boston progress radio

So today, I got up in the morning and got over to my computer to check my e-mail and the latest news. I flip to my preferred RSS Feed Reader and what do I find? Angry Asian Man has given Boston Progress Radio some love. And on top of that, he’s actually been listening to the stream. If that motivates you to listen to our stream, that’s cool, but you should realize a couple of things about BPR:

• We do not play music from musicians from Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, etc. Our focus is on Asian American music. (”There are no Asians in Asia.”) It is not that we don’t like that kind of music. We just want to introduce the world to the awesome music that Asian Americans make. And that includes music of all genres. We make an effort not to discriminate. Of course, the question of “what is Asian American” cannot be answered easily.
• We do not have DJs. We are a volunteer, grassroots, community-based organization. We do not have the resources of Clear Channel (and we don’t want to be a Clear Channel). We do not even have the resources that ImaginAsian Radio has. Hence, our play list is automated. We pre-program the play list. One day, we would like to have DJs and take requests, but we do not have the listener-base to justify doing so right now.

However, we still want to hear your opinions. We especially want to hear what music you’ve heard that we haven’t heard. And keep on supporting your independent artists.

Tags: Commentary, News.

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It is a lazy Saturday afternoon and I’ve done all my weekend chores. I noticed that I’ve got a stack of CDs sitting on my desk here waiting to be put up on the radio. Yeah, I’ve been slacking with the play list updates. Part of it is because I’m not sure how many unique individuals are out there actually listening. Nobody writes me to tell me what they like, what they don’t like and what they’d like to hear more of. Of course, not everyone has the desire to listen to online radio. And sometimes, it isn’t that convenient. And then there is iTunes giving you easy access to music that you can buy and listen to over and over and over.

Whether or not there are many listeners doesn’t really matter. I hope that maybe someone out there will listen to our radio station and be introduced to music from somebody they don’t know. Somebody who isn’t played on the Top 40 stations in your local town. Somebody who doesn’t have a video on VH1 or MTV. But somebody who makes good, honest, from-the-heart music that will move you in ways you never thought you could be moved.

Here are this week’s update to the BPR play list. Listen in and let us know what you think.

Alfa Garcia recently released a new EP entitled Growth. We’ve been playing her track “The Lament” off of the Compilasians album, so she is not really new to the station. But I don’t think we said much about her at that time. According to Feliza Merisol, “Born and raised in a family of classical musicians, Alfa Garcia is anything but traditional. A trained classical musician, Alfa’s talent is well served in the singer/songwriter genre, where her rich, soulful voice and lyrical insight bespeak a maturity far beyond her tender years… Beautiful and graceful, yet with an earthy bent, Alfa’s music touches lingeringly and lightly, but with deeper, thoughtful intent.”

While browsing myspace, I found David S. H. Wong. He is a folk musician whose voice sounds a lot like Bob Dylan’s. Each of the songs from July With Fireworks are thoughtful and seem to tell us a little story. I really appreciate David taking time out of his busy schedule to send us his CD. I’m really digging his breathy, yet somewhat restrained voice.

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Tags: News, Online Radio.

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I’m sure nobody has noticed, but I’m embarking on a short series of Appreciation Posts here on BPRLive, dedicated to API trailblazers on the scene in music and performance. This is the third installment, and perhaps the most controversial. I am writing an entry to pay tribute to the hardest working man in show business: William Hung.

This is not some ironic hipster “so uncool that it’s cool” thing; I have a genuine affection for the man from whom so many folks wanted to distance themselves. I’m not going to link to the YouTube video because we all know what happened. William – an engineering student at Cal – walked into auditions for “American Idol,” a television show that has been incredibly lame since its third episode, and sang an a cappella version of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs.” Many people describe his performance as “off-key,” but go back and listen kids; that was spot on. It wasn’t that his singing was off-key, it was that his singing lacked charisma, and thus wasn’t very good. But more importantly to mainstream America, he looked like a kid who wasn’t supposed to have confidence in his artistic abilities: he was a short Asian man, obviously an immigrant, obviously booksmart, and a little awkward in that environment.

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Tags: Appreciation, Commentary.

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Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague from one of Boston’s finest music schools. We were talking about diversity in schools of music, and this colleague told me that this school was actively recruiting Latino/a students, Black students, and international students. But not Asian American students. Hmmm. The Asian American student population at this school was pretty low, especially as far as higher education goes. Hmmm.

