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Powers, 1998.

Powers was the most awesome staff writer and editor I thought we had at the Compass, community college’s campus newspaper. He was considered a true punk with his tall lanky frame, slicked-back black hair, glasses, red cheeks, and leather jacket, and skinny jeans covering up his nerdy exterior. We had punks back in Brentwood but to me they were off-limits as they looked down on our alternative circle of friends and I. Powers was more approachable and accessible as we were on the same team so I got to know him. Eventually, he offered to cut me a tape and here it is.

On a campus with nothing but unchallenging Long Island club music, Top 40 radio, and lots of their shallow follower fan-base still holding on to their high-school mentality, This was iconoclastic. This was during a time when tape-trading and mixtapes (literally) was in full-swing, all before fire-sharing and burning took over. It was also during a time when tacky hot pink cowboy hats, fake blonde hair, and clean cut pop design was put on top of a pedestal forcing to be the best. No thanks.

You have your history-written essentials by The New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders followed by The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash. More UK from Crass, Sham 69, and Subhumans U.K., and Anti-Nowhere League. Then the state’s Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and Dead Kennedys. One-timers in speed metal, goth, thrash, even garage that still connected to punk? Yes, they’re there.

It’s been years since I listened to his tape. Looking at the handwritten track-listing, I came a long way all by myself. We played “Born To Lose”, “New Rose”, “Ever Fallen In Love (You Shouldn’t Have Fallen In Love With?)”, and “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” on Omega WUSB throughout its course. We also played about more than half of these bands on this tape through our other shows and bonus Omega specials. With the wealth of ideas going on, another punk special is way past overdue and this lost tape lights up the entire matchbook. 

What happened to Powers? I haven’t seen him since we moved on from community college. All I know is he’s somewhere in Boston, who should’ve enjoyed the last three Red Sox championships and a Bruins cup. As with all friendships of that era, we just can’t stand each other. We wear each other out, dissipate, maybe a visit or heads-up or two and that’s it. Sick of each other and never to be bothered again. And I’m perfectly fine with that. 

Thanks.

Side A:

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers “Born To Lose”

Damned, The “New Rose”

Sex Pistols “Submission”

New York Dolls “Human Being”

The Ramones “Chinese Rocks”

The Clash “Janie Jones”

Eddie & The Hot Rods “Get Out Of Denver”

Dictators “Faster And Louder”

Buzzcocks, The “Ever Fallen In Love (You Shouldn’t Have Fallen In Love With?)”

Sham 69 “Borstal Breakout”

Boys “Cop Cars”

Crass “Do They Owe Us A Living?”

4 Skins “One Low For Them”

Anti-Nowhere League “I Hate People”

Exploited, The “Dogs Of War”

Real Kids “Do The Boob”

La Peste “Better Off Dead”

Side B:

Subhumans U.K. “Religious Wars”

T.S.O.L. “80 Times”

Mission Of Burma “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”

Lyres “I Wanna Help You Anne”

Undead “Nightmare”

Bad Brains “Regulator”

Suicidal Tendencies “I Want More”

Misfits, The “Last Caress”

Minor Threat “Think Again”

Descendants, The “Hope”

Dead Kennedys “Terminal Preppie”

Circle Jerks “Back Against The Wall”

Motorhead “Another Perfect Day”

Chaos U.K. “Selfish Few”

Patrick Fitzgerald “Irrelevant Battles”

Dropkick Murphys “Finnegan’s Wake”

New Bomb Turks “Minivan Wages Of Sin”

Electric Frankenstein “Get Of My Back!”

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for April 25, 2022; #305.

Public Enemy: “13th Message / Living In A Zoo”

Monie Love: “Work It Out (Boyz N’ The Hood)”

Redman: “Where Am I?”

West Coast Rap All-Stars: “We’re All In The Same Gang”

Kurious: “Walk Like A Duck”

MC Eiht: “Streiht Up Menace”

Fu-Schickens: “Sneakin’ Up On Ya’”

Large Professor & Pete Rock: “The Rap World”

Atban Klann: “Puddles Of H2O”

Outkast: “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik”

Black Sheep: “On The Wall”

Scarface: “Now I Feel Ya’”

Rappin’ 4-Tay: “A Message From Your Mind”

Kriss Kross feat. Super Cat: “Jump”

Queen Latifah: “Jersey”

Nice & Smooth: “Hip Hop Junkies”

The Roots: “The Good, The Bad, And The Desolate”

Lord Finesse: “Gameplan”

Keith Murray: “East Left”

Organized Konfusion: “Drop Bombs”

Pete Rock & CL Smooth: “Death Becomes You”

Method Man & Redman: “Da’ Rockwilder”

Total feat. The Notorious B.I.G.: “Can’t You See?”

Lords Of The Underground: “Burn Rubber”

Kool G Rap & Polo: “Brother On The Run”

Freestyle Fellowship: “Blood / Bullies Of The Block”

Mobb Deep: “Back At You”

KRS-One: “Outta Here”

Yaggfu Front: “Busted Loop”

De La Soul feat. Jungle Brothers & A Tribe Called Quest: “Buddy” RMX

King Tee: “At Your Own Risk (Old English)”

Maestro Fresh Wes: “Let Your Backbone Slide”

LL Cool J: “Jingling Baby”

Grand Daddy I.U.: “Don’t Stress Me”

Biohazard & Onyx: “Judgment Night”

Bonus quarterly golden-era hip-hop and rap plus soundtracks.

