The Waiting Room

Good? Good.

This week’s offalling (ErrorFM, 10pm BST) is an experiment in a little bit of shushie, in that one half of (who is currently lazing his arse off over in that Canadaland for a few days) has spliced together a playlist of nothing but Instrumental (with the emphasis on mental) musics for eager ears. There’s little or no augmentation via hummings, whistlings, oohings or aahings (i.e. harmonizations with a lady mouth) so you’re going to have to make up your own lyrics for this one. On top of all that, one half of ne’er ever spaketh many wordage throughout the whole of the dangtastic thing. Yes, you read correct; he makes good on countless previous promises & remains mostly schtumn It’s a fecking miracle is what it is.

Consider it a soundtrack for unwinding, wherever said unwinding may be required, then, with little interruption from the clattered mouth nasty boy.

One small note afore we leave you to the loveliness, one half of’s laptop died on him last week, whilst in the USof (where he was supposed to pre-record & file this week’s show for broadcast), & so it was all a bit of a scramble to (a) recover the hard drive from said dead laptop, (b) make sure the data recovered from said dead laptop contained all the tracks destined for said pre-record, (c) buy a new lap-based computer (with, puke, Vista - fecking nasty ‘new’ Vista - horrid, horrid, horrid) in a decent financial zone, (d) download all the required recording software, etc. (e) pre-record said broadcast, hoping that Vista doesn’t piss about with the thing too much (it DID, & crashed half way through transferring the completed show from .wav format to hi-br MP3, the bastard), & (f) get the show filed with ErrorFM in time for the broadcast (it was & is).

Jesus. So much for having fun.

Enjoy this, then, because it took a freak of a time to eventually birth.

Ta-Ta, then.

½DC

Read Full Post »

Hello Ladies & Gentlepeeps,

This week’s show (which has taken an age to post, following broadcast, simply because of a monumental feck up with one half of’s laptop - i.e. it died whilst over there in that there USof…) is entirely given over to the sweet nothing rambled musi-choices of The Woman of The House. That’s right. TWoTH charged through her collection of CDs & vinyl & came up with the loveliness you now hear before you.

I think we should let her & her musical tastes do the talking from hereon in…

Enjoy, you dusty mo’fo’s.

x ½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (33)

Read Full Post »

Hello U, U Purple Eaten People, U.

2night’s show is the 1st of 4 pre-records what one half of + The Woman of The House did tirelessly piece 2gether over the last few weeks in order 2 cover one half of’s fairly decent arse (given his advancing age) whilst jollying it about on the West Coast of the USof.

Therefore, 2night we present, just 4 U, Drunk Covers VIII - The Playlist Formerly Honed By Prince. A 3hr cover version special, charting pretty much all of the decent (i.e. no Batman, no Graffiti Bridge, + pretty much nothing after The Gold Experience) back catalogue of the wee purple munchkin.

The bulk of the cover versions in 2night’s show come from a brand new tribute album celebrating the little paisley monkey’s 50th birthday, entitled SHOCKADELICA - 50th Anniversary Tribute 2 The Artist Known As Prince (+ a healthy scattering of very decent covers culled from the 1000s available by various artistses & bands across the known musiverse).

This is by no means a ‘favourite’ selection - merely a broad swatch of interesting/excellent variations on the skinny mother fucker’s celebrated back catalogue.

Here be the playlist, then:

Drunk Covers VIII, The Playlist Formerly Honed By Prince

1) Eels – I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (E: Useless Trinkets; P: Sign “o” the Times)

33) Brødrene Lövenstjerne – Nothing Compares 2 U (BL: Shockadelica; P/The Family: The Family)

That enuff 4 u? Eh?

Please also note 4 your diaries, on 27th of August, the last in the scheduled pre-records, we will be broadcasting Purple Reign - Prince and his Revolutions. A 2hr special celebrating The Artist’s music via a diverse selection, rather than the bog standard obvious choices (although, there will be some classic Prince, just 2 get every1 in the mood).

