Thanks but no thanks

We here at Weeds are always up for anything gardening related found in skips, out on the street or put out for the binmen but sadly had to pass of this treasure trove yesterday.

There was a three pronged garden fork with matching flip-flops (a great idea, co-ordinated gardening/tool wear!) and a pair of well worn deck shoes. We’re well into the keep ’em peeled ethic and all that but you are allowed to say no and keep on walking.

It’s too cold to germinate

Big shout to our gardening friend from across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us a picture of his garden in Cincinnati from the other day after some snow. We’ve had snow here in London but nothing like this. If you’d like to see his garden pre snow have a look here.

Justin mentioned he was enjoying the snow but was starting now to think about what kind of tomato seeds to start sprouting for spring. Hence the tune he sent with the pic, a dub of “Don’t touch my Tomato” by the great Phillis Dillon and Tommy McCook & The Supersonics.

Have you started thinking of seed to sow yet? We have some pots on the kitchen windowsill that are still dormant as it’s still so cold and a pot of germinated leggy coriander that is looking sorry for itself. Talking about coriander our good gardening friend Gerry Hectic mentioned Mexican coriander, culantro (more info here) the other day. Ever heard of it? It may be worth looking into.

Also this week we found a nice compilation from a few years ago compiled by Laut & Luise out of Cologne called Music Lovers Club #002. It’s worth a listen during these cold times!

An alternative to lockdown lumbago

Last week wasn’t the best this end what with sciatica raising its ugly head followed by a bit of lockdown depression combined with the cold weather. And the dahlia tubers are still in the ground (hopefully not rotting away), their frost-blackened foilage a constant reminder that they have to be dug up. But in this weather? We think not. It’s better to stay in listen to some music and think of what seeds we’re going to be buying very soon as spring is not that far away!

Because of the bad back we’re still catching up on a couple of episodes of the great This is a music show that goes out on the shortwaves. If you click here you’ll be treated to the 100th edition of the show featuring 2 hours of the best in thrift shop classics, across the board genre-wise and some great reggae. A big shout to Your Host for getting the show to the landmark number! Tune in and turn on. And check their new website here and if you fancy donating a few quid/dollars to pay for airtime there please do as it’s a wonderful show!

And still on the theme of shortwave, if you’ve visited a supermarket masked up a few times this lockdown here’s a broadcast (below) that might interest you called KMRT. Listen out at 27.45 for a mix by One Deck Pete called “Buy one get one free” featuring tunes by Tyler Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Anima Universalis, Japanese Sound Portrait, Beatz for Food, Lullatone, Cantoma (Phil Mison) and Z Lovecraft. So break open a big tube of Voltarol and work yourself up into a shopping frenzy. #Supermarketsarethenightnightclubs #shoppingconnectsusall

https://soundcloud.com/user-25048993/kmrt-one-stop-shortwave-shopping-experience-9395-khz-3112021

And now the end is near

The final Free Radio Skybird programme of this year (bar the repeat two weeks later) is on Sunday November 21st at 1200 UTC on 6070 kHz via Channel 292.

It features DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore with The Radiophonic Laboratory and Weed’s own One Deck Pete with “Tunes to cheer you up.” Tune in!  #shortwavesnotdead #freeradioskybird

Blimmin’ eck the sun’s out!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-074

This blog post has been written whilst listening to this week’s This is a music show. We love the intro, over Max Greger and his orchestra’s Never Can Say Goodbye we hear Your Host with “Lot’s of different countries (played this week) including Germany, Brazil, The Cayman islands, Haiti, France…” Great stuff!

And we also love this tune by The (Fabulous) Wailers from Seattle (not Kingston, JA.) that was played at the beginning. That’s what’s great about the show, there’s always something great that you’d never heard before. Big shout to Your Host!

