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(02/17/15 6:54pm)
As part of WUSC’s Free Speech initiative, News Director Nick Vogt and myself interviewed Jay Bender on 90.5 Minutes of the News.
Bender is the Reid H. Montgomery Freedom of Information Chair at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he teaches media law. He also teaches media law at the School of Law and is a practicing attorney specializing in first amendment law. He has represented the South Carolina Press Association and the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, as well as various reporters and media outlets.
We talked with Professor Bender about free speech. He stressed that the right of free speech is always a struggle. “During times of turmoil, the government puts great pressure on unorthodox speakers and speakers who urge a view contrary to government policy and it’s been that way throughout our history,” Bender said.
Most people know free speech in America isn’t absolute. The classic example is not being allowed to yell “fire” in a crowded theater when there’s no fire. According to Bender, “the Supreme Court has seen the first amendment as a right or a protection to be balanced against other interests the government might have.” This balance includes restrictions against obscenities and speech likely to incite violence.
Professor Bender brought up something we are acutely aware of at WUSC – the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) restriction we must obey against airing swearing on the airwaves. This limits the music we can play and the on-air commentary we can offer, but it’s one of those restrictions the government has deemed in the public interest.
Many people believe individuals abuse their rights, such as the Westboro Baptist church or the KKK. Bender agrees “free speech could certainly be abused in a private context…but the government cannot be offended by speech, particularly where it’s commentary on the operations of government and criticism of government officials.”
He pushed back against the recent push to limit criticism of religion or try to limit “hate speech” against groups. “What is hate speech?” Bender asked. “How do you draw the line between hate speech and protected speech?”
Bender tackled the issue of campus protests, comparing the protest at USC after the events in Ferguson with the protests on the campus of Coastal Carolina. He praised the reaction of USCPD, who worked with protesters and criticized campus police at Coastal, who arrested several students for defacing property when they drew chalk outlines on sidewalks.
Bender praised USC on free speech, arguing “this university in recent times has been tolerant of speech and I applaud the administration for that. It was not always the case.”
He encouraged students to speak out, noting “one of the beauties of being young is you have the opportunity to explore a lot of things and the limits of free speech would be one of those.”
Throughout the interview, Bender offered a spirit defense of free speech. “Citizens benefit when problems can be exposed and discussed,” he said. “One of the philosophical justifications of the first amendment is that it is a safety valve. It allows the society that has unhappiness to express itself and discuss possible solutions.”
You can hear our full interview with Jay Bender here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La5xuH3uvYY
For WUSC News, I’m Ben Turner.
(02/12/15 6:58pm)
Here’s a little lesson in networking: if you do something for someone, there is a strong chance he/she will do something for you in return. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” This kind of reciprocity is what got me in a dark room with nine other people while we watched an advanced screening of the Campus Movie Fest finale. I had helped record a Public Service Announcement for CMF to be played on WUSC, and this was my repayment. Pretty cool, right?
If you want a little sneak preview of what you’ll see tonight during the actual CMF Finale, here’s a hint: a mood stabilizer may be required. The tones of the films vary drastically, from funny to thrilling to contemplative. After watching the selections back to back for an evening, I was left reeling. The themes explored had a wide range: dealing with death, survival in an apocalyptic world, self-exploration, or the humor in the every day. So prepare to feel a variety of emotions, and to remind yourself “My peers made that.”
That was the best part for me. I have a hard time sitting quietly through movies as it is, but it was especially challenging not to jump up and shout “THAT’S A DJ! THAT’S MY DJ!” during the screening. As Station Manager of the radio, being a Mother Hen comes with the territory. The DJs at WUSC are already busy, talented people--they plan a two hour show each week, they cultivate on-air personalities, and they become musical connoisseurs in their preferred genres. Now add to that list qualifications like “scriptwriter,” “cinematographer,” and “filmmaker.” WUSC DJs run the gamut. We don’t seek out these creative types; they come to us, with bright ideas for specialty shows and unique contributions that make the station greater than it already is.
That’s what the Campus Movie Fest is all about. It capitalizes on the creativity that pulses on college campuses. It tests its participants to make a movie in a week. Script it, shoot it, score it, and edit it in just a few days. As I was able to glimpse this week, USC students definitely rose to this challenge. There were some films that blew me away with their superb camera work, or highly polished script (or both). Anyone watching the finale tonight will undoubtedly feel proud to know that the students behind these films walk among us every day. I know that’s how I felt. I’m lucky enough to not only call many of the CMF contributors fellow DJs, but also friends. In that case, if you’re in the crowd tonight, kindly ignore any outbursts from yours truly. Though I have already seen all of the films before, my good friend Mother Hen isn’t the quietest.
