Instrumental Invasion, 7/5/23 July 6, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, City Pop, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Video, World Music.add a comment
The July 5 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was principally recorded on May 24 with evergreen pickups recorded on June 25, denoted by my COVID-compromised voice.
The playlist was created on May 14 and 15, alongside the ones for July 12 and 19. It was annotated with those on May 21 and 22 with the talk break script drafted on the 23rd and before recording on the 24th.
I anticipated going over in the last segment, so I made sure to build a significant surplus before then. The surplus ended up at 57 seconds, which wasn’t enough until I swapped out long liners for short ones.
Thanks to Mike Riccio for providing his year jingle compilation so I could play the 1979 one before “1979” by Roberto Restuccia:
“In the House” by Kim Waters was originally played on August 4, 2021. It was included this week with two other songs performed in April at Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Kim and Paul Taylor headlined the second night while Marion Meadows was part of the first night.
The GRP All-Star Big Band recording session was filmed for later video release, and someone posted the “I Remember Clifford” portion to YouTube:
Click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 6/14/23 June 15, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, City Pop, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Podcast, Radio, World Music.add a comment
The June 14 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on April 17, along with pickups. An additional pickup was recorded the next day. This makes for the sixth show in the last seven where talk breaks were principally recorded in one day, and fourth in five shows/fifth in seven shows recorded and mixed in one day.
Kudos to Adobe Audition‘s denoise filter. It perfectly removed the sound of my auxiliary location’s central air conditioner indoor unit which ran nonstop throughout my session. (It wasn’t cooling properly at the time, and was fixed the next day.)
The show playlist was created March 28 with a Keiko Matsui song swapped in on April 1. Annotations were written from April 3 to 7, and the talk break script was drafted April 15 and 16.
“Dave G.” by David Benoit was first played on May 27, 2020, and “Reverse” by Marcus Anderson recurred from July 13, 2022, 11 months ago yesterday.
Allow me to quote my talk break script for the many instruments on “Midnight Picnic” by EKO (John O’Connor):
[John] wrote the description and the composition itself, playing acoustic guitars, electric guitars, mandolin, bouzouki (boo-zooki), and charango.
…
Bob Loveday was on violin and recorders, Paul Ellis on keyboards and programming, Steafan (“Stee-fahn”) Hannigan played uilleann (“illin'”) pipes (stop illin’), Alec Dankworth on acoustic bass that was mixed in a way that sounded like synth bass, Neal Wilkinson on drums, and Geraint (“Grynt”) Watkins on accordion.
I learned the backstory of “Silent Storm” by Ken Navarro through a preview podcast he posted on April 5. The extra pickup was to redo a line that originally started with “and you can’t disturb the neighbors, right, Ken?” I thought that was obnoxious. Since recording, “Silent Storm” became the latest single off Love is Everywhere, and Ken went into the making and mixing of the song in another podcast episode.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 5/31/23 June 1, 2023
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The May 31 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fifth in a row with talk breaks recorded in one day, and third in a row/fourth out of five recorded in one day. That day was April 10, 19 days after last week’s show was recorded. I got a cold a few days after that recording (March 25) and used the time to work on playlists for this show and the next two. Pickups were recorded on April 13, April 16, and May 5.
The playlist was created March 19, 22, and 26, then tweaked on April 1 to add a track from Keiko Matsui‘s Euphoria album released the day before. Annotations were written from April 3 to 5, and the talk break script was drafted April 8.
I played the lead single from Keiko’s album, “Steps on the Globe,” which prompted me to play a clip from “Moosylvania Saved,” the final Rocky and Bullwinkle story arc where the punchline was “spots on the globe.” This exchange between Fearless Leader (Bill Scott) and Boris Badenov (Paul Frees) occurred in episode one of four:
That talk break also had references to a pair of Mel Brooks films, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The second segment’s second talk break referred to Ghostbusters and Steve Somers. The Schmoozer homage came when I said “The Square were schmoozing S-P-O-R-T-S,” Steve’s catchphrase at the start of some shows or hours of those shows.
