Dear friends,
One of this current era’s most pressing social reckonings is the rethinking and unlearning of various gender and social roles. However, unlearning or relearning the ways we present ourselves or act is a tall task. Constructs like toxic masculinity have followed me in various ways throughout my adolescence and adulthood. I think that many of these expectations or unspoken rules of behaviors have rendered themselves invisible and have embedded themselves in unexpected ways. The best way I feel that we can combat these various social constructs is to raise our own consciousness. This may seem preachy, but I really do feel that music is the best way for us to relearn and broaden our emotional vocabulary.
In more concrete terms, I think music allows us to experience emotions and attitudes that usually feel inaccessible. Last Thursday, I played a set of punk songs which set off alarms in my own parents. My dad called me, shocked that I listened to music that was so loud and confrontational. For someone who is usually shier and more mild mannered, punk has given me a way to experience a type of outward frustration that is cathartic for socially and politically charged times like these. However, anger and rage is far from the only emotions music has opened more widely to me. Growing up, I listened to mostly classic rock from mostly male musicians. One of the most liberating experiences was getting to explore more feminine sides of music which, in turn helped me redefine and reset gender roles and expectations of masculinity. I remember the first time I listened to the wild crooning of Bjork or the artificiality of PC Music’s pop femininity. I can point to dozens of artists that have had this effect on me. Listening to music like this, and feeling its pull, subtly made me embody a different way of performing gender. It allowed me to identify with femininity in a way I probably otherwise wouldn’t in such a heteronormative environment. They caused me to rethink my own masculinity and have had a liberatory effect on me.
Masculinity isn’t the only form of social roles that oppress us. It’s just one that has been particularly top of mind for me. But, in a time where we’re all yearning for political and self improvement, I think one of the best things we can do is continue to approach our ways of experiencing the world and interacting with others from a critical lens. We’re all socialized to perform roles that pigeonhole our own emotions and our ability to process them. Hopefully, I continue to explore music that liberates me from these roles. Real Deep Radio is certainly a forum that has pushed me to listen to music I otherwise wouldn’t have. The impact of this far outstretches just finding more catchy tunes for my afternoon walk. Music is one of the most freeing and mind expanding mediums we have. It’s certainly one of the most formative and impactful for my own identity. I hope it has a liberating effect on all of you as well.
Yours,
Adam (and Kevin and Hugh)
P.S. Are you interested in producing a broadcast on Real Deep Radio? If you have an idea for one-off or recurring programming that you’d like to pitch, contact us at realdeepradio@gmail.com. Let us know your concept or give us an idea of a typical broadcast. While much of our programming is based around music, we’re open to any and all aural experiences. All we ask is that it’s real deep, none of that fake deep.
SCHEDULE
all times EST, tune in at https://mixlr.com/real_deep_radio/
Monday, 3/22
7-8PM – Only Bad Music with DJ Trash Bag
DJ Trash Bag comes bombarding you with Only Awful Arias and Truly Terrible Tunes. Expect pop to make you feel as shiny as the sun beaming down on sidewalks of bar garbage in July; techno as crisp as the first step in a bone-chilling winter's yellow snow; jazz as winding as a spring breeze mixing blooming flowers with the putrid stench of sewage treatment I present from my humble city home. As a great Sea Captain once said: Come for the freak, stay for the food.
Wednesday, 3/24
8-10PM – Nearer/Clearer with Kevin McKinney
Each installment of Nearer/Clearer will be different, but its spirit lives in the idea that we listen better when we listen together. Nearer/Clearer is devoted to approachability without predictability. This week, let’s listen together to some quieter sounds. You’re sure to hear recordings of nature and the home, careful group improvisation, melodies that grow like spring’s first flowers, etc. This is music for calm and introspection, with just enough friction to keep your ears engaged.
Friday, 3/26
8:30-10PM – Hot Wax Vol. 4 with Jon Loeb
The monthly show returns. After last month’s themed show this one promises to be cross-decade, cross-genre the only constant being that it’s in my record collection.
RECOMMENDED
HUGH: The classic glib remark about so much modern art or free music is something along the lines of “I could do that; anyone could do that; my kid could do that” (pause for collective eye roll); so then why don’t you/we/they?! The Chinese free improvisers My Bloody Sex Party take up that challenge. In the summer of 2020 this group of friends and recent middle school grads gathered in a disused office space and recorded two albums (that we’ve seen thus far)—simply titled Vol. 1 and Vol. 2—on a phone before they had to disperse to four different high schools in the fall. They captured some real lightning in a bottle with these uninhibited, occasionally tuneful, compulsively listenable freak outs. There’s a lot of string scraping and slamming, tenuous bowing, strange robotic intonings from maybe a calculator. It’s not serious, it’s deadly serious. “Story of 3 A.M.” on Vol. 2 gets me cackling with its insolently absent-minded quoting of any number of famous tracks over grating strings, sounding like the one kid in the Vans and VU & Nico shirt they got from Hot Topic who won’t get with the program at the middle school orchestra recital. It’s funny to think about all the work accomplished musicians put in to wind their way back to this kind of unselfconscious energy, to unlearn strict training, but it would be wrong to chalk this chaotic, ecstatic music purely up to the freedom of youth. After all, kids today have been contending with an exceedingly, increasingly bleak-looking future for the whole of their lives. No, this all takes real talent and ears that can hear through the bullshit. Here’s hoping there’s a Vol. 3.
ADAM: This week, I’ve explored 2 extremely divergent musical directions from the 1960’s. First off, I’ve been exploring Rhino’s enormous box set of British Invasion era pop music. So far, I really can’t get this particular jam out of my head by Australian folk pop band The Seekers. In addition, Rhino put out an outstanding compilation of 70’s power pop, a genre which I think is underappreciated. For all you Big Star heads out there, it’ll be right up your alley. In addition to this pop music, I’ve been diving into ESP Disk’s free jazz output from the late 60’s. Some gems include the criminally underrated Frank Wright, the one of a kind avant garde jazz vocalist Patty Waters and the wild spiritual adventure of the Giuseppi Logan Quartet.