From June 1989 to somewhere around the end of 1990, I was a disc jockey at KBVR-FM, the alternative radio station hosted by Oregon State University.
The show I hosted (and frequently co-hosted with my good buddy Chuck Skinner) was called "The Screaming Axolotl Show," a name borrowed from an early incarnation of the BBS I ran in Corvallis.
My favorite songs to play had a certain hard-to-define quality: a certain "axolotlness." Perhaps the best way to describe this is through examples. The following examples (on the right) are songs that I have played on "The Screaming Axolotl Show," or that I would be playing if the show were going today. (Who knows, perhaps the show will be reincarnated at KCMU-FM someday.)
The songs on the left are... well... worst-case examples of non-axolotlness.
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Songs with no axolotlness whatsoever: Beck, "Loser" Changing Faces, "Stroke You Up" Elton John, "Circle of Life" Oasis, "Champagne Supernova" Primitive Radio Gods, just about anything |
Songs with axolotlness up the wazoo: Butthole Surfers, "Dust Devil" Klaus Flouride, "Bus Thru the Barrier" Laibach, "I've Got A Feeling" Ministry, "TV II" and "Lava" Negativland, "The Gun and The Bible" Pixies, "Into the White" and "Bailey's Walk" The Presidents of the United States of America, "Kick Out the Jams" Primus, "Professor Nutbutter's House of Treats" They Might Be Giants, "Dinner Bell" Tic & Toc, "Jibba Jab" Tragic Mulatto, "Whole Lotta Love" Tully Craft, "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid To Know About" |