Do you watch Lost?  Does that disembodied broadcast of repeating numbers freak you the fuck out?  Did Sinistar send your four-year-old self screaming for your mommy?

Sinistar:

Some of this is probably common knowledge, but it is worth a repost once in a while.

From the Wikipedia entry about Number Stations:

“Numbers stations (or number stations) are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women’s, though sometimes men’s or children’s voices are used.”

I don’t know about you, but I get real nervous whenever I hear a repetitive, disembodied voice.  The worst moments were during my childhood when television stations were still run by people - occasionally something would go awry and you’d get either a blank screen or a static logo of the station you were watching accompanied by a voice saying,

“We are having technical difficulties.  Please stand by.”

[pause of 15 seconds or so]

“Please stand by.”

“Please stand by.”

“Please stand by.”

And then I would run hysterically and hide behind the couch.  I wonder why it never occurred to me to change the channel or turn the television off.  At any rate, I still have these vestigal twinges of panic whenever the Emergency Broadcast System tests come on the radio.  Part of me hates it because of its automated and mechanical nature, and another part of me loves it because hey, potential apocalypse.

One of the more interesting Numbers Stations is UVB-76.  Also from Wikipedia:

“UVB-76 is the callsign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM full carrier). It’s known among radio listeners by the nickname “The Buzzer“. It features a short, monotonous buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.^[1]

In rare occasions the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place. Only three such events have been noted.

There is much speculation; however, the actual purpose of this station remains unknown.”

More info from Wikipedia:  “The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD set of recordings of numbers stations, mysterious shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies “in the field”. The collection was released by England’s Irdial-Discs record label in 1997, based on the work of numbers station enthusiast Akin Fernandez…  In keeping with its ‘Free Music Philosophy’,^[3] the Irdial-Discs label has made the entire collection available for download in MP3 form (along with a PDF version of the included booklet) on its website completely free of charge and encourages fans to freely distribute it on file sharing networks.”

So what the hell is all this stuff?  Please stand by.

Despite that title, get ready for something tasty.

Bobby Emmett, former organ/piano-bass player in the Sights, is streaming his new solo record in its entirety on his myspace page. The album is unabashed powerpop, with big nods to Boston, the Raspberries and Sloan. Full of guitarmonies, handclaps and vocal gymnastics, the basic tracks were cut in Dave Cobb’s studio in LA, with Cobb on drums and Bobby on guitar, and overdubs were done by Bobby and pals Chuck Bartell and Matt Thibodeau at his house, strictly sticking to a vintage gear path and “no plugins.” He even had Jay Ferguson and Lyle Workman (who, despite being far more well known for other reasons, will always be known to me as one of the guys who played lead guitar on Spilt Milk) stop in for cameos.

Best Bobby quote from his recent Cribs and Rides article: “If the Beatles were around today some dumbass would be autotuning it.” So true. The charming personality of left-in flubs, like Paul saying “Oh fuck!” on the piano track of “Hey Jude,” would surely be ”sorted out in Tools” these days. Not to say that this is a warts-and-all record by any means - no doubt Bobby worked hard to make everything as perfect as possible (and used Pro Tools to do so). But I appreciate (as Bobby notes on his myspace page) that he and Greg Gordon manually mixed the record using all four of their hands on the board, manually adjusting panning, volume, etc, adding one more human element so that even the mix is a performance. Listening to the unintentional disparities between the mono and stereo mixes of the recent Beatles reissues is a reminder of that element that’s since been lost in most automated modern mixing.

So kudos to Bobby for finishing the record and doing it his way. It takes some guts to bust out the credit card and make an uncompromising record of professional quality by yourself, especially a record that may never be performed live (since he’s now a touring member of Shooter Jennings’ band and the album is performed by a group of people that have never all been in the same room together). Despite all odds, the record is completed, sounding fantastic and offered up for you to enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/bobbyemmett

This is more Zach’s territory, but check out this awesome video of Megadeth and fighting:

This is more Dave’s territory, but check out this awesome video of an 11 year old Billy Preston performing with Nat King Cole: