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 "...