The Campus Movie Fest Finale Screening is Thursday, 2/12/2015 at 7:30pm in the Russell House Ballroom. Entry is free with a Carolina Card.
(12/17/14 8:39pm)
It’s that time of year: the kids are coming home, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and our favorite football teams are playing for a wild-card spot. I wish everyone reading this the merriest holidays for you and yours; but I would like to talk for just a minute about something serious. I’d like to talk to you all about fear.
On September 11th, 2001 the United States of America changed in immeasurable ways; out of pain, confusion, and most of all fear. On that day in September, I was in second grade at St. Mark’s School in Catonsville MD, about forty minutes from Washington D.C. and the Pentagon. I don’t recall what I considered fear to be before but ever since then the high-water mark of fear in my life has been that day in September.
In order to protect our way of life, and out of fear, we as a nation changed in whatever ways we deemed necessary to survive. It was out of this fear that the Central Intelligence Agency commenced their Detention and Interrogation program, which most Americans would identify as the torture programs ended by President Obama’s Executive Order 13491.
At the beginning of December, the summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation program was declassified. This study, prompted in 2007 after the CIA’s destruction of interrogation videotapes under investigation by the Attorney General, is highly critical of the CIA’s actions in their Detention and Interrogation program. Included in the study are the gruesome and shocking details of the atrocities involved in the program, the lack of oversight and communication, and the general ineffectiveness of the program. While the entirety of the study (6,700 pages) remains declassified for the time being, the 500-page declassified Executive Summary contains more than enough information on the shortcomings and wrongdoings involved in the program.
Before 9/11/01 the CIA had concluded that torture programs were generally ineffective and could also produce bad intelligence. This same conclusion has been reached over a decade later by the Committee in their study; not only were the “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” incredibly cruel, the quality and importance of the information gained through these techniques was repeatedly exaggerated and misconstrued by the CIA in their reports to The White House, Congress, the Department of Justice, and the American public. Much of the information gained through torture procedures was already available in the U.S. Intelligence Network, and most of the original intelligence gained through torture was either bad or non-useful.
Through the study it was also found that the CIA used methods of torture that were far more brutal than the ones laid out to The White House and the Legislature. The CIA officials leading the operations also repeatedly avoided and impeded internal, Congressional, and Executive oversight of the program.
The Executive Summary lays out twenty main findings and conclusions, supported with evidence and examples. The summary has been declassified and is readily available all over the Internet.
Because of the damning nature of the report, apologists have already come to the defense of the Central Intelligence Agency’s actions with the same arguments that were made in favor of torture in the first place: the intelligence that can be extracted is too vital and possibly life saving to ignore.
Fear is terrifying. It can freeze us, it can break us down, and most terrifying of all it can change us. I can still feel the stuffy, pervading sense of fear that engulfed the nation for years after 9/11, the same fear that still lingers in airports and crowded stadiums today. But I refuse to make exceptions and excuses on the basis of fear anymore, and I refuse to accept the “necessity” of inhumanity in the face of terror.
I was raised with the belief that we, the collective United States of America, are the good guys. But as I’ve grown up as a post-9/11 American it has become clear that the difference between the good guys and the bad guys is an ocean of doubt and grey. I’ve come to accept that, in such a complex and interrelated world, the lines between right and wrong are blurry. And while I believe the United States does its’ best to aim for the right side of the grey, some aspects of our national conduct certainly do not fall into the grey category.
Truthfully, I had never considered the CIA torture programs to be completely unnecessary, and I had bought into the notion that the information was too valuable to ignore and impossible to extract otherwise. But earlier last week, I sat down for an hour and read the report. In light of the findings, my mindset changed drastically.
The Executive Summary of the report is available for all to see, and I hope that every citizen of the United States reads it. The truth is, there is no grey area in this circumstance. Not only was the intelligence gained not as vital as we’ve been led to believe, the methods used to extract the intelligence betrays every core value to our nation that we hold so dear. For almost a decade, we allowed our nation to become unimaginably cruel and inhumane out of fear.
It is our responsibility, as civilians in the Home of the Brave, to shed our paralyzing fear in order to reclaim our stake as the Land of the Free. A systematic operation of inhumane torture in clandestine prisons hidden inside undisclosed countries is not a “good guy” action.
