Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for August 19, 2008. I play a song from Rocket City Riot and then try and fail to read some user mail; I play a song by the Harvey Girls; I discuss this being the fourth anniversary of this podcast, why I started doing this [...]

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for June 29, 2008. I play a song from Chris Christensen and Mark Schultz; I talk about the Reality Break podcast and tell some tales from the radio show that preceded it; I mention a little bit about the class I taught and what the [...]

So I’ve been hinting about Super Secret Project X for a very long time. At this point it has been over a year. The delays were many and for reasons too boring to think about but now everything is straightened out and ready to be revealed. SSPX is actually the return in podcast form of [...]

Rockabilly accordion vampire Count Smokula was born 496 years ago in Smokesylvania. Herbal remedies and excellent squeezebox tunes have empowered him with eternal life. BBtv caught up with him at a recent accordion music shindig in Los Angeles to explore the mystery behind his miraculous powers of entertainment. Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video....

Brian sez, "The new David Sedaris audiobook, When You Are Engulfed In Flames, is available DRM-free from Zipidee (whence I got Little Brother in audio form). Yay!" I love Sedaris's audio stuff -- he's such a great reader, it really brings the work to life. Plus: DRM-free audio! Link (Thanks, Brian!)...

I very seldom put external files in the feed here. In fact I’m not sure if I’ve ever done it before. I want to for this one. As far as I’m concerned this was part of the EGC canon. I really enjoyed being on Good Clean Fun with Butler and Jasper. Balls were busted, jokes [...]

David P Nickle's brilliant, deeply creepy, awful and suspenseful short story The Sloan Men has just been released in audio form in Pseudopod, the horror podcast. This is a fantastic reading of a really wonderful story. Mrs. Sloan had only three fingers on her left hand, but when she drummed them against the countertop, the tiny polished bones at the end of the fourth and fifth stumps clattered like fingernails. If Judith hadn't been looking, she wouldn't have noticed anything strange about Mrs. Sloan's hand. "Tell me how you met Herman," said Mrs. Sloan. She turned away from Judith as she spoke, to look out the kitchen window where Herman and his father were getting into Mr. Sloan's black pickup truck. Seeing Herman and Mr. Sloan together was a welcome distraction for Judith. She was afraid Herman's stepmother would catch her staring at the hand. Judith didn't know how she would explain that with any grace: Things are off to a bad enough start as it is. Outside, Herman wiped his sleeve across his pale, hairless scalp and, seeing Judith watching from the window, turned the gesture into an exaggerated wave. He grinned wetly through the late afternoon sun. Judith felt a little grin of her own growing and waved back, fingers waggling an infantile bye-bye. Hurry home, she mouthed through the glass. Herman stared back blandly, not understanding. Link to MP3 of Sloan Men, Link to text of The Sloan Men, Link to David Nickle's blog Link to podcast feed for Pseudopod...

Here is the direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for May 31, 2008. I play a song from Corb Lund; I talk about playing poker and why I love it; I talk about my podcast listening queue and shows that I am both loving and not loving; I talk about my travails trying to [...]

David Byrne's latest art project turns an entire building into a instrument: "I'd like to say that in a small way it turns consumers into creative producers," Byrne explains on his official site, "but that might be a bit too much to claim. However, even if one doesn't play the thing, it points toward a less mediated kind of cultural experience. It might be an experience in which one begins to reexamine one's surroundings and to realize that culture -- of which sound and music are parts -- doesn't always have to be produced by professionals and packaged in a consumable form. "I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments," he adds, "but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down. The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world's popular music is a good thing, for the most part." Link to official Playing the Building site, Link to Wired News story...

Mashup artist Rench has released a free album of "gangstagrass" music -- hiphop mashed with bluegrass. The mixes are really good, in that, "Hey, who knew those two really different flavors worked so well together?" way that makes mashups so much fun to listen to. Introducing block rockin' honky-tonk, New American music for the 21st century, built with love in a little studio, hand crafted, running on inspiration and imagination and duct tape, calling on the spirit of Gram Parsons and Otis Redding and KRS-ONE and Dolly Parton and Nina Simone and Willie Nelson and Missy Elliott and Johnny Cash, to write about what we feel and play what our hearts tell us, because to make it happen is reason enough, and to share it with the world is all the reason you need, because we tell the truth with music and the truth is beautiful. Link to Gangstagrass album download, Link to information about Rench (Thanks, Brooklyn Twang!)...