It's Rock 'n' Roll, Baby!

While googling for album art, I stumbled across a series of albums by Rockabye Baby! that translate rock songs into lullabies posted on a the blog dDaunloz Music. Parents interested in indoctrinating their kids into rock music early in life now have an effective means of doing so. However, by choosing source material from popular rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Radiohead, Rockabye Baby! is clearly meant to appeal to parents just as much as to their young'uns. I'm always a sucker for an interesting cover, so I decided to give some of these albums a spin.

I haven't gotten a chance to listen to all of them, but I have skimmed through the No Doubt, Led Zeppelin and Radiohead albums (the No Doubt one seems particularly relevant since Gwen recently gave birth to her second son—I wonder if she plays No Doubt lullabies for her kids). Given that traditional rock 'n' roll instrumentation is converted into glockenspiel, mellotron and vibraphone among other dainty instruments, it's hard to avoid sounding like carnival music. Consequently, most of it sounds like something clowns would play their kids, covers by a steel drum band (we actually had one of these play every year at the high school I went to), karaoke backing tracks or elevator muzak.

Not exactly a shining review, but there are some tracks so far that stand out as interesting and wholly listenable lullaby renditions. On the No Doubt album, the group turns "New," a fast-paced and driving track into And "Rock Steady" (one of my all time favorite No Doubt songs) becomes even more mellow and more delicate in this sleepytime arrangement. The value of these albums, besides putting little nuggets to bed, is the lush intricacy with which the covers are wrought. Without the vocal tracks, the instrumentation of these songs jumps to the forefront and different aspects of a song are brought out. When these covers aren't creeping me out by making me think of clowns, they are intriguing and enjoyable—and probably great for taking a nap to. Read more!

Rock the Bells 2008 - Final Thoughts

Where were all the women??? Yes, Amanda Blank headlined with Spank Rock on the second stage, but that's one act out of 20 or so acts. And yes, Kid Sister is part of the bill, but she wasn't at Shoreline and, again, that's two ... total. There wasn't a single woman on the main stage at Shoreline and there are plenty of women who could and should have been up there, such as Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Jean Grae to name a few. I'm going to give Guerilla Union the benefit of the doubt and trust that they at least tried to get some female acts for the main stage, but seriously, wtf?

The sadder thing about this is that I didn't really think anything of it until today. I just got my hands on Doomtree's self-titled debut release and they have an amazing female emcee, Dessa (a.k.a. Maggie Wander) who sings just as well a she spits. While I was listening to the album, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard a single female voice—emcee, vocalist, back-up singer, or otherwise—at Rock the Bells. Besides Pam the Funkstress and Silk-E, who performed with the Coup, I don't recall a whole lot of women at Rock the Bells 2007 either. It's really a crying shame, especially since there isn't a shortage of talented women in hip-hop.
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Picture Book - Rock the Bells 2008

Check out the view from Rock the Bells 2008.

There aren't more pictures of the later acts because my dinky camera doesn't work too well in the dark. Also, the reason there are so many photos of Method Man and Redman because 1) They were doing a lot of exciting things like crowd surfing and 2) I had the best view for their set since they asked everyone to crowd up around the stage instead of staying in their seats. Read more!

Blowin' Wax - Rock the Bells 2008

I spent the better part of yesterday getting my eardrums ravaged at Shoreline Amphitheatre for this year's Rock the Bells festival. Note to self: Next time, wear earplugs.

If'n you haven't the vaguest idea what I'm rambling about, Rock the Bells is a touring hip-hop festival. There's generally an epic headliner, usually a reunited group (Wu-Tang one year, Rage Against the Machine last year, the Pharcyde this year). This was my second year at RTBs and unlike last year when I was relegated to the Paid Dues Stage (which was not a bad thing, I just had to eschew heavy hitters like the Roots—interesting that was not the first but the second time I've missed out on seeing the Roots at a festival I was already at, I believe I'm destined never to see them in concert), I actually got to see the main acts.

