Indie Radio! Records! Blogging!

I have a blog post up at the Chicago Independent Radio Project's new web site. I will be posting something there about once a week.

What is the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP), you ask? Go to the site and read more.

And if you are into records, you might come to CHIRP's Record Fair, April 12-13, 2008, here in Chicago (formerly the WLUW Record Fair).

Labels: chirp, music, wluw

posted by Tony at 9:48 PM | 0 comments

Bang Bang Out Like an Out Cherootie - 3/28 show

More thoughts about Kate Bush: some of her songs treat some pretty strange subjects. "The Wedding List" is a ballad telling the story (in first person) of a woman whose husband is shot dead at their wedding; she then hunts down the killer (still at the wedding, in her dress), kills him, and then herself. It's odd, but pretty well done, in that the motives behind the crime are alluded to but not explained. Another odd ballad by Bush is "There Goes a Tenner" about a failed bank heist, which was remade by a Chicago hip hop group as a rap song. Some day I will have to play those two songs back to back on the radio — they sound pretty different.

I feel the need to defend Swing Out Sister. Swing Out Sister had their biggest hits in the 80's, when they were playing jazz-influenced pop — somewhat akin to the Style Council, but which heavier orchestration. I enjoyed those songs, but they were tacky; always tacky. Lead sing Corinne Drewery did, however, have an excellent voice, in that smooth jazz-vocal style. In 1992 they came back with a more jazz- and soul- influenced album, Get in Touch with Yourself, followed in 1994 with The Living Return, which dispensed almost entirely with the pop sound, in favor of jazz, soul, and bossa nova. Each album was deeper and stronger than the previous one. Then, I just kind of stopped tracking them; apparently there have been five albums since then, including one that came out last month. So I guess I'll have to look into that. Anyway, "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool" is really my favorite track from The Living Return.

Zerostars are finally putting out there first full album. (Their previous effort was an EP.) The songs I've heard from it are strong, and I'm looking forward to hearing the whole thing. This will be self-released, as the EP was; who knows but it could be the record that gets them a contract. (Funny how that works these days — it's possible to self-release a good quality CD, rather than sending demos around in hope of getting a contract. You can generate some interest in your band, and this might get you a contract. Office did this; Q&A was self-released in 2006, and most of those songs made it onto their 2007 label debut, A Night at the Ritz.) Back to Zerostars: "Sleeping In" will be on this album. I'm a sucker for a song with time changes; the verses in "Sleeping In" are in 4/4 time, while the refrain is in 3/4. Anyway, you'll hear from me again once I've heard the album.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Kate Bush	The Wedding List	Never Forever	EMI Manhattan
The Decemberists	The Perfect Crime #2	The Crane Wife	Capitol
*Kelley Stoltz	When You Forget	Circular Sounds	Sub Pop
*Mussels	My Hand Your Heart	Little Voices	Self-released musselsmusic.com
Office	Wound Up	Q&A	Self-released reachoffice.net
*The Raveonettes	You Want the Candy	Lust Lust Lust	Vice
Os Mutantes	Ando Meio Desligado	A Divina Comedia Ou	Omplatten
Swing Out Sister	Mama Didn't Raise No Fool	The Living Return	Mercury
Final Fantasy	He Poos Clouds	He Poos Clouds	Tomlab
Matt Friedberger	Hold Ghost Language School	Winter Women	859 Recordings
*DeVotchKa	Basso Profundo	A Mad and Faithful Telling	Anti-
*Elf Power	Paralyzed	In a Cave	Ryko
Explosions in the Sky	Welcome, Ghosts	All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone	Temporary Residence
REM	Don't Go Back to Rockville	The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 And I Feel Fine...	Capitol
Fazzini	06 (Tony's Story)	Sulphur, Glue the Star	Locust
*Bauhaus	Endless Summer of the Damned	Go Away White	Bauhaus Music
*The Grand Archives	The Crime Window	The Grand Archives	Sub Pop
Pansy Division	The Summer You Let Your Hair Grow Out	The Essential Pansy Division	Alternative Tentacles
*The Mae-Shi	Run to Your Grave	HLLLYH	Team Shi
*Degenerate Art Ensemble	Cuckoo Pie	Cuckoo Crow	Tellous
Laurie Anderson	Born, Never Asked	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
(r)M83	Don't Save Us from the Flames	Before the Dawn Heals Us	Mute
Murder by Death	Desert's on Fire	Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them	Eyeball
Pit Er Pat	Solstice	Pyramids	Thrill Jockey
Zerostars	Sleeping In		Self-released: zerostars.com
*Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks	Gardenia	Real Emotional Trash	Matador

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 10:37 AM | 1 comments

Listen to your yenta!