Still, it would be easy for this report to get lost in the flurry of the holidays, the racial tensions surrounding Ferguson and New York, and the NFL Playoffs. It is our responsibility as free citizens to not lose sight of this report, to read this report, and to formulate personal opinions on its implications.
We’ve come a long way since 2001, and as a nation we are on the road back to where we once were. When my kids grow up, I hope that they’ll have no question as to who the good guys are. It’s up to us to answer that question for them now.
Thank you, and have a Happy Holidays.
Nick Vogt
(11/24/14 8:23pm)
[youtube id="5vTnbozML18" width="800" height="450"]
We have the best Music Directors, DJs, and friends. Here's a video by Tucker Prescott of our most recent dance party at Lucky's.
(10/18/14 6:32am)
I had the wonderful opportunity to check out New Politics, Bad Suns and SomeKindaWonderful on the Charlotte stop of the Everywhere I Go tour.
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SomeKindaWonderful kicked off the show with a short but upbeat set, including their popular single, Reverse. They quickly warmed up the crowed with their fun soul-funk-alternative sound. Singer Jordy Towers and percussionist Sarah Dyer put forth particularly powerful performances, and these guys had the crowd jumping in no time.
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Bad Suns followed with a much mellower sound. This California-based band has cultivated a certain dreamy quality to their performance that really seemed to captivate the audience, and by the end of their set the crowd buzzed with excitement.
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Finally, David Boyd, Søren Hansen, and Louis Vecchio took the stage and New Politics closed the show with a bang. Throughout their performance, this three piece band managed to fill the entire room with their infectious energy and dance-rock sound. Their set included everything from their hit songs Harlem and Tonight You're Perfect to a Beastie Boys cover. Toward the end of the show, Boyd jumped into the crowd, who happily held him aloft as he sang. This is without a doubt a band that knows how to keep a crowd entertained.
You can catch these great bands on the rest of the Everywhere I Go tour. Check here for dates!
(09/12/14 8:21pm)
Ladies and folks, this Saturday, local college radio station WUSC FM is gifting the city of Columbia one more shot of sunny magic vibes before the sunbeam faeries disappear for the fall. Taking place at local hot and spicy spot, El Burrito, you can saunter down and meal while you watch some mighty fine electronic, dreamy, janglin’ bands, such as:
░ Michael Parallax
Michael Parrallax is an excitement artist, with his explosive pop fueled sets often containing costume changes, sing-alongs, and a feeling of floating. Described as Floridian Dance Party / Tent Spiritual Revival Music.
▒ Family And Friends
Freaky folk with a warm buzz from Athens, Family and Friends are notorious for heartfeelings and severely gutsy folk jams. Your cat would love them if it knew music apart from vacuum cleaner sounds.
▓ Bois
Jazzy dreamlike tenderness is the lavel, if any, that fits upon the soothing and transcendental tones produced by this New Orleans outfit. Worth a vibe or two, no doubt.
█ 1-800-DOG-CIGS
Jake and Josh are innovative devils. That’s all I’ll say.
Details:
September 13th, 7:00 – 9:30
El Burrito (934 Harden St)
$5 Under
$3 Over
It promises to be quite a night. Come check it out!
(04/24/14 6:08pm)
Moogfest, the annual electronic music festival and production showcase hosted in Asheville, NC, began last night and runs through Sunday night. Mainstream music fans have criticized this years’ festival for it’s niche lineup, but for hardcore fans and producers of electronic music it is going to be a paradise. Moog, the iconic music company that popularized the synthesizer, has gotten underground LA favorites like Flying Lotus, Lapalux, and Tokimonsta, classic producers and performers like CHIC, Nile Rodgers, and Giorgio Moroder, and huge EDM acts like Dillon Francis, M.I.A., and Riff Raff to make the long weekend and eclectic experience. Even Chaz Bundick, a Columbia native and the frontman for Toro Y Moi, is going to be performing his Les Sins side-project during the 4th night of the festival. During the day, many of the most innovative producers in the world will be hosting production workshops and giving lectures, and at night many of these same lecturers will be performing at venues all over Asheville. It is going to be a truly unique weekend, and WUSC is excited to send representatives to the festival to cover the events.
(04/21/14 1:38pm)
Charts
1 CLOUD NOTHINGS - Here And Nowhere Else - Mom And Pop
2 YOUNG AND SICK - Young And Sick - Harvest
3 MAC DEMARCO - Salad Days - Captured Tracks
4 FUTURE ISLANDS - Singles - 4AD
5 JAMES SUPERCAVE - The Afternoon - Hit City USA
6 WYE OAK - Shriek - Merge
7 METRONOMY - Love Letters - Elektra
8 BIG SCARY - Not Art - Barsuk
9 TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Forcefield - Mom And Pop
10 WARM SODA - Young Reckless Hearts - Castleface
11 WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream - Secretly Canadian
12 WE ARE SCIENTISTS TV - En Francais - Dine Alone
13 TYCHO - Awake - Ghostly
14 DAN CROLL - Sweet Disarray - Capitol
15 BEATY HEART - Mixed Blessings - Nusic Sounds
16 CLOUD CULT - Unplug - Earthology
17 GRIEVES - Winter And The Wolves - Rhymesayers
18 ASGEIR - In The Silence - One Little Indian
19 HONEY TREES - Bright Fire - Self-Released
20 WILD BEASTS - Present Tense - Domino
21 ZELLA DAY - Sweet Ophelia [EP] - Pinetop-B3SCI
22 BLACK PISTOL FIRE - Hush Or Howl - Modern Outsider
23 HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club - Ghostly International
24 STRYPES - Snapshot - Photofinish
25 TWEENS - Tweens - Frenchkiss
26 CROOKES - Soapbox - Modern Outsider
27 PANAMA - Always [EP] - 300
28 HOLLOW AND AKIMBO - Hollow And Akimbo - Quite Scientific
29 CAUGHT A GHOST - Human Nature - 300 Entertainment
30 BLACK LIPS - Underneath The Rainbow - Vice
Adds
1 TO KILL A KING - Cannibals With Cutlery - Xtra Mile
2 CHROME SPARKS - Goddess - Future Classic
3 ONLY REAL - Days In The City [EP] - Harvest
4 KELIS - Food Ninja - Tune
5 TEEN - The Way And Color - Carpark
(04/19/14 4:15pm)
fk mt. are an indie punk band causing a stir in Columbia's local music scene. You may have seen these Soda City natives play recently with of Montreal during the Indie Grits Film Festival. If you missed it or just can't get enough of fk mt., you're in luck because they are joining us for the WUSC Jamboree at El Burrito next Saturday!
Check out their track out ov it below and come party with fk mt. at the WUSC Jamboree!
(04/18/14 9:30pm)
This exciting Columbia trio will be playing at the WUSC Jamboree on April 26th. With their brutally catchy riffs and heavy punk influences, it's not hard to see why MyBrother MySister are some of Cola's favorite hometown kids.
Check out their song Secondhand Embarrassment below and be sure to catch them at the WUSC Jamboree!
(04/14/14 1:38pm)
(04/07/14 7:40pm)
Charts
1 TEMPLES - Sun Structures - Fat Possum
2 WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream - Secretly Canadian
3 TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Forcefield - Mom And Pop
4 ZELLA DAY - Sweet Ophelia [EP] - Pinetop-B3SCI
5 JOYWAVE - How Do You Feel? - Cultco
6 RUN RIVER NORTH - Run River North - Nettwerk
7 WARM SODA - Young Reckless Hearts - Castleface
8 YELLOW OSTRICH - Cosmos - Barsuk
9 DAN CROLL - Sweet Disarray - Capitol
10 BIG SCARY - Not Art - Barsuk
11 CLOUD NOTHINGS - Here And Nowhere Else - Mom And Pop
12 MR LITTLE JEANS - Pocketknife - Harvest
13 BORN RUFFIANS - Birthmarks - Yep Roc
14 BROODS - Broods [EP] - Capitol
15 BLACK LIPS - Underneath The Rainbow - Vice
16 BLACK PISTOL FIRE - Hush Or Howl - Modern Outsider
17 ETERNAL SUMMERS - The Drop Beneath - Kanine
18 WILD BEASTS - Present Tense - Domino
19 SIDEWALK CHALK - Leaves - Self-Released
20 WALKING SHAPES - Taka Come On - No Shame
21 TACOCAT NVM - Hardly Art
22 CHAIN GANG OF 1974 - Daydream Forever - ADA
23 ANGEL OLSEN - Burn Your Fire For No Witness - Jagjaguwar
24 ASGEIR - In The Silence - One Little Indian
25 GLITCH MOB - Love Death Immortality - Glass Air
26 MAC DEMARCO - Salad Days - Captured Tracks
27 STRYPES - Snapshot - Photofinish
28 WHIGS - Modern Creation - New West
29 TENSNAKE - Glow - Astralwerks
30 WE ARE SCIENTISTS TV - En Francais - Dine Alone
Adds
1 YOUR FRIEND - Jekyll/Hyde - Domino
2 WHIGS - Modern Creation - New West
3 AVEY TARE'S SLASHER FLICKS - Enter The Slasher House - Domino
4 TEEBS - Estara - Brainfeeder
5 TWEENS - Tweens - Frenchkiss
(04/02/14 6:38pm)
City of Sound is a pretty fitting title for this release by New Orleans-based rock band The Revivalists. Each track has a sound pulling from all different genres, including jazz, ska, funk, blues, and country. This wide range of influences makes for an authentic, classic sounding rock album that reflects the whimsically playful nature of their hometown.