Joining one half of 2 co-host Purple Reign - Prince and his Revolutions will be The Woman of The House AND, wait 4 it, Ms Hope Eternal. Ys. That’s right. Bloody Ms Hope Eternal. What a fun time we had.

So, U, U listening few, get upon th’ danceflo’ & shake yo’ body like a horny pony would.

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [180:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (69)

Read Full Post »

Hello fiddlings.

O, we were giddy, we was. A good, hearty show for you, then; soup-like, but only in the refreshingly tasty way rather than with a gloopy/glutinous consistency. Winter Vegetable, perhaps, or Leek & Maris Piper Potato. Maybe, even, Broccoli & Stilton. You decide. Afterall, it ain’t us doing the eating up of now is it? No, tha’s right, we is simply serving wenches, living off tips & the grim, yet welcome, sexual pleasurings, from vaguely attractive, just passing through customers, against the hood of a beaten up Mustang, out back during a smoke break.

*sigh*

This week’s delish playlisted were: Micah P. Hinson & The Red Empire Orchestra, Joe Rodger & The Velcro Quartet, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, Eef Barzelay, Porlolo, The Dø + the usual handful of many flicking more.

As well as the usual scattermouths of one half of + The Woman of The House this week saw the return of (a strangely profanity-restrained) Mr. Toad, off of that lovely social-musi-rant blog Song, by Toad.

Despite a connection dump 4 minutes in to the broadcast (i.e. interweb hand holding ceased between DCHG & ErrorFM for some unknown reason) your convivials were none the wiser & the show recorded without hitch.

So, enjoy this week’s show (below) & we’ll see you, properly, in September - once ½DC is back from over there in the States of.

Break, as they say, nothing.

½DC TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (73)

Read Full Post »

Turned out nice again, didn’t it?

Tons, then, of new music from the likes of Dr. Dog, The Dø, Detektivbyrån, Sparrow & The Workshop, Rachel Unthank, The Lord Dog Bird, Joe Rodger & The Velcro Quartet + a sizeable quotient of many blwdy more.

There was also a spilleth over’d bucket of one half of’s chopsing & cheek, whereas TWoTH’s valiant efforts at keeping it all on track derailed after the 3rd glass of Vino Collapso & descended into a tongue slurred gabble.

In all it was a damn fruity show.

We figure you owe us a kiss, at least.

Pucker up, then, you.

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (80)

Read Full Post »

Tonight’s flatulent nonsense was coughed into existence for your delicate palate via the astoundingly rambly tongue clatter of one half of, with the delicious TWoTH supplying the steady on, soldier & a whole pramload of what the hell are you talking about?s.

Without sounding smug or delusional, tonight’s offering was a seminal piece of playlisting, courtesy one half of. The ebb & flow of the marvelous musicalisations from the muscial chosen was divine & fecking hypnotic, so it was. What can we say? We don’t write these bloody lovely orgasms of sound, we only play them so you can enjoy them & be carried away on the gentle lapping of their aural tide.

How wet are you, now, then, eh? Naughty kitten.

Jibber jabber away.

x ½DC + TWoTH

ps Last week’s competition runs until someone gets the answer correct - there’ll be no to the nearest lb/kilo malarkey. Get entering, then, eh?

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (85)

Read Full Post »

Hello kids.

Tonight’s show is basically one half of’s rambling assed review of all the live bands he done did see in venues & that when he toured the West Coast of & New York.

As well as lovely dollops of mouth blather & musi-goodness, there’s this week’s frigging ‘mazing competition. All you gots to do is answer this very, very simple question:

What was the weight (in pounds or kilos) of one half of’s checked suitcase when he left the States to fly back home?

