Saturday, April 15, 2006

Insane and risin' in my own weird way

I’ve touched upon the concept of dayparts already and how, back in 1995 at that first station I worked at, student management spent a great effort in branding each daypart, that is, coming up with a unique, one word identifier to fully describe the feel and tone for each three hour shift of music.

Take for instance the weekday 6-9pm rock shift: the Pulse. While all the rock shifts tended to feature similar music, if not similar artists, the first three hours (the Drive - see I'm not listening when you say good-bye) skirted the line of Top 40 pop-rock. As the three hours wore on, you'd start adding in some harder elements until 6pm when the louder and harder alternative superstars took control: your Pearl Jams, your Nirvanas, and your Veruca Salts (ouch – didn’t think you’d see those three group together again, did you?).

Everclear fell into the Pulse many times over. One of the first songs I actually remember playing a lot of was one of theirs and while Santa Monica has never bothered me, I still get a sense of dreadful déjà vu whenever I hear the song. It’s as if I’m telling myself, "You know this song like the back of your hand; move on, it’s over; you’re done." Perhaps I was just over-saturated all those years ago and I haven’t moved on yet. Other songs by Art Alexakis found their way into rotation and for the most part I liked them. As long as it wasn’t Santa Monica, I guess. Sparkle and Fade was also one of the few full albums we had as well; most music came from preview discs, severely limiting other deep cuts.

I also remember that when we played an Everclear song that we were encouraged to make use of what the Program Director called "drops," essentially a 5-to-10-second vocal promotional. We had drops from the university president and other college celebrities (the football coach, the mascot, random students in the quad, and so on) as well a scant few from actual musicians – cool! Somehow or another we ended up with Art Alexakis, Craig Montoya, and Greg Eklund all saying more of less who they were and reminding listeners what station they were listening to, as that guitar riff echoed over and over and over and over and.... It was sort of cool, having big-name musicians like Everclear, Tripping Daisy and others identifying our station by name.

As for the Pulse, the name didn’t last much longer than two or three semesters. The student management team that lauded daypart branding was gone and the faculty advisor dropped all the names, claiming it fragmented the station too much. Most of these daypart designations were forgotten until I had to dredge them out of my memory. I guess I still living with those ghosts.

Oh, yeah - before he graduated, I asked the former music director how they came up with the name. It turns out he and the then program director were out discussing radio station business and one of them stopped at an ATM, itself branded with the name Pulse. There was a tiny, throbbing light on the machine that I’m told eventually meshed in the music director’s mind – and the Pulse was born.

And thus, more pointless trivia.

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Santa Monica
(Alexakis/Eklund/Montoya)
Everclear
From the album Sparkle and Fade
1995

I am still livin' with your ghost
Lonely and dreamin' of the west coast
I don't wanna be your downtime
I don't wanna be your stupid game
With my big black boots and an old suitcase
I do believe I'll find myself a new place
I don't wanna be the bad guy
I don't wanna do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just wanna see some palm trees
I will try and shake away this disease
We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die
We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die
I am still dreamin' of your face
Hungry and hollow for all the things you took away
I don't wanna be your good time
I don't wanna be your fallback crutch anymore
Walk right out into a brand new day
Insane and risin' in my own weird way
I don't wanna be the bad guy
I don't wanna do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just wanna feel some sunshine
I just wanna find some place to be alone
Yeah watch the world die