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Random Tape

135 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 39 ratings

A cabinet of auditory wonders for the 21st century.

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Episodes

They Were Talking

January 31, 2012 19:48 - 1 minute - 1.44 MB

Philip Matthews is currently the Jr. Writer-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has appeared in Trapeze, Phati’tude, Poets for Living Waters, and Sonora Review. He is continually influenced by surreal visual and sound art, and works as a gallery assistant at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Welcoming the Water Angel

January 30, 2012 22:26 - 1 minute - 1.75 MB

I attended a fancy party where a beautiful woman modeled a dress that was hooked up to a garden hose. The dress sent streams of water into the sky and reminded my friend of this sad tale of enema addiction.

Jennifer Love

January 30, 2012 03:04 - 3 minutes - 2.51 MB

Today's episode of Random Tape features a song by artist Daryl Waits. You can find the track, Jennifer Love on the album Eastern Front & Digital Penetration at paradeco.com

Badass Emma-Oh Lord

January 27, 2012 21:31 - 51 seconds - 1.16 MB

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you’ve ever met.

Badass Emma-This Place

January 27, 2012 21:25 - 1 minute - 1.95 MB

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you’ve ever met.

Badass Emma-'85

January 27, 2012 08:30 - 2 minutes - 2.74 MB

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Badass Emma-Miss Clio

January 27, 2012 08:19 - 1 minute - 2.09 MB

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Badass Emma-Mr. Williams

January 26, 2012 01:49 - 1 minute - 1.33 MB

I was hanging out in Cabrini Park, a dog park in the French Quarter in New Orleans when Badass Emma saw my microphone and asked me to interview her. She told me the story of how she lost her dogs in Katrina and about her job as a cook. We talked about the good old days and the future of New Orleans. This is one of several vignettes that make up a portrait of one of the baddest ass women you've ever met.

Burn the River

January 25, 2012 06:02 - 43 seconds - 1010 KB

Thaddeus Conti is the self-proclaimed poet laureate of Hog Alley. This poem can be found in Thaddeus’s book

Pizza Cat

January 23, 2012 19:12 - 35 seconds - 544 KB

My girlfriend recorded this gem while doing interviews for a radio story about in New Orleans.

Mississippi River Barge

January 22, 2012 22:48 - 49 seconds - 567 KB

This is the song of the barge, bobbing on the river near Hopeville.

Posterity

January 21, 2012 06:34 - 7 minutes - 5.47 MB

I wore a wire for several years and secretly recorded my life. I recently produced for the radio show Wiretap. One of my ideas for the piece was to record myself calling up people from my past to explain that I had recorded them without their knowledge. This is a recording of one of those conversations. You can hear the Wiretap story here: http://www.cbc.ca/wiretap/episode/2012/01/20/man-vs-machine/

Organtics

January 20, 2012 09:39 - 3 minutes - 2.67 MB

"Nothing can stop us. Not even if they try. Not even if they want to, or ask the question why. Mr. Torino, why did you lie to me in seventh grade?" -Mark Excelle Mercer IV

Useless Evidence

January 19, 2012 07:19 - 3 minutes - 2.39 MB

Sometimes you wish audio had pictures.

Sellin the Dream

January 18, 2012 05:28 - 3 minutes - 3.56 MB

Most days you can find Tim Raines playing guitar on the corner of Ninth and Olive in downtown St. Louis. He's the electric guitar player with a stuffed bear dressed in prison garb perched on the lip of his guitar case.

In Praise of Noise

January 17, 2012 06:21 - 1 minute - 928 KB

James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Narrative. He has received the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. Charms Against Lightning, his debut poetry collection, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. During 2012 he will be in residence at the Amy Clampitt House in Lenox, Massachusetts. Photo by: Sean Hill

Clown Doll

January 16, 2012 05:10 - 32 seconds - 372 KB

When I was a kid I had this clown doll that would laugh when you pushed a button in its chest. It was terrifying. It's more the cackle of a chain-smoking maniac than the laughter of a clown but then again some clowns are heavy smokers.

Get on Fire!

January 13, 2012 00:10 - 1 minute - 1010 KB

I recorded this fiery sermon that I heard on the radio in West Virginia.

Another Successful Meal by Captain Tom

January 11, 2012 23:39 - 36 seconds - 555 KB

After a successful meal Captain Tom has no trouble patting himself on the back for a job well done.

Captain Tom Wins a Ham

January 11, 2012 00:21 - 1 minute - 1.61 MB

Back when I was a deckhand on the M.V. Ptarmigan, a glacier tour boat in Alaska, I used to hang out in the wheelhouse and listen to Captain Tom tell stories. I called him up recently and asked him to tell me the one about about the time he won a ham in a furthest listening contest.

