The Magic Four Letters to Get Booted Off KRock

Hopefully the scenario from Larry Sanders where Artie's gopher nephew takes his boss' exotic ice cream order as "Lar will have the 'Queer's Delight' will never be repeated by some hapless intern for JV and Elvis of KROCK's Dog House (link courtesy Pseu Braun):

Last week the guys from A Brief Smile sat around the Green Room waiting for their time to get some airplay. Little did they know that time was a whole week away.

So the boys came back today, and you finally got to hear them. Bodhi and I both thought the band had promise when we checked out their Myspace page last week. Like I said then: "It's original, it's depressing and I think I love it!"

You, the dear listeners, had your chance to rate the band today. And boy, oh boy... this didn't go well. Why are bass players such tools? Seriously...

Four members out of the five piece showed up today. Three of them were cool, one was a complete waste. He started off the interview saying he USED to listen to Krock (when the station was "good") and that he has never heard the Dog House program which is on "what once a week?". He also says he only listens to WFMU when he turns on the radio. And that's when his ass was kicked out of the studio.

After JV continued his bashing of the pansy bass player, said pansy bass player returned to the studio (un-invited this time) to lambast JV for using the word "Faggy". He says he takes offense to that word, being a boy of mixed sexual tastes (that means he's half a fenook like Rudy), and more or less asked for an apology.

JV was having none of that ish! He explained that by "faggy" he means "dorky" and that his comments had nothing to do with the pansy bass players sexual preferences. Then he kicked him out again.

Oh yeah... the music, right! The studio crew thought A Brief Smile sounded really good, but the listeners weren't feeling it. Looks like no sticky link for them.

In defense of our brothers and sisters behind the mic across the river, I will say I truly admired the KROCK DJ who liked to MC Pavement concerts (MP3). Now that guy had stage presence.

Comments

[Austin]

Check out the backlash and the backbacklash at Queerty

BTW, I think the Pavement MC is from Los Angeles' KROQ (he mentions the venue as the El Rey). Bad radio is bi-coastal.

[Listener James from Westwood]

Best mention of FMU on another station since an IBJ member warned Bob Grant about the perils of Jonesey in an Apocalypse Now–accented tirade some years back.

[Nicholas]

Was KROCK good? I think I remember a short time when, like MTV, it played music, but I think that is long gone.

[little jammy thing]

I always thought that the mysterious Pavement MC was/is Rian Murphy.
Anyone that ever saw Chestnut Station live could probably attest to this (not me).

[Anon]

WKTU has been on a downward slide ever since Paco left, what else is new?

[James]

FWIW, I"ve also heard the story that "KROQ" is really Rian Murphy. And even if it isn't, the Pavement introduction still sounds like an intentional hoax to me.

[Chris]

You should really listen to the audio of them and Opie and Anthony going at it on the air.

here:

http://afro202.com/archives/xm-oav/ONAXM-09-28-06-(OnA-vs-JVnE).mp3

[NJSAL]

Bottom line is the band sucked and they were unoriginal. The bassist was disrespectful and got what he deserved,that's why apologized the next day. The station is not KROCK,it's WFNY. There's too many"I want to slit my wrists"bands out there. There's no good bands anymore and this whinny voice crap has to go.

[Jason Maggard]

I've never heard the band, but I can only guess that the magic 4 letters are "D-U-M-B". Bands need all the help they can get, and to walk in and spit on the shoes of any radio station that agrees to play your cuts is just massively stupid. Do they go to the club they're supposed to play and tell the owner it's a dump? If they didn't like the Radio station, why agree to do an interview in the first place?

I certainly wouldn't send my demo CD to someone with a note attached: "The place across the street is much better, but here's our Demo CD, please hire us to play your crappy dive."

Whatever happened to if you can't say something nice, shut your mouth. It's like they invited him in for dinner and he told them their house was ugly. Unappreciative little dip.

It's not even about if the band or radio station is any good... It's about not biting the hand that's feeding you. As a musician, I apologize for little turds like him and assure you, if invited, I will be a perfect gentleman, no matter what I think of your morning crew. I will not even bother to tell you I don't listen to mainstream radio. I will tell you how much I like your show even though I only heard it on the way to your studio.

What ever happened to common courtesy and common sense?

[ryan]

It's scary anyone would argue that the members of the band "A Brief Smile" were getting deserved comeuppance for disrespect. That argument is barefaced, reactionary posturing, meant only to take the heat off of the djs who have no one to blame for their bad press but themselves. I can only hope that the blowback ratings they get from this trick will be short-lived and tiny. (that sentence is begging for an anatomy joke, but unlike these guys i'm no comedian).

