A cabinet of auditory wonders for the 21st century. If you would like to support this project you can donate to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RandomTape Our logo was drawn by James Braithwaite whose lovely work can be found at thebathwater.com
Barbara & Dougie

All the answers to last weeks cliffhanger are revealed...

Direct download: RT_Podcast-_Barbara__Dougie.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 12:18am EDT
Comments[0]

The Diet

This tape was made by Paul a man in New Jersey to let his family know that he didn't want them to interfere with his plans to go on a diet he hoped would cure him of AIDS. Logan Jaffe found this tape at a yard sale in Gainesville Florida.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-The_Diet.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 3:21am EDT
Comments[0]

Perfect Pitch

My brother-in-law Matthew has perfect pitch. So we spent a day going around the house looking for objects that make sounds and determining their pitch.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Perfect_Pitch.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 9:23pm EDT
Comments[0]

Organ Donor

Mastering the art of the followup quesiton.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Organ_Donor.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 11:11pm EDT
Comments[0]

An Autumn Adventure

A HUANTED Teddy Ruxpin Tape.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Haunted_Teddy.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 4:36pm EDT
Comments[0]

Come On Down

This man was killed by Drew Carey! (Sort of)

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Come_On_Down.mp3
Category:Story -- posted at: 11:16pm EDT
Comments[0]

Stop Terrorists

This song showed up right after September 11th at the college radio station where my friend was a DJ.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Stop_Terrorists.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 2:14am EDT
Comments[0]

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Election night 2008 at Sydney's Saloon in New Orleans.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Sydneys_Saloon.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 3:21am EDT
Comments[0]

Thoughts And Word 12/74

Listening to tapes on the roof with Matthew.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Thoughts_And_Word.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 3:10am EDT
Comments[0]

That's a century in human years!

Direct download: RT_Podcast-100th_Episode.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:45pm EDT
Comments[0]

I Don't Know if This Counts as a Homosexual Experience

A poem by Jim Tascio.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-I_Dont_Know_if_This_Counts.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 4:28pm EDT
Comments[0]

After Life

This is what the world may sound like after the Apocaplypse.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-After_Life.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 5:54pm EDT
Comments[0]

Portraiture

William Stout is best known for his dinosaur paintings. But he also worked in radio, did the storyboards for Thriller, and Raiders of the Lost Ark and deisgned the characters for Pan's Labrynth. But he got his start drawing portraits and Disneyland. This is a story of those humble beginnings.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-William_Stout.mp3
Category:Dinosaurs -- posted at: 10:53pm EDT
Comments[0]

This may be an infinite fatal reset loop.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Dream_School.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 1:31am EDT
Comments[0]

Timbuktu Muezzin

Thanks to Myke Dodge Weiskopf for this recording of a call to prayer in Timbuktu

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Timbuktu_Muezzin.mp3
Category:Field Recording -- posted at: 2:06am EDT
Comments[0]

Radio Avalon

Late one night I picked up a strange signal on my radio dial...

Direct download: RT_Podcast-1930_KISL_final.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 7:32pm EDT
Comments[0]

Who is Chick Boyd?

The man they myth, no really the myth who is this guy?

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Who_is_Chick_Boyd.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 11:57pm EDT
Comments[0]

Aldini's Beloved

It's Alive!

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Aldinis_Beloved.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 4:50pm EDT
Comments[0]

Undiminished Light

Frank Lloyd Wright recorded hundreds of talks in the living room of his desert compound, Taliesin West. In this talk Wright expounds on anarchy.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Undiminished_Light.mp3
Category:Archival -- posted at: 5:47pm EDT
Comments[0]

Accidental Music

Architect, 1 percenter and desert hobo David Doge didn't intend to design a musical staricase in his magnificant home on the outskirts of Phoenix.

The song in this episode is My Xylophones Love me by Melodium

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Accidental_Music2.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 4:44pm EDT
Comments[0]

Die
Die

Late on night Matthew Kielty got a mysterious call from an unkown number...

