Author: David Medsker

I apologize up front for all of the extra noise during my talkie bits (hopefully the music beds drowned them out). Between the daughter shooting up the stairs (only to stop dead when she saw me recording) to the cat trying to jump on the chair next to me (and missing), to my phone getting a text message, it was a banner week for live mics in the Medsker house. On any other week, I would have re-recorded all of them, but then again, the sound of the cat scrambling to climb up the chair is pretty funny to me now, so it stays.

It did not surprise me one bit that I was only able to come up with about half as many songs about boys as I was able to come up with songs about girls. We’re just not as fun, or interesting, to write about as women are, and the numbers reflect that. There will certainly be another show about girls, but this will mostly likely stand as the only song about boys, at least by name, anyway. Face it, we’re gross.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

I could put it off no longer.

I’ve been sitting on this as a show idea since I first started doing themed shows. I did a Name That Tune with this theme 10 years or so ago (excuse me while I reach for my cane), and because of that I put it off…until I had over 400 songs from which to choose for a show. So here we are.

How to divvy up 400 songs, though? I thought about doing it by decade, but ultimately chose to do it by genre because it gives me the freedom to jump from decade to decade. Also, had I broken things up by decade, the distribution would be a big bell curve peaking around 1985, and we all know it.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

I have a sheet of paper that contains all of my show ideas. There are about 20 of them. This, oddly, wasn’t one of them. This just popped into my head one morning two weeks ago. And here we are. ‘World’ songs, ‘Planet’ songs, ‘Globe’ songs, they’re all here, along with one ‘Earth’ song and a song that is none of these things, but totally belongs. 

Thank you, as always, for listening.

The idea for this show came around the same time as the Scotland show. I know that the timing of its release looks gauche, like I’m trying to capitalize on the horrific wildfires that Australia is enduring. I’m not; I’ve had a thing for Australia since I first read “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.” Then MTV happened, and I wanted to move there. Still do, sometimes.

The plan was to chill over the holidays, and not make any shows for a good six weeks. Instead, I made four.

Here’s where I take that good will I earned over the past four weeks and throw it out the window with a chill mix. Having fun yet?

This is a digital recreation of a mix tape I made in late 1995 (Maxell XL II 100, if you’re curious). Those who read my Mope Like Me column on Popdose will not be surprised to hear that four of the songs that I covered can be found here. Mixing this again, I was instantly transported back to that winter in Chicago, which was bittersweet to be sure. There are some bands here that I’ve since left behind (BNL, DMB, CTD), but it’s really nice to hear a lot of these songs after not playing some of them for decades. Decades. My god.

Thank you, as always, for listening. One more show after this and then Dizzy Heights is taking the rest of the year off. Cheers!