37 thoughts on “Acts of Volition Radio: Session Two”

1. Another great show. Especially liked the Sloan and Pearl Jam tracks.

   Side note: voice track still seems to be a bit soft; I had to keep running back and forth from the kitchen while making dinner to turn up the volume between tracks and to turn it down with the music started blasting…

2. That is right. I am at 3 out of ten for music and five out of ten for the voice. I know that is not very precise but there you go.

3. Alan & Nick – thanks, I’ll try to improve on that. More importantly, Nick listens to my radio show while he makes dinner – cool!

4. I listened with headphones on last night as the kids were settling, and the quality sounded fine there. Again, some great picks. I knew what “Brick” was about, but I didn’t know it was personal experience. That is an incredible song.

   U2 were my band growing up. And I thought Achtung Baby was fantastic (#62 in Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums).

   I was a late-comer to the Hip. In fact, it was “Day for Night,” the cd with Nautical Disaster, where I first became a fan.

   Keep it up, Steven. These are fun to hear.

5. Superb again, Steven…
   One question, though – any recommendations on a Sloan album to try to get my hands on over here in the UK?

6. Great show Steven. In a weird twin coincidence, I was also cooking dinner while listening to your show and also had to run from the kitchen to my dining room to adjust the volume. I feel the twin vibe pretty strongly…. #queue “Twighlight Zone” music#

   Steven Marshall, try Navy Blues which is available on Amazon UK. It’s from 1998 and is my favorite Sloan album with several of my favorite Sloan songs.

7. Excellent show. I liked the live concept and I found the quality to be excellent.

   The Fly was an excellent track off the Boston DVD, however I believe the song that stole the show was Bullet the Blue Sky. The guitar solo in that song and the long rant on guns in America is one of my favourite U2 moments.

   Looking forward to the next show.

8. Just to make you happy Steve, I’ve added the show to my ipod and will listen to it on the go.

9. Thanks Daniel, I managed to find it on Play for only £7.99 delivered! Bargain!

   Roll on the next show.

10. Hi Steven,

    with powered microphones, it’s often best to position it under – or above – the direct line of your mouth (for example, about 3 inches directly under your chin, or the bottom of the mic at eye level.

    That way, it shouldn’t pick up any distortions from hard-sounding speech (the P’s and the B’s and T’s) which are caused by short bursts of compressed air.

    When you’ve sorted that out, you probably won’t need a mic cover – but it might still help (a light handkerchief over the mic will work just as well).

    Also, you should try to get your mic input set to zero decibels. Simply blether away into your mic and adjust the recording level so that it peaks at zero when you’re at your loudest.

    MC

11. The second show is another triumph. Please keep going. I like the “theme” concept. The live version of “Nautical Disaster” from the Hip’s appearance on Saturday Night Live a few years ago is, to my mind, even better than the one on “Live Between Us”. I can remember the first time I heard “Nautical Disaster”, at the Hip’s triumphant homecoming show at Richardson Stadium in Kingston in 1994. Gord Downie introduced the song thusly: “Every good Canadian band should have a song about a Nautical Disaster. This song is called ‘Nautical Disaster’.” It has been my favourite Hip song ever since.

12. Martin: thanks for the tips – I’ll try that. Hopefully you’ll here the improvements in the next session.

    Johnny: I came across the Saturday Night Live version of Nautical Disaster on Kazaa (file trading network) – agreed – fantastic.

    Everyone: Thanks.

13. mxpx does a great cover of KKK. my friends cover it too, sounds interesting done much slower as well. good setlist.

14. I stated in the conversation following the first session that it was my goal to get on the iPod of the coolest people I know. Now I can check Isaac off the list.

15. Hey, I thought Al Gore was the President of the internet?

16. No, he is a founding father.

17. Oh my god, the slobber from the ass-kissing on this show is amazing. Good quality, I can hear everything, but man, you really need to take a chill pill and not take yourself SO seriously. And please, don’t allude to the fact that those “in the know” about never heard of bands, somehow are cooler than the rest of the losers. That’s so “High Fidelity”.

    Read this, it may help:
    http://mama.indstate.edu/users/bones/WhyIHateWebLogs.html.

    p.s. And turn off your cell phone. Because people call you doesn’t mean you are cool. I see dinks like you on the train all the time.

18. Ten bucks says “Joe” still thinks trucker hats are cool.. Hipsters take note, blog hating is where it’s at.. That site is frigin hillarious..

19. -Wishes work computer had sound and stuff-
    Hey guys, I’m always on the look out for you old timers and ex-pei-rockstars. Since I havent heard anything yet all I can do as way of comment or assistance is to list some possible live songs that would kick your show in the micorphone.

    1. Anything off BUILT TO SPILL’s live album
    2. “Bidin’ My Time” – Gene Maclellan (Lonesome River)
    3. “Marquee Moon” – Kronos Quartet

    Man, naming more than 3 would make me seem like some sort of musical trucker hat wearin snob, so I’ll stop.
    On another note, I hope you have all listened to Daniel Lanois’ SHINE. You should have laughed twice and cried three times. Bittersweet. Sounds like CREAM playing Nintendo if that means anything to anyone. Lapsteel mmmm mmmm good.

    Okay, enough about that. What are you peoples up to these days besides taking over the e-world?