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Omega Radio for April 25, 2020; #227.

Black Tambourine “For Ex-Lovers Only (Lost Inner Ear)”

White Flag “Don’t Give It Away”

Milly “Talking Secret”

Drauve “Selling Out”

Greet Death “Do You Feel Nothing”

Fawns Of Love “Names, Names, Names”

DIIV “Taker”

Wednesday “Coyote”

Ester Drang “Endlessly”

Chasms "Until It Happens To You“

Double Grave “Sunlight”

Have A Nice Life “Destinos”

House Deposit “Sometimes, Somehow”

Jeanines “Falling Off Of My Feet Again”

Picnic “Too Fast”

Wednesday “Fate Is…”

Peel Dream Magazine “NYC Illuminati”

Girl In Red “Girls”

Lacing “92″

Beach House “Girl Of The Year”

Sunshine Boys “Infinity Girl”

Fearing “Black Sand”

Moss Jaw “Dry Remains”

Parrot Dream “Helium”

Holy Fawn “Arrows”

Shizuka “6 Gram Star (６グラムの星)“

Shoegaze, dreampop, alternative, indie, and ethereal sounds.

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Omega Radio for April 22, 2023; #349.

Cue Ball: “Record Scratch”

Bulldog HC: “Every Dog Has Its Day”

Fires & Floods: “The Siege”

Cold World: “All The Things You Said You’d Never Tell”

Method Of Doubt: “One Million Copies Sold”

One Step Closer: “From Me To You”

Crosscheck: “We Don’t Care”

Jukai: “Toll Of Influence”

Hangman: “Life Sentence”

Planet On A Chain: “Target”

End It: “Give Up / Vas A Morir”

Born Cursed: “Gods And Dogs”

Bovice: “Fatal Fury”

Clobber: “Karens, Gammons, Hippies, and Conspiracies”

Extinction A.D.: “Mastic”

Ozone: “Call The Shots”

Point Of Contact: “Disdain”

Free: “May I Be I”

One King Down: “Forever Your Enemy”

Threat 2 Society: “Web Of Deceit”

Sanction: “Every Empty World”

Gel: “Dicey”

Roundhouse: “Myopic”

Poisoned Seeds: “Dark Clouds”

Abbreviated deluxe hardcore and beatdown.

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Omega Radio for April 24, 2021; #261.

HKE: “Scorpion Queen”

DJ Die Soon & Max Kelan: “Either Stew”

Dem Hunger: “Mosque Vibrations”

Dedekind Cut: “Conversations With Angels”

Huerco S.: “Hiromi’s Theme”

All Times Now Nothing: “Mochte”

Gas: “Konigsfort 4″

Kinlaw: “Dere Ker”

Waifer: “Schoolage”

Obstacle: “After Image”

DJ Rum: “Untitled 9″

Rabit: “Black Gates”

Skee Mask: “Soundboy Ext.”

Beau Wanzer: “Don’t Eat The Ground”

Fumu: “Sonic Plaster Attack Panic”

Marcos Cabral: “Secret Air”

Drvg Cvltvre: “One Man’s Death Is Another’s Investment Opportunity”

West Norwood Cassette Library: “Get Lifted” (Karenn RMX)”

Femminielli Noir: “Exotico”

Salac: “Chain Whip”

Individual: “Battlenaut”

John Frusciante: “Amithblowl”

Covered In Sand: “Orapa (An Interview)

Electronics, drones, ambient, rhythmic noise, and voices.

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Omega Radio for April 23, 2022; #304.

Child’s Pose: “Eyes To The Right”

Fitness: “Telephone”

Freaking: “5 Star”

Laundromat: “Bug-Eyed”

Conditioner Disco Group: “No Concepts”

Gustaf: “Mine”

Editrix: “Torture”

Spiritual Mafia: “Smiles”

Splitting Image: “Mirror Lives” + “Unwilling Participant”

Dee-Parts: “Repair” + “Picture”

Unschooling: “Boo Boo Dragon”

Lie’: “Bugs”

Hideous Sun Demon: “Distractions”

Maxband: “Rural North”

Joy: “Idols Of Perversity”

FACS: “General Public”

Nightshift: “Make Kin”

Tough Age: “My Life’s A Joke And I’m Throwing It Away”

Clock Of Time: “Swallow The Feed”

Black Midi: “Of Schlagenheim”

All Hits: “Easy Killer”

Special Interest: “Nerve”

Squid: “2010”

Spread Joy: “Semantic”

Global Charming: “Celebration”

BB & The Blips: “Corrections”

Smarts: “Individuality”

Parquet Courts: “Berlin Got Blurry”

Fake Fruit: “Lying Legal Horror Lawyers”

Scrap Brain: “Limbs In The Night”

Viagra Boys: “Secret Canine Agent”

Vintage Crop: “Just My Luck”

Moontype: “Stuck On You”

Post-punk, d.i.y., and city sounds.

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Omega Radio for April 21, 2018; #160.

