This is the new blog for J's Indie/Rock Mayhem, a radio program broadcast on WQFS Greensboro 90.9 FM Guilford College Radio in Greensboro, North Carolina. WQFS is currently ranked as the #4 Best College Radio Station in the country by the Princeton Review.

In the past I have been posting my playlists, etc. at my normal and personal blog, Notes From Underground. However, in order to cease boring my readers over on that blog, in addition to setting up a place for my radio show listeners to get info without having to dig through my political commentary, I've decided to set up this blog space. So odds are if you are here, unless you linked from my other blog, you got here by listening to my radio show. So welcome all!

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j's indie/rock mayhem - 13th september 2003

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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[note: tonight was my first radio show of the new season. my new timeslot is friday night/saturday morning 12am - 2am. not what i was hoping for, but little i can do. the show was overshadowed by the unfortunate and deeply saddening death of johnny cash. there is little i can say or do to explain what his music and his presence has very obviously meant to music over the past half century. american music would not be the same without him. nor would i or anyone else who has managed to come under his influence. and there are many of us. especially a lot of us that aren't even musicians to begin with. johnny cash's music was life. that's all you needed to know. i opened the show with an hour long set of songs performed by or featuring the man in black. at the end i left a period of dead air as a moment of silence to represent the silence in our collective hearts now that johnny has continued on.]

Johnny Cash - "I Walk the Line" [selected since it was his first charting single. #17 in 1956], "Personal Jesus" [from his most recent album. a great interpretation of the depeche mode classic], "Rock Island Line," "Long Black Veil" [from his orange blossom special album. i adore this song immensely], "The Man Comes Around" [the title track from his most recent]
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Johnny Cash - "Guess Things Happen That Way" [nanci griffith's version of this was the first i heard, but cash's is just as divine], "I Still Miss Someone" (live), "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" [cash loved dylan and its apparent in many ways. the least of which are his numerous covers of dylan's material, especially on the orange blossom special album], "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow" [cash doing williams. heartbreaking]
U2 with Johnny Cash - "The Wanderer" [the closing track from U2's zooropa album. cash does all of the vocals. the background keyboard beat sounds suspiciously like the opening to "like a virgin" but who am i to judge?]
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Johnny Cash - "Get Rhythm"
Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash - "Girl From the North Country" [dylan revisited this classic, originally from his the freewheelin' bob dylan album. the original is masterful. this version featured a duet with cash which is fantastic. although i've always wanted to hear them duet when dylan wasn't trying to sing. nashville skyline, the album this song is from, is important since dylan was actually challenged to sing on it. the first time i heard "lay lady lay" i didn't recognize it was dylan singing. cash was one of the first singers to really champion dylan as the brilliant songwriter he is. dylan returned the favor many years later by raving up a fantastic version of cash's "train of love" for the kindred spirits cash tribute album]
Johnny Cash - "Train of Love," "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" [by request], "Hurt" [his fantastic re-telling of the nine inch nails song], "Goodnight Irene" [leadbelly's classic song]
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The Carter Family and Johnny Cash - "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" [an absolutely ethereal track from the beyond nashville compilation that i endlessly rave about. cash's second wife was, of course, june carter cash. to have arguably the founding family of country music accept one of country's finest sons into the family fold via marriage was nearly too perfect to believe. when june died earlier this year i knew that johnny wasn't long for this world himself. although i was hoping he would stay with us longer. johnny cash could've lived to be 120 and i would still say he died too young. this marked the end of the official cash tribute section of the show]
Social Distortion - "Ring of Fire" [a blistering version of the song cash made famous. from their self-titled album]
Evan Dando - "Won't You Sometimes Think of Me" [a great hank williams song. from the third volume of the priceless loose records compilations]
Willie Nelson - "Crazy" [a demo version from the recent demo sessions cd. this was the demo that patsy cline heard when she decided to record "crazy" herself]
Ray Charles - "Bye Bye Love" [from his modern sounds in country and western music album that really blows me away]
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Q and Not U - "Book of Flags" [the a-side of their new 7". apparently an album is close at hand as well]
Josh Rouse - "Flight Attendant" [easily one of my favourites from 1972]
Bruce Springsteen - "Reason to Believe" [johnny cash appeared on the tribute album for springsteen's nebraska from which this song originates. cash did a great version of "i'm on fire," a song that was recorded for nebraska but not used. you probably have heard it cos it showed up on born in the u.s.a. instead]
The Afghan Whigs - "Fountain and Fairfox" [wow this song kills me]
Jeff Buckley - "Last Goodbye"
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Jay Farrar - "Hard is the Fall" [from his newest, terroir blues. we're seeing him tomorrow night at the orange peel in asheville]
Lucinda Williams - "Out of Touch"
The Jayhawks - "Waiting for the Sun" [these two are playing together on sept. 25th in raleigh and i have tickets. huzzah!]
Polaris - "You're Everywhere" [a beautiful, beautiful song to memory]
Whiskeytown - "Everything I Do" [back before ryan adams made us all lose faith in him..he was making brilliant music. this is a perfect example of that]
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Joy Division - "Heart and Soul"
Son Volt - "Too Early" [by request. the gentleman wanted to hear either son volt or uncle tupelo, but he preferred son volt. i went with this song. a beautiful lament that was the song that made me love accordions forever]
Handsome Family - "My Sister's Tiny Hands"
Jim White - "The Wound That Never Heals" [these two are playing together in october. it'll be a grand reunion from the first time i saw both of them, again playing together, in london in the fall of 2001]
Tom Waits - "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" [forever one of my favourite tom songs.]

Thanks for listening.