College of Musical Knowledge

1984-05-16 Radio Mix

2007-12-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

Long ago and far away, I did this radio show. Record companies were releasing a lot of 12 inch singles, and on the reverse side they had dub verions, or bonus beats or whatever. I had some fun playing them and mixing them. Some very early scratchin' as well, but not by me, but by Malcolm McLaren. Then I went on into some harder stuff.

Music included: Kraftwerk, Alisha, SOS Band, Johnson Crew, Malcom McLaren, Imagination, Waterfront Home, China Crisis, Ear-Ons, Group 87, Mitchell Froom, Cure, REM, Psychedelic Furs, Modern English, Minimal Man, Cramps, Tom Tom Club and a lot more.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840516radiomix.mp3

1984-05-03 Laurie Anderson Interview

2007-12-01T09:29:00.000-05:00

Ira Melnick interviewed Laurie Anderson on his WRUV-FM radio program. Wow.

Laurie Anderson is one of today’s premier performance artists. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist.
O Superman launched Anderson’s recording career in 1980, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on Big Science, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label. Other record releases include Mister Heartbreak, United States Live, Strange Angels, Bright Red, and the soundtrack to her feature film Home of the Brave. A deluxe box set of her Warner Brothers output, Talk Normal, was released in the fall of 2000 on Rhino/Warner Archives. In 2001, Anderson released her first record for Nonesuch Records, entitled Life on a String, which was followed by Live in New York, recorded at Town Hall in New York City in September 2001, and released in May 2002.

Anderson has toured the United States and internationally numerous times with shows ranging from simple spoken word performances to elaborate multimedia events. Major works include United States I-V (1983), Empty Places (1990), The Nerve Bible (1995), and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick, a multimedia stage performance based on the novel by Herman Melville. Songs and Stories for Moby Dick toured internationally throughout 1999 and 2000. In the fall of 2001, Anderson toured the United States and Europe with a three-person band, performing music from Life on a String. She has also presented many solo works, her most recent being Happiness, which premiered in 2001 and toured internationally through spring 2003.

Anderson has published six books, the most recent of which is Laurie Anderson by RoseLee Goldberg (Abrams, 2000), a retrospective of her visual work. Text from Anderson’s solo performances appears in the book Extreme Exposure, edited by Jo Bonney. She has also written the entry for New York for the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Laurie Anderson’s visual work has been presented in major museums throughout the United States and Europe. In 2003, The Musée Art Contemporain of Lyon in France produced a touring retrospective of her work, entitled The Record of the Time: Sound in the Work of Laurie Anderson. This retrospective encompasses installation, audio, video and art objects and spans Anderson’s career from the 1970's to her most current works. It will continue to tour through 2005. As a visual artist, Anderson is represented by the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York.

As composer, Anderson has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley, and a score for Robert LePage’s theater production, Far Side of the Moon. She has created pieces for National Public Radio, The BBC, and Expo 92 in Seville. In 1997 she curated the two-week Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London. Her orchestra work Songs for A.E. premiered at Carnegie Hall in February 2000, played by the American Composers Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
Recognized worldwide as a groundbreaking leader in the use of technology in the arts, Anderson collaborated with Interval Research Corporation, a research and development laboratory founded by Paul Allen and David Liddle, in the exploration of new creative tools, including the Talking Stick. She created the introduction sequence for the first segment of the PBS special Art 21, a series about Art in the 21st century. Her awards include the 2001 Tenco Prize for Songwriting in San Remo, Italy and the 2001 Deutsche Schallplatten prize for Life On A String.

In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA. Other current projects include a commission to create a series of audio-visual installations and a high definition film for the World Expo 2005 in Japan and a series of programs for French radio. She will premier her new score “O!” at the Opera Garnier in Paris in December ’04. She was also recently part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Athens. Her next project will involve a series of long walks. Anderson lives in New York City.

