Extra Innings

By B.E. Earl

04/05/2006 10:21 PM EST

Yowza, yowza, yowza! Thought I would expand on my last Sonic Youth/Pauley Perrette post with a couple of odds and ends regarding both.

The radio station that I heard Sonic Youth on a few weeks back was something called the Radio X Underground Network here on Long Island. It can be heard on 94.7, 94.9 and 104.5 on your FM radio dial just about anywhere in Suffolk County. Unfortunately the signal is pretty weak in my hometown of Huntington, but hopefully they will correct that someday. Their tagline is “transmitting from the top of a really big tree in Ridge”. So they will never be confused with the old K-Rock. They play a healthy dose of alternative music that is currently missing from the rest of NYC/LI metropolitan area. Besides WFUV (90.7FM), it is the only radio station that I really listen to.

What I didn’t mention in my last post about hearing “Titanium Expose” on Radio X is that I had never heard it on the radio…ever! It’s the last song on Sonic Youth’s “Goo” album, and at almost seven minutes long it is not what you would call radio-friendly. The only thing I could think of was that it was on the soundtrack of Pump Up the Volume, a 1990 film featuring Christian Slater as a teenaged underground radio DJ. Then I became really sad because I knew it was on the soundtrack of that mostly forgettable film.

You see, my obscure film trivia knowledge is the biggest factor in my not leading a fuller, more important life. I’ve been known to say that the portion of the brain most people use to lead a normal life is filled with utter nonsense about movies in my brain. Anyway, back to our story.

I started to hear more references to Pump Up the Volume on this radio station on a daily basis. They play an audio clip from it between songs. “Are you listening…are you out there?” or something like that. They also played Concrete Blonde’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” which was also on the soundtrack. Maybe they feel they have a kindred spirit in the character that Christian Slater plays. Who knows?

Now, I own the soundtrack. It’s great! It’s got Ivan Neville, The Pixies, Liquid Jesus, Cowboy Junkies, Beastie Boys and Bad Brains performing with Henry Rollins! All great stuff! I just think that it is a little weird for a new and developing radio station to have a soundtrack from an obscure movie made 16 years ago on its playlist. Weird, but I love it! I may be the only person listening who loves it, and at 39 I’m probably not the demographic that they were looking for, but so be it. Talk hard! Steal the air!

As for the lovely Pauley Perrette , you can read an interview with her in the current issue of Risen magazine that is on newsstands now. That is, if you are able to find it. I went to Barnes & Noble to see if they had it, but nay…they didn’t even carry the title. Then I went to Tower Records and an extremely helpful sales clerk informed me that they carry it in the Music section and even spent five minutes or so trying to help me find it in vain. I thanked him and continued to peruse the magazine racks because I wasn’t quite sure if it was actually a Music-type magazine. Just about to give up, I found it on the bottom rack next to a Heavy Metal magazine and a video game rag.

After reading it, I’m not sure how to classify it. They feature interviews with will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, Anne Rice, Danny Trejo (how cool is that?) and Pauley Perrette. I guess you can say that they feature artists from all mediums, but there is a great focus on spiritualism and religion in each interview. Maybe I should have gleaned from the title (the sub-title is “it’s not what you think.”), but I just wasn’t sure. Either way, it is an intelligent and totally different type of magazine that strays far away from the normal interview fare. You gotta love a magazine that will ask the hard questions like “Where do you see yourself in 10,000 years?”

You can check out Risen magazine at www.risenmagazine.com, if that kind of thing floats your boat. It comes with my personal seal of approval. Yeah, I know…that and $3.60 will get you a double tall vanilla latte at Starbucks. Sigh.