Amy Ray interview

I'm interviewing Amy Ray Monday. I'm pretty excited about it. Nervous, but excited. I've been a fan of hers for almost 20 years so it's a big deal. It's a big deal for Rubyfruit Radio because it will bring more listeners and it will aid my plan for world domination.

I'm putting together the outline for the Daemon Records show and I think I'm going to do a two parter...part one will be the retrospective of Daemon and part 2 will be more about Amy. I don't want to have some crazy, big download for people and it's easier to break it into 2 chunks.

Then after that Spin comes out. Yay!

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Why women's music?

Someone asked me why I chose to do a podcast with just women. There are a lot of reasons for that.
I have always loved women's music. Something about a girl with a guitar is just plain good. That isn't saying that boys with guitars aren't good too because there are plenty of male voices in my music collection. I just tend to be drawn more to women's voices. I have a friend who prefers male voices. No biggie, just a personal preference.

When I started looking around at what kind of music podcasts were out there, there wasn't anyone out there doing what I was doing. Well, I take that back. 4 days before I did my first podcast, someone else started one too but I didn't find out about it until a lot later. Besides that, she does internet radio and podcasting is secondary. I am the only person with a podcast like this that isn't also doing internet radio. The majority of voices in podcasting are male. There is a proliferation of male voices singing songs on these podcasts with male voices touting them. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing because I have listened to a lot of kick ass podcasts that with male voices. I wanted to stand out. I'm a woman in a forum that is dominated by men. I did not want to fall into their mold.

Besides, I wanted to resurrect Rubyfruit Radio and really, it's kind of fun to say rubyfruit radio over and over again. :)

Grey's Anatomy music

I really love Grey's Anatomy. I think it is an awesome show. One thing that I think really makes it cool is the soundtrack. They play some really great music. Last week, two artists that stood out were The Weepies and Kate Havnevik. They've also played things like Rosie Thomas, Adrienne Pierce, Esthero, Brandi Carlile and a lot of other stuff too. The music always sets the tone for the show. Whoever picks the music for the show does an amazing job.

Lesbian podcasters

I've searched high and low for lesbian podcasters. There a few here and there, but none of them are doing what I'm doing, i.e. playing music (that I can find anyway). Am I really the only one out there doing this?

I know that women only make up 10% of podcasters anyway, but it seems that lesbians seem to be more advanced with technology than our straight counterparts. If so, why aren't there more of us out there?

And no, I really don't consider Madge Weinstein a lesbian podcaster. :)


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Big news for Rubyfruit Radio

2 big things have happened in the past week.
The first is that I am going to interview Amy Ray for an upcoming show. It's going to be a spotlight show for Daemon Records which she founded.

The second is that Spin magazine has said they are going to put me in the April issue as part of their Essentials Mix. That's a huge deal because to be included as one of the 12 things they think you should listen to is quite an honor. Past essentials have included bands like Radiohead and NIN. To be included with the likes of artists like that is a big deal. Huge.

Stay tuned for bigger and better things.

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Some music just plain sucks

I've been getting some interesting submissions lately.
A lot of it has been really good and will definitely get played. Some is just alright and might get played if I feel some sort of obligation...but some of the music I'm getting is just terrible.

Sometimes, the production quality is really crappy. In some instances, I will play songs that don't have the best production quality if it fits the genre (like punk or riot grrrl). I have had a lot of submissions where the artists say that it's just them in their room with their guitar and garageband to record and it it sounds good. I'm not sure what these other people are doing.

Sometimes, the song, the singer or the playing suck. Crappy voice, crappy lyrics and crappy guitar playing will not get you played. I have a hard time saying no to someone. I want to be like Simon Cowell and tell them "That was abysmal and wretched", but instead I make up excuses. I hate that part of doing this show. Rejecting someone is not any fun.

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Brandi Carlile

I went and saw Brandi Carlile 2/3 at Eddie's Attic in Decatur. The guy who opened for her was terrible. His voice was fine, but every song sounded the exact same, even the songs that had a faster tempo. I was so glad when he was done. Brandi came out and played everything from her CD plus some new songs and her rendition of Hallelujah. Her voice is amazing. She can go from singing like an angel to belting a song out. Amazing. Simple as that. Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls was there. Brandi dedicated a song to her and told her that Emily is why she picked up a guitar and started playing. It must be a pretty surreal experience to play in front of your inspiration for playing.

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