DJ Ross Jackson’s Day Dream Nation

[Yes, another article for the newspaper. But GO LISTEN TO HIS SHOW! Ktuh.org on Wednesday from 12-3 pm.]

Ross Jackson, an undergraduate majoring in Religion who’s “been ready to graduate for about eight centuries,” has been at the KTUH radio station for four years. And what exactly does Ross do as a DJ? “They give me a button so I can talk to Honolulu. It’s like a button, and I’m like, press…Honolulu… ‘Hey buddies!’”

Hanging out in the dorm rooms in his earlier years as a fresh-faced college student, Ross was a self-proclaimed “record store snob”. A KTUH DJ heard Ross playing his cLOUDDEAD and Nico’s Chelsea Girl in his room, and decided that Ross would be great as a KTUH DJ. After forcing him to fill out an application and actually getting on the air all those years ago, Ross’ icy reluctance to be a part of KTUH thawed. He realized that the radio station gave him the opportunity to spread great music to the population of Hawaii, and to be the best local radio show in his idiom.

One of the aspects of KTUH that Ross loves the most is KTUH’s lenient guidelines. These allow Ross, and any KTUH DJ, to play whatever music they want, regardless of how “popular” it is. “Maintaining a semblance of independent music important. Playing top forty would be against the station’s unspoken rules. You wouldn’t want to be playing anything that someone could hear on 101.9. That would be tragic.”

When asked what genre of music he plays on his show, Ross quickly spouted out this anecdote: “Some one asked Dan Bejar from Destroyer [an indie rock band] what kind of music he plays, and he said that he plays European blues, which of course he doesn’t. He only said that for the people who read entirely too many books. So I play modern classics,” he tells me with a slight wink.

When pressed, he admitted that he plays indie music. Not wanting to get into the whole sub cultures of “indie,” he briefly describes the mainstream music industry and how they control the music the mass populations listen to. He says he plays “modern classics”, but he laments that hardly no one hears these classic bands. He cites the latest Band of Horses album, saying that it should have more exposure than it had.

Despite the lack of exposure great bands don’t get, the mainstream media has been steadily splintering into a less monopolistic industry, which is good for independent listeners. Ross, of course, isn’t part of conforming masses being force fed the mainstream pop music. So where does he get his music? KTUH receives albums from the labels for the DJ’s to peruse, and Ross sits down and listens to them about once a week, but tries to avoid the inevitable radio ear, which tends to box him in. He also hits the Interweb for inspiration. “Pitchfork [an online mp3 blog] was really good for a while. It helped out Broken Social Scene a lot. But Pitchfork really fell of badly, as even most of [the major online music blogs] did. So really, truthfully? Torrent sites are most effective for from the gut reviews.” He mentions indietorrents.com. “Maxim will give you a better music review than Pitchfork.” At this he cringes in distaste, and disgust fills his eyes.

Though he adventures around indietorrent and other such sites, Born Ruffians, Helio Sequence, Pete and the Pirates, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Sea and Cake, Nick Drake, and Nico are some of his solid staples. As a DJ, Ross says, you have to explore music in three directions: past, present, and future. You have to know what’s classic, what’s great now, and what’s going to be good in the future. The driving base line type of “sexy rock and roll” will always be received well in a club type scene. As for twee rock, “I was going to start sock hops all over town and play Belle and Sebastian. It would be adorable.” He also mentions Andrew Bird, “the Edith Piaf of our time”, and some other singer songwriters musicians.

Andrew Bird’s live talent prompted the comparison to Edith Piaf. “He can’t sing the same song twice even if he wanted to,” and this is part of what makes him an interesting musician and something that enhances his live performance. The Shins, despite their ability to make write and produce great records, didn’t have this unique quality in their live performance when they came here in the fall of 2008. “Every song sounded the same as it did on the album,” he explains. That leaves something to be desired as a fan. You can listen to Andrew Bird live at Coachella, and his songs will sound different than when he played at Sasquatch, or the Pitchfork music festival.

And the constant line up of festivals in the United States make it an even more prosperous time than the sixties for music. “It’s an awesome time to be alive,” he smiles, and then corrects himself, “from a musical standpoint, not a political standpoint.”

With great power comes great responsibility, and KTUH gives that to its DJs. This can produce horrible shows or amazing shows, because despite the seeming ease of picking and playing good music, the formatting and the programming are challenging. The training director at KTUH helps them out, and most times they’re able to help them out. “Do a good show, or go away,” Ross chuckles. But he assures me that he’s “a huge fan of KTUH. It’s so much better than most of the college radio stations. People in Hawaii don’t even realize.”

These are just a few of my favorite things:

Warning: This is by far the trashiest post that has ever graced the photons of Love and Logic.

1. Ira Glass

2. Slightly vapid, but with some quality substance, teen TV shows (i.e. the O.C., Gilmore Girls)

3. Nine Inch Nails

4. Radiohead

5. Sustainability

These things have made me very happy recently.
First off, if you don’t know that I want to marry Ira Glass and have his babies, then you have either been living under a hole, or your universe isn’t centered around me (how dare you!). He is perfection in a voice. I won’t wax on about his simpering vocals echoing from my radio every Saturday morning like clockwork. But they do simper. Very well.

They were simpering along last weekend, doing a very good job of it, too. The show started off great–Ira Glass talking about radio vs television, J.J. Abrams talking about the Golden Age of television, David Rakoff: a story about a man who lived without television, Sarah Vowell talking about Thanksgiving situational comedies with all situation and no comedy, Ira Glass talking about…WHAT??? THE O.C.?????????????? THE CHRISMUKKAH EPSIDODE? WITH A REFERENCE TO GILMORE GIRLS????????

Stop.

Have I died and gone to heaven?

No, really. I think I must be walking down obsession lane.

Let me transcribe:

“One Saturday night I was watching the O.C. with my wife [who is not nearly as mentally witty and physically attractive as Lindsea]. I don’t know if you watched the O.C. before it got taken off, but it’s kind of a funny, interesting show. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go to season one and watch the Chrismukkah episode. And, uh, it was a teen soap opra on Fox network, and the main couple was Seth and Summer, not Marissa and Ryan. They could have killed off Marissa back in season one as far as I was concerned. And uh, so there’s this scene on this particular Saturday night where Seth’s in his room, talking to his girlfriend Summer on the phone, and a girl is in his room, Taylor, who is basically the same character as Paris on Gilmore Girls, but that’s a different story. So there’s this girl in his room, and Summer hear’s her voice in her boyfriends room. And this moment happens: [plays the audio recording of the O.C. episode]

Summer: That sounded like a girl.

Seth: Did it? Yeah. Well. Sure. Because I’m listening to the radio and This American Life is on, so…there’s a girl talking.

[Back to Ira Glass] And then Summer makes this reply which I have to say totally…

Summer: Is that that show by hipster know it alls that talk about how fascinating ordinary people are? Ugh, God.”
It goes on, but you’ll just have to listen to it yourself. I think at one point Ira Glass admits to belting along to the theme song to the O.C.. “Callliffooorrrniaaaa….”

Anyways, that made my weekend.

So that’s number 1 and 2 covered. Now on to number 3.

I love Nine Inch Nails. I went to their show when they came to Hawaii, and I’ve gone through the obligatory “I’m in love with Trent Reznor!!” phase. It was not my shining moment, of course, but it happened. As most of you know, I’m also a fan of web 2.0 and the whole I’m-John Vanderslice-and-I-support-music-blogs-and-free-mp3-downloads. Yes, I do.

If you don’t already know: Nine Inch Nail has made their album downloadable. Full quality. I love love love them.

And then Radiohead, same basic concept. But add sustainability.

Live music (with a pulse)

I love music. I love it when it’s alive, and I can feel the bass thumping in my stomach, and the guitar in my head, and the vocals in my heart. It makes me feel like I’m in another place where my normal life seems so absurd and dull–and when I come down from that high, the place that I was at hours ago seems blurry and mystical.

I’ve fallen in love with it over and over. It’s one of my main obsessions.

