Visions of the Unexcused

episode 29 - The Punk-Post-No-Rock-Wave Mix

I found myself unexpectedly going to my roots in this episode - for reasons I still can’t discern. Growing up - like most adolescent American males, there was a period of my life where, for lack of a better word, punk rock ruled the universe. This podcast is meant to reflect that great angst fueled time. You'll hear songs from the 70’s - 80’s - 90’s - & 00’s - and hopefully you can see why they’re all part of the same family tree.

episode 28 - Top 21 Albums of 2009

episode 28 presents us with the third annual Visions of the Unexcused “Best Of the Year” podcast. This podcast has traditionally been the most fun and challenging to make. Fun because it always ends up being one of the longest casts of the year, and challenging because:

A) There seemed to be so many great albums released in 2009
B) When making a “Best Of” mix the songs aren’t necessarily going to make as much sense transition-wise from the DJ standpoint.

These songs are supposed to represent the 21 albums I personally enjoyed the most over the past year. It’s a time capsule for me to look back on years down the road, and I hope it also helps you remember some of what this sacred weird year of 2009 had to offer us. As always - thanks for listening, and may this New Year be your happiest & healthiest to date.

episode 27 - Optimism On the Edge

Simply put, Episode 26 was a highly emotional podcast to put together. While appearing upbeat, it was kind of a hopeful bummer for me. So for this cast I tackled the foe of optimism, and hopefully came out swimming, with a smile and a wink.

episode 26 - fully operational

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R.I.P. Lucille E. Hixon.

Two years ago yesterday.

Visions has been my therapy, and if you’re reading this, thanks for coming along with me.

Digital-Derek
08/20/09
10:18 AM EST

episode 25 - Flight 539 Mix

Somewhere over the middle of America. (VOE Illustration)
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This is the second episode of Visions of the Unexcused that I've created on a plane. I use it as a means to quell my fears of flying while keeping myself busy, and I have to say, I think it works pretty damn well. Last time I tried this was en route to Puerto Rico, and now I find myself somewhere over the middle of America, on my way to Chicago to not just celebrate the birth of a Nation, but also the birth of a nephew.

The flight is fairly smooth aside from what appears to be an unfortunate curse of traveling that I've acquired. You see, I'm what I'd call an athletic 6'3'' tall, and am not exactly a tiny guy. For whatever reason, when I travel I always end up having a tiny 5'2'' Asian girl sit in front of me who has to make sure that her seat is pushed all the way back. Fully reclined. Meanwhile, I have my knees at my chin and am currently typing and editing at a literal 45 degree angle. She's able to cross her legs with room to spare at least, thank God for that. Lesson of this rant, if you’re under 5’5’’ be aware who’s behind you and if you must recline, maybe meet half way, otherwise it’s just selfish.

Sigh, all that aside, I hope your fourth is a festive and safe one, see you soon.

DJ Digital-Derek
Elevation - 38,000

episode 24 - The Summer Begins

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There consistently seems to be something special about the first few weeks after Memorial Day. I understand it's supposed to be the official beginning of summer and all, I get that, however it seems to possess something a bit more then that. Maybe even teetering on the edge of magical...

So I urge you to please enjoy the freshly minted trees that are in bloom now, and maybe take a second to breathe it all in, because from looking around, these are some mighty good times to be alive.

--------------------------

In other related Visions news, I should have the audio player on the upper right finalized very shortly with all episodes, newest to oldest. Hope to see a lot of you around this summer, cheers.

*****
To subscribe:
a) have iTunes installed
b) have it open
c) click the above link
d) listen to good music
*****

episode 23 - DJ Mint Pillow

High Fidelity is the obvious inspiration for this episode, and it poses one of my top five favorite music questions of all time.

What are the best opening track songs of all time?

It’s almost an impossible question to answer, and because of this, it’s one I didn’t try to answer fully. This episode is the shortest podcast yet for Visions of the Unexcused, and for good reason. I wanted this podcast to not appear any more forced then it already may be. Mixing together numerous first tracks was a little more challenging then I expected. But it always is isn’t it?

Consider these eight songs some of my finalists, but certainly not THE finalists. Some notable songs that are finalists, but didn’t make the cut for one reason or another are (in no order):

- Gimme Shelter
- Box of Rain
- Space Oddity
- Bring Da Ruckus
- Summer Babe
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Toy in the Attic
- Liquid Swords
- All Along the Watchtower
- Whole Lotta Love

As you can see the list can span all over the place from all sorts of time periods. In the eight songs I selected I’ve managed to represent the 60’s - 70’s - 80’s - 90’s & 00’s which I think seems about right. I didn’t bend the genre in the cast too much for cohesive sake. We start of fairly aggressive, however I tried to pull it back some, to have it end on somewhat of a whisper.

