Andy Gapin

So after seven years, The Playlist is over. It’s hard to believe that something that’s been a large part of my life for so long is gone, but it’s true. Almost fittingly though, last night’s show was the most fun I ever had doing a radio show. It reminded me of everything I loved about doing college radio, much of which got lost in a cloud of jadedness. Hosting an all new music show was great, but it was often hard to fill the entire show with music I was excited about. There’s only so much great stuff that can come out each week. I’d get to play a few great records and fill in the rest with average records. That was always the biggest struggle, but last night had none of that. Last night’s show was nothing but music I love.

I spent the night before running some really custom queries against our database–you get this luxury when you’re the sucker that wrote the software that the radio station relies on for music databasing and logging. I found the artists that I played the most over the last four and a half years and built a playlist from there. I would have liked to go all the way back to when the show first started, but we were still using paper logs up until the beginning of 2006 and there was no way that I was going to try to hunt those down…assuming they still exist. The playlist I created was over two hours long so I had more than I was able to play, but it was alright, I was able to prune down as I was doing the show. I decided not to order anything, I didn’t want to make a pre-planned show and just sit there on autopilot. Instead, I burned two identical MP3 CDs–works out better than playing everything from a computer–and stuck them in the CD players. I had a list of the tracks and switched between players selecting what felt right at the time and what was going to create a solid flow. It’s the way that I always did my show and I didn’t want to change that. I’ve always been about going with the moment and what songs just feel right together. I feel like I nailed this as well as I ever have last night.

I was lucky to be able to score a second hour for last night. It was the first time in two years that I’ve done a two hour show, but it was great, I was able to fit in 34 songs along with a lot of stories about the last seven years and about the music I was playing. I always tried to talk about what the bands I played meant to me, but it wasn’t easy when much of the music was coming from new artists and not just new albums by artists I already was into. Last night, I was able to tell many stories about the bands and what they meant to me. It was great and it made me remember why joining the radio station was my first priority when I started college nine years ago.

The decision to end the show wasn’t easy, I knew it would come eventually, but I could never bring myself to do it. Once I finally made that decision, it was a tough back and forth between knowing how much I’ll miss it and being relieved that I could end it positively and free up a little bit of much needed time in my personal life. Though, as I progressed through the show, I felt myself becoming sadder and sadder that it was ending. By the end, I was feeling almost like I was going to cry. I knew walking away wasn’t going to easy. So I’m sad that it’s over now, but I do know that it was the right time for me and that the show had an amazing seven year run. I had many dedicated listeners and got to expose them to over 1500 different artists and bands over that time. I don’t know how many different albums I played, but my best estimate puts it well over 2000. To me, that’s pretty impressive. That’s a ton of new music. I can walk away knowing that the show was very successful in doing what I created it to do, push new music.

Over the last week, I’ve learned that beyond doing what I set out to do with The Playlist over the airwaves, I also was able to extend that via my blog for the past few years. I learned that I not only had listeners who looked to the show for new music, but I also had readers that couldn’t listen to the show and instead came here to see what I played and found out about the music that way. So awesome.

So last night’s show was a seriously stacked playlist, there was a ton that I still wanted to play, but I couldn’t get it all in. I dediced to end the show with the band that had the most spins on The Playlist. I was surprised when I found out it was The Loved Ones, but thinking back, I did play Keep Your Heart in its entirety when it came out. I wanted to post a big list of the most played artists, but I didn’t know where to cut it off. I may save that for a future post to milk one last entry about the show here. We’ll see, but if you’re really interested, let me know and I’ll make it happen.

The show wasn’t entirely hiccup free though. Just as I was about to start, the internet in the studio went out and for a while, I had to do the show entirely old school. I had to log on paper and couldn’t look up album info. I guess it was an appropriate reminder during the last show of what it was like when the show first started. It was surprisingly fun. However, this seems as though it may have messed up the beginning of the recording of the show. I haven’t verified this yet, but if it’s true, I will almost definitely cry. It was such a memorable show for me and to not have a recording of it would be seriously upsetting.

