The chances of a band getting their foot in the door are slim to none. The seemingly countless array of groups on the radio or online these days is actually just a tiny percentage of the millions of musicians, performers, and artists who ply their trade daily, sometime for free with no financial reward. The pure joy of making music is the sole motivation. Twenty-five years ago the rap and hip-hop game was totally different from what it is like today. Rap was starting to become mainstream but still hadn't broken through fully. Back in those days rap hadn't proved itself to be a safe investment-- violence at shows, janky promoters, and unstable performers kept venues away from the dollars hip-hop was generating. You could sample up to a couple of bars of music without getting hit too hard with clearance fees. There was no internet, no social media, no Napster, and cell phones were the size of bricks. MCs and DJs had to go the old-fashioned way to get their records heard: sig...

This week's podcast showcases my fascination with sampling and making mixes, specifically mash ups and compositions made from sampled content. Some of these compositions go back two decades while others were made as recently as last year. I am probably asking for it with this one, but I believe mash ups and mixes are creative endeavors unto themselves. The first cut is a simple DJ mix of an a capella vocal track and an instrumental track. Nothing original there, but using KRS-ONE's "Stop The Violence" on top of Beastie Boys' "Groove Holmes" is something you don't hear every day. The next mash up uses Fugazi's "Waiting Room" and Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice". This was one of the first mash ups I ever did, and it's my favorite. That savage Dave Grohl beat is the right template upon which to layer everything else. I have always felt that Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and The Smiths...

This week I just threw together a playlist of songs that are in my MP3 player in my vehicle. I have titled this episode "What's BJ Fornicatti Got In His MP3 Player?" As lazy as this sounds, I actually put some thought into this: dubbed as an Emergency Backup Hour in case I wasn't able to put together a real podcast, I actually took the time to make sure the songs segued properly into each other. I also had to make some changes here and there, as I ended up pillaging songs from the playlist for other hours; indeed, this backup show has been in the can for a few weeks now, and since I'm in the middle of moving house for the first time in 6 years I haven't had any time to devote to normal operating procedures. I had a few interviews fall through, mostly due to my own distracted state of mind, which is no one's fault but mine... so this is what we have today. I hope you dig the selections, speaking of which... I started out with The Gun Club's "...

I received this in my Soundcloud inbox a few days ago: Hi Bj Fornicatti, We've received a report directly from Universal Music Group that your track "MPS HR 11" contains "Family Feud" by Jay Z. As a result, your track has been removed from your profile for the time being. If you think we've made a mistake, you can tell us about it by following the link below and filing a dispute. You can file a dispute if you think the person who reported your track got it wrong - for example, because you are the copyright owner or have permission from the copyright owner(s) to post this track to SoundCloud. If you file a dispute and show us that you have all rights necessary to post this track, we will reinstate your track, no problem. In all other cases, we will need to treat this as copyright infringement and you will receive a “strike” against your account. If you receive three of these strikes, your SoundCloud account will be terminated in accordance ...

A few months ago I did a podcast from The Mousetrap in Broad Ripple that focused on the Family Jam (aka Fam Jam aka From Another Mother Jam) that happens every Wednesday evening. It's an open mic for musicians: a backline of gear and instruments provided on a stage where jammers can meet an collaborate on musical explorations. One of the many people I have met through this network of musicians and artists is a guitarist named Evan Shine, and he is my guest on the podcast this week. I know Evan and have jammed with him several times but this was the first time he and I had a chance to hang out one-on-one outside of any musical premise. He was gracious enough to meet me at a hotel restaurant/bar during a severe rainstorm, and our conversation went on for almost an hour. During the interview I learned a lot about Evan, his personal history, and his tastes in music.  I think this is the best aspect of the podcast experience: learning about other people and what motivates t...

Last week there were two milestones to acknowledge: the death of drummer extraordinaire John Blackwell Jr.; and the birthday of Beatle Ringo Starr. Both are famous percussionists with drastically different styles, and yet there is a bit of a thread that binds them due to being brothers of the skins. After whetting the palate with an audio sample of the infamous episode of What's Happenin' where Rerun bootlegs a Doobie Brothers concert, I play the song "Birthday" from The Beatles (aka The White Album) as I rant and rave about Ringo being the greatest of all time... then proceed to play "I'm The Greatest", a song fellow Beatle John Lennon wrote for Starr on his solo album Ringo in 1973. Then I give props to John Blackwell, who died a little over a year after Prince did. I played a good sample of his work a few times on this podcast but decided that the slowed-down version of "Little Red Corvette" that they performed live in Montreux wa...

Welcome to the Fourth of July edition of Mixtape Preservation Society. The only acknowledgement of this, however, comes in the form of the first song: a demo version of L.A. punk band X's tune "4th Of July". The rest of the hour is spent hanging out with DJ Greenhouse and talking about rap music in particular, all music in general. There is no real theme for the hour but we do run a few tangents and I try to play selections that relate somehow to those topics. After talking about the death of Prodigy from Mobb Deep a little more (Prodigy was a favorite of Greenhouse) we start talking about Jay-Z, which is ironic considering the interview was conducted before he dropped his 4:44 album online. I managed to get a copy of the album after the fact, and I cued up the track "Family Feud" for your listening pleasure. My verdict on the album is that, while not a masterpiece, it is very good; it seems raw, as if Jay were in a rush to get it out, or perhaps stri...