Versus “Circle”

Hey Colossus “Experts Toll”

Molly “Sun Sun Sun”

Slint “Good Morning, Captain”

Swirlies “Sarah Sitting”

Mira “Cayman”

Experimental Aircraft “Electric Surgery”

Single Lash “Burn”

Sebadoh “Spoiled”

Soda Lilies “Boo Forever”

Reighnbaugh “Dream”

Stars Are Insane “I Stayed Up All Night Thinking Of You” (demo)

Love Letter “With Not But A Beating Heart That Is Scared To Be Alone”

Sky Drops, The “Hang On”

Holy Motors “Heavenly Creatures”

Russian Baths “Ghost”

Deafcult “Rubix”, “Stars Collide”

Night School “Heart Beat”

Grass “Forget”

Alvvays “Undertow”

Stargazer Lilies “How We Lost”

Blueblack “Through The Field”, “Branches Broke”

Deluxe shoegaze, alternative, dreampop, and jangle.

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Omega Radio for April 21, 2021; #260.

Warren G feat. Nate Dogg: “Regulate”

Snoop Dogg: “What’s Your Name”

King Just: "No Flow On The Rodeo”

Grand Puba feat. Mary J. Blige: “Check It Out”

Rodney O & Joe Cooley: “You Don’t Hear Me Go”

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth: “Take You There”

Tim Dog: “Step To Me”

Gang Starr: “Just To Get A Rep”

Boss: “Deeper”

Frankie Cutlass: “Puerto Rico”

Lady Of Rage: “Afro Puffs”

3rd Bass: “Steppin’ To The A.M.”

MC Lyte: “Ruff Neck”

Mobb Deep: “Survival Of The Fittest”

Domino: “Sweet Potato Pie”

TLC: “Ain’t 2 Proud To Beg”

EPMD: “I’m Mad”

LL Cool J: “Going Back To Cali”

Chi-Ali: “Roadrunner”

Grand Puba: “360 Degrees (What Goes Around)” (SD50 RMX)

Jay-Z feat. Foxy Brown: “Ain’t No N*gg*’”

Naughty By Nature: “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Ghetto Bastard)”

Nine: “Any Emcee”

Organized Konfusion feat. OC & Q-Tip: “Let’s Organize”

Poor Righteous Teachers: “Rock Dis’ Funky Joint”

Beatnuts, The feat. Greg Nice: “No Escapin’ This”

Tha Alkaholiks: “Make Room”

Biz Markie: “Young Girl Bluez”

Smif & Wessun: “Onetime”

Tone Loc: “Wild Thing”

Lost Boyz: “Get Up” (RMX)

Big Daddy Kane: “The Lover In You” (Mr. Cee RMX)

Digital Underground: “No Nose Job”

Young MC: “Bust A Move”

Geto Boys: “Six Feet Deep”

Supernatural: “Buddah Blessed It”

Half-A-Mil: “Any Day Can Be Ya’ Last”

Yo-Yo: “Black Pearl”

Patra feat. Yo-Yo: “Romantic Call”

Kris Kross: “I Missed The Bus”

Salt N’ Pepa: “Shoop”

Bone Thugs N’ Harmony: “1st Of Tha’ Month”

Ed OG & Da Bulldogs: “Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto”

Arrested Development: “Revolution” (X ver.)

Bonus Omega; golden-era hip-hop and rap.

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Omega Radio for April 20, 2019; #192.

Cold Showers “Faith”

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile “Over Everything”

bed. “Guys”

Starcrawler “Let Her Be”

Stella Donnelly “Old Man”

Broken Bells “Shelter”

Shonen Knife “Dizzy”

Rose Ette “Thunder”

Better Oblivion Community Center “Don’t Know What I Was In For”

Channels “To The New Mandarins”

David Vassalotti “The Light”

Pure Bathing Culture “All Night”

Carina Frantzen “Blacklist”

Hookworms “Negative Space”

Julia Jacklin “Body”

Deerhunter “Plains”

Tongues “She Sings For Me”

Coathangers, The “F The NRA”

Girls On Grass “Down At The Bottom”

Titus Andronicus “(I Blame) Society”

Lost Under Heaven “Post Millennial Tension”

Sleaford Mods “Into The Payzone”

Fontaines D.C. “Roy’s Tune”

Teen Body “Dream”

Jenny Lewis “Heads Gonna’ Roll”

Mountain Movers, The “The Other Side Of Today”

Deluxe indie, top-shelf, standard, and other sounds.

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Omega Radio for April 17, 2013; #15.

They Might Be Giants “Put Your Hands On The Puppet Head”

Bedflowers, The “In Love With 25 People”

Ceremony “Old”

Black Tambourine “Black Car”

John Frusciante “Remain”

Savages “Flying To Berlin”

Wire “Pink Flag”

Avengers, The “Car Crash”

Throbbing Gristle “United”

Cibo Matto “Sugar Water”

Hanatarashi “My Dad Is Car”

Maurizio Bianchi “Anethesie Total”

Burning Star Core “Inside The Shadow (w. metals)”

Gary Low “I Want You”

Farah “Gay Boy”

Premier Rang “Les Corps Humides”

Professor Genius “Pegaso”

Twisted Wires “One Night At The Raw Deal”

Mike Simonetti “Third Of The Storms, The”

Sonic Youth “Halloween”

Lee Ranaldo “Notebook”

Phil Western “Bleak Night”

Deluxe rainbow broadcast.

