I'm delighted to report that I'll be making a return appearance on the airwaves of my old radio home, WPRB, this evening (Thursday, July 10th) from 5-8 PM. If you happen to live north of Philadelphia and south of... say... Exit 12 on the NJ Turnpike, you can listen at 103.3 FM. Otherwise, point your computer this-uh-way 'round about showtime.
Before earning my airslot at WFMU, this is where I helmed a weekly program from 1992-2001. It's also the station I grew up listening to in the 80s and which first put the radio bug into my ear, so to speak. As I've said many times in the past, it was utterly fantastic to grow up listening to WPRB DJs who meant so much to me, and then beyond flattering to become one of them later on for other people. I haven't darkened the station's airwaves for at least 6 or 7 years, so needless to say, I'm nervous and excited about coming back to say hello. Should you want to end your workday with the sound of a grown man fumbling at the controls of unfamiliar broadcast equipment, you now know exactly where to go!
Thanks to my dear brother and sister in broadcasting -- Jon Solomon and Julia Factorial -- for encouraging this long overdue visit, the wonderful Maria T. for allowing me to fill-in for her, and to the current WPRB staff for allowing a townie DJ from eons ago back in the saddle for a little while.
Embarrassing hype courtesy of Mr. Solomon here. I believe he's also responsible for the above photo of my old haircut.
In a brazen act of indifference towards usual notions of patriotism, I went to see Rachid Taha tear up Central Park's Summerstage this past weekend. It was my second time seeing him perform, and like the 2005 gig at Bowery Ballroom, the electricity level was palpable from the moment he hit the stage.
Rachid is a French-born Algerian who, along with his band, plays a discordant blend of harsh guitar rock and propulsive, middle-eastern dance music. More importantly, he delivers it all with the spectacle of a full-on arena rock show, even if he's performing in a mid-size club, or as was the case this weekend, to a few hundred soggy enthusiasts armed with umbrellas and seven dollar Coronas. Rachid's performances are much like what I imagine a U2 concert to be like, what with his larger-than-life on stage presence, and the obvious deity-like status his hardcore fans have ascribed to him.
And amazingly, it all works perfectly. He's a natural born rock star who flirts with the audience en masse (in spite of his limited spoken English abilities) and clearly gets off on riling any crowd up to critical levels. (It takes a lot to get me to pogo dance these days, but I'd be lying if I said that the wife and I weren't jumping around like retards as the set neared its frenzy-like conclusion. And we only had two each of the aforementioned seven-dollar-Coronas...) Does the idea of covering "Rock the Casbah" in 2008 sound like a bad idea to your musical sensibilities? Yes? Mine too, but trust me -- Rachid Taha's version not only destroys the crowd every time, but is totally re-worked (as all good covers ought to be) into a creation that's utterly his own.
Interestingly, Rachid also has the whole Serge Gainsbourg ugly-hot-guy thing going on to the point that he seems to cross all barriers of sexual orientation. The crowd's clearly heterosexual men -- even those armed with wives, girlfriends, or the accordant offspring -- got the same melty look in their eyes that the attending women did when confronted with the whole of Rachid's considerable swagger. I've run into this kind of phenomenon before, but not to this degree since watching clearly infatuated (male) friends commit public stupidities in the presence of the Fluid's John Robinson. (OK, I did it a couple of times too.) I choose to think of it as lending further firepower to the complete experience that is a live Rachid Taha concert, and would urge anyone to make his shows a priority on their summer concert calendars.