The Difficult Third Show

Ha! Mostly recovered from a migraine. Brand new show tonite on Houndstooth 9p EST 6p PST. New music from Great Northern, Metric, Fever Ray, Men w/o Pants, Inward Eye plus classic Wipers & more rare Clash! That's tonite 9p EST 6p PST.

My Kingdom For An RCA cable!

I thought I appreciated the challenges & pitfalls inherent in beaming a broadcast from one man's studio to another man's garage 3000 miles away. Tonight a $15.00 RCA cable nearly torpedoed my show.

Funny thing about RCA cables. I usually have an extra or two. Had to replace one last week & one about a month before. There's precious few places you can buy one at 8:150PM. By the time I got in the car to drive there they'd be closed. It's not like you can buy one at your local convenience store.

Kurt really saved my bacon tonight.

Thanks buddy!

Tonite!

From 9PM EST/6PM PST Houndstooth Radio will air an encore presentation of my first show on the 'Tooth. I will have all new shows for the remainder of this week.

iDisk Rocks Our World

I'm in NY & Kurt's at Houndstooth's LA HQ. The sheer volume of music & production pieces we must send back & forth to make the 'Tooth work is staggering. It's a far, far cry from the days of yore when the two of us could run from my office to Kurt's production studio to the air studio in order to finish some big interview special already rolling, well in progress, on-air.

OK, sometimes it's not all that different but 3000 miles is 3000 miles. Apple's Mobile Me iDisk makes it easy and relatively fast. What a lifesaver. It's only $99/year for an account anyone w/permission can access. Between myself, Kurt, Angie C. and our various significant (and insignificant) others we intend on stretching the 60-day free trial out as far as we can.

Wish us luck. Ha!

Staring At The Ceiling

And it looks like this...

Yeah, We're Adults

Kurt & I were both off IM yesterday so we could actually get work done. A flurry of e-mails ensued. Here's a sample:

Me: I'm Against The Hives. That is all.
Kurt: lol. It's a great song. Walk idiot walk, c'mon.
Me: I'm still against them. Not nearly as good as their earlier, stupider song. Not half the band Mando is either…

Me: Tool? Next up on up The World Famous KROQ is seven straight hours of nothing but Foo Fighters.

Kurt: lol, I did it just to see what you would do...ha ha ha hahahahahahahahahah

Me: I'm against Tool too. Ha! At least this time you played the band's best song...

More Studio Pix

Lookin' more and more like a radio station every day. As you can see, more wall board has gone up.

The Garage Is Rockin'

Kurt's doing an outstanding job today. Lots o' new music and our ongoing library overhaul is starting to pay off. Now only if he'd stop being such an air hog & let me play some tunes. I think he's afraid of what I might do...

Damn. Metric's "Help I'm Alive" sounds fucking great.

Kurts' Wall of Faces

You won't see these cutting edge techniques on TLC, folks.

The Houndstooth Studio Window

Inside looking out AKA "The Window." You may notice we've run a little short of wallboard. If everybody sent us $5, we could buy more wallboard & afford a day laborer or two to finish up. Then Kurt could go back to doing what he does best. Ha!

Houndstooth HQ Studio Contruction

One of these days I'll get Kurt to write a post or two. Gotta at least get the main studio finished first. I'm bummed out I'm too far away to help. Here's a pic from the outside looking in:

Percocet Is Tasty & So Good For You

I had two teeth pulled yesterday. No worries. They were no longer welcome in my mouth. Definitely will have new nightly shows next week.

Dig This!

Wolfgang's Vault is a unique website inspired by Bill Graham (née Wolodia "Wolfgang" Grajonca) who was easily the greatest rock music promoter that ever lived. A notoriously complex individual*, Graham started out in San Francisco booking early shows with Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane & The Grateful Dead, ran the Fillmores East & West, promoted entire Stone tours, produced Live Aid (US) & Amnesty International tours one & two in the '80s.

There's a slew of vintage concerts to listen at Wolfgang's Vault featuring almost every imaginable artist. Some are for sale. Get 'em while they last. Apparently there's a lawsuit against WV's owner alledging copyright infringement.

*Back in the the day I dealt occasionally with Bill Graham Presents. Even had a friend in the office. But the closest I came to meeting Bill Graham was watching him sprint by while a bunch of us were smoking hash in the hospitality tent at Giants Stadium during the first Amnesty International Tour. It didn't seem like a good time to introduce myself. Ha!

Go Out & Shop!

Today is National Record Store Day. Times are tough so it's never been more important to support your local Mom & Pop record shop. Cash in those recyclables and head on down to a cool store and buy something!

Crash Course In Brain Surgery

Putting off my next big radio show until Monday gives Kurt & me some time to pore over our combined music libraries. It's a monumental task.

Between us we easily have 40,000 songs to consider. The goal is to fill any gaps where the Houndstooth was somehow missing either a great song from one of our/your fave albums or that great obscure gem only we can give ya.

