caught up in the hype! But this album is so good I can't resist. Terrific production courtesy of Mr. Dangermouse, plus Cee-Lo Green's awesome vocal delivery and some really great songs.
Fave tracks: Crazy, Transformer

2. The Knife - Silent Shout
I had never even HEARD of The Knife until we saw their bizarre yet awesome show at CMJ this year, but their music turned out to be one of the most exciting things I've heard all year. I was never much of an electronica fan but this album kicks all sorts of buttock.
Fave tracks: Like A Pen, Forest Families

And finally...

1. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Yeah, I had to give it up to The Decemberists this year. Like with The Rapture, this record didn't grab me at first like Picaresque did, but with every listen it got better and better. "The Island" is like some kind of crazy Yes-meets-Neil Young amalgamation, and all the songs seem really heartfelt despite being about things Colin Meloy has probably never encountered in his life. Big ups!
Fave tracks: The Island, Yankee Bayonets, O! Valencia, Shankill Butchers, EVERYTHING!

So what's yours, guys?

Hey wgsu and friends,

Here's what we talked about at the meeting yesterday:

Fun plans for next semester--we will be doing the MS walk and Relay for Life community activities.
-We're also going to throw an all-campus Media prom at the knightspot. Bring back something fun to wear!

We talked briefly about staff positions for next year--Each staff position is open to applicants, no one automatically keeps their position. If you are at all interested in running for a staff or executive board position please contact me (rr8) for more info. We'll be sending out emails and such w/ descriptions of position etc. There's an interview process. Being on staff is a great way to get more involved w/ wgsu, meet more people, and is also nice to put on your resume. It is also a fair amount of work, and responsibility.

Our big news for next year--We're considering online broadcasting. This would be in addition to normal broadcasting. We weighed some benefits (friends/family can hear you, wider listener base) and some negatives- We would have to get much more strict on attendance, and the quality of our station (ex. no long mic breaks, overall better sounding). We would have to be stricter because more people would be listening, and also, the FCC might monitor us more closely--they would be able to listen easily, and also would take note that we were going online. We are worried that our overall fun atmosphere would be compromised greatly just so that we could be online. That would be a serious blow to all involved. So we opened this up to DJ's for input. PLEASE if you have ideas/concerns/etc. about this contact me or Inbal.
-One DJ brought up the excellent point that we should probably fix some of those problems anyways--No more accidental swearing, Better mic breaks (listeners are getting sick of hearing about people's inside jokes for long periods of time, while it may be a funny or interesting story to you and your friends, it is not to the rest of our community and people are tuning out). A good way to know how you sound is to tape your show. If you don't have a tapedeck, there are several around the studio, I'm not sure if the one right in there works, but you can try it. Listen to the tape and see what you like and don't like. Its also beneficial to listen to other radio stations at home and hear what Djs are like there. We realize that we aren't professionals, and that our station is all students, but we can really sound a lot better than we do just by tuning up our mic breaks and being prepared.

A word about equipment--It is extremely hard to get money for new equipment, so we have to work with what we've got. When you are doing a show, it sounds really horrible to get on the mics and comment about how they don't work. SO please, put the headphones on, turn up their volume, and see if your voice is picked up, if its not, move the mic around a little bit and see if that works. Also, get your cd's ready long before they need to be--this is a safeguard to make sure the cd players will load it in time. If you can't do this, or the cd won't work, play some hot keys to give yourself more time. the psa's are long enough for this to work. Also, you can turn the players off and then back on to reset them. DO NOT DO THIS DURING A SONG. the switches for them are on the back of the cd players. You may have to do this several times, but it almost always works.

We will have a meeting the first weekend we are back after break to do rules/regs, and scheduling. Keep your eyes open in email and for the whats up. Tell your friends who may want to get involved.

Djs of the month:
November: Bobbi Buchanan, The Jazz specialty show--Isaac, Noah, Matt, Katie
December: Ben Shaefer, The Outsiders-Becky, Lucas, Caleb.

Thank you to everyone for your involvement in the station, see you next semester!

xo-Becca