Since the program-as-club analogy is already out there, I'll finesse it, considering the show I heard. "The Dog House" fashions itself as a funny talk show. So their 'club' would be less a venue for music than for comedy. The act in question involves inviting a band onto their show so they can be publicly scrutinized. It's funny because:
a. the stakes are high for the band - they want to be well-liked, cool, successful - their rating and fate is at the mercy of the hosts. and
b. there are no stakes for the hosts. they're always invited back, no matter what.
so a listener tunes in to listen to the hopeful, p.c. band squirm, and to hear the very un-p.c. hosts hurl every no-no and epithet without recourse. the listener is free to titter like a rapt understudy.

As the owners of the club, they have sanctioned use of the words gay, homo, queer, take it up the ass, etc. in the name of comedy. But their guests are given almost no lateral in the good natured insult-as-comedy front. When a guest swats back - as in this case, "You're good at making noises [...] I'll take that [being thrown out] as a badge of honor" - then political correctness is on the other foot. And for the hosts, who are used to playing the part of pariah, revenge is sweet. The guest is disrespectful, bad enough to be called a prick, a dick, a dork, a homo, faggot, etc, and is swiftly thrown out. But that's not his worst offense. When the nasty bassist returns (his name is John Carnes, and the newest member of the group according to their website) to protest their use of faggot, he's told to "Get out of here," because after all, "It's a radio show." And the verbal beating only gets worse.

The poor dj/comedy club owners. Wasn't John Carnes told the rules? The band isn't supposed to talk back. They're supposed to be a quiet, 'respectful' sounding board for the brilliant witticisms of the hosts, whose comedy sounded a lot like a Michael Richards tirade. But the difference they've repeatedly proven is that it's still okay to scream fag, homo, queer, etc. and have it be funny. As long as one steers clear of 'nigger.' At least Richards apologized.

Let's not kid ourselves. The central issue isn't about the red-herring, "disrespectful" guest and his lack of courtesy. It's about power and permissable language. More specifically, the power of the comedian and permissable language. One can say fag as long as it's funny. It's a cheap laugh, but if you take it away, "The Dog House" is out of business, and to a smaller extent, so is "A Brief Smile." Otherwise, John's bandmates probably would have been better at defending him.

KROQ, and CBS Radio in general has a lot of broadcast power. It's just sad that so many of its minutes are tended by the ugly minds of JV and Elvis instead of struggling bands like "A Brief Smile."

[ana]

ryan,
i've been getting sent a ton of links about this story and have been reading a lot about this but this is the only blog i've commented on because what you wrote i have a lot of respect for and i 100% agree. it's also been the most coherent thing i've read so far and i appreciate you saying this about the band and i also appreciate that you look at it the way you do.

[Paul BRienza]

Reading the comments posted, I have to ask myself, did any of these people even here the show in question? Who cares if a band is invited on to the show, and is berated for being disrespectful, that would be deserved. But now lets look at the facts: The DJ's are bigots, who made negative connotations about faggots & taking things up the ass. Also, using the word faggot, by any person that comes from NY means only 1 thing. You want to call someone dumb, or an idiot, or a jerk-off, fine, but faggot means 1 thing. If you don't realize this show was one big gay-bashing extravaganza, you're probably a gay-basher yourself. Let's see if the moderator posts this!

[James Ord]

Jason Maggard has a very valid point. Good on ya mate. However, Even the DJ's have rules they have to uphold as broadcasters on public ariways. The interview really crossed the lines of what is considered publicly decent when one of the DJ's went into what we will affectionately call "The Butt Plug Monologue" What was very degrading was that the kid let them know why he found it offensive and the DJ proceeded to ramp up the gay comments. Then said it was about being a "dork" but continued to use gay slurs not in that context. We all say things like "that's so gay" but trying to equate "The Butt Plug Monologue" to saying "That's so gay" doesn't sell. At least Im not buying it.

[Rex]

I recognize the voice of the KROQ DJ from listening to the station in the 80's. The DJ in question was a music industry schmooze (even more than Rodney Bingenheimer), and his arrival at the station coincided with KROQ becoming increasingly mainstream and commercial. I believe his stage name is 'Jed the Fish', who, according to Wikipedia, is still a DJ at the station.

[conrad]

Nah, it's def. not Jed The Fish.