Black Sand Archives Vol.2 CD-R

Hot on the heels of Vol.1 comes another 12 hours of psychedelic mud, along with the usual flubs, goofs & boners you've come to expect from the suave Conrad Capistran, & the other guy. Spans the dates 11/15/05 - 12/20/05. 5 bucks postpaid in US, same deal as the other one. Yep, sure is Volume 2!

Black Sand 12/27/05

Final show of the year! Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback...in the grand Christmas tradition of making a list & checking it twice, I typed up all the remaining playlists and kind of half-assedly checked them once. I'm not Santa, for Christ's sake.

Artists: Bunalimlar, Troyka, Food Brain, Suely e Os Kanticus, Pappo's Blues, Ariesta Birawa, etc.

MP3

Playlist

Black Sand 12/20/05

Well, to say the friggin least, the "Xmas spirit" hasn't really been happening around Black Sand HQ. But I did manage to scrape up some Jesus/Santa related crap for the first 20 minutes of the show. From there on out pretty much anything goes, as usual. I'm actually really pissed that I didn't think to alter the theme song to say "Black Santa", but maybe next year (if there is one).

On an unrelated note, special thanks to MV for including Black Sand in his top 10 of the year list at Volcanic Tongue (check it out here). Just one correction: it's spelled "nucular". I'm 99% sure about that.

Artists: Armando Piazza, The Love Machine, High Speed & The Afflicted Man, Kenneth Higney, Albert Marcoeur, The Bunnies, etc.

MP3

Playlist

Black Sand Archives Vol.1 CD-R

So, you may have noticed that a bunch of the old MP3s have disappeared...this is due to a combination of limited disk space & my bandwidth getting hammered. Which means the show must be catching on (a good thing), but I can't shell out the extra $ to keep them all available.

Luckily there is a solution: Black Sand Archives Vol.1 is a CD-R of the first 6 shows (at least the ones that I recorded) in MP3 format, with all the playlists. Yep, it's 12 straight hours (!) of everything you love about Black Sand; the awkward banter, incessant guitar solos, gratuitous drug references, etc. Best part: it looks like a wittle wecord! Awww. Paste-on cover, just like a crappy bootleg.

It's available for $5 postage paid in the U.S. Not sure how much for our overseas friends, but we'll stab that horse when we cross it. Or however that saying goes. Shoot me an email (from my profile) if you're interested.

One more thing: I actually got off my ass and typed up some of the old playlists, so if you already grabbed any of the 1st six shows, but got a a dead link for the playlist, try again...right now they go up to 11/15, but more are forthcoming in the next week or so.

Black Sand 12/13/05

Pretty uneventful show from our end; the combination of freezing cold & no calls left us feeling like we were broadcasting from some Antarctic pirate radio outpost. At least Conrad didn't sprout spider legs & attack me. That would have been the icing on an already horrible cake. Or day. He did freak out on the mixing board, however.

Lots of un-American stuff: Apryl Fool, Dickens, Montes, Picchio Dal Pozzo, Jacques Fihl, Osamu Kitajima, etc. What can I say, we must hate "freedom" or something.

Playlist
MP3

Black Sand 12/6/05

The phone rang during the first or second song; it was a pal from Easthampton informing me that he and some other friends were completely stoned out of their minds & digging the show. This is the kind of call we like to get, not some disturbed loner with a Dick Dale fixation. Inspired me to condense most of the hard rock stuff scattered through the playlist into one big sticky glob...it was the least I could do after Conrad's sax heavy Wazoo track (he regrets nothing). So yeah, look out for the wank factor about 45 minutes in, if you're allergic to that kind of thing. Conrad follows that w/lo-fi live Pink Fairies, so it goes on for quite a while. Fuckin A! Grab a 15 pack of Black Label & ...

Played: Taman Shud, the cartoonish Lagger Blues Machine, Damon, Ofo The Black Company, Labat, Ze Remalho y Lula Cortes, and a heartfelt tribute to "The Bar" by Tom Sirard.

Playlist
MP3

Black Sand 11/29/05

Conrad's car was out to lunch again, so I "flew" this "mission" alone. The plus being that there was less blabberin and more tunes. Fixed the ground loop problem as you will hear (or not hear). Thanks to Josh for the ride to & from...

