Category Archives: DFPR Vol. 5 (2009)

DF Pirate Radio – Cliffnotes (2009 Season)

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Cliff Notes – 2009 Season

* The latest edition to the digitalflood Pirate Radio arsenal for 2009 is a new M-Audio XSession Pro MIDI controller, which when coupled with Atomix Virtual DJ allows DJ digitalflood to mix music in real time seamlessly during live mix recorded sessions. Take a listen and see if you can hear the difference?

* Literally an hour before recording “Oi Vai, This Ain’t Kosher (Vol. 5 Episode 2)” of DF Pirate Radio, DJ digitalflood dislocated his left shoulder. DJ digitalflood had been recovering from shoulder surgery on his right shoulder and this left his collar bone imbalanced. The result is his other shoulder popped out and left DJ digitalflood in some major discomfort all of an hour before recording was to begin. Nevertheless, DJ digitalflood and Reverend Damian Baker recorded the show (albeit at a slower pace). You cannot even tell what happened and indeed this only proves the dedication the cast has to the show.

* Reverend Damian Baker is really converting to Judaism. The good Reverend has previously grown up Roman Catholic, became Methodist as a young adult, and had family who was Presbyterian. He’d spent the last few years as a Unitarian Christian before deciding to seek a Rabbi and proceed down the path of Judaism. Reverend Baker spent his early college career studying Christianity and was actively looking into becoming a Protestant Minister. That was about the time he met DJ digitalflood at SUNY Orange (circa 1996) where they were both members of the WOCC Radio Club and deejayed on the station.

* M’Weezy is really studying to become a Registered Nurse and in her second year at college. This makes her availability spotty during the course of this Pirate Radio season (Volume 5) as classes continue to intensify and take up more of her free time.

* Groucho really did get MC Mary @ The Disco! with a static shock on her butt during the recording of “The Groucho That Stole Christmas” and no– DJ digitalflood didn’t teach him how to do it.

* DJ digitalflood’s house is pretty small. It has two floors comprised of approximately 500 square feet. The first floor is where Pirate Radio is recorded during seasons four and five. The floor plan is fairly open allowing audience guests to sit in the living room and watch the radio show be recorded in the computer area. Other times guests sit over by the dining room table, which is on the other side of the recording area. The kitchen is just beyond the dining room and as pointed out by MC Mary @ The Disco! has a rather slippery waxed surface.

* Just prior to recording this season, Sheeva passed away of terminal lung cancer in the Spring of 2009. DJ digitalflood dedicated “The Beat Feast 2009 Redux (Vol. 5 Episode 3)” to her memory.

* 2009 marked ten years of digitalflood.com and 2010 marks five years of Pirate Radio (there have been six seasons, but one was only an episode long– in 2007 DJ digitalflood went on hiatus to get married and have a kid hence the one episode season). This season DJ digitalflood did a lot of reflection on his DJ and audio production experiences that lead up to this milestone. “The Slighty Unpleasant Dream After Hanukkah (Vol. 5 Episode 4)” is a nod to DJ digitalflood’s exposure to the underground goth and industrial club scene, which molded much of his remix sensibilities early on. Meanwhile the “flAnneljAm: After Dark (Vol. 5 Episode 5)” is a nod to his early deejay and radio production education during his college years. Each was important in shaping DJ digitalflood’s Pirate Radio show and arguably without those influences the show would not exist today.

* digitalflood Pirate Radio is still produced on the same computer used when the show started in 2004. Last year additional memory was added. This year the main hard drive failed and had to be replaced. Otherwise, the computer system is nearly the same as it was in 2004. Regardless of this, overall audio production quality has noticeably improved thanks to updated software production applications and additional new recording equipment, as well as, an overall improvement in production techniques used by DJ digitalflood himself.

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DF Pirate Radio – “The Groucho That Stole Christmas”

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Title: Vol. 5 Episode 6 (Click link to play) Rel: 12/29/09
Description: “The Groucho That Stole Christmas” – It was supposed to be a quiet Christmas Eve of settling down by the tree and listening to carols while sipping a nice glass of wine. Just when DJ digitalflood thought the highlight of the night would be Santa Claus stopping by to drop off presents for his family, MC Mary @ The Disco! shows up. With that the chaos begins– throw back womanizing jokes, off color humor, and outright back alley gossip ensue. It’s all down hill from there. To top things off Groucho attacks the radio broadcast and tries to steal Christmas. All the songs in Welchville cannot stop him, but when all is said and done the true meaning of Christmas is found thanks to some high pitched rodents singing about a hula hoop.

In the grand tradition of digitalflood Pirate Radios of the past, this year’s episode is no different in many ways. It’s plus sized at one hour and forty one minutes of total run time. One DJ is under the influence and one is an outright bad influence on their own. The jokes will at times make you laugh and other times make you cringe in shock. Yet, it’s bigger and better than every DF Pirate Radio Christmas show before it. We’ve freshened things up with some new Christmas tunes that will serve as a suitable background to any White Trash Christmas morning. In short, it’s the gift that keeps on giving– even when you wish it would stop. So get out your egg nog and make one last toast to old Saint Nick before the New Year comes. It’s holiday time at the Pirate Radio and no one will be nestled in bed with dreams of sugar plums dancing in their heads. But there will be mentions of Gabriella Bush and Dr. Done Get It Dot Com. As well as, some ice skating in the kitchen and Ebola for all!
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DF Pirate Radio – “flAnneljAm: After Dark”

