California's KFJC is nestled atop Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, about a 40 minute ride down from San Francisco and has been eminating freeform radio waves in a brotherly/sisterly fashion to WFMU for years (and on one occasion swapping identities with WFMU in a motherly/daughterly Freaky Friday fashion). They've always been keen purveyors of the well-known and lesser-known lights of underground of Japan's rock scene, so it was a perfect idea for them to travel over to the Land of the Rising Sun this past August where they camped out to broadcast/netcast and video stream two nights of some stellar performances. Results have now been issued onto a CD/DVD set. As of publishing time, the station is in the midst of their annual fundraiser (like WFMU they are listener-supported), and the set is one of the several new cool offerings in their swag vault, so get ye over to kfjc.org and lend some coin. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from the DVD, six minutes of frazzled electronic mayhem from Hiroshi Hasegawa who performs and records under the name Astro (thanks Grawer for post permish):
Also included in the compilation: Sax Ruins (Tatsuya Yoshida drumming with saxophonist Ryoko Ono), Majutsu No Niwa, Reiko A. + Sachiko, Keiichi Miyashita, Kuurucrew, Katsurei, Up-Tight, Oninko, Tabata Mitsuru, Kawaguchi Masami (of Miminokoto) with his New Rock Syndicate, and Amazon Saliva.
I remember KFJC at Terrastock and listen to them since that event in Providence, RI here where I live.
AMAZING
Posted by: xangoir | November 25, 2008 at 01:08 PM
Ahh, KFJC. In a market where there are bunches of great listener supported radio stations, I always found myself back to them while I was driving around for work. One of the best.
Posted by: Howdy Dodad | November 25, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Sounds lively. I wish some of our bands could display that kind of pep.
Posted by: Luminous Estuary | November 25, 2008 at 06:14 PM
A performance like this could, should be amazing, but I'm not buying it. He's got a lot of gizmos that are no doubt capable of a lot of dynamics, but he has not rehearsed or explored them, and you can see his frustration with the sameness of much of the noise. Jumping onto the table is not going to make the sound more interesting.
Thanks anyway Brian, love your show.
Posted by: boil | November 28, 2008 at 11:24 PM
I am totally sold on WPRR 1680 AM. Anyone in the Grand Rapids area should tune into their programming and give them a listen. It’s the replacement for the old Radio Disney, but the new format is pretty amazing, especially considering the standard fare that we get from radio broadcasts in Grand Rapids. Anyway, they have a streaming cast on their page at http://www.publicrealityradio.com. They’ve got great educational, progressive programming that is both locally produced and taken from the Pacifica Radio network from around the country. A friend of mine suggested I tune into the “Infidel Guy”, who I guess is pretty popular for his podcasts online, but it was surprising to find such content being broadcast over the air in Grand Rapids, Michigan of all places. Agree or disagree with the opinions, it is refreshing new content for listener supported radio in West Michigan.
Posted by: Bob | February 19, 2009 at 01:01 PM