Monkeywrench Radio '98

Hell yeah. We found a Youtube video of Monkeywrench Radio that's embedded below.

For those like us who were listening on the East Coast, this radio show took place on a Saturday night - January 31, 1998 - starting somewhere around 10 or 11PM, and it was finished probably between 2 and 3AM, early on February 1st. (The satellite feed was live from Seattle, so everything on the West Coast was 3 hours earlier.)

For some reason, our post about Pearl Jam from 4 years ago receives more views than most of the stuff we post on here. But in that post, we briefly discussed Self-Pollution Radio, a 4-hour simulcast from Eddie Vedder's basement in January 1995 that included 15-20 minute sets from Pearl Jam and their friends' bands (like Mudhoney and Soundgarden among others), as well as discussion about social issues, interviews with weirdos like Mike Watt, and lots of records. 90% of what they played sounded like it was spun from a single turntable hooked up to a soundboard, although there might have been a second turntable. It sounded like they had a lot of fun putting the whole thing together, and they expressed interest in doing more of them.

The only other basement simulcast like this happened three years later. Self-Pollution Radio took place fairly close to the peak of Pearl Jam's popularity, while Monkeywrench Radio - essentially the sequel - took place well after that point. By then, Soundgarden had split up, and the weirdo college-rock crossover singles that once infected stations like New York's Z100 between 1994-1995 had been supplanted by safe VH1-friendly alt-rock.

While Self-Pollution Radio was pretty heavily advertised and discussed on MTV News, Monkeywrench Radio didn't receive nearly as much buzz prior to the broadcast. It's possible that a lot of people who would have been interested in listening simply had no idea that it was happening. So basically, it's a little harder to find a copy of this one.

Within the past few weeks, someone uploaded their cassette-taped-off-the-radio copy of this to Youtube. It's probably not that difficult to find the actual soundboard recording if you dig far enough, but Youtube is so much more convenient and less time-consuming. The entire broadcast is not here though... Only what this guy was able to fit onto 2 90-minute tapes, which is actually more awesome in a way, even though it's cut short by the time Stone Gossard gets around to spinning records from Missy Elliot and Timbaland.

One amazing moment from the "Part 2" video is revealed during Mike Watt's long-winded interview, when he mentions that the simulcast on LA's KROQ was pulled after in the middle of Krist Novoselic's weirdo rant that included the entirety of The Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice." And we don't mean "weirdo" in a negative way. There are very few moments throughout these two tapes that are anything less than incredible, serving their purpose of presenting these rock legends as just normal homies hangin' out and doing their thing.

This is definitely the kind of video that could easily get removed from Youtube at any time. (They already forced the uploader to mute The Ramones' "Rock N' Roll Radio.") So enjoy it while it's available.



Here's the playlist pulled from a version that was distributed on CD:

Disc 1:
01. MW
02. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
03. The Ramones - Rock N Roll Radio
04. Stereolab - Noise Of Carpet
05. Pearl Jam - Do The Evolution (live)
06. Pearl Jam - Given To Fly (live)
07. Pearl Jam - Pilate (live)
08. Pearl Jam - Wishlist (live)
09. Pailhead - Don't Stand In Line
10. The Presidents of the USA - Bath Of Fire
11. Ani De Franco - Fuel
12. Zeke - Unknown (live)
13. Zeke - Twisted (live)
14. Zeke - Highway Alter (live)
15. Zeke - Wanna Fuck? (live)
16. Zeke - Chiva Knievel (live)
17. Zeke - West Seattle Acid Party (live)
18. Zeke - Easy Rider (live)
19. Zeke - Unknown (live)
20. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out

Disc 2:
01. Ed Talks With Gloria Steinem
02. Ed Talks With Corin Tucker
03. The Need - Unknown
04. Mudhoney - Editions Of You (live)
05. Mudhoney - Oblivion Into Infinity (live)
06. Mudhoney - Real Love Vibe (live)
07. Mudhoney - Have To Laugh (live)
08. Wellwater Conspiracy - Sandy
09. Lukin's Phone Message
10. Ed Talks With Steve Turner
11. The Sonics - He's Waiting
12. Kent 3 - DJ New
13. Pearl Jam - Brain Of J (live)
14. Pearl Jam - In Hiding (live)
15. Pearl Jam - Spin The Black Circle (live)

Disc 3:
01. Soundgarden - HIV Baby
02. Ed Talks With Krist Novoselic
03. Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
04. REM - Live For Today
05. Tuatara - Saturday Night Chruch (live)
06. Tuatara - L'Espionnage de Pomme de Terre (live)
07. Tuatara - Serengeti (live)
08. Tuatara - The Streets Of New Delhi (live)
09. Chris Cornell - Unshower
10. Ed Talks With Mike Watt
11. Mike Watt - Pedro Bound

Disc 4:
01. Brad - I Don't Know (live)
02. Brad - Not Too Late (live)
03. Brad - Buttercup (live)
04. Hifi Killers - Unknown
05. Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing
06. Timbalind & Magoo - Luv 2 Luv You
07. Miss Elliot - Beep Me 911
08. YaYa's - Long Ways
09. Pearl Jam - Nothingman (live)
10. Bill Clinton Speech
11. Hovercraft - Unknown
12. Legion Of Doom
13. Ed Takes A Call
14. Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World