Garage Rock Revival, or the Freshman

High school memories pretty much consist of writing in a journal late at night while listening to The Spy. The Spy was a radio station called KINB. KINB started off as a contemporary Christian station based in a little town called Kingfisher. It died and was resurrected as a talk station called The Sports Animal. Gradually and very late at night, The Sports Animal began playing alternative rock on its program K-Spy. By the time I started listening to it, it was just The Spy. The reception was so spotty that I could only listen to it at night in the car, but they streamed it on the internet long after it was off the air. One night I was listening to the The Cure, and the next morning it was some kind of Ranchera music. I was pretty pissed.

Years later, I flipped channels again and heard my beloved Spy. It was back, and back with a vengeance. Too bad the reception still sucked, and the internet stream didn't work on my computer. I ignored it until it came back in another life as The Martini, which plays pretty much anybody who was in the Rat Pack.

The moral of the story is that good radio stations are bought and sold every day by major broadcast holders like Citadel, Cumulus and Clear Channel. That is why the music on the radio generally sucks, and a guy named Ferris O'Brien is my hero. These days, you can still listen to The Spy as it streams live on the internet, thanks to Ferris O'Brien.

It was through The Spy that I discovered my love for all things music-related. I became completely obsessed with garage rock revival (post-punk revival, New Wave revival, or new rock revolution). At one point, I wanted to be a music journalist. It was mostly so I could get albums for free and be the first to listen to them.