Of course, life loves to get in the way like a herd of sheep on a back road. Then we tend to lean on our comforts. So what could be more comforting than another all-cover song episode? Truth be told, we both enjoyed our previous all-cover episode #9, and had originally planned for #13 and 14 to be a double podcast. But along the way, the two drifted apart in concept and here we are.

Fortunately for our tightly focused listening audience, Magic Junk Radio 14: Brain Smoke still released less than 3 weeks later. Clocking in at a smoky 32:10, MJR 14 consists of four TV themes, a late 70’s song, a late 90’s song, a classical remix, and a SW battle song to warm your heart. Be sure to leave us some feedback if you have a minute. It could help save the life of a lonely blog post. Thanks and cheers.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3] - 44.2 MB
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

MJR 14 Content of Tables:
1. If You Can Find Them
2. MJR Theme Song
3. Something To Be Great At
4. Hovercraft With No Name
5. Case of Lust
6. Time To Turn The Page
7. Squiggy Pop
8. Itch Von Scratch
9. Kill Love Kill
10. The Average Hater
11. One More Pass
12. Glad You Came

If you’ve never listened to Magic Junk Radio before, this is NOT the quintessential episode to start with (we highly recommend Episodes #8 through 12 for our bread and butter). No, this episode is our black sheep. The one that doesn’t look, or in our case sound, like the rest.

This is our first big experiment, a litmus test of where our remixing skills are at, to see how far we can push a group of nearly 100 samples. This is our DJ mix on acid. Or at least, that’s what we’ve heard. Now you can decide for yourself.

Thus, Magic Junk Radio 13: Hiding As Noise is piece of sonic art. No host segments, no singles, no breaks. This also marks the first time we’ve opted to use songs as most DJ’s do— by playing them instead of clipping a sample. Clocking in at an overindulgent 44:44, MJR 13 is best listened to on headphones, to savor the full range of sound that will no doubt rattle through your brain.

If this experiment is not your slice of pie, then fear not— Magic Junk Radio #14 will be released within a month from this podcast, where you’ll find M. Sahm and S.Rod up to their usual remixing tricks.

If you do enjoy this episode, be sure to leave us a comment if you have twenty seconds to spare. Cheers.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3] - 61.5 MB
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

This was a renaissance year for us. As you probably already know, after not posting a new episode since November 2006, most people had assumed that MJR was as dead as the cassette tape. But 2008 proved we were not only alive, but setting up for an even more productive future.

Continuing the four episode-per-year ratio we had in ‘05 and ‘06, this past year really saw us step up our production value. At least we thought so— especially since we were still working with the same computers and software we used for Episode 1.

Of course, that won’t be the case for 2009. We’ve not only made our first financial contribution to MJR this past month in adding a MIDI controller to our arsenal, but should also be updating both of our computers very soon. For us, this is pretty exciting as we’ll finally be able to truly control the creation and editing process for all of our compositions without too many limitations.

Thus, 2009 is looking like a potentially phenomenal year for MJR. Why is that? Because we have set the ultimate goal for ourselves that by the end of 2009, we will put together our first album of “mostly” original material. This will be in contrast to the podcasts, which should become even more sample based than before.

And that’s the summary of ‘08 and the forecast for ‘09. As always, thanks for listening and we hope to have some fun stuff for you starting in January. Cheers.

You see, in the world of podcasts and free sample-based music, everyone is king. You choose to listen to what you like when you like, and move on or return at your leisure. The Somrod duo get a nice natural high from being part of that food chain. The part that gets consumed.

When a new episode hits the webwaves, they just sit back and help make you the ruler of your downloadable universe. Simply put, by subscribing to our podcast, you look royal. Thus, Magic Junk Radio 12: Looks Good On You delivers (with only asking for your feedback in return). As usual, M. Sahm and S.Rod hand serve a podcast full of buttery-rich beats, savory audio clips, and a platter of fresh-caught electronica. Go ahead, eat up— we’ll make more.

Clocking in an eco-massaging 35:17, MJR 12 may be pressing its luck against the will of the universe, but it’s just the way that we roll. We’re in it for the music, and hope that one day, it can be more than a simple hobby. Time will tell. As always, leave us a comment if you have twenty seconds to spare. Thanks and take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 48.5 MB
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

MJR 12 Content of Tables:
1. The Universe Will Do It For You
2. Greenwash and Go
3. MJR Theme Song
4. Sound, Fury and Soup
5. Dr. Jellyfish’s Last Stand
6. Lesser Pay
7. MJR Saves The Planet
8. 4/5 Train in 5/4 Time
9. Groovy Bloom
10. In It For The Music
11. Death Wish Signature
12. Make It Look Alive
13. Sticking With Random

Thus, Magic Junk Radio 11: Slow Ahead comes to you with no baggage, free of charge to all. In a perfect world, we’d have titled this ‘full steam ahead’, but MJR 11 is more like a tank— advancing methodically in the world of sound production, but still blowing shit up. The chemically bonded duo of M. Sahm and S.Rod deliver a podcast worthy of a music critic’s cackle, a sustained foot tap, and a suite of catchy synth earwigs to follow you as you tend to your own distractions.

Clocking in a chum tossing 34:21, MJR 11 pulls no punches, and is not afraid to tell you that you have cilantro stuck in your teeth. Some may even dare to say that there are a few parts of this podcast that sound like the work of a professional, instead of two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl. But year after year, MJR continues on to bring you their best efforts in audio butchery. As always, leave us some feedback if you have a minute. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 47 MB
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

MJR 11 Content of Tables:
1. Sharkjumper - 2:44
2. Shiny Fighting Walkers - 2:48
3. Happy Podcasters?
4. Clothes Burned Off - 3:30
5. One Crazy For Another - 2:19
6. Table Turns
7. Smileyousonuva - 3:33
8. Game Select - 2:31
9. The Podcaster Who Loved Me - 1:55
10. Zero Training
11. Lunatic Is In The Remix - 5:24

Nevertheless, it’s not like I’m sitting around playing Xbox and watching VH1. I’ve been keeping busy with multiple projects (both creative and house-wise), so I’m hoping for a release of MJR 11 before we leave for Lollapalooza on July 31… of course, I could be smoking peyote on that one. You know how my podcasting releases go.

But this is the price I pay to give the podcast a more timeless feel. A fact that you may not have noticed is that there is a very low level (if any) of current events in MJR. This is done on purpose so that you can listen to the podcast many times, and not feel like we are talking about some event that happened six months ago.

See? Don’t ya feel better about us taking so long in producing new episodes of MJR… we’re looking out for your best interests, even when you don’t know them yourself. As the Radiohead line goes, all these things will one day swallow whole. But as we see it, if you’re going to get swallowed, we’d rather be a nice juicy steak than a piece of birthday cake. Peace.

However, we have persevered thanks to what’s best described as “little breaks”. Hence, Magic Junk Radio 10: A Series of Little Breaks was born. Actually, it’s been in the works for a long time, nearly 17 months to be exact. But we’re pretty happy with the results. It’s everything you’d expect and more from the MJR duo of M.Sahm and S.Rod: catchy electronica, hard hitting jams, pop culture samples, playful host commentary, and a couple of tracks that are unlike anything we’ve ever done before.

Clocking in a supple 33:04, MJR 10 might just surprise someone who’s never heard us before, or even someone who heard just me early on in the podcast’s history. To boot, we now have a wiki totally dedicated to all of our singles from all 10 podcasts— take a visit, it’s all the backstories, details, and compositions— nearly 3 years worth of our blood, sweat and bandwidth. As always, leave us some feedback if you have a minute. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 38 MB
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

MJR 10 Content of Tables:
1. The Ceiling’s Floor
2. Pumpkin Bunny
3. The Podcast Room
4. A Series of Little Breaks
5. Grape Leisure Suit
6. Diva and Tyrant
7. A Scar Tells All
8. No Sequel
9. RWG 1
10. Plastic Brace Concerto
11. When Your Puzzle’s All Fucked Up
12. Wiki Is Born

Anyway, this remix missed getting on MJR 9, but didn’t quite fit with the material that’s going to be on 10. So since it was actually a “request” by one of our fellow podcasters out there in cyberspace, we have decided to give the remix its’ own entry. And I didn’t even have to pull Courtney Cox out of the audience to do so.

Robots On The Edge Of Town - 2:52

Keep your radar on for the MJR 10 release coming soon to a set of earphones near you. The break is coming. Enjoy. Cheers.

Being the remix junkies that we are (and since we enjoy challenging each other), we gave in to the addiction and started remixing “Nude” on Saturday night. Mark downloaded the stems, started playing around, and then challenged me to follow suit. Once the two of us had earphones in, we were clicking away in GarageBand, and we tried not to listen to each other’s songs before they were more than 50% complete. We were both happy with the results and for the fact that both songs sounded completely different!

Each can best be described as an eclectic maelstrom of… oh, wait… that’s Magic Junk Radio. Seriously, we have taken our individual styles from MJR to remix “Nude” to the best of our abilities. What you see below is our individual interpretations of Nude. Click the widget to vote for us, and YES, you can vote for us both. Give the Somrod duo your support, vote from every computer you have. Thanks! Cheers.

