Tangy Bee Buzz

Too much fun

No, not the local DC band (what the hell do they sound like anyway...). I love this article, especially:

""Sometimes it's like that," said Empty Bottle manager Bruce Finkleman. "Everyone at a show is standing there, arms folded, having a great time, and then someone decides to get crazy. It can kill an otherwise perfect night. Unfortunately, unless the enthusiastic fan breaks something, my hands are tied.""

If only we could find a place kinda in the middle. The arms folded, contemplative staring stance drives me nuts when a show has some energy. I know tooms always points it out. Sure, stand quietly for Sigur Ros, but for frickin' Sleater Kinney?!? [granted, I don't stand up front anymore...I'm in the back with all the DCCD clerk-types, I guess...]

Back from 9500 feet

Wow, I am not good with altitudes. Was dizzy for 2.5 days in Telluride, without trying!! Seriously, had two glasses of wine over 2.5 days. Whew.

So listen to the Von Bondies -- they're coming to Baltimore in February. I hear their show rocks. I'm listening to first song (it's streaming audio, which is so brilliant because you can listen without having to download....I love it!) - I can see them putting on a good show. Hey, the chick's singing backup -- that's always good. That, and "ba ba bas" or "la la las."

xo, Tangy

16 Year User Here

Wow, I knew I got in fairly early, but I got my first Mac just four years after they were introduced (though I used them for three years before that, but it took my senior thesis to convince my Dad to buy me one from the Mac store right on campus -- and I didn't even finish my thesis on time!).

"(CNN) --Its dedicated users are so passionate they're often described as religious about their love for the machine.

Twenty years ago, on January 24, 1984, Apple Computer launched the Macintosh. It contained virtually unknown features, including simple icons, and an odd little attachment called a mouse.

Many newspaper stories at the time had to include a definition. Silicon Valley's newspaper The San Jose (California) Mercury News, for example, described the mouse as 'a handheld device that, when slid across a table top, moves the cursor on the Mac's screen.'"

TGITangyBee !

Yeah, Bob, I hope you're going to see the Decemberists (have you seen them before? As Portlandians, perhaps you have...). They're interesting and fun, and I like the albums -- bought 'em both at the show. 'Cuz I'm nuts. I like the article, too; good read.

But, as an FYI, my favorite albums from 2003 right now are Scout and Tegan and Sara. Good, good stuff. Streaming MP3s available at each site...

If you're looking for a flick to catch this weekend, seems that this isn't the one you want to spend the money or time sitting through.

Hey, I'll be out of Tangy Bee Buzz range for much of next week; keep on keepin' on without me. I'm counting on y'all.

Go here now

It's www.subpop.com, but something's amiss -- beautifully, hysterically amiss. Check it out before it changes...

It's The Onion of music sites. It's too much to even take in!! Go, now!

Missing Bees

As an FYI, you may want to email some of your 'musicnews' pals and let 'em know what they're missing. They've all be invited but haven't signed up. They *can* read it without becoming a posting member, also. I sent one reminder; that's enough for me. ;)

westyrun@sprintmail.com
lynn_marquis@hotmail.com
l_bagot@yahoo.com
ssanger@warnertheatre.com
greg.orlando@mail.house.gov

So much fun to be had...

Y'all have been so wonderfully active! I've been swamped at work, but will get to all of your stuff.

But, to start, check out this Crazy Train, and then this Punk love song, and then there's this fun as well. Man, that man is CRAZY.

Also, you MUST check out the winners of the 30-second Bush commercials at Moveon.org -- many of them are priceless, but as my boss said, "it's way too easy."

love you, you whacky kids. Tangy

AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

He's a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can't privatize social security, Stupid fucking people will invest it badly, lose it, and we'll STILL have to pay to keep them alive when they get motherfucking old. We'll pay twice, but W will be dead by then, so what the hell does he care.

And it's the estate tax, not the death tax, you goddamn evil son of a bitch.

