I put this moment... here: 3/16 show

*: new stuff
(r): requests
♣: Irish — in honor of St. Patrick's day. OK, technically Kate Bush is only half-Irish, and was born near London — but there are Irish influences in her music.

It occurs to me that the "playlists" portion of my blog is not all that interesting, so I'm going to start adding some comments and thoughts about the songs I've played.

• Los Blops are a Chilean band that was re-released last year, and they have a sort of psychedelic folk quality. "Esencialmente Asi No Más" is one of the finest songs I heard last year — it starts with a gentle sweet folk vibe, with the lead vocalist's beautiful tenor, and then about two-thirds of the way through, electric guitars and music played backwards roll in with a funky baseline, and it finishes by rocking you. The contrast between that folk sound and the psychedelic groove are what make this song so effecting. Expect to hear it on my show every few weeks.
• The Noisettes are a band I discovered on my show last week. The album was in rotation (we have a rotation of 30 albums in rotation at any time; each hour we are to play any five songs from those 30 albums), and the review stuck on it sounded pretty appealing to me. I like last week's song enough to rip myself a copy of the album to familiarize myself with it more. Conclusion: good stuff. (I haven't heard the whole thing yet — I basically listened to to it on my iPod Shuffle mixed with other stuff. But what I heard, I liked.) So I came in this week planning to play "Bridge to Canada", and found it was no longer in rotation. This happens sometimes. Was it taken out of rotation really quickly? Was it in rotation for a month before I noticed it? Either one is possible. Anyway, it's more or less hard rock mixed with a bit of jazz and soul. It reminds me of Skunk Anansie, a band out of England from the 90's that no one stateside has ever heard of. (Like Skunk Anansie, the Noisettes feature a black singer and a mostly white band singing hard rock — but my comparison is based on the sound and not those superficial similarities.) Comparisons are also made to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and that's not completely off. It's not too accurate, but I'd say fans of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would like the Noisettes. "Bridge to Canada" is a weird song with a good groove, and that's what I like about it. Even though it's out of rotation, I'll continue exploring this album on the air.
• Baby Teeth are a local Chicago band I first heard on WLUW's all-local show Radio One (Thursday evenings from 6 to 10pm), and I liked their out-of-control edge, especially on this track. The song rocks, but the lead singer's voice shouts and strains, and you feel that the band is barely holding it together. I come back to this song every few months.
• Mess Up the Mess is a band out of Washington DC that I reviewed for the station. (Every CD has a review stuck on it, written by a station volunteer, that describes it and recommends the best tracks.) It entered rotation this week (on my suggestion), but last week I played it on my show. I got a call in the studio asking about the song when I played it last week (not this week), and in the past week several people searching for them landed on my blog. So: the album is good and fun garage rock with funny lyrics. To compare to last year's album by the Husbands, this one is less diverse, more consistent, and less harsh. I like garage rock, but I do find the songs tend to sound all the same, which makes it hard to listen to the full albums — but the songs are great for radio and for mix CDs. I'll be playing this one a lot on my show, and a track will probably make it on the next mix CD I make to give away as a pledge premium.

artist	song/album	label
The Talking Heads	Thank You for Sending Me an Angel / Once in a Lifetime
♣Kate Bush	Jig of Life / Hounds of Love	EMI Manhattan
The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	She Just Wants to Move / I Bet You Say That to All the Boys	self-released www.sygc.com
*Emilie Simon	Il Pleut / The Flower Book	Barclay/Milan
*The Postmarks	Watercolors / The Postmarks	Unfiltered
Los Blops	Esencialmente Asi No Más / Del Volar de las Palomas	Shadoks/Normal
Zerostars	Like Lovers Do / The Good Can't Escape	self-released www.zerostars.com
*Caetano Veloso	Outro / Cê	Nonesuch
♣Van Morrison and the Chieftains	Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta / Irish Heartbeat	Mercury
*Bonobo featuring Bajka	Walk in the Sky / Days to Come	Ninja Tune
*The Arcade Fire	(Antichrist Television Blues) / Neon Bible	Merge
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone	Roberta C. / Twinkle Echo	Tomlab
Pierce Turner	The Sky and the Ground / The Sky and the Ground	RCA
The Noisettes	Bridge to Canada / What's the Time Mr. Wolf?	Universal/Motown
♣Sinéad O'Connor	I Want Your (Hands on Me) / The Lion and the Cobra	Chrysalis
Baby Teeth	Diaghalev Was Right / The Baby Teeth Album	self-released babyteethmusic.com
*!!!	A New Name / Myth Takes	WARP
Manu Chao	Malegria / Clandestino	Virgin
Pelvic Delta	Stonewall / Eleven Days
*Mess Up the Mess	Hippocratic Oaf / You Remind Me of Summer Vacation	Paroxysm
*Trans Am	Climbing up the Ladder (Parts III and IV) / Sex Change	Thrill Jockey
♣Damien Rice	Eskimo / O	Vector/DRM
Dixon Brothers	The School House Fire / Down in the Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78's	Old Hat
*Black Nag	Nobody Knows My History / EP	self-released myspace.com/blacknag
*Bobby Conn	King for a Day / King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
The Futureheads	Hounds of Love / The Futureheads	Sire
Ratatat	Wildcat / Classics	XL

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 11:10 AM