She is still extemely creative and active:

From the New York Times, Sept. 25, 2007

The performance artist Laurie Anderson has been named the winner of the 2007 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. She will receive about $300,000 and a silver medal in ceremonies at the Hudson Theater on Nov. 13. Recognizing outstanding talents in the arts, the prize, in its 14th year, is a legacy from the silent screen stars Dorothy and Lillian Gish, who were sisters. Lillian's will specified that it should be awarded annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." Previous recipients include Ornette Coleman, Bill T. Jones, Lloyd Richards, Arthur Miller, Isabel Allende, Bob Dylan, Ingmar Bergman and Frank Gehry.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better on iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840503landersoninterv.mp3

1984-04-04 What's Goin On?

2007-12-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

Marvin Gaye had one of the greatest voices in history. In my usual clunking way, I did not realize this until he was gone. Tragically murdered by his own father, I decided to do a salute to his work. Fantastic, even now 23 years later. I am still looking for his a capella version of the USA national anthem that he did before an LA Lakers game, the only time I ever liked that song, and it brought tears to many. Let me know if you have access to it.

(What’s Going On?, 1971)
A little bit softer now. “Picket lines and picket signs / Don’t punish me with brutality / Talk to me, so you can see / Oh, what’s going on?” Gaye delivered those words with a voice so supple, it’s easy to forget that What’s Going On? was as stirring a message of social protest as the outspoken works of Dylan, Curtis Mayfield or, well, anyone.
What’s Going On? described an impoverished land divided by war and prejudice. Its lyrics, co-written by Gaye, Renaldo Benson and Al Cleveland, keyed on family matters. Gaye’s marriage was failing; his duet partner, Tammi Terrell, had died; his brother had just returned from combat. The song’s plaintive repetitions of the words father, mother and brother made What’s Going On? feel simultaneously sweeping and intimate. “Father, father,” Gaye sang, meaning God or his own dad (father and son had a stormy relationship) or both. The song’s key line, however, came but once: “For only love can conquer hate.”

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better in iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840404whatsgoinon.mp3

1984-03-20 Eno Salute

2007-12-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

Brian Eno is a creative artist that stands out above so many others because of his innovative work, his variety as well as his humility. I have been fascinated by his work. I did a three-part show on this date, but only parts 1 and 3 remain intact. We go from the rock and roll Eno to the more ambient Eno. Heck, I believe he invested ambient music.

Brian Eno born on 15 May 1948 in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England) is an English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer. As a solo artist, he is probably best known as the father of modern ambient music, though he is also a highly celebrated record producer. With an art school background and inspiration from minimalism, Eno first came to prominence as the keyboard and synthesizer player of the 1970s glam and art rock band Roxy Music. After leaving the group, Eno recorded four highly idiosyncratic and original rock albums, before turning to more abstract soundscapes on records such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978). Since then he has made dozens of albums, many with similarly-minded collaborators such as Harold Budd, Cluster, John Cale, David Byrne and Robert Fripp. Eno also became involved in pop music collaborations beginning in the late 1970s, joining David Bowie on his avant-garde 'Berlin Trilogy' and helping to popularise the band Devo and the punk rock-influenced "No Wave" scene. Eno is also notable for introducing the concepts of chance music to pop and rock and roll.[1] Eno's production and songwriting credits include critical and commercial successes by Talking Heads and U2, such as Remain in Light and The Joshua Tree, as well as work with James, Slowdive, Paul Simon and the upcoming Coldplay album scheduled for release in early 2008. Eno has pursued several artistic ventures parallel to his music career, including visual art installations, a regular column in the newspaper The Observer and, with artist Peter Schmidt, Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards recommending various artistic strategies.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better on iTunes. Make sure to get both parts:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840320eno1.mp3
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840321eno3.mp3

Robert Tilton, Television Evangelist, 1989

2007-11-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

This is a video study I did of Robert Tilton in 1989, and many of these sounds appeared on various industrial music tracks in the years to come. This would be a lot of fun if it wasn't quite so tragic.

