My Exit: Leon Ferri
It's Monday, which means WEXT is running another My Exit show -- where the listeners get to pick their own playlists.
Here's a look at what's coming up tonight:
Who?
My name is Leon Ferri. I am a photographer and music video director in Schenectady. I attended SUNYA until 2010, and have not gotten wise to the Capital District yet. When I'm not with my stereo or camera, I can be found washing my car or slinging tolls on the Thruway.
How would you describe your taste in music?
Growing up I put in some serious time with my parents' record collection (they consolidated, that's how I know it was true love) -- classic rock, progressive rock to be specific. Yes, Pink Floyd and ELP put me in an adolescent trance. The woman on the cover of Santana's ABRAXAS gave me a feeling I still seek fifteen years on. Led Zeppelin is the best band of all time because they have a song for whatever mood you are in. Oh, and Abbey Road over White Album (by a nose.)
While at SUNYA I got involved with their student radio station WCDB. My program there was EIGHTIES. It was such a cheesy show. But it forced me to learn a lot about that disposable decade and proved to be an aesthetic Roth IRA against the Indie music of the mid-aughts. Indie is so much better now. I studied abroad in England for my last uni semester and got bit badly by Shoegazer and Britpop -- that amazing wound has not yet scabbed.
A few songs from Leon's My Exit:
Wire - "map ref.41° n 93° w"
This band rules because of the pure consistency of their inconsistencies. I think they've put out twelve or thirteen albums at this point - Every one drips of re-invention. This is off an early album called 154 - Now that I am typing this, I'm kicking myself for not putting something off their first release "Pink Flag," as it rather spearheads the idea of Punk and totally kills. The chorus rotates and orbits around the rest of the song, popping in to blow your mind at pleasantly unexpected intervals.
Cerulean - "Ready"
This band has a nice environmental sound that really has you riding a wave. This song's album was released when I was a freshman in High School, and the only thing keeping me from melting the CD from overuse was the release of their third (and last) LP that came out, somewhat coincidentally, my freshman year of University. That album was the first I reviewed for WCDB's library. I saw them play at the last vestige of independent live music venues in Albany, the NEW AGE CABARET. If anyone remembers this place - It was somewhere near the RCA dog Broadway / S Pearl area. Really dicey/awesome place. They played in complete darkness, but had a dozen road work floodlights all over the room. When they came up to the chorus, they hit a pedal and the whole place lit up. Best live show I've ever been to. RIP New Age Cabaret. Temporary RIP live music in the Capital District.
Barenaked Ladies - "In the Car"
This was my first CD! I received it as a tenth birthday gift. At the time I was treating "One Week" like methadone so it's convenient that it's the first track. 1998's "Stunt" is a true classic of the band's, laden with rich album cuts and no filler whatsoever. I tried getting into albums of theirs that precede and follow this one with limited success. My cosmic connection to this track stems from its precocious solemn attitude to the "one night stand," imparted on me with a Totally Slammin' guitar solo as tender as any evanescent love of youth.
The Strokes - "The Modern Age"
Again with the otherworldly guitar solos! The one featured in this song is perhaps my fav. This is off another album that came out right around September 2001 and provided a soundtrack to the insane four years that followed. I still listen to The Strokes' "Is this It?" in entirety about once a month. Pitchfork mag did a great decade wrap-up last year, and gave this album due accolade - Best album of 2000-2010! Wow.
The Association - "Cherish"
This is my favorite song. The instrumental work is really at the forefront of its era, and the harmonies toward the end are positively spine-crawling. But the lyrics are what have always driven me to love this song. I put this one on while going through a breakup and had what the books call a "BREAKTHROUGH" - It was five years ago so I am having trouble recreating the emotion really - But the thick of it is, the narrator is going through some unrequited love that I could not top.
His feeling transcends the construct of need; it is a viscous, impossible desire for connection. Love has a flowing definition for me because of this song - It is not a predetermined key/lock relationship, but rather one that changes based on the analog state of your life... It changes like a fraying rope braid, the shape in which water collects at the bottom of a cup, or like
the color of toys left out in the sun. Saw the Association play live last year - They've still got it! It was magical to hear in person. This band's other big single "Never my Love" is also so good! Listen to it!
You can hear Leon's My Exit show Monday night at 8 pm on 97.7 or at exit977.org.
Here's how to schedule your own My Exit show on WEXT.
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Comments
leon is the man. the end.
... said Jessica S on Jun 18, 2012 at 4:01 PM | link
This guy is awesome! He is a great dj, wish I could've listened from Syracuse!
... said Jesse J on Jun 19, 2012 at 9:24 PM | link