The Bopst Show - Episode 17

by Chris Bopst

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• The Bopst Show — Episode 17

I couldn’t wait for this episode to hit the web. Like children, I love all the pocasts I have done for this stellar community based site, but I have to say that this show that I have christened, “The Headphone Masterpiece” is by far the best thing I have ever done for these good people. It isn’t a rehashing of what I did on the radio for years; it is something different.

It is a journey into sound.

I started off putting together the show as I always do during the early part of the week when I found out that Millie’s Diner, my long-time place of employment, was closing for the week to do some renovations. That meant that my nights for the next seven days were nobody’s but my own. What did I do with all this free time? Listen and you will hear. Some people like to sit on their asses when unexpected vacations fall into their laps but not me. I took this time to construct the following podcast in the hopes that the added effort I put into these 60 minutes would bring you a lifetime of unparalleled listening enjoyment. I mean, what else was I gonna do? Golf? I think not…

This show is greatly inspired by Negativland, the (mostly) one-man media obsessed sound manipulator from Concord, California that has been cranking out bizarre and most importantly, thoroughly listenable sound colleges for nearly 30 years. Their essential 1987 release, “Escape From Noise” is as close to pure genius as any record ever made. If you don’t know it, you should acquaint yourself with it at your soonest convenience. It is a masterpiece.

On this edition of the Bopst Show is the first time I have ever included anything for my own music making past. I always considered it cheating to play your own music during your own radio show or, in this case, podcast, but rules are meant to be broken. The name of the band is Mao Tse Helen and I played, recorded and performed with the group for a little over 4 years in the mid-90’s. The name of the tune is, “Miles to Hopewell” and it features yours truly on the tenor banjo, Ron Curry on the 5-string banjo, Brain Murchison on the Moog synthesizer and Chris Gallo providing the electronic beats. This wasn’t our usual instrumentation, but it was the direction I was pushing for when we called it quits. I took our original recording and had a whole mess of fun with it. I think it came out pretty good. It sounds just like Britney Spears.

And this is the point when the show took on a life of it’s own. After spending an inordinate amount of time remixing Mao, I was on a roll. I spent hours working on mere seconds of sound editing bits of Spiro Agnew speeches, John Deere promotional 45’s, porno film dialog, news clips and my own musical interludes with the usual assortment of sound effects that have come to define these (as of this writing) 17 shows I have done for RVA News. Putting this show together was the most fun I’ve had with audio in a good long time.

When I completed the final mix, I made my wife promise me that she would listen to it as it was constructed to be heard: on headphones. After she put our daughter to bed, she laid down on our couch and listened to the show in its entirety. As she listened, I sat in my beloved lazy boy pretending to read the Washington Post anxious to see what her reactions would be. I know that she is my wife and has to say complimentary things to her spouse about his obsessions, but she, and this is why I married her, doesn’t bullshit me. She calls it as she sees it. To make a long story short, she had every reaction that I hoped anyone listening to it would have; she laughed, she looked bewildered, she rolled her eyes and, near the end, she was shocked. She was shocked so much that we spent over 30 minutes debating if I should keep the barely 14 seconds of audio in question in the final mix. “The great thing about your old show is that so many different people listened to it and got exposed to things that they would not otherwise hear”, she pleaded, “But if you put that in the the final mix, a lot of people are going to be offended and won’t listen.” It is a good argument and one she has used many times before when I feel compelled to include questionable content in my shows. “I mean, what would happen if my Dad heard this? I don’t think he would be able to handle it.”

She’s right. He probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.

And that is the eternal dilemma. Why include obviously offensive material in a show that strives to turn people on to music? There is a simple reason for this: I think it’s funny. The moment in question that sparked my wife’s concern was trumped by the fact that I spent nearly 10 minutes convulsing in laughter when I put it together.

And that, to me, is the only justification needed.

The set list for this week’s show is posted on my MySpace page. Previous show set lists are on my blog.

Until Next Time:

Stay Clean,
BOPST

Previous Episodes

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16