I'd have to say it was a hip-hop good time (and it better damn well be for $100 a pop). De La Soul was my favorite act of the day, followed closely by Method Man and Redman—who gave one of the liveliest performances—and the Pharcyde behind them. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed headliners A Tribe Called Quest, especially Q-Tips little opening performance which included all the tracks worth listening to off of Amplified. It's just by the time they took the stage, I was pretty wiped—and I wasn't the only one, there were two dudes who straight up slept during most of their set. Also, most of the songs sounded unfamiliar to me, which is not a surprise given that the only ATCQ album I own is Anthology and when I went back to listen to it today, I realized that the songs they played from Anthology were pumped up for a live performance.

Mos Def gave an ... interesting performance. He performed some of my favorite songs from The New Danger ("Ghetto Rock" and "Sunshine"), but a lot of his set involved him signing along to some random tracks, including a reggae medley and Ray Charles' "Gold Digger." Mos had, by far, the mellowest set, which was a nice break from earlier acts, especially Method Man and Redman, and gave people a chance to chill out before Nas' explosive set. Speaking of Nas, he had the most political set (I missed Immortal Technique's set, but I did catch him saying that the government should fear the people, so I may be wrong). Other than Nas, the acts seemed to try to keep it pretty apolitical, which is both unsurprising (you probably don't want to piss off your corporate sponsors) and surprising, it is hip-hop after all.

Altogether, it was one epic day. Pictures forthcoming.
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The Ones and Twos - Show 12 Play List & Thoughts

Show 12 has come and gone. Thanks to everyone who tuned in and especially to the few who called in to say hello (among them was my father, who had never listened in before and who demanded that I play something he liked ... which I didn't). The show went well enough—not my best show but certainly not my worst.

One thing I'm particularly proud of is that I utilized the turntables a lot more than normal and managed to not screw up by forgetting to pot down the turntable after the track so that the next one doesn't start playing on the air. I also tried a few new things. 1) A TV soundtrack set - fun but difficult because a few of the theme songs were less than a minute long and most are instrumental, 2) A second themed set - Rock the Bells sampler, 3) more advanced forward announcing, 4) music during mic breaks, 5) recording the stream (both a matter of necessity and convenience, though, I guess I'll have to go back to CDs since I think my campus wireless access is set to expire soon, possibly today).

Here are the the plays:

1. Andre 3000 - “Behold a Lady,” The Love Below
2. Mic Break
3. Menomena - “Muscle N Flo,” Friend and Foe
4. *The Roots - “I Will Not Apologize” feat. P.O.R.N. & Dice Raw, Rising Down
5. CAKE - “Arco Arena,” Comfort Eagle
6. *The Grouch - “The Bay to LA” feat. MURS, Show You the World
7. Mic Break
8. TV on the Radio - “Ambulance,” Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
9. *Daedelus - “You’re the One” feat. Om’Mas Keith, Love to Make Music To
10. *4 bonjour’s Parties - “Magpie Will Peck a Hole in My Plaster Cast,” Pigments Drift Down to the Brook
11. Tr + Tr - “Stay Old or Grow Young,” Rumble
12. Mic Break
13. Nuclear Bubble Wrap - “THX (intro),” Advanced at Nothing
14. Murray Gold - “Doctor Who Theme (2006)”
15. Bear McCreary - “All Along the Watchtower,” Battlestar Galactica Season 3
16. Aceyalone and RJD2 - “A Beautiful Mine,” Magnificent City
17. Joss Whedon - “Laundry Day Freeze Ray,” feat. Neil Patrick Harris, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog
18. Tree Adams - “Middleman Theme”
19. *The Submarines - “Maybe,” Honeysuckle Weeks
20. Joe Cocker - “With a Little Help From My Friends,” With A Little Help From My Friends
21. David Schwartz - “Arrested Development,” Arrested Development Soundtrack
22. Europe - “The Final Countdown”
23. Mic Break
24. *Sonantes - “Defenestrado,” Sonantes
25. Chaka Khan - “Tell Me Something Good (Live),” Epiphany Sampler
26. *The Herbaliser - “You’re Not All That” feat. Jessica Darling, Same As It Never Was
27. *Aretha Franklin - “Rock Stead (Alternate Mix),” Rare & Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul
28. Mic Break
29. *The Cool Kids - “What It Is,” The Bake Sale
30. De La Soul - “Big Brother,” feat. Mos Def, Stakes Is High
31. Blue Scholars - “Inkwell (Crasehd-Cop-Car Remix)”
32. Little Brother - “Beautiful Morning,” The Minstrel Show
33. A Tribe Called Quest - “Can I Kick It?,” Anthology
34. The Pharcyde - “Passing Me By,” Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
35. Q-Tip - “Vivrant Thing (instrumental),” Vivrant Thing Single [MIC BREAK]
36. Mic Break
37. *Whatfor - “I want a Girl,” Sooner Late Than Never
38. *Living Legends - “After Hours,” The Gathering

