You probably know Brett Netson from his work with Built To Spill and Caustic Resin. Now he’s back with the excellent Scavenger Cult EP, credited to Brett Netson & Snakes. Netson will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
Netson: I love radio. Since I was a kid, I have loved it. Calling the station to request “Midnight Rambler” by the Stones, “Ballroom Blitz,” etc. At that time, the late ’70s, there were DJs who answered the phone and played records. On commercial-rock radio! Sure, listening to records at home, all alone, can be a profound experience, but to also be able to broadcast the magic that is on a record out to any damn one? With any kind of radio? Well then we can share the experience. Also, there are people who will hear it on accident! I know I did and still do, turn the thing on and discover life changers to this day. And sure, the Internet and digital radio is oh-so convenient and great and blabiddey blah blah blah … When I hear some real person going through the effort of picking songs that they think the whole world should hear, and going through the trouble of talking to us about it, I much prefer it to streaming or some podcast that happened some other place in the past, that just sits there, in the nowhere of the digital, virtual ether. Fuck all that! Radio, man … that’s where it’s at. That shit going down live, everyone involved, moving into the future. In reality. In real time.
It’s a place where we can decide for ourselves who we are. I mean, when it’s not all fucked up, by the same corporatist scumfuck vampires who ruin everything else in this world. Branding douchebags and the multi-national corporation have been doing long research and have developed sophisticated methods for convincing us we are something that we are not. We all know how commercial radio is worthless at this point. Automated, focus grouped and just there to whore out classic rock and pop songs to keep the casual listener interested through the lizard brain mind scramble of the “commercials.” Thank the gods that there are still things called community radio and college radio. You can call them and give your opinion. And it does matter when you do. We still have it to use, and it is a big deal.
It’s in the constitution that the airwaves belong to “We The People.” We literally own them. Just let that sink in for a few minutes.
Read this: Radio And The Public Interest
Video after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82s5Q3GIO9I