Yeah, and abstinence works. That's right. Oh my god, here he goes into the institution of marraige. "One of the most endurable institutions in history." It's about passing on property you GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING ASS-EATING AWFUL HEINOUS PIECE OF SHIT GARBAGE.

"Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage." He's talking about going to war....my god. "The same moral tradition that defends marriage" -- okay, so every divorced person is IMMORAL. Remember that. You said it. You motherfuck.

Fellow buzzbloggers, this is my least literate post. I can't be literate, I'm just so appalled and amazed. I apologize, but I was in my apartment screaming at the television, and this is a better vehicle for venting. At least my neighbors won't call the cops on me if I'm just typing.

You know, as he was talking about how great the country has become over the last year, what's sick is that he believes it. He believes more tax cuts makes the U.S. a better place. And yet, there are those evil smirks. The man, president of the most powerful nation in the world, smirks.

Well, I'm wrong. A 10-year old named Ashley believes in him. I must be wrong. (Hey, she's sleeping! She's soooooo lucky.)

Why no Buzzflash, you ask?

You know, Ryan, the home page just looks so crowded and inundating, that I feel like I need a good span of time to even peruse what the articles are. I trust you that it's good (you're my Salon buddy!), but somehow I'm not inclined to get into the meat of Buzzflash. I'll make it a point, and then maybe I'll be hooked.

The agism in Hollywood never ends

Okay, this is about hollywood, not music, so will be even more frustrating.

This story was in the N.Y. Times "Week in Review" on Sunday, about "older actresses" and how they are emerging as a real force, though there still aren't all that many roles for them. [You have to be a member of NYTimes.com to access articles, so I'm posting half the article.] Here's what kills me -- they talk about four Golden Globe nominees being older women: Diane Keaton, 58; Jamie Lee Curtis, 45; Helen Mirren, 58; and Diane Lane, 38. Then they have this sentence: "Actresses considered past their prime do not command the $20 million salaries of younger stars like Julia Roberts, whose "Mona Lisa Smile'' opened in December to a disappointing $11.5 million in first-weekend ticket sales." Julia Roberts is 36 -- TWO YEARS YOUNGER than Diane Lane, who is treated here and was during her Academy Award run like an old lady.

I know, it's not new, but that pissed me off, this whole Diane Lane/Julia Roberts thing (Nicole Kidman's 36 too). And of course Tom Cruise would never be described as an older actor at 41. You have to be Harrison Ford at 62, though they both get leading ladies in their late 20s, maybe early 30s.

Just venting, which you're supposed to be able to do on a blog, right?

January 18, 2004
AGING GRACEFULLY
And the Winner Is . . . the Older Woman
By LAURA M. HOLSON

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood is a town ruled by conventional wisdom. Teenage boys rule at the box office. The most marketable actresses are both pretty and young. And female moviegoers are capricious and unpredictable.

But some nominations for the Golden Globe Awards next Sunday defy convention. Four of the five actresses up for best actress in a comedy are near 40 or older, including Diane Keaton, 58, who starred in "Something's Gotta Give''; Jamie Lee Curtis, 45, in "Freaky Friday''; Helen Mirren, 58, in "Calendar Girls''; and Diane Lane, 38, in "Under the Tuscan Sun.'' And unlike many star-driven epic movies produced last year, these films will actually make money.

The older woman, it seems, is this year's Hollywood "It Girl.''

Actresses considered past their prime do not command the $20 million salaries of younger stars like Julia Roberts, whose "Mona Lisa Smile'' opened in December to a disappointing $11.5 million in first-weekend ticket sales. Films featuring older actresses tend not to require expensive special effects, either, so budgets are more reasonable, often less than $40 million.

But just as important, it is older female moviegoers, a group largely ignored in the late 1990's, who are driving the popularity of these movies. Ticket sales among men and women in the over-40 set are up sharply in the past 15 years. Some analysts attribute this to baby boomers interested in seeing stars they grew up with. Others suggest that the woman in a couple is increasingly choosing the movie to see.

Either way, women, movie studio executives say, have become more vital for any mainstream success, turning out for movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' and "Chicago,'' which became huge hits.

