Dialed In
Yes, y’all.
I’ve been teasing for a while that I’ve been working on some big ideas for this Vertices thing here. Well, I think it’s time to get to it.
It occurred to me a while ago that I might be able to use Substack as a radio station of sorts. There are other platforms out there that might be better tailored for online radio but we’re here and I think the tools provided to me on the ‘Stack will allow me to do some cool things.
The biggest challenge, of course, is playing other people’s music. In most places, you’d get struck down for doing that pretty quick and I assume it would be the same on Substack. But I think I figured out a loophole. I can embed YouTube videos in my posts here. And YouTube obviously has all their rights stuff sorted out, for the most part. So some of the engineering for my show idea will be in your hands. You’ll hear audio made by me. I’ll set up a song. And then, if you so choose, you can click on the YouTube link to hear the song and then continue on with the rest of the show. It’s a little clunky, I’ll admit. But on the plus side, Substack also allows me embed photos and text and other bits of media that a straight audio platform wouldn’t. So this will be an enhanced radio show-thing. I don’t know if anyone else is doing anything like this. I’ve been meditating on the idea for many months and I think I can do some really cool things. Beyond sharing some of my favorite music, I’ll also be telling stories, analyzing songs (mine and other people’s), sharing knowledge, reviewing history, etc. And there will be a lot of exclusive content that won’t be heard anywhere else. The goal is to blow minds.
So here’s the plan:
On Tuesday, I will post the pilot episode of Vertices Radio. Future episodes will be longer than the pilot and I already have ideas on how to improve upon things. The pilot is a test. I want to see if everything looks good and works technically. Hopefully there are no issues with the YouTube videos (I don’t expect there will be). And then we’ll go from there.
If all goes well and if the response to the show is good (be sure to ‘like’), I’ll get cooking on more episodes. Most of episode 2 is already mapped out. Here’s the important part: I’m going to make future episodes available to paid subscribers. We’ll talk about this more before I post the second episode.
And one more thing: I’m not sure right now how often I’ll be able to post new shows. Quarterly? Bi-monthly? I’d love to eventually get to a place where new episodes will be posted every month at least. As I’ve said repeatedly in recent times, I have a new job that leaves me very little free time to do creative stuff. The pilot episode took several days to make. Hopefully I can streamline things and create a workflow that will allow me to crank these things out on the regular. My head is already filled with dreams of this being a thing that grows and grows and runs for years to come.
So! Vertices Radio launches Tuesday. Be on the lookout. Be sure to ‘like’ if you dig it. This newsletter-thing has almost 1,500 subscribers. If the first episode gets 350 likes, I’ll keep the idea going.
A few more things before I jet…
Big thanks to everyone who pre-ordered Language Arts vinyl. The response was stronger than I expected it to be. Shit sold out in a few hours, which was very nice to see. The materials have been sent to the pressing plant. Hopefully things move quickly-ish. I’ll keep you up to date. Meanwhile, I’m working on plans for more vinyl reissues in the future. I also want to thank everyone who participated in the polls on Instagram. I really value your input.
Daydreams of vinyl reissues got me thinking about cassettes. I also think it would be cool to get cassettes made for albums that only ever came out on vinyl and CD. Like, a Square cassette would be kind dope. Man Overboard! I was thinking it could be dope to do the Dirtbike albums on cassette. We’ll see. I’m just spitballing.
Finally - as I’ve been digging through my archives recently, I’ve been coming across a lot of recordings of old live shows. That got me thinking about putting together a live album. I may start compiling. I’ll only do it if it’s dope. I’m not trying to cash-grab. But if I can find enough stuff that’s legit interesting, I’ll make it happen. Among the tapes I found was a performance at a skateboarding contest in Vancouver from 1995 or ’96 and it’s solid gold. The show went off the rails in the best possible way. You might get a kick out of parts of that. Anyway.
Oh, and one more thing: get your hands on that ShrapKnel/Controller 7 album. It’s incredible.
Tuesday. See you then.