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Tiger Lily

@rnrlily

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When I was a kid, I’d get so frustrated by my parents and other adults when they said they couldn’t remember when seemingly key moments in their lives occurred.

“I’ll never forget!” I declared.

Well, joke’s on me! With each passing year, newer life experiences push older life experiences (even milestones!) either deeper into my memory reserves or completely out of my brain.

When I recently unearthed the tape from my very first radio show, I was totally prepared to do a lot of cringing once I mustered up enough courage to listen to it. I didn’t expect to have to recalibrate my mental timeline, though. 😳

At the time, @91xsandiego was San Diego’s “cutting edge of rock.” At some point, it introduced a Sunday segment called The Great Unknown, where a listener could apply to DJ for an hour. I applied not once but twice, and was chosen both times. It’s been over 30 years since then, but I had reasonably assumed I was 16 for the first stint and 17 for the second.

What a shock it was to hear that I was 14—not 16, like I thought—when I spent an afternoon in 91X’s studio with Pam Wolf, no doubt trembling with excitement and nerves. And that my mom had tried to sabotage my opportunity!!!

I dug up my 9th-grade yearbook and was surprised to read multiple classmates and friends writing about looking forward to hearing me on the radio. And when I came across my end-of-the-year journalism-class projects (a newspaper and yearbook for an imaginary goth junior-high school), my mouth dropped open. I had forgotten just how deeply embedded music was in my life even then. (I took the music quiz I made back then and didn’t know one of the answers. 😆)

Apparently, I’ve been a music nerd for a long time. And apparently, I was wrong about never forgetting. Here’s a little glimpse of 14-year-old me.

#StillObsessed #GenXGoth #GenXMusicNerd #91X by @rnrlily

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20 hours ago

I taped this song off of @91xsandiego when I was a teenager and, 35 years later, I still have no idea what it is.

I rediscovered it a few weeks ago while I was going through a tape of my early @kalxradio mic breaks. For whatever reason, I had added the song to the end of it once upon a time, perhaps transferring it from a tape that had been eaten a few times? The warped sound makes me think yes.

The song startled me when it came on mid-chorus, its jangly guitars and poignant vocals taking me straight back to teenage-me lying in bed with my ear right next to my boombox. My heart started twisting as I sang along, quickly remembering that parts of the song were unintelligible. And when it ended as abruptly as it began, my heart sank: I had run out of space on the original tape so I didn’t catch the backannounce.

(If you’re wondering if I Shazammed it, of course I did. Multiple times. This post would be very different if Shazam knew it.)

I shared the song to my Stories recently, and people really went down the rabbit hole—sending suggestions, asking for more clues, sharing it with their networks, and even recruiting AI agents to help. I also sent it to the 91X DJs (@djmarcocollins @lounilesiyn) who were most likely to have played it at the time. Still nothing.

And then I had a lightbulb moment: I’d send it to a San Diego friend who was a musician back then! Except…as I was about to DM him, I realized that our last interaction was in 2023, when I had apparently first sent him the exact same clip. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Still Obsessed (but forgetful)—that’s me!

He had shared it with a slew of people who worked at SD record stores and/or played in bands in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Everyone was stumped then, too.

So here we are again. What you hear is all I have: no beginning, no ending.

[CAPTION CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @rnrlily

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15 days ago

💥 The Descendents 💥 last-minute show at @theuctheatre last night with the Chats! Crowdsurfer central over here 🌊

📸: Tiger Lily @rnrlily

@descendents #thedescendents taken in The UC Theatre by @rnrlily

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17 days ago

⚡️The Chats⚡️ last-minute show at @theuctheatre last night with The Descendents! Did we catch you in the pit???

📸: Tiger Lily @rnrlily

@thechats #thechats taken in The UC Theatre by @rnrlily

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Everyone remembers their first concert, right? I’d love to say mine was the Cure, the Jesus & Mary Chain, or even the Sugarcubes at age 14, but no. 😭 My immigrant parents wouldn’t let me go to concerts (or have much of a non-scholastic social life, for that matter) so it still kills me that I missed out on all of those and more.

