Friday, February 10, 2006

Www.Bootliquor.com: The Internet’s Bad-Ass Radio Station - Tamar Alexia Fleishman




Roy Batchelor is the heart and soul of www.bootliquor.com, a four year old Internet radio station that bills itself as "Dysfunctional Country". Whether you are hosting a party or you’re in the mood to put a fist through the wall, I promise that listening to www.bootliquor.com will put a smile on your face.

Ah, but I can hear a bunch of you thinking, "Eww. Country sucks these days and whiny alt/indie singers who cut their own bangs make me wanna put my head in an oven." Of course. All I can tell you is www.bootliquor.com is neither of these things. The basic skeleton of the play list consists of songs that focus on drinking, drugs, "soured relationships," death, trucking and general hard livin’. The genre of music ranges from classic country, story songs, singer-songwriter, to folk rock. You’ll hear everything from Susan Tedeschi to Johnny Cash, the Beat Farmers, Gas Money and Hank Williams (I, II and III).

Batchelor’s "day job" is in the IT/Internet fields. Since the 1970’s, he has run a number of comment lines, bulletin boards, web conference centers and other tech entertainment options. With over 1,700 songs in Bootliquor’s library, streaming is accomplished with a dedicated machine running professional broadcasting software (OTS Labs, otsdj.com). It even takes care of song transitions and station ID’s. www.Bootliquor.com
can also be accessed through www.shoutcast.com. Batchelor chose to be aligned with them because, as he says, "Shoutcast servers are pretty
much the best nonproprietary feed platform out there."

Batchelor grew up in the suburbs of Southern California. "My favorite people in high school were people in the ‘MGM’ (mentally gifted minds) class that would pay for my ticket to see punk bands in LA if I would drive them in my Pinto. It was a symbiotic relationship," he recalls. Batchelor is remaining silent as to how close the play list lines up with his personal life, though. He has a musical background, with years of piano, organ and guitar study under his belt. Batchelor says he has a good sense of pitch but only has an octave singing range.

If y'all want to say howdy to Roy, he is currently recording shout-outs for possible broadcast on air . . .915-990-4347.

ALSO -- check this out, all my twisted friends: Boot Liquor is proud to announce you'll receive a set of ever-so-naughty Drunk Chick Trading Cards for any donation $25.00 and above ($35.00 and above gets an artist signed pack) effective RIGHT NOW! Artist Chris Wright has created this twisted, alcohol inspired 36 card deck of classic types of Drunk Chicks. I myself have a deck of these and, well, they're something else. This is the perfect housegift for some parties, perhaps not others.