    Take care.
    Yours on the left coast,
    mickey

20. What is the deal with the trucker hats? Like a baseball cap?
    Not many truckers in Boston.

21. This is a Trucker Hat. Apparently they’re the nouveau hipper-than-thou thing to wear.

22. Thanks Dennis. Peter Rukavina has written a bit inspired by our new friend “Joe”‘s post above.

23. I was wearing “Trucker Hats” way before they were considered “cool.”

    In fact, the correct term (that I use, anyway) is meshback. It’s not only fun to say, but also describes what the hat looks like!

    Nouveau-Trucker Hat-wearing-hipsters look like actual truckers compared to me.

24. I really enjoyed this week’s show. Ben Folds puts on a particularly good show…”Not The Same” is another song that’s good (and completely different) live.

    Keep up the good work!

25. Hey Steven et al.

    Nice work on the latest radio show. I find it hard to locate good quality audio (content, that is) these days; it’s nice to be able to look forward to AOVR.

    Regarding the sound quality, I use Cool Edit Pro, so I don’t know exactly what functions you have access to on your app (was it Ntrack?) but I recommend compressing the voice tracks so that the high and low points are roughly the same level, and then boosting their levels by three or four DB to match the song levels.

    Really enjoyed the Jellyfish track. …An underrated band to be sure. They are indeed impecable live, although that version of
    “Ghost at Number One” almost doesn’t do them justice. The lead vocalist is the drummer, Andy Sturmer, and he plays standing up. Quite something to see, I’m sure.

26. Anyone who uses the word “hipster” in anything but a negative context should be shot.

27. I’m always looking for new music sources, have you listened to Belle & Sebastian?

    Putting it out there will test your nerves, but then that’s the thrill isn’t it?

28. Ok, Steven, you’re two for two.
    AoVR:1 made me buy Brad Sucks’ album, to which I have become addicted.
    Now I’m addicted to “Navy Blues” (purchased at Daniel’s recommendation), my purchase inspired by “Deeper Than Beauty” on AoVR:2.

    Please, I beg you, for the sake of this poor student’s bank balance, don’t make a third AoVR session.

    Oh, go on then. What harm can one more CD do?

29. Oh Steve what am I going to do. My wife Robin thinks that you are really cute and she loved Sloan!

30. Thanks for the effort you put into this show Steven, i’m really enjoying it. Gotta love independent content creation!

    Were you inspired by Todd Dominey‘s The Kitchen Sink?

31. Listening to CBC Radio 3 today (on Radio 2), it struck me that I really, really, want to download good radio shows (which Radio 3 often is, I’d also like to have Brave New Waves on my iPod each morning) on my iPod is something I want. I miss “The Love Line” with Captain Kirk enough to remember what it is like to be next to the radio, waiting for the next Bon Jovi song to some on. Radio shows can still be a great way to hear new stuff, and through the magic of the internet, we can have all those great stations even here on PEI.

32. Nice show Steve. Absolutely loved the Jellyfish song – those guys are incredibly good songwriters/musicians/performers.

    Am I able to dare make a suggestion? *Yes, you are Adrian* Are you able to queue the songs without your voice as an addition to the show. One separate mp3 (I presume this would abate copyright infringement). This sounds rude, but it’s not meant to be. I really love the music you choose and would like to listen to a version without interruption especially after listening to your show.

    Keep it Steve, really enjoyable.

33. Steve Some advice please. In my UPEI course this Jan I have 2 blind students. Yes blind students taking an online course. They have all the gear for text to speech online and braille typing so the online stuff works very well ( I have taught them before) The problem is that I have set 3 books. Usually with one they use a scrolling scanner. The big problem is getting though the material – as it is for all students who would rather not read the book if they can help it.

    My intended solution is to have a kind of telephone book club where we talk about the books – ie we rely on my knowledge and notes on the books to have a discussioin that gets to the main points. After all most books only have a bout 3 great ideas and then build on them. If we can record this cionversation maybe need to edit it as well, we, like your radio show, then have the ideal crib if we can record it and put it online. Students can then have Rob’s NPR talk show.

    So what i want to be able to do is to record and edit a phone call that is interactive – a book club chat – and then mount it on my site. I would rather not spend a fortune. Any advice from you or anyone reading this as to how to do this would be very much appreciated

34. Not rude at all, Adrian.

    The format in which the audio is delivered right now is a awkward if you want to do anything other listen to the entire show (voice and music) from start to finish. If there was a way to to create an index or table of contents that would allow next/back functionality, that would be nice – but there is not.

    So, I realize that this isn’t an ideal format for some, but I fell that what I’m offering is a package of music with my thoughts on it. I also realize that a lot of people might not be interested in hearing what I have to say, but do want to hear the music (and that’s totally understandable). For that case, I’m affraid you’ll have to take the playlist and go a-searchin’.

    Thanks though. New show soon.

35. That’s cool Steve, I look forward to the next session. Great stuff and thanks for the feedback.

36. Steve,

    Listened to your first session on my way home from work last night (here in the cold, grey UK) and thought it was excellent – the perfect use for my shiny new iPod. Listened to half of the next session this morning on my way to work and found myself singing along to “Brick” even though I’d never heard it before! Please keep them coming (and I’m seeking out some more Ben Folds on CD this weekend!)

37. Tell everyone to Fuck themselves. Its your show and you can ramble and leave dead air if you want to!!!

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