DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Head Music Director of KAMP Radio Ingrid Lindstrom spins records Monday night for the student-run radio station.

KAMP Student Radio takes UA students Îunderground' with alternative, off-beat sounds

They work on the outskirts of campus, trying to entertain students. But many on campus don't even know who they are.

They are the student deejays at KAMP radio, the UA's student-run campus station, and even though there are students who don't know the university even has a radio station, they work on, day and night, to bring new sounds to the university community.

One of KAMP's purposes is exposing UA students to non-commercial, underground, alternative forms of music.

"Underground is like the key word at KAMP," said Alex Shub, a first year law student, KAMP deejay, and KAMP's metal music director. "If you can hear it anywhere else in Tucson, we don't want to play it."

This may mean that those of you who consider yourselves alternative music fans won't find your favorite bands gracing the KAMP airways.

"There's mainstream music and then there's the mainstream version of alternative," said ecology and evolutionary biology junior Ingrid Lindstrom, a KAMP deejay, and KAMP's Head Music Director, along with being KAMP's World/Jazz Music Director. "KAMP does not consider Dave Matthew's Band alternative music," she said.

Underground is like the key word at KAMP. If you can hear it anywhere else in Tucson, we don't want to play it - Alex Shub, KAMP deejay

Another so-called alternative band renounced by KAMP is MTV's golden boy-band Linkin Park.

"No Linkin Park allowed," said Joel Arthur, a creative writing sophomore, KAMP deejay, and one of KAMP's alternative music directors. "Nothing really top 40. We're not here to promote music that's already being promoted."

Arthur said he understands that many people connect with Linkin Park's music, but added that there are other musical choices out there ÷ bands that will deliver the goods in a superior way.

"There's people that say what Linkin Park says, but do it with better music and better lyrics," Arthur said.

So what can you expect to hear if you tune into KAMP radio?

"My personal preference is Built to Spill," said Arthur, "Fugazi, Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith, Mars Volta."

Shub opts for a more hard-core, but no less obscure, play list. He listed Dying Fetus, Pissing Razors, and Iron Maiden among his top choices.

DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Head Music Director of KAMP Radio Ingrid Lindstrom searches for her favorite album in the stacks of records at KAMP keeps in its offices.

"One of my goals is to stop the wussification of metal music," he said. "All that shit everyone associates with metal these days. By shit, I mean Korn, Disturbed, POD; I could go on forever. People who think that's all that's out there make me nuts. Open your ears."

Opening your ears might mean letting in music you've never even heard of.

Lindstrom listed alternative/college rock, world & jazz, reggae, Latin, hip-hop, r&b, rpm, (electronic/techno) and loud rock (metal) as some of the genres broadcast.

"And all kinds of stuff in between. I'd say we have at least 15,000 cds in our library and an extensive vinyl collection which our deejays use frequently," she said.

If all of this sounds good so far and you are open to the possibility of letting KAMP Radio into your life, perhaps you might be interested in becoming a part of the KAMP Radio family. If so, you have cause to rejoice, because KAMP Radio is constantly on the lookout for new talent.

Every Wednesday at 5 p.m., KAMP holds a meeting in Franklin room 201. "Meetings are open to the public, so anyone interested can come," said Lindstrom.

Although deejays don't get paid in good old American dollars, there are other rewards to be had from volunteering at KAMP Radio.

"I found all these people who like the same things I like," said Arthur. "This is great. All my best friends are in KAMP now."

"KAMP helps people find their confidence," said Shub, who's been involved with KAMP for five years, and whose older brother once held the same position Shub now holds at the station. "I try to get those kids who don't want to talk and badger them to let it out."

Shub's own co-host, on the Tuesday night show, Big Bag of Angry, fell victim to Shub's good-natured badgering. When the co-host, now dubbed Hacksaw, originally didn't want to give himself a deejay name, Shub stepped in. "I named him for him," Shub said. "He was DJ Nutsack for the first three weeks. It's tough love, you know."

Getting involved in KAMP can also be a great opportunity to get involved in the local music scene.

"We call ourselves Kampers," Lindstrom said. "You'll always find a Kamper at local shows. We're involved in all the aspects of Tucson's music scene as well as the college radio scene."

It's like eating Raisin Bran all the time and not knowing there's Cookie Crisp - Alex Shub, KAMP deejay, on what mainstream music listeners are missing

But, if volunteering just isn't your bag, there's still a way to get involved with KAMP Radio, and that's through their request lines. Listeners can call 621-5806 with music requests. Or, if you're more technologically advanced, you can instant message your request directly to the KAMP station. Their AOL instant messenger id is "kamprequest."

Requests are compiled weekly into Top 10 lists, which can be viewed on KAMP's Web site: kamp.arizona.edu. KAMP's lists are submitted to the College Music Journal, or what Lindstrom referred to as "the college version of the billboard charts."

"In turn KAMP gets more and more music from record labels. We foster professional relationships from people in the recording industry and local artists," she said.

"KAMP has huge support in the music industry," Arthur said. " I talk to people from Capital, Drive-Thru, Epitaph, Matador, SubPop, Discord. Those are just some of the labels I deal with."

So, why should you be willing to give KAMP a listen? Perhaps the answer lies in a metaphor Shub provided. He compared listening only to mainstream music to listening to KAMP Radio.

"It's like eating Raisin Bran all the time and not knowing there's Cookie Crisp," he said.

KAMP Radio offers much more than a variety of less-than-mainstream music. KAMP also broadcasts coverage of UA sporting events, news headlines at the top of every hour, and live radio shows.