In the past week alone Houndstooth Radio's on-air music library has increased by over 800 songs.

See You On Monday!

My trusty MacBook is having a nervous breakdown. Rather than further herniating myself to fashion a show from spit, paperclips, bong resin, caffiene & duct tape (don't laugh, Kurt & I have done it far too many times), I'll be back on Monday with a kick ass radio program.

This Is Going To Be Tight

iTunes has totally flipped out on me. Insurmountable odds and impossible tasks have never done much to deter us so stay tuned...

With Any Luck

I'll be on the air tonite 9PM EST/6PM PST @Houndstooth Radio. Found some really great stuff today.

Boston Bruce & The Garage of Doom

Against common sense and doctor's orders I just spent the morning in the garage digging through my vinyl. Now I've never painted myself in a corner tho' I have seen others do it. I was so focused on the task at hand I managed to literally box myself in!

Suddenly I was surrounded by thick walls of vinyl. I low on water & out of food. If I had any hope of doing another radio show anytime soon, I had to act. Grabbing a stack of priceless rare wax I made my move.

I squooze thru a crack between the boxes triggering an avalanche of one-by-fours. I hurdled my work table. Just as I reached for the doorknob, a giant lawn umbrella whizzed toward me javelin-like. Fortunately, it only scored a glancing blow. I was home free.

Harrison Ford has nothing on me.

Meet Tommy

Tommy is a master of mayhem chewing through everything possible. If you refuse to pay enough attention to him, he poops on the floor. Tommy does overnights on Houndstooth Radio.

I'm Hung Over

Last nite just felt right. Merci beaucoups to Kurt & Angie C. for the mad assist & to all for the kind words.

We'll be re-broadcasting Bruce McDonald Show #1 on the Houndstooth tonite at 9pm EST/12pm PST. Working on Show #2 for tomorrow. **Fingers crossed**

Now back to rebuilding my iTunes library for the second time in a week.

Wow!

That was fun. Hope I didn't sound to crappy. It seemed appropriate to play O Positive's "Up, Up, Up" as one of the final songs for my first Houndstooth Radio show. One of my major decisions as WFNX/Boston new Music Director in November, 1985 was to put O Positive's "Only Breathing" EP into heavy rotation. The other was to decide 'FNX wasn't going to play mainstream AOR or Pop radio shit anymore making WFNX the first truly 100% "alternative" station (sorry kids, but KROQ, WLIR, WHFS, etc., didn't come to this realization for almost a year or later if ever).

Wouldn't you know it but the very first time I personally played "Up, Up, Up" on the air O+'s brilliant but anal guitar player Alan Petitti called me up. "Check your turntables. You're playing our song too slow!", Al said. "Nice to meet you too, Al", I thought to myself. "Sorry I'm playing your fucking song a little too slow four more times a day than anyone else in their right fucking mind would ever do."

But Alan was absolutely right. I soon became fast friends w/O+ - the best of people. "Say Goodbye" was the final song I played on WFNX,

On The Air!

It's a beautiful thing. Loving the new Superdrag, Isobel Stewart & Mark Lanegan and Rancid. Replay@12mid/9:00PM.

I'm On Tonite At 9:00PM EST/6:00PM PST

It's my first show since I left WHTG - FM106.3 13 years ago.

It's A Little Weird

I've been waiting all day for my first show to air. Could 4:00PM EST be the magic hour?

Cheers,

B

CDs As Far As The Eye Can See

I'm beat. But building Houndtooth Radio is the most fun I've had in years.

Kurt picked up our new hard drive Friday nite. In between shifts at KROQ & a few hours off to attempt to have a personal life, he's been doing production, downloading what I've been uploading, programming Houndstooth & explaining to me how this whole silly thing works. I've been putting together my first radio show in 13 years, learning Peak software, getting comfortable w/the studio (where I nearly destroyed the console when CD player 1 died), uploading like crazy and brainstorming. We both been converting MP3s to the AAC files Live 365 requires (a total pain in the ass) & poring over the library.

My first show airs sometime tomorrow!

Time to sleep.

Cheers,

Bruce McDonald

Broadcasting to the World from One Man's Garage

My friend Kurt St. Thomas & I have a new internet radio station: Houndstooth Radio. We worked at WFNX/Boston together years ago. I was one of the folks who started that station in 1983. For a few great years Kurt & I raised hell together. Fellow ex-FNXer Angie C is a huge part of Houndstooth too.

Spent the last few days re-building the Houndstooth music library. (Thank Jeebus for iDisk & Zip files). Having done this before at a bunch of stations, and I think Kurt would agree with me, I find this a familiar time-consuming, brain-eating drill. Yet somehow I always enjoy it. It pays immediate on-air dividends. And this time we have Complete Control!

Cheers,

Bruce McDonald