I’m staying an active DJ at the station so I don’t plan for this to be the last time I have a radio show playlist to post, but when it comes down to it, only the future knows how much I’ll actually end up subbing shows when needed. So for the very last time ever, here’s the playlist from last night’s The Playlist…

• Cheap Girls – A Lesser Rate – Find Me A Drink Home
• Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – Me And Mia – Shake The Sheets
• Drive-By Truckers – The Day John Henry Died – The Dirty South
• Minus The Bear – Knights – Planet Of Ice
• Spoon – Don’t You Evah – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
• Electric Six – Night Vision – Switzerland
• Tilly And The Wall – Bad Education – Bottoms Of Barrels
• Feist – So Sorry – The Reminder
• Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed – Poetry Of The Deed
• Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – Air Mattress – Outer South
• The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You – Personal Life
• Maritime – Parade Of Punk Rock T-Shirts – We, The Vehicles
• The Pipettes – Pull Shapes – We Are The Pipettes
• M. Ward – Never Had Nobody Like You – Hold Time
• The Hold Steady – Chips Ahoy! – Boys And Girls In America
• The Copyrights – Knee Deep – Make Sound
• The Steinways – Arena Rock – Gorilla Marketing
• Against Me! – Thrash Unreal – New Wave
• Murder By Death – Rum Brave – Red Of Tooth And Claw
• Coconut Records – Microphone – Davy
• Neko Case – The Next Time You Say “Forever” – Middle Cyclone
• The Lawrence Arms – The Revisionist – The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Radiohead – 15 Step – In Rainbows
• Okkervil River – Pop Lie – The Stand Ins
• Lucero – I Don’t Wanna Be The One – Rebels, Rogues, And Sworn Brothers
• She And Him – I Was Made For You – Volume One
• Bryan Scary – Macedonia Hotel – The Shredding Tears
• Lemuria – Pants – Get Better
• The Measure [SA] – Portland – One Chapter In The Book (A Collection Of Standard Waits And Measurements)
• The Gaslight Anthem – Orphans – American Slang
• Rilo Kiley – The Moneymaker – Under The Blacklight
• Mclusky – She Will Only Bring You Happiness – The Difference Between You And Me Is That I’m Not On Fire
• NOFX – Seeing Double At The Triple Rock – Never Trust A Hippy
• The Loved Ones – Living Will (Get You Dead) – Keep Your Heart

90.3 The Core

I just wanted to post a quick update and reminder about my last ever edition of The Playlist tomorrow. It will be a two hour show starting at 8pm. I’m planning to do a kind of greatest hits thing for the show. Make sure you’re listening!

www.thecore.fm

The second to last The Playlist ever went well last night, definitely a decent show all around. I’m not a big Screaming Females fan myself, but I felt like they were a good way to start off the show. The Thermals double dose wasn’t planned, but the three songs in between all went by much quicker than I thought they would so I needed an extra song. I’m actually listening to the record right now and liking it a bit, but not quite as much as their other stuff. “I Don’t Believe You” is a great song though.

I’m trying to get a second hour for my show next week. I feel like I’ll need two hours to properly end it. It’s hard to believe that after nine years, I won’t be doing a steady show anymore. The Playlist itself has been going for seven years which makes it one of the longest running shows ever on 90.3 The Core. I always wanted to pass it on to someone else to host after me, but I guess that’s not really going to happen. Anyway, I’m going to need to set aside some time this weekend to think about what I want to play next week. I decided that I’m not going to do a show of all new music to end a show that was dedicated to nothing but new music. Hah! Instead, I think I’m going to a highlights show of all my favorite stuff I’ve played over the years. It will be a completely pre-planned show which is entirely atypical of my normal style of doing the show. The only pre-planned shows I do are the best albums of the year countdowns at the end of each year.

• Screaming Females – Nothing At All – Castle Talk
• Best Coast – When I’m With You – Crazy For You
• The Cinnamon Band – I’m Asking You – All Dressed
• A Great Big Pile Of Leaves – Race Car Driving – Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex?
• Lost In The Trees – A Room Where Your Paintings Hang – All Alone In An Empty House
• Jenny And Johnny – Scissor Runner – I’m Having Fun Now [EP]
• Samantha Crain – Up On The Table – You (Understood)
• Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band – Hurrah – Where The Messengers Meet
• Upstairs Downstairs – Pessimist – Inland And Out
• The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You – Personal Life
• Woven Bones – Hey Kid – I’ve Gotta Get [Single]
• Hayley Taylor – What’s Going On – One Foot In Front Of The Other
• Mike And Ruthy – Covered – Million To One
• The Thermals – Your Love Is So Strong – Personal Life
• Jesca Hoop – Tulip – Hunting My Dress
• Frontier Ruckus – Ringbearer – Deadmalls And Nightfalls

90.3 The Core

It’s a position I never thought that I’d find myself it, but with The Playlist coming to an end after next week’s show, I’ve realized that I don’t know how to keep up with new music on my own anymore. It’s actually kind of interesting when I think about it.

For the last seven years, I’ve hosted a radio show dedicated entirely to new music, so you’d think that I’d know all about digging up new music. Unfortunately for me, that’s not true at all. Being at a college radio station gives such amazing access to new music that you really don’t even have to try at all, it’s just there for you. Seven years ago, I took over the position of Head Music Director at 90.3 The Core and it was awesome. Even though I had been a DJ there for two years already, I had no idea just how much music the station received on a weekly basis. We’re talking 60-100 new albums a week. That’s a lot. Even with ten other people working under me in the department, I still had to be reviewing at least 30-35 of those albums each week myself just for the department to be able to keep up. I had no choice, all this new music was shoved in my face. I would complain every once in a while about not having the time to listen to the music I wanted to anymore, but in hindsight, that was probably one of the best problems anyone could ever have.

After a while, I had gotten so used to this that I didn’t look for new music on my own anymore. I would find out about a few bands here and there from friends or the indie music message board that I spent way too much time on, but I never had to actively look for new music. When I stepped down from the position as Head Music Director after two years–I wasn’t a student anymore and didn’t think it’d be right to keep the position–I still had access to all of the music. Since then, I’ve shown up a few hours early to every show just hang out and check out new music. Again, no effort. And one of the best things about this was that I had access to the full albums for free.

That’s all over now.

In the couple years before all of that, most of the music I found out about was from friends, going to shows, and from running a small venue for a while. None of this really took any effort either, there was still a ton of music just being pushed in my direction.

The last time I had to actually put effort into finding out about new music was before people did this via the Internet. It was the late 90s when most people still didn’t go online regularly. I would actually have to go to the CD store and take a risk buying something I knew only by name. I would check out the bands listed in the thank you section of the liner notes for albums. I would check out bands that I saw on show flyers for shows I didn’t even go to. I would actually ask people what they were listening to and go through the CDs they had in their backpacks. This was real work! Even once Napster hit the scene, you still needed to have an idea of what you were trying to listen to.

Over the course of the last ten years, everything changed. People don’t need to do that kind of work anymore. The Internet took over and made it super easy to find out about tons of new music and download it for free to at least check it out (totally not suggesting that people shouldn’t make sure the artists get some money in their pockets). I missed out on a lot of that. I don’t even know what sites to read and where to download music anymore. I really don’t. I didn’t need it, so I didn’t pay attention to much of it. Now I need it and I don’t know where to go.

Even though I’m a pretty big tech geek that spends a lot of time keeping up with technology, I feel like some clueless old dude who was just told he needs to use online banking for everything now, but has never actually used a computer before. What the hell do I do?!?

What are the credible sites to read for finding new music? Where do people download stuff these days? Beyond subscribing to the RSS feeds for Punknews and Absolute Punk and looking at what people are listening to on Last.fm, I’ve got nothing. I don’t have time to read any new sites or message boards. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do this when I actually have to work for it and it’s not just all right there for me.

I guess I knew this day would come at some point, but that doesn’t make this any easier.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

The third to last ever edition of The Playlist went off pretty well last night. Except for a few minor things, I was pretty happy with the show. I started off with The Gaslight Anthem even though it’s months old now. The DJ before me ended about five minutes early with a different song on the album, so I played a quick sting and then moved on a few tracks to play “Orphans.” Worked out well.

I got a request for The Thermals, which I was very happy to play, while most of the rest of the playlist was new stuff that was added to our library in the last week. Though, as is something I’ve been struggling with there recently, that doesn’t mean it’s actually very new.

I think the last The Playlist ever will be on 9/15 at 9pm. I’m trying to get a second hour for it, but we’ll see. :-/

• The Gaslight Anthem – Orphans – American Slang
• The Cinnamon Band – Buena Vista – All Dressed
• Versus – Gone To Earth – On The Ones And Threes
• Woven Bones – Hey Kid – I’ve Gotta Get [Single]
• Bare Wires – Family Heart – Seeking Love
• Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band – At Night – Where The Messengers Meet
• Thieving Irons – Babylon Is Burning – The Midnight Hum
• The Thermals – Heres Your Future – The Body The Blood The Machine
• Ra Ra Riot – Boy – The Orchard
• The Ivy Walls – Ghost – The Elegant Universe
• Frontier Ruckus – Silverfishes – Deadmalls And Nightfalls
• Samantha Crain – Lions – You (Understood)
• Chief – The Minute I Saw It – Modern Rituals
• The Acorn – I Made The Law – No Ghost
• Social Studies – We Choose Our Own Adventures – Wind Up Wooden Heart
• Of Montreal – Coquet Coquette – Coquet Coquette [Single]

90.3 The Core

Last night’s The Playlist was one of the last ever that I’ll be doing. The decision has been made that I’m not going to continue the show in the Fall semester. That would be the start of my tenth year at the station, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I still plan on keeping my status as an active DJ by attending meetings, but I will not have a regular show anymore. I’ve been doing The Playlist itself for seven years and I will definitely be sad to see it come to an end, but last night sort of solidified the decision for me.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that the station is a different place than it was a few years ago. The station is different, almost all of the people are different, the atmosphere is different. That’s not to say that it’s better or worse, it’s just different. It isn’t the station that I feel in love with and devoted much of my life to. The station is directly or indirectly responsible for most of the things in my life even now, but that’s not the same station that I still host The Playlist at. That difference really is the breaking point on top of all other things pointing towards moving on.

Like I said, I still plan on staying active and maybe subbing a show here or there and I’m not ruling out doing another show in the future sometime, but it won’t be called The Playlist and it won’t be the same format. With that being said, I don’t know the exact date for my last edition of The Playlist, but it will probably be in a few weeks. I’ll update when I know.

Last night’s show was a reminder of how bipolar doing a radio show based on new music can be. One week can be great and the next can be a struggle with no emotional connection to it. It was the latter last night, I just wasn’t there emotionally for the show, I didn’t feel connected to it at all. It was just CD in, CD out.

Here’s what I played…

• The Love Language – Heart To Tell – Libraries
• The Orbans – Left Side – When We Were Wild
• White Fence – Destroy Everything – White Fence
• The Like – Wishing He Was Dead – Release Me
• The Streets On Fire – Hey Lou – This Is Fancy
• Menomena – TAOS – Mines
• Seneca Hawk – Steal Your Heart Away – Sun Year Long
• These United States – Water And Wheat – What Lasts
• Upstairs Downstairs – Stationary’s Helping – Inland And Out
• Dean And Britta – Herringbone Tweed – 13 Most Beautiful: Songs For Andy Warhol’s Secret Tests
• Rogue Valley – I-5 Love Affair – Crater Lake
• Miniature Tigers – Dark Tower – Fortress
• Social Studies – Drag A Rake – Wind Up Wooden Heart
• Maps And Atlases – Living Decorations – Perch Patchwork

Source: 90.3 The Core

These days, it’s starting to seem like every other week that I can’t make my radio show. Last night, I had my first allergy shot after work and wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out with timing so I figured it would be better to just get a sub for the show. I’ll be there next week, but I don’t know what the future will hold.

Taking these allergy shots is going to be a three year commitment and my allergist only has Monday and Wednesday hours at the office near me. On Mondays, they’re only there until 4pm so that’s basically out. It’s too far from the office to be able to leave work and go back afterwards so I essentially have no other choice than to go after work on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave me a lot of time as they require you to stay for twenty minutes after taking the shot to make sure you don’t have a reaction to it. Being able to get dinner with enough time to eat and prepare for the show each week is going to be a large pain in the ass.

Since I’ll be taking the shot every Wednesday for two months and every other Wednesday for two to three months after that (at that point, the shots are every three to four weeks for the remainder of three years), Wednesday isn’t really going to work out for me anymore. I’m thinking that it may be time to move on from the show. I’ve been saying that for a while, but pushing the show back to 10pm where it used to be doesn’t sound that appealing to me anymore and I don’t want to switch days. The other weeknights have a lot of steady shows that I wouldn’t want to try to move. And I wouldn’t be able to commit to a weekend show. Besides all of that, it’s a college radio station and I graduated five years ago. I probably shouldn’t still be taking time away from students.

A decision will need to be made soon, but it’s not looking good for The Playlist right now.

Not a bad little show last night. I thought I was going to be short on music to play, but things ended up working out perfectly. Though, I feel like I was a little too bothered by the grammatical error in the song title for Kathryn Calder’s “A Day Past It’s Prime.” At first, I thought it was just wrong in our system, but the wrong form of ‘its’ is there on the back of the CD case as well. Oh well.

With all the feelings of wanting to finally throw in the towel and retire from college radio lately, it was nice to head into the studio last night and have a good show that I had fun doing. Maybe the week off helped.

• The Love Language – Anthophobia – Libraries
• Telegraph Canyon – Shake Your Fist – The Tide And The Current
• Villagers – Ship Of Promises – Becoming A Jackal
• Wolf Parade – Two Men In New Tuxedos – Expo 86
• The Black Rabbits – Hurry, Hurry – The Black Rabbits
• The Like – I Can See It In Your Eyes – Release Me
• Teenage Fanclub – Into The City – Shadows
• The Beauties – Devil Do – The Beauties
• The Streets On Fire – Chadwick Shut Up! – This Is Fancy
• Kathryn Calder – A Day Long Past It’s Prime – Are You My Mother?
• Fjord Rowboat – We Both Know – Under Cover Of Brightness
• White Fence – Destroy Everything – White Fence
• Kacey Johansing – Photographs And Letters – Seasons
• The Lincoln Bedroom – Help Me Get Back Into This Heart Of Mine – Broken Record
• Clean Girls – Siesta Siesta – Summer Camp

Source: 90.3 The Core

It’s been happening more and more lately, but I had to skip out on the radio show last night. The Funhouse kids, CJ and Dan, that generally follow The Playlist these days covered the extra hour. Maybe the fact that this is happening more often now should be a good indicator that it’s time to move on. I enjoy doing the show–once I’m actually doing it, anyway–but it seems that a lot goes on on Wednesdays that I have to skip out on because of it.

Anyway, I ran a 5k in Downtown Westfield last night instead of doing the show. It was humid, but luckily, the heat died down a little before the race started. I found that, just like the 4 mile race I ran on the Fourth of July, the humidity killed me. I had trouble breathing and felt like I was going to throw up for the last mile. It was not my best race, but I beat my time from the same race last year by about 15 seconds and it was my third fastest 5k ever. I should probably be pretty happy about that. Though races like this make me ask myself why I do them and why I like to run, but that’s for another post that maybe I’ll make soon.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post, but my iPhone 4 battery life was seriously impressive last night. I got home with 33% left after having the phone away from a charger for 15 hours. My usage over those 15 hours breaks down something like this:

• About 3.75 hours of reading articles on Google Reader, using Twitter/Facebook, reading other websites. About 80% of this was over 3G
• About 30 minutes of GPS use during the race to track my progress and time. Then I uploaded the route to mapmyfitness.com using their app. (I did not take 30 minutes to run the race, I fired it up about ten minutes early).
• Listened to music during the race
• Snapped a few pictures and emailed them off
• Updated 5 or 6 apps that had updates available
• Made a 2 minute phone call
• Kept push and WiFi turned on all day

I’d say that’s pretty impressive. My old 3GS and 3G would not have been able to pull that off.

I felt like there was a complete lack of steam to the show last night. I got hit with a pretty bit wall of tired about an hour before the show and never recovered. I was having a lot of trouble fitting songs together all night and the entire show felt directionless. I guess it happens sometimes.

• Born Ruffians – Oh Man – Say It
• Fjord Rowboat – We Are On Time – Under Cover Of Brightness
• Wolf Parade – Cloud Shadow On The Mountain – Expo 86
• Here We Go Magic – Old World United – Pigeons
• Wintersleep – Black Camera – New Inheritors
• The Drums – Need Fun In My Life – The Drums
• Telegraph Canyon – Welcome To The Night – The Tide And The Current
• The Young Veins – Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t – Take A Vacation!
• Deer Tick – Twenty Miles – The Black Dirt Sessions
• Careful – Scrappy – Oh, Light
• Kacey Johansing – Oh, Brother – Seasons
• Like Bells – Sea Salt – Palma
• Vic Chesnutt – Feast In The Time Of Plague – Skitter On Take-Off
• Pearly Gate Music – I Woke Up – Pearly Gate Music
• Gogol Bordello – When Universes Collide – Trans-Continental Hustle

Source: 90.3 The Core