I decided it’s time to make the list.
The List – Bands I’ve seen live:

Rollingstones

The Who

Santana

Ricky Martin

Little Richard

Chuck Berry

That guy who married a 12 year old girl

U2

Pearl Jam

Jack Johnson

The Shins

Mad Caddies

Rat City Riot

Matt Hopper

Blonde Redhead

Gravy Train!!!

Imperial Teen

Rogue Wave

Nine Inch Nails

Electric Six

No Doubt

Tool

Bad Religion

Shiny Toy Guns

The Misfits

Matt Costa

Eddie Vedder

3 Doors Down

The Doors (minus Jim)

The  86 List

The Hellcaminos

Temporary Lovers

8 mm Overdose

a whole bunch of local bands

I think I’m missing some, so I’ll ask around. But I look forward to expanding my list, especially since the Dead Kennedys are scheduled to come to HI in October…

I was deathly ill

this weekend. But I got through it, and these things helped me survive:

Much love and good vibes to all.

I Love Zombies.

Just came back from shooting the music video to “Old Snake Road” with the film crew from Lost. Yeah, I’m stoked. I’m also covered in congealed fake blood…but that’s a different story.

I found a new musician

and I love her.

I knew it

Which fucked-up genius composer are you?

Nick Cave… dark and creepy. You’re a bi-polar genius, with equal passion for the most degrading aspects of humanity, as well as the beauty & wonder of God and Heaven.
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Third band, finals over, free time (ish)

Finals are over! Rejoice! Here the angels sing!

AP US History went well, same with French. Math was probably the WORST TEST I’VE EVER TAKEN. Hello first C of my life. Things like this happen, so I’m trying not to beat myself up about it too much. Gotta retain what is left of my sanity.

After finals were over, Emily and I decided to party it up, and so after I went to go see Sweeney Todd, we wrote our first Wizard Rock song (!). The band is called Undesirable Number one, and we are well on are way to having our first CD ready. Her dad is sort of in the music business, so he has some super cool, super fancy recording equipment for us to use. And we wrote 5 new songs so far.

The universe responds so quickly to my wishes, because if you recall, about a month ago I was wishing heavily to be in a band. I found this band that needed a lead singer… and boom. Then my friend and I started The Jackies and Marilyns…and boom. Now I have a wizard rock band that is so amazingly fun…and boom. The universe is quite loving. I also have been working on some solo folky songs (much different from my dark, industrial nu-rave older stuff). I finished one this afternoon called “Paint Brush in the Sky”. I was sitting in the backyard (which has suddenly blossomed these purple flowers all over the place), wearing my bikini top and tie dye boxers, and my mom was like, “You look exactly like a hippie sitting in a field of flowers with your acoustic guitar and tie dye. You just need to take your top off, then you have the free love mixed in with it.”

My mom is… so supportive. She makes me laugh.

I really want to write more, so I will be back later, because the blue sky calls me. I’ll just leave you with the band promo picture for U.N.O. and kiss goodbye.

The Misfits.

hell. yes.

Edit: Here is the full story of the wonderful Misfits-

One of the first indications of a great show is the crowd outside. Are they dressed in preppy surf brand shirts and board shorts? Or are they more creative? The Misfits crowd was wonderfully dressed up. My friend and lead singer of the metal band 8 mm Overdose was a perfect example. A regular guy in real life, he wears fake tattoos and glues piercings to his face for shows. He looks SO badass.

There are those types, there are the all black fishnet types, there are the devil lock inspired types, and there are the classic types. I decided to go for the jean skirt, stud belt, black fishnet, pink Misfits shirt, converse type thing. Oh yeah, and my flashing stud necklace, left over from my raver days.

When we got inside and I met my other friends, M (previously mentioned as the one who went with me to the Hedwig and the Angry Inch play) and C, we found out that there were FOUR opening bands. Ugh. I hate that. But they were pretty good and we watched people run into each other for a while. Then C grabbed my hand and dragged me into the pit. It was the semi-lame kind where they just run in circles. I prefer the tightly packed kind, like at the Hell Camino shows. It was fun though.

Then there was a long, long wait. We stayed near the front and off to the side, by the little bar by the stage (the one that no one can get to unless you’re already there–the crowd was so tight waiting for Jerry Only et al). We were just talking and laughing when all of a sudden, I see this man in all black with a devil lock come up to us, and grab me and M’s waist. IT WAS JERRY ONLY GRABBING OUR WAISTS! GDI!

Anyways, he hung around for a while taking pictures with people, and then he climbed the stage. C and I decided to brave the crowd once again, and we squeezed our way to the rail that divides the crowd from the stage. So we were five feet away from the Misfits. Once they started to play, the crowd started pushing us, and moving back and forth and every which way. I felt like I was getting totally squished, but it felt so good! After a while we got too hot, so we ended up just going off to the side again.

That’s when people started getting really intense and a couple of really big guys were swinging themselves around. They hit my back and ribs a couple of time, but I wasn’t hurt. Some guy ended up getting pretty damaged, and an ambulance had to be called.

Other than that, the concert was SO FUN. I had a really great time. I didn’t really mosh at the Drop Kick Murphy’s show, and at NIN it was more dancing; so this was the first time I got in the pit at a (relatively) big show.

Left with a overly sweaty body (mine and other people’s sweat), a new Misfits shirt, and a couple bruised ribs, I got a ride to my dad’s house, in Diamond Head (allegedly it looks like a diamond). We spent the rest of the night listening to old Beatles records. I was woken up in the morning by my sister talking to me in my ear via the phone (via England). It was a sleepy morning while my dad was out, listening to old records (some Janis, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Simon and Garfunkel, The Stones–those sexist bastards, and also more Beatles). Then we got coffee in the still Hawaiian air, and the sky was BLUE! I mean , really blue. Perfect blue. There was no wind and the ocean was glassy.

All in all it was a very good day.

What would you do if I sang out a tune?

I admit that I have secret dreams of what I could do if I had the time/talent/etc. One of these secret dreams is being the lead singer to a rock band. Any type of rock…new wave, punk, alternative, grunge, metal, goth…

I recently was looking at the movie show times for Juno (which isn’t playing in Hawaii yet, grrr), and I saw an advertisement. An advertisement for lead vocals, preferably female for a goth/punk band. The little girl in me who believes in miracles started cartwheeling.

So, despite the fact that my voice isn’t incredible, and my look isn’t typical “goth”, I called the number and left a message. Later, the lead guitarist called me back and we talked for a while. He told me that his influences were goth/punk, but that the band wasn’t necessarily going to be that type of music. He told me that finding the vocalist was one of the most important parts about creating a band. He told me that if I were the lead vocalist, I’d have to have definite stage presences. I told him that I wasn’t typical “goth” (I have long blonde hair). I told him that I had some formal vocal training in high school. I told him that this would be my first real band experience.

Could this be it? Could I be the next Shirly Manson or P.J. Harvey? Realistically no, I’m telling myself. But I could have a hell of a fun time.

This is my mantra: you are doing this to push your boundaries, and even if you don’t get in the band, you will still have had the experience of TRYING OUT. You will hound yourself forever if you don’t try, because that if will constantly eat you away.

I’m so excited every time I think about it though.

I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT SO MANY THINGS!! I HAVE TO CAPITALIZE IT!

List of things that are making my heart beat and a smile stretch on my face:

1. Christmas eve tomorrow!
2. Audition for my lead singer position
3. Christmas day after tomorrow!
4. Having the “Le Aprés Midi de Francais” with my friend. (We’re going to dress up as French people, go out on the town speaking only French, watch French movies, listen to French music, and eat French food)
5. Having the second Interview with a DJ (this time with one of my all time favorites–death rock, 80’s, gothic, industrial, ethereal, darkwave spinner DJ Nocturna)
6. Surfing with Elisha, Christian, Becs, and Mark
7. Tye Dying New Years Eve with fellow Beatle, Ringo (I am John Lennon in my group of friends).
8. Hanging out with Elisha! One of the coolest cousins ever.

Great. There are 8 things for 2008.