Public Record

Winter has arrived in all her splendor. A new year beckons and a fresh night, the longest of the whole year, is all ours. Join Ersa Lowly on Clairaudience for an evening of strange and soothing music, UFO stories, and Solstice reflections. Have you own far out story to share? Dial 1-877-WASTOIDS and leave a message and we'll play it on the show. 

The winter brings many things: Familial obligations, awkward holiday parties, stores crammed with shoppers. But the winter brings something else: a sense of deep quiet, a time to slow down, bundle up and ease into the long nights as we await brighter mornings. We’re passing through the frosty crucible, listener. And on the other side? Why, it’s Clairaudience on WASTOIDS with your host Ersa Lowly. Each Tuesday night she manifests via ones and zeros from the studio at Hello Lincoln, bringing you a bundle of mellow tunes for relaxing and unsettling messages from the 1-877-WASTOIDS hotline. 

Each Tuesday night, Ersa Lowly brings you Clairaudience, a selection of mellow compositions to lull you to sleep and strange, far out stories from the WASTOIDS hotline. This week, we've got a special guest calling in: John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, a reliable source of literate folk rock for decades (and a big sensation on TikTok). He’s also a writer, the author of Wolf in White Van, Universal Harvester, and a new one called Devil House, about a true crime writer and the aftermath of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. He joins Ersa for a conversation about the new book, far out dreams, and more. 

Somewhere in the expanse of space there is a place of quiet. A place of reprieve. Despite its faraway location, you can go there, listener. Simply close your eyes. Allow yourself a deep breath. Sink lower and lower, as if into cosmic waters. Listen closely and you can hear it bubbling...the sound of Clairaudience on WASTOIDS. Shall we ride the cosmic waves? 

Do you believe in ghosts, listener? There are rumors that the studio at Hello Lincoln is haunted. When a building is very old, these sorts of stories tend to develop. And ours is indeed an old one: it was built in 1927 for the Arizona Sash, Door & Glass Company. More than once, the crew here as heard odd noises or caught sight of an apparition from the corner of their eye. Is something haunting you, listener? A regret? An unspoken wish? Perhaps tonight’s the perfect night to embrace the spirit of possibility...and learn the tragic legend of Buddy Holly's ghost. This is Clairaudience on WASTOIDS.

What’s more important, listener: the answer? Or the question? The right answer might solve everything, be the missing puzzle piece. But if your question is off, too short sighted, or too myopic—if it doesn’t take into account the thousands of random elements that influence and inform everything going on around us, both seen and the unseen—then what good is it? An answer can satisfy, but the right question? Well that can do even more. For the person humble enough to admit what they don’t know, a question can inspire, can give the imagination permission to take flight. Are you brave enough to join Ersa Lowly in exploring the questions tonight? 

The darkness comes earlier and earlier this time of year, but there’s no need to fear the inky blackness. After all, under the cover of night, we can explore the strangeness of our world freely, shielded from the prying eyes of squares and the uptight masses. Nighttime is our time, when our obligations recede and mystery abounds. The nighttime belongs to Ersa Lowly, and she belongs to it. Welcome to Clairaudience on WASTOIDS: let's get lost in the darkness. 

It's Tuesday night and Ersa Lowly is back to guide you to the sweet spot between waking and sleeping, between drifting away and drifting beyond. Here in this liminal holy space, a land of lost continents and ancient technologies—located between the real and the imagined—we've got a set of songs and calls from the WASTOIDS hotline. 

Welcome to another installment of Strange Gear, our biweekly series of conversations about items in artists' sonic toolkits that help them create distinct sounds. Today on the show, Ben Greenberg and Mike Berdan of Uniform join us to discuss the way the Roland EF-303 Groove Effects box and synths brings depth and color to the band's industrial/punk/metal fervor. The band's latest is called Shame, out now on Sacred Bones Records. 

Allhallowtide is upon us, and Ersa Lowly has raised her blade and gathered up a selection of spooky tunes to soundtrack your nights of carving and feasting on candy. Wander into the night with this episode of Clairaudience, and mark your calendar for Friday, October 29, when the first-ever WASTOIDS Halloween Special, featuring creepy cool videos from Cosmic Hour, Dirt Dyed, Skin Ticket, and Ersa herself, drops at WASTOIDS.