Luckily on our newest podcast, Magic Junk Radio 9: Cover Me Porkins, we only do remixing, sampling and production. For those who don’t know, this episode’s subtitle refers an infamous character in the “original” Star Wars movie, as well as indicating that this entire podcast is made of remixed cover songs. The point is that if life is a giant hog, we’re just trying to be a crispy slice of bacon. Sure, our toxic slab of audio butchery may not be healthy for you, but as the immortal Vincent Vega stated, “Bacon tastes goooood.” After all, we know you cannot ask for too much when you have a eclectic mix like this.

Clocking at a crispy 26:31, MJR 9 consists of three TV themes, two late 60’s songs, two early 90’s songs, two movie themes, a classic SW overlay, with whipped cream and cherries optional. Be sure to leave us some feedback if you have a minute. It could help save the life of a lonely blog post. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 52 MB (high quality sound… because we care about your eardrums)
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window.

MJR 9 Content of Tables
1. Get Us Out From Under
2. Shaking Off The Rust 101
3. Sexual Tyrannosaurus
4. Daft Jazz
5. In The Air of Wolves
6. The Hole Fixer
7. Losing My Flexibility
8. One Without The Other
9. Three Choices of Two
10. What’s Yours Is Me Me Mine
11. Ewok This Way
12. Frying Up The Pork

Here we are, nearly a year removed from the last MJR podcast, and at a loss how it has been so long since we were here. Worse yet, all of the upgrades we planned on making to the podcast were never capitalized upon.

As S.Rod and I sat in our living room on Columbus Day morning listening to where we left off here (MJR #8), it became apparent to us that this was never really about gaining an audience, or trying to market our musical creations. Doing MJR was a litmus test, a hypothesis to see if this creative outlet would lend us more perspective.

The good news: it did enlighten us, both in our present love for creativity and music, and our desire to leave something unique behind on the web.

The better news: we have about 25 compositions in half-shape to put together for a MJR #9. It may not have any radio-friendly unit shifters, but as I mentioned, that’s not what this is about. In truth, it may be us throwing down a bucket of concrete and signing our names in it. But if someone builds a wall in front of it, it’s really no big deal.

Live and let live. Cheers.

Of course, you could counter that Wilde was a scandalous anarchist and we shouldn’t believe a word he said. But hey, doesn’t the reasoning sound much better than “We got some new equipment to aid our podcasts, so this is the last one using the old stuff”? After all, you could say it was only ‘Logical’.

If you’ve haven’t tuned in before, MJR can best be described as an all-original eclectic maelstrom of sounds, voices and samples. #8 finds the creative duo of M. Sahm and Ms. S.Rod trading songs, barbs, and finishing each other’s sentences (as only a young married couple can do). This episode is a serenade to their stepping stones, as they try to keep each other laughing about an uncertain future.

It clocks in at a mega-quick 26:55— with all the funk riffs, hard rock beats, orchestra samples and pop culture references that you’ve heard us pimp for the past year. Nothing is restricted. Not our former masters. Not our heroes. We even do a ‘celebrity roast’ style piece of one of Blogcritics’ editors. Although be warned— it’s not for playing out loud in the office, or in front of your mini-me.

Be sure to leave us some feedback if you have a minute. It could help save an artist from BASE jumping for fun. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 37 MB (high quality sound… because we care about your eardrums)
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window (unless you haven’t updated in a while.)

MJR 8 Content of Tables:

1. Six Mill
2. Four Shadows
3. Mr. Darcy At The Limelight
4. Six Years Gone
5. Between Curses
6. The Curse Anthem
7. Festival
8. Live At The Stadium
9. The Way Is Shut
10. Westchester Funk
11. Farewell

The first episode of Magic Junk Radio launched on August 30, 2005. Now a year later, I’m taking a look back at how it all came to be, as well as the new direction that the podcast is headed in months to come.

I will begin honestly: podcasting and sampling came to me by accident. While I was always interesting in making compositions, I always lacked the knowledge to do so. Then in July 2005, I had written a post for the multimedia website Blogcritics.org called “iPod Death Scenarios” and it was here that a comment and response started it all. Here was the exchange:

Lisa (7/6/05, 01:12 PM): Hilarious, Mark! This was too funny.
Have you considered podcasting this post….?

Mark Sahm (7/6/05, 02:03PM): Lisa, if only I knew how.