Full of soulful southern charm and sprinkled with funky undertones, every song on City of Sound puts forth a different yet oddly familiar sound. With the conventional rock instruments, the band has a horn section that blows through staccato horn breaks and solos. Either with a jazz feel or a ska vibe, it could go either way. “When I Die” features a beachy-sound, as does “Navigate Below”, which contains flamenco guitar strumming and a Caribbean-style drum beat. Tracks like “BTBD” and “Criminal” features large and loud Imagine Dragon-esque choruses complete with John Frusciante type guitar solos. Groovy strumming patterns add to the buoyancy of the album that weaves it’s way through genres.
City of Sound sound like a mixture of the Dave Matthews Band and Streetlight Manifesto, with a dash of Kings of Leon soul, combining to make a laid-back rock album for summer days. With such a unique sound, The Revivalists set out to destroy the traditional sound of indie-rock bands with their killer City of Sound.
Key Tracks: When I Die, Navigate Below, Criminal, BTBD
RIYL: Dave Matthews Band, Streetlight Manifesto
(04/02/14 6:36pm)
Indie-rock band Cloud Nothings released their fourth album, Here and Nowhere Else, on April 1. The album is full of gritty, fast-paced punk rock that abrasively drives you to headbang along.
Each track is filled with machine-gun drum fills that will rock your face off. The drumming is very spirited, and is what really fuels the velocity of the album. The guitars are noisy, overlapping, and distoreted, playing crunching chords of raw dissonance. The gravelly, screaming vocals add a punk feel, with youthful exasperation forcing dry emotion into the air. With no slower breaks, you may feel a bit exhausted after listening all the way through. It’s easy to get lost in the jungle of noise if you don’t pay attention. At some points, it gets a bit redundant, with no real melodic or dynamic changes, but it’s so fun and fast-paced you probably won’t even mind.
Cloud Nothings have crafted an album that may lack true greatness, but make up for it in pure, unadultered punk rock. They’ve shown a clear maturation in their sound that will most likely have the band continuing on their road to roaring, anthemic rock noise.
Key Tracks: Quieter Today, Psychic Trauma, I’m Not Part of Me
RIYL: Japandroids, Real Estate, Yuck
(04/02/14 6:32pm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USR8QoMi4p0
Writing about SXSW is rather difficult. So much happened in such short a time and it's difficult to wrap my head around it all. It seems as if my spring break was a fairy tale adventure that I dreamt up while I was sitting on my couch eating Oreos in my undies. We went with a group of 5 and mobbed around the city of Austin for 7 days straight, dropping into different venues and house parties, filming interviews/performances with a number of bands, and meeting more people that I can even remember. I have decided to write a few recaps like this, as the footage gets uploaded, about specific bands and our adventures that arose because of these bands.
Firstly, we've got Young & Sick. He's a genuine, talented young man who not only creates fantastic music, but also is an artist (he recently designed the art for the new Foster The People album) and involved in fashion. What a legend. We were lucky enough to interview and get an exclusive acoustic rooftop performance with Young & Sick, and from this performance, friendships blossomed like chrysanthemums blooming in the fall. We spent quite a lot of time with Young & Sick, their manager Aaron (http://www.voicelessartists.com) and his other artist Mahaut Mondino (we have a interview/performance with her that we will be posting next week) over the week and it is a bit difficult now that we are separated, not sure of the next time we will reunite. However, we had enough good times together to last at least a few months.