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Dede, 2000.

I met Dede at the turn of the millennium through the channels of community college’s media wing. He wasn’t just as enthusiastic about music as I was, he was part of a two-piece synthpop outfit which I won’t mention. He stood out as he was into Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, darkwave, brit-pop, and industrial. Two out of six to me wasn’t bad and I was alien to the others, but we became quick friends along with the other writers who also were musicians themselves. Long story short: he had summer backyard parties, held performances which I (was forced to be) frequented, and even went as far as getting me a job at his pool place, simply because he was really awesome.

As an up-and-coming local musician, Dede always poured it on me to hear this, hear that, hear what he’s into at this moment, at this minute, and this lifetime. Coming from Port Jefferson, he was raised on the Music Den where they sold the best in obscure and underground titles and the town population wore their trendy shoegaze, indie, and brit-pop medals with pride and discrimination. So it was no surprise he would offer me a free mixtape because he eminated awesome. He was the ultimate tastemaker who believed he knew what’s best for everyone that came into contact with him. In other words, he was center of the universe.

Outside our time as friends, it was a heavy rotation of post-performance diner nights amidst never-ending drama with the community-college demographic. Cock-blocking by friends ensued. An interest who severely burned me and played a great game with her friends against me ended up in one of my classes. Not good. All was not lost in a still-burning hell. I kept in touch with a New Jersey girl over chat rooms during the dawn of “the internet” who sympathized with all I was going through, which was the only thing I wanted to look forward to. So it wasn’t a total flush. 

Perhaps Dede’s mixtape was one of the only few good things I have from an era of uncertainly, unease, and awkwardness. At the time I was very heavily into DHR, The Prodigy, Underworld, Autechre, and started getting into noise. Dede’s tape is a reflection of polarizing musical tastes between us; a mix of what was happening around him, his personal favorites, and how one new-wave brit-pop band endured the decades while never shaking off the Eighties tags forever with them. A mixtape where Covenant’s “Tour De Force” (1999) was his voicemail music, Apoptygma Berzerk’s “Eclipse” was played tirelessly on WUSB, and Eminem, Moby, and Robbie Williams enjoyed endless spins on radio and television.

Dede’s mixtape:

Apoptygma Berzerk “Eclipse”

Robbie Williams “Millenium”

Covenant “Tour De Force”

Wolfsheim “Lovesong”

Moby “Honey”

The Cure “Maybe Someday”

OMD “Tesla Girls”

Pet Shop Boys “Radiophonic”

Apoptygma Berzerk “Love Never Dies”

Eminem “Bad Meets Evil”

Radiohead “Karma Police”

Pet Shop Boys vs. Village People “New York City Boy”

Pet Shop Boys “The Ghost Of Myself”

[omegaremix]

25 Vinyl Records That Influenced My Vinyl Collecting Habits.

‘Top ten’ lists - they were so commonplace on social media before the pandemic that half of the people you knew participated in them. Your friends involuntarily posted lists of their top ten favorite albums, songs, movies, sports moments, video games, books, or whatever came to mind. Then they’d nominate you to do the same if you even cared. All of a sudden they stopped and for a few months everyone did tournament brackets. These days no one does either. Now, tag a band and see if they acknowledge you exist, solve a simple math problem where everyone with a Facebook diploma in mathematics are out to prove you wrong, or answer some useless questions to find out what your new gang initiation name is by removing your first and last letter and any surviving vowels.

But I don’t care about childish entry-level entertainment that everyone will forget about five minutes later. I’d watch Fox News for that. Longtime Ω+ followers know our ‘top tens’ are much more than that: they are playlists, mixtapes, end-of-year finds, and best-of decade results. That’s what I’m into. I’m into what’s important and that’s identifying with people. It’s not a contest or a be-all-end-all game of right-or-wrong. It’s all fully subjective. Without personal results, how special or unique would these lists be?

The last survey I was nominated to do was from WUSB’s Mister Edison, the station’s only cylinder aficionado in its’ 45-year history: top ten vinyl records that influenced your collecting habits. I did volunteer to do it and I was halfway there, then somehow along the way I deleted it. Now, here it is. But, instead of a top ten, we’ll do a top twenty-five because I’m compulsive and 10 is not a square number. All records shown here regardless of size, speed, color, or print run are those that have changed not only my record-collecting habits but also have shaped my musical tastes to an extent.

The record that started it all? KMFDM’s “Power” 12”. It was the very first vinyl record I bought with my own money, just mere months after purchasing most of its discography in one shot at my local record store. I ordered it from the TVT / Wax Trax mail order - my very first mail-order to be exact - numbered to 3,000 copies as a single-sided etched vinyl record in a clear plastic silk-screened jacket. That also came with Underworld’s “Rowla”. Shizuo’s High On Emotion e.p. was my third. Found at what was Port Jefferson’s Music Den, that’s a record I had to have at first sight because I knew it was extremely rare. Glad I made the right call because I never saw it again. Even though I didn’t have a turntable, I bought them anyway thinking I could hold on to them until I finally got my hands on one. Turned out my ma’ and dad had one: a wooden box smaller than the records it played. It literally had no sound and was deemed almost unplayable, so a close “friend” of mine gave me his father’s 1972 Panasonic and a copy of Autechre’s We Are R Y 12”. I was now in business.

