Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 October 19, 2001 f

Jon Knapp: DJ of the Week

Orient: Song, artist, album?

Jon Knapp: An important album of my youth was ACDC's "Back in Black." When I bought it, I was like 8 or 9, and I distinctly remember my mother asking my father if this was something I should be listening to, as if it could have a negative influence on me.

O: Who puts on the best live performance?

JK: I hate to further contribute to the hype-machine, but The Strokes put on a damn fine, tight set of drunken energetic rock. For insane, beautiful noise, see The Boredoms whenever they play in the States. Indecipherable screaming, three pounding drummers playing off each other, deafening guitars, piercing electronics--this was all the time I saw them--so may be completely different next time. For over- the-top theatricality, mixed with soft, aching ballads, mixed with dirty blues: Tom Waits.

O: What's in your stereo? What have I been listening to?

JK: Presently, I have disc one of William Parker/In Order to Survive's "The Peach Orchard," The Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers," and The Monks' "Black Monk Time." In my car, recently I have constantly been listening to this new R.L. Burnside live album.

O: Outside your genre, who is your favorite artist?

JK: Otis Redding is one of the few artists who can almost make me want to cry. I think Charles Mingus is fabulous and never tire of him--he could do any type of jazz, and did.

O: What song are you embarrassed to love?

JK: I really enjoy that Destiny's Child "Charlie's Angels" song--"Independent Women," I think it's called. I have become genuinely upset when I have been with some of my like-minded pseudo-hipster friends, who have insisted on changing the station when it has been on. Bastards.