My introduction to Kurt Ballou of Converge came from a show they played with Cave In; a band that I was / am good friends with. I was unaware that Kurt knew who I was at all no less that I had played in a post-hardcore group in the early '90s so I was a bit taken back with giggles when he began to sing "Milk", a song my old band was best known for, in a funny falsetto voice. Without any actual conversation this acted as a code of sorts because since we weren't a well know band, it meant Kurt was probably A) within my age group and B) was aware of the whole scene of music that came out of that time period / played similar music. Our friendship grew out of that one silly moment backstage at a show in Richmond, VA and from that point on, with music almost always being our catalyst, we have remained in touch.
Our nearly ten year friendship has been a real life version of a Cause & Effect so he was the perfect candidate to do a show for me. He isn't just a band guy, or a studio owner, he is unbelievably passionate music fan. It brought me enormous joy when Kurt said he would pick two hours of music that reflect his musical history and in turn help to tell a portion of Converge's story. It is rare to have this kind of personal insight to a band and I can't thank Kurt enough for taking the time to do this.
Tonight from 7pm to 9pm I will only play music picked by Kurt plus try to explain how some of those puzzle pieces fit into their story. There are some tracks I think people are expecting to hear like Rorschach or Sick of It All but a traditional Appalachian folk song played by a Gothic Americana band (who knew that was even a genre?)? I don't think so! The show is a terrific balance of the expected and unexpected and I think fans will be interested to hear which four Converge songs Kurt picked and why too.
The tracklisting will be posted as the show progresses at www.wrir.org and at the end of the show I will also post all the notes he has given me about the songs so you can read in Kurt's exact words, why he picked each song. You can stream the show live from the station website and I will be posting a podcast within 24 hours of the show as well. I will post links to it here and on the WRIR site.
Facebook calendar reminder is here : http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=189825827697951
Here is the link to the set list and Kurt's notes about his song choices.
Here is the download to the show from tonight in case you missed it.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7oraxz
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