From there, another one-time pressing of theirs, the “Keynell” e.p., introduced me to the panic of now-or-never buying. Booth & Brown collectors know how insanely rare their limited edition e.p.’s are and also how they and Warp divided up their Cichlisuite and Envane e.p.’s in two parts. And that was nothing to when Aphex Twin released not one, not two, but eleven e.p.’s as the Analord series through his Rephlex label. Ten regular platters and two versions of Analord 10: either you got the Aphex logo picture disc or, if you were really lucky (we mean that in a literal sense), one that came with the Analord binder which is fetching impossible prices right now. Some of them even came with the mythical Analogue Bubblebath 5. We’re just happy to have purchased all eleven editions for regular price when they first came out. Amazingly in that same year, I did my first-ever label run and purchased $300.00 worth of vinyl and disc releases from DHR.

The first hardcore record I got my hands on - Kill Your Idols’ This Is Just The Beginning - was also the very first music purchase I made at any show. Three years after one of my close friends introduced me to Sick Of It All and hardcore / punk in general, This Is Just The Beginning flung the doors wide open for crushing similar-styled tough-guy finds. Most Long Island record stores sold them when they came in, and places like Hicksville and Centereach’s Utopia (when they did sell them) offered many easy one / two / three-dollar bargain bin purchases of many 7” records, 45’s, and 12” LPS. The Howards & Checkerboard Charlie split is one example of that and one of many local acts I possess. Jemini The Gifted One’s “Funk Soul Sensation” is the only hip-hop record on the list. Ten years ago I re-discovered golden-era hip-hop and realized there was a treasure trove of white-label and 12” singles I never heard of from that time. Those hip-hop / rap singles can be found on the cheap in the same manner as those discount hardcore records. I’ll be on a life-time hunt for them as at this point I don’t have enough of them.

It’s no surprise to see that more than half of this list is made up of Seventies’ jazz / fusion records. If not for Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Astral Traveling, I would not have the size of vinyl library I have now. One of our former hip-hop dee-jays at the station played “Expansions”, “Aspirations”, and “Colors Of The Rainbow” and those three cuts literally changed my life. It opened up an avenue for me to re-discover who I was and revisit a certain era of time I missed out on. From that point on, it was all about that era’s sounds, sampling, and personal favorites. John Tropea’s A Short Trip To Space, Les McCann’s Music Lets Me Be, and Roy Ayers’ A Tear To A Smile - those three records define my final years at Stony Brook. Phil Upchurch’s 1979 solo outing, Stuff’s self-titled debut, Emily Remler’s Firefly, Steve Khan’s The Blue Man, Ramsey Lewis’ Tequila Mockingbird, Eric Gale’s Multiplication, and Ronnie Laws’ Pressure Sensitive tie me in and keep me connected to those years.

Karla Bonoff’s Restless Nights and Urbie Green’s The Fox influenced my collection in an amusing way. I had no idea who both artists were until I pulled them out of the bins. What had me purchase them? I bought Restless Nights and The Fox solely based on the year of release (1979 and 1976 respectively). One listen of each and I knew I made two right calls.

Remember when we posted our entry about our close friend Syke who rescued a pile of old records from being thrown out to the curb? Of the 500+ he found, he gave us 50 and we still have most of them. We selected Pete Shelley’s “Telephone Operator” as a reminder of that free giveaway.

I could list both volumes of the original Dirty Dancing motion picture soundtrack which my ma’ had, her only surviving childhood vinyl record of Disney’s Cinderella, or The Pac-Man Album 12″ picture disc written by Patrick McBride and Dana Walden. But those three mentions aren’t influential; just early Atari-youth memories. My first-ever childhood memories I still remember (not photographed) are also vinyl-related: J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” and The Cars’ “Shake It Up”; the latter which I have in my possession and are the markers of all classic rock records I own around that era. (Think Dire Straits and Donald Fagan’s The Nightfly to name a few.)

Another Atari-youth moment I remember is The Chambers Brothers’ A New Time, A New Day. My dad cut out the album sleeve and used it as a paper holder in our garage. That very record made me think of whatever few platters I remember him having before he sold his entire vinyl library and our library of Atari 2600 games…for a paltry $50.00. “He needed the money” he told me; which is always a pathetic man’s answer to everything. Had he’d seen how enthusiastic I was into music collecting, he would’ve handed his entire collection to me. Roberta Flack’s Quiet Fire, Kiss’ Rock & Roll Over, and The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers and Their Satanic Majesties Request were the four in his collection he parted with and I have three of them, not including The Chambers Brothers release. He tried to make it up to me, however, by bringing home two separate piles of records he rescued from the curb. One heap was full of polka records which I donated to WUSB’s resident polka lady before she died the same year. The other heap? Since you didn’t ask: loads of classic hippie rock records, showtunes, and celebrity albums. Jim Nabors on wax? Stop before I deactivate this account.