"If you don't get the female demographic, you can't have a mainstream movie,'' said Amy Pascal, chairwoman of Columbia Pictures, which released "Something's Gotta Give.''

Lynda Obst, a producer at Paramount Pictures and author of "Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths From the Hollywood Trenches,'' added, "Older women are saying, 'We're not dead yet.' ''

Even more striking is that the appeal of big-name celebrities like Russell Crowe and Tom Cruise, who both starred in expensive epic battle movies in 2003, was not enough to draw women this year.

Dawn Taubin, president of domestic marketing at Warner Brothers Pictures, said that when the studio initially screened "The Last Samurai'' for a test audience of women, it found little interest. The women said the movie was too much about war.

So, she said, Mr. Cruise went on daytime talk shows, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show,'' "The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' and "The View." The studio softened the movie's image by playing up in ads the love affair between Mr. Cruise's character and a Japanese woman.

But the strategy only worked so well. The movie's domestic take thus far is $98 million, less than "Freaky Friday,'' a remake of the 1972 Disney classic in which a mother and daughter switch bodies. The remake earned $110 million and cost a quarter as much as "Samurai.''

Back in the 1930's and well into the 1950's, women's movies were more common, often portraying a woman in peril who is forced to overcome hardship and who learns she needs a man to be fulfilled. After the 1960's, women were portrayed as more free-spirited and independent, as Ms. Keaton showed in "Annie Hall'' in 1977.

By the 1990's, strong female characters willing to avenge any slight, particularly one from a man, showed up more frequently. In 1991, "Thelma and Louise'' became a cultural event and a box office hit. So, in 1996, did "The First Wives Club,'' in which three women (one played by Ms. Keaton) punish their husbands who desert them for younger women.

In 1995, the percentage of women 18 or older who went to the movies at least once a month peaked at 27 percent, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. But in the late 1990's, that percentage declined as Hollywood delivered a string of female-oriented box-office disasters with predictable plots. Studios then began making more action films for teenage boys who see them in groups over and over.

Teenagers remain the largest segment of the audience, primarily because they are repeat customers. But in the past 15 years, the older set has gained ground. Tickets bought by men and women older than 40 grew to 32 percent of overall ticket purchases in 2002, from 20 percent in 1987, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.

By contrast, the percentage of tickets purchased by filmgoers from 12 to 39 years old dropped from 80 percent in 1987 to 67 percent in 2002. Much of that decline, studio executives say, is a result of new distractions, like video games and the Internet.

The latest crop of movies for older women is a new attempt to attract that audience.

Still, many in Hollywood complain about a dearth of parts for older actresses, even though the number of older actresses nominated for Golden Globe awards has increased in recent years. Until three years ago, only two or three older actresses were normally acknowledged in all the combined categories.

It is with profitability that the door opens a little wider, Ms. Obst said.

"Men and teenage boys have been driving the market and creative process for decades,'' she said. But after this past year, she said "it will be easier for studios to green-light movies they are phobic about. This is really healthy for the industry.''

Link to Indie 103
Here's a link to listen to Indie 103 -- right now they're playing Postal Service, so it's not all "gold alternative"! Worth a listen. Only drawback -- no contemporaneous playlist. KEXP and WOXY get you used to that. I've emailed them and mentioned that a playlist online would be a big boon to their internet listenership. ;) The link (along with Bob Mould's weblog link) are now permanent additions to the right.

Boy, the folks who haven't signed up are missing out!

See this....

Take that, W

Internet Radio

Or look to the right at the links -- two indie stations on the web. Pretty different. WOXY is a commercial station, and I think more upbeat. KEXP varies more by DJ, and based on when I listen (their morningtime in Seattle), it's more british sounds, post-punk kind of stuff.

I like this from the story on the LA station: "I’m not an idiot. That’s how Indie 103 has managed to cause such a buzz among a certain demographic in SoCal. In its embryonic, no-DJs-no-commercials incarnation (commercials just began airing this week), Indie 103 is the kind of station that appeals to a fairly broad range of people — not because they like all the music, but because they passionately adore some of it."

