Month: December 2021

The Podcast Version of Last Night’s show is ready for you to enjoy.

Join us for music by: The Eyes (1960’s), The Gories, Last of The Juanitas, Eleventh Dream Day, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Wipers, Bishop of Battle, Black Sabbath, Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra, Debris, Dead Moon, Kevin Shields, Shot Reverse Shot, Jandek, Low, Fats Waller, Stella Star, Richard Brautigan, Dimuzio & Wobbly and The Short Pockets for an end-of-the-year blowout that will leave you stranded in Outer Space… or… hiding from the rest of the world, anyway?
https://midvalleymutations.com/2021/12/28/the-cave-of-night/

Favorite memory of Feyd:



When I first met Marla, her cat hated me. For about 6 years solid, she would just hiss and growl at me, and really only liked me if I fed her, or cleaned the box, or something like that. She should push her way between me and Marla, insisting to act as the decency monitor during the “early” years of our relationship. 



When Marla was out of town, Feyd would get mad, and would occasionally refuse to come to bed at night. Then, usually in the middle of the night, I would find Feyd on Marla’s side of the bed, trying to pretend she wasn’t there for the company.

Finally, she started to accept me after a half-decade of trying to win her over. She would sit on my lap and take naps with me, snuggled up close so she could steal my warmth.

But still trying to prevent Marla from being able to get close to me. 



I’m gonna miss Feyd more than I can say. But I’m looking forward to renewed intimacy in the relationship Marla and I have been trying to cultivate.



But I already miss her terribly.

Goodbye, Feyd. The world is worse off without you.

(Here she is driving her Taco Truck, with Oryx riding on top like some sort of Teenwolf.)

It’s been a hell of a week, for sure. Howard & I urge you to listen to our show of Sheena’s Jungle Room on WFMU! tonight to recover. We are in that very special place right now, between Christmas & New Year’s where emotions are high and so are we from all the drinking. We’re feeling isolated and weird… we’re in the cave of night, for sure. Join me for rock music and and old time radio story… as I celebrate the end of the year the only way I know how. Tune in! Live chat starts at 6 PM PST.

We could all use a break, certainly.

Tomorrow… on our program…

Are you ready to enter The Cave of Night?

It’s time to celebrate the end of the year, yes. But with everything that’s been going on, you probably want to crawl into a cave and hide, maybe never to be seen again?

If that is the case, then we have the end-of-the-year Isolation Celebration that is perfect for you as you hide out in your recharging pod for the foreseeable future.

Join us for music by: The Eyes (1960’s), The Gories, Last of The Juanitas, Eleventh Dream Day, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Wipers, Bishop of Battle, Black Sabbath, Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra, Debris, Dead Moon, Kevin Shields, Shot Reverse Shot, Jandek, Low, Fats Waller, Stella Star, Richard Brautigan, Dimuzio & Wobbly and The Short Pockets for an end of the year blowout that will leave you stranded in Outer Space… or… hiding from the rest of the world, anyway?

It’s time to enter The Cave of Night. Only on Mid-Valley Mutations.

When we lived in St. Johns (in the shadow of the UFO, as I liked to say), we got snowed in one day, which turned into several days of missed work and February Sloth. On the morning that we woke up to snow, and I discovered that work was canceled, I immediately recorded this “Snow Day” episode of my program. (At the time, using the name “Blasphuphmus Radio.”) This show from seven years ago still works pretty good today, especially on a day when you wake up to find a few inches of snow in your yard.

https://midvalleymutations.com/2014/02/09/snow-day/

This year has been another mess, as usual. And I could probably spend a lot of time documenting the things that went wrong. But I’m going to try and do something that doesn’t come easy to me: make a list of the things that went right. Maybe this will be more therapeutic than difficult, but either way, it might be worth it to try and remember the things that went well in a year that felt more like it was on fire than anything else.

1.) I kicked off the year with a new album by Mini-Mutations (wtbc.bandcamp.com/merch/reading-nancy-listening-to-irv-teible-cd). It contains some of the best live performances from the previous iterations of live Mini-Mutations from the previous years, and one original piece that you can only get on this album (a song about Reading Nancy Comics, one of my favorite things to do during the Pandemic). And: you can’t stream it anywhere… yet.

2.) I also released a new album and split 7” by Shot Reverse Shot (shotreverseshot.bandcamp.com). This was my “sci-fi concept music” band, with a continuing narrative, rock songs connective tissue, and electronic “story segments” with a voice-over narrator. The 7” is a split with Seattle’s Half Eye, a band that’s been around since the 90’s but had never released a 7” before. Also: you can’t stream this album yet, but a re-mix is pending that may get a streaming re-release.

3.) I began sending “musical postcard” every month to everyone on my mailing list (a designed postcards with QR code links to music that you can only find with the QR codes). There was either a “single” by a more “rock music” type project, or 30 minutes of new experimental music, on each card. With all the material that I assembled for these postcards, there was over six hours of new material by Mini-Mutations, Shot Reverse Shot, The Olsen Twins Ghostlight Ensemble, DEATH MUTATIONS, The Eleven-SixtyFours, The Short Pockets, Asthenosphere and a spoken word release under my own name. (austinrich.org/postcards/). A collection of this work is coming in 2022.

4.) The postcards became such a hit, The Eugene Weekly ran a story about my “musical postcards,” a project that was only a couple months in at the point they ran the story, has has been completed since. (https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2021/01/21/the-postman/)

5.) I went to the DMV, got fleeced by their staff, and came out with the title of my car in my name for the first time. “Look at me! I’m a motorist!”

6.) From working on the postcards, I launched some new musical projects: The Eleven-SixtyFours (theeleven-sixtyfours.bandcamp.com), my super-stripped-down punk band, and Asthenosphere (wtbc.bandcamp.com/merch/november-2021-asthenosphere-e-space-p), an experimental collaboration with Moth Hunter (mothhunter.bandcamp.com) that was eight years in the making. It also motivated me to record new material with The Olsen Twins Ghostlight Ensemble and DEATH MUTATIONS, both projects I really enjoy and the work we did came out great.

7.) Working in My 2021 Music Exchange group, myself and Deejay Embryonicpetitsac (petitsac.bandcamp.com) decided to work on a new duo, where we collaborated at a distance to whip up something half way between our sensibilities. Together, we released our horror noise epic, “Salientia” by IVO (wtbc.bandcamp.com/merch/ivo-salientia-cassette), which is out on Sweatband Records cassette label, or I can get you one, too.

8.) My 2020 Music Exchange Group (The “Slightly Less Weird Group”) got organized and released a collection of the music we mailed to each other in 2020. It’s now available on CD or digitally. (wtbc.bandcamp.com/album/from-our-house-to-yours-2020-collection).

9.) In the summer, Jessica invited me to host a “Pop-Up” sale of my various ’zines, music and other oddities at The Art Department, which motivated me to finish a number of projects that were “in-progress.” This event was a huge success, and solidified my place in the Art Department community. (Which would pay off for me later in the year.)

10.) Between June and October of this year I recorded 16 punk songs for The Eleven-SixtyFours, including an EP and two Singles of original tunes, and an EP of covers. These songs were intentionally written quickly, recorded quickly, mixed quickly, and published quickly, in an effort to work in a way contrary to how I usually work. Where Shot Reverse Shot (my band project from 2020) involved a ton of planning and careful assembly / plotting, The Eleven-SixtyFours were all composed on the spot. (theeleven-sixtyfours.bandcamp.com)

11.) I landed a part time job at The Art Department! This not only gives me a little income adjacent to the kind of creative work I’m already doing, but has plugged me into the Salem community in a way I was really looking for. I feel like I’m fitting in quite well.

12.) I was contacted by Old Nick’s Pub, and was asked to assemble a short set of Mini-Mutations for the show that Negativland played in Eugene this year. The next day, Negativland contacted me, asking if I could run their merch for the Portland and Eugene shows on the same West Coast Tour. Double Masked, and getting to live out one of my dreams, I got to spend two-days with Negativland, filming them and running their merch. Colin Hix joined me in the Mini-Mutations performance, for a new re-formulation of a piece I took my first pass at in 2020. (Colin originally introduced me to Negativland’s music in the early ’90’s, so it only made sense that he join me.)

13.) In spite of the Pandemic, I still assembled new performances / videos of Mini-Mutations material, totaling three live performances of new stuff (about an hour of new material). This has taken the project into “composed experimental” territory, where I’m actually writing the backing music and carefully assembling the voice samples in a dramatic order, rather than improvising electronic drones with collaged vocal samples on top. Mini-Mutations has evolved quite a bit in a way I’m really enjoying.

14.) Over three weekends, Colin, Capps and myself formed The Short Pockets, wrote and recorded six songs, and then, over a couple months, actually learned how to play the songs for a show we played in front of a real audience at Old Nick’s Pub, where we got paid for the performance! A huge success, in my mind. (theeshortpockets.bandcamp.com) There will be more from The Short Pockets in 2022.

15.) Over the year I recorded 32 new episodes of my Pandemic Project Radio show, Somewhere In-Between: A Radio Zine, which is my half-hour community radio talk show that is broadcast on KMUZ.org. (betweenradiozine.com) This show is a much more DIY, and funny, version of “This American Life,” where I record a few episodes, then re-run a few episodes, and create new, short stories about my life in small town, Oregon. There’s also music and comedy.

16.) I launched a new podcast with my friend Wendella, 20 Minutes Into The Future: A Max Headroom Podcast, where we watched and talked about different episodes of my favorite TV show, and actually got to interview some of the writers and creators behind the show! We only made 14 episodes so far, but we have several more in the can that just need to be produced. We hope in 2022 to get back into the habit of making new episodes. (We’re still sitting on at least one more interview listeners haven’t heard, and we’ve only reviewed a fraction of the Max content that’s out there. Certainly there’s more to come! (20minutesintothefuture.org)

17.) Through a series of events, Mid-Valley Mutations (my experimental radio program that has been on the air in some form since 1998), finally moved to Sheena’s Jungle Room on WFMU!, a streaming radio station that is a part of the WFMU family. We’re finally back on Tuesday Night’s, where I do a little something different and strange every week. (midvalleymutations.com)

18.) Marla and I bought one thing we intended to, and one thing we didn’t plan on: our house, and a new fridge.

There’s probably tons of things I forgot. But there’s probably plenty of things I’m making a bigger deal about than I should. But why not? After all, we might as well count our successes, no matter how small, when we’re taking stock of the year.

If you want some old-fashioned radio fun for the Holidays, then this two-hour dip into music and audio from “TV Shows” and other sources will be your cup of tea. Tom Peterson Commercials! Songs about Scrooge! Selections from Lux Interior’s Personal Holiday Mix Tape! And So Much more! Tune in, for a great holiday music show (with a Christmas Story by Richard Brautigan at the end that you won’t want to miss). It’s Christmas, Mid-Valley Mutations style! (4 of 4)

https://midvalleymutations.com/2018/12/21/christmas-tv-special-128/

Certainly, if you subscribe to the “Holiday Memories” podcast feed, you’ll find over 100 hours of holiday programming, from all the various shows that I’ve done over the years. Live performances, experimental, fun holiday tunes, and other audio oddities. I’ve selected four of my favorites from the last 10 years of shows. Here’s a show from ten years ago, that offers two hours of mutated holiday musical selections, AND the story of Christmas, too! It’s an old example of what Mid-Valley Mutations used to sound like! And now it’s a holiday classic. (1 of 4)

https://midvalleymutations.com/2011/12/17/the-origins-of-christmas/

Today, on “Somewhere In-Between: A Radio Zine”: one of my Holiday Traditions in recent years has been to take back Christmas from the Upbeat Holiday tunes and the endless cavalcade of, “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holiday” greetings, so that we can get back to what this holiday used to be all about: reading horror stories with loved ones on a cold winter day, when your own survival through the season might actually be in question. This year, I’m reading “The Kit-Bag,” by Algernon Blackwood on KMUZ at 10:30 AM, a story about someone trying to pack for a Christmas Vacation only to find the recent horrors of modern life begin to actually creep into his bedroom at night. Make sure to call the family in from the other room for this one, and turn the lights out. (I know it’s only just after breakfast, but it really adds to the mood.)

One of my Pandemic Projects has been this half-hour “talk / radio magazine” style show, where I play music and tell stories that relate to working my way through the world. When I pitched the show and recorded the pilots, the Pandemic wasn’t even a threat yet, so I had this vision that it would become Salem’s “This American Life.” Instead, it’s sort of become a radio journal for me, where I try to process what we’re doing and how it’s been going, all while trying to stay as upbeat as possible. Sometimes I’ve been more and or less successful, depending on what’s been happening in my immediate personal life.

But it has been fun to try a different kind of radio. Historically, I hosted DJ shows, shows with live music and experimental shows, so to try and produce short, little stories that would be appropriate for families with an almost community focus was a very different thing for me to do. But I had a vision for “my take” on this kind of show, and I think it’s sort of worked. In 18 months I’ve produced 54 issues, and I’ve gotten to make some pretty fun episodes, too.

I’ve always liked the idea of being a “voice” on radio. I don’t want to pretend I am better at this than others, or even that this show is “essential.” It’s really just fun stories and bits for people to hear on the radio, which I enjoy making. But I like the little niche that I’ve carved out for this show in the radio world. It’s just a snapshot of my perspective of the universe, and a slice of the kinds of radio stories that I wish I could tune in for more often.

I have a New Year’s show in the can, and some plans for 2022. My hope is to record at least 20 new RadioZine’s this year. Maybe you want to get involved? Like many ’zines: we have an open submission policy.

Enjoy this holiday horror story. We’ve got more fun coming soon.

Be Seeing You.

Every year I’ve lived in Salem, there has been a lot of promises of “holiday winter weather.” So far, the most we’ve gotten is a little dusting occasionally, or snow that doesn’t really stick. (I don’t think the ice storm counts.) 

Does anyone ever believe we’ll actually get snow when we get the forecasts?

Now that my holiday show is over: is there music where the holiday season is mentioned in the song, but is otherwise not a holiday song. Example: “Christmas Vacation” by The Descendants, which mentions a number of holiday tropes, but isn’t really a holiday song in the slightest.

Other examples?

I got curious about how many different radio broadcasts I’ve made over the years. I haven’t kept the best records, and certainly these numbers are probably off (either over or under) by a substantial amount. I did some rounding (always down) to keep myself honest, and I’m sure I’ve left out a lot of stuff. (I only added +40 for “other radio appearances,” when I know that number is probably much higher, but I just don’t have an easy way to measure it.)

Anyway, I did just over a year of weekly shows at KWVA, before moving to Portland, where I did a “handful” of OPB broadcasts, and about 300 KPSU shows. I also did 100 episodes of Live Friday, and 26 Episodes of “A Momentary Lapse of Reason,” the show I did with Miss Rikki. I probably ran sound for / guested on about 70 or so episodes of “What’s This Called?,” and I’ve now done 230 episodes of Mid-Valley Mutations at a few different stations. (Which doesn’t includes new shows I ran in-between officially numbered episodes of MVM… and probably a bunch of other things I’ve forgotten, too.)

Total radio appearances: using my “rounded down” math, I estimate that I’ve been in about 839 different radio broadcasts over the last 23 years.

I have recordings of quite a few of them, most available online.

I don’t pretend to say that’s more than my peers, or that it’s a particularly meaningful number. It’s as arbitrary as any. (It doesn’t include any of the podcasts I’ve done, which are a separate thing, I guess?) I don’t suspect that number will help me earn any cred.

But I certainly didn’t think it was that high yet.

Damn, that’s a lot of radio. Maybe I need a vacation someday?