CLICK HERE to subscribe to podcast, be sure to have iTunes installed

As this strange year of 2008 creeps to a close, I leave you with one final podcast for the year. For the twenty-first episode I’ll be playing 21 songs from the 21 best albums of 2008, starting at number 21 and ending at numero uno. There’s something creepy about being a slave to music, you learn this innate need to constantly create lists, and this list is every music junkies high.

The podcast is the longest yet in VOE history, and it was a damn hard one to make. Just to cut down to 21 albums became a wrenching decision. Then the rules I set forth had to be followed to the best of my ability:

• The album had to be an LP not EP
• The album had to be released in 2008 (self release does not count if released 2 months prior to 2008)
• No matter what no Deerhoof was allowed to the party. I know I’m supposed to like “Offend Maggie”, but it only offended me. This almost made the cut a few times because I felt like it was supposed to, but lets face it, this album is a puddle of horse piss.
• Once an album is committed to number in Photoshop it was then unable to move in or out of the list.
• If you release your album in December it's a bad move, you’ll never make any lists, especially mine.
• It doesn’t matter if it didn’t dawn on me that Black Mountain actually released “Into The Future” in January 2008, all other numbers were already committed to Photoshop. Seriously though, this would have EASILY been top three for me, if not better. Love it. Buy It. Live it. But yeah...I forgot about it until it was too late, shit.

The best part of these lists is that you as the listener are never going to completely agree, but you may be surprised, or best yet, you may hear something new. Either way, it should be plenty fun.

So cheers to 2008, cheers to President Elect Obama, cheers to you, & cheers to yours.

You do have to listen to the podcast to see who made the grade, but to see who missed the cut, look no further then below.

Honorable Mentions:

• The National - The Virginia E.P.
• The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
• Sun Kill Moon - April
• TV On The Radio - Dear Science
• Nada Surf - Lucky
• Clark - Turning Dragon
•  Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
• No Age - Nouns
• Iron Elbows - Words

Well here we are, celebrating the one-year anniversary of the internet version of Visions of the Unexcused, and what a fun year it’s been. To commemorate this special day I’ve put something a little different together for your listening, er, visual AND listening pleasure.

I’ve turned Visions regular audio podcast into a video podcast, and I’m hopefully showing you what a real V.J.’s can be like. It’s basically what MTV would look like if I took over, and if they actually played music. The effect of everything has a very viral feel to it because all the videos on here I’ve ripped off the internet.

I think it works in the podcast’s favor though, it gives it a gritty homemade quality that’s hard to duplicate. It’s almost like a VHS mix tape passed down among friends. Here you’ll see some all-time best performance’s, all-time last performances, and great videos mixed with the Visions of the Unexcused twist you’ve come to be accustomed to. The bands presented here aren’t too shabby either.

This past year Visions of the Unexcused has served as more of a therapy for me then anything. V.O.E. originated at my college radio station, 90.9 WONY, and I used to tape all of my shows played there. Of course the biggest fan of these show’s and tape’s was none other then my Mother. She would wear those magnetic tapes thin, and all of a sudden she’d start having conversations with me about bands like Yo La Tengo and the Soft Boys. Unreal. and beyond cool.

Her love of life never ceased to amaze me, and three months before I started up Visions of the Unexcused again, she passed away due to cancer. It was, and still is at times, a very dark time for me. Her passing hit me hard, and I found a phenomenal amount of strength and solace (as always) in music, and specifically with the process of putting these podcasts together. Her mark is throughout every episode with song choices and thoughts. She most certainly wouldn’t have liked all the songs (specifically the one’s with swear words), but either way she would have been the biggest fan of the ‘cast, that’s for sure.

So here’s to her, here’s to you, and here’s to the magic of music. I know she’s listening/watching somewhere, and I’m honored that you feel compelled to do the same. Thanks for having fun with me, and I’ll be seeing you around.

Happy Birthday, Visions of the Unexcused.

Peace & Love.

DJ Digital-Derek

episode 22 - Track One, Side One

High Fidelity is the obvious inspiration for this episode, and it poses one of my top five favorite music questions of all time.

What are the best opening track songs of all time?

It’s almost an impossible question to answer, and because of this, it’s one I didn’t try to answer fully. This episode is the shortest podcast yet for Visions of the Unexcused, and for good reason. I wanted this podcast to not appear any more forced then it already may be. Mixing together numerous first tracks was a little more challenging then I expected. But it always is isn’t it?