It's so true; if I think I'll be pleasantly surprised/bowled over by a Robyn Hitchcock song I haven't heard in ages, I'll listen.

Music 2003: Rock is dead (once more with feeling)

I'm not sure if this is a Salon Premium article or not, so I'm going to take a chance and put a link to this story in (it's an 8-pager otherwise; an awful lot to post). [FYI, I know how to do the link the way Ryan did, but it's not working! Aaaargh. Still, you can follow the url below.]

http:////www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2004/01/02/year_in_music/print.html

The gist of the story is:

Forget those boring white boys with guitars. Thanks to Missy, OutKast and Timbaland, for the first time since the Beatles, the most vital forms of pop are found at the top of the charts.

In many ways, 2003 was a depressing year for music. The New York rock explosion of 2001, from which we'll be feeling the aftershocks for years, enshrined as the cutting edge of cool a shameless and sadly unironic parroting of the past. That ethos spread far from Brooklyn this year, and it was disheartening to see just how much acclaimed music demonstrated an enormous debt to the past, and very little to any kind of personal vision. This was a year in which it was easy to feel that there was nothing new under the sun. At least, it was easy to feel that way if you didn't listen to any hip-hop.

Full disclosure: I know very little about hip-hop and have only recently started buying the albums rather than just listening to singles on the radio. And yet, it was hip-hop that gave me hope this year, that made me feel that perhaps this really was an exciting time in music. I was not alone in that feeling. The Grammy nominees were announced last month, and they are overwhelmingly hip-hop dominated. During the week of Oct. 4, the top 10 singles on the Billboard chart were, for the first time, all by black artists. We've been told for years now that hip-hop has arrived, that it is now the dominant genre in the music business, in much the same way that every day for the last three months an article has appeared somewhere with the news that Howard Dean is on his way to becoming the front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination. Hopefully the Billboard stat and the Grammy nominations list will act as Al Gore's endorsement did, and put to rest some of the novelty.

Another cool music fest announced

HHHHhhmmmmmmmm, there's CoachellaBumbershoot, SXSW. And Noisepop -- in San Francisco! See below; I'm just at a loss. I'll be in Key West the weekend of Noisepop, but all these festivals are swirling in my head.

American Music Club, Low, Vanderslice, Super Furries Sign On For Noise Pop 2004
Amp shops jack up price of new tubes to $350 each
[Posted Wednesday, January 14th, 2003 02:20:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Chris Rediske reports:
Few words inspire such a Pavlovian response among we lovers of music great and small like "festival." Since the days when Lollapalooza was something you might actually want to attend (remember: Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Beck once shared a bill), and for that matter, far earlier than that, a music festival has promised an orgasmic potpourri of bands, as well as assorted other entertainments, from copious drinking opportunities to films and other, ahem... diversions. From CMJ to South by Southwest to Coachella to All Tomorrow's Parties, we gather and listen, and so it shall be this year as well, when Noise Pop once again opens its collective doors to the world in 2004.

Now in its 12th year, the Noise Pop festival, which takes over pretty much every independent club in San Francisco for the duration, boasts an alumni list that any festival would be proud of: Yo La Tengo, The White Stripes, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, Bright Eyes-- I'm sure you get the idea. This year's festival will once again take place in good old California (assuming, of course, that they get the go-ahead from Ahnuld), monopolizing your vacation time, eardrums, and the clubs of San Francisco from February 24th to 29th.

Details and band confirmations are still forthcoming, and tickets should be on sale soon, but we do have a preliminary list of this year's rockin' rockers for your perusal: Super Furry Animals, Low, John Vanderslice, Dillinger Escape Plan, Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, Sage Francis, The Detroit Cobras, Denali, The Locust, Trans Am, Gold Chains, and a newly reunited American Music Club. More confirmations are to be expected, along with details on the film festival and ticket info.

