From station to station - 1/11 show

I specifically had wanted to play the song "Icky Thump" by The White Stripes as my first song today, just so that I could use the line "you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too" as my blog entry title. However, that song was a big single from that album, and the review pasted on the case specifically said not to play it, so instead I played the very amusing song "Conquest" later in the show. "Conquest" adds a Mexican/​Southwestern flavor to the White Stripes usual spare hard rock sound. The horn part is produced by cheap synthesizers, which must have been on purpose; it gives the song an odd quality [actually, I just listened to the song again, and the horns are in fact real; sometimes they sound like cheap synthesizer, which is even odder]. The lyrics tell a story that is essentially sexist, but in an amusing way. A man treats a woman as "just another conquest" — a sort of sexual prey. Then, when he succeeds, he becomes the prey himself to her conquest for a husband (which she succeeds at). So it's a sort of even-handed sexism, and tongue-in-cheek. [Update: apparently it's a Patti Page cover. For true! Compare the original with the White Stripes version. Thank you, Gems and Purls.]

Muscles' album did not make it into my top 12 of 2007, but it's awfully fun anyway. It's dance music, but has a raucous, off-kilter quality, very much like what The Mighty Mighty Bosstones brought to Ska music. The lyrics are mostly stupid-fun. The refrain of "Ice Cream" features such lines as "Ice cream is going to save the world" and "I just want to dance with my shirt off". (That last line always makes me think I should be listening to this in the summer; well, the band is Australian, so I guess it's summer there. Right now I hardly want to do anything with my shirt off.)

Speaking of odd and fun lyrics, today I played one of my favorite Throwing Muses songs, "Fish", from the 4AD comp Lonely is an Eyesore (the title of which is in fact a line from "Fish": "Lonely is as lonely does / Lonely is an eyesore / The feeling describes itself". The lyrics are poetic and odd; you understand them on a visceral level without them actually making much sense. "I have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall / it sings to me with glassy eyes and quotes from Kafka"; "I have a man who follows my hips with his hands"; "The girl behind the counter sees a fin". Apparently, Hersh had (has?) a form of epilepsy in which the seizures come in the form of music, which explains the hallucinatory quality of her lyrics. (I had some trouble finding good confirmation of this online, but I recall reading it in an article years ago.) In any event, the success of this song is not just a matter of the lyrics, but also the excellent drumming that propels the song forward, plus the singing, the spare bassline, and the rhythmic guitar.

In general I think today's was a good show. I tried to rock a little harder than usual. I got three requests, which is a little more than usual. I don't know what it is that causes people to request more music. Is it my remembering to reel off the number at each break? Is it something in the weather that makes people more introspective and attentive to their radios? Is it something in the music that makes people want to participate?

Do you call into radio stations with requests? When and why?

Today's playlist:

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Kraftwerk	Trans-Europe Express	Trans-Europe Express	Capitol
Saint Etienne	Mario's Cafe	Travel Edition 1990-2005	Sub Pop
*Cex	Cocceesville	Exotical Privates	Automation
*Richard Youngs	No Edge	Autumn Response	Jagjaguwar
Kate Bush	Never Be Mine	The Sensual World	Columbia
Josephine Foster and the Supposed	Who Will Feel Bitter at the Day's End	All the Leaves Are Gone	Locust
Deee-Lite	Try Me On, I'm Very You	World Clique	Elektra
*White Williams	In the Club	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*Joe Lally	Tonight at 10	Nothing is Underrated	Dischord
The Dials	Dead Beat	Sick Times	Self-released
The Smiths	Still Ill	The Smiths	Sire
The White Stripes	Conquest	Icky Thump	Warner Brothers
Ex-Ray Spex	Oh Bondage, Up Yours!	Germ-Free Adolescents	Caroline
*Wiley	50/50	Well Deep: Ten Years of Big Dada Recordings	Big Dada
Dizzee Rascal	Showtime	Showtime	XL
Patti Smith	High on Rebellion	Easter	Arista
The Throwing Muses	Fish	Lonely Is an Eyesore	4AD
(r)Man Man	White Rice, Brown Heart	Man Man	Ace Fu
Fiery Furnaces	Tropical Iceland	EP	Rough Trade
*Cass McCombs	Lionkiller	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Muscles	Ice Cream	Guns Babes Lemonade	Modular
Canasta	Microphone Song	We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Jampara	Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Romm
(r)Gogol Bordello	Harem in Tuscany (Taranta)	Super Taranta!	Side One Dummy
*The Dragons	Cosmosis	BFI	Ninja Tune
Sean Lennon	Photosynthesis	Into the Sun	Grand Royal
*Iron & Wine & Calexico	Dark Eyes	I'm Not There OST	Sony/Columbia
(r)Dan Deacon	The Crystal Cat	Spiderman of the Rings	Carpark
*Wire	Our Time	Read & Burn 03	Pink Flag

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 1:48 PM