Blessings of Obedience - Industrial Strength Dance #6

2007-11-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

At Border in Burlington, Vermont on a night in August 1988. Bill Kirby's Escherhead, Astronauts in Grave Peril, the Abdo-Men and also Marvin X & 174K2. The video is by Alfred Snider (me) and represents some crude psychedelic attempts, but hey, it was 1988! This video is dedicated to Bill Kirby, who took his own life not long after the show. I still miss him.

1984-02-24 Surf Party

2007-09-17T08:39:00.000-05:00

This is a party radio segment (Fridays from 8-11 PM on WRUV-FM), and is the same as the "On the Beach" show already posted. We hear the end of Jay Strausser's Trenchtown Rock program at the beginning. Then a brief news segment.

It may say surf party but it is actually just a mix of fun music that does feature some surf music. They we get into some new wave (B-52s, etc.) and continue for a full 90- minutes.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always best with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840224surfparty.mp3

1984-02-10 Hard Chore

2007-09-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

It is 1984 and I am becoming interested in punk music. Now is the time for that, so enjoy it. There is some Negativland for between songs, but the real punk stuff is pretty cool. 90 minutes of energy and expression.

This might be distressing to some, but those people are probably not even listening to this program.

Hooray for Catholic Discipline's song "Underground Babylon."

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always best with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840210hardchore.mp3

1984-01-10 Uniformed Zombies

2007-09-16T16:58:00.000-05:00

An examination of various forms of zombie behavior, whether it is government induced, sexually driven or technologically demanded. This show is actually a lot of fun and reminded me of some good bands that I had forgotten.

The music consisted of: New Order, X, The Group, The Cure, Systems of Romance, The Units, Gang of Four, Girl Scouts, Final Minutes, Pulsalamma, Comateens, and a lot more.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better on iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840110uniformedzombies.mp3

1984-01-10 On the Beach

2007-09-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

From a dark winter in Burlington, Vermont comes this radio show of mystery and music. With a decided Doctor Who theme, this show illustrates my increasing small abilities as a mixer. Nice station identification by my daughter Sarah Jane.

The program goes from a frosty musical menu into a long and sad examination of the dreary weather forecast before trying to break out with some different music to make us think of something else. Thanks to Jean Michel Jarre as well as New Order and some surf music.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better through iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840110onthebeach.mp3

1984-00-00 Instrumentals

2007-09-16T13:55:00.001-05:00

I decided to play an hour of instrumentals, and then by the end I had cars outside the window honking their horns to the music. Lots of fun. Those were great old days. Chuck Morton and Luz Johnson were beeping the horns. I needed to fill in some time on the air, so I did. I did not know the exact date, and I did not read a play list. We do get to hear the beginning of my next segments, a salute to The Stranglers, an awesome band.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better on iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk840000instrumentals.mp3

1983-10-28 My 33rd Birthday

2007-09-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

<== A picture of me at about the time of this show

As with all my birthdays on the radio, it tends to be very self-serving and introspective. This is the first birthday I ever had on the radio, so things were a bit formative. Thanks to Unit Buy for all of his support during this period. Unit Boy is right there with me in the studio asking for requests and making odd comments.

The music consists of: Crazy Joe & the Variable Speed Band, Dick Dale and the Deltones (the first record I ever purchased), the Ventures, New Order, Vanilla Fudge, Brian Eno, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Eno & Fripp, Prince, B-52s, The Tubes, The Cure, Steppenwolf, Neil Young, Sly & the Family Stone, and even the start of Jay Strausser's Trenchtown Rock at the end, since at that time I was on 3-6 PM on Friday.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better on iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk831028birthday.mp3

1983-01-07 Noise Crisis

2007-09-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

This goes back quite a ways, to the very early days of the program. It had started in 1982 and was just now picking up steam. I thought that I was exploring the role of noise in music, but little did I know that for the next 17 years this was to be an ongoing theme that I would come back to time and time again in many different ways. This is, therefore, an early noise exploration, and some might think that it is a little long on music and a little short on noise, but so be it. I was just getting warmed up. It may be more electronica than anything else, but what did we know in 1983?