They had a number of shows throughout the week, including showcases with Bipolar Sunshine, Arthur Beatrice (interview coming soon), and a massive show in Butler Park with Washed Out and Foster The People. Of course, we went to all of these. We saw the band in a number of forms, from purely acoustic in our rooftop sessions to full-band acoustic in a beautiful apartment on Rainey Street to the whole shebang at Butler Park. Every single form was something special. There are some bands that I see that I just know are going to go to great heights, and this band is one of them. I'm not just saying this because they are lovely people; but that definitely is an added benefit. My friend and I were just talking about how a band can create "forever fans" by not only having fantastic music but also being extremely personable and giving. Young & Sick is both of these, and this is going to propel the band to a top spot in the music scene. They already have secured spots at Coachella, Sasquatch, and a support run with Foster The People, and they only played their first show this February.
This group influenced a large amount of our experience at SXSW and I am extremely excited about their future. They recently released their new single Heartache Fetish that continues the trend of sexy, passionate, and complex songs that Young & Sick is starting to be known for. Their new album will be in rotation on April 8 and I already know that it is going to secure a high position on WUSC's charts.
(03/31/14 4:23pm)
Charts
1 BLACK LIPS - Underneath The Rainbow - Vice
2 ETERNAL SUMMERS - The Drop Beneath - Kanine
3 HOLLOW AND AKIMBO - Hollow And Akimbo - Quite Scientific
4 TEMPLES - Sun Structures - Fat Possum
5 GLITCH MOB - Love Death Immortality - Glass Air
6 YELLOW OSTRICH - Cosmos - Barsuk
7 U.S. ROYALTY - Blue Sunshine - Self-Released
8 BEAR HANDS - Distraction - Cantora
9 JUPE JUPE - Crooked Kisses - Self-Released
10 TACOCAT NVM - Hardly Art
11 SIDEWALK CHALK - Leaves - Self-Released
12 WARM SODA - Young Reckless Hearts - Castleface
13 BLONDFIRE - Young Heart - InGrooves
14 HEATHERS - Kingdom - Big3
15 JOYWAVE - How Do You Feel? - Cultco
16 PILLAR POINT - Pillar Point - Polyvinyl
17 MR LITTLE JEANS - Pocketknife - Harvest
18 RUN RIVER NORTH - Run River North - Nettwerk
19 SALLY SELTMANN - Hey Daydreamer - Arts And Crafts
20 RUBY THE RABBITFOOT - New As Dew - Normaltown
21 TENSNAKE - Glow - Astralwerks
22 WILD BEASTS - Present Tense - Domino
23 TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Forcefield - Mom And Pop
24 WILLIAM FITZSIMMONS - Lions - Nettwerk
25 WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream - Secretly Canadian
26 THE MEN - Tomorrow's Hits - Sacred Bones
27 MODERN BASEBALL - You're Gonna Miss It All - Run For Cover
28 NEIL FINN - Dizzy Heights - Lester
29 ASGEIR - In The Silence - One Little Indian
30 BIPOLAR SUNSHINE - Drowning Butterflies [EP] - Priority
Adds
1 MAC DEMARCO - Salad Days - Captured Tracks
2 DAN CROLL - Sweet Disarray - Capitol
3 BLACK PISTOL FIRE - Hush Or Howl - Modern Outsider
4 CLOUD NOTHINGS - Here And Nowhere Else - Mom And Pop
5 MAXIMO PARK - Too Much Information - Pias-Daylighting
(03/24/14 1:45pm)
Charts
1 TEMPLES - Sun Structures - Fat Possum
2 BORN RUFFIANS - Birthmarks - Yep Roc
3 BLONDFIRE - Young Heart - InGrooves
4 ANGEL OLSEN - Burn Your Fire For No Witness - Jagjaguwar
5 RUN RIVER NORTH - Run River North - Nettwerk
6 TACOCAT NVM - Hardly Art
7 YELLOW OSTRICH - Cosmos - Barsuk
8 DUM DUM GIRLS - Too True - SUB POP
9 ETERNAL SUMMERS - The Drop - Beneath Kanine
10 PILLAR POINT - Pillar Point - Polyvinyl
11 JUPE JUPE - Crooked Kisses - Self-Released
12 DISTRICTS - The Districts [EP] - Fat Possum
13 GLITCH MOB - Love Death Immortality - Glass Air
14 U.S. ROYALTY - Blue Sunshine - Self-Released
15 YOUNG FATHERS - Dead - Anticon
16 BEAR HANDS - Distraction - Cantora
17 DAYTONA - Daytona - Ernest Jenning
18 RUBY THE RABBITFOOT - New As Dew - Normaltown
19 BROODS - Broods [EP] - Capitol
20 BLACK LIPS - Underneath The Rainbow - Vice
21 ASGEIR - In The Silence - One Little Indian
22 THE MEN - Tomorrow's Hits - Sacred Bones
23 WET SECRETS - Free Candy - Self-Released
24 MODERN BASEBALL - You're Gonna Miss It All - Run For Cover
25 WILD BEASTS - Present Tense - Domino