Finally, Boulders’ Rock & Roll Will Never Die. Look it up and you’ll see it’s a near total obscurity only confined to hipster circles who know what’s up. A five-track Wharf Records release picked up for less than $3.00 is the one 12" that may as well get me into the Discogs purchasing game for all rare releases (not found in stores) I’ve been looking for in the past seven years. I’ve played many of them on Omega WUSBand soon after bought a substantial chunk of their discographies in one shot (three Happy Meals / Free Love LP’s and three Black Marble discs, for example). As a nice side effect, it’ll be the the same for cassettes as well such as Believer/Law’s Matters Of Life And Death and JS Aurelius’ Machines Water The Plants Now - if the seller’s price is right, that is.

Notice how we went from KMFDM to Boulders? You can’t get any more disparate in styles and worlds between the two. The first purchases, public library finds, donations, record fairs, mail orders, samples, jazz-fusion and soul, hardcore and hip-hop buy-outs, record-store victory tours, and many other moments I might have missed…that’s 25 years of buying vinyl records spanning many different collecting eras and genres for me. That’s only one format, and also not counting acquiring music by other means such as radio and downloads which also shaped my collection. The bingo board jumble you see is only a tiny pinch of my musical tastes and not the whole story of my listening habits that’s usually broadcast on Omega WUSB or always posted here on Ω+.

After making this list, I’m reminded that I’m the most diverse person I know. I’m proud that my low-lying threshold for accepting and liking sound and concept allowed me to make that diversity into a science and have that mind-blowing knowledge I have of it. I’m as consistent, thorough, and far-reaching as I possibly can while hitting as many targets as possible. Would there be more bingo boards like this? Only if I make sure of it.

Phil Upchurch: self-titled

Lonnie Liston Smith: Astral Traveling

Karla Bonoff: Restless Nights

Steve Khan: The Blue Man

Chambers Brothers: A New Time, A New Day

Emily Remler: Firefly

Boulders: Rock And Roll Will Never Die

KMFDM: “Power”

John Tropea: A Short Trip To Space

Les McCann: Music Let’s Me Be

Shizuo: High On Emotion

J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”

Aphex Twin: Analord 10 picture disc

Jemini The Gifted One: “Funk Soul Sensation”

Roy Ayers: A Tear To A Smile

Ramsey Lewis: Tequila Mockingbird

Pete Shelley: “Telephone Operator”

Autechre: “Keynell”

Kill Your Idols: This Is Just The Beginning

The Cars: Shake It Up

Ronnie Laws: Pressure Sensitive

Stuff: Stuff

Eric Gale: Multiplication

Urbie Green: The Fox

Checkerboard Charlie b/w The Howards split

[omegaremix]

MRKE, 2021.

It’s April. To me, I feel that nothing’s changed. By now I know that all of my favorite businesses to patronize stayed open. Not one record store on the island shuttered. So far, I was proud of myself to visit Williamsburg’s Rough Trade before their relocation this summer. It was the best $417.00 I ever spent. A pinball parlor opened up at my former local mall to my total surprise. It’s something that Long Island never had before. For eight hours and $25.00 I had more than my money’s worth. It’s safe to say that most of the money is coming back again, even if the third stimulus has no face or feelings of how people either benefit or still suffering. Businesses re-opened after New York State’s mandated closures, like my local ticket arcade where I benefit from buy-twenty-get-twenty specials and half-off games on Wednesdays so I’m relieved. It’s been years since I went and I’m long overdue for a night out of a real life 2021 version of The Price Is Right.

My friend M-Ro, brother of archivist and WUSB’s J-Ro, had been out of a job since the cinema-house closed down. He’s done nothing but stay home with his four kids watching infinite amounts of Disney, long-forgotten sitcoms, and other cringy obscurities. Not long ago, he started working again with a friend who later changed career paths and decided to open Pickle Island, a pickle house in Oyster Bay. He offered M-Ro to help run the place and Pickle Island is now a two-man operation.

I hate pickles. I think they’re disgusting, unappetizing, and revolting, They’re an unattractive food to me. I’d never have a reason to buy them ever, ergo be near a pickle house. But when your friend sells part of their CD and video collections there, then you do have a reason to go. I always support my friends with what they do. Snakeskin belts, local shows, photography books, or new ventures. You sell it, I buy it. I haven’t seen M-Ro since one of his final live performances of This’ll Kill Ya’ for his bro-’s bornday at a crowded bar in Hauppauge, so it’s about time I do.

I traveled west on the Long Island Expressway / Rt. 495 and drove past Exit 46, Sunnyside Blvd. / Plainview, where a once-astonishing world of fresh faces and memories that opened up my junior year was an era long dead. Then up north on Rt. 106 / 107. The last time I traveled down that path was when I worked at the Jewish center post-senior year. I got the girl, a Dutch caramel blonde, and also got the job through her father; a mean, threatening, over-protective scumbag who had me on his shit-list for two summer months because I was dating his daughter. I drive up Rt. 106 / Oyster Bay Rd.’s silent, wide-open, grassy roads riding past the stables and million-dollar houses on hills. View the scenic picturesque neighborhoods and one would think how Nassau County sits at the top ten highest-taxed neighborhoods in the entire U.S. Go up North Shore Rd. and see an amazing grandiose view of the harbor’s massive body of water as you coast over the Bayville Bridge and slide into the parking lot across from Pickle Island. I see M-Ro through the storefront, sitting on the couch minding his own as I walk in. He sees me walking towards and waves hello as I come in.