Once again, another weekly installment of Finn and Charlie are Hitched.

Do you ever flip through the back of the in-flight magazine? There are always these ads for professional matchmaking services... there's one, in particular, that makes me think, should I really trust your judgment in finding me a mate if you thought it was a good idea to wear that blouse?

Labels: comic

posted by Tony at 11:26 PM | 6 comments

I Am Pure and Steady - 3/21 show

After two weeks of subbing and swapping, I was back in my usual slot today. That was kind of nice.

So, I admit it: when I first heard of Baby Dee, I didn't know what to make of her, and I passed on doing the CD review for the station. The information available on Baby Dee's website does not entirely elucidate; mostly you get the impression that Baby Dee is a little known phenomenon who's been performing for quite a while. Discovering her now feels like picking up a book in the middle. So: Baby Dee is described as a transgendered musician and performer; she sings with a voice that is in a male pitch range but with female intonation and speech patterns. The closest comparison would be Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons (with whom Baby Dee has performed), but whereas Antony uses his pure falsetto to gorgeous effect, Baby Dee's voice has more of a growl to it and works well with vaudeville. Some of the songs are very much vaudeville, and very funny; so far, I like these the most. Baby Dee is harpist, but also plays piano, and some songs also seem to feature accordion. I'm still exploring the album and figuring out how I feel about this artist, but the moment I heard the song "The Only Bones that Show," I wanted to hear more. (The title of the song sounds a bit like a riddle; what are the only bones that show? Teeth, of course.)

Baby Dee was not the only harpist in this week's show; I also played Toumani Diabaté, who plays the Malian harp. The songs on this album (those I've heard, at least) are instrumentals, and gorgeous. They run a little long, but you get lost in them, and don't notice the passing time. The way the notes weave around each other reminds me a bit of Zimbabwean mbira orchestra music, which is a bit of an obscure reference. It's probably better that it sounds like harp music, when a harp is used for more than simply arpeggios. On Monday night, listening to Catherine's show, she played Diabaté, and followed him up with Joanna Newsom, which was just about perfect; it didn't seem right for me to turn around and do the same thing.

On to other things... I regularly read a blog about comics (newspaper comics) called the Comics Curmudgeon (at joshreads.com). Josh's posts are very funny, but to get the full effect you must also read the comments. And, when people post comments, they often link their names to their own sites (I regularly link to my blog or my webcomic, and have picked up a couple of readers as a result). One of my fellow 'mudges had linked his name to djearworm.com, and I went to check it out toward the end of last year. DJ Earworm makes mashups, but not typical mashups. Typical mashups involve editing out the vocals of one song and the music of another, and putting the remainder together, giving you, for example, the vocals of "Get Your Freak On" with the music of "Love Will Tear Us Apart". DJ Earworm's mashups tend to more fully blend the songs, matching phrases on top of phrases. The effect is a little like that scene in Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas in which Emmet and his band discover that the song they sang for the contest and the song Emmet's mother sang for the contest sound better as a duet (OK: possibly the most obscure reference I could have made). Anyway, some of these mashups involve two or more songs mixed together; today, I played "Stairway to Bootleg Heaven", which involves 7. The whole thing is more or less centered on Dolly Parton's version of "Stairway to Heaven", but it starts mellow and moody, with bits of Eurythmics, Laurie Anderson, the Art of Noise, and the Beatles, and rocks out at the end with Pat Benetar and the Beastie Boys. It's pretty awesome, but don't take my word for it, go listen for yourself. And then check out some of the others.