Ironically, despite being controlling about where I could go outside of school, my parents were really hands off at home. They never told me to do my homework or go to bed, or even rouse me for school, because I’d been doing all that on my own since I was six. They also didn’t really monitor what I watched, read, or listened to, although I learned to hide key parts of myself from them when I came home from junior high one day to find my mom and younger brother gleefully ripping up my Cure posters together.

During the spring of 1991 (my junior year of high school), the first Lollapalooza was announced: headliner Jane’s Addiction would be hitting 21 venues across the U.S. and Canada with @siouxsieandthebanshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T & Body Count, Butthole Surfers, and Rollins Band. Amazingly, the second stop would be the community college literally across the street from my high school. How could I miss out on yet another concert, especially one this close to home? And more importantly, I would surely die if I passed up this chance to see Siouxsie!!! I didn’t know how it’d happen, but I was determined to go.

As a goth kid who loved the Cure, I adored Siouxsie. The band was on regular rotation on @91xsandiego so I have no idea which song of theirs I heard first in 1987. “Christine”? “Happy House”? Whatever it was, I was instantly spellbound. A Kiss in the Dreamhouse was my first Banshees purchase, even though none of its songs were aired on 91X. Maybe I just liked the cover and whimsical title?
[CAPTION CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @rnrlily

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22 days ago

In this digital age where practically everything is available at your fingertips, it’s a bit shocking to remember that it took me four years to finally hear the Velvet Underground.

I first learned about them in 1988, thanks to the @jesusandmarychain’s musical biography by @omnibuspress. I soon encountered them in books about Andy Warhol, too (was it just me who was intrigued by Warhol and the 1960s Factory scene as a teenager?).

Even though @91xsandiego played Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” frequently enough, I don’t remember if I connected him to the VU back then. They seemed like they were from a different world, and it didn’t occur to me that I could buy their music. As a 14-year-old, it didn’t feel possible to own a piece of the 1960s. No commercial radio station played them, and no one I knew had their albums, either.

So that’s why their music eluded me until I started volunteering at @kalxradio during my first month of college. Suddenly, decades of music were awaiting my impressionable ears. I don’t recall if I was armed with a physical list, but you know I hit the V section of the music library the moment I was allowed to dig around (after looking for “Some Candy Talking,” of course).

Shortly after, I bought their debut album with Nico at @amoebaberkeley. I genuinely don’t know whether teenage me would’ve loved the VU without the JAMC connection, but the banana album practically lived in my CD player.

By the time I did my very first KALX show three months later, I was also obsessed with “After Hours.” Moe Tucker singing “someday I know someone will look into my eyes and say hello! You’re my very special one” resonated with me hard at 18, when I was just starting to figure out my place in the world.

I’m pretty sure I had their third album on CD by then (how else was I etching that song into my brain?), although I don’t remember listening to it on repeat the way I did the debut. Maybe I just kept skipping straight to “After Hours,” the very last track?
[CAPTION CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @rnrlily

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a month ago

Sometimes there’s no grand story behind how a song started taking up space in my brain. Sometimes it’s as simple as me buying a record, listening to it, and suddenly finding that I need to hear one song again.

And again.

And again.

That’s what happened with the debut album by @peach_kelli_pop I bought toward the end of 2011. I was doing what I usually do (bopping along to their catchy, lo-fi bedroom pop, making mental notes on which songs I’d play on future @kalxradio shows and how I’d segue them) when the last track on the B-side came on.

The sweet vulnerability of “Eenie Meenie Minie Moe” caught me off guard. And somehow, even though I loved the rest of the album, this became the song that I had to listen to again and again.

I should know by now that my heart picks my songs. I can’t predict what will suddenly grab me but, once it does, there’s not much I can do about it.

When I returned to my weekly KALX show in January 2012, the record came with me so I could, of course, play “EMMM.” I played the album every week during those two months I was back on the air, alternating “EMMM” with another song from the album so that listeners couldn’t tell how obsessed I was with it. The record lived in my KALX bag for years after, just in case.

