musings from boston

Expanding Awareness: last two programs…

On August 20, 2009

Apologies; I’ve missed Victor’s last two programs. But you can still catch both of them on the WZBC archive. Two Saturdays ago, he had on Marushka talking about holistic sex in relationships, and this past Saturday was Kirtan with Donna De Lory, including a live performance. Archives of past shows are saved for two weeks.

Victor Robert Venckus presents his Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness program on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston College Radio) every Saturday from 7am – 11am. He begins with New Age, ambient, Native American and world music, with a weekly astrology report from Dietrich Pessin at 9:30 am. Expanding Awareness is at 10am, featuring interviews on paranormal, holistic health, environmental, animal rights and occasionally human rights topics, with listener call-in participation. Victor has been on the air, in some guise or another, since 1975.

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Band Roundup, part I – August 17, 2009

By julie

On August 17, 2009

In Band Profiles, Indie Music

I’ve got some serious catching up to do. After my “mini-festival-weekend” now two weeks ago (which included Boston’s Best Music Poll and the WBRU/McFadden’s block party in Providence), it took me all the following week to assemble my plethora of notes, photos and video clips into a few reviews. Since then I’ve been trying to catch up with a backlog of MySpace requests, emails and bands I’ve been meaning to check out.

What I’ve decided to do, rather than have to choose (from a wide variety of some great or at least interesting music) which bands to do profiles on, is to have periodic “band roundups”, where I’ll write shorter profiles, much like I did during the Coachella Festival. Since I’ve got over 20 bands to get to here, I’ll do this in bite-size chunks, rather than assault you with yet another of my massive tomes.

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Reeves Gabrels and his Imaginary Fri3nds at The Regent Theatre, Arlington, MA, July 22, 2009

By julie

On July 26, 2009

In Boston Bands, Gigs, Indie Music, Reviews

Reeves Gabrels and his Imaginary Friends @ The Regent Theatre

It’s always difficult to begin a story, and none so much as this review of Reeves Gabrels and his Imaginary Friends at The Regent Theatre in Arlington.

See, Reeves and I go way back. The last time I’d seen him play was… my god, was it one of the Tin Machine shows from 1991?? Or maybe a Bentmen extravaganza from around that same time? Whatever it was, it feels like a previous lifetime, one that swirls around half-remembered in my consciousness like a scene from Un Chien Andalou.

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Expanding Awareness: Art of Divination, Taoism & the I Ching

By julie

On July 23, 2009

In Expanding Awareness

On Saturday’s “Expanding Awareness” program, Victor and his guest Portia Brockaway will be discussing the art of Divination, Taoism, and the I Ching. If you’re not in the Boston area, you can listen online. His shows are also archived for two weeks.

Victor Robert Venckus presents his Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness program on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston College Radio) every Saturday from 7am – 11am. He begins with New Age, ambient, Native American and world music, with a weekly astrology report from Dietrich Pessin at 9:30 am. Expanding Awareness is at 10am, featuring interviews on paranormal, holistic health, environmental, animal rights and occasionally human rights topics, with listener call-in participation. Victor has been on the air, in some guise or another, since 1975.

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Band Profile: Naked Alien (Minnesota)

By julie

On July 13, 2009

In Band Profiles, Indie Music

Frat party meets Flaming Lips. Dive bars with sticky floors and inebriated overweight jocks with bad pick-up lines. Eagles, Charlie Daniels, and Lynard Skynard on the jukebox (or maybe I’m just having a bad flashback to when I lived in Florida in the late ’70s). Songs about drinking, overweight strippers, burritos, beer, chicks, more drinking, and yes – bad pick-up lines. Do I see a theme emerging? Naked Alien are just four guys having a good time, finding a suitable outlet for the frustrations of day jobs, and inviting people along for the ride.

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Expanding Awareness: Enlightened ways to nurture yourself

By julie

On July 4, 2009

In Expanding Awareness

On this morning’s “Expanding Awareness” program, Victor and his guest Bonnie Faith will be discussing enlightened ways to nurture yourself. If you’re not in the Boston area, you can listen online. His shows are also archived for two weeks.

Victor Robert Venckus presents his Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness program on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston College Radio) every Saturday from 7am – 11am. He begins with New Age, ambient, Native American and world music, with a weekly astrology report from Dietrich Pessin at 9:30 am. Expanding Awareness is at 10am, featuring interviews on paranormal, holistic health, environmental, animal rights and occasionally human rights topics, with listener call-in participation. The broadcast is now archived for two weeks. Victor has been on the air, in some guise or another, since 1975.

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Band Profile: The Henry Clay People

By julie

On July 3, 2009

In Band Profiles, Indie Music

The Bowery Ballroom, photo by Marcela Cussolin

Man, I love these guys. I first discovered them via The Airborne Toxic Event, when I went absolutely batshit nuts over the first three Silverlake bands I heard – TATE, Castledoor, and The Deadly Syndrome (that now legendary final Spaceland residency show in January 2008). From there I started researching all the bands that played around Silverlake and Echo Park, and it was a revelation. Not unlike the one I had in the early 00’s when I discovered – 10 years after everyone else in America – the whole New Zealand Flying Nun thing. And not unlike the NZ stuff, there’s this lyrical sophistication and slightly off-kilter quality running through many of these bands that greatly appeals to me. The Henry Clay People has this intelligence and quirkiness in vast overflowing abundance. Mix that with classic and punk rock sounds, a bit of country-flavoring and indie rock sensibility, and you’ve got something pretty damned irresistible.

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Band Profile: Red Cortez

By julie

On June 29, 2009

In Band Profiles, Indie Music

Originally known as The Weather Underground, the group formed mid-2004 with singer/guitarist Harley Prechtel-Cortez, bassist Ryan Kirkpatrick, drummer Diego Guerrero and guitarist Sho Bagley. Sho left around the middle of last year, and was replaced by Edmonton native Calvin J. Love. Adding a Canadian to the mix made the band even more diverse, as they already have Guatemalan, Mexican, and Irish ancestry, which comes out at times in beautiful ways, in their sound and subject matter. The new band member, new songs, and inevitable linking to the ’60’s/’70’s leftist group (often as important to journalists as their songs) inspired them to change their name to Red Cortez. Their first show was Nov. 11, for the debut of Indie 103.1’s “Check One Tuesdays” night at the Echoplex, opening for Earlimart and Afternoons (good heavens, what a lineup).

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Expanding Awareness: Native American Spirituality

By julie

On June 25, 2009

In Expanding Awareness

On Saturday’s “Expanding Awareness” program, Victor and his guest will be discussing Native American spirituality. If you’re not in the Boston area, you can listen online. His shows are also archived for two weeks.

Victor Robert Venckus presents his Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness program on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston College Radio) every Saturday from 7am – 11am. He begins with New Age, ambient, Native American and world music, with a weekly astrology report from Dietrich Pessin at 9:30 am. Expanding Awareness is at 10am, featuring interviews on paranormal, holistic health, environmental, animal rights and occasionally human rights topics, with listener call-in participation. The broadcast is now archived for two weeks. Victor has been on the air, in some guise or another, since 1975.

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Expanding Awareness: Alan Watts “The World As Just So”

By julie

On June 20, 2009

In Expanding Awareness

On this morning’s “Expanding Awareness” program (happening as I write this), Victor will be airing a previously unheard (on his show, anyway) Alan Watt’s lecture entitled “The World As Just So”. If you miss this ’cause I’m posting so late, you can catch it online for two weeks.

Victor Robert Venckus presents his Lucid Sounds/Expanding Awareness program on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston College Radio) every Saturday from 7am – 11am. He begins with New Age, ambient, Native American and world music, with a weekly astrology report from Dietrich Pessin at 9:30 am. Expanding Awareness is at 10am, featuring interviews on paranormal, holistic health, environmental, animal rights and occasionally human rights topics, with listener call-in participation. The broadcast is now archived for two weeks. Victor has been on the air, in some guise or another, since 1975.

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