Not too much else to say, but some good stuff: Pugh Rogefeldt, Love Depression, Dull Knife, Electric Lollipop (schoolkid psych!), Saing Saing Maw, etc.

MP3
Playlist

Fuck yeah, there was a Pugh stamp!

Black Sand 11/22/05

Not too much to say about this show... to my total annoyance there was a ground loop problem, which is responsible for the grinding background noise you hear during my sets....I'm working on it, ok? Otherwise, a nice selection, and Conrad's pronunciation of French is always worth hearing.

Artists: Tobruk, Zipps, "The Pot Party" (from the film "Teenage Rebellion"), Traffic Sound, Congregacion, Heldon, etc.

MP3

Playlist

Black Sand 11/15/05

The usual quality sounds, but a somewhat low key show, after which Conrad broke down in the parking lot & had to be towed back to Easthampton. They towed his car too (drum roll). I ended up waiting around for 2 hours until Matt finished his show & could cart my sorry ass home. Thanks Matt.

Artists: Blues Addicts, Firebirds, The Golden Cups, Ame Son (pictured), the "Hey Mr. Holy Man" Megamix (Shiver & Kiss Inc.), Sand, etc.

Conrad said the Kiss Inc. track was the cheesiest thing I've played on the show. We'll just see about that.

MP3

Playlist

Black Sand: November 8, 2005

We arrived "completely sober" (FCC rules y'know), to find the studio in a scandalous state of back rubbing & booze swilling. And who knew the couch could fold out into a bed? Turned out it was VFR guy Tristan's birthday party, which I actually knew about but forgot. Anyway, the festive atmosphere must have lent something special to the show, cause this was a good one. I'd like to think we rocked the party, but I'm pretty sure they turned it down after the opening Night Sun/Baumstam 1-2 punch. So we stole the tap.

Artistes: Coloured Balls, Paternoster, Los Speakers, Paraphenalia, and the band name I wish I thought of, Cool Stove.

Playlist

Download it here.

Black Sand 11/01...ahh fuggit....

No recording this week folks, looks like I either forgot to turn on the webstream prior to leaving the house, or it died before show time. In any case, from what I remember of the show, we talked about microphones a lot. Yeah, I know, we always talk about the mics, but even more so this week. Is the mic loud enough, too loud, is it on, which mic is it, etc. As a result, we might be changing the name of the show; "Is This Thing On?" is the front runner for title right now, though "I Like Mic" is another possibility.

Big highlight for me was a track Conrad played by a guy named Stu Mitchell, about "a town called L.S.D.". You not get to hear good song. Also played: Hairy Chapter, Smokin Willie, The West Coast Workshop, Speed Glue & Shinki, etc. And (Canadian!) Burton Cummings reminded us of why "it pays to go to meetin's" of the Army Reserves. Must have been some kind of community service plea bargain or something. We'll be back next week with something more tangible (a.k.a., back to recording the show off the receiver).

Black Sand: October 25, 2005 - Halloween Massacre!

We pulled out all the stops for this special holiday episode of Black Sand - a sound clip of a woman possessed by Lucifer, "The Wandering Soul" (PSYOP tape used to scare VC troops in Vietnam), a musical tribute to the Apocalypse, and audio proof why Conrad is the Antichrist. Which I think we suspected all along.

Goodies: Horse, Horrific Child, Necronomicon & the entire "Satanic Mass" by Coven, which is kinda the audio equivalent of those black Necco wafers. Kiss the goat!

Playlist

Download it here.

Black Sand: October 18, 2005

This show was all about volume; by that I mean we were screwing up the levels all night. I nearly blew out Conrad's eardrums by accidentally turning his headphones up all the way. For his part, Conrad provided the very psychedelic sloooow crossfade that begins the show, and interrupted my reading of the set list by asking for a mic check. By sheer coincidence, we both brought along a clip of real "drug crazed" ranting, though I'm not sure if mine was actually a guy "hopped up on marijuana" (as stated by CBS reporter Bill Downs), or a field recording of a Halloween haunted house. Speaking of Halloween, it looks like we have something holiday related in the works for next week, so definitely check that out...

Some stuff we played: Smash, Tommy Flanders, a mind-blower by the Chico Magnetic Band, Shy Guys, Pan Y Regaliz, Fear Itself, etc.