On a gardening note, we nipped out to the raised beds this morning to thin out the carrots (below) as it’s a bit of a jungle out there. We’re proud as punch as these were put in at the start of lockdown. We also found out the hard way that it was tons easier pulling out the carrots in the beds with the bought multi-purpose compost in them rather than the ones with London clay. We will rectify that come the spring!

We reckon that the carrots we pulled this morning were the early nantes free with Kitchen Garden magazine pre-lockdown in January. We’ll be getting some of them next year for sure. Anyone else having a bit of success with their veg? Do send us your pics! onedeck (@) gmail (.) com.

And on that note we have to say goodbye even if we can’t, we have gardening to do and the odd sunny interval to enjoy! #classiclockdowneweather #gardeninginlockdown

Radio connects us all, don’t it?

Here’s today’s recording of One Deck Pete’s “Radio connects us all” mix off an online SDR which was transmitted via Channel 292 earlier. Added percussion, noises and fading effects thanks to the groundwave propagation and that thing called the ionosphere. Tune in and drop out!

What you can actually do in ten seconds

A big shout to Gerry Hectic who told us about this compilation when they were originally looking for contributors. This compilation has over 200 10-second tracks and is released by ATTN:Magazine here. What’s great about it is that ALL proceeds from the sale of the set are donated to the charity Cool Earth who work alongside rainforest communities to halt deforestation and climate change.

There’s ten seconds from a variety of sources including Gerry Hectic, Justin Patrick Moore and Madtone amongst many many others! Cheers to Jack Chuter for including our track!

And my god we need cheering up…

The first in an occasional series by One Deck Pete called “Tunes to Cheer you up” which will feature every now and again on Free Radio Skybird on the shortwave via Channel 292.

Here’s the debut tune to cheer you up with, recorded off an online SDR located in Belgium earlier (here), the audio comes with added fading and noise which weren’t there on the original recording. Enjoy Funk Reverse with “In & Out” (DJ Moy’s dub version) on Sound Exhibitions Records. A tune!

The lockdown’s just kicking in…

Free Radio Skybird’s last flight of 2019

The last transmission of 2019 from DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird will be on Tuesday December 31st at 0900 UTC on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292. The show will be rebroadcast on Sunday 5th January at 1100 UTC/UK on 7440 kHz. If you haven’t got a suitable shortwave set it can also be heard on the SDR link on Channel 292’s site here.

The programme will feature Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete (from Weeds up to me knees) presenting the Skybird Mailbag. There’ll also be an airing of Pete’s “Nine and a half minutes at ninety BPM” that has new tunes from: Frapp, Blundetto, Lama’s Dream and Mario Pinosa Trio. Mixes from previous shows are available at our audio podcast page here.

The programme will be available on DJ Frederick’s Soundcloud page a day or so before transmission date if you want to hear it in true stereo but we here prefer the show via the ionosphere. Tune in and turn on! #shortwavesnotdead #madtone #freeradioskybird

By the way we’re always looking for decent tunes to play on our spot on Free Radio Skybird. If you know of anything “up our street” so to speak, do contact us via the blog or at onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com and if we like it we’ll play it. Free Radio Skybird is now available via 5 FM stations in the USA WSCS, WMNB, KBOG, KOWS and WEJP as well as good old shortwave via Channel 292 and the above is the transmission zone when the conditions are good.

Bruce Lee, sea forts and a blimmin’ drone

We do love Time Team and Coast here at Weeds (alongside Aquarium Roadshow, Singing midwives on ice and Don’t tell the Bus Driver of course!) and watched a combination of the two in Tony Robinson’s Hidden Britain by Drone. The one on the box tonight featured Red Sands Sea Forts at 21.15 minutes in. Excellent stuff if you love a Maunsell Sea Fort.

And thanks to our good friend Jazzmin Tutum here’s 9 minutes and 33 seconds of excellent downtempo chilled business. The track called Void City Arrival from Smooth Genestar appears in an interesting youtube about the great Bruce Lee that Jazzmin alerted us to. The clip is here and well worth watching!