WELCOME TO ‘THE NEW, NEW WRTZ SHOW!’
How we doin’ gang?
Rob Zylowski here, but you may know me by my more easily pronounceable nomenclature, Rob Z.
Anywho. I’m tickled as a pig in… what is it that pigs are tickled by? Nevermind. I’m really happy to be a part of the InTraffikRadio station.
Many years ago in a little town on Long Island, New York i used to have a radio show called THE NEW WRTZ. (note the east coast call letters) I was broadcasting out of my bedroom on the most sophisticated dual cassette recorder a 15yr old could afford. (I blame the movie “PUMP UP THE VOLUME” for my desire to be a dj. Damn you Christian Slater!) i would make these “radio shows” for friends for birthdays and holidays. Mix tapes where I would play dj and a wide cast of characters. THE NEW WRTZ X-MAS SPECTACULAR was a big hit. (circa 1993-2005)
Anywho. Anywho. I moved to LA in the fall of ‘98 and I’ve been around the LA music scene block a few times. I hosted the punk rock powerhouse known as KISS OR KILL for 5 yrs. I’ve been doing my own show, THE ROB Z PROGRAM, for the past 4yrs and counting. THE RZP is a variety music night bringing a different musical theme to every show, ie. rock, lounge, country,acoustic, spoken word, female artists, etc. etc. etc.
And so brings us to THE NEW, NEW WRTZ. an audio extension of the ROB Z PROGRAM. my goal is to bring you a tasty combo platter of the music that gets me going and hopefully you’ll go along too. A variety music show with eclectic fare ranging anywhere from PRIMUS to PRIMA, DEAN MARTIN to DEAD MILKMEN, MINGUS to MORPHINE and all points in between. You know, whatever feels right.
…and there you have it. Hope you dig it.
-rob z
Listen to www.intraffikradio.com (click here to listen) Wednesday November 17th at 2pm for the debut of The New, New WRTZ Show!
DEBUT EPISODE PLAYLIST
1. intro
2. “Why Did You Grow A Beard?” - They Might Be Giants- Cast Your Pod To The Wind
3.TALK PSA
4.”Kick Out The Jams” - Bad Brains Feat. Henry Rollins -Pump Up The Volume Soundtrack
5. “Pip Pip Jeah” - Dara Puspita -Let’s A Go-Go
6.”Stalking” - Bruce McCulloch- Shame-Based Man
7.”I’d Be Your Stalker” - Pu$$y-Cow- Ride
8. TALK PSA
9.”Jingle Of A Dog’s Collar” - Butthole Surfers- Electriclarryland
10.”French Poodle” -Sam Butera & The Witnesses- Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 5: Wild Cool & Swingin
11. “Gonna Buy Me A Dog” -The Monkees- Music Box [Disc 1]
12.”Dead Puppies” - Ogden Edsl- Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records Of All Time [Disc 1]
13. TALK PSA
14.”The Midnight Creep” - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion -Plastic Fang
15.”Sucker” - Peeping Tom Feat. Norah Jones- Peeping Tom
16. “Slum Goddess” - The Fugs- Open Ends: Musical Exploration in New York 1960-2000 MoMA
17. TALK PSA
18.”Sister Kate” - The Ditty Bops- The Ditty Bops
19.”In the Sun” - Trinket- How Many Bands Does it Take to Screw Up a Blondie Tribute?
20. “Heartbreaker”-The Andrew Sisters-The Last Time I Committed Suicide Soundtrack
21.TALK PSA
22.”Sandwich Commandments”- Michael Showalter- Sandwiches & Cats- Cast Your Pod To The Wind
Part 2: Looking for the Music Scene in Vancouver
In part 1, I totally struck out in my search to final the local music scene in Vancouver – well, not a total strike out, I just didn’t have the necessary funds. That night might have qualified as a music strike out, but it was fun just walking around the city. On Tuesday, I found one of Vancouver’s local weeklies, WE. I scanned the nightclubs section and this led to some success on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Overheard conversation one: I was eating at an Indian restaurant. There were only two other customers in the restaurant. I couldn’t help but over-hear their conversation. One guy was talking about his marital problems with the other. He talked about how he now had different interests in life compared to his wife’s interests. He liked going out to various Goth Nights around Vancouver. He’d head out once a week, but his wife never liked going to these nights. If he had another try at life, he’d have married someone with similar interests instead of marrying an opposite. Goth equals knowledge of the music scene, I thought. I almost went up to him to ask him about the music scene in Vancouver, but I just didn’t have the guts to admit that I had listened in on his conversation.
Tuesday night. Media Club. Cover $10 CND. I’d say that this is Vancouver’s version of Hotel Café. Folks sat on ottomans spread around the floor. It was a singer-songwriter night. Now doesn’t that sound like Hotel Café? Okay, so Hotel Café doesn’t have ottomans, but benches. A guy named Rick Waines was the main singer-songwriter of the night. My interesting find of the night was seeing a poster for an upcoming night – June 12th. Who was playing there on June 12th? No other than Kate Voegele. Who is Kate Voegele? Before leaving for Vancouver, she was highlighted like crazy on Myspace. I even noticed that she was signing CDs at the Borders located on Vine and Sunset.