Music consisted of: Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, China Crisis, Brian Eno, Eno & Fripp, Bjorn Lindt, Jon Hassell, Edgar Froese, and a lot more.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better in iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk830107noisecrisis.mp3

1994-xx-xx Never Ending

2007-09-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

I am not sure of the date. No play list was read on the air. Quite an interesting mix of light beats and ambient sounds. Nice feature of a Lisa Heller Boragine station identification in the middle. That leads me to believe it might be somewhere in the mid-1990s, and I am going to mark it as 1994.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always better with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk000000neverendibg.mp3

1997-09-xx Global Broadcast

2007-09-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

This was the first global internet broadcast of the College of Musical Knowledge. The station had just gone online with a stream of all broadcasts. It was another radio show that I am unsure of the exact date on. I hate it when that happens, but then this is a pretty good show so it deserves to be cataloged.

This is a dancey show, but not the kind of normal dance music you would find in a club, but an interesting mix of differently sounding things with a beat. The music consisted of: Freestylers, Traction, Taylor, Fade, St. Etienne, EHF, Gus Gus, St. Tenor, Dubstar, Secrets, Still, American Frontier Culture and a lot more.

Right click to download to your computer, click to listen right away and always use iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk000000globalbroadcast.mp3

1994-07-27 The Tape Beatles

2007-09-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

"Media ecology" is a musical style where the "artists" use only found sound to weave together a new musical/acoustic experience. In this show I want to salute the work of that obscure group from Iowa known as the Tape Beatles. There are a number of other groups mixed in.

The show consists of: Tape Beatles, Zoviet France, Negativland, Pelican Daughters, Autopsia, Crosley Bendix and more.

This may sound fairly lighthearted, but this is way serious stuff. As William S. Burroughs said, "When you cut into the present the future leaks out." The ways in which this 1994 broadcast is relevant in 2007 are amazing.

Please do not forget your instructions for the Omega Contingency Plan.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, always best with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk940727tapebeatles.mp3

199x-xx-xx Police State

2007-06-11T14:17:00.000-05:00

Not sure about the date on this one, but it sounds like the mid-1990s. But, it was a good broadcast, and one I have returned to from time to time. There's just something about a police state...

Music included: Thick Pigeon, Spig, Horde, Hula, Masked Men, Graeme Ravel, Aksak Maboul, Current 93, Noizeclot, William S. Burroughs, Axis, Sleep Chamber, SPK, Data Bank A, Blackhouse, Chrome, Chumbawamba and a lot more.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, best with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk000000policestate.mp3

Entire library is at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/

1995-06-28 Fair Use Follies

2007-06-11T09:49:00.000-05:00

I love the technique of taking sounds and mixing them together. William S. Burroughs has said, "When you cut into the present, the future leaks out." This is a lot of what happened during this broadcast, with a few of my favorite sample-laden songs for fun and edification mixed in with some other music. Just the first hour of a 90 minute program. Music included: Severed Heads, Andy Fairley, Jah Wobble, Burroughs, Eno and a lot more.

Right click to download, click to listen right away, best with iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950628fairusefollies.mp3

Entire library is at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/

Secret Culture - Original Music from 1989

2007-04-13T07:20:00.000-05:00

SECRET CULTURE
EIGHT PROGRESSIVE BANDS FROM BURLINGTON, VERMONT
JANUARY 1989

60-MINUTE CASSETTE TAPE

In my town we have a secret culture. We create it and pass it around amongst ourselves. Here is a portion of it that we are willing to share with you.