I mean, by the sheer number of Asian American youth that are involved in piano lessons, violin lessons, or whatever, this seems like a shock. Aren’t Asian Americans interested in music? Or do we just care about learning how to play the Midnight Sonata, or Fur Elise, or some other wow-me-showoff-your-kid piece?

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Tags: Commentary.

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August 30, 2007
9:00 pm	to	11:59 pm

Head on over to T.T. the Bear’s Place at 10 Brookline Street, Cambridge, MA (near Central Square) to check out Forget the Girl. They’ll be playing with Trebek and Coraburn. The show is 18+ and the cover is $8.

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So, a little while back, I had the pleasure of chatting with Josh, Chris, Nathan and Phil, better known as the 4 guys from Seriously. Seriously? Seriously.

I thought it was going to be a little weird, me sitting at home at 11pm chatting with these 4 cool super famous guys, but it wasn’t at like that at all. Like they said, they’re just four ordinary guys who love music. And yeah, they’re pretty funny too.

Delia: hi! so seriously guys…. can we do some quick introductions so we all know who you are?

Phil: Philip Park - Drummer

Josh: joshua baek. bass.

Chris: christopher pham lead singer acoustic guitar

Nathan: Nathan Park- Electric Guitarist

Chris: only vietnamese in the band too. amongst 3 Koreans.

Delia: can you tell me a little bit about how you all came to be a band?

Josh: basically we formed on a whim for a talent show that we didn’t know about till a few weeks prior.

Delia: that was the first time you all played together?

Josh: i’m pretty sure it was either the talent show, or video games at home. we practiced for the show a few times. there was already a set song, so we just had to learn it real fast.

Nathan: we had some previous experience playing with each other though. from church praise team and random jams.

Delia: cool.

Josh: if there’s chemistry it’s easy.

Delia: did any of you have dreams of getting on american idol or anything?

Nathan: fasho fasho

Josh: chris wanted to be the next vietnamese top model, but he ended up just playing there.

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Tags: Interview.

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Another month has passed, feels like time is flying by. This month’s East Meets Words Open Mic Series featured the talented Ms. Melissa Li. The Open Mic Series this month featured a great cast of performers. Every performer shot straight from their heart and it was one of the more inspirational open mics. Vinh the Kid was normally the first one to perform for the Open Mic but he was a no show this month so Kit Yan, the featured artist for the month of September started things off. Kit performed a moving piece dedicating to his home island of Hawaii. Delia followed up by reading two pieces, one in which she wrote in College and one about the recent events that’s been happening in her life in which she titled “The D Word.” Febo was up next and with inspiration from Kit, performed a powerful piece addressing truth in society. Ash performed a moving piece dedicated to his mother and Joey B performed a piece reminding us all about our past with that special someone. A new performer came onto the stage by the name of Afro-D who blew us all away with his piece about the Racial Race in America. Giles covered a piece by Jason Bayani and the Two Warriors performed next and taught us all how to be true warriors through peace and love. Charles concluded this month’s Open Mic Series by performing a couple of untitled raps.

As mentioned before, this month’s feature was Melissa Li. A singer/songwriter from Boston, she wrote a musical called “Surviving the Nian” which received some well-deserved praise  this past year. She shared her recent experience being on the “Hong Kong Karaoke Idol.” Melissa Li displayed her multi-talents by playing her guitar to near perfection. Her style was unlike any other as she pour her life stories into her songs and we were privileged for her to share it with us in the audience. She was truly an original one of a kind performer.

[Editors' Note: Stay tuned for some highlights from August's open mic.]

Tags: Open Mic, Recaps.

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Guest blogger Dandiggity in New York City hosting a showcase at the
2007 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit on 8.04.2007. Photo by An Xiao.

From the events that transpired last week all I have to say is, I’m glad to be back home in Bay Area weather! Nothing against you New York, it’s just I couldn’t stand sweating so much while doing so little, anymore. Okay, now that I got that out of the way, my thoughts about the Summit.Big ups to Hanalei (and her hustle) and the organizers for putting in two years worth of work in less than two months. Without your efforts fam, we would have no summit and I feel that would have caused us as a community to suffer. This summit is important; it is a “space” for us. “Us” meaning the poets, emcees, writers, activists who all have tried to find something different, a place that oozed of familiarity and love. That spoke to the inner core of our souls. That spoke to the creased corners of our eyes. That spoke to the yellow and brown on our surface. That spoke to the philosophies of our cultures. That spoke to “us.” This space is important and to have that taken away from us, we who are still trying to define our voice, would be leaving us without a home to go to. Read more

Tags: Commentary, Recaps.

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