South of Gilman St.
Welcome to South of Gilman St., an mp3 streaming/internet radio site dedicated to the music that put the Bay Area punk scene and the Gilman St. Project on the map. Click on the Listen link to tune-in (this may require some tweaking in your browser) or point your favorite mp3 player at http://gilman.duckpond.net:8000 and start enjoying.
And while you're listening, explore the database to find out more about the bands, albums, and songs you're listening to and even make requests. Don't forget to rate stuff you like (or dislike)!. The console is a little window that will keep you up on what's currently playing while you're exploring other parts of the site. There's even a forum where you can chat about stuff and an image gallery of flyers and album art. You can also spy on who else is visiting the site.
Want to know more about the site? Here's some info. Curious about what the Bay Area scene is like? The liner notes from the seminal Turn It Around 2x7" really captures what Gilman St. is about. For a more recent perspective, check out an interview with band-member and punk insider Jesse Luscious.
2010-07-26 - Crimpshrine Sessionography
Paul Colucci wrote in to share some extensive research he's done into the complete sessionography of Crimpshrine. He's allowed me to share that information on the Crimpshrine page and I think all you hardcore Crimpshrine fans (me included) will find it fascinating and, frankly, AWESOME.
Thanks, Paul! I can't tell you how cool it is to have that information here.
2010-06-01 - Dumb name, awesome band
Two posts in one year? I know, crazy, right? I actually came across something recently that I'm really digging, though, enough to get it up for listening here.
Like Double Dagger from my last post, Japandroids are a two piece (and make a sound way bigger than believable for two people). They're out of Vancouver and lean more toward a pop sound (if it can be called that) than Double Dagger (which I'd say has more of an art sound). I guess it goes without saying that they have a spare/minimal sound - focused I will call it.
Anyway give it a listen - Wet Hair in particular is ridiculously infectious, a pop punk sound reduced to its barest elements.
They're on Polyvinyl Records and when you order CDs from them, you get "Instant" MP3s as well - very cool.
2010-03-08 - Another year, another post
This time I actually have some new music to mention - both are recent finds for me and while neither are in the traditional Gilman sound, they have blown me away. They share a similarity in the sense that I'd lump them in the "post-punk" genre (I'm lousy about genres though, so chime in if you've got different ideas) but other than that, they are quite different bands/works.
Pidgeon hails from San Fransciso and right away you'll notice their distinctive hard/soft guy/girl sound. A friend of mine pointed out similarities to the Pixies, especially in their early years before Black Francis took over most of the singing. Another point of description is "a punk rock Asobi Seksu". Of course, I'm sure they'd gag to hear either of these comparisons, but at least they'll get you in the ballpark. Their disc Might As Well Eat Worms comes from Absolutely Kosher.
Double Dagger comes out of the other coast, from Baltimore. The trio (vocals, drums, bass - no lead guitar!) makes a huge sound, filled with hooks aplenty. More is their latest work, off Thrill Jockey records. Love it!
Anyway, as always, give it a listen and enjoy!
2009-03-03 - The First 10 Years
My mind can't fathom this, but today marks the 10th anniversary of this radio stream...
Where were you 10 years ago? I remember the origins of this idea pretty well, all things considered. I was playing around with this exciting new "Shoutcast" thing and tossed up a 100 songs or so. Back then, on my PowerComputer Macintosh system, it used to take about 30 minutes to encode a short punk song into mp3 format so it was slow going. I'd bring those into work (probably on a Zip disk!) and load them on to a WindowsNT4 test box we had, and that's what ran the stream for that first year.
I remember I couldn't even listen to my own stream at home because there were no Mac mp3 players that could stream music for the longest time. But while at work, I'd listen from my Linux workstation using xmms.
The web site came a short while later, first some static stuff for me to throw up news and planned "shows" where I would actively set a playlist, then later, as a place where I learned PHP and PostgreSQL, skills that have become a huge part of my career and now pay my bills.
There was one redesign of the site, back in a period of unemployment in 2002, but since then, very little has changed with this site, even as the world and the Internet has progressed at light speed. I've started redesigns a couple of times, but never followed them through to completion. Still, this site represents a lot to me: not just for the music, but as the soundtrack to my personal history, as a trail through my music tastes over time, as a log of my technical development, and, at the risk of sounding overly maudlin: a mirror of who I am.
Thanks for listening.
2008-10-27 - Has it really been 6 years?
If you've been following this site for more than a little while, you might know that Dillinger Four ranks as one of my favoritest bands, just behind Crimpshrine. Their last album, Situationist Comedy was just brilliant and I remember thinking that I couldn't wait until the next one.
This one took a little while - you can read the sordid details on wikipedia - but finally, after 6 years, they released Civil War this month on FatWreck. Needless to say, my hopes and expectations were sky high, probably unfairly, and on the first couple of listens, I admit to a little bit of disappointment. It sounds a little more polished (and I don't mean that in a particularly good way) and a little more pop - these tend to mark the death knell for me. But, after a few listens, I have to say it's really starting to grow on me. It's still Dillinger Four after all!