(Picture Courtesy of the Incomparable Shaun Bryant)

Nobby always gets the last word.

See what he had to say “after the jump”

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Why did I ask everyone back for one more week of posts? Why didn’t I just stop when I decided it was time to be done with it? Frankly, I didn’t want Radio Exile to vanish from the world like so many other sites have in the past. I didn’t want people waiting for another update, confused why I hadn’t updated in a week. Or a month. Or a year. Over the last month, I realized I was ready to move on, but damn it, I tried to make a run at it one last time. I really did.

Radio Exile, as I have jokingly stated for the better part of these past five years, is my fickle mistress. At least, she was until today. She stole time from my job, time from my friends and time from my wife. She kept me up nights, had me doting on her (usually with emails and communications) and spending so much time on her that she never paid me back for. As of today, Radio Exile is done and dead and buried. It’s a sad day for me and for all the people that have been writing in over the past few days, but it’s the right decision.

Read my final thoughts on the last day here at Radio Exile “after the jump”

To think, all this started with a review of Murder by Death’s Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them.

So very much has changed in my life since Jonathan Widro decided to split our Inside Pulse music section into three distinct blogs. I was still pretty “wet behind the ears” when it came to running sites or marketing when I took over the site, but I was partnered with Greg Wind, whose personal experience in publicity we leaned upon in our early days to establish relationships with top independent labels in our country and abroad.

As many people can infer from his goodbye piece, I was ballsy at times, wasn’t necessarily the most mature editor, but we were passionate about the material and felt a responsibility to be, above all else, great. I didn’t want to be wasting our time or our writer’s either. Never once did I put an article live on the site that I wasn’t proud of.

That’s what made it so hard to let it go. Even once everyone else had moved on, I guess some part of me didn’t want to. In my head, there was no reason we couldn’t recapture the magic form we had from 2007-2009 when the majority of the staff were writing 2-3 times a week. Just look over everything on the site from that time frame. Brilliant stuff.

For me, though, I began to notice my own passion wane when I was no longer writing. I was editing and coordinating and talking to marketing and publicity folks, but I wasn’t writing. In November 2008, I started my first novel as part of National Novel Writing Month. Despite a solid plot and reams of pages, I still haven’t finished it.

Life, it seems, has been on hold for a long time.

Now, no more bellyaching. I hate that this started this way, but as I type thoughts and I figure out an eloquent way to close a major chapter in my life I guess I was due for some (omg, I won’t be Shawn, Editor-in-Chief of RadioExile.com anymore!).

First, we’ve done some really, really awesome stuff here.

Our pieces on punching and hugging artists aside, we were generally pretty humble and never singled anyone out. In fact, a great deal of our humor is what connected us with fans and readers. I mean, seriously, did anyone think I meant it when I said that Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel didn’t look alike?

The quality of the staff made it possible for us to be ranked in the top 10 music blogs for British readers two years in a row. Our hard work and commitment lead to great opportunities for us all. I was among the first writers to be sent to Norway to cover by:Larm in 2008 [Link 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ]. For shit’s sake, I was there with Esquire and Black Book and Michael Azerrad (the author of Our Band Could Be Your Life). It was a super dark period for me when it should have been bright; I had just gotten engaged two months earlier, but I just lost my job due to a layoff when I got the invite of a lifetime and the friendships and experiences I had there will be among my favorite ever.

I got to interview Mary Guibert, mother of Jeff Buckley (quite possibly my favorite artist of all-time). Her grace and wisdom were greatly appreciated, but as always, I had to sacrifice to make it happen. I had shoulder surgery the night before and didn’t take any pain meds the day of the interview so that I would remain lucid during the call. You can hear on the call that I was in serious pain at points. Thank goodness she had so much to say so that I could mute the microphone.

I talked about music and art and told jokes and spread news and shared mp3s and mixtapes and videos and generally just had fun for the last five years. It’s been great and Radio Exile was always fun, but it’s time for me to move on. I’ll still be here at Inside Pulse working as the Chief Marketing Officer and working at Inside Fights. I just won’t have Radio Exile to play with anymore. Not right now, anyway. Maybe one day, the stars will align and things might be different, but blogging and music and the industry aren’t the same as they were half a decade ago. I’m just not as angst filled as I once was and I don’t have the drive to “change the world of music” with only one voice. I couldn’t get Ryan Adams to play at my wedding no matter how hard I tried (ha!)

At the end of the day, Radio Exile outlasted all of Inside Pulse’s music blogs. Radio Exile lived longer than many, many of my favorite sites who merely closed up shop without a whimper. Leave it to me to want to go out with a big ass bang, just like we started.

Greg and Toe and Kyle and Elie and Holly and Dan and James and Tom and Andrew (St. Clair and Pitkin) and Salty and Mark and Lauren and Cash and I busted our asses and had a ton of fun in the process. I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading or listening or watching what we’ve put out there. We wanted to connect with like-minded folks and ended up meeting the best array of writers and, above all else, people that I have had the privilege of working with. If I forgot anyone, I’m super sorry, but honestly, this might be the toughest thing I’ve written in a while. It’s certainly the most emotional.

Thank you again to Matthew Michaels and Widro for the opportunity and for understanding that we wanted to go out on “our terms.” I hope you’ve appreciated all that I have done here.

