Bobble Tiki is no fan of new technology. Let's be straight about that right from the start. Whether we're talking about newfangled cell phones or newfangled toilet bowl plungers (What's up with all these new shapes?), Bobble Tiki usually has the same reaction - he liked things the way they USED to be.

There are a few exceptions, however. And the recent developments in "radio" are one of them.

Thank god for the Internet. Not only does the Internet provide Bobble Tiki with an endless supply of porn, but it makes stuff like Internet radio possible. There was a time, not terribly long ago, when a radio listener used to be forced to put up with insufferable DJs and three Creed songs an hour. This is no longer the case.

Specifically, Bobble Tiki is thankful for NWCZ Radio, launched by the forces behind the Northwest Convergence Zone Podcast. It's quickly become a powerhouse of regional independent musical talent - spewing great artists and great talent onto the Internet airwaves everyday.

Last week, for example, Tacoma-by-way-of-Olympia band Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel unveiled The Dust Bowl Ghosts live on NWCZ Radio, the band's second full length. A longtime favorite of Bobble Tiki and the Volcano, due in large part to the band's mix of rock, folk, blues, and Tom Waits/Nick Cave-isms, Brotherhood of the Black began offering The Dust Bowl Ghosts for free on their website shortly after the NWCZ Radio virtual listening party.

Bobble Tiki caught up with Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel's Patrick Baldwin to ask him three questions ... 

BOBBLE TIKI: Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel unveiled "The Dust Bowl Ghosts" on NWCZRadio.com. Talk a little about the decision to hold a "virtual listening party," and the kind of impact stuff like that has on a band's ability to get its music out there. What was the reception like?

PATRICK BALDWIN: I had been toying with the idea of doing a listening party instead of a typical release party for quite a while, but I felt that might be somewhat exclusionary. We had made a few appearances on the Northwest Convergence Zone podcast, and when they decided to launch an online locally focused radio station earlier this year it sort of got the gears turning. We had thought about not printing any CD's and just releasing the album online anyway, so it seemed like a natural extension of that idea (though we are doing a limited run of CD's).

The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I think people like to hear about what goes into the music they enjoy, and even though it was all online, I feel like there's a certain, backwards intimacy with radio that you don't get at a show.

TIKI: You guys always seem to come up with great album names. Your debut was "The Number of the Squirrel" (as you'll naturally recall), and the latest effort is "The Dust Bowl Ghosts." Where did the latest title come from?

BALDWIN: Yeah, we do have some great titles. Our first EP was titled "I [heart] Jazz Trumpet" in reference to the trumpet laced noise jam we made as a "hidden track." Then The Number of the Squirrel - which is an obvious Iron Maiden reference - is sort of an inside joke about naming the band, when we threw around the idea of calling ourselves "Not Quite As Good As Iron F@#king Maiden." So it's mostly been inside jokes I guess.

The Dust Bowl Ghosts, though, is a bit more serious. When we started writing that a couple years ago, we were hearing the words "depression" and "recession" thrown about all willy-nilly. I was unemployed and a bit irritated with the state of things, so there's a lot of that in the album. I wanted to get across this idea that we were sort of living in this shade of the Great Depression; that things we thought long dead and buried were coming back to oppress us. I have a tendency to write very dramatically about things I feel are important, and I tend to exaggerate things until I get into these grotesque, allegorical morality tales. I actually use the phrase "Dust Bowl Ghosts" in a few different songs on this album, so it's sort of this concept album about a man dreaming about the world as it is today, but with all this sort of Steinbeck-esque imagery. There's also cannibalism.

TIKI: Typically, brotherhoods of any sort have a set of bylaws or, at the very least, codes of conduct. Are there any special rules the Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel adheres to? Furthermore, why just the black squirrel? Isn't that racist?

BALDWIN: We really only have two rules:

1) No jerks allowed.

2) No girls allowed.

Number one is pretty much moot, since most current and former members the Brotherhood are jerks. Number two is enacted only so we don't have to change the name to something less gender biased. Also, it might be an excuse for why most members of the band have a hard time holding down a relationship.

Strangely enough, we've never been accused of racism. Being originally an Olympia based band though, we have gotten some flack for being 'sexist'.