You have all probably forgotten that once there was a podcast on this site. The podcast isn’t coming back but something very similar is! That’s right, the Rt. Rev. Fischer, like Lazarus himself, has risen from the tomb. I am now an official DJ for Brown Student Radio (BSR). They liked me enough to give me a 1.5 hour timeslot on Saturday starting at 5:30. You can listen to it streaming live or you can get after the fact at my very own archive of the show. The on air radio station is WELH Providence 88.1FM. However, you are not going to hear my show on the actual radio airwaves. This is because BSR shares their station air time with The Wheeler School, a very nice private high school in Providence. So Wheeler broadcasts from 6:00am to 7:00pm and BSR gets the rest of the time. My show inconveniently ends at 7:00, just shy of actual airtime. Hopefully, I can get a real on-air slot over the summer (who knows?). There are a lot of things that are nice about BSR compared to my former radio home WBOR Brunswick 91.1FM. It is a more tightly run ship, their website is much better, and their internet broadcast is much superior. The drawbacks are a meager 150W broadcast tower (compared to 300W at WBOR), the fact that they share the air time with the Wheeler School and a Spanish language station, and they really make you work to be a DJ (8 hours of service a month… not that bad really). However, BSR is trying to get a license for a Low Power FM station under the official call letters “WBSR.” Low Power FM stations are something that I have wanted for a long time and in my opinion would radically change the US music scene if they proliferate. For more information check out The Prometheus Radio Project and the Wikipedia article on LPFM. I am planning on generating a good rant on the FCC and its problems, corporate radio, LPFM, and various related topics, but for now just know that the Rt. Rev. Fischer is back on the air.

Tonight I was surfing around the internet trying to find something interesting to read (one of my favorite activities) while the pseudo-sweet sounds of Amunblane and the Electrocustics (Lucas & Nate playing everything under the sun on what has become a 6-guitar collection in my house) wafted through the hallways and into my office. Amazingly, something I saw made me think — a lot. I initially dismissed the title “Publisher Tests Selling by the Chapter” in my RSS feed from the Wall Street Journal. After some introspection on the idea, I came back to the article, and was disappointed by my inability to read the full article as, of course you know, WSJ requires a subscription. So I didn’t read it. Instead I’ll go on a major rant about this and many other things tie into a general theory of how we as a society consume content through technology, and offer a historical perspective on the subject. I may be very wrong about all these things, though I think it brings up a number of interesting issues that are worthy of consideration. (more…)

I wrote this incredibly long comment to shollen’s article when I woke up this morning but decided that instead I would publish it as its own entity. I like where this particular discussion is going, and if I could group them all together I would. Regardless, before you read this article you definitely need to read shollen’s below. (more…)

In preparation for The Pitchfork Music Festival there will be no Monday podcast. Before this weekend I have to move all of my stuff over to my new apartment (which is within walking distance of the festival) so I am going to take this one off. Acosta, The West Coast Informant, Dr. Hollencomium, and myself will be going for total coverage of the festival so stay tuned for pictures, sounds, reviews, and more. Also stay tuned for pre-festival coverage of Muse, The Cloud Room, and Art Brut. I will try to work out a schedule for updates that will work for everyone and maybe previews before each day. If I really decide to imperil my electronics I will try and get some recorded sounds (not music) from the show in the form of interviews etc. if I can scare up some interesting characters.

OK kids! This looks like we actually have two podcasts this week. This week we have some new music and end with an old favorite (that is clearly designed to be really grating). We start off with some music by Chromatics which is from Troubleman Unlimited Records. It turns out I was very wrong about this band. There are actually two musical groups “Chromatics” one (at the previous link) that is a female DJ the Yeti 3 Compilation. So ignore the fact that I suggest that these are the same band in the podcast. We also give you a recommendation from the folks at Luna Music in Indianapolis. Luna Music is hands down the finest record store I have ever found for indie rock and that is after spending some time looking in Boston, New York, LA and elsewhere. They now have three (!) stores in Indianapolis and have been driving the local music scene heavily in that city since 1994. They will let you listen to anything in the store and if you go to the main store (86th street on the northside) the staff has a deep and varied ability to recommend new music, which is why we play The Black Angels today on the podcast. Then we end with some throwback 50’s B-movie reel kitcsh from The Cramps. Also make sure to keep your eyes peeled here on vdov because we are going to have a lot of live music coming up. A) Art Brut in a very small venue B) Vdov interviewees and favorites The Cloud Room C) The entire Pitchfork Music Festival (which we may have a press pass for!) Stay tuned: (more…)