26 SALLY SELTMANN - Hey Daydreamer - Arts And Crafts
27 HOLLOW AND AKIMBO - Hollow And Akimbo - Quite Scientific
28 FANFARLO - Let's Go Extinct - Blue Horizon
29 GRIZFOLK - From The Spark [EP] - Virgin
30 BIPOLAR SUNSHINE - Drowning Butterflies [EP] - Priority
Adds
1 TOKYO POLICE CLUB - Forcefield - Mom And Pop
2 TYCHO - Awake - Ghostly
3 GRIEVES - Shreds - Rhymesayers
4 STRYPES - Snapshot - Photofinish
5 WALKING SHAPES - Taka Come On - No Shame
(03/24/14 12:14am)
With our spring fundraiser having come to a close March 6, and final donation calculations coming in, it is time for a simple thank you.
From beach bum, chill jams, to stringy mountain tunes, we brought our favorites in spring break mixtape songs, while encouraging listeners to give us a call and make a donation, big or small.
Beyond special programming, we also offered the opportunity to support us through events such as our kickoff dance party at Breaker's, acoustic night at Red Door Tavern, percent night at Mellow Mushroom and closing show at Foxfield Bar & Grille.
Between called-in, mailed and online donations, plus all of our events, we made about $4,000 in the week, bringing us just about $500 shy of our $13,000 yearly budget!
On behalf of everyone at WUSC, I'd like to extend a hearty "thank you" for each and every dollar given to us--both in this fundraiser and beyond. With operating costs rising, equipment falling apart and updates being needed, our biannual fundraisers are what keep us going year after year.
I invite you to please continue supporting us to see all the wonderful ways your dollars make an impact on WUSC!
Sincerely,
Kate Appelbaum
Station Manager
(03/07/14 6:25pm)
I don't speak Russian, but that doesn't keep me from being able to hear the anger and the passion in songs like "Kill the Sexist" and "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland". It also doesn't require fluent Russian to see that something is wrong in a country when 6 protestors get beat by the whips of paramilitary police for a brief, silly demonstration.
Of course, I'm talking about Pussy Riot, the punk collective/political and social rights activists focused on defending the rights of the marginalized Russian people (especially but not limited to woman, prisoners and homosexuals) from the [President] Vladimir Putin led government, a regime they accuse of being a dictatorship rather than a presidency. Pussy Riot members have been in and out of jail for various protests and demonstrations, the most notable incident coming after Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina were imprisoned for 2 years following a demonstration music video shot in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
But Pussy Riot is relentless. Right after being released from prison early in a show of "mercy" from President Putin ahead of the Sochi Olympics, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were again imprisoned for supporting 8 Russian protestors that participated in the 2011-2013 Russian protests (commonly referred to as the "Snow Revolution") in a demonstration outside of the courtroom. Those arrests came after the aforementioned whippings in Sochi.
There are punk bands, and then there are punk bands with balls. The Russian government isn't an institution that many people choose to mess with, and President Vladimir Putin isn't somebody you win an argument with. But Pussy Riot doesn't care. How punk is that? Whether or not they're being whipped, mocked, kicked, or arrested, they don't stop. They just do not care. Punk.
"This is my country, understand?" says the male Russian Cossack (paramilitary police officer) that beat Pussy Riot with whips. The Russian "Old World" is clashing with the "New World", and it's tough to determine who's winning. While Pussy Riot and other demonstrators make waves in New Media, it's still the old world mentality that dominates politics and the social mentality in today's Russia. And it's the same old world forces (*Ahem* Vladimir Putin) that decided to invade Crimea, Ukraine. Yes that's right, as I type away on my MacBook in the middle of class, the Russian military is currently occupying the southernmost island of Ukraine, and threatening to assault the rest of the country if the situation doesn't stabilize.
