brave new waves

I remember sleeping in the basement of my parent’s home during the summer of 1985, because it was much cooler than the upstairs, where my bedroom was. I had picked up CBC radio—not too hard, since Detroit is right across the river from Windsor, Ontario. I don’t even remember how I came across the station, but the two hour weekly “new music” show that the Detroit rock station had simply didn’t satiate my need for something different. Wayne State U. also had a show, which even included poetry readings, but “Brave New Waves” was on five days a week, from 11 pm to 5 am.
The show was extremely eclectic, playing artists from various genres and cultures, but all of whom fit under the “new music” umbrella. My favorite part of the show was an hour-long feature where they would give you the complete band biography, playing all or most of a group’s signature songs. I was introduced to the likes of Husker Du, MDC, Live Skull, the Sparks, the Big Boys, the Dead Kennedys, Tones on Tail, the Skids, Joy Division, Tuxedo Moon and Fela Kuti through the show.
Most of the artists were Hardcore Punk or Post-Punk, but others like Kuti, defied description. Kuti is usually classified as being Afro-Pop, but his music was a blend of traditional African rhythms and modern musical composition. Bands like Tuxedo Moon and Tones on Tail used synthesizers and electronics almost exclusively for their sound whereas Husker Du was a straight-ahead power rock trio (with a major Buzzcocks influence).
“Brave New Waves” opened me to new sounds every time I turned it on. They also gave you the complete history of a band, from inception, through the latest releases. I’m addicted to all the small details, and the show was bloated with facts and dates and miscellaneous tidbits of information. I formed a love of the music and also for the journalistic manner that the subject was covered. The accents of the d.j.s, the words, all drew me in as much as the music.
“Bob Mould was from the small mining town of Malone, New York, about an hour south of here (Montreal). . . he and Grant Hart shared a penchant for early Ramones recordings and met at a record shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”-from the Husker Du profile