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Title: Vol. 5 Episode 5 (Click link to play) Rel: 12/21/09
Description: “flAnneljAm: After Dark” – Back in 1996 DJ digitalflood launched his public broadcast career on SUNY Orange’s WOCC 530 AM radio station. The world was not quite ready for it. Back then DJ digitalflood went by the DJ alias of flAnnelmAn. It was a salute to his alternative grunge loving music roots. DJ digitalflood was a huge fan of the alternative and underground college music scene. He religiously wore a flannel shirt every day. His hair was ridiculously long. He didn’t buy his shirts in the mall. And he wore khakis pants long before they ever appeared in a Gap commercial. Needless to say, he did not necessarily fit into mid-90s Orange County, NY college culture. Nevertheless, his lunchtime hour long show “The flAnneljAm” became a cult favorite amongst the student body. His off kilter wit and fearless self depreciating humor made even the most musically dull student interested in what he’d say next. So while he had their attention he made sure to slowly bore into their minds by subjecting them to the hardest underground metal and hard rock.

It’s been a long time since 1996. Over a decade, if you dare count up the years. The question DJ digitalflood couldn’t let go of is– what if he had all the skills and technology of 2009 back in 1996? What would the “flAnneljAm” sound like then? Well, you could be a jerk and point out that since the flAnneljAm evolved into digitalflood Pirate Radio it’d sound exactly like every other episode of Pirate Radio, but let’s not be a douche like that. Let’s pretend that it didn’t. And if you can for one second pretend that far then you can also pretend it’s 1996 and this is the flAnneljAm… even if it’s Pirate Radio… which (yes) is one and the same… *ahem*

This episode is chalked full of alternative metal, grunge, and underground indie music from circa the early 90s. It reads like the who’s who of the scene before the scene. You may not recognize every song, but you’re sure to recognize every artist even if at that point nobody aside from the guy at the turntable knew who they were. It’s history brother man. Pure history.
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DF Pirate Radio – “The Slighty Unpleasant Dream After Hanukkah”

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Title: Vol. 5 Episode 4 (Click link to play) Rel: 12/19/09
Description: “The Slightly Unpleasant Dream After Hanukkah” – When DJ digitalflood is left to celebrate Hanukkah all alone he quickly realizes he has two big problems. First, he’s not Jewish so he has no idea what Hanukkah even is much less how to celebrate. Second, he cannot be trusted with fire since the old barn fire of 1982 still haunts his reputation. So DJ digitalflood has to resort to the only way he knows how to celebrate a cherished sacred holiday he knows nothing about– by pretending it’s Halloween and spinning the best Goth, Industrial, EBM, and IDM music out there!

Normally Pirate Radio has an annual Halloween show, but because we missed out this year on that show we’ve decided to catch up late (as usual). Enjoy this mix of music that Tim Burton would approve of all too much. The mix is an homage to the DJs of QXTs Night Club of Newark NJ. QXTs is a very popular alternative dance club dedicated to the underground industrial goth scene. DJ digitalflood spent a lot of time down there between 2004 and 2006 listening to a bunch of very talented DJs that influenced his early mixing style. You can still hear hints of this style creep into every mix session he does, but this one particularly shows his love of all things electronically created, as well as, beat driven in nature. Enjoy underground German acts, two live performances of mixes that appear on the seminal tribute album “Digitalflood: Drowns” and an original digitalflood song that appears on “Come On (It’s Not Easy)” remixed to new heights. There’s tons of other musical gems mixed in there that will keep you grooving throughout it’s total one hour and forty two minute run time (that’s like two Pirate Radio shows in one!). All this and more in one smooth “Cut Like Crack” continuous mix session. Gut Yontiff!
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DF Pirate Radio – “The 2009 Beat Feast – Redux”

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Title: Vol. 5 Episode 3 (Click link to play) Rel: 12/06/09
Description: “The 2009 Beat Feast – Redux” – We actually did a “Beat Feast” for 2009 during Episode 1 of this season (Volume 5 – 2009), but that was actually to make up for us missing doing one in Volume 4 (2008.) With that, this is the latest in our series of annual live recorded deejay mix sessions we call “The Beat Feast”, which is released around Thanksgiving each year. It’s our way of kicking off the holiday season and a nice background mixer for your weekend get together. This “Beat Feast” doesn’t let you down– there’s tons of music (new and old) and the usual hip hop heavy mix is present. You’ll find a few surprises such as an American metal band that is big in Germany and a German metal band that is big in America (figure out who’s who!) along with a couple of other classic surprises. If this doesn’t get you dancing, then nothing will! Total run time is just over an hour and half (with no commercial interruptions or spoken interludes). The live mixing is all done by DJ digitalflood and as usual he pushes the limits of what can be done with two virtual turn tables and a very real two channel mixer.This year’s “Beat Feast” is dedicated to the memory of Shiva Welch who was both the Welch family pet and a digitalflood Pirate Radio mainstay. Many of our guests met this three legged cat and were inspired by how it never held her back. She passed away earlier this year of terminal lung cancer. She is sorely missed by all who knew her, but her indomitable spirit lives on. Shiva was born sometime in 1999 (she was a stray so nobody knows her exact month of birth) and passed away in April 2009. You can hear her often referred to by radio guest during Pirate Radio shows as “Tripod”. She loved meeting new people and Pirate Radio recordings quickly became one of her favorite times to come meet those new people. She loved being petted and playing with toys. She loved hopping on the computer during radio show recordings as well. She was adopted by DJ digitalflood from a local animal shelter in 2000 and spent the rest of her life living with his family. Veterinarians were never sure if her partial right hind leg was the result of a birth defect or an injury, but it didn’t stop her from getting around at all. We miss you and love you Shiva… thank you for teaching us to never let minor disabilities hold us back from living life to its fullest.
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