Well being back on schedule apparently means not being back on schedule. This is Friday’s podcast coming at you on Monday. The reason this time is that we took shollen down to get her greivous injuries checked out by “The Family Doctor” in Indianapolis. Luckily, she won’t die. Unluckily, I am a big slacker and failed to use the internet and scp to their full potential and the podcast is only now dribbling across the web into your hard drives. That being said this weeks show has some great stuff. We have some new bands from Chicago in the line up for your listening pleasure. We also have a little homage to the taste of Douglas Gilbert a microbiologist who “ups the punx” on a regular basis. Doug also may be getting the vdov writing staff a press tour of the Pitchfork Music Festival, which promises not to disappoint. Of the new bands Doug has thrown my way the two I play are Chicago based and quite nice. One is the Beard with their debut album Surgery/Embroidery and the other is excellently named Jesus and the Devil (their website loads music right away… which pisses the hell out of me). We also have some stuff thrown my way by The West Coast Informant (despite her handicap) in the form of Grand Ole Party, which has got a great throwback sound that rides a line between Joan Jett and Jefferson Airplane’s darker side. I love the bass line and the chorus “We are all going to die here.” We also have a contribution from Dr. Hollencomium in the form of Monsters Are Waiting who he saw in LA recently and they apparently do a good show. Oh yes, did I also mention new TV On The Radio. Ahhh yes. (more…)

I realize that the podcast is delayed. A lot of this has to do with the august arrival of none other than the wonderful “Matriarch of Vdov.net,” Victoria Mom. I should have gotten things rolling much earlier but only had half a podcast done before the “Week of Oregonians” commenced. This is all basically an excuse but the podcast is up and I will get have the tracklist out sometime soon now. For now be content knowing that we are all going to be tasting the sweaty, seedy, culinary underbelly of The Windy City. Sometime soon The West Coast Informant should have a live music review up from a show at the Empty Bottle. Until Monday: (more…)

Ok kids I know I missed another Friday podcast… you would think that since I actually record the Friday podcast on Thursday night that I would actually do it. However, it turns out that I am such a popular man about town that even my Thursday nights are full of beautiful people and fancy dinner dates with all manner of hours d’oueuerveus made from organic items that can only be found on the sea floor and/or the farthest reaches of the most backwater parts of Nepal and France. It is at these parties that I wax philisophical about how wretched the new favorite modern artist has become and how much I like more obscure artist A and B because they have “really held the high ground” or some other such claptrap. Such is the life of a humble Right Reverend. I was, however, able to scrape together something for this Monday. This podcast is almost exclusively live music. There are some very excellent gems in the bunch. Including stuff from earlier Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Without giving to much more away I bid you adieu (that is French for “pretentious goodbye”). Until Friday: (more…)

One last themed podcast methinks. This one is all over nostalgic reinvention of old musical styles. It may just be a perception based on increased awareness but it really seems that there are a lot of emerging (and already emerged) bands that are redoing old folk motifs in new ways. The New York Times has an article on freak folk. This means that it is now officially mainstream and it is time to jump the genre and find whatever is the new “new thing.” So let’s consider this an elegy for the genre, just to be really hipstery. I should also mention that these are not representative of th Rt. Rev. Fischer’s favorites in the genre, its just that I have played them recently and I try to avoid too much repetition. So take this list and add The Bird Names, Akron/Family, Man Man, among many others. I will admit that there is some repetition of podcast favorites like Roky Erickson and Wooden Wand, but we all have our weaknesses. Until Friday: (more…)

GADZOOKS congregants! The Rt. Rev. Fischer has not updated you as to the new podcast that you now most likely already have. The reason is one of utmost important. There is nothing more beautiful and life affirming than the holy bonds of matrimony. So when a friend of yours actually finds a woman who has the forbearance not to righteously strangle him to death in his sleep it is a cause for joyous celebration. As is the custom this celebration involved drinking copious amounts of intoxicants and trotting out every horrid and vile story of his past deeds just to remind him of the vast gap between who he is and who he has just promised to be in a very real and legally binding sense. The Rt. Rev. Fischer presided over much of this lovely ceremony with much help from The West Coast Informant who is busy corrupting the minds of impressionably cute (and adorably red headed) brains of small children. This means that this writeup was put on hold. However, you may have been able to guess from the podcast’s RSS that this is in fact an epic podcast salted with sea breeze, spiced with pungent sea grass, and punctuated with the hearty cries of grizzled mariners. That is right, the themed podcasts contiue with a nautical podcast. (more…)

I will keep this short because I want to get myself to bed. I decided that it had been far too long since I did any themed podcast so I made one. As the title suggests this one is about monsters, creatures, demons, ghosts and all other manner of unnatural abominations. I don’t have much else for you, so until Friday: (more…)

Thank the Lord, I am here just in the nick of time to help you save your everlasting souls from the unending fires of hell. The day of the Beast is upon us, 6.6.06 and I am here with my holy indie rock missive to sheild you with the healing love of our Lord. I know that many of you may have been questioning your faith in my long absence, but the responsibilities of a Reverend lie even beyond his own native parish. I have been traveling and giving witness to the good works of holy rockers such as Beck, The Flaming Lips, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, The Decemberists, and the Bird Names. Now I have returned filled with prophesy and testaments new to you, the listener. We have some The Black Angels on recommendation from the good people at Luna Music, which is still the best record store in the US. I welcome any comments or emails (rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net) that dare to claim otherwise. There is also a heavy dose of Swedish glam rock from The State of the Ark, wretched RIAA lackeys though they be. We also have a healthy dose of Roky Erickson to Cast Out All Evil from his glorious anthology. Also, we must not forget the well reviewed, new album by the Futureheads. It has a much different tone than the previous album. There are a couple other things in the mix, but I have given away too much already. Remember to prepare yourself for the onslaught of the Dark One and listen with open ears for the saving grace. Until Friday: (more…)