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Die.mp3
Category:Voice Message -- posted at: 6:26pm EDT
Comments[0]

Rodney And The Taggers

What keeps the taggers tickin?

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Rodney_and_Taggers.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 2:59am EDT
Comments[0]

Stingo Bingo

We talked about it.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Stingo_Bingo.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 2:33am EDT
Comments[0]

Dennis's Flying Lesson

On a recent trip to central America, Dennis Conrow wrote and recorded a short story and enlisted the help of some locals in San Pedro, Guatemeala to be characters in the story. This is some raw tape and an excpert form the porject.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-The_Flying_Boy.mp3
Category:Story -- posted at: 5:47pm EDT
Comments[0]

English as an Unknown Language

This is what english sounds like to someone who doesn't speak it?

Direct download: RT_Podcast-ESL.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 3:35am EDT
Comments[0]

When Dan Newman 's ice boat crashed through the surface of the frozen lake he had no idea he was about to do something that had never been done.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-The_Ice_Boat.mp3
Category:Story -- posted at: 9:48pm EDT
Comments[0]

Veritas Caput

The sound of the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca, Minnesota.

Direct download: Vertias_Caput.mp3
Category:Field Recording -- posted at: 4:52pm EDT
Comments[0]

Time Machine?

An awkward moment with Jeffrey Lewis.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Time_Machine.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 4:18pm EDT
Comments[0]

A Calling Card for Friendship

A collection of field recordings made around the State of Colorado between 1982 and 1987.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-A_Calling_Card.mp3
Category:Field Recording -- posted at: 6:18pm EDT
Comments[0]

Re-Neavus

I lent my friend Moose a tape recorder and he returned it with with tape full of interviews he had done with his friends. One of those interviews was with Herbie, an artist who collaborated with a couple bearded friends to make a sculpture called Re-Neavus. I cut it up and added some music by Barin Darnew.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Re-Neavus_2.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 1:10am EDT
Comments[0]

The Flaneur

Speed Levitch giving one of his signature wlaking tours of Columbia, Missouri.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-The_Flaneur2.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 8:05pm EDT
Comments[0]

Gainsborough Creek

Luke Cumberland is a second-year student in the MFA writing program at
Washington University.  He is editor of the anthology "Faces of
Virginia Poetry", available on LuLu.com. His most recent poetry has
been published on StatusHat.org. He is from Virginia; he lives in St.
Louis and he has never lost an arm wrestling match in his life.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Gainsborough_Creek.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 3:35pm EDT
Comments[0]

Candy's Hair Affair

I found this recording in a box of old tapes. I think I picked it up at a thrift store in Louisiana. It appears to be role playing excercises at a beauty school.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Candys_Hair_Affair.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 4:01pm EDT
Comments[0]

Fifty Miles from Tonapah

Nason Smith's nonfiction has appeared on NPR: Hearing Voices and his fiction has been published in The Pinch. He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Fifty_Miles_from_Tonapah.mp3
Category:Story -- posted at: 5:40pm EDT
Comments[0]

Robot Compliments

Welcome to Florida. You look great!

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Robot_Compliments.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 2:02pm EDT
Comments[0]

Cold Cold Wine Coolers

One of the great things about New Orleans is that you can set up a card table and sell booze in the street. This is what it sounds like.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Cold_Cold_Wine_Coolers.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 4:00pm EDT
Comments[0]

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb

My friend Keaton was having some trouble working on a tandem bicycle at the bike shop he works at when a customer recommended a solution he found on the internet.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Bike_Bomb.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 3:06am EDT
Comments[0]

Detained

Film maker Karim El Hakim told this story at a live storytelling event at the True/False Film Festival.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Half_Revolution.mp3
Category:Story -- posted at: 9:06pm EDT
Comments[0]

All the Pretty Horses

This Mike West cover was performed by Walt McClement on banjo and Mary Go Round (the one time holder of the world record for spinning the most hoola hoops at once: 76 if my memory serves me correctly) on accordion and vocals.