And now: today's playlist.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	Shake the Sheets	Shake the Sheets	Lookout
The Earlies	No Love in Your Heart	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
Rainer Maria	Ears Ring	Ears Ring EP	Polyvinyl
*Nada Surf	From Now On	Lucky	Barsuk
*Toumani Diabaté	Ismael Drame	The Mandé Variations	Nonesuch
Dead Can Dance	Song of the Dispossessed	Spiritchaser	4AD
The Aluminum Group	If You've Got a Lover, You've Got a Life	Pelo	Hefty
Blossom Dearie	Bang Goes the Drum	Jazz Masters 51	Verve
*DeVotchKa	Comrade Z	A Mad and Faithful Telling	Anti-
*Baby Dee	The Only Bones that Show	Safe inside the Day	Drag City
*Atlas Sound	Cold as Ice	Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel	Kranky
Baby Teeth	Diaghalev Was Right	The Baby Teeth Album	Self-released babyteethmusic.com
DJ Earworm	Stairway to Bootleg Heaveb	djearworm.com	Self-released djearworm.com
Talking Heads	Good Thing	More Songs about Buildings and Food	Sire
Pizzicato Five	Good	The Sound of Music	Matador
*Vampire Weekend	A-Punk	Vampire Weekend	XL
*The Gutter Twins	I Was in Love with You	Saturnalia	Sub Pop
The Tourists	It Doesn't Have to Be This Way	Reality Effect	Epic
*Headlights	Cherry Tulips	Some Racing, Some Stopping	Polyvinyl
I Am the World Trade Center	Love Tragedy	The Cover Up	Gammon
!!!	Heart of Hearts	Myth Takes	WARP
The Noisettes	Don't Give Up	What's the Time Mr Wolf	Universal/Motown
May or May Not	Plight of the Navigator	Colors Only Bees Can See	Two Thumbs Down
(r)Superchunk	Act Surprised	Here's to Shutting Up	Merge
*Paper Airplanes	Political Lunch	MiddleMarch	All Hail
*No Kids	Neighbour's Party	Come Into My House	Tomlab
(r)Old Time Relijun	Tigers in the Temple	Lost Light	K
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire	Feetlips	Oh! The Grandeur	Ryko

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 8:55 AM | 0 comments

Wow! Awesome!

This week's Finn and Charlie is here. Maybe you'd like to read it? That can be arranged.

Labels: comic

posted by Tony at 10:43 PM | 0 comments

And introducing "Kevin" as the long-lost friend.

There's a new Finn and Charlie up. I'm introducing a new character. Stick around and see where it goes!

Labels: comic

posted by Tony at 12:01 AM | 0 comments

A Least That's What We Say We Are Doing - 3/10 show (swapping with Mary this week)

No notes today.

