'THE CORONAVIRUS' by The National Cynical Network

Originally broadcast March 15th, 2020 during the brunt of the first deadly wave of the covid-19 pandemic, when it hit The U.S. for the first time. You know, back during the time when certain household paper products were generally hard to come by.

Contains news and information about the virus (as it was known at that time) music and comedy about the virus many done by DIY home-based underground and obscure artists, as well as documentation of the actions (and inactions) of then-President Donald J. Trump during the forefront of the crisis. Much late talk show comedy clips from that time.

The original title for this program was the unwieldy 'If Pigs Could Fly v2.0 (The Coronavirus Mix)' but it has been streamlined to simply 'The Coronavirus' for this release. The form and content is exactly the same as when it was first broadcast.

The parts of the mix titled 'Swine Flu Flashback' are directly from NCN's past show, 'If Pigs Could Fly' which was all about The Swine Flu Pandemic (H1N1) during Obama's administration.
DISCLAIMER:

Most of the individual pieces in this mix were painstakingly assembled by NCN and have never ever existed in this form before March 2020, but most pieces, individually were not created by NCN but rather were created by various mainstream, underground, obscure, or DIY artists and are being used (fairly) in this mix. All derived material has been somehow transformed here or is being used as a cultural touchstone or reference. I will try to fill in the proper accreditation for these, over time. Tracks that are particularly derivative are not available separately from the entire work. If anyone has any questions as to used source material please feel free to contact me through Bandcamp to ask. It is NCN's hope and intention that our use of these artists' work increases their scope and their audience and get them more attention. They deserve it. We feel that they were important, and/or interesting and/or worthwhile voices in the cultural conversation that we are trying to portray and capture with this program.

Total program length (running time): 3 Hours.

PRO TIPS on how to listen to this album:

- Use headphones
- Make sure the 'MP3Gain' setting on your media player is being utilized if you are listening to this over a computerized device (and you probably are) this will help minimize uncomfortable volume changes during the mix. MANY different sources have gone into this mix and NCN has made every effort to modulate these different sources and their respective volume levels, but it is a good idea to use the 'MP3Gain' feature on your player in order to normalize otherwise uncomfortable volume changes. We are not professionals.
- Listen to the tracks with 'gapless playback'. Many of the tracks are designed to be what we call 'contiguous', meaning they lead one right into the other and should be heard, for best effect, without any pauses or silence at all between the tracks.
- Take breaks. This is a long program. It is not necessarily meant to be 'consumed' all in one sitting. Think of NCN programs not so much as traditional 'albums', but more like eclectic 'sonic photo albums' or 'audiobooks with music'. The best place to take breaks is when you hear an NCN 'Station ID' which identifies that you are listening to The National Cynical Network. This usually signifies that a temporal, thematic or subject-oriented change is taking place in the program.
- Try listening to it in the background while working on the computer. The way these and other NCN programs are constructed (we find) is that they are both effective as a mental sonic 'wallpaper', because of the dynamic richness in form, but also rewarding listens if you also devote your entire attention to them, due to the crisp and compelling nature of the content and its sequences.

Happy Listening!

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