Playlist
Download the show here.

Black Sand: October 11, 2005

The webstream was down for the past two weeks, so the bad news is that there's no archive of those shows. The good news is that they fixed the webstream. The bad news? It went down right before yesterday's show. The good news? Using a massive 1970s receiver I found on my back porch, & an primitive antenna setup involving speaker wire, a coathanger, a mic stand, and some duct tape, I capured the show in all it's analog glory. And yes, it's still in mono. Coincidentally, the monitors in the studio were as well; in this case, only in the right speaker. Also, the phone wasn't ringing in the studio, so if you called and your name isn't Dana, we missed it. Sorry to sound like a sourpuss, but hey, I like rhubarb.

Some artists played: Highway Robbery, The Ron Ray Light Show, Sub, Kubero Diaz Y La Pesada, Shin Jung Hyun Sound and a mess of Xian stuff from The Ark, Jonathan & Charles, The Search Party and the terrible "Meet God, Man!" lp.

Playlist
The show is here.

"Sand....It all starts with SAND......"

Hmmm...not sure if this is a honest mistake, some kind of character judgement or a suggestion of how I might better use my time slot, but it's pretty weird alright.This screenshot is from the VFR schedule page. Here I was, thinking the theme song was really getting the whole "sand" concept across, then THIS happens! My next move is to try and figure out who to contact about this, as the site-tech doesn't seem to be replying to e-mails about the station being in mono.

Yeah, sorry to ruin it for you, but it's been in mono for a while. Probably always. I'll bet you didn't even notice...we didn't, cause the monitors are stereo as fuck. In the meantime, enjoy the quiet storm tomorrow night, as Cap & I spin some silky smooth r&b for all you lovers out there. Or black metal.

Requests?

Since the music library over at "Hot 103" consists so far of folk & world music demos, we can't really take requests on the air...you're welcome to try though(it is possible). If you're anxious to hear something post it here; we'll play it next time. Patience being a key factor.

Black Sand 9/20/05: The Show That Never Was

Due to some kind of computer glitch, I came home to a empty .wav file of the show. This, coupled with the fact that our three steady listeners - Erica, John & my roommate Bob - were (respectively) in London, playing with Sunburned in Boston, and asleep, means this show was most likely NOT HEARD BY ANYONE. Conrad and I seemed to sense this at the time, as our usual "hilarious" banter was limited to things like the correct way to talk into a microphone (zzzzzzz), and the phone was completely silent, filling us with an overwhelming feeling of ennui & isolation. If anyone out there has a recording of the show, drop me a line. We joked about playing the same set next week. Or were we joking?

Black Sand: September 13, 2005

Conrad (intentionally?) foils my sad attempts at slick segues & patter; I'm back to my hobby of butchering foreign languages in no time. Tracks by: Old Lumber, Fallen Angels covering "Signed D.C.", People (unknown private press teens) having a go at "White Rabbit", May Blitz's best song, Inner Space & Rosy Rosy with the great "Kamera Song" (att : George), the "pot block" &etc. &etc.

Our sponsors: Jefferson Airplane for stretch Levi's

Playlist here.

Show is here.

Black Sand: September 6, 2005

Conrad demonstrates the proper way to pronounce "Neighb'r'hood Child'rn" & we both struggle to keep up with the aerobic antics of Bonnie Prudden. And struggle to pronounce everything else. Plus the usual hot stuff from Fire, Stalk-Forrest Group, Texao, Erkin Koray, Red Dirt & much more.

Sponsors: Partridge Weiners & French 76 Malt Liquor

Download the show here.

Playlist is here.

Welcome to Black Sand..(shudder)...BLOGGGG

Oh, how I despise that word...but this seemed like the best way to archive the show, since I do (in theory) have to update the Elefantplatte news some day, and I wanted an ongoing link to playlists, mp3s, etc. If you want to stay updated on newly archived sets, you can subscribe to the newsfeed; it's that orange button down in the right hand corner if you're using Firefox. If you're not using Firefox, I don't know how you would do that. You'll figure something out. Hopefully I'll figure out why the photos aren't showing up.

If you're using one of those "file sharing" programs I've heard exist, feel free to spread the show around. Each episode runs 2 hours, around 100-125 mb@128k.

Thanks for listening, & enjoy...