I did Mary's show today, and she'll do mine on Friday; I'll be back in my normal spot next week.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Bell and Sebastian	Seeing Other People	If You're Feeling Sinister	Matador
Kate Bush	Eat the Music	The Red Shoes	Columbia
Devendra Banhart	So Long Old Bean	Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon	XL
*Baby Dee	Bad Kidneys	Safe inside the Day	Drag City
*The Raveonettes	Dead Sound	Lust Lust Lust	Vice
New Order	Age of Consent	Power, Corruption, and Lies	Factory
Beth Orton	Tangent	Trailer Park	Dedicated
Shirley Bassey	(Where Do I Begin) Lover Story (Away Team Mix)	The Remix Album...Diamonds Are Forever
*Mahjongg	Problems	Kontpab	K
The Hidden Mitten	Roma, Roma!	Roma! Roma! EP	Self-released
*The Magnetic Fields	I Hate California Girls	Distortion	Nonesuch
*The Big Sleep	Tigers in Our Hearts	Sleep Forever	Frechkiss
Spiller Whale	Dark Horse Flame	Fresh Tables EP	Uncle Grandpa
Nick Drake	Time of No Reply	Made to Love Magic	Island
Meryn Cadell	Wash Down	6 Blocks	Handsome Boy
Laurie Anderson	Kokoku	Mister Heartbreak	Warner Brothers
*Nada Surf	See These Bones	Lucky	Barsuk
The Dials	Rotten	Flex Time	Latest Flame
Simian Mobile Disco	It's the Beat	Attack Decay Sustain Release	Interscope
*School of Language	Disappointment '99	Sea from Shore	Thrill Jockey
*Vashti Bunyan	Winter is Blue	Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind	Dicristina
The Owls	Peppermint Patty	Daughters and Suns	Magic Marker
(r)The Ramones	Beat on the Brat	All the Stuff (And More) Vol. 1	Sire
*Sons & Daughters	House in My Head	This Gift	Domino
Frank Zappa	Uncle Remus	Apostrophe	Rykodisc
*The Way It Is	At the Party	Be Still Me Beating	Bull Independence
Cass McCombs	Cuckoo	Prefection	Monitor
The Smiths	Is It Really So Strange?	Louder than Bombs	Sire
Jens Lekman	A Postcard to Nina	Night Falls over Kortedala	Secretly Canadian
Blossom Dearie	Once Upon a Summertime	Jazz Masters 51	Verve
*Cat Power	Blue	Jukebox	Matador
*No Kids	Old Iron Gate	Come into My House	Tomlab
The Aluminum Group	Headphones	Little Happyness	Minty Fresh
*Headlights	So Much for the Afternoon	Some Racing, Some Stopping	Polyvinyl
Orwell	Toutes Les Nouvelles Parlent D'hier	The Following Days	A Hidden Agenda
Throwing Muses	Not Too Soon	The Real Ramona	4AD
*Paper Airplanes	Missing	MiddleMarch	All Hail
*Atlas Sound	Quarantined	Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel	Kranky
Death by Chocolate	The Salvidor Dali Mystery	Death by Chocolate	Jetset Records
Ric Cartey	Mellow Down Easy	Get Hot or Go Home: Vintage RCA Rockabilly '56-'59	The Country Music Foundation
Justice	The Waters of Nazareth	†	Ed Banger/Vice
Tom Tom Club	On, On, On, On...	Tom Tom Club	Sire

Labels: playlists

posted by Tony at 9:00 AM | 0 comments

No Names Are Mentioned - 3/6 show (swapping with Matt this week)

This year I swapped shows with Matt, so he could sleep in the day after his birthday. ("Sleeping in" meaning sleeping past 4am; Matt lives all the way across town and it takes him a while to get up to Roger's Park.)

Kate Bush's album The Dreaming has always seemed to me to be her darkest, freakiest album, and possibly the pinnacle of her work with the Fairlight CMI. The Fairlight CMI was a state-of-the-art digital sampling synthesizer, used in most of the best 80's music — wide-ranging artists used it including Peter Gabriel (who introduce Bush to it), ABC, U2, Alan Parsons, Duran Duran, Stevie Wonder, Public Image Limited, Yes, and EBN-OZN. It was key to creating that dense, studio sound that Bush and Gabriel were known for. These days, artists like Björk and Sufjan Stevens can create that same sound in their homes using a laptop, for a lot less money.

I've mentioned The Free Design before, a few weeks ago when I played "Bubbles". Last week, I found a link on Copy, Right? to a cover of The Free Design's "I Found Love" that was featured on the hipster kids TV show Yo Gabba Gabba. I watched the video, and thought, 'I know this song, but I didn't know if was The Free Design.' Then, on Monday, Mary played the version I knew, which it turns out is also a cover, by Styrofoam with Sarah Shannon. So today I played the original version, just to hear it. Of the three, I think I have to go with the Styroform and Sarah Shannon version as my favorite; it's so lush, which I really think suits the song.

We recently got a new album in the studio by Destroyer. Our reviewer compared it to Hunk Dory-era David Bowie, and I just had to compare them side by side on my show. I brought in my copy of Hunk Dory, to play "Oh! You Pretty Things," right before Destroyer's "Plaza Trinidad". The comparison is apt, in terms of vocal styling and other aspects of sound, but I don't think the comparison does Destroyer any favors. Hunk Dory is a pretty strong album.