I unintentionally give him a friendly good-to-see-ya’-again hug. Oops. I realized you’re not supposed to do that in a pandemic world. But it’s two weeks after the fact and we’re still alive. After a few lines of conversation, I said to him that it’d be quick and he knows.

I’m not here for the pickles. I’m here to see what CDs he’s selling. It’s already cramped quarters. A Ms. Pac-Man cocktail cabinet sits behind the front window. There’s a few racks of issues of Captain America, Green Lantern, and Wolverine. Another rack of VHS tapes and a shelf of DVDs and Blu-rays. Then the CDs. They’re from his collection. Some duplicates and others he didn’t care about parting, he says. Eight rows or sixteen shelves of discs in total which would take me no more than ten to fifteen minutes to scan…and some neck pain from having to see it all sideways because that’s how he placed them, you  Tetris artist. I’m already positioned in blocking the owner from going behind the front counter. And an all-too-nice suburbanite family of three just walked in; a father and his two kid who are all so fine and dandy to be there. As if they never experienced a bad day or tragedy in their white-winged innocent lives. Nice to know that Dad Of The Year never looked in my direction and wondered why a stranger is twisting over by the shelves.

Seeing his partial stash, M-Ro was never one to shy away from pop. Jewel, Head Automatica, Pretty Girls Make Graves, some pop-punk, first and third-wave ska, Warped Tour bands…no judgment here. Because he’s a solo artist who goes by The Matt Roren Karaoke Experience doing covers and music videos of various popular chart-topping hits. Before that, he was also part of the legendary local pop-punk / ska band The Microwave Orphans and after that the garage-punk outfit The Repercussions which I ended up getting two CDs of. Don’t Fear…and Modern Sounds were the two most expensive discs I bought at $7.00 and $10.00 respectively, still sealed. Come on. You have to support your friends.

As with any receipt, there’s plenty of firsts. This one, however, had the majority of them. Veruca Salt, Faith No More, and The Posies were bands that my alternative circles of friends from both Brentwood and Plainview were into. A low price point allows me to have them now for the first time. Stabbing Westward, as it’s industrial rock, is in my hands. The Presidents Of The United States Of America? Yes. They wrote that song about peaches so that’s valid. Why not get The Stooges first album with a second disc of live material? And being I have their second album, why not get the first from The Specials? It’s one of the very select few ska bands I’ll allow in my collection. None of that too-important elitist third-wave carnival music. I don’t think I have Phil Collins’ But Seriously, and he was someone I listened to feverishly during my Nintendo youth. And Richard Marx? None of you know who he is and if you did you wouldn’t dare mention his name. But I will. My ma’ loved him and once had the cassette. So both middle digits flying high to you all.

As M-Ro counted up the tab, I look to my right and there it was: a Sony Watchman. It’s the third one in two months I seen. My interest in them started when during my Saturday shift, one of my favorite customers, a young 20-ish redhead with glasses asked me for a power bank. On my way of showing them to her, she mentioned about buying some more accessories for her Watchman. I’m not much of a movie person so that kind of flew over me until she showed me an actual Sony Watchman handheld TV. She took it out of the box and turned it on for me. I almost dropped dead in front of her. I read about these things all the time but never saw one in the wild. Now here it was. She recently bought one at Savers for only $4.00 and bought an analog-to-digital converter from us to try and stream it to her flat-screen TV. She even went a step further and told me the manufacture date on it: 1985. The fact that it was her holding obsolete antiquated technology in her hands and was still in working condition made my entire month for me. I told this story to my friends at the radio station and our resident fantasy aficionado Captain Phil offered to send me one from his eBay store, which I’m now a proud owner. Pickle Island had a larger unit sitting on its counter showing a random movie and I’m wondering if some talking head, celebrity, influencer, or magic cartoon kangaroo on Instagram recently touted them for everyone to grab.

This one-and-done expedition was just as quick as when I visited Rosie’s Vintage three years ago, but not the least expensive. $62.00 later, I was the proud owner of a piece of M-Ro’s life. Not a gift, but a purchase. Being Pickle Island is not a legitimate music store by any means, it doesn’t count towards my record-store victory tour. I thanked M-Ro profusely for my patronage and told him to stay in touch which he would. It’s now time to reverse the drive home under partly cloudy blue skies with a playlist of past Springtime discoveries as the evening’s soundtrack. I’ll get to experience the harbor one more time and get an idea of where to take a scenic shoot in the near future. I’m not taking the L.I.E. this time as it’s cramped with traffic but this time the Northern State to Rt. 25, Rt. 345, and Rt. 454 all the way through. I’ll log on to social media for all of my friends and allies at WUSB to hear about because I never shut up about what I bought. I need the assurance and affirmation from everyone which I bought with my money today and, so far so good, it’s favorable. Then I see this posted under my purchase:

“You’re lucky I left some stuff for you.” said his brother J-Ro.