Perhaps not surprisingly (at least not to me), “EMMM” appeared on my Best of the 2010s show in February 2020. Looking at the songs I played, my criteria was basically: “Was I obsessed with it?” I’m curious how other DJs decide which songs and albums belong on their best-of lists. Surely it’s more complex and cerebral than a purely emotional response?

I’d actually met Allie Hanlon (the multitalented mastermind behind PKP) earlier in 2011 through mutual friends and show-going, and we ended up being co-judges in a vegan cupcake contest. Little did we know that one of her songs would become one of my inexplicable obsessions.

And here we are, 15 years later.

#StillObsessed #EenieMeenieMinieMoe #PeachKelliPop #LoFiBedroomPop #CanadianIndiePop by @rnrlily

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a month ago

Eight months into COVID lockdown, Bay Area musician & friend @aaronburnhammusic sent me another solo album he had recorded at home. When “The Moonlight” came on, I gasped and covered my mouth with my hands.

He had taken “Clair de Lune” by Debussy (a classical piece I’ve been obsessed with for years) and written impossibly sublime lyrics for it. A familiar tightness gripped my chest partway through…and was that a theremin??? (Turns out it’s a saw!)

While you’d never guess it if you sat me in front of a keyboard now, I took piano lessons for seven years as a kid. I wasn’t great, but I was good enough to play Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca” from memory well into my 20s (unlike his “K. 545 Sonata in C” and its formidable fingerwork).

My teacher never assigned me “Clair de Lune,” though, and I sometimes wonder if having to practice it ad nauseam in my youth would’ve dampened my obsession with it. Or, instead of just pulling it up on YouTube and listening to it over and over again until my eyes blur with tears, would I also be fumbling through the song with my own hands until neighbors pound on the walls in protest? For whatever reason, this piece has had a hold on me for decades.

I immediately DMed Aaron to tell him how much I loved it. A few weeks later, I asked him for the lyrics so I could sing along.

Of course I included it on the @kalxradio shows I made from home, and later played it in the studio when DJs were allowed back in the station. Listeners would ask me about it, too.

It became one of my comfort songs of 2020, and it immediately sprang to mind when I started my Still Obsessed list.

When it finally came time to film this reel, I visited Bandcamp (the only place it had been publicly available)—only to discover that Aaron had taken it down. I panicked…but then remembered I had the MP3 somewhere on a hard drive. Still, I was devastated that I could no longer listen to it on a whim.

It took me a moment to find the file. When I did, I listened to it four times in a row.

Naturally, I cried.

Thank you, Aaron, for letting me share the full song here, since apparently this is now the only place we can hear it. 😭

#StillObsessed #TheMoonlight #AaronBurnham by @rnrlily

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a month ago

It’s Bandcamp Friday! Here are the artists I played on @kalxradio yesterday that you can find on @bandcamp. Enjoy! (Also, link to the show is in bio. It’ll be up for 2 weeks.) #supportindiemusic #bandcampfriday⁠

@angelface_band - Out in the Streets LP @slovenlyrecordings

@josiebandcph - A Life on Sweets Alone LP @krecs

Nutley Brass - Ramones Songbook LP

@theolympians__ - In Search of a Revival LP @daptonerecords

Panda Bear & @2020sonicboom2020 - A ? of When LP @dominorecordco

@pillowfightpop - Jean Said 7”

@slippers8463729101 - Slippers08 LP @krecs

Talulah Gosh - Backwash compilation @krecs

Teengenerate - Live at the Empty Bottle LP @hozacrecords

@twistedteensneworleans - Blame the Clown LP @chainsmokingrecords

@ymandtherumours - Reside LP @dandyboyrecords by @rnrlily

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a month ago

Oh hi! I’ll be engaging in some sonic shenanigans on @kalxradio Thu 9/3 from 3-5pm. Join me for music new and old, ticket giveaways, and an extended punk history lesson at 4pm.