When I reread my comment the next day, I didn’t like that I did not know how. At the time, I thought podcasting required some type of code to write, like CSS or some other difficult webform that I didn’t have the patience to learn. But after a little research at your friendly neighborhood Wikipedia, I realized that podcasting was actually quite easy, and a cheap artform at that. I bought a $20 USB microphone, plugged in, and went to work in GarageBand.

I offered up my first podcast as a ‘creative crossover’ to the Blogcritics community. Despite bracing for an onslaught of flames, surprisingly no one told me that the podcast sucked. So I decided to make another, and the rest is now history. My efforts (with some help from the lovely Ms. S. Rod) ended up stretching into the interesting capture of a year in the podcast life that you see below.

While other podcasters produce an episode every month or every week, my construction is a little more labor intensive, since each track takes me anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to finish, depending on the complexity. That and being able to get 5 different samples to sync right!

Still, to have produced 7 full episodes (or 86 tracks worth) in a year’s time is pretty good for me. Knowing that (a) there are about 30 unfinished/unrefined MJR tracks sitting around my archive, and (b) I took a break of nearly 4 months between Episodes 5 and 6, I’m happy with what I produced.

But like Tyler Durden recommends, may I never be content. While getting better at the audio craft (or whatever you’d like to call it), S.Rod and I have concluded that we needed to refocus our future digital music efforts into strengthening the front:

• Magic Junk Radio will now focus not only on our sample-based tracks, remixes, and our mini-dialogues, but houses all of our more original and lyrical tracks.

All in all, I don’t know what the future will hold for music in my arsenal of creative efforts. But no matter what, I know I enjoyed making the close facsimiles that I did, and I hope I can polish them up to be presentable on a professional level one day. Thanks for listening. Peace.

I’m kidding of course. But I have finally gotten a “sidekick” so to speak. I think the results have turned out quite wonderfully and I hope she continues her contribution as long as the podcast goes on… which probably won’t be for much longer, since change is always omnipresent. So it goes.

If you’ve haven’t tuned in before, MJR can best be described as an all-original eclectic maelstrom of sounds, voices and samples. #7 travels a little further down the rabbithole of life’s purpose. It clocks in at another all-time high 37:15— with the funk riffs, hard rock beats, and pop culture samples you’re used to. We even try doing a spontaneous segment like normal podcasters do.

Be sure to leave us some feedback if you have an opinion. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 42.7 MB (I blame the larger file size on my co-host)
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window (unless you haven’t updated in a while.)

MJR 7 Content of Tables:

1. Hulking Out
2. God Eat God
3. Welcome
4. Dirty Talk
5. Sugar Smacks Fairy
6. Toucan Sam On Speed
7. The God-Drone Spectrum
8. Neoprene Latina
9. Stop Keeping Score
10. Corporate Drones
11. Breaking The Fast
12. WKRP in Sin City
13. Rejection 77
14. Live at the S-Rod Lounge
15. Farewell

Of course, four months ago, the belief was to confine myself to a dark room with the goal of finding magic creative mushrooms growing in the enchanted meadows of my mind. But in such a premise, one is almost doomed to run into something else by accident. Which is why I’m here now.

But rather than spill what magical thing it was that I ran into (and no, it wasn’t Eva Longoria mud wrestling with Salma Hayek), I’ll leave that in the hands of my sonically produced calling card, Magic Junk Radio 6: A New Set of Rules.

If you’ve haven’t tuned in before, MJR can best be described as an eclectic maelstrom of sounds, voices and samples. #6 finds me back to my old tricks, but hopefully I’ve learned a little more since we last met. It clocks in at an all-time high 31:36— with the funk riffs, hard rock beats, and pop culture samples you’re used to. Even some old favorites get revisited through the MJR filters, including a couple guilty pleasures.

And there you go. Be sure to leave me some feedback if you have an opinion. Thanks. Take it easy.

- - - - - - - - - -
[ Download the MP3 ] - 37.4 MB (Hey man, sound quality has its price…)
[ Subscribe to the RSS feed ]
- - - - - - - - - -

INSTRUCTIONS: Right-click the MP3 link above to download the full podcast in MP3 format, which will play in any iPod or MP3 music player. Left click and the MP3 will begin playing in a new web browser window (unless you haven’t updated in a while.)

MJR 6 Content of Tables:

1. Welcome Back
2. Podcast Security
3. Brush Jam
4. The New Job
5. Interlude
6. Weird Matrix
7. Cats In A Canvas Bag
8. A New Set of Rules
9. AM Smooth
10. Positively 4th Beer
11. Visit The Sidebar
12. When The Rain Became Acid
13. Psychic Graffiti
14. Farewell