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Today ACRN had our annual end-of-the-year banquet/picnic/award ceremony! Every year we vote as a station on awards to be given to those who excel at what they do. This year's awards:

Best Male On-Air DJ: Jason Robinaugh (Robajob)
Best Female On-Air DJ: Erin Schroettinger (DJ Shredder)
Best Specialty Show: The Jukebox with Robajob
Best NSE Show: The Danger Show with Pearce Dietrich
Best DJ Name (tie): DJ Butter-Rugz and DJ Fresh-to-Death
Rookie of the Year: Tate Galbraith
Best Event: Lobsterfest 2009
Biggest Male Lush: Nick Hrkman
Biggest Female Lush: Alisha Bicknell
Biggest Male Flirt (tie): Bobby Lewis and Jason Wright
Biggest Female Flirt: Megan Burke
Biggest Scumbag: Ty Owen
Bonehead of the Year: Tate's black eye
ACE Award (non-executive senior who has contributed greatly to ACRN): Mike Boyle
Lobster of the Year: Jason Robinaugh

We also awarded graduating seniors Michael Boyle, who won the ACE Award for his work in the Programming and PR/Promo departments, Nick Hrkman, who spent the last year serving as Promotions Director and was the host of 80s Babies, and Danielle Sills, who has hosted Oh Snat! It's An Interview Show for the last three years and served as Traffic Director this past year.

Thanks to everyone for a great year at ACRN!

ACRN has finished our academic year and is happy to announce that we have a new Promotions Director! Congratulations to Aaron Vilk, who booked ACRN's 38th Birthday Bash, the first annual Athens Experimental Music Festival, and several other shows this year! Anyone interested in working with the Promotions Department at ACRN can contact Aaron at promo@acrn.com.

ACRN would also like to thank outgoing Promotions Director Nick Hrkman for his hard work on events this year and for his entire tenure at ACRN! Nick was a vital part of making this year's Lobsterfest a huge success, and we hope to see him standing next to Brian Ostrander at next year's Lobsterfest!

Check back soon for end-of-the-year award postings!

ACRN is proud to announce that we have hired two new members to our executive board!

Congratulations to Rika Nurrahmah, the new Traffic-Continuity Director! You can reach Rika at traffic@acrn.com.

Also, congratulations to Jill Mapes, the new N/S/E Director! As we continue to evolve our product, Jill's title will be changing soon, but for now you can reach her at reviews@acrn.com.

Finally, the board would like to thank outgoing execs Danielle Sills and Courtney Walker for their service to ACRN. Danielle has been a member of many departments at the station served as Traffic Director for the last year, and has hosted Oh Snat! It's an Interview Show since 2006. Courtney has been active in Programming and Public Relations since 2007 and served as N/S/E Director for a year and a half. Thanks to both for their contributions to ACRN!

-The Executive Board

Check out http://www.acrn.com/lobsterfest for information about this year's kick-ass all-day FREE concert event!

Three of our execs (Traffic, Promotions, NSE) will be screening out this quarter. Interested applicants should talk to Jason Robinaugh (gm@acrn.com) for screening information and should contact the director of that department for more information on the roles and duties of that position. The available positions and contact people are:

Traffic Director (logs, attendance, etc.): Danielle Sills, traffic@acrn.com

Promotions Director (promoting the station, planning live events): Nick Hrkman, promo@acrn.com

News/Sports/Entertainment (NSE) Director (talk shows, news content): Courtney Walker, nse@acrn.com

We've just added four brand new album reviews for your reading pleasure. Peruse as follows, or prepare to die.

The Decemberists -- The Hazards of Love
Peter Doherty -- Grace/Wastelands
Neko Case -- Middle Cyclone
Goblin Cock -- Come With Me If You Want to Live

-- DJ Jumonz, your friendly neighborhood ACRN Music Reviews Editor

ACRN General Manager Jason Robinaugh is featured in today's issue of The Post, discussing the station's necessary financial adjustments in today's economy and the future of ACRN. Check it out here:

http://tinyurl.com/adklqo

From Aaron Vilk's Athens D.I.Y. Blog:

Between broadcasting underground music to booking shows for underground artists to serving as the last bastion for music nerds in a small town, Ohio University’s internet radio station ACRN: The Rock Lobster is one of several organizations helping to advance the cause of the Athens D.I.Y. music community.

In this installment, we examine this organization with help from interviewees Jason Robinaugh (ACRN’s General Manager) and Ty Owen (ACRN Music Director).

Stream it:

Songs:
The B-52s – Rock Lobster
Russenorsk – Long Winter’s Coming
Men of Gentle Birth – Soft Target
Weedghost - II

Thank you for listening to the Athens D.I.Y. podcast. For more information, please visit athensdiy.blogspot.com

The 3rd Annual Aquabear County Fair
March 5-7, 2009 in beautiful Athens, Ohio

Thursday, March 5th
Kickoff at The (Bruce) Manor
with Russenorsk, Dinner of Swords, Battle Rabbit
7pm

Friday, March 6th
Night One at Casa Cantina
with Brainbow, Casual Future, Five Deadly Venoms, Weedghost
10:30pm

Saturday, March 7th
L'Aqua Porter Film Festival
at ARTS/West Ohio films!
2pm

Saturday, March 7th
Night Two at The Union
with We March, Dragline Bros., Kaslo, Flotation Walls, She Bears, Bram Riddlebarger and His Lonesome Self
8pm

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.myspace.com/aquabearcountyfair
or
www.aquabearlegion.com

Based in Appalachian Ohio, The Aquabear Legion provides a community network for creative people. We are dedicated to supporting and enhancing independent music and art in our community and elsewhere. We focus on collaborative relationships to create opportunities for independent musicians and artists.