.: Pitchfork News: Noise Pop Festival Announces 2003 Lineup
.: Noise Pop: http://www.noisepop.com

Great idea!

Title your posts, and bold the title, so it's easier to see where the new posts start. I missed a couple at first.... We're learning, we're learning.

New Topic: Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ home in NY

January 13, 2004
ROCK REVIEW | YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Oblivious to the Ballroom, as if She Were Home Alone
By KELEFA SANNEH

hen MTV started broadcasting its celebrity lifestyle program "Cribs," the idea seemed simple enough: famous people would invite camera crews into their homes, enhancing their glamorous reputations by showing off their mausoleum-size closets and 22-car garages.

But what is often shown instead is something less enviable and more interesting: pop stars who haven't had a chance to decorate because they're always on the road; bachelor athletes who can make a mansion look like a dorm room; just-got-paid rappers who put chintz in the dining room and a swimming pool in the living room. "Cribs" is full of wealthy stars who don't yet seem at home in their new homes; they've suddenly got huge new houses, and now they have to figure out how to fill them.

A similar thing happened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the post-punk band that found itself headlining the cavernous Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday night. Since the success of "Fever to Tell" (Interscope), which was one of 2003's best CD's, the three band members have had to figure out how to fill bigger houses.

It was a triumphant performance, led by the singer Karen O, who teased the audience by feigning oblivion: onstage she acts as if she's alone in her bedroom, wriggling and flailing and squawking.

All night Karen O did what any new homeowner should do: she redecorated, performing an amusing pas de deux with the nimble stagehand whose job was to stave off chaos. He sprinted after her as she wrestled with speakers, festooned the amplifiers in strands of lights and tossed microphones this way and that.

While the drummer Brian Chase bashed out rudimentary rhythms, the guitarist Nick Zinner found restrained ways to add noise and melody. Unlike Jack White of the White Stripes, Mr. Zinner avoids wild, swooping blues riffs; he can generate just as much excitement by scrubbing a single chord for a few bars.

The last song, "Modern Romance," began with Karen O flat on her back, holding the microphone above her face, while Mr. Zinner peeled off slow-changing chords. Soon she picked herself up and whispered the chorus: "There is no modern romance." Then she walked toward the back of the stage and disappeared, leaving her band mates and the audience alone in her bedroom.

The opening acts found different ways to make themselves at home. The free-rock quartet Black Dice played up the incongruity by performing a great miniaturist set full of glowing guitar notes and growling, clicking electronics. At the end they were rewarded with scattered applause and a sound you don't often hear at an indie-rock concert: booing.

A dour, theatrical set by the art-rock band Liars never really got going, but the lightheaded folkie Devendra Banhart was more beguiling, strumming his guitar and murmuring his odd, anthropomorphic lyrics: "Hey there, mister sexy pig, you've mated with a man/And now you've got a little kid with hooves instead of hands." Perched cross-legged on a black cube in the middle of the stage, Mr. Banhart seemed to enjoy having Hammerstein Ballroom to himself for a few minutes. You might say he was house-sitting.

Go Lance Kerwin!!! That guy made my knees weak, which is just pathetic. But he was a teenager on t.v., and real in a way that David Cassidy never was. He had soul. ;) Where, oh where, is he now?

It is fascinating how this retro, or "classic," alternative is stuff that wasn't on the radio (I know, Marn, except for LIR) when it came out. I think that often -- even at 80s nights and all those songs we now take to "identify" the 80s. Where did you hear ABC on the radio? Nowhere. Just MTV, which I guess is the equivalent when looking back and shaping what we consider 'nostalgia.'

Ryan, I want that radio station, I want that radio station.

Danny, welcome to our little group. We've been emailing this shit for a while now, and this seemed like a better way to communicate without all the email traffic (on work accounts for some). It's still in the experimental stage, so we'll see.

By the way, if you want some DIVERSITY, you and Marn should not be on the same island! Of course, if we were ALL on the same island, we'd be in pretty good shape. ;)

Wow, Marn, that is one alternative store! Cat Power number 1?!? [I have that; not impressed -- it's too quiet and still for me, if you understand what I'm getting at...] The whole list is pretty damn alternative, interspersed with the occasional indie 'hit' a la the White Stripes, etc. Have you gotten The Rapture? I'd be interested to hear that.