*Indicates Feature

Got some love for my hip-hop set -- someone called in to tell me that "Passin' Me By" is his all time favorite song and that I put a big smile on his face. His call put a big smile on my face. I always seem to get a lot of calls when I play hip-hop, which I think is because hip-hop is seriously underrepresented on the KALX airwaves. Which is a shame since we have a TON of classic, probably difficult to fine LPs to work with.

Matteo from Ancient Organics called in. I now know more about the production of ghee than I would ever care to know, but I'm glad that I got to chat with Matteo. Ancient Organics will be at the upcoming Slow Food Nation Festival, which I hope to attend so that I can grab some of this ghee. Read more!

The Beginning - Show 0

DJ Training at KALX consists of one month of weekly classes to learn all the ins and outs of DJing—working the soundboard, how to pick music, mic breaks, and, most importantly, the 7 dirty words (R.I.P. George Carlin) that are liable to get the station sued by the FCC and shut down. The real learning happens in the 9 training shows that are required in order to graduate (your 5th and 8th shows are submitted to a reviewer in order to determine whether or not you graduate). The very first show, Show 0, is with a real KALX DJ, who helps you learn on the job. My Show O was Sunday, 19 March 2006 from 6 to 7:30 a.m.

For your first show, its recommended that you try not to pick songs shorter than 5 minutes to give you ample time to cue your next track and do all the other things you need to do to DJ. There are also general KALX parameters which include: playing at least 4 feature (new) songs every hour, at least 3 different genres of music (enforced by a self-administered "Grandma" test, which is if your grandma couldn't tell the difference between the genres, then they are for all intents and purposes, the same genre), read aloud one PSA and read or play a second PSA each hour, a legal I.D. at the top of every hour (K-A-L-X Berkeley as determined by the FCC), mention the University and Listener Supported radio at least once every hour, include a bit of station business (mention upcoming shows, the website, etc.) every mic break. In other words, there are a lot of things to remember.

I don't really remember how my Show 0 went other than the fact that I couldn't keep track of which sliders were for what CD player (something I still struggle with on occasion and which prompted me to label the sliders with post-its for most of my shows). I do remember that my trainer was really kind and patient, so thanks to him.

The following is the play list for my Show 0 and any comments/explanation I feel are necessary:

1. "The Bizness" - De La Soul feat. Common, Stakes Is High [4:25] (this was a shout out to my brother, an aspiring DJ himself, to whom I owe my love of hip-hop)
2. "The Symphony" - Marley Marl, Hip-Hop Essentials 1979-1991 Vol. 1 [6:07]
3. "Love Me Forever" - Carlton and the Shores, Full Up [3:50]
4. "Rock Steady" - No Doubt, Rock Steady [5:22] (as an inveterate No Doubt fan, I had to squeeze in a No Doubt track, and this happens to be among my most favorite No Doubt Songs ever)
5. "The World is Upside Down" - John Schott's Typical Orchestra [7:08]
6. "Como el Agua Entre Las Piedras" - Son De La Frontera, S/T [5:04]
7. "Hallelujah" - Jeff Buckley, Grace [6:54]
8. "Beloved" - Anoushka Shankar, Beloved (single) [7:05] (this was an LP -- I try to play at least one vinyl just to keep it old school]
   