Consider these eight songs some of my finalists, but certainly not THE finalists. Some notable songs that are finalists, but didn’t make the cut for one reason or another are (in no order):

- Gimme Shelter
- Box of Rain
- Space Oddity
- Bring Da Ruckus
- Summer Babe
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Toy in the Attic
- Liquid Swords
- All Along the Watchtower
- Whole Lotta Love

As you can see the list can span all over the place from all sorts of time periods. In the eight songs I selected I’ve managed to represent the 60’s - 70’s - 80’s - 90’s & 00’s which I think seems about right. I didn’t bend the genre in the cast too much for cohesive sake. We start of fairly aggressive, however I tried to pull it back some, to have it end on somewhat of a whisper.

See you on the other side of the year - Episode 21 the Best of 2008

CLICK HERE to subscribe to podcast, be sure to have iTunes installed

As this strange year of 2008 creeps to a close, I leave you with one final podcast for the year. For the twenty-first episode I’ll be playing 21 songs from the 21 best albums of 2008, starting at number 21 and ending at numero uno. There’s something creepy about being a slave to music, you learn this innate need to constantly create lists, and this list is every music junkies high.

The podcast is the longest yet in VOE history, and it was a damn hard one to make. Just to cut down to 21 albums became a wrenching decision. Then the rules I set forth had to be followed to the best of my ability:

• The album had to be an LP not EP
• The album had to be released in 2008 (self release does not count if released 2 months prior to 2008)
• No matter what no Deerhoof was allowed to the party. I know I’m supposed to like “Offend Maggie”, but it only offended me. This almost made the cut a few times because I felt like it was supposed to, but lets face it, this album is a puddle of horse piss.
• Once an album is committed to number in Photoshop it was then unable to move in or out of the list.
• If you release your album in December it's a bad move, you’ll never make any lists, especially mine.
• It doesn’t matter if it didn’t dawn on me that Black Mountain actually released “Into The Future” in January 2008, all other numbers were already committed to Photoshop. Seriously though, this would have EASILY been top three for me, if not better. Love it. Buy It. Live it. But yeah...I forgot about it until it was too late, shit.

The best part of these lists is that you as the listener are never going to completely agree, but you may be surprised, or best yet, you may hear something new. Either way, it should be plenty fun.

So cheers to 2008, cheers to President Elect Obama, cheers to you, & cheers to yours.

You do have to listen to the podcast to see who made the grade, but to see who missed the cut, look no further then below.

Honorable Mentions:

• The National - The Virginia E.P.
• The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
• Sun Kill Moon - April
• TV On The Radio - Dear Science
• Nada Surf - Lucky
• Clark - Turning Dragon
•  Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
• No Age - Nouns
• Iron Elbows - Words

episode 20 - happy birthday visions of the unexcused (i got you a video)

Well here we are, celebrating the one-year anniversary of the internet version of Visions of the Unexcused, and what a fun year it’s been. To commemorate this special day I’ve put something a little different together for your listening, er, visual AND listening pleasure.

I’ve turned Visions regular audio podcast into a video podcast, and I’m hopefully showing you what a real V.J.’s can be like. It’s basically what MTV would look like if I took over, and if they actually played music. The effect of everything has a very viral feel to it because all the videos on here I’ve ripped off the internet.

I think it works in the podcast’s favor though, it gives it a gritty homemade quality that’s hard to duplicate. It’s almost like a VHS mix tape passed down among friends. Here you’ll see some all-time best performance’s, all-time last performances, and great videos mixed with the Visions of the Unexcused twist you’ve come to be accustomed to. The bands presented here aren’t too shabby either.

This past year Visions of the Unexcused has served as more of a therapy for me then anything. V.O.E. originated at my college radio station, 90.9 WONY, and I used to tape all of my shows played there. Of course the biggest fan of these show’s and tape’s was none other then my Mother. She would wear those magnetic tapes thin, and all of a sudden she’d start having conversations with me about bands like Yo La Tengo and the Soft Boys. Unreal. and beyond cool.

Her love of life never ceased to amaze me, and three months before I started up Visions of the Unexcused again, she passed away due to cancer. It was, and still is at times, a very dark time for me. Her passing hit me hard, and I found a phenomenal amount of strength and solace (as always) in music, and specifically with the process of putting these podcasts together. Her mark is throughout every episode with song choices and thoughts. She most certainly wouldn’t have liked all the songs (specifically the one’s with swear words), but either way she would have been the biggest fan of the ‘cast, that’s for sure.

So here’s to her, here’s to you, and here’s to the magic of music. I know she’s listening/watching somewhere, and I’m honored that you feel compelled to do the same. Thanks for having fun with me, and I’ll be seeing you around.

Happy Birthday, Visions of the Unexcused.

Peace & Love.

DJ Digital-Derek