Bad news, all. Along with the KROCK-ification of the world, pioneering Long Island alternative/new wave station WLIR was sold to Univision and went Spanish Language.

I used to listen to that station in the early 80s! When we visited my cousin Christine in Eastchester, I'd be able to tune it in. Not well, but enough. Man I loved that. My first taste of hearing alternative music I didn't buy from the bargain bin. [Okay, in St. Pete we had one hour of 'alternative' radio on USF's station, at 11:00 p.m. Sunday night. And of course there was the IRS' Cutting Edge on MTV. God bless Peter Zaremba.]

Bob, here's my deal on the Smiths. I LOVE "The Queen is Dead," and that would certainly come in #2 (and come along to the desert if I could take more than 10). But, "Hatful of Hollow" has a lot of the Eponymous songs on it, and more importantly, it was my very first Smiths album. From my very first boyfriend. So, the nostalgia that it brings back is irreplaceable. And isn't that what it's all about, after all. :)

here we go....we're the target audience, you realize. And I have to say, this will be the station I'd tune to when I *have* to listen to radio. The alternative stations are full of nu metal and screamo and I just can't get into it....though the reality probably is that the change is driven by advertising. One sentence bemoans the possible loss of playing risky new bands, I don't hear that anyway. Well, I do, but it's on the internet. ;) -- tangy

January 12, 2004
Radio Sees Nirvana of the 90's in Its Future
By CHRIS NELSON

For radio listeners in Seattle, the end of 2003 brought the Invasion of the Aging Hipster Bands.

On Dec. 18 at noon, the modern rock station KNDD-FM "the End" announced on the air that it was returning to its roots. Dumped immediately were rap rock and modern metal bands like Limp Bizkit and Puddle of Mudd. They were replaced by familiar voices from the alternative rock explosion of the early 1990's: Nirvana, R.E.M., Weezer and Beck, as well as predecessors like the Clash and Sex Pistols.

The next day, Seattle's KYPT-FM "the Point" bid farewell to Prince, Madonna and the other pop and rock acts on its 1980's playlist, switching to a similar "classic alternative'' format. The station also adopted the fresh call letters KRQI and the new nickname "K Rock."

On the same day, a similar change was occurring at Atlanta's WNNX-FM "99X." Just over a year ago, San Diego's KBZT-FM "FM 94-9" made the same move.

While the number of stations embracing the "classic alternative" format is small so far, industry executives expect a significant jump in the coming years. Both the End and 99X are considered bellwether outlets. "For them to shift in this direction is like the shot heard 'round the world,'' said Max Tolkoff, a columnist for the trade publications Radio & Records.

Like the classic rock format that started in the mid-1980's to cater to aging baby boomers, classic alternative - with new songs from retro-alternative bands like the White Stripes and the Strokes thrown into the mix on some stations - appeals to Generation X'ers who are beginning to show some gray.

That means it could be a good time to try to raise the average listening age for rock stations. Two trade associations for the alcohol industry, the Beer Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council, announced late last year that they were revising their self-imposed advertising guidelines. Now manufacturers are supposed to place broadcast ads only on stations that reach an audience that is at least 70 percent over the age of 21, instead of the previous 50 percent.

One consultant who has worked with stations moving to classic alternative rock says the changes are part of a broader reaction to growing competition. Satellite radio and TV, along with the Internet, are competing with traditional radio to be listeners' prime music outlet. A variety of stations, from classic alternative outlets to classic rock stations to NPR affiliates, are turning to listeners from Internet mailing lists rather than to general telephone polls for advice.

"The audience is laying down bread crumbs, and we need to follow them," said Fred Jacobs, the president of Jacobs Media in Detroit, a radio consultancy that has worked with KNDD and KBZT.