Overheard conversation two: I was taking a bus to one of Vancouver’s parks. A young lady was on the phone having an argument with her current/ex-boyfriend. “This is such a double standard. We were broken up.” Hmm, sounded like a Rachel and Ross moment from Friends except for the fact that Rachel was the one who cheated.
Wednesday night. Railway. Cover $10 CND. It was another singer-songwriter night. When I got there a guy named Wil was in the middle of his set. The place was rather crowded. After awhile, I was able to maneuver my way to the front. The highlight of his set: his last song. He broke the two middle strings on his guitar and played a four string song. Next up were a couple ladies from . . . the good old USA. First up was Lauren Zettler from New York. From her myspace page, it indicates she’s played Hotel Café and has a live album from that night. Next up was Allison Weiss from Atlanta. (more…)
DELTRON 3030 RECOMMENDED: Deastro ‘Moondagger’
Deastro – Moondagger
release date: June 23rd
Description evades Deastro more so than any other artist that I’ve written about this year. As I sit here listening to the new album’s stream and try to write up a blurb I find myself spacing out and slowly forgetting that I’m listening to an album that I’ve never heard before. That sounds like a back handed compliment, or actually a front handed burn but it’s not. Allow me to explain. It’s not to say that Deastro sounds generic or familiar of other electro pop artists currently out there (as that is clearly not the case) to the point of boredom or redundancy but the combination of the common popular elements: dense atmospheres, new order vocals, driving synths, and the new wavy beats help create a deep, heavy, expansive yet poppy sound that,yes, piece by piece is very familiar, but thrown together may not be instantly recognizable to the inner workings of your ear. In my opinion, it is very fresh and original. GEEZ, i sound like Billy Madison comparing the Industrial Revolution to The Puppy That Lost His Way. I’m done. All you need to know: I’m on listen number two and I’m sure Deastro will be my first choice on my iPod for my flight to NY. I can also tell you by following their Twitter they seem like the anti-Wavves. That’s a good thing.
Deastro is playing June 25th @ Spaceland, LA’s best venue, for $8. I have tickets. You should get tickets too.
Highlights: “Moondagger”, “Daniel Johnston Was Stabbed In The Heart With The Moondagger”, “Toxic Crusaders”
side note: Here’s the stream for the previous Deastro album, Keepers. It is a collection of solo tracks before Randolph, the mastermind, fleshed the act out into a full fledged band.
Tour Food Part II
That’s right, this is a topic that requires not one but two columns of material. When last we left Get Set Go and New MaximumDonkey, they were leaving Seattle, city of rain and hamburgers, and driving inexorably east into the gathering storm…
Missoula, Montana: Hoagieville
In high school, I had friends who worked at Hoagieville, so it was a frequent lunch destination for a doe-eyed, scrawny, slightly less cynical Eric Summer who had a complexion like undercooked lasagna. I never had much money for lunch, so I had to restrict myself to cheese fries most of the time. But the world-weary, adult (strictly in the physical sense), gainfully employed version of me, revisiting the old hometown, was delighted to see that not only was Hoagieville still standing right where I left it, but that I could now afford to eat a Steak Like Nick Likes and some cheese fries! And maybe a milkshake! How is it that I don’t gain forty pounds while we’re on tour?
Arvada, Colorado: The D-Note
This is where we played most often in the Denver area. It’s a restaurant-bar that hosts live music, perfect for our needs. The Brick House Pizza is excellent. It has, like, BBQ sauce and bacon on it, which are two of my favorite food groups. The beer selection is totally decent, and there are richly deserved drink tickets for the band.
In discussing our Colorado shows, I’d be remiss not to mention The Mumbles, with whom we nearly always play when we’re in the area. They’re a great XTC-and-Elliott-Smith-influenced power pop band. Really nice guys. Our shows with them are always among the best-of-tour.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: J’s Steaks & Subs
As everybody knows, Philly Cheesesteaks are the perfect food. Though we’ve never played in Philadelphia, to my recollection, there was a tour in which we played at Musikfest in Bethlehem. Jeremy from New MaximumDonkey is from Bethlehem (he also has a beard—write your own Jesus joke here: ________________________________________) (also, his dad runs Musikfest), so he’s pretty dialed-in as to where the good cheesesteaks are. Both times we went to Bethlehem, I had some sort of pizza cheesesteak from J’s Steaks and Subs. I tend to pick one thing I like and stick with it. The pizza steak thingy is goooooooood.
I’d also like to note that I don’t give a tinker’s damn about the “authenticity” of a cheesesteak. Food regionalism has always seemed like bullshit to me. Just cook some steak, put it in a bun, and put some cheese and onions on it. What’s the big deal? I don’t care if it was notarized by the mayor of Philadelphia or not. It tastes good.
New York: That Deli Right Around the Corner from the Knitting Factory
Yeah, I don’t know the name of this place. Can’t be bothered to look it up, either. But this is where we usually eat when we play at the Knitting Factory in New York. You can’t miss it. You know where the Knitting Factory is in New York City? Just go down the street, turn one direction or the other, and it’s right there. It’s a beautiful combination of proximity, sandwiches, and $38 packs of cigarettes. Well, that last bit is slightly exaggerated. They probably aren’t more than about $25 per pack. But the sandwiches are really good. They have different kinds of mustard and everything. I think one of ‘em has sun-dried tomatoes or something. Just trust me; the sandwiches “rock,” in the parlance of our times. OK, this entry was quarter-assed at best, but this place deserves at least a fractionally buttocked mention just because we’ve been there so many times.
The South: Barbecue
You know how sometimes if something goes badly, people say “and that’s when it all went south”?
Yeah, there’s a reason they chose “south” for that expression and not, for instance, “northwest.” It just happens that every time we go to the southern states on tour, that’s when the shows start not being very good anymore. This is a generalization; there have been some southern shows that have been a lot of fun, but generally, once we hit Florida, the shows trend suckward. I don’t want to insult or offend the people of this run-down religious-themed amusement park of a region (because I’m too tired)—good honest hardworking people, salt of the earth, blah blah blah. Whatever. The people are fine, and some of them are even really cool; they just don’t go see live music. I’ve lived in Kentucky and Florida long enough to know that there’s one thing that saves this draconian backwater hickhole: the restaurants here specialize in the barbecuing of various meats and the slathering of them with sundry tangy sauces. I can’t really narrow it down to one restaurant; they’re all over the place, and they all help get us through this Tennessee Williams-Deliverance portion of the tour. Again, I have no idea what the hell Dylan eats for this 2000-mile stretch.
The South: Waffle House
OK, two things save the south. The first is the barbecue, and the second is Waffle House. It’s not necessarily that the food is great (although some of it is; I really loved the chocolate chip waffle with chocolate syrup and whipped cream on it); it’s that it’s everywhere. Whenever you need food in the south, even if it’s at 3 a.m., and the van’s broken or stuck in the mud, or someone in one of the bands has just killed a prostitute or a hobo, there’s practically always a Waffle House around. And there’s something about chocolate waffles and bacon sandwiches and hash browns with all sorts of onions and mushrooms and jalapenos and junk all over ‘em that makes it seem like everything’s gonna be just fine. Even when it clearly isn’t.
Jeremy doesn’t like Waffle House. This is forgivable because he provides us with cheesesteaks (see above).
Honorable Mention: Convenience Stores
Of course, it wouldn’t really be a tour without stopping for gas. This provides me a time to smoke while everybody else runs off to take care of their various bodily functions. Also, convenience stores usually contain a healthy array of beef jerky (the underappreciated workhorse of the touring diet), jalapeno Pringles, and Chex Mix to give you that much-needed protein-and-saturated-fat boost necessary for good freeway driving. Actually, I’d postulate that maybe 50% of the eating on tour is done out of shiny cellophane bags and cardboard tubes.
For further information on GSG/NMD tour shenanigans, including why Dave killed the prostitute, Star Wars fixations, and Benny’s extraneous body parts, see the Tour Documentary DVD included with the fourth Get Set Go album ( Sunshine, Joy & Happiness: A Tragic Tale of Death, Despair and Other Silly Nonsense)! Or, to experience this enviable, glamorous rock and roll lifestyle firsthand, just stuff yourself into a van with seven or eight other people and drive around the country for a month!
TRAffIK Stopper – Heather Ellis
We love fashion. We love people. Most importantly we love and applaud the creativity that YOU people have. Being “fashionable” has many definitiions and manifests itself in many varied appearances and we want to see and share it all!
So every month we TRAffIK peeps will pick a new FASHIONISTA to feature. We might see ya out at one our favorite LA spots, at the super market, or just walkin’ down the street, and if we take notice of you stopping TRAffik with your “oh-so-rad” threads and sense of fashion then we’ll want to take that and throw you up on our site and learn more about you through a Q&A.
On these streets, we know there are all walks of life on display and we want share what you got goin’ on with all the other Angelinos who are in TRAffIK.
This month’s FASHIONISTA is San Francisco Native Heather Ellis. In this Q & A she gives us a brief overview on her sense of style, days as a punk-rocker, favorite designers, and where fashion stands today.
TRAffIK: Where are you from originally?
Heather Ellis: I am originally from SF, I moved to LA in 1999 to work in the music industry.
TRAffIK: What is your occupation?
Heather Ellis: I am a sales agent for a fashion showroom and a stylist.
TRAffIK: How would you describe your personal style?
Heather Ellis: My personal style is a mix of everything I love really, bits and pieces of my favorite fashion. I love Scandinavian fashion, especially Danish…and there’s always a little 80’s in there. Some people think the 80’s was a bad time in fashion but I think it was a very creative time in general, in fashion, music and art. Actually I think much of the fashion from the 80’s, especially street fashion, paved the way for so much of what we see today.