Constantly Inspired (TOTR 420)

Originally aired on WTTU on 5-23-22, our second "origin story," going back to the early days of the show in the late 2000s.

You can listen to the audio archive here:
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/constantly-inspired-totr-420

Vampire Weekend - Campus

Dubconscious - Constantly Inspired 

Bad Brains - Peace Be Unto Thee

Yeasayer - Wait For The Summer

MGMT - Electric Feel

Puscifer - Momma Sed

Against Me! - Up the Cuts

Laura Jane Grace - Cowards Sing at Night

Amy Winehouse - Some Unholy War

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

Dirty Projectors - Rise Above

Mercury Rev - Senses on Fire

Celebration - Evergreen

Pete And The Pirates - Song for Today

Marah - Jesus in the Temple

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

Bob Mould - Walls In Time

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

The Polyphonic Spree - Watch Us Explode (Justify)

Flobots - We Are Winning

STS9 - Metameme

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals - Lifeline

Matisyahu - What I'm Fighting For

Michael Franti & Spearhead - Hey World 

Please Be Patient With Me (TOTR 419)

 

Origin Stories, part one
Aired 5/16/2022 on WTTU

Listen to the archive here: 
https://soundcloud.com/teacherontheradio/totr-419-please-be-patient-with-me

TV On The Radio - Halfway Home

Akron/Family - Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship Version)

Wilco - Please Be Patient with Me

The Raconteurs- You Don't Understand Me

The National - Fake Empire

Radiohead - Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi

Elbow - Grounds for Divorce

My Morning Jacket - Smokin From Shootin

Arcade Fire - (Antichrist Television Blues)

Tea Leaf Green - Don't Curse At The Night

The Black Angels - The Prodigal Sun

The White Stripes - Rag and Bone

The Killers - Uncle Jonny

Kings of Leon - Fans

Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation

Delta Spirit - Trashcan

The Gaslight Anthem - Miles Davis & The Cool

Plants and Animals - Faerie Dance

Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You

Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms vs Bad Arms

Bright Eyes - If the Brakeman Turns My Way

---

In the spring of 2007, I was already a few years into the full folly of my recommitment, the absolutely ridiculous & expensive vow of obsession, to the devoted spiritual practice of incessant music fandom. I would only be in my 30s for a few more months, and this midlife-crisis (my ex-wife called it my male menopause) had me by the wallet & ignited in the call to wander from show to festival to not another show, yes of course another show. 

I had no willpower over the call to rock; but I also had no willpower over other things either. It was also the season when I accepted a tenure-track job at the university where I still work, the university where the students have this radio station. 

No, I couldn’t tell you this part then but I can tell you now. In 2007, I was facing headlong (& sometimes face down) the acceleration of my alcoholism (in two years, I would finally find bottom & give up the fight to find some grace). That spring, that summer, though, the music was a balm between & inside blackouts & car wrecks & the cruel confrontation with the truth that we can avoid the truth for a really long time, with just the right distractions & denials. 

Before finding sobriety, I found a modest one-bedroom apartment that was walking distance from campus, & I could afford it. The Cookeville cost-of-living was ridiculously modest back then. Inside those walls which I covered in chaotic art (as always), I found so much new music to sustain me, even as it would also break me into parts, into the crying, sobbing, but also dancing, raging parts, for me genuine joy is also tied up in a portion of the blues. 

As I write this 15 years later, the Mercy Lounge will be closing its doors forever in a few weeks. Discovering that venue in the Aughts felt like sacred code or secret gold. One of many shows I attended there or its sister Cannery Ballroom would alter the course of my life forever. The bill was Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club, & Delta Spirit on March 24, 2007.

Accidentally & fortuitously & forever prophetically, I met a student from near Nashville, who was in the first year at Tech. Later, we would connect on, get this, MySpace. Their music fandom & mine would fuse & flower into many collaborations. We would produce concerts & Open Mics at the Backdoor Playhouse. But most importantly, during their brief stint as the program director at WTTU, they would be the impetus for Teacher On The Radio. 

They asked me to do a radio show. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to do that radio show. I still really want to do this radio show. 

Although I hadn’t fully admitted it, my marriage was failing, & I was flailing around to find myself. The curse of the seeker is that simple, sometimes saturated in sadness, but also, often, blissful or sublime: we are always searching. 

Music fandom-wise, I was rapt in discovery & wrapped in headphones & the pre-birth of the streaming service revolution that would forever alter how we listen, access to more music online had me nursing the discovery of new bands while I nursed a thousand drinks, because as I would learn later, one was too many & a thousand were not enough. Although now dry from booze, I am still addicted to new music like that!