📻 90.7fm
📡 KALX.Berkeley.edu

And here’s a video dump from July & August:
2. @thedirtbombsband @mosswoodmeltdown
3. @the_spits
4. @iggypopofficial
5. Toody Cole & Her Band @deadmoonpdx
6. @thepeacheschrist Punk Parade
7. @deadmilkmenofficial
8. Chicago
9. The No Ways @liars.club
10. @laundrybats @liars.club
11-12. @shannonshaw @wickerparkfest
13. @stompinriffraffs @theestorkcluboakland @bargainrock
14. @thehighmarts @spatsonshattuck @bargainrock
15. The Showa Pop
16. @stompinriffraffs
17. @pillowfightpop at SF Bay Popfest @bottomofthehillsf @oaklandweekender
18. The Kitchenettes
19. @jeaninesband @slumberlandrecords
20. @dearnorareality taken in KALX by @rnrlily

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a month ago

I’m still mystified by why I didn’t start listening to Spiritualized immediately after I saw them in November 1992, three months into my college career, when they opened for the Jesus & Mary Chain. I was already a Spacemen 3 fan, so I was open to Jason Pierce’s new project.

As it turns out, their visceral performance caught me completely off-guard. I was sober but nearly fell down on the Warfield floor while simultaneously having an out-of-body experience, overwhelmed by their wall of otherworldly sound and dramatic, heavenly light show.

I guess you could say they blew my mind. And yet I felt no compulsion to listen to them, even though I followed fellow Spacemen 3 member Sonic Boom and his projects.

I played @officialspzd on @KALXradio once or twice, even though they had released seven studio albums by 2017, when they were scheduled to perform at the Mountain Winery and the Fillmore. Curious if I should see them again (despite barely knowing their music), I pulled up their discography on YouTube, starting with their debut, Lazer Guided Melodies (the album they’d been promoting at that JAMC show).

Shortly after, I DMed @microtonekalx (is it weird that I remember this???), whom I knew to be a Spiritualized fan: “Just put on Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and I know the first song! OMG beautiful!”

I may or may not have made it through the entire album before returning to the title track again and again. Weirdly, I didn’t rush out to buy the record.

Even though I likely heard the song played a lot on KALX when the album came out in 1997, it didn’t grab me then. I was heavily into ’70s punk, girl groups, and bands influenced by the Stooges and Heartbreakers at the time, but the JAMC, Suicide, and Velvet Underground were still in regular rotation, so there was plenty of room for Spiritualized had I wanted to let them in.
[CAPTION CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @rnrlily

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2 months ago

Do you have a song that you’ve been obsessed with for years but have no clue how it entered your life? I usually have a rough recollection of how I discovered my musical obsessions but, every once in a while, I genuinely have no idea.

“Dime a Dónde Puedo Ir” (“Tell Me Where I Can Go”) by @exnoviosband is one such song for me. It was released in October 2018 as the B-side of their “Te Espero Al Final” single, and somehow I was already smitten with it before I headed to Spain in November to film three episodes of JetLag RocknRoll. Was it through Bandcamp somehow? But why wouldn’t I have bought a digital download of it???

I was prepping our Seville shotlist during two rest days in Córdoba when I saw the Pamplonan band listed on the calendar for Sala X, a venue we needed to film. I gasped. What were the chances that a band I liked would be playing?!

Unfortunately, this was a part of Monkey Week (basically, the SXSW of Spain), which meant tickets were long sold out. I immediately emailed their manager and begged for passes.

Three days later, I was standing outside the club around 11pm, desperately trying to get through to their manager. We eventually made it inside around midnight…only to discover that it was practically empty.

Because Spain.

The club filled up by the time Exnovios, the first band, hit the stage at 12:30am. (That may have been the most excruciating half-hour wait of my life.) I was already dying from a long day of filming around town, and Exnovios’s Spacemen 3-inspired droniness was doing nothing to help me remain conscious. But I hung on for their entire set and was rewarded when they finally played “Dime a Dónde Puedo Ir.”
[CAPTION CONTINUED IN COMMENTS] by @rnrlily

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2 months ago