This Tuesday, Scotty, a.k.a. "Scunty D" and guitarist of Skeletonwitch, will be joining DJ Suave on Absolute Catastrophe to spin awesome tunes and spill some information about Athens's hometown [metal] heroes. Members of the band just got back from their US tour with Sweden's own Amon Amarth.
Since the release of the band's first full length "Beyond the Permafrost" with Prosthetic Records, Skeletonwitch gained international recognition and tour oppertunities -- including the band's 2008 tour with ex-Misfits frontman Danzig.
Tune in from 9-10 p.m. to hear tour stories, updates on the band's future endaevors, and whether or not the band is down with wizards.

Adam Elliot and Jared Phillips of Columbus' Times New Viking sit down for an interview following their Blackoutfest set on April 16th, 2009 at The Union in Athens, Ohio. 

Video produced by Joe Kell. Interview by Aaron Vilk.  Filmed by Joe Kell and Brent Lawson. Originally published by SpeakeasyMag.com. 

Looking for a good celebrity beef but too hip to even consider bringing up the Radiohead vs. Hannah Miley Kayne Montana Ray Cyrus West feud with your friends at the coffee shop?  Here's something right up your alley:

Apparently, Matt Whitehurst of Columbus lo-fi shitgaze outfit Psychedelic Horseshit is pissed off at the recent success of California noise-pop poseur Wavves and made his feelings known to the nation in a SXSW interview for the Washington Post.  An excerpt:

"Manufactured lo-fi! That's not cool. People can say "Magic Flowers Droned" is manufactured lo-fi if they want but I [expletive] mixed that record as clear as I could [expletive] get it. It was recorded [expletive] really [expletive] and was [expletive] - I was young and we just started the band two years before. I'm not Rick Rubin. But I wanna be. I want it to [expletive] sound like a [expletive] tight-[expletive] hip-hop production. We have enough [expletive] going on to where clean production is just gonna make it sound better, y'know?

If you have to [expletive] keep recording lo-fi then you're a [expletive]. Straight up [expletive] [expletive]. You know? You're hiding. You're hiding behind static. Which is cool, people have [expletive] done it for decades. But it's like a [expletive] easy way out. And you're not gonna [expletive] progress or grow into any kind of good band if you just keep on making lo-fi music."

Read the full story here: here: http://tinyurl.com/psychshit

So there you have it:  a feud about which band is more genuine in sounding like shit.  Hopefully Wavves reply will be released as a limited-edition 7" on Fat Possum (or perhaps as a split with Ducktails).

Roll that into a cigarette and smoke it, you hip kid, you. 

(All joking aside, Psychedelic Horseshit rules and Wavves makes some fun music. - Count Stroganoff)

William Bennett, founding member of seminal industrial power electronics outfit Whitehouse has a lot of free time these days. So, he's graciously spending some of his time enriching us with his opinion on the latest in Hollywood and Independent filmmaking on his blog (williambennett.blogspot.com).

Here's his exquisite review of Disney's blockbuster High School Musical 3:
http://williambennett.blogspot.com/2009/02/high-school-musical-3.html

Choice excerpts:

"Nearly all the male protagonists (apart from perhaps the geeky token hetero 'Rocket Man' character) are questioning their sexuality to one degree or another - and, as in the long history of film musicals, the stories' subtexts are all told in an obvious code through the songs (via the lyrics and the language of the elaborate dance routines) and the overall plot development, with theatre and basketball being the most obvious symbols of homo- and hetero- sexuality."

Brilliant.  Enjoy this and his many other excellent movie reviews. 

Video profile of ACRN Music Director Ty Owen, resident of the Crystal Castle and member of Donner Party Dinner Party, Death Beef and programs. Edited by Joe Kell.

Here are photos, interviews and audio compiled and arranged by Bob Kidd from Kid Panda Hands set at the Friday the 13th Noise Massacre at The Crystal Castle. 

Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville has confirmed that the legendary Willie Nelson will be headlining the 5th Annual Nelsonville Music Festival which takes place May 15-17, 2009 at Robbins Crossing at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. Willie Nelson will play the evening of Saturday, May 16th. Passes for the Festival are available right now, a Festival Pass is for the whole weekend which will include over 20 national, regional, and local bands on multiple stages along with art vendors, kids activities, local food, camping and more. The entire lineup so far and much more information is available at www.nelsonvillefest.org

The original line-up of Fred Durst, Wes Borland, SamRivers, John Otto, and DJ Lethal are back from an eight year hiatus to bringtheir world back to ours. Fred Durst and Wes Borland said in a joint statement:"We decided we were more disgusted and bored with the state of heavypopular music than we were with each other. Regardless of where our separatepaths have taken us, we recognize there is a powerful and unique energy withthis particular group of people we have not found anywhere else. This is why Limp Bizkit is back."

All I have to say is "Fuck Yeah"

According to his blog, Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch writes, "The record's going to come out in late spring. That's the LP God Help The Girl. 12 Songs, unless I get annoyed with one of them and boot them off. Very late spring, shall we say?"

This album features songs from the upcoming film project, God Help The Girl which is a musical film written by Murdoch. For the casting, Murdoch turned to his fans by offering a worldwide audition process through the video website imeem.com, where fans could post videos and mp3s of them singing a song from the project.

The record not only features Belle and Sebastian members but Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia, Asy (from Smoosh), Neil Hannon (from the Divine Comedy), Alex Klobouk, Kim Moore (from Zoey Van Goey), Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole,  and Anna Miles.

It's not too often we get to see or hear blues gospel singers down in good ol' Athens. It's not too often we get to see or hear a group of men who have won four Grammy's. It's not too often that the entire group is actually blind (they formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939). Yet, the Blind Boys of Alabama are all of these things!

They play OU's Memorial Auditorium tomorrow (Saturday) night.