Episode 3

Episode 3 took wing from the Dark Asteroid and soared through the podosphere on October 20th at about 1:15 AM Central Daylight Time. It was the usual mix of music and reflection, with a few familiar voices and some new artists as well. Episode 3 is dedicated to Mary Lou, Connie, Susan, John, and Tommy — and those involved know why.

Following is a list of artists and titles from this episode:

Artist — (Title)

Kick the Cat — (Porno Jazz)
Amy Martin — (Raven's Wings)
BB Chung King & the Buddaheads — (Still the Rain)
Val Davis — (The Texas Sky)
Kick the Cat — (Era of the Common Man)

BB Chung King is a repeat group from last week but the others are all new this week.

Kick the Cat is a four-member fusion group from Chicago, IL. The personnel consists of Chris Clemente on Bass, Kris Myers on Drums, Chris Siebold on Lead Guitar, and Vijay Tellis-Nayak on Keyboards. They compose, produce and perform all original fusion music, which they describe as a progressive sound of jazz, funk, rock and world music. The arrangements, they say, can get hairy. They also feel that the interplay and improvisation is their strength. You can find out more at http://www.garageband.com/artist/kickthecat.

Amy Martin was born in Iowa and lives in Missoula, Montana. She has been making her living as a musician since 2000. In that time, she has released five albums and started her own independent label, Raven’s Wing Records. She was named Missoula’s Peacemaker of the Year for 2004, and has raised $10,000 for women-run health and education projects in Afghanistan through the sales of her third album, This Fall. Amy tours regularly throughout the country, and has shared the performance and the protest stage with Pete Seeger, Indigo Girls, Bruce Cockburn, Holly Near & Cris Williamson, former U.S. Senator George McGovern, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Slaid Cleaves, Lucy Kaplansky, Toshi Reagon, Cheryl Wheeler, and others. You can find out more at http://www.amymartin.org/.

Val Davis says of himself: “I am not a band, but a one man show. I sing, play and produce everything. I've been playing for 30 years. Have worked in recording studio and played a lot of live gigs in the last 30 years. Recording on my own now on a computer at home.” You can find out more at http://www.valdavis.com/.

We hope you are enjoying the shows. Please comment here or send an email to dark.asteroid@gmail.com and let us know how we’re doing!


You may click here to download this episode.

The Dark Asteriod          

Episode 2

After a week of gathering new music and new equipment, the Dark Asteroid again went into the studio. This time he was a little better prepared.

On the equipment end of things there are two new (well... new to THIS studio) University Sound US660A dynamic supercardioid microphones, and what a difference they make to the vocal quality of the recordings! There is also an Alesis Multimix USB-8 mixer for getting the mikes into the computer. In addition to doing the mixing, the Multimix has a 100-setting digital audio effects onboard processor which is a lot of fun to play with. All together, the new equipment has made a huge difference in the quality of the sound of the program.

This week, rather than concentrating on a single performer, the show moves around a bit and offers a bit more variety. Let us know how you like it!

Here’s a list of what was played, and some biographical info about the artists.

Artist — (Title)

BB Chung King & the Buddaheads — (Company Graveyard)
Jenn Watts — (Here Without You)
BB Chung King & the Buddaheads — (Every Now and Then)
Guinness Clarke’s Wine — (Artist at Heart)
Tim Hopper — (Drum Circle)
BB Chung King & the Buddaheads — (When the Blues Catch Up With You)

BB Chung King & the Buddaheads are from Burbank, CA. The Buddaheads have been together for two years with this line up. BB (Alan Mirikitani) writes all the songs and arrangments, is the guitar and vox. Lee Spath is on drums, and Johnny Griparic on bass. They own and operate their own recording studio which allows them to be very prolific with their music. They say that they have been influenced by Curtis Mayfield, BB King, and Jimi Hendrix. Find out more about them at http://buddaheads.com.

Jenn Watts is from Mission Viejo, CA. The Dark Asteroid hasn’t been able to find out much about her but really likes her voice. She has been influenced by Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow, and the McLachlan influence is very noticeable. She lists a couple of web sites but one of them is a broken link; the only working one the Dark Asteroid could find is http://www.garageband.com/artist/jenn_watts.

Guinness Clarke’s Wine comes from Huntington, WV. Rather than try to summarize, the Dark Asteroid will just reprint their own biography: “GCW's members come from a variety of musical influences. It is that diversity of musical taste that make up their unique sound, a blend of basically every genre imaginable. Jeff Ellis on lead vocals and guitar comes from the Springsteen era of songwriting. Joe Bailey, a jack of all trades (bass, mandolin, percussion, etc.), shares a love of all things metal with newcomer Daniel Johnson (drums). Adding to the massive percussion onslaught is Gregg Radcliff, a student/teacher of African dance and rhythm. Phillip Arthur James (keyboards, vocals) is the band's Beatles influence. Sharing constant lead and rhythm duties, and making up the big guitar sound that has come to define GCW, is Mitch Linville and Damon Adkins, both coming from the school of 70's rock and roll. Together, with their powers combined, they make up Guinness Clarke's Wine.” For more information, check out http://gcwband.net.

Tim Hopper is just an all-around great guy and an expert on anything percussion. If you don’t believe the Dark Asteroid, just ask the guys at Rho chapter of Theta Chi!



You may click here to download this episode.

The Dark Asteriod