If you're only aware of one Daniel Johnston album, Hi, How Are You is probably that one album - whether you've heard it, heard of it, or seen its cover image on a t-shirt worn by Kurt Cobain. As far as I can tell this was the first of his cassettes to receive wide release as an LP (five years after its initial 1983 cassette run), so this might well have been the first many KCMU DJs heard of the highly idiosyncratic singer-songwriter. To say Daniel Johnston's music is not for everyone would be a huge understatement, but it seems to have found a receptive audience at KCMU. Personally, I have to love a station where a DJ's review can open with "Weirdo music that sounds like it was made by little kids" and close with "Should be considered for rotation."
"Recorded on cassette - & it sounds like it! Danny's got a high, thin, reedy voice, & it makes me laugh. Very irritating in a likeable way.""Like Schroeder's piano."
"D.J. wrote 'King Kong' that Jad Fair sang."
"This record is like some kind of weird psychological experiment. I like it. (Jad Fair meets Twilight Zone.)"
"Billie Holiday on acid?!"
"Fabulous. Craziest guy since Syd B."
"Weirdo music that sounds like it was made by little kids a la Jad Fair, Happy Flowers. Should be considered for rotation."
Every once in a while, I post an album from a band that's been so minimally documented on the Internet that I feel I'm adding significantly to the body of public knowledge about them with one little blog post. This is dangerous because usually I know next to nothing about these bands. Take Ism, for…
I honestly don't know how I do it. A few times a year, I collect a whole bunch of these album covers - enough to last me for months - and then at some point I grab one and write about it. And yet I often end up with some extraordinary timely coincidences. For instance, did you know that KEXP/KCMU f…
