Quilty 3000Bio: Variety Mix, Sunday 3PM-6PM Time at station: I started radio early. I was fifteen, it was the summer of 1982 and the station was 10-watts. I had a key and if the station was off the air, I would crank up the transmitter and just go. By the end of the summer I was hooked on radio. I spent hundreds of hours broadcasting during my teenage years and had an amazing schooling in music. There I first played the likes of X and Tom Waits. I also began to learn the craft of the music segue on a little 4-track mixer that would ‘pop’ when switching into cue. Continuing with radio through college, I did jazz, world, classical, and free-form programming at a station that really fostered music exploration. It was all vinyl then and there are songs that I can identify by playing the first few notes backwards from cueing them so often. I started spending Saturday afternoons on 90.3 in January of 1993. I have the best time spinning together music of all sorts, from garage rock to hip-hop. My show is never planned; the music controls the flow and the order. At KEXP I’m allowed to do what is truly my passion, choosing and playing music to make life a little louder, with more of a beat, some harmony, and lots of guitar. |
 Sufjan Stevens, photo courtesy of madelien
As 2006 comes to a close, I just realized that when January rolls around I will be celebrating 14 years of Saturday afternoons on KEXP and also celebrating hitting that milestone of 40. KEXP has taken me from my mid-twenties – my first show was the day before my 26th birthday, all the way through my thirties (Troy, being 30 really doesn’t suck THAT much), and now into the next decade. I can’t believe it’s already that time of the year to put together another top ten list — 2006 has zipped by in record speed (and I don’t mean 33RPM). My Top Ten for 2006 is a mixed bag: The Decemberists – The Crane Wife (Capitol) Sufjan Steven’s The Avalanche features outtakes from the Illinois album, which topped my list for 2005. As a native Illinoisan I really enjoyed hearing Mr. Steven’s sing about Pittsfield and my hometown of Springfield. Portland’s Decemberists are now on a major label but that hasn’t changed their sound. The Crane Wife only gets better with repeated plays. Also making my list is Colin Meloy’s early band, Tarkio. Omnibus (Tristan and Iseult MP3) is a two CD release featuring recordings from 1996 to 1999 when Colin was majoring in English at the University of Montana in Missoula. With a stripped down alt-country feel, you can definitely hear the genesis of The Decemberist’s sound. One of the best in-studios I saw this year was Steve Wynn, that man can play guitar. His latest release, …tick…tick…tick (Freak Star MP3) is reminiscent of the guitar drenched sound of The Dream Syndicate. Midlake makes new music that sounds old, but not dated, think Fleetwood Mac meets Radiohead. They are one of those bands that when I would play a track on my show the phone would light up. As the days count down and times runs out for grabbing gifts, here are a couple of suggestions for the music geek in your life: XTC Action figures! Yes, you read that right, XTC has commissioned a set of collector figures in a very limited edition of 200 sets. The metal figures are made by Irregular Miniatures, a company specializing in tin solider figures.  Series No. 1 features Andy, Colin, Barry and Terry circa 1978 White Music. Imagine XTC faces the great armies of the ages. Who will prevail — soldiers and weapons or XTC and their instruments? If you have a Neutral Milk Hotel fan on your list you are in luck. While Jeff Mangum hasn’t been recording lately, he has completed a limited series of weird collage Fender acoustic guitars. Truly a one-of-a-kind piece of playable art.  And finally, Joseph Arthur has released a limited edition book of original art titled “We Almost Made It” which also includes a CD of instrumental compositions. The book is limited to 5,000 copies. I hope that you have a good holiday season and wonderful New Year. Here’s to 2007 and the music that it holds!
It was a very long day, I was at the Seattle Center for over 13 hours and only saw two Utilikilts. I thought it would be a banner day as the count began immediately with the guy who scanned my ticket at the gate. The only other one I saw was a man wearing the same Utilikilt outfit he had on the day before. The full count stands at five. I’m really curious as to how many I’ll see tomorrow. I started the day off at the KEXP booth before the gates where open. It was a good time hanging out in the booth with DJ Chilly and volunteer Scott, listening to the Latin jazz sounds of Seattle-based Mambo Cadillac with Tor Dietrichson, which sounded fantastic.  Chilly and Scott at the KEXP booth.
We had KEXP buttons, postcards and posters to give away along with all sorts of information from music advice to directions. The most asked question was if any shower radios where left. They went quickly the day before – all 1200 of ‘em. It’s really nice when someone heads straight to the booth with great enthusiasm, like Don who discovered that KEXP makes his commute from Snohomish to Redmond much more enjoyable.  KEXP volunteer Don, from Snohomish.
I made it over to the Mainstage in time for the last song from The New Pornographers, “Sing Me Spanish Techo”, which is my favorite song off their last album. It was lovely to take a break from the warm afternoon by ducking into the KEXP broadcast to see the live performance by Cloud Cult, which featured a couple new songs. If you missed the broadcast you can listen to it in the streaming archive until Sept. 17th. Stevie Zoom and Larry did a great job of taking Sunday afternoon’s on KEXP to the live side. Jack Walters also gets a big kudos make sure that things went smoothly.  Shani, Larry, Kate, and Jack at the KEXP secret broadcast location.
Back over to the Mainstage for Spoon and the man in dressed in black, Britt Daniel. Britt sent out a nice shout-out to the station mentioning that KEXP supported Spoon in the beginning and how much he loves the station. There was a group of dancers that started out as five or six people jumping up and down and ballooned into a large circle of very energetic folks dancing in every which way. Maybe the tide is turning in Seattle and we are becoming a city that can move to music instead of standing there doing the head bob.  Britt Daniel of Spoon, photo by Christopher Nelson. Courtesy of Bumbershoot.
Taking a little break from the music, I checked out the End of Summer: Three Views of Bumbershoot, which featured pictures from last year’s festival and my favorite photographer, William Anthony. I recommend checking this exhibit out. Be sure to see the photo of Iggy Pop, I’m not sure how to describe the feeling I had looking at it and would love to hear what other people think of it. I rounded out the night back at the Mainstage for Blue Scholars and Kanye West. I saw so many people trip and couple people fall on a step by where I was sitting in the bleachers that I was sure I was going to see someone get really hurt. Blue Scholars put on a good show and the crowd was fantastic, nothing like seeing a sea of arms raised with lighters. Then came Kenya to close off the night. To be honest, I’m not very familiar with his music but do like “Gold Digger”. I was completely exhausted by the time I got home. For the final day of Bumbershoot tomorrow, I’ll be taking it easy and heading over in the late afternoon for Breakestra, Nouvelle Vogue and the show that I’ve been looking forward to since the line-up was announced, The English Beat. The first time I saw them play was in 1982 when they opened for The Police. At the time Special Beat Service was a tape that didn’t leave my Sony Walkman II and I had to beg my mom to drive a friend and I to Peoria and then sit in the car while we attended what was my first real rock concert. Twenty-four years later I’ll be see them again and will be announcing the show which I am very excited about.
First, it is with a B not a P… why do folks get so hung up on that? It makes me paranoid when I say it on the air, cause I think by nature you want to say “bumper” and then if you do, suddenly there are flurry of emails pointing it out. After wrappingRead more…
I’ve never liked jewel cases. Actually, I hate those three pieces of plastic. They crack and break. The thing that is suppose to hold the disc never holds it tightly so it spins, the spokes eventually break, and the disc get scratched. My biggest complaint is that for a small object they consume quite bitRead more… |