The song All the Pretty Horses is about the Great Mississippi flood of 1927 and the Army Corps of Engineers decision to dynamite the levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana to save New Orleans. The breach caused a flood that displaced thousands and was later deemed unnecessary. Check out the book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America 

I recorded this late one evening in the upstairs of Mimi’s in the Marigny in New Orleans.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-All_the_Pretty_Horses.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 1:51pm EDT
Comments[0]

Larry's First Beer

I was walking my dog the other night when I came across Larry Boutan sitting on a concrete wall drinking a beer. I bought some beers and joined him. This is the story of Larry’s very first beer.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Larrys_First_Beer.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:56pm EDT
Comments[0]

A Single Moment

Wilbert Rawlins Jr. is the band director at O Perry Walker High school in New Orleans. He runs one of the best marching bands in the state along with a concert band and a Jazz ensemble. Rawlins doesn’t just teach kids to play an instrument though, he provides discipline for a lot of kids who live in a chaotic environment. He teaches them about commitment and the benefits of hard work and education. He puts in a tremendous amount of work at O Perry Walker. When you ask him what the reward is for the countless hours he puts into teaching he says it’s a single moment that lasts for one maybe two seconds.

This is an excerpt form a story I did a few years ago which you can listen to here. Wilburt Rawlins Jr. is also featured in the book Nine Lives by Dan Baum.

Photo by:

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Single_Moment.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 4:42pm EDT
Comments[0]

Chewie's Apnea

The Sound of Suffocation.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Chewies_Apnea.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 7:28pm EDT
Comments[0]

At Klipsan Beach

James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Narrative. He has received the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. Charms Against Lightning, his debut poetry collection, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. During 2012 he will be in residence at the Amy Clampitt House in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Photo by: Sean Hill

Direct download: At_Klipsan_Beach.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 7:06pm EDT
Comments[0]

Where We're Going

I came across this piece of found tape today. I know nothing about it.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Where_Were_Going.mp3
Category:Found Tape -- posted at: 7:34pm EDT
Comments[0]

Spotless

A deleted scene from a story I produced for Marketplace Morning Report.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Spotless.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 2:44pm EDT
Comments[0]

Socks!

They get fucked up in strange ways in Sweden.

Direct download: RT_Podcst-Socks.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 1:08am EDT
Comments[0]

A recording of a tornado siren in a park in St. Louis, MO.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Tornado_Siren.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 12:59am EDT
Comments[0]

Invite to the Pestulent

Thaddeus Conti reading an excerpt from his poem Invite to the Pestilent with live musical accompaniment by Josh Wexler and Sunny Metha. You can purchase Thaddeus’ book here:

http://www.amazon.com/%C3%A6poetics-Thaddeus-Conti/dp/1935084011.

And you can hear the full version of this piece here:

http://www.prx.org/pieces/47733-invite-to-the-pestilent

Photo by: Craig Morse

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Invite_to_the_Pestulent.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 2:40pm EDT
Comments[0]

Christmas Bike

I can only assume Garrett was moved by the Christmas spirit when he left me this message. Or perhaps he was wasted on egg nog.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Christmas_Bike.mp3
Category:Voice Message -- posted at: 6:57pm EDT
Comments[0]

The Threesome

Ever wondered how a couple of straights can satisfy a lesbian? Look no further. A friend of mine sent me a CD of old radio porn that included this track titled The Threesome.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-The_Threesome.mp3
Category:Audio Smut -- posted at: 4:25pm EDT
Comments[0]

Radio

This poem appears in the October, 2011 issue of SOFTBLOW    

Alec Hershman lives in St. Louis where he teaches at St. Louis Community College and at the Center for Humanities at Washington University. His poems can be found in upcoming issues of Denver Quarterly, The Journal, The Burnside Review, Sycamore Review, Juked, and online at Transom, Anti-, Sixth Finch and The Fiddlehead. He is currently poetry editor for The White Whale Review.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Radio.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 5:38pm EDT
Comments[0]

na
Category:Interview -- posted at: 3:13pm EDT
Comments[0]

Train Station Thingy

I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of this device is but it makes cool sounds. It was attached to the outside of a train station in a small town in northern Italy.

