Timber!

The fine folks at Merge have been enjoying the view from atop the Alternative Specialty charts for a while now…and doubly so this week, as Swedish export Shout Out Louds (Bud Fox/Merge) celebrate a second straight week atop the Mediaguide Songs Specialty chart with “Tonight I Have to Leave It.” On the Album side of things, Austin indie darlings Spoon (Merge) reclaimed the top spot they initially held three weeks ago with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, nudging aside the White Stripes’ Icky Thump (Third Man/Warner Bros.), which remains strong in the second slot. Making a big move on the Album chart are D.C. punk stalwarts Bad Brains, who leap 14-3 with Build a Nation (Oscilloscope/Megaforce), while desert rats Queens of the Stone Age jump 24-5 with superb new effort Era Vulgaris (Rekords Rekords/Interscope), helped in part by the #13 debut on the Song chart of “Sick, Sick, Sick.” The top debut on the Album chart belongs to UNKLE, whose War Stories (Surrender All) crashes the party at number eight, propelled by single “Burn My Shadow,” which easily outpaced almost all the competition to debut at #2 on the Song side. Other big movers on the Song chart are Interpol’s “Heinrich Maneuver,” which vaults 27-5, and Gogol Bordello (SideOneDummy) bops 39-11 with the wonderfully titled “Wonderlust King.” The second best debut on the Song chart belongs to Blaqk Audio (Tiny Evil/Interscope), which enters the chart at #10 with the memorably monikered “Stiff Kittens.”

And speaking of “Stiff Kittens,” a special 3rd o’ July shoutout to the Lizard King himself, James Douglas Morrison, who passed away 36 years ago today, submerged in a Parisian bathtub after one “Moonlight Drive” too many. Which raises the question: which stars of today would be similarly memorialized in 2043? Precious few, alas…but feel free to send your suggestions to rich@hushhushattack.com whilst enjoying a healthy, happy holiday. Cheers!

Of Montreal “Suffer For Fashion” Those kooky kids from Athens, Georgia are at it again--Sunday, July 1, saw the MTV2 “Subterranean” debut for the “Suffer For Fashion” video from quirky collective Of Montreal. Lovingly helmed by Norwegian director/clothing designer Sigrid Astrup, the video is an actual video collage put together by the director, interspersed with some treated live-action shots of the band (whose latest album bears the colorful title Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?). The “Suffer For Fashion” look and feel recalls nothing so much as a darker version of Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” video from the ’80s…but darkness never tasted so delicious. If you, too, want to “Suffer For Fashion” (but preferably not by emulating Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes’ ruffled blouse look), you can view the video HERE.

“The major labels are dead!” ..... “Who needs a label?” ..... “They are so out of touch!” .... “I can do it all on my own homie!!” – some are, you do, some are, and prove it, anyway... regardless of anything that anyone says about any major label out there, there are still some labels that are doing it right. Fact is, they have changed their ways immensely in comparison to the old school model of days gone by, and thankfully they now have the foresight to hire people who are way ahead of the curve when it comes to new media and true artist development. With that being said, let me introduce you to this week’s blog of the week. RockInsider is exactly what the name says, it rocks and its written by an insider. Many people claim to have the “scoop” in the blogs they write, or that they are privy to information, I call bullshit. This blog doesn’t have to spout off at the mouth, it just gives it to you. I’m not in the business giving away the magician’s secrets but I am in the business of giving credit where credit is due, and this blog has seriously has it together. I’ve been a longtime lurker of this blog and today is my coming out party, I like what I’m reading. So check it out, light some fireworks, and have a smokin 4th of July weekend.

Alf

hhA!: Alf, are you a CO native?

Alf: “Technically, no. I moved here when I was 11 from San Francisco. Some might say that's good enough. Most Coloradans wouldn't.”

hhA!: Where did it all go wrong?

Alf: “I originally was going to be a high-school math teacher. But a stint on the college radio station convinced me that it was radio that made me happy (in other words, I managed to find the one field that probably paid LESS than teaching). I spent two years doing bookkeeping gigs while I tried to get a foothold in at a station. Finally, I was hired to do overnights at KISZ-FM in Farmington NM...for $600 a month. I spent 18 months there, doing absolutely everything and loving every minute of it. When the station ‘went satellite’ I got hired by KTCL-FM about a month later.

hhA!: All joking aside, is Alf your on-air name or real name?

Alf: “Neither. A co-worker at Pizza Hut started calling me that way back in the day. The name sort of stuck. I like it better than my real name, so I've sort of helped it along. It's simple, it's memorable.”

hhA!: What do you do at the station besides “Adventure University”?

Alf: “I host two other shows. One is the ‘All Request Retro Show,’ which is pretty much what it sounds like. The second is ‘Locals Only,’ which also is pretty much what it sounds like. We've broken a couple of local bands through that show. The Fray? My fault. Sorry.”

hhA!: “Adventure University”… from the beginning.

Alf: “Not long after I came aboard, our program director revamped the weekend schedule. A bunch of specialty shows were instituted--a reggae show, a swing show, an industrial show, and so forth. The entire package was called ‘Planet Adventure Weekend’ and I think it debuted in 1997. One show was ‘Adventure University,’ which was originally designed to play ‘college music’ (thus the name). The first host was Laney--not sure if I spelled that right. She hosted the show for a couple years, and then Kat Valentine--who I believe up until that point hadn't been on-air--took over. Kat switched the show to more of a standard ‘specialty’ new music show. When she was going to move away, she offered me the gig and I said, ‘Sure, why not." Oddly, only three shows remain of the original ‘Planet Adventure Weekend’...and I host all three.” 

hhA!: You are also a mobile DJ as well, correct? What type of material do you spin out at the clubs?

Alf: “I do DJ at clubs, but it's pretty rare. I was involved with an occasional DJ night called ‘Four Big Gay Guys,’ where...well, it's pretty much what it sounds like. Four gay guys each taking a turn DJing. The only stipulation is that we not play anything ‘really stereotypically gay,’ so no hi-NRG or Cher. It seems every time I see someone spinning off iPods or laptops, they have ‘issues’--slow to load, or the laptop crashes. So I've stuck with CDs. I often burn ten or twelve CD-Rs and spin using those. That seems to give me the best control with the most portability. I generally play favorites from all my ‘Adventure University’ years--modern rock that was danceable.  !!!, Kenna, that sort of thing. I do throw in the occasional retro song--Bow Wow Wow's ‘Do You Wanna Hold Me?’ So it's a bit of everything. Whatever suits my fancy. The one song that always seems to do well [is] ‘Man, It's So Loud in Here’ by They Might Be Giants. Maybe my audience is even geekier than I thought.”

hhA!: What is reacting recently on AU? What artists have crossed over from AU into regular rotation this year?

Alf: “It's very strange. Unless it's a really well-established artist--Smashing Pumpkins, say--there's this long lag between when I play it on ‘AU’ and when it gets into rotation. I do let the PD and MD know when a song has done well on ‘AU’ and they do take my comments on board. But then there's the music meetings and the testing and all that and they don't announce (to me) that the song gets added, I'll just suddenly see it in rotation. Sometimes the gap is several months. Last year, Motion City Soundtrack got into rotation over half a year after I stopped playing it on ‘AU.’”

hhA!: Anything else you would like to say?

Alf: “hush hush Attack is a pretty silly name…and yes, that's coming from a guy who goes by ‘Alf.’”