9. "The Seed/Melting Pot/Web!" - The Roots, Home Grown! Vol. 2 [16:02] (I actually perfer this live version of "The Seed" to the original version, but I seem to be alone in this opinion)
10. "Blacking Out the Friction/Brand New Love" - Death Cab For Cutie, The John Byrd E.P. [7:20] (I remember getting a phone call after playing the Roots and Death Cab back to back; the guy said he thought it was cool, but he said it with a bit a chuckle which made me think he didn't think it was really that cool .... The reason I played them together was because they were both live tracks and thus had similar momentum ... whatever, I thought it was cool)
11. "Folkmoot" - John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, A Blessing [7:24] (I do not recall this song at all, and given that I did not tape my Show 0, I will probably never remember it)
12. "1958 (Skapel Remix)" - Skapel, Konfusion [5:01] (I don't remember this song either)
13. "Ghostwriter" - RJD2, Deadringer [5:17]
    
14. "Unison" - Bjork, Vespertine [6:45] (I also got a phone call about this from a guy thought that the version I had played was special or something, I'm still confused as to what he was calling about)

And there we have it. My first dabbling into radio!
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Say My Name, Say My Name

If no one is around you, say "baby I love you." If you ain't runnin' game.

Yeah, don't even play like you weren't thinking that, too. By the way, can you believe "Say My Name" came out almost a decade ago?! Anyway, back to the point of this post. I get funny reactions about my DJ name, mostly in the order of, "Sofistafunk? Buh?!" So I figured I gots some 'splainin' to do.

First things first. Sofistafunk is a portmanteau word (sophisticated + funk)—like Lewis Carroll's "chortle" (chuckle + snort)—coined by the wordsmith Andre 3000 of Outkast in The Love Below's "Behold A Lady," a wonderfully groovy ode to the lovely and rare (in Andre 3000's opinion) sophisticated lady who knows how to hold it down for her man. I spell mine with an "f" so that it resembles my given name, Sofia.

I don't really know what precisely sofistafunk means, per se, but I suppose it captures a certain aesthetic that I like to think I possess or, at the very least, aspire to possess: worldly and knowledgeable in the ways of funkiness. Or something like that. Anyway, that's my name, don't wear it out.
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Green Light: Now Begin

Sofistafunk here. Looks like you've stumbled across my humble blog, "Bringing the Sofistafunk" (name subject to change). This blog is dedicated to my endeavors as an aspiring DJ at KALX 90.7 FM, UC Berkeley's radio station located in the bowels of Barrows Hall. I've been volunteering at the good ship KALX since my sophomore year of college and I finally made it through the DJ training program last year, which means I have the honor of doing 1 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. shows instead of 3:30 to 6-ers. I would apply for earlier shows, but I'm pretty comfortable at the at the 1 a.m. slot. The studio is nice and quiet and only the most dedicated (or those with insomnia) are listening in. Plus there's always parking around Berkeley during the wee hours of the morn.

But back to the blog. I decided to chronicle my radio doings and going-ons here on the interweb for posterity and also for my own entertainment. I also have deluded aspirations of building a fan base, a misguided dream fueled by some callers who were far to generous with praise during my last show. Anyway, I figured that if I'm going to build the empire of Sofistafunk's devoted followers, I'd better start a place to rally the troops. So here it is! I'll be writing about my shows, all manner of music- and radio-related things and posting my play lists and perhaps the occasional mixtape—but now I'm getting ahead of myself. So read on and listen in! Oh and if you want to shoot me a friendly e-mail, holla back at heysofistafunk@gmail.com Look forward to hearing from you. And now ... we begin! Read more!