Send your answers to thewaitingroom(@)btinternet.com (minus the parentheses) & the first person who guesses correctly, or has the nearest weight to the actual one on the ticket, by Friday 18th July will win the following goodies:

The Builders & Butchers / Loch Lomond split 12″ - signed by The Builders & The Butchers

The Builders & Butchers Debut CD Album - signed by The Builders & The Butchers

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers T-Shirt - size Adult Medium (US)

Anni Rossi CD Albums Scandia + Insects Kissing

Parethetical Girls 7″ Picture Disc + CD Album Safe As Houses

The Jones Street Boys CD Album Overcome

Or, The Whale CD Album Light Poles & Pines

2 clues: (a) I flew Virgin (b) the suitcase was already overweight when I left the UK & then I picked up all the above + other trinkets & baubles.

‘cited yet?

Good luck.

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (175)

Read Full Post »

Well, then, all you box spring hogs & raindogs.

Welcome to 3hrs of near genius.

Here be, then, you, is The WAITSing Room II, Cruel Variations - 3hrs of Tom Waits Covers. Yes, that’s bloody much correct. 3 damn hours of.

Essentially, & why not, this is a marketing dream come true. Following the giddy successes of the Drunk Covers series (here, here, here, here & here) & the ridiculously popular (as in downloads, etc.) The WAITSing Room Tom Waits Special (here) it seemed only natural (read: cynical, or manipulative) to combine the two & come up with what you is either stream-listening to or about to/in the middle of downloading as you read this sentence to its natural full stop end.

one half of + TWoTH have selected as many quirky versions/artists as possible within the tight timeframe imposed by not very much time available; they done ignored as many of the obvious choices as & when possible (although, the likes of Tim Buckley, Holly Cole, John Hammond & Neko Case have crept in - simply because they do extremely competent &, frankly, good interpretations). They done also restricted the ‘live’ versions to an absolute minimum. For sure, unless it’s recorded through a soundboard mixed professionally & released on a properly tarted album/CD it’s not really a genuine cover, is it? It’s a glorified pub band wanking loudly for a large audience.

There be some surprises, some well known ones, & some entirely new cover versions to point your earpipes at. ‘Course, this being Tom Waits there’s an overly healthy smattering of jazz renditions dunked into this coffee swamp of blues, balladry, balls to the wall brilliance. Don’t be afraid, though. Jazz can be good for you.

Unsurprisingly, there are many hundreds (possibly thousands) of Tom Waits covers out there in the musiverse - many unofficial or so far off the radar, in terms of specific artist/band widerife exposure, that it was nigh on impossible to get hold of them in time for this evening’s output. Perhaps we shall endeavour at a later date & slap together the potential for a #III in the series? We’ll see. We have this one to get through first.

For now, though, we hope you enjoy what you get.

We loved every minute of it.

x ½DC + TWoTH

Here’s the dang tracklist:

TWR 02.07.08 - Drunk Covers VII: The WAITSing Room II, Cruel Variations

1) Hell Blues Choir – God’s Away On Business (HBC: Greetings From Hell: The Tom Waits Song Book; TW: Blood Money)

36) Hell Blues Choir – Swordfishtrombones (HBC: Greetings From Hell: The Tom Waits Song Book; TW: Swordfishtrombones)

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [180:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (348)

Read Full Post »

Here you go, then.

A repeat / replay / rewind from way back yonder from August 7th 2007. Back when we was innocent & technologically retarded, heavily relying on the Good Lord Skype for communication between Cardiff & Edinburgh. Praying, as we were, it didn’t crash or owt else stressful during the live broadcasts. Of course, mostly, it did.

On this one you can hear our fear & naïvité via myriad technical blips & blops as Ms Eternal wrestles with remembering to mute her mic (hence the heavy breathing), mute her computer audio (hence the beeps & burps from the software she was slowly crashing in the background), & engage the crossfade (hence the long run out of tracks & silences between talking & music starting). Knew what she was doing, my arse.

Anyway this one, though, as in however, wasn’t live (despite the additional screw-up SFX) but was a pre-record. This was simply because almost immediately after Ms Eternal & ½DC started filling the airwaves (together) with their accents they decided to both go, at the same time, on holiday (albeit not together, because that would be unduly sexual in nature), or vacation (depending on what side of the beach you are).

It’s an interesting show. A funny show with good music. A show full to the crown with sexual tension & verbal fumblings (listen, why don’t you, to ½DC umm & err his way through the putting up with Ms Eternal’s fiddling on the controls & giddying non sequiturs).

Incidentally, it’s one of the first shows that mentions/contains Mr. Fisk (who was at that time slipping Ms Eternal one - as goes the vernacular), who just so happened to be on a sneaky visit to Edinburgh to see HE & cause untold stress damage as he got in the way of her moving to/decorating her new apartment.

Why the ErrorFM controller chose this one to repeat / reply / rewind is beyond our point of giving a shit.

Enjoy, folks, enjoy.

½DC + HE (in absentia)

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (517)

Read Full Post »

Well, sheet.

Apologies for the lateness of posting but I have been ‘on the road’ somewhat of late & entirely out of interweb connectivity.

Anyhow, this show was cobbled together in a mighty rush pre-USof take off. Badly edited, hardly narrated, with a setlist compiled from a gay civil partnership reception I DJ’d at some time ago. The remit was: Indie, Dancey, Cheese.

I think we managed that.

Enjoy.

DC

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (132)

Read Full Post »

Well, here we go then boyos.

Yer’s an hecksporsua to Welsh moosic for ew deli-cat ikkle yers, see.

It’s a random; well random, in fact. There’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to the playlist, except that it maybe perhaps helps define the variety & diversity of that so-called Welsh ’sound’. There’s no favourites, no gladhanding, just blwdy good music see.

Expect weird CIA-style psychological torture noises (the Welsh language), Welsh politik, bands you may never have heard of (Ffa Coffi Pawb, MC Mabon, Sweet Baboo), bands you’ve definitely heard of (Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) & lots of the usual bullshitting & swearing.

What you won’t get is the obvious. There’ll be no Manic Street Preachers (many reasons, really, but let’s stick with Nicky Wire being a platinum standard, award winning prick), Stereophonics (raspy twat of an egotistical hairy dwarf frontman), Bonnie Tyler (nicotine addled one trick pony - popular with overweight Valleys sluts on hen nights), Duffy (untalented retro-fantasist who should be put out of her misery now before we all suffer another fucking album of pastiche Springfieldisms), Charlotte Church (putrifyingly awful publicity shagging whore of a girl), Tom Jones (orange faced chancer who still shags brain dead 20-something groupies), & however many other obvious bastards there are. Oh, fuck it, we might as well list them: The Automatic (what’s that coming over the hill? Is it Death signalling the end of your shittingly awful one song career?), Lostprophets (Goth? More like shit. Appalling cocksnot from appalling cocks), Funeral For A Friend (bollocks, bollocks, bollocks, bollocks, bollocks - from the name, to the ‘music’, to the ‘fashion’, to the fact that the poor little twats seriously believe they make a difference in people’s lives; presumably that means their output assists more suicides per capita than, say, McFly), Bullet For My Valentine (don’t even get us started on this fucking abomination).

So, ok, you do gets a bit of Shirley B, like, innit - she does have cred, afterall. I mean, she is Mrs Bond Theme. Plus, you will get career suicide victim BUT beautifully written/sung songs from Cerys. &, by Jesus, you most certainly will gets some of the GLC. Innit.

Click on the farking button by yer, then, innit butt?

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (143)

Read Full Post »

Apologies.

On two counts. The lateness of posting this episode & the screw-up with the actual broadcast thereof.

Jesus. I turn my back for ONE day & all manner of shades of shit come falling from the sky.

Let me explain…

I, one half of, am currently in San Francisco (Downtown SF, to be precise, & hoo boy - t’aint nothing like what they shows in them films) at the start of a 3 week gad about the four corners of the USof.

All last week TWoTH & I busted our collective nutsack to get pre-records of TWR recorded & filed in time for my departure for the month long of June. We averaged 2hrs sleep a night for the whole as we pissed about obtaining permissions, recorded the shows (re-recorded when one was entirely wiped off the face of the earth when the over-heating computer - which had been on & working 3 days straight - crashed & refused to blink back into life for 4 hours thereafter), edited the shows, transferred shows from one format to another, & then ftp’d them to the station’s live archive. On top of that we had Proper Job to keep us occupied & I had to arrange & schedule this 3week USof jaunt. Exhausting is not the fucking word. Exhausted is.

However, yesterday, Wednesday, all that stressing was small potatoes compared to the joy I experienced at broadcast time for the first of the pre-records.

The shitty little hotel I was staying at didn’t have strong enough internet access (yes, that’s right - in 2008!), so any access at all to the worldwideinterweb was intermitent to say the very, very, very. Thererfore, tuning in to ErrorFM’s live stream was impossible because it cut out as soon as it began. $30 that cost me & I couldn’t get a refund, no matter how Krakatoa I got on the hotel’s ass.

When I did finally manage to catch a portion of the stream, TWR wasn’t on. This was 10.05pm. So I logged into ErrorFM’s chat to have a word with the controller/programmer to see what the problem was. He wasn’t around. Logged into chat, yes. Around? No. Not until 10.49pm, by which point I was getting furious with the situation as the connection was getting worse & I was barely able to send & receive messages. So when he did finally turn up & express an ‘aghh!’, as a way of garnering sympathy for the lack of TWR, I was in no mood to accept his explanation that the script he had written to auto-select & play the pre-record in the station on-line archive had a glitch in it. He than started the show late, seriously bumping the schedule to shit.

Now, when this ‘auto-play’ idea was first suggested by him I expressed concerns that (a) it wouldn’t work & (b) he wouldn’t be around to fix it. I was assured 100% nothing of the sort would happen. But, of course, we now know different.

I was so furious (a mixture of genuine exhaustion & frustration) with the pisspoor excuse I received for his, & by proxy ErrorFM’s, tardiness (”It’s stressfull here”!!!), I sent a message to the owner of the station expressing my serious disappointment & advised that, following the last pre-record to air (July 2nd: Drunk Covers VII, The Waitsing Room II - a 3hr Tom Waits cover special) I was calling it quits.

This is not the first time the station has fucked me around. I am not one to grumble. I have a solid chin & soak up the blows & get on with it. But, man. This is taking the piss. I (as well as the co-hosts) work my fucking bollocks off doing TWR - for nothing. We don’t get paid. We do all our own publicity, we do all our own networking & media whoring. We don’t have to do this, but we do. We do it because we love the music. We do it because we think you need to hear the music. That some people listen, download, comment, etc. is reward enough.

But.

After 6 days straight of preparing pre-records to ensure the schedule is full, (i.e. making it easier for them so they don’t have to find things to fill the slot), for the programmer to then be so slack like that is just too disrespectful.

I’m too tired to care right now.

By the way, the show in question was a corker for music. We both, on the other hand, were a little knackered.

Get ‘em while you can.

½DC + TWoTH (in absentia)

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (152)

Read Full Post »

You lucky sods. What a show.

Over 40 excellent bands & artistses from over in that there Swedenland were crammed into 3hrs of sonic bliss for your very listening pleasure during this week’s show.

one half of + The Woman of The House were nigh on knackered after such a marathon blasting of such goodness & we hope indeed you are now very much aware of just how important & vital Sweden is in the curent indie-sounding musiverse.

Huge thanks to all the bands & artiste types (Detektivbyrän, Ram Di Dam, Blue Eyed Blondes, The Second Band, The Magnificent Seven, Billie The Vision & The Dancers, Jennie Abrahamson, Salty Pirates, The Deep Dark Woods, First Aid Kit & Anna Ternheim) who cobbled together wee little shout outs & what not for us to play during the show. Very much appreciated, you lot, for the time & effort put in. We hope the show gets you some more webpage hits & purchases.

There was also the small matter of drawing the winners for The Gourds‘ competition posed a few weeks back, & we are pleased to announce we have two winners:

Graeme Anderson, from Mexico, & Jennifer Murphy, from some as of yet undisclosed location.

The prizes (when we gets ‘em) will be winging their way to both shortly (like we said, when we gets ‘em).

*phew*

one half of + assorted guests will now be hurridly putting together a brace of pre-records what will be broadcast (on that there divine ErrorFM) throughout the month of June whilst he is away off on some hush hush jaunt across all corners of the USof. Something will go wrong, we just know it. But, hell, that’s The Waiting Room all over no? Chaos on the brink of, well, more chaos.

Behave yourselves in said absence. & don’t break anything.

½DC + TWoTH

p.s. TWR was generously reviewed by some dumbfounded American youths recently on an all-encompassing ‘culture review’ website & you may listen to said review & make up your own minds as to their accuracy of understanding & analysis here.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [180:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (192)

Read Full Post »

Lab Rats & Geneticists of The Listening Few, welcome to the rest of your listening habits.

Seriously, this show’s selection was indeed a good selection to swell in your lovely ear-based heads.

Amongst, as they say, others, we playfully shat the following in your direction: Hour of The Shipwreck, The Ting Tings, The Wave Pictures, The Cave Singers, The Submarines, Those Dancing Days, Scout Niblett & Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Elvis Perkins, Andrew Bird + Noah & The Whale.

Kiss ou’sel’.

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [120:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (190)

Read Full Post »

Mary up a Jesus pole.

What a fab show, even if we do say our goshdarn selves. 3 whole damn hours full up to the skull cap of the superb musics what was made by that wonderful Texan outfit, The Gourds.

one half of + The Woman of The House were all knicker twisted with various imbibings & nonsense, but somehow managed not to embarrass themselves too much in the chat room presence of said Mr. Kev Russell too much. That’s right, he, from then there The Gourds, came by & said howdy & stayed for the entire show, moreorless, as we clattered our mouthy ways through his & their wonderful back catalogue. Right shy we were, too. Ne’er a mention of his sweet self in the participatory typed-style chat room during the entire show. Nervous? Well, no. Pished? Yes. Very so.

Anyhow, the meat on dem bones: Mr. Russell has extraordinarily kindly like donated with his very hands a clutch of prizes (T-Shirts, Hats, Stuff) for a two-part, multi-winner competition. Yes. You read correct. A bloody competition. With prizes.

To win some of these prizes (for there will be more than one winner) all you gots ta do is answer this question:

The Gourds are from Austin, Texas, but what phenomenon do happen, at around about 8pm, every night, to an audience of a hundred or so tourists, from underneath two bridges spanning the Colorado river?

&, also, as a tie-break, answer us this, thus:

Kev Russell & Jimmy Smith (both of said musical wonderment The Gourds) have a music publisher by the name of Bumpalong Sod Music. In no more than 10 words, please explain what a Bumpalong Sod is…

Now. This competition is open for as long as it takes Mr. Russell to send those aforementioned prizes to us. This could be one week, it could be two. So, for as long as these words remain un-struck through (i.e. there’s no strike through line through the sentences above) this competiton will remain.

Simply send your answer + definition to thewaitingroom (@) btinternet.com (minus the parenthese & spaces) & we’ll pop the correct & most amusing ones in a hat & draw the winners on a future show (in one or two weeks -depending, as we say, when said prizes materialise via the postal service). Get it? Got it? Good.

Right, then. Shoot over to the TWR Playlist page for a run down on what were playlisted during the show & listen again as we, one half of + TWoTH, make tits out of our limey asses. Mr Russell laughed. “Fuggin Hilarious” he called us. But then, there was a certain bias at play.

Go decide for yourselves. Go on. Scoot.

½DC + TWoTH

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [180:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (277)

Read Full Post »