Alternative radio started in the early 1990's as a reaction to mainstream rock stations. The grunge pioneers Nirvana toppled the reign of glam-metal bands, and groups that had been staples of independent record labels and college radio were thrown into the mainstream limelight. Radio followed them. Alternative was also a reaction to the success of classic rock radio, which began in the mid-80's by dropping current rock acts in favor of baby boomer staples like the Beatles and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

It is only natural to introduce a classic alternative format because people are usually most excited about the music they heard as teenagers, said Don Yates, the music director at Seattle's KEXP-FM, a public station that programs a mix of rock, hip-hop, electronic, blues, country and world music. "Somewhere down the line it's decided that now it's old enough, now it's time to be a nostalgia format," he said.

Phil Manning, the program director at KNDD in Seattle, said his station's format change, on the eve of the switch by KYPT, was in part a defensive move. Last fall, Andy Savage, a KNDD morning show host, jumped ship after his contract expired; he eventually landed at the new KRQI.

"Our morning show left on Sept. 10 last year," Mr. Manning said. "I think it's prudent to say that we started thinking about changes on Sept. 10th-and-a half." Chris Williams, the program director for KRQI, did not return calls for comment.

The End is owned by Entercom, a conglomerate with 104 stations nationwide, mostly talk and non-alternative music outlets. The new K Rock is owned by the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, a unit of Viacom. Infinity has 180 stations, including the alternative powerhouses KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, KITS-FM in San Francisco and WBCN-FM in Boston.

The latest changes have not been in place long enough to be able to gauge their effect on ratings. But after San Diego's KBZT began emphasizing vintage or "gold" alternative music in November 2002, it went from the city's 18th most popular station among 18- to 34-year-olds to its current position at No. 5, Mr. Jacobs said.

Dave Beasing, Jacobs Media's alternative specialist, said that over the last decade, radio consultants had homogenized alternative radio. His company advises clients to play more music with local connections. That means spinning more grunge like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains in Seattle, and more Southern California punk like Offspring and Bad Religion in San Diego.

He also urges stations to be more respectful toward listeners. Mr. Manning pledged on the air, for instance, that D.J.'s on the End will no longer talk over the beginnings and ends of songs, and will announce song titles and band names.

The radio stations could stand to make good money from these efforts. Working to drive a station's listener age higher ensures that under the new ad guidelines, beer dollars will not go to other stations that already have older audiences.

Mr. Tolkoff, of Radio & Records, said he worried that the new emphasis on historical tracks could be a portent of less-exciting radio. If vintage music ensures high ratings, programmers will play ever fewer new songs and be less willing to take risks, just as they did at album-oriented rock stations in the late 70's, he said.

But being a compelling station and a successful station are not always the same thing. No one will go broke playing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Mr. Tolkoff said. "There will be a generation that that will be their 'Free Bird,' that will be their 'Stairway to Heaven.' "

Ron, your Replacements pick is better, probably -- for what I'd want to listen to again and again. Although, it will work out quite nicely if we're on the same desert island! ;)

Smiths, “Hatful of Hollow”
Police, “Ghosts in the Machine”
Replacements, “Let it Be”
Kate Bush, “Hounds of Love”
Foo Fighters, “Colour and the Shape”
Bob Mould, “Workbook”
That Dog, “Retreat from the Sun”
Jellyfish, “Bellybutton”
Liz Phair, “Exile in Guyville”
R.E.M., “Murmur”
David Sylvian, “Brilliant Trees”

Okay, not a great startup issue – I’ve thought about this a lot, so it wasn’t so tough. Not like that favorite 25 with no repeats. Oy.

Okay, we're giving this a whirl. We're trying a blog rather than the email back and forth. Come on; I know some of us are in the "techno-challenged 'cuz we're Generation W" category, but get over it and give this a good old college try.

First topic: Your desert island CDs. You only get ten -- no rules. They can all be Rolling Stones, or "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations. But, of course, then we all get to mock you.

Here's to the beginning of the Tangy Bee Buzz. Let's hope it lasts more than a month.
xo, tangybee!