Wondering if I've got a soul - 9/7 Show

So I finally asked the name of my regular caller, whose voice I always recognize: Pete. Hi Pete! Pete apparently has a younger brother my age. "My little brother is named Tony... well I call him my little brother, actually he's 36." Thanks Pete! I didn't mention that I too was 36. I was struck by the urge to say "Hey, I'm 36, maybe we know each other," as if having the same name and being the same age would somehow make us likely to cross paths.

Instead, I took a request for Imogen Heap. Interestingly, the reason we have Imogen Heap in the library is because sometime last year Mary Nisi brought it in an played it during her show, and Pete heard it, and then requested it during my show. Since it wasn't in the library, and Mary had played it (and I figured it was probably therefore good), I put it on our CD request list. When the station then bought a copy, I volunteered to review it, since it was sort of my idea to get it. So something about Pete requesting it and me playing it today brings the whole thing full circle nicely.

So to me, this is kind of the point about community radio — we really do respond to our listeners. During the last pledge drive, I went on the air with Mary during her show to pitch, and I told the Pete-Imogen Heap story. Mary said that she had played Imogen Heap because she'd heard it on The O.C. or Grey's Anatomy or something like that. Actually, this changes the story for me a little bit... I don't know, it just feels different. Anyway, now when you hear about what a big deal it is for artists to get their songs on TV, well there you have it. From TV to Mary to Pete to me to WLUW's library and our full listenership.

Pete requested Imogen Heap because he thought it would go with my set of chanteuses, as he put it, which I am apparently known for. (It's an area where I feel my show intersects with Claire's Monday night show, though I do like my dance music, too.)

Tom Waits is, of course, not a chanteuse, but you might call him a chanteur. I played the title track from Rain Dogs, an album my sister gave me while I was in high school. (She got quite into him in college.) Rain Dogs is a nice balance between his earlier, croonier music, and his later, more rough-edged work. The lyrics are colorful, and though they don't exactly tell stories, they seem to allude to them, and in this way, the album feels pleasantly like a soundtrack to a musical.

Lena Horne is a fabulous chanteuse with a gorgeous voice. I don't know her work as well as some of the other jazz vocalists I play, and though the songs on this album are old standards, I'm only really well acquainted with a couple. So playing songs from Some of the Best is always an adventure and a pleasant surprise.

Camille is a French artist recommended to be by Graziella. Her music features lots of oversampled vocals and complex rhythms, and is noticeably influenced by Afropop. If you like Zap! Mama, you'll like Camille. "Baby Carni Bird" is about half in English, the only English on the album I think. I tend to avoid English songs on foreign albums, because of my fondness for foreign languages, but "Baby Carni Bird" is really quite a nice song, showing heavy American Soul music influences.

The album from Mirah and Spectratone International is new in the studio, and I'm still in the process of discovering it. So far, it's good stuff. Many of the song titles refer to insects directly ("Love Song of the Fly") or obliquely ("Credo Cigalia" — not sure of the meaning, but "cigale" is French for "cicada", and the song refers to noise-making insects). "My Prize" seems to be told from the point of view of a dung beetle. It is musically lovely, though: a waltz somewhat reminiscent of old sea shanties.

And finally Imogen Heap, by request. "Have You Got It In You" was a nice choice; it's not one of the songs that stands out the most, which I think makes for a better set of music. The album Speak for Yourself is perhaps a bit too tightly-produced; I thought the Pitchfork Review summed it up well with the line "Heap actually mortgaged her London flat to finance the making of this record, and the go-for-broke attitude is evident. This record is produced within an inch of its life...." While the album as a whole can be a bit much, it's good mixed into other things, and so perfect for radio. (This problem can work the other way around, too — last year's There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead by the Husbands is perhaps a bit too rough for a whole album, but mixes in well with other music.)

The full playlist:

* = new stuff / (r) = requests

artist	song	album	label
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	Counting Down the Hours	Shake the Sheets	Locust
Frank Zappa	I'm the Slime	Zappa Picks: Jon Fishman of Phish	Ryko
*Aesop Rock	Catacomb Kids	None Shall Pass	Definitive Jux
(r) Bloc-Party	She's Hearing Voices	Silent Alarm	Vice
The Electric Prunes	I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night
Har Mar Superstar	Body Request	The Handler	Record Collection
*You Say Party! We Say Die!	Moon	Lose All Time	Paper Bag
*Patrick Cleandemin	Until You Say I'm Gone	Baby Come Home	Ba Da Bing
The Andrews Sisters	Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree	The Andrews Sisters Greatest Hits	CURB Records
Mavis Staples	99 1/2	We'll Never Turn Back	Anti-
*Imperial Teen	Room with a View	The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band	Merge
The Brown Party	The Plus Four Equals Fun	The Brown Party	Self-released (thebrownparty.com)
Ben Folds Five	Kate	Whatever and Even Amen	Epic
*Architecture in Helsinki	Debbie	Places Like This	Polyvinyl
Feist	I Feel It All	The Reminder	Interscope
Tom Waits	Raindogs	Raindogs	Island
Lena Horne	My Blue Heaven	Some of the Best	Stanyan
Camille	Baby Carni Bird	Le Fil	EMI
*Mirah and Spectratone International	My Prize	Share this Place	k Records
(r)Imogen Heap	Have You Got It in You?	Speak for Yourself	RCA Victor
*M.I.A.	Boyz	Kala	Interscope
Psalm One with DJDQ of Glue	Beat the Drum	The Death of Frequent Flyer	Rhymesayers
Deee-Lite	What Is Love?	World Clique	Elektra
*Justice	Newjack	†	Ed Banger/Vice
My or May Not	Best You Can	Colors Only Bees Can See	Two Thumbs Down
B-52's	Dirty Back Road	Wild Planet	WB
Haale	Home Again	Paratrooper	Darya
*Augie March	There Is No Such Place	Moo, You Bloody Choir	Jive
*The Rentals	Little Bit of You in Everything	Last Little Life EP	Boompa
(r)Throwing Muses	Juno	House Tornado	Sire
The Shangri-La's	Sophisticated Boom Boom	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 7:25 AM