Direct download: RT-Italian_Train_Station_Bell.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 8:06pm EDT
Comments[0]

One for the Commandant

Edgar spends most of his days sitting on a five gallon bucket in downtown Seattle. One night I hung out with Edgar and his friends and recorded their arguments songs and pushup competition. This piece was the first place winner of the Big Shed Verite+1 audio competition.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-One_for_the_Commandant.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 5:14pm EDT
Comments[0]

Mongolian Street Musicians

I recorded this a few years ago outside the Pompidou in Paris.

Direct download: RT-Chinese_Street_Musicians_in_Paris.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 8:50pm EDT
Comments[0]

They Were Talking

Philip Matthews is currently the Jr. Writer-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has appeared in Trapeze, Phati’tude, Poets for Living Waters, and Sonora Review. He is continually influenced by surreal visual and sound art, and works as a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Direct download: They_Were_Talking.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 2:48pm EDT
Comments[0]

Welcoming the Water Angel

I attended a fancy party where a beautiful woman modeled a dress that was hooked up to a garden hose. The dress sent streams of water into the sky and reminded my friend of this sad tale of enema addiction.

Direct download: Water_Angel.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 5:26pm EDT
Comments[0]

Jennifer Love

Today's episode of Random Tape features a song by artist Daryl Waits. You can find the track, Jennifer Love on the album Eastern Front & Digital Penetration at paradeco.com

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Jennifer_Love.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 10:04pm EDT
Comments[0]

Badass Emma-Oh Lord
Direct download: RT_Podcast-Badass_Emma-Benz.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 4:31pm EDT
Comments[0]

Badass Emma-This Place

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you’ve ever met.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Badass_Emma-This_Place.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:25pm EDT
Comments[0]

Badass Emma-'85

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Direct download: RT-Podcast-85_was_lively.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 3:30am EDT
Comments[0]

Badass Emma-Miss Clio

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Badass_Emmas_Pets_II.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 3:19am EDT
Comments[0]

Badass Emma-Mr. Williams

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Badass_Emmas_Pets.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 8:49pm EDT
Comments[0]

Burn the River

Thaddeus Conti is the self-proclaimed poet laureate of Hog Alley.

This poem can be found in Thaddeus’s book Aepoetics which you can purchase here:

http://www.amazon.com/%C3%A6poetics-Thaddeus-Conti/dp/1935084011

Direct download: Burn_The_River.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 1:02am EDT
Comments[0]

Pizza Cat

My girlfriend recorded this gem while doing interviews for a radio story about the closing of the beloved Sugar Park Tavern in New Orleans.

Direct download: RT-_PiZZa_Cat.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 2:12pm EDT
Comments[0]

Mississippi River Barge

This is the song of the barge, bobbing on the river near Hopeville.

Direct download: RT-Miss_River_Barge.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 5:48pm EDT
Comments[0]

Posterity

I wore a wire for several years and secretly recorded my life. I recently produced a story about this period in my life for the radio show Wiretap. One of my ideas for the piece was to record myself calling up people from my past to explain that I had recorded them without their knowledge. This is a recording of one of those conversations.

