tonybreed

Oh Hello. I DJ'd again

2009-05-16T08:51:00.002-05:00

Susan needed a sub this morning, and I was able to do part of it. So, one hour of music:

The Earlies / No Love in Your Heart / The Enemy Chorus
Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Wicked Little Town / Hedwig and the Angry Inch
*Bat for Lashes / Daniel / Two Suns
*Peter Bjorn and John / It Don't Move Me / Living Thing
Chromeo / Tenderoni / Fancy Footwork
Suzanne Vega / Blood Makes Noise / 99.9 F°
Laurie Anderson / Coolsville / Talk Normal: the Laurie Anderson Anthology
*St. Vincent / Actor out of Work / Actor
Josephine Foster and the Supposed / Jailbird (Hero of the Sorrow) / All the Leaves Are Gone
Zerostars / Marian Catholic / Basement Stories
*John Vanderslice / Too Much Time / Romanian Names
*Camera Obscura / French Navy / My Maudlin Career
Edith Piaf / Milord / The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf
Haale / Off-Duty Fortune Teller / No Ceiling
The Folk Implosion / Mechanical Man / One Part Lullaby

Every time I'm hear I think it'll be the last time... but then when a friend needs a sub, I'm willing to help out, and here I am again.

I made a poster...

2009-05-03T22:54:00.004-05:00

Wow, how long has it been since I posted anything here...

Anyway, CHIRP is getting close to being ready to broadcast — we are building the station this month, getting set up next month, and hope to start broadcasting in July. Wooo! (I can't quite believe it's really happening!)

In the meantime, we have a new monthly DJ night with a rotating cast of DJs (of which I hope to be one some time). So I made a poster:

I can't take credit for the name or the subtitle. But the rest is me. (There's stuff I'd like to have done differently.)

Do the Shy Turnip! (Subbing for Julio)

2009-01-07T21:07:00.003-06:00

Yup I was on the radio again.

* = "new"
(r) = request

The B-52's / Dance This Mess Around / The B-52's / Warner Brothers
Haale / Ay Dar Shakesteh / No Ceiling / Channel
*Of Montreal / An Eluardian Instance / Skeletal Lamping / Polyvinyl
*Pit Er Pat / My Darkers / High Time / Thrill Jockey
Herman Dune / I Wish I Had Someone That I Loved Well / I Wish That I Could See You EP / Everloving
Regina Spektor / On the Radio / Begin to Hope / Sire
*David Byrne and Brian Eno / I Fell My Stuff / Everything That Happens Will Happen Today / Todomundo
Dizzee Rascal feat. Lily Allen / Wanna Be / Maths & English / Def Jux
White Williams / Candy / Smoke / Tigerbeat6
The Cells / They Don't Know / Self-released EP / Self-released
*Final Fantasy / Oh! Spectrum / Spectrum 14th Century / Blocks Reading Club
Tilly and the Wall / Cacophony / O / Team Love
*El Guincho / Costa Paraiso / Alegranza / XL
Os Mutantes / Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor / A Divina Comedia Ou / Omplatten
XTC / 1000 Umbrellas / Skylarking / Virgin
The Owls / Yellow Flowers / Daughters and Suns / Magic Marker
Nick Drake / Fruit Tree / Five Leaves Left / Hannibal
*Frontier Ruckus / What You Are / The Orion Songbook / Quite Scientific
*(r)I'm From Barcelona / Andy / Who Killed Harry Houdini / Mute
Camille / Kfir / Music Hole / EMI
*Little Joy / No One's Better Sake / Little Joy / Rough Trade
The Aluminum Group / Chocolates / Plano / Minty Fresh
(r)Billy Bragg / The Marriage / Talking with the Taxman about Poetry / Elektra
The Blow Monkeys / Atomic Lullaby / Choices / RCA
Made in Mexico / Face of the Earth / Zodiac Zoo / Skingraft
*Danielson / Cutest Li'l Dragon / Try Hartz: First Fruits 94-04 / Secretly Canadian
Kate Bush / Lily / The Red Shoes / Columbia
*Benoit Pioulard / A Woolgathering Exodus / Temper
Zerostars / Family Tree / Basement Stories / Self-released
Klaus Nomi / Return / Simple Man / RCA

Best of 2008 and other news

2009-01-01T22:04:00.002-06:00

I put together a best albums of 2008 list and posted it at the Chicago Independent Radio Project's web site.

Here are a couple of videos from two of my favorite albums this year:

I've just recently joined the board at CHIRP (that is, the Chicago Independent Radio Project. And when I have something to write about music, it generally ends up over on that site, instead of here.

And I've decided to participate in Hourly Comic Day this year. I will post that comic at the my webcomic site (Finn and Charlie are Hitched), and probably also at TenCentTicker.com message board along with all the other people who do it. I hope it ends up a reasonably interesting day.

Go Out and Find the One That You Love and Who Loves You

2008-12-20T09:26:00.005-06:00

Oh my goodness! He's back he's back! No, it's only for today. I subbed for Susan on WLUW this morning. Much fun!

Here's my playlist:
(*=new)

The Smiths / Sheila Take a Bow / Louder Than Bombs / Sire
Rufus Wainwright / An Old Whore's Diet / Want Two / Geffen
Final Fantasy / *Cockatrice / Spectrum 14th Century / Blocks Recording Club
Sweet-Lovin' Man / The Magnetic Fields / 69 Love songs Vol 1 / Merge
Ella Fitzgerald / Jingle Bells / Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas / Verve
The Aluminum Group / A Boy in Love / Plano / Minty Fresh
*Vic Chesnutt & Elf Power / And How / The Amorphous Strums / Dark Developments/Orange Twin
*Mavis Staples / Will the Circle Be Unbroken / Live: Hope at the Heartland / Anti-
Spiller Whale / Dark Horse Flame / Fresh Tables EP / Uncle Grandpa
The Decemberists / Los Angeles I'm Yours / Her Majesty the Decemberists / Kill Rock Stars
*François Virot / Dummies / Yes or No / Frenetic
Haale / Off-Duty Fortune Teller / No Ceiling / Channel 4
*Camper Van Beethoven / Take the Skinheads Bowling / Popular Songs / Cooking Vinyl
You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch / Thurl Ravenscroft / A Classic Cartoon Christmas / Nick at Nite Records
Ben Folds / Dog / Supersunnyspeedgraphic: the LP / Attacked by Plastic
The Fiery Furnaces / Tropical Iceland / EP / Rough Trade
*Danielson / Animal in Every Corner (Version) / Trying Hartz - First Fruits 94-04 / Secretly Canadian
*Gang Gang Dance / House Jam / Saint Dymphna / The Social Registry
Brisa Roché / Warned / The Chase / Metro Blue
Zerostars / Smoking in Bed / Basement Stories / Self released
*Love Is All / Last Choice / A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night / What's Yr Rupture?
The Buzz of Delight (feat. Matthew Sweet) / Christmas / Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Xmas / Rhino
The Jam / All Mod Cons / Beat Surrender / Karussell
Brazilian Girls / Nouveau Americain / New York City / Verve
*18th Dye / Soft the Hard Way / Amorine Queen / Crunchy Frog
Pit er Pat / Solstice / Pyramids / Thrill Jockey
Camille / The Monk / Music Hole / EMI
XTC / Sacrificial Bonfire / Skylarking / Geffen
The Beach Boys / That's Not Me / Pet Sounds / Capitol
*Belle & Sebastian / (My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique / The BBC Sessions / Matador
*David Byrne & Brian Eno / Strange Overtones / Everything That Happens Will Happen Today / Todomundo
Josephine Foster and the Supposed / Who Will Feel Bitter at the Day's End? / All the Leaves Are Gone / Locust
*Anathallo / Cafetorium / Canopy Glow / Anticon
The Winter Solstice / Sufjan Stevens / Songs for Christmas Singalong Vol 5: PEACE / Asthmatic Kitty
*Medeski, Martin & Wood / Free Go Lily Radiolarians / Indirecto
The Squirrel Nut Zippers / Carolina Christmas / Christmas Caravan / Mammoth
The Husbands / Tell Me Your Love is Only Mine / There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead / Swami
Sinéad O'Connor / Mandinka / The Lion and the Cobra / Chrysalis
*El Guincho / Palmitos Park / Alegranza / XL
Psalm One feat. DJDQ of Glue / Beat the Drum / The Death of Frequent Flyer / Rhymesayers
Lady Sovereign / Fiddle with the Volume / Vertically Challenged / Chocolate Industries
Man Man / The Ballad of Butterbeans / Rabbit Habits / Anti-

A Poem

2008-10-04T12:56:00.004-05:00

I do not as a rule write poetry, but this came to me as I was drifting off to sleep the other night.

The Space between You and Me

The cat steps quietly on the bed
circles us twice
stops by my head
and stares covetously at
the space between you and me.

News from our trip to San Francisco

2008-09-29T23:02:00.002-05:00

So last week my husband and I completed something we'd started 11 years earlier — that is, we got the one thing our 1997 marriage ceremony lacked: a marriage license.

Yes, folks, we had ourselves a San Francisco gay wedding. (Surprise!)

Now, since we'd already had a nice big wedding, and this one was basically a formality, we kept it small and simple, and we let it get silly. The ceremony was performed by one of my oldest friends (who, it turns out, is authorized to marry people in California), dressed as the Green Lantern. Another old friend was the witness, and a friend of theirs took pictures.

I haven't mentioned this event to much of anyone yet, because I really do think of it as just a long-delayed formality.

So anyway, there it is: we now have a little legal recognition. The marriage won't be recognized by our home state, nor our country (not any time soon). But it is valid in California, at least for the time being (vote no on prop 