Avacados (vox)Poppin

January 10, 2012 04:13 - 2 minutes - 1.88 MB

I spent an afternoon in the parking lot of the grocery store asking people to read me their grocery lists and these are a few of the responses i got.

Strawberries Oh My Gosh!

January 10, 2012 03:22 - 4 minutes - 4.34 MB

Bill Keaggy responded to postings by musicians on fiverr.com who offered to write and record a song for five dollars. He sent each of them a found grocery list and asked them to record a song inspired by the list. This is my favorite track from , an album of songs inspired by found grocery lists which you can download for absolutely free here: http://www.grocerylists.org/

Jackpot

January 08, 2012 23:16 - 1 minute - 1.12 MB

This is the sound of hundreds of electronic slot machines on the floor of Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis.

Factory Set

January 08, 2012 01:32 - 56 seconds - 872 KB

If you ever did any late night channel surfing between 1993 and 2001 you probably came across the legendary pitchman hollering about sports cards and Beanie Babies on the Shop at Home network. A friend of mine made a CD of some of the best and this is but a taste.

Gavin's Roar

January 06, 2012 17:21 - 1 minute - 800 KB

My cousin Gavin does the best T-Rex impersonation I’ve ever heard. It puts my terrible acting to shame.

The Dragon Does Not Wehbay!

January 05, 2012 20:25 - 52 seconds - 604 KB

Do you want the love of the fire? Cuz I’m not gonna wait around to give you my desire. For some reason an ex-girlfriend of mine gave her number to a guy who called himself The Dragon. Not surprisingly he left her a string of insane voice messages. These are just a few of The Dragon’s many attempts at wooing.

BrailleNote Apex

January 04, 2012 20:17 - 1 minute - 1.33 MB

This is the sound of Matthew Shifrin using his BrailleNote—a computer for the blind that pushes plastic nodes through tiny holes to display text in braille.

So Long Pujols

January 04, 2012 20:09 - 3 minutes - 2.75 MB

Five Days after I began broadcasting classical music over one of St. Louis' existing Christian stations Albert Pujols announced he was leaving the St. Louis Cardinals for the Los Angeles Angels. Now what does Albert Pujols have to do with JOY-FM you might be asking. Pujols was one of the major donors to the down payment fund for the purchase of KFUO. I propose Pujols take JOY-FM with him and in exchange we get one of L.A.’s classical stations. We would even settle for kMozart 1260 AM. For thi...

Radio Graffiti

January 04, 2012 20:07 - 1 minute - 1.75 MB

Classical music station KFUO in St. Louis was one of the oldest radio stations west of the Mississippi. The stationed was owned by the Lutheran church up until last year when On July 6th, 2010 KFUO broadcasted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor and then went silent. The following morning JOY-FM began it’s broadcast of Christian contemporary pop music. There are now six christian stations in St. Louis and zero classical stations. On Saturday December 3rd, I powered up the 40-watt FM transm...

Martial Law

January 03, 2012 04:49 - 4 minutes - 4.19 MB

My friend Casey was a holdout during Hurricane Katrina. He worked occasionally for a friend who owned Old Time Photo, one of those business where you take fake historical photos with your friends. On the night president Bush came to the city there was a seven-o-clock curfew. Casey was heading home at seven twenty when he had an encounter with a couple of state troopers. Casey tells the story of what happened next.

Larry's Thumb

January 03, 2012 04:34 - 1 minute - 1.44 MB

I was walking my dog the other night when I came across Larry Boutan sitting on a concrete wall drinking a beer. I noticed he was missing his right thumb so I asked him how he lost it. This is the story of that fateful night when a large woman started hurling canned goods at him…

Just Molly and Me

January 03, 2012 04:27 - 1 minute - 1.62 MB

Francis Matherne was the organist at St. Henry’s catholic church in New Orleans for 25 years. A while back he brought some of his poems over to my house so I could record them. This is a short clip from that recording session.

Goddamn Great Drum Music

January 03, 2012 04:07 - 3 minutes - 3.18 MB

I came across this LP from 1963 that features three naked women playing bongos on the cover. It’s one of the most inexplicable recordings I’ve ever heard. Each side is a single fourteen-minute track of what appears to be two people having sex on a rusty bed while a man plays the bongos and shouts in what may or may not be a real language. I give you the final two minutes of side A. Now that’s what I call goddamn great drum music!

Broken Brain

January 03, 2012 03:46 - 3 minutes - 2.75 MB

These voice messages were left on my friend Danny’s phone by his dad. They are two of my all-time favorites. We’ll never know how the second message ends. The machine cut Danny’s dad off mid-message.

Faisdodo's Stomach

January 02, 2012 22:35 - 42 seconds - 651 KB

I was reading in bed one night when I heard a strange sound coming from the foot of my bed...

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