You can hear the Wiretap story here: http://www.cbc.ca/wiretap/episode/2012/01/20/man-vs-machine/

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Posterity.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 1:34am EDT
Comments[0]

Organtics

"Nothing can stop us. Not even if they try. Not even if they want to, or ask the question why. Mr. Torino, why did you lie to me in seventh grade?" -Mark Excelle Mercer IV

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Organtics.mp3
Category:Mark Excelle Mercer IV -- posted at: 4:39am EDT
Comments[0]

Useless Evidence

Sometimes you wish audio had pictures.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Useless_Evidence.mp3
Category:Argument -- posted at: 2:19am EDT
Comments[0]

Sellin the Dream

Most days you can find Tim Raines playing guitar on the corner of Ninth and Olive in downtown St. Louis. He's the electric guitar player with a stuffed bear dressed in prison garb perched on the lip of his guitar case.

Direct download: SSL-Tim_Raines_St_Musician.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 12:28am EDT
Comments[0]

In Praise of Noise

James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Narrative. He has received the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. Charms Against Lightning, his debut poetry collection, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. During 2012 he will be in residence at the Amy Clampitt House in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Photo by: Sean Hill

Direct download: In_Praise_of_Npise.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 1:21am EDT
Comments[0]

Clown Doll

When I was a kid I had this clown doll that would laugh when you pushed a button in its chest. It was terrifying. It's more the cackle of a chain-smoking maniac than the laughter of a clown but then again some clowns are heavy smokers.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Clown_Doll_Final.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 12:10am EDT
Comments[0]

Get on Fire!

I recorded this fiery sermon that I heard on the radio in West Virginia.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Get_on_Fire.mp3
Category:radio -- posted at: 7:10pm EDT
Comments[0]

Another Successful Meal by Captain Tom

After a successful meal Captain Tom has no trouble patting himself on the back for a job well done.

Direct download: RT_Podast-Toms_Meal.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 6:39pm EDT
Comments[0]

Captain Tom Wins a Ham

Back when I was a deckhand on the M.V. Ptarmigan, a glacier tour boat in Alaska, I used to hang out in the wheelhouse and listen to Captain Tom tell stories. I called him up recently and asked him to tell me the one about about the time he won a ham in a furthest listening contest.

Direct download: RT_Podcast-Free_Ham.mp3
Category:Interview -- posted at: 7:21pm EDT
Comments[0]

I spent an afternoon in the parking lot of the grocery store asking people to read me their grocery lists and these are a few of the responses i got.

Direct download: RT-Avacados_voxPoppin.mp3
Category:Vox Pop -- posted at: 11:13pm EDT
Comments[0]

Strawberries Oh My Gosh!

Bill Keaggy responded to postings by musicians on fiverr.com who offered to write and record a song for five dollars. He sent each of them a found grocery list and asked them to record a song inspired by the list. This is my favorite track from Let's All Go to the Grocery Store, an album of songs inspired by found grocery lists which you can download for absolutely free here:

http://www.grocerylists.org/

Direct download: RT_Podcast-First_Shopping.mp3
Category:Music -- posted at: 10:22pm EDT
Comments[0]

Jackpot

This is the sound of hundreds of electronic slot machines on the floor of Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis.

Direct download: RT-Podcast-Lumiere_Casino_Sounds.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 6:16pm EDT
Comments[0]

Factory Set

If you ever did any late night channel surfing between 1993 and 2001 you probably came across the legendary pitchman Don West hollering about sports cards and Beanie Babies on the Shop at Home network. A friend of mine made a CD of some of the best Don West television moments and this is but a taste.

Direct download: RT-Don_West.mp3
Category:TV -- posted at: 8:32pm EDT
Comments[0]

Gavin's Roar
Direct download: Gavins_Roar.mp3
Category:Dinosaurs -- posted at: 12:21pm EDT
Comments[0]

The Dragon Does Not Wehbay!

Do you want the love of the fire? Cuz I’m not gonna wait around to give you my desire.

For some reason an ex-girlfriend of mine gave her number to a guy who called himself The Dragon. Not surprisingly he left her a string of insane voice messages. These are just a few of The Dragon’s many attempts at wooing.

Direct download: The_Dragon_Montage.mp3
Category:Voice Message -- posted at: 3:25pm EDT
Comments[0]

BrailleNote Apex

This is the sound of Matthew Shifrin using his BrailleNote—a computer for the blind that pushes plastic nodes through tiny holes to display text in braille.