-Doctor Tuna

COMMODITY FETISH
San Francisco 6:25
Cop Show #2 2:49
Hallelujah Dance Chorus 2:27
…and Justice for Ollie 3:25

FRIENDS OF DOCTOR MABUSE
She Falls Down 4:00
The Same Things 5:20

BROKEN GENDER
God Loves Me So Much 3:62

ACOUSTIC IATROGENESIS
Wild Thang 7:03

MASKED MEN
Marshall’s Law 4:20 (live)

COMMODITY FETISH & DOCTOR TUNA
Mechanization of Perception 9:35 (live)

THE ABDO-MEN
The Legend of Arthur Damage 3:25
The Churning 2:56

ASTRONAUTS IN GRAVE PERIL
Dream Drums 3:20 (live)

Right click to download, click to listen right away, best on iTunes:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/secret_culture_8901.mp3

1995-07-05 Alien Mind Screens

2007-01-25T13:53:00.000-05:00

William S. Burroughs is inspirational even when he doesn't want to be. A few Burroughs lines laid over music, some other voices, some hints of outer space stuff, some other music and before you know if you have a strange afternoon radio program. That is what this is. Music included: Wiliam Burroughs, Banco de Gaia, T99, Future Sound of London, Producers for Bob, Coil, Schizophrenia, Horizon 222, Locust, Materiale and more.

Right click to download, click to listen, get both parts:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950705alienmindscreens1.mp3
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950705alienmindscreens2.mp3

1995-05-17 System 01

2007-01-25T09:28:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the System 01 CD that uses electronic music along with the spoken words of Timothy Leary, I crafted this radio show. Leary says a lot of stuff that I thought only I said, and then all of a sudden there is this CD with him seemingly reading my script. Everything from "infecting the minds of young people with the idea of human freedom" to the "think for yourself" line. Of course, lots of other stuff is also included for listening pleasure, sort of in the light media ecology mode. Music included: Sucking Chest Wound, System 01, Producrs for Bob, My Life in the Thrill Kill Cult, Kode 4, Hilt, Severed Heads, Coil, Orbital, Daisyglow, Hawk, and a lot more. Kind of a lot of my more extreme sample favorites, I especially love that Thrill Kill Cult song, "The Devil does drugs."

Right click to download, click to listen:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950517system01.mp3

1995-05-15 Inner Source

2007-01-24T15:47:00.000-05:00

This show features all new music in that border zone that separates dance from ambience, but with a big dash of samples thrown in for entertainment. Neer, Joi, Outeractive, Holy Ghost, Duke, Hallucinogen, Juno Reactor, New Order, John Scott, Lhooq, Solid, Cocteau Twins, State of Grace, Solar Quest, Another Green World, and more.

Right click to download, click to listen:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950515innersource.mp3

1995-05-10 Gingerbread Man

2007-01-24T13:51:00.000-05:00

"Run, run, fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

The Residents had a new release and it is an amazing creation. The Gingerbread Man is, according to them, a creature that brings death. This album consists of ten songs, and the first none of them represent individuals at the end of their lives who have had a less than satisfying existence that has been characterized by self-deception. Each song is their story and their testament, wrapped around a little of the G-Man theme.

Bravo for the Residents! After the album I play a bit more from them.

Click to listen, Right click to download:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950510gingerbread.mp3

1995-05-03 Pay It All Back

2007-01-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

An updated look at the music coming from the On-U label in those days. Lots of great stuff, and something I always really enjoyed. This set did not look at the extensive reggae work of this label, but the more recent non-reggae material. This may be the only label that is suitable for both sides of my weekly radio program.

The music included: Audio Active, Tackhead, Mark Stewart, Strange Parcels, Little Annie, Little Axe, Gary Clail, Forehead Brothers, Maffia, Andy Fairley, and the Timelords.

Right click to download, click to listen:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950503payitallback.mp3

1995-04-19 Doctor T Rock

2007-01-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

A day of rock and roll on the College of Musical Knowledge. Not the usual stuff, but I do have a taste for it very now and then, and it has certainly left a strong mark on my musical past. A lot of this is "older" stuff (my rock and roll period) but brings back great memories and great feelings and remains, I believe, as strong music.

Music includes: Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Sleep Chamber, Cream, Bauhaus, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Joy Division, and more.

Click to listen, right click to download, get both parts:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950419drtrock1.mp3
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk950419drtrock2.mp3