Noise Floor Radio Volume 1

The first installment in a (hopefully) weekly series of playlists. 

Once upon a time, I c0-hosted a college radio program known to me and at least three or four other people patient enough to get the online stream working as an important and enduring broadcast institution. I don’t miss college in most ways, but I definitely miss radio. The playlist-building impulse fostered by eight semesters on the air has stuck with me ever since, and for whatever reason it’s felt extra-strong as of late.

I’ve mused on the idea of a DJ-type podcast (time-consuming, possibly illegal) or a return to the actual airwaves (still time-consuming, not sure WRBB would have me as a community member after the Oasis incident), but for now landed on the low-stakes solution of a weekly blog-hosted playlist to fill the radio-shaped void in my heart.

I plan to build these similarly to my college approach – a balance of what’s new for the week, what I’m listening to and who’s coming to town – and get them posted somewhere in the Thursday evening/Friday morning timeframe of my old show, for nostalgia’s sake. (Plus, this’ll be a fun opportunity to dig through my file photos for lead images – look at 2013 Ezra Koenig up there!)

For the inaugural week, find some of my favorite cuts from the new Vampire Weekend, Big Thief and Empath LPs, a couple discoveries from last weekend in Vermont and oldies from Simon Bonney (at The Sinclair Monday with Mark Lanegan), Jason Molina and Rowland S. Howard.