Direct download: RT9-Braille_Note_Apex.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 3:17pm EDT
Comments[0]

So Long Pujols

Five Days after I began broadcasting classical music over one of St. Louis' existing Christian stations Albert Pujols announced he was leaving the St. Louis Cardinals for the Los Angeles Angels. Now what does Albert Pujols have to do with JOY-FM you might be asking. Pujols was one of the major donors to the down payment fund for the purchase of KFUO. I propose Pujols take JOY-FM with him and in exchange we get one of L.A.’s classical stations. We would even settle for kMozart 1260 AM.

For this episode of Random Tape I hit the streets to find out what people in St. Louis think of Pujols’ departure.

Direct download: RT8-So_Long_Pujols.mp3
Category:Vox Pop -- posted at: 3:09pm EDT
Comments[3]

Radio Graffiti

Classical music station KFUO in St. Louis was one of the oldest radio stations west of the Mississippi. The stationed was owned by the Lutheran church up until last year when it was purchased by Gateway Creative Broadcasting’s JOY-FM. On July 6th, 2010 KFUO broadcasted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor and then went silent. The following morning JOY-FM began it’s broadcast of Christian contemporary pop music. There are now six christian stations in St. Louis and zero classical stations.

On Saturday December 3rd, I powered up the 40-watt FM transmitter I built and “tagged” a Christian station (89.5 FM) with Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor K. 626: Sanctus. For a couple square miles at least, you can hear classical music on the radio again coming from high atop the chimney of a former convent.

This is a recording of the moment my signal went live.

Direct download: RT7-Radio_Graffiti.mp3
Category:radio -- posted at: 3:07pm EDT
Comments[0]

Martial Law

My friend Casey was a holdout during Hurricane Katrina. He worked occasionally for a friend who owned Old Time Photo, one of those business where you take fake historical photos with your friends. On the night president Bush came to the city there was a seven-o-clock curfew. Casey was heading home at seven twenty when he had an encounter with a couple of state troopers. Casey tells the story of what happened next.

Direct download: RT6-Martial_Law.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:49pm EDT
Comments[0]

I was walking my dog the other night when I came across Larry Boutan sitting on a concrete wall drinking a beer. I noticed he was missing his right thumb so I asked him how he lost it. This is the story of that fateful night when a large woman started hurling canned goods at him…

Direct download: RT5-Larrys_Thumb.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 11:34pm EDT
Comments[0]

Just Molly and Me

Francis Matherne was the organist at St. Henry’s catholic church in New Orleans for 25 years. A while back he brought some of his poems over to my house so I could record them. This is a short clip from that recording session.

Direct download: RT4-Just_Molly_and_Me.mp3
Category:Poetry -- posted at: 11:27pm EDT
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Goddamn Great Drum Music

I came across this LP from 1963 that features three naked women playing bongos on the cover. It’s one of the most inexplicable recordings I’ve ever heard. Each side is a single fourteen-minute track of what appears to be two people having sex on a rusty bed while a man plays the bongos and shouts in what may or may not be a real language. I give you the final two minutes of side A.

Now that’s what I call goddamn great drum music!

Direct download: RT3-Goddamn_Great_Drum_Music.mp3
Category:Audio Smut -- posted at: 11:07pm EDT
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Broken Brain

These voice messages were left on my friend Danny’s phone by his dad. They are two of my all-time favorites. We’ll never know how the second message ends. The machine cut Danny’s dad off mid-message.

Direct download: RT2-Broken_Brain.mp3
Category:Voice Message -- posted at: 10:46pm EDT
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Faisdodo's Stomach

I was reading in bed one night when I heard a strange sound coming from the foot of my bed...

Direct download: RT1-Faisdodos_Stomach.mp3
Category:Sound -- posted at: 5:35pm EDT
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