There were three retreads this week:
- “Get Da Steppin’” by the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (5/11/22)
- “Everlasting” by Darren Rahn (6/22/22)
- “Tickle Time” by Herb Alpert (11/30/22) – while I merely had this Instagram video in mind then, I directly referenced it now
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
See you at the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony this Saturday.
Instrumental Invasion, 5/24/23 May 25, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Astronomy, Audio, City Pop, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Technology, TV, Video, World Music.add a comment
The May 24 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fourth show in a row with the talk breaks recorded in one day, and second in a row/third out of four to be recorded and mixed in one day. The recording/mixing date was March 22. Pickups were recorded on the night of the 22nd and mid-afternoon on the 24th.
The playlist was created March 18 with annotations on the 20th and the talk break script draft on the 21st.
The scoped aircheck before further details:
After immersing myself in Casiopea music for the first few weeks as a city pop aficionado and Japanophile (my post about the first eight days), I introduced The Square/T-Square into my musical diet. The jumping-off place was “Texas Kid” from their third album, Make Me a Star, thanks to a March 10 post in the Japanese city pop and fusion collectors Facebook group I belong to. The member commented on his post with a link to “Texas Kid” on T-Square’s YouTube topic channel:
I listened several times from March 10 to 17 before delving into the T-Square topic channel’s full catalog. As I type this paragraph on the morning March 23, I am up to New-S (1991). (I also have to contend with construction work and chatter in my neighbors’ backyard.) And as I type this before publication on May 25, I skipped from B.C. A.D. to FLY! FLY! FLY! and WISH.
My first impression of “Texas Kid” was that it sounded like an homage to The Crusaders. So, I made the first segment with them and The Square in mind. The song I ultimately chose, “Honky Tonk Struttin’,” tied in with the feel of “Texas Kid.” I extended the Texas theme into the second segment by including “An Evening in Dallas” by Joe McBride and “Houston” by David Benoit (told you he’d be back). All that was preceded by a nod to “The Eyes of Texas.”
“Houston” was recycled from last August 17, nine months and one week ago. It gave me an opportunity (during the talk break afterward) to work in a funny text-to-speech dub from the following Technology Connections video (at the 19:48 mark):
Here is the dub on its own:
The joke about not telling a wizard to “make me a star” lest he zap you to the Milky Way was a nod to a scene in episode 68b of Garfield and Friends:
ORSON (narrating for Booker and Sheldon): The wizard Bo ran a little restaurant at the edge of the forest where he made magic and sandwiches. Occasionally, he got his two skills confused.
(Bo, in wizard garb, stands behind the counter, wiping a glass. Roy walks in and takes a seat.)
ROY: Hiya, Bo. Make me a sandwich.
BO: Okay. You’re a sandwich, man. (Bo transforms Roy into a sandwich.) Oh, like, sorry, dude. I’ll, uh, change you back.
(Roy returns to normal, but with his face covered in mayonnaise. Wade, as The Ugly Duckling, walks in with a bag over his face.)
WADE: Wizard, you must help me. I… (He notices Roy.) Uh, why do you have mayonnaise all over you?
ROY (exasperated): Don’t ask.
U.S. Acres in “The Ugly Duckling” (originally aired October 19, 1991) – written/voice directed by Mark Evanier
Gregg Berger as Orson Pig, Thom Huge (“HUE-ghee”) as Roy Rooster, Frank Welker as Bo Sheep, Howard Morris as Wade Duck
This show also marked the first week with tracks from Les Sabler‘s Flying High CD – thank you, Dave Love (speaking of Joe McBride) – and the debut of world music duo Strunz & Farah via their Syncretic Strings album.
I went 75 seconds over, thanks to a lengthy talk break in the first segment and another 21 in the fourth segment, but with short talk breaks here and omitted tidbits there, I broke even by the last segment. (My “even” is 1:49:00.)
Recording and mixing a full show in one day is as exhausting as running a marathon. Flubs were plentiful and mouth clicks were everywhere. Adobe Audition‘s declicker only goes so far. On the plus side, I finally realized the need to orient the microphone at my second location vertically to match the sound at home.
Second location mic:
Home mic with Kaotica Eyeball attached:
Back next week with more music.
MikeChimeri.com 