On Tuesday night, as I was driving through Massachusetts on my way to NJ, I called into VPR's 2006 Annual Music Show. I didn't expect it to become such a humorous affair but it did.
The problem started when I spoke to the screener. Here's how the conversation went:
Screener: Welcome to Switchboard. What band do you want to talk about?
Me: Yo La Tengo
Screener: What's the name of the album?
Me: I'm not afraid of you and I'll beat your ass.
Screener: Excuse me?!?!
I had never said the full title like that to someone who didn't know what it related to. I should have started my sentence with "The name of the album is "I'm Not Afraid..." but I didn't so I think she was taken back a little.
I quickly clarified that I wasn't threatening her and that was the title of the album. However, in the confusion of the moment, she wrote down the band's name as Yellow Tangles. The problem could also been the fact that I speak quickly, have a monotone voice and mumble a bit. Plus, I was on a cell phone. Regardless, the paper with Yellow Tangles was passed onto the hosts (Steve Zind & Bob Kinzel) of the show and Hoboken's finest were re-named for a few minutes.
The entire show is archived on VPR's site (along with the staff's picks and listener picks). However, I used Audacity to clip out the segment of the show with my call about Yellow Tangles. It's kind of funny to listen to.
Bob Kinzel & Steve Zind | Yo La Tengo = Yellow Tangles?
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Yellow Tangles
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4 comments:
That's funny and sad all at once. Based on your excellent and explicit description, even without saying the name of the band anyone with cursory knowledge of popular music would know what band you were talking about!
And since when can't you say "ass" on public radio? That's less offensive than calling YLT "Yellow Tangles", whatever that means.
We're liberal but a bit uptight up here. It's hard to explain. Lots of worrying about upsetting other people.
After she realized that I wasn't threatening her, that's when she said, "Well, you can't say ass on the radio." I thought it was a bit puritanical but I also didn't want to get dumped right at the beginning of my call.
hilarious. and i think the staff picks say it all why no person under 65 listens to the "music" they play.
Murph,
It is good to hear the you can take the screener from VPR, but be careful, I hear that she is a bad ass even if she can't say so on the radio. If this keeps up you may actually be able to speak to the border guard next time you travel to Montreal.
NIK
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