Repost: Stranger Than Fiction Pt. 1

(Reposting this DJ-less mix I put together years ago):
Around 1980 I discovered that, late Thursday nights, some DJ was playing strange, alien music. My appetite was whetted by Devo, Pink Floyd and strange bands I had read about in Heavy Metal magazine (having nothing to do with the genre of music that would later take its name) and I wanted more. The discovery of KBOO’s Stranger than Fiction completely opened the door to new, exciting music for me, and I’ve never looked back. The hosts of STF – the enigmatic Mr. B and Equinox – played a combination of New Wave, skinny-tie pop, novelty music (Barnes and Barnes, Bonzo Dog Band, etc.) and lots of acts that straddled Prog and Post-Punk (Gabriel, Fripp, Hammill). Thier show was like a complete education in alternative music and it really saved me in those lost years of being a weird, alien-feeling teenager, even if it meant that my friends would never let me play my mix-tapes at parties.

Eventually, Mr. B and Equinox expanded the program to handle early and late shifts, Mr. B starting at 1:00 AM, playing mostly newly released import singles and Equinox taking over duties at 3:00, playing lots of ambient music, prog and space rock until morning. I used to go home from school on Thursdays and go right to sleep so that I could stay up all night drawing comics while the show was on. I even taped a lot of it, but the tapes sound horrid now. As the eighties gave way to rock video, STF’s programming went a little too mainstream for my tastes and I was getting into hardcore punk by then. I don’t even recall when they finally went off the air.

the tracks I chose for this mix were songs that were either played often on their show, or played once and really made an impression on me.

I dedicate this mix to all late night DJs out there, playing new, weird music for alienated kids.

Play

Download (90 mins. 82 megs. @ 128kbps)

Playlist:

1. Godley & Creme – Freeze Frame
2. XTC – Senses Working Overtime
3. Lene Lovich – Lucky Number
4. The Normal – tvod
5. Robert Fripp – Disengage
6. Fad Gadget – Ricky’s Hand
7. Karel Fialka – The Eyes Have It
8. The Fabulous Poodles - Mirror Star
9. Gary Numan – I Dream Of Wires
10. Robert Palmer – I Dream Of Wires
11. The The – This is the Day
12. Peter Hammill – Now More Than Ever
13. The Silicone Teens – Memphis Tennessee
14. Fred Frith – Dancing In The Street
15. Hawaiian Pups – Baby Judy
16. Midnight Oil – Tin Legs and Tin Mines
17. Public Image Ltd. – Pied Piper
18. M – Pop Muzik
19. Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
20. Boomtown Rats – Whitehall 1212
21. The Psychedelic Furs – Pulse
22. Laurie Anderson – Sharkey`s Day
23. Morgan Fisher, et. al. – Excerpt from Miniatures

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