The Ongoing History of New Music, Episode 766: A Journey Through the Strange World of Outsider Music.
This may be the weirdest radio program you hear all year.
There are those among us who are driven to make music by song unstoppable and unsuppressible internal force. They make music for the sheer joy of it. The only issue is that, well, it’s…unconventional. And if we’re frank, a lot of it is unlistenable. But it’s only that way if you don’t listen to it in the same spirit in which it was made.
Outsider musicians are fascinating people who, whether they know it or not, have left their mark on alternative music. We are going to celebrate some of these people on this weekend’s episode. Nothing is wrong with your radio or my equipment. This is exactly how these songs were recorded. I’d be fascinated to hear your opinions.
Songs featured on this week’s show include:
The Shaggs, “Philosophy of the World”
Wesley Willis, “Dave Grohl”
Jandek, “12 Minutes Since February 32nd”
Lucia Pamela, “Walking on the Moon”
Langley School Music Project, “Space Oddity”
Legendary Stardust Cowboy, “Paralyzed”
Grant McDonald “A Billion Bucks”
William Shatner, “Spleen/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
- The Drive/Kingston
- Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
- 98.1 The Bridge/Lethbridge – Saturday night at 6, Sunday morning at 10am
- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
- 92X/Calgary
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
- The Zone/Victoria
- The Fox/Vancouver (Coming soon!)
- Live 105/Halifax
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
Yes, you definitely need to revisit outsider music. Please make one of those 5 part series you sometimes make.