Spring is approaching! My official spring-is-approaching song this week is "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland" by the B-52's.

Next week I'm doing Mary's show, and then she'll do mine; the week after I should be back in my regular spot.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Kate Bush	Night of the Swallow	The Dreaming	EMI Manhattan
(r)Siouxsie	Loveless	Mantaray	Decca
Xiu Xiu	Boy Soprano	The Air Force	5RC
*Mahjongg	Teardrops	Kontpab	K
*Headlights	Catch Them All	Some Racing Some Stopping	Polyvinyl
The Free Design	I Found Love	Kites Are Fun (The Best of the Free Design)	Varese Sarabande
Elizabeth Conant	The Sky Fell Down	Why Shouldn't I?	Haven
*Vashti Bunyan	How Do I Know	Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind	Dicristina
Trash Can Sinatras	Only Tongue Can Tell	Cake	Go!
Troubled Hubble	Mrs. Whiskerson	Broken Airplanes	The Magic Spot
Final Fantasy	Song Song Song	Hee Poos Clouds	Tomlab
*Bon Iver	Skinny Love	For Emma, Forever Ago	Jagjaguwar
P:ano	T. Hatch Says 'Round Ev'ry Corner'	Ghost Pirates without Heads	Mint Records
*Thao with the Get Down Stay Down	Bag of Hammers	We Brave Bee Stings and All	Kill Rock Stars
Saint Etienne	Kiss and Make Up	Fox Base Alpha	Warner Brothers
Siouxsie and the Banshees	Peek-A Boo (Silver Dollar Mix)	The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees	Polydor UK
Justice	DVNO	†	Ed Banger/Vice
Jamie Liddell	The City (Four Tet Mix)	Multiply Additions	WARP
*Hot Chip	Bendable Poseable	Made inthe Dark	Astralwerks/DFA
*Kelley Stoltz	The Birmingham Eccentric	Circular Sounds	Sub Pop
Konrad	Canyon Blue	First Disguised as Last	Radical Turf
David Bowie	Oh! You Pretty Things	Hunky Dory	Virgin
*Destroyer	Plaza Trinidad	Trouble in Dreams	Merge
(r)Cut Copy	Saturday	Bright Like Neon Love	Modular
The B-52's	Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland	Bouncing off the Satellites	Warner Brothers
*Vox Dei	Terroriste	Bippp: French Synthwave 1979/85	Everloving
*Baby Dee	The Only Bones that Show	Safe Inside the Day	Drag City
Mucca Pazza	Coat Czech	A Little Marching Band	Self-released
Elliot Smith	Baby Britain	XO	Dreamworks
Blossom Dearie	Rhode Island IS Famous for You	Jazz Masters 51	Verve
Ella Fitzgerald	Something's Gotta Give	Trav'lin' Light: The Johnny Mercer Songbook	Verve
*Cat Power	Song to Bobby	Jukebox	Matador
*Vampire Weekend	The Kids Don't Stand a Chance	Vampire Weekend	XL
XTC	Making Plans for Nigel	Drums and Wires	Geffen/Virgin
Chin Up Chin Up	We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers (Stephen Snydaker Mix)	Chin Up Chin Up	Flameshovel
*No Kids	I Love the Weekend	Come into My House	Tomlab
The Most Serene Republic	Proposition 61
eX-Girl	Cucumber Surrender	Back to the Mono Kero!	Ipecac
Laurie Anderson feat. Peter Gabriel	Excellent Birds	Mister Heartbreak	WB
*British Sea Power	Down on the Ground	Do You Like Rock Music	Rough Trade
*Karl Blau	Spring Morning	AM	Whistler
Neko Case	Lady Pilot	Blacklisted	Bloodshot
Tom Tom Club	L'éléphant	Tom Tom Club	Sire

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 10:14 AM | 0 comments

Wasting time

I have a Facebook account, and the truly odd thing about it is the way old friends keep turning up... sometimes people I haven't thought about in years.

Anyway, there's a new Finn and Charlie cartoon up now.

Labels: comic

posted by Tony at 11:48 PM | 3 comments