You don’t say! I had no idea some of his collection was mixed in for sale with his brother’s. So which ones, exactly? Unlike his offering, the stuff I left for him from my collection was totally free and not out of pocket. Take that to the bank and cash it in.

Repercussions, The: Don’t Fear…

Stabbing Westward: Wither Blister Burn + Peel

Stooges, The: self-titled

Veruca Salt: American Thighs

Phil Collins: But Seriously

Faith No More: Songs To Make Love To

Lacuna Coil: Karmacode

Richard Marx: Repeat Offender

Posies, The: Frosting On The Beater

Specials, The: self-titled

Presidents Of The United States Of America, The: self-titled

Raveonettes, The: Whip It On

Faith No More: Angel Dust

Repercussions, The: Modern Sounds

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for April 12, 2014; #51.

Football Rabbit “Polished Arrow”

Will Haven “Caviar With Maths”

These Arms Are Snakes “Payday Loans”

Young Widows “Delay Your Pressure”

KEN Mode “Hammer Party”

Harkonen “Baristas Get Stalked”

Brainbombs “Filthy Fuck”

White Widows “Slow Burn”

Breather Resist “Mirrorfucker”

Made Out Of Babies “Orefire”

Slughog “100 Gloves”

Cleanteeth “Can’t Stop ‘Til The Casket Drops”

Rusted Shut “A Night In Hell”

Abbreviated deluxe doom, noise rock, and metalcore.

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for April 11, 2015; #81.

Happy Meals “Crystal Salutations”

Grizzly Bear “Knife” (CSS RMX)

Four Tet “This Unfolds”

Gunner Haslam “Aisepos”

Rainbow Arabia “Hai”

Former Ghosts “The Bull And The Ram”

18+ “OIXU”

Lapalux “Quartz”

Thom Yorke “Atoms For Peace” (Four Tet RMX)

Levon Vincent “For Mona, My Beloved Cat: Rest In Peace”

Blackedout “Vessel”

Levon Vincent “The Beginning”

Hudson Mohawke “Tell Me What You Want From Me”

Vapauteen “Basilisk”

Spaces “Assembly”

Ye Olde Maids “In The Palm Of God’s Hands”

Sandra Electronics “Clean Air”

Daywalker & CF “You Only Live Once”

TD Cruze “Liar Liar, Industry Plants For Hire”

Black Sites “n313p”

Grimes f. Black Diamonds “Go”

Dalhous “Eros, Love And Lies”

Holly Herndon “Interference”

Gateway Drugs “Night Swimming”

Dinner “Going Out”

Ex Cops “White Noise”

Rockwell “Childhood Memories”

Run The Jewels f. Zach De La Rocka “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)”

Soosh “Rainbow Hiccups” (Lapalux RMX)

Shlohmo “Beams”

Death Grips “Inanimate Sensation”

Deluxe electronics.

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for April 11, 2020; #226.

The Districts “Cheap Regrets”

Squid “Cleaner”

Vivian Girls “Something To Do”

Heavy Lungs “Blood Brother”

Don’t Try “Melancholy Chapters”

Jehnny Beth “I’m The Man”

Pom Pom Squad “Heavy Heavy”

Dahlia Sleeps “Settle Down”

Snarls “Walk In The Worlds”

The City Gates “Checkpoint Charlie”

Tempers “Undoing”

Kewl “Glamour Muscles”

Future Islands “Day Glow Fire”

Algiers “Dispossession”

Georgia Maq “Away From Love”

Shana Falana “Darkest Light”

Blackwater Holylight “Death Realms”

Soviet Soviet “Ecstasy”

Gentle Heat “A Lure”

Fawns Of Love “December”

Chasms “Shadow”

Stardeath And White Dwarves “What Keeps You Up At Night”

Penelope Isles “Round”

Crumb “Ghostride”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Diamond Sea”

Khruangbin “Friday Morning”

Kate Tempest “People’s Faces”

Pre-Easter broadcast; all indie and top shelf sounds.

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for April 10, 2021; #259.

Tempers: “Capital Pains”

Jade Imagine: “Remote Control”

Day, The: “We Killed Our Hearts”

Hearken: “Fix Me”

Illuminati Hotties: “Will I Get Cancelled…”

Coathangers: “Wife Eyes”

Sleaford Mods: “Mork N’ Mindy”

Parrot Dream: “Ode To Octavia”

Helena Deland: “Pale”

Sugar High: “Alone”

Wye Oak: “Fortune”

Creative Adult: “Heal”

Lost Under Heaven: “Alpha Omega”

Bully: “Turn To Hate (Orville Peck)”

Criminal World, The: “Blood Money”

Iceage: “The Holding Hand”

Acid Dad: “RC Driver”

FACS: “Strawberry Cough”

Melenas: “Ya No Me Importa”

Goat Girl: “Sad Cowboy”

Turnover: “Hello Euphoria”

Dehd: “Month”

Adult Books: “Grecian Urn”

Nrcssst: “Sinking”

Have A Nice Life: “Sea Of Worry”

Bad Waitress: “Pre Post-Period Blues”

Idles: “Peace Signs”

Avalanches, The feat. MGMT + Johnny Marr: “The Divine Chord”

New, current, and relevant indie.