Tag Archives: music

Thoughts on “oldies” radio

Many people today probably are unfamiliar with “oldies” radio format. I enjoyed listening to it when I was in the car with my mom because it was something we could both enjoy. I couldn’t enjoy the easy listening/adult contemporary station she liked, and she hated anything loud or fast, so that made listening the modern/mainstream rock stations out of the question.

But oldies was a sweet spot we could both enjoy. The mixture of 50s rockabilly, soul, bubblegum pop and 70s AM pop sounded great together. This format has pretty much disappeared entirely from the local airwaves, and seems to be a rarity nationally as well. “Classic hits” is the new format, and it focuses primarily on 80s, with some 70s and 60s thrown in as well.

Back in 1991, the real height of the format for me anyway, there were a couple of stations playing this format and both of them focused on music from around 1954-75. Which to a certain extent is hilarious. 16 year old songs as “oldies”? Well, to somebody who was 13-14 at the time, of course they were oldies. They were older than me. How could they not be oldies? Hell, new wave songs from 10 years earlier were “oldies” to me.

Of course the real absurdity of it all is when you realize that 2007 was 16 years ago. The oldest Rural Citizens Band songs date from December 2006, which means they are now older than those 1975 songs were in 1991. Putting that aside and only looking at the pop hits of 2007, we’d need to call Kanye, Rihanna, Fall Out Boy and Arctic Monkeys “oldies” and nobody would think that.

Of course, the big difference between 1991 and now is that music hasn’t changed that much in the meantime. A song from the mid 70s sounded like an oldie in 1991, whereas now songs from 2023 and 2007 sound pretty much the same. Even punk and new wave music from the 70s doesn’t sound that different from indie rock of 2023. I can be an old scrooge and listen to the latest indie rock songs and pick out nicks from The Fall, Wire, Gang of Four, etc.

The same goes for the “classic rock” format. Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, etc will never sound right on classic rock because they’re so different than the arena rock bands of 70s. Even though Pearl Jam at times sounded like The Who or Led Zeppelin, they were far too arty to sound like a perfect ape of those bands.

In general though, there was something charming about having that division between music. Listening to oldies radio was a something far different than listening to contemporary pop and rock radio. It’s something that’s been lost.

But of course I could just be nostalgic for seemingly better times. I say seemingly better because there are plenty of painful memories from that time that I’m glad I am where I am now.

Farewell From The Lighthouse

This is the end, my only friend, the end…

I’ve taken the Abandoned Shorelines project as far as I can, and even further with this release. It is the 14th and last release entitled Farewell From The Lighthouse. It’s kind of a concept album of sorts, but not really. And all-in-all it’s just a hair short of 5 hours. Wow… Three epics tracks to close out the project because I can.

As always, it’s free to download and redistribute so as long as you credit me and leave the tags as is. And don’t be like Russian music pirates and charge people money for fuck’s sake!

farewell

We Mend Our Broken Bones

Today I released a new ambient album under the Abandoned Shorelines moniker entitled “We Mend Our Broken Bones” I worked off and on between June of 2018 and March of this year in small spurts. I think it turned out really well, though I do kind of miss having a super long epic track to close it out. Maybe next time…

Like all music I release, it’s free to download and you’re free to redistribute it online, provided you leave the tags the same and credit me.

broken

Ketchup

Hoo, more than a year without posting. Are you really surprised?

In the meantime I have released two albums:

Life in a Velvet Sky by Abandoned Shorelines

Vs cover

And its obligatory remix album

Velvet Skies Remix by XR1300

Vsr cover

Also, the Harem of Gamines site is pretty much dead and will be mothballed as is. For those who don’t know, tumblr went full puritan and banned “adult” content, which pretty much nuked half of my blog.

I was able to download the blog backup, but in their impotent wisdom, tumblr did not code the html files correctly, and the files point to the images on the tumblr server, not the local copies. Not to mention, there are no index files to speak of. As much as I enjoyed keeping that blog, I have nearly 4,600 posts and I don’t have the time to hand code everything so it looks perfectly like it did back in its glory days.

I put all of the blame on Apple for not allowing apps that access adult content on the Apple Store. If soldering RAM to their iMacs wasn’t bad enough, this is the final straw. When this iMac bites the dust, I will never buy another Apple product again. I am only one man, but if everybody protests Apple’s puritanism, maybe they will reconsider.

Lastly, the CEO from Tumblr looks like a villain straight out of Law & Order SVU. The one where the middle aged man hides in the bushes outside the elementary school boy’s locker room.

Dreams of a Lost City

Well, only 8 days late this time! I know I always forget to update something. Usually I forget to upload the Flac files, or the album artwork. Or I forget to update the Oscuridad75 web site. But I always forget to update this blog! Grrr.

The latest release from Abandoned Shorelines is an ambient remake of the XR1300 album Dream of a Lost City. The new version is called Dreams of a Lost City and it’s much better than the original version.

You can download it, along with the original version, for free.

Cover

Hmmm…

Perhaps someday I should do a concept album about the crazy cult I grew up in. It isn’t as exciting as it sounds. Anybody who is familiar with the whole “Independent Fundamentalist Baptist” scene will know all of it by heart. Of course, it seems batshit insane to normal people.

Truth is, most of my passion, anger and bitterness about the whole thing has blown over. Most of that time seems like a barely remembered dream. Or maybe somebody else’s dream.

About once a year my dad will invite me to the yearly Christmas party. I politely decline and the night of the event he’ll say something manipulative like “I missed you at the party tonight,” but that’s about as far as it goes.

Sometimes I’ll run into one of the pastors or teachers of the school/church I was forced to go to. I try to hide, but if they see me I’ll say something. They usually sneer at me like I just put a cat turd in their hand. But at least they don’t scream and rant and rave about how I’m going to Hell anymore.

Two for the price of one!

Ho ho ho, only 13 days late! It’s the perfect number, so I’m not too upset that I forgot this long.

But I released two new releases on the 13th of June. Both reimaginings of my other project’s project.

First off, The Sheltering Sand Remixed by XR1300.

Cover 18

Secondly, A Season With The Brain Police Redux by Abandoned Shorelines.

Cover

A new Abandoned Shorelines release is coming soonish. Maybe next month. Maybe August.

Because I’m lazy

I was really excited a few months ago about a new project I started that I’m calling Sarkeesian. But I’ve yet to make any new music for it. I have a song or two planned, but it’s been moth balled for a few months now and I’m finding it hard to find the energy to make it.

But have no fear, for I’m getting new ideas. The ep in question is a “pludnerphonics” experiment. But sometimes it’s not so easy to take other people’s sounds and make them sound totally different. And then find a way to make them fit together with a bunch of other sounds.

Plunderphonics is not as easy as you think! Or not as as easy as I thought, rather.