It is a volatile situation in the Eastern world. Four years removed from the Georgian invasion, and in the wake of various Ukrainian uprisings and revolts, Russia has deployed and positioned troops in the pro-Russian, yet still Ukrainian region of Crimea, and has also set in motion a massive training exercise across the northern Ukraine-Russia border, priming their forces for an invasion. Uncertain times like these invariably mean change...
Re-enter Pussy Riot.
Change requires strong voices. To me, it is apparent that change is required when whippings are accepted punishment for free speech, and invasion is the answer to a revolution. Pussy Riot is a voice to be listened to, a small yet growing crowd of voices screaming out for equality and the end of oppression. Russia and Ukraine now stand at a crossroads that is relevant for the entirety of the eastern world, and the rest of the world at large. We should all be paying attention, especially because Pussy Riot won't stop screaming out until we do. (And I hope they don't.)
- Nick Vogt
(03/05/14 6:26pm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw
It's midterm week. The professors have unloaded mountains of papers, presentations, and exams upon us. Along with this, it is cold outside, forcing us to have no excuse to stay inside and study. It is my last semester here at USC, meaning that my mountain of work due is humongous, which means that I should be spending my time thinking about the different facets of negotiation between cultures or the marketing funnel. However, all that is on my mind is the mammoth of a week that I am going to be experiencing in Austin, TX while attending South By Southwest, one of the biggest music festivals in the world (if not the biggest).
I was lucky enough to win a Music Badge to SXSW this year through Team Clermont and I quickly assembled a team to join me on my adventure to Austin. We are rolling deep, a group of 5 representing WUSC, which will be absolutely necessary in order to experience as many aspects of SXSW as we can. The thing is, I am probably going to see about 5% of the things that I want to see at the festival, if not less than that. There is just so much to do. First off, there are over 1000 "official" SXSW acts that spend the evenings playing at a number of showcases, such as the NPR Showcase next Wednesday featuring Damon Albarn, St. Vincent and Eagulls, one of my most anticipated events. However, there are 10 other great acts playing at the same time including Stepdad and Macauley Culkin's new band The Pizza Underground. Normally, this type of festival would create extreme fear of missing out for many, but after talking to many people who experienced SXSW in years past, I have decided to pick a number of bands that I really want to see and try my hardest to see them, then go with the flow for the rest of the time.
The way SXSW works is extremely different from other festivals. Many of the official showcases require that you have a badge or wristband to get in (unless you want to line for ages only to get turned away), but there are just as many day parties/showcases that only require a RSVP beforehand to get in. For example, the mobile event app Applauze is hosting a number of showcases and parties throughout the festival; at least one a day. Their main event on Monday at the Scoot Inn is chock full of massive artists such as MS MR, Charli XCX (check out her new collab with Iggy Azalea), Robert Delong, among others. In order to get into this event, you have to download Applauze from the app store and RSVP on the app itself. Regardless of whether you're attending SXSW or not, I highly recommend this app; it's a good one. Along with their main event, they are going to have many others at the Casa de Applauze featuring free food, drinks, and bands such as Jordan Klassen, To Kill A King, and The Family Crest.
The Fader Fort is another major event at SXSW. It is extremely hard to get into one of their day parties, as they have gotten bigger and bigger every year. So far, the lineup boasts artists such as Sam Smith (one of my must-sees), Little Dragon, Chromeo, Glass Animals, and a many more incredible acts. The fact of the matter is that pretty much every party or showcase has at least one or two amazing bands featured as there is so much talent packed into the city for the week. Other exciting events include the Spotify House (Hozier, Phantogram, Real Estate), Hype Hotel (Tokyo Police Club, Wye Oak, SOHN - another one of my priorities), and the Harvest Showcase (Arthur Beatrice, The Preatures, Banks). As you can see, it is rather overwhelming, but exciting and crazy at the same time. Also, the MTVu Woodie Awards will be taping in Austin during this time, which is a big deal for WUSC as we have been nominated for an award. If we win, our station will be represented on stage at the awards show and receive the award for Best College Radio Station. Be sure to vote for us at http://bit.ly/voteforwusc.
I could write for ages on how excited I am for next week, but I should probably get back to the work that I have to finish before our trip begins. We will be regularly updating WUSC's social media (Twitter & Facebook) with live tweets, videos, pictures, and more so be sure to keep an eye out for that. If you're interested in heading to Austin for spring break/the festival, all the information you need can be found at SXSW's website.
By Rupert Hudson