I want to give thanks to the two women who have supported my writing the most during this time. Thank you to my mother for playing the role of critic when I was too mean, or laughing with me when I called things “neat.”

Lastly, I want to thank my wife, Tracy (Kugler) Smith. I remember fighting on weekends as I wrote my columns for the site when you wanted to get out of the house. How you told me that it sometimes felt like I cared more about the site than about people or you. That was never the truth. I just wanted to do something to make you proud. I hope you are.

Funny story before I go. For those people who don’t know this, BoweryBoogie.com Editor-in-Chief and former RE editor Elie Perler and I worked together at TVT Records. He didn’t submit a writing sample like so many other writers before did. Every day, Perler had to walk to the front of the office (where I was the receptionist at that point…not too proud to admit that) and sort the mail for his department. One day, he says, and I quote, “Why haven’t you asked me to write for your blog, fucker?” The dude might weigh 115 pounds dripping wet so I laughed. The next day, I brought a CD for him to review.

The best lesson I have learned: hire people around you that can do the things that you don’t do well. Play to your strengths. This staff, this site, we were the fucking best. Thank you all for making my dream come true.

“…Before I go, I just wanna tell you: you were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And you know what? — So was I!” – The Ninth Doctor to Rose Tyler
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The following is a piece from the man who hired me at Inside Pulse Music, Matthew Michaels

“You know what 411 needs, Widro? A music site.”

This may or may not have been what I sent via IM to our fearless BOSS on a fateful night in the summer of 2002, but let the record show that there was SOME sort of conversation, and 411 WAS expanding beyond it’s original subject matter, and I DID eventually join the staff to write about music. It began with a recap of the 2002 VMAs that I stumbled through (I refuse to provide a link for fear of Bill Simmons gimmick infringement accusations)… and 3220 days later, I couldn’t be prouder when thinking about how it all ended up.

From 411 to the launch of Inside Pulse Music a couple of years later, to the spinoff of indie-focused Broken Dial, which is a far superior name for what we today know fondly as Radio Exile…it has all led to what’s been a bittersweet week on these pages. Sad to see it closing up shop, but admittedly enjoying the nostalgia – especially the triumphant return of Greg!

Read more from Matt “after the jump”

In fact, I remember my first encounter with SMS. He had emailed me a review of Who Will Survive… by Murder by Death, and was pretty much hired on the spot. We even met in (gasp!) real life, at a (now-closed) Virgin Records, and once the shock of his bright red hair wore off (from his emails, I would have sworn him to be a mulleted brunette), we chatted, listened to some tunes, and the rest is revisionist history. It was great to find someone who was equal parts prolific, patient (yes, SMS can do patient) and thoughtful; and it’s been fantastic to watch him evolve, along with Inside Pulse’s Music section, as he knocked it up, served as midwife, and then nurtured what is now, and always will be, known as Radio Exile…

Radio Free Exile, a place that’s always been much more this…

…than this:

Radio Friendly Exile, where review copies of CDs go to die, yet are always, somehow, given their due.

Radio F’N Exile… I hate to see you go. But – this week anyway – I’ve loved to watch you leave.

Until next time…
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I haven’t written anything on Radio Exile (or Broken Dial, as it was known then) since 2007. I realized that when Shawn informed me that the site would be closing down. People don’t think about websites dying. We think these things will be staffed forever by fervent volunteers, never wavered by the realities of time and life and changing priorities. From what I understand, Radio Exile is going away not because of frustration or anger, but because the writers of the site wish to move onto other priorities. Their lives have changed. If you’ve paid attention to the site over the last five years, you’ll see how people grow. You’ll see tastes change. You’ll see priorities shift. These are all good things. Harping on the same ideal over and over again eventually leads to just punching at a wall. That wasn’t the case at Radio Exile. It was always moving, always focusing on new, interesting things. And I’m glad to see everyone still moving, still focusing on new, interesting things.

Read KSP’s final thoughts on Broken Dial and Radio Exile “after the jump”

The last thing I wrote for the site, in 2007, was about how I was no longer angry about the music industry. I’d come to peace with the things I couldn’t change, and I was happy to see the entire goliath shifting into place, with a new, brighter day coming to pass. I’m glad to say I was right. Four years later, the music industry has matured into a pretty glorious thing. The death of the CD is still happening, but those of us on the cusp have more options than ever. Subscription sites like Mog and Rdio offer hardcore music lovers the ability to affordably and guiltlessly enjoy the buffet. Amazon and Google are both offering giant storage lockers with offline syncing and streaming. ITunes has become the dominant way to purchase music, and this fall they are essentially offering amnesty to pirates in their cloud service. Give them $25, and all your music, no matter where you got it, becomes legal, high quality lucre.

And on the physical side, vinyl has made the kind of comeback you simply can’t predict. Record Store Day is a thing that happens, and people celebrate it. We live in the age of Jonathan Coulton, of the super indie bands, of independence and self management and a new, exciting wild west. The great independent music shops are thriving. And what’s that? MuchMusic is playing independent music videos? (is MTV in the states doing this?) They’re giving air time to Holy Fuck? What is this, 1995?

The point is, we won. Yes, we still have to contend with giant corporations, but the new giant corporations are far less interested in pushing their idea of music. iTunes, Amazon, and Google are all interested in being the place we put our music. That’s a huge difference.

Broken Dial was a play on how few of us cared about what mainstream music was feeding us. Radio Exile was a play on where we felt we belonged in the pantheon of the industry. But neither of those things are really true, anymore. We’re living in the age of independence. Let’s cherish it.
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How do you write a eulogy to an inanimate, intangible stored batch of 1’s and 0’s that was the only fair-weather friend that never complained and didn’t make me feel guilty? Radio Exile (and the precursory rendition Broken Dial) gave me an opportunity to have my somewhat off-kilter opinions displayed for the world. How many people get to do that? I do want to offer a post-mortem apology to my old buddy Nobby for not staying as committed as I promised I would. If I had only had the time…

Read more from Salty “after the jump”

I compare Radio Exile to a baby. It is fickle, it only grew when fed an awful lot, took up a crazy amount of time from its caregivers and in the end couldn’t survive on donations alone. This ‘baby’ of site originator SMS is no longer growing. Since I’m pretty confident that we don’t condone euthanasia or infanticide here at Radio Exile, we’re just gonna put this kid out to pasture. Enjoy the green grass and blue skies.

I’ve had the somewhat unique experience of being around from the very beginning of this venture with SMS as he and I were roommates, best of friends and had similar musical influences. (A quick shout-out to Murder By Death!). Radio Exile’s readers have not seen much of my writing as it was limited over the years and probably heard more of me as I was regularly referenced by SMS. What most don’t know about was my behind the scenes contribution to Radio Exile through the support of, and dedication to, my best friend, Shawn M. Smith. Though I could not always be there to generate content, I always tried to be a resource, an ear for listening, opinion bouncing and sometimes a vent sponge. Over the years I have been given opportunities, some were taken, some not, but all of them greatly appreciated. I listened to lots of stellar music, went to some fantastic concerts and even interviewed some pretty interesting people along the way. I still feel a little guilty whenever I stop by Radio Exile HQ and see stacks and stacks of leftover CD’s ‘to be reviewed’ and didn’t take the opportunity.

I have no regrets though, there were plenty of good times and Radio Exile lived a good and decent life. Of course I’m sad to see it go. Insert any random famous quote about how change is a good thing. To all the fans who actually cared about what we had to say, thank you for letting us speak our piece. As a fan of Radio Exile as much as a contributor, I say thank you to all the writers who made this site what it is and obviously a special appreciation for Shawn M. Smith with whom none of this would have been possible. Goodbye my old friend.

1111001001000101001001011110100000100100100100101001000100010111001 -Nobby understood that.)

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At the time, I loved writing for Spin online content, but the gig was becoming suffocating in the sense that corporate edits were bringing me down. Thanks to an employment encounter with Shawn Smith, Broken Dial became the perfect springboard for my ideas, and ultimately, to strengthen my craft. A clean slate, as it were, to write whatever the hell I wanted. It was quite liberating, and true freedom of the press. That was 2007, and here were are four years later, mourning the closure of its successor, Radio Exile.

A number of articles come to mind while reminiscing about the glory days. First and foremost was a review for a Magik Markers album whose name escapes me at the moment. Shawn in particular did not want to pick it apart. I found out the hard way why he delegated. It was horrible, and the only album I ranked as such during my tenure. Then there was an interview with the Hot Toddies which was very much enjoyable to organize and write up. That band is still kicking, churning some awesome girl-group music. Radio Exile also introduced me to Deer Tick, Band of Bees, and Miracle Fortress, all bands which still receive airtime in chez Perler. But my true labor of love while writing here was the Tuned In column in which I talked about songs being co-opted in television commercials. The nature of the feature kept me on my toes and helped discover some really cool music.

While I’ve since moved on to running my own website endeavor (www.boweryboogie.com), Radio Exile is still firmly in the back pocket. Those two years of writing and online experience served me well. Thanks are definitely in order for Shawn and the Inside Pulse crew. In the meantime, I’ll go pour one out for the old bag.

Ciao for now.
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I’ve hemmed and hawed a lot in writing this swan song. I’ve spent the last week trying to mentally articulate a proper goodbye to Radio Exile. I’ve kept coming back to instances and occurrences that concluded with “that never would have happened if I hadn’t written for RE.” So, rather than go on and on about how much music and writing mean to me, I instead present you with my “This is How Radio Exile Has Made My Life Awesome” essay.

What did Holly remember most fondly about her time with Radio Exile? Check it out “after the jump”

Radio Exile has made my life awesome in many ways. For example:

There was the countless music that I would never have listened to, had it not been for Radio Exile or Radio Exilers; Great Northern, Bell X1, The Rural Alberta Advantage (He Said She Said: Rural Alberta Advantage Live), The National, and even Bon Iver, (who I initially despised) to name a few. I love these bands, and I am really happy that I was encouraged to listen to them or go to a midweek show for a review.

I’d also like to give big Internet hugs and kisses to the RE writers who defended me like big brothers wielding baseball bats, when I aired my disgust for Amanda Palmer and took all sorts of web forum backlash from her super fans. You guys gave me the confidence to laugh off the ridiculous hostility and to stand by my writing.

And then there was Coney Island. I had previously only wanted to visit Coney because of a Death Cab song and a Seinfeld episode, but never had any actual motivation to go. Then came the Siren Festival, and with it a meet-up with some of the Radio Exilers. Sure, social media has advanced beyond the “A/S/L?” chatrooms, but I was still a little afraid of meeting people that were only names in my gmail account. Nonetheless, I made the trek from Boston, and was really happy that I did. Because that sweltering summer day at Coney – the gigs, the Cyclone, the boardwalk, the bumper cars – turned into one of my favorite New York memories.

It’s harder to create music than critique it, but it’s also harder to put into words why an album sucks or rocks, rather than to just read about it on a website and agree or disagree. For this I am thankful for the privilege to have shared my opinions at Radio Exile. To anyone who has ever read my reviews – thank you.

XO

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At a critical moment in the movie “Airheads” (I feel I’ve admitted so much in the first eight words) the band plotting to take over the local rock radio station with toy guns is offered an opportunity to deliver its message, unhindered, over the airwaves. One of the Lone Rangers (I can’t remember if it was Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler, or Steve Buscemi) grabs the mic and yells “rock ‘n’ roll!”

There is an ounce of that foolishness, or more, in every attempt at self-expression. All of us hijack something to communicate something that has been communicated before. At Inside Pulse Music, Broken Dial, and then Radio Exile, we were more likely to shout “independence!” or “passion!” or a simple “rad!” A good deal of what we said was celebrating the celebrated, or attacking the attacked – but we did it well, with complete sincerity, and for free.

Read more of what Broken Dial and Radio Exile co-founder, Greg Wind, has to say “after the jump”

The merits of shouting “rock ‘n’ roll,” in my mind, are not up for debate. Celebrating the celebrated can extend the footprint of worthwhile music or ideas. Using our platform to attack those who fail us is noble. We joined the chorus and even took a few solos to defend what we knew was right.

Shawn’s passionately personal “fuck it” attitude, Dan’s Outloud, James and Holly’s piercing reviews, Kyle’s Let’s Rave On (even the last one and its bitter aftertaste), my railing at the companies trying to keep DRM in the digital music equation – the list goes on… (did I mention Elie’s Tuned In? ) all worked on the premise that we didn’t care what other people said. We weren’t in competition with anyone but our perfect site. If it had been said, we were going to say it again, and in our own way. Damn if it didn’t work most of the time.

Inside Pulse Music – The Online Zine

Online publications in the age of Facebook and Tumblr are an odd concept. Not that they seem antiquated, but as if there was a designated place for thinking, and you had to apply for membership. We twitpic our breakfast. We plaster our preferences over pages. Blogging is online breathing.

When Shawn, Kyle, Jon, Toby and I started working together, the opportunity to put your thoughts in the line of fire was still somewhat unique. There was live journal and other forums for people to express their love of what they loved, but they never got to a scale that made writing for a real entertainment website seem less than special. We weren’t bloggers; we were writers. We had columns, wrote long form reviews and occasionally posted news items. We had publication schedules. We got CDs delivered to us in puffy envelopes that told us our words were worth the postage. (OK, that last part seems antiquated.)

The writers of Inside Pulse I worked with were responsible for “music.” Not just we who became Broken Dial, but an amalgamated crew with varied tastes. We wrote with people who loved speed metal and underground hip hop, and it was fantastic. No one had to cover any one thing, and the melting pot exposed me to artists and albums I still love. I wrote about Little Brother (the rap group, not the indie super group) and Johnny Cash. But changing online tastes demanded focus and speed.

Somewhere around the splintering of Inside Pulse Music into three sites, of which Broken Dial was one, we processed the existential dilemma of online magazine vs. blog and chose blog. It wasn’t a slam dunk decision. Some people (none that went with us) downright hated idea of being a blog. In their minds, comments shouldn’t be given equal weight to the article content. Some thought we were cheapening the product. I don’t know if those people changed their minds, but it’s clear to me history has proven the move to be a good one. Broken Dial was to be a blog with some vestigial quirks of an online magazine.

Broken Dial – The Blog in a Box

We were unleashed onto the world with a name we hated, ads that we had to apologize for among the hipsters, and a URL we never quite felt comfortable with (www.brokendial.insidepulse.com), but we had that white space to fill however we saw fit, and a kick ass logo that really did represent us (designed, incidentally, by the now Mrs. Smith). Shawn took the helm and attacked the opportunity with an enthusiasm and vision for what we could be. The blog format worked for us. It was immediate, and allowed a small team to cover everything we wanted without spending all day on it.

We quickly established a voice and let our ears and noses guide our writerly fingers. Our “rock ‘n’ roll” holler rang pure and loud. Even in a looser, faster format, we held on to the ethic that our words should be thought out and impactful. While praising the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs, we were not entirely unlikely to teach you something about music, or art, or life. It may have been a holdover from the Inside Pulse days, but we never threw words away. Every piece was an opportunity to say something valuable in addition to just being informative. We could have a good time with the material, but it was not in our nature to be careless. We took the job personally, and it showed.

We published more and shorter pieces and got up to blog speed on the music front as well. Digital delivery of albums made it easier to hear and cover more releases and our focus let us dive into the emerging artists of the “indie” universe. For a bunch of guys that loved being on top of what’s new, it was nerd heaven.

That was the time when music blogging was becoming a “respectable” practice, and while we were never one of the celebrated names, we were accepted into the community of reliable sources. We got nominated for awards and amassed a stunning roster of talent considering what we were paying, which was free music and what we called an audience. I even got invited to go on TV as an expert on digital music to talk about Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” launch (I’m pretty sure Shawn still hasn’t forgiven me for not doing it, but family needs won out that day). We wanted more.

(Editor’s note: My ONLY BD/RE regret is that Greg or I could have been on G4 as an EXPERT and we were unable to connect and make it happen. That they even saw the piece was awesome enough. Okay, no more interrupting.)

In fact, you could say our grander ambitions created Radio Exile. The white space inside the Inside Pulse frame was no longer enough and we were ready to bite the hand that fed us. The truth can now be told. We spent a weekend taking all of our content and saving it elsewhere in preparation for a shut down. Shawn put Inside Pulse on notice. Give us liberty or give us death.

Somehow, we got liberty. I’m still surprised by this.

Radio Exile – Running Wild

As Radio Exile, we reached our pure form. The name was chosen democratically by the staff. At the time it was a play on the perceived shackles we wore under Broken Dial, but there was more to it than that. We took the growing tree of Broken Dial out of the greenhouse and put it in a more natural habitat.

I don’t know if that change was ever obvious other than the cosmetics. I can say it felt different. We were re-energized. We felt more independent, and took more pride in ownership, even if we never fully left the Inside Pulse family (a solid foundation we possibly never gave enough credit to).

We continued to write great stuff. I couldn’t personally read fast enough. Without diving into the archive for evidence, I feel comfortable saying we sustained a years long peak. Without exactly breaking into the big time, we wrote stunning prose on the subject of music.

It breaks my heart to think of things that passed over the front page of Radio Exile without being read by everyone who cares about music. It was a feast for music lovers that not enough people found, but it was a golden age for music blogging in general. Our passion for what we covered, and fear that something great might get missed was mixed with a healthy humility. Music lovers could never find everything great being written in those years.

Our shouts of “rock ‘n’ roll” were no less pure than others. Our insights were no less valid. We participated fully in a great movement, and in the end, that is a worthwhile legacy. No one could ask more from us. We gave until it hurt, and our pride in it was its own reward.

The End

Along the way, we each got what we needed from it. KDP left before we changed to Radio Exile. Along the way, the issues I was passionate about got resolved and nothing new sprang up that I felt compelled to fix with words. Others started their own blogs or focused on other parts of their lives. Shawn carried on for a very long time on his own, finding new brothers and sisters in arms from time to time, but now even he has found it time to put down the reins.

This end has meaning, even for those of us who ended our run before now. I still have the odd thought that seems destined for a post to Radio Exile, only to be subsumed by other things that beg for my attention. I still look up an article for reference or to show someone a thing I wrote years ago, and I still feel a part of the group of writers that fed this site with our words and passion.

This was a good thing and soon it will be gone. There are no more words being fed to the beast. The water is running down the drain. The goodbyes you see this week are a not a last hurrah but the sound of this thing dying. I have no shout of “rock and roll” for you. That is for other forums now. All I can offer is my thanks, to Shawn, the people of Inside Pulse, the writers who floored me on a regular basis with their work and the music they covered, and to the people who read what we needed to say. If we moved you at any time, I can only hope you passed it on.

Take one more look around, dig up something great and take it with you, and if you feel inspired, please do shout it out. The world needs to hear it, no matter how foolish it seems.
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I opened the lonely door to the building that is Radio Exile World Headquarters and, with a measure of slow regret, climbed the creaky stairs to Shawn M Smith’s office on the top floor. I hadn’t been here in some time but nothing much physical had changed. I paused outside his door and looked left, then right. The wood was as worn as ever, the framed photo of Jeff Buckley listed to the left as always, and the water-stained ceiling remained stained.

My three sharp raps on the door where quickly followed by an equally sharp command to enter.

Read more of Tom’s eulogy to Radio Exile “after the jump”

“Can you believe this?!” Shawn spit, launched right into a tirade, something about Kanye. I hadn’t seen him this agitated since the time Chipotle forgot his side order of guacamole.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy is one of the best albums I’ve heard in years. Look at Lost in The World. It samples two legendary but wildly divergent songs – Bon Iver’s “Woods” and Gil Scott-Heron’s “Comment #1″ – but ends up being something far more lasting and memorable than all the parts combined. Who else in music today, or ever for that matter, can do that? Love him or hate him, Kanye is operating on a completely different plane than anyone right now.”

Shawn gave me a dumbfounded look. “….You would say that.”

“So why’d you call me here?”

“I’m closing Radio Exile. This is our last day”.

I sat silently for a moment reflecting. This didn’t come as a huge surprise but still, it hit me harder than I thought it would.

“You alright? If this crummy office of mine had a window you’d be gazing out it, longingly”.

“I was just….reflecting. Thinking about where when I first started writing for Radio Exile in the summer of 2008, right after I’d graduated from college. I remember when I got your e-mail asking me to write for you. I was on a Chinatown bus heading to Boston. I was so psyched about it.

My first review was of The Charlatan’s You Cross My Path. I’d never actually reviewed something that I wasn’t already intimately familiar and in love with. Writer’s block doesn’t even describe it. I was so freaked out. I’d never actually written for an audience before.

It took me a few months, until I wrote a piece on The Knux, to find a voice that I could call mine….”

“Some would say you found Chuck Klosterman’s voice”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks.

“What was your favorite piece you wrote for Radio Exile?”

“Well, that aforementioned piece on The Knux was exciting. I remember coming up with the idea one afternoon as I was headed to lunch and then excitedly punching out the piece on my laptop at the restaurant as my ex-girlfriend looked on bored and annoyed. It was such a great feeling to feel like I was saying something original and funny but also worthwhile.”

“It’s a shame the piece ended up being better, and lasting longer, than The Knux did themselves”.

“Yeah. That piece probably had more fans than The Knux too”

“Zing!”

“But I digress. After that it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to actually bottle what I had for that Knux piece. But once I did, I hit a streak where I wrote some stuff I was, and remain, proud of. My eulogy for Beat the Devil nailed exactly how I felt about that band. My Radio Exile’s License for Music as Torture (Seriously) was probably the most creative thing I did for Radio Exile. Second most creative thing I wrote was my review of Osama Bin Laden’s 1/14/09 tape.”

“What do you think was the best thing you wrote?”

“My review of Super XX Man’s There’ll Be Diamonds was certainly up there. Also the The Undeniable Genius That Is Lil’ Wayne, The Cherry Chapstick Scale For Measuring Music, and The Untold Influence of Neutral Milk Hotel.”

“What are you proudest of?”

“That I was actually about to write about new music, bands that were completely undiscovered, that nobody or almost nobody had written about before but who deserved attention. People like Common Prayer, The Chairs, Oberhofer, Yellow Ostrich, the Rural Alberta Advantage, Victorian English Gentlemans Club, and others”

“Any regrets?”

“I regret not telling those guys from The Volunteers what childish douchenozzles they were. “

“You didn’t need to tell him that for it to be true.”

“Yeah, I know. But I would have enjoyed it”

“True”

“Any last words?”

“I love you, Jeff Mangum”

“You would say that”.

“It’s been a pleasure Shawn. It truly has.”

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Broken Dial/Radio Exile is always with me and is not simply made up of brief memories that can be randomly triggered by a snippet of an album I loved at the time or a narcissitic Google search, which always digs up more embarrassing stuff then you would ever want to find. I remember our website constantly not only because it was a fantastic experience in which I met some great people, but because it plays a key role in a story that I will most likely be telling for the rest of my life: how I met my best friend, current girlfriend and hopefully future wife (fingers crossed): Jeannine.

That story begins over 3 years ago when one day Shawn let me know he was looking for new writers (which to be honest he always was). Feeling obligated to help our dear leader, I reached out to a few music related contacts I had that might be interested. One of the first was a girl named Christina who I worked with at a music licensing company many moons ago. Christina and I had stayed in contact but only sporadically so perhaps it seemed like an odd request when I asked. As I was telling her about the website and the great people over there she recommended that I speak with her sister Jeannine because she had a journalism degree and it seemed like we had a lot in common and would get along great. I said “sure why not” and was quickly given her screenname and phone number.

After dating for a few months, I found out that Christina was too busy talking to her boyfriend over the phone to have a facebook conversation so she pawned it off on Jeannine, which I guess is something sisters do, especially when they are twins. I remember among the first things I said to her was how great of an editor-in-chief Shawn is, which I am sure he throughly enjoys and won’t let me forget about now that he knows. I would bore you with the rest of the fantastic story of how our romance bloomed and how great we are as a couple but your probably bored already.

It is a running joke in our relationship for Jeannine to say:

“I am not lying. You know I have only lied to you two times in my entire life
1) That I was Christina on that Facebook chat
2) That I said I would write for Radio Exile and I never did.”

During my time at Broken Dial/Radio Exile my main endeavor was “Outloud,” a weekly column where I posted a rare video and explained the history behind said clip or provided some insight as to why it was worth sharing. I forget who said it, but it easily could have been someone on our staff, “Berkman, don’t be insulted by this but your stuff reads like 80′s punk rock zine regardless of what you write about. What I mean is your passion comes through but along the way it either forgets or blows through periods, commas and other punctuation.” Speaking of that, I would like to thank everyone on our team, especially those that had to edit, for allowing me to be me and not making it seem like that was a bad thing. Sure things needed to be fixed but I think we turned out a good product at the end of the day.

My favorite memories of “Outloud” were made up mostly of the times when things got a bit out of hand. The first is when I made a slight comment about how Public Image Limited and Keith Levine’s guitar sound on those early records was a bigger influence on the music that proceeded it then the Sex Pistols. From what I remember someone didn’t really enjoy that and posted way too many comments to let me know. Another “high point” is when I mistakingly made a passing reference to The Cure’s background in the goth sub-culture which ended up in a brief flame war where we disputed the differences between “New Romantic” and other forms of music. However in each of these situations I was happy to see my fellow writers jump to my defense and helped cooler heads win the day. A true high point is when I got to pour my venom towards Sting away from my friends and family and on to our readers in the “8 Musicians Who Need a Punch in the Face” segment we did. I got flack for that one too but fuck ‘em: Sting sucks and always has. No regrets from me there.

Like many people on our team I have written for many different places, some bigger and some smaller, but Broken Dial/Radio Exile was always the home I came back to. Unlike those countless other places I always felt at home here and rest easy in knowing that I had a stake in all of our successes and failures (SMS – You should have listened to me about Juan’s Basement. haha). Although towards the end of our existence my output dropped off significantly, which severely pained me to have to do, I am proud to have played a role in making this website what it was because regardless of how many hits we got I think we did a great job and had a lot of fun along the way, which is all you can really ask for in the end.

I like to think that at some point along the way my little column, reviews and other pieces actually meant something to at least a few people and got someone to check out an artist, song or just simply say to themselves “that was cool”. Music has been a transformative experience in my life and allowed me to grow in amazing ways by meeting wonderful people, building fond memories, taking me places I thought I would never go, developing confidence in myself and informing my world view and attitude, which after the haze of adolescence has cleared seems to be a pretty good man and upstanding citizen who has a great record collection. My greatest joy and the highest honor I can ever expect or want is for someone to let me know the music I introduced them to had a profound effect on them and set them off into their own adventure of self discovery full of leather jackets, bad haircuts, basement shows and a handful of horrible bands. It all started for me when some older kids, who just happened to grow up to be members of the Moldy Peaches, and other assorted nerds, freaks and romantics sat down and spoke passionately to me about music.

To our readers hopefully on some small level we were those nerds, freaks and romantics for you and helped make a slight difference, made you chuckle or remember the lesson that no matter how far we have matured and our music tastes have changed we can all agree on “Punk rock changed our lives”

–Dan Berkman

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After much deliberation over the past two months (and weeks of back-and-forth decision making), I have decided to shutter the doors on Radio Exile effective this Friday, June 24th.

For almost seven years, I have been gifted with the privilege of working with some of the most spectacular writers and human beings, first at Inside Pulse Music, before I was given my own “indie” site in 2006 – Broken Dial which was later renamed Radio Exile. We’ve fought some really hard battles against jerk managers and publicists while remain staunch in our belief that what we say or do on the web has as much weight as in the real world.

I never wanted to be bigger than Pitchfork or Stereogum, I just wanted our voices and opinions to be heard and appreciated. We were fans first. We covered what we wanted to. We turned down things we didn’t truly believe in.

With all this being said, our former writers, who have brought so much life and vitality to the site, will be coming back to say goodbye one last time, delivering eulogies of sorts. Truthfully, they’re the ones that made this site worth updating and keeping and generally made it worth every second I could spare.

Again, thank you all for helping me realize a dream. One of you put it best in 2007 (and you know who):

“If you wait until you have the time or can afford to do the stuff that matters most, you’ll never get around to doing anything”.

This has been the most incredible ride. Thank you for sharing it with me and with us all. (I feel like Doctor Who about to regenerate).

<3 SMS
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On August 2nd, Collections of Colonies of Bees will release GIVING via Hometapes. The release is the first we’re hearing from the band since the Milwaukee six-piece worked with on Volcano Choir with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

These Wisconsin post-rock redeemers return for their first album since 2008′s brilliant Birds with GIVING, their Hometapes debut and their last album with drummer Jon Mueller.

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When a group takes the risk of combining sound and vocal styling that initially seem to be polar opposites, it often threatens to make the compilation a “tale of two albums”-the best of songs and the worst of songs. However, on rare occasions, the risk pays off when the yin-yang concept gives the album added depth and diversity thematically and the unique and, at times, competing sounds complement each other in a way that elevates the album to new heights like Fleetwood Mac did with Rumors and Buried Beds does with their second studio album Tremble the Sails.

Led by Brandon Beaver and Eliza Jones, Buried Beds parlays the risk into reward by accomplishing their most impressive and enjoyable offering to date featuring both up-beat folk-rock as well as the soothing melodies fans have grown accustomed to from their first album. Tremble the Sails features skillfully constructed symphonic arrangements that alternate between the two unique lead vocalists, making the listener feel like they are in the middle of an atmospheric struggle between a looming rainstorm and the sun who refuses to yield the sky.

Buried Beds has the flexibility of a Romanian gymnast vaulting from rousing tracks like Steady Hand, Breadcrumb Trail and Ivory Towers to the evocative Mother and Home while featuring various instrumental accompaniments. However, with cleverly disguised lyrical depth and an earworm-ish melody, Telegram may be the best overall track on the album. Beaver and Jones’ elasticity is perhaps most prominently displayed by the fact that despite the album’s organic sound, it also simultaneously possesses the kind of broad commercial appeal that makes it a natural fit for feature film soundtracks and television commercials- at least if the ironic trend of car corporations using folk music to sell overpriced items to people who can’t afford them company continues.

While there are moments when the heavy influence of the Beatles and other well-known acts from that generation can be tangibly felt on the album, threatening to make the group’s unique sound seem oddly derivative somehow, those moments are few and far between and are vastly overshadowed by the strength of the musical composition, emotionally involving lyrics, and stirring vocals.

Given the group’s talent and diversity, Buried Beds is easily one of the most promising contemporary folk-rock groups and if Tremble the Sails is any indication, only clear skies lie ahead on their horizon.

A series of names come to mind upon listening to Little Scream’s The Golden Record; names like Pink Floyd, the Cranberries, Kings of Leon, the Beach Boys, Sigur Ros and more. Each song has a completely different feel and genre to it and this band band has the cajones to not sound like everybody else when we live in a Z100 music era.

Every time you think you can categorize them, they break out another instrument, sound, noise, vocal ability that alters their genre.
Who are you Little Scream? You’re not a scream-o band—and you’re better than just an alt rock band. You’re more than just stoners
music (although I can’t wait to smoke and take a listen), you have heartfelt music like Sheryl Crowe, but you are more powerful in your own ways.

At times, you seem like an 80’s band, but with all the knowledge of the 21st century music, specifically, the song “Your Radio”, along
with others feels like it could be a great song to end any romantic movie.

Little Scream’s album The Golden Record is definitely worth a listen. Really cool sounds and a way to open one’s mind. Would I recommend buying it? Yes. If the bands listed above spark your interest then this album is for you.

However there are few things to keep in mind with The Golden Record:

Would you run a marathon listening to Pink Floyd? No.

Would you work out listening to Sheryl Crowe? Not really.

Would you listen to those guys at the beach, reading a book, or walking away from a long day at the office with a fatty? Oh yeah.

This is a love/hate genre—the classic rock fans will love this,but for you Z100 fans, look somewhere else for your stoner music.

This week on Dirty Laundry, Malia sits down with Nashville’s favorite band of brothers Jeff The Brotherhood before their set at the Echo in LA. (Note: Malia is still SUPER effing hot.)

Check it out “after the jump”

Well, Apple isn’t always perfect, it seems. News from the web indicates that iTunes is the source of an unintentional leak of Bon Iver’s self-titled new album a full month before the official release date.

Evidently a handful of incredibly savvy iTunes customers were clickety-clicking around the service and noticed that the album was available there. They quickly grabbed the record before it was pulled down and it’s now all over the web. Rumors abound, but it appears that the service was preparing to offer the first single, “Calgary,” on the site and in the “Botch of the Year,” threw the entire album up instead.

Prevailing logic dictates that they should just release the album and garner any sales that they can today. The longer a record is held off, the less it will earn due to piracy and lack of interest so Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar family, if you’re reading this: GET THE ALBUM OUT NOW SO PEOPLE WILL BUY IT AND YOU WON’T LOSE A SHIT TON OF MONEY.

<3 SMS

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Vancouver-based indie-rockers The Ruffled Feathers have me in a tizzy with their latest video. The band set about writing, directing and filming a cinematic musical with next to no money and have now present for the world this amazing clip, “Blueprints For Our Failed Revolution.” I say, bravo. Seriously. Everyone needs to save their money and “buck up” and get it done themselves these days. The single here is from their upcoming full-length album and the band are giving away a free single on their Bandcamp page.

So what are you waiting for? Check out the track “after the jump”

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Check out a fine tune and video for So Cal’s indietronic brother duo White Apple Tree. “Circles” is the first single from their upcoming full length album Smooth Jaws (37 Records).

Check out the video “after the jump”

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In two weeks time, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century will celebrate a major milestone. On his 70th birthday, Bob Dylan will have already outlived many of his contemporaries (Jerry Garcia, George Harrison), but the man continues to produce amazing work that truly illustrates his influence on generations. The father of modern rock, pop and folk will soon step into his 7th decade of life on May 24th, and what better way to honor him than to share our favorite Dylan records. These are the ones that if you don’t own, you should. Is there really any better way than to celebrate? Sure, we could get bombed. This was just more fun.

5. Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006)

Let’s look back at what I had to say about this album when it took the number one spot on our Top Albums of 2006 poll:

“Modern Times is surprisingly beautiful, incredibly simple. The real question: how is it that a man who should be 30 years past his songwriting prime is writing music that is hands down better than anything else (in 2006)? Sure, Arctic Monkeys were brash and bold. TV on the Radio slapped mainstream audiences in the mouth and tried to impact rock stations across the country, but no one holds the nation in their palm like Bob Dylan. A masterpiece.”

Standout tracks: “Someday Baby,” “When The Levee Breaks,” “Things Have Changed”

4. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Prior to this effort, Dylan had dabbled with rock-infused music, but it was on his 6th studio album, Highway 61 Revisited, that can be considered his first “rock” album.

Standout tracks: “Desolation Row,” “Like A Rolling Stone”

3. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Highway 61 showed Dylan could finally cross over with his folk-rock, Blonde on Blonde was Dylan’s breakout rock album. This masterpiece was the one where he married his poetic lyrics with the rock sound he’d created.

Standout tracks: “Just Like a Woman” and “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”

2. Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind (1997)

Dylan’s 41st(!) album saw Bob Dylan teaming up with the great producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Lanois. With the release of Time Out of Mind, Dylan once again rejuvenated the roots/blues rock that he created and once again illustrated his influence on the greatest lyricist of the 20th century.

Standout tracks: “Standing in the Doorway,” “Make You Feel My Love”

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1. Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)

With his second album, Dylan grabbed the hearts and minds of the youth movement in America at the most tumultuous of political times. The album made him more than a younger version of Woody Guthrie (as so many criticized him for being at the time), allowing his words and rhythms to shine through for the brilliance that they were.

Standout tracks: “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “Masters of War”

Did we miss something? Have a favorite track? Let’s hear it! Remember to follow Radio Exile on Twitter
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