Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

For a number of years I’ve listened to a small Internet radio station put out by a guy up in Canada. It’s one of the best reggae “shows” you’ll ever find. Tracing the roots of Jamaican music 24 hours a day. I figured that to help start the week off right I’d pass the link on to anyone interested in some seriously positive sounds.

http://www.azevedo.ca/scratch/default.aspx

Scratch Radio has been broadcasting since March, 2000.

The format ranges from late-1950s mento & Jamaican-boogie into 1960s ska, through the rocksteady years and on to reggae and dub. There is no rap or hip-hop in the playlist – just some fine toasting from the likes of Prince Jazzbo, U-Roy and Big Youth (to name a few).

Due to limited bandwidth, this station can only support a limited number of simultaneous listeners (currently 62).

The local Bay Area micro- and Internet radio station Pirate Cat Radio (PCR) has inevitably gotten snagged by the FCC. The U.S. airwaves which are public and owned by the citizens of this country have been high-jacked by massive corporations who can afford astronomical licensing fees. These corporations continually hide behind the “just get a license” defense when sicking the FCC on SMALL stations like PCR. While I believe that there is reason to regulate the airwaves I do not believe that folks like PCR are the problem…nor should they be fined any amount for filling a much needed niche on the radio dial. Head over to www.piratecatradio.com and get your self a cool shirt while helping the station stay afloat.

According to “Audio4Cast,” the top sales of songs on the Internet are limited to “hits”. You know, those songs that are played over and over on the radio, commercials, television shows, etc. This is not the least bit surprising to me but it’s a good point to remember when the U.S. music industry/FCC cries foul and inevitably keeps creating an environment where small webcasters like SomaFM, Pandora or even Pirate Cat Radio, are treated like Piraya and told there’s no place for them. Small outfits like this clearly bring a needed diversity of music to people (aka “the market”) and will only positively effect online music sales as people become exposed to a larger base of music. Until then I guess we’ll just cue up another Britney-Diddy-Gaga song on the ol’mp3 player…<sigh>…

There’s a good little blog entry over on SaveTheInternet.com that praises the Internet for allowing musicians from all walks of life a more equal footing in having access to potential audiences/supporters. The article goes on to warn that this positive outcome is more and more severely threatened by major telecommunication corporations as they gain power as gatekeepers of what they believe we should have access to. The larger issue is what is called “Net Neutrality.” There is a lot to learn about the issue but essentially Net Neutrality is stating that no one body owns the Internet and all of the content on it. Therefore telecommunication corporations have no right serving as gatekeepers <cough-AOL>.

Check the article HERE.

There is a great video documentary you should check out called, The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Daniel Johnston is a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a stunning portrait of a musical and artistic genius who nearly slipped away.

In the mean time you can check out a bootleg recording I did of a live show I caught of him recently in San Francisco. It’s a simple recording and I offer it to say that if you like what you hear you should DEFINITELY buy his music from your local record store. You can download the complete show HERE (http://rapidshare.com/files/310254103/DJ_Live_Bootleg_091122.zip).

It’s a very sad day as we just lost one of those voices that I thought would be on the radio forever – kind of like we imagine our parents, you know? Anyway, her voice is firmly imprinted in my mind so I reckon that is a good thing but honestly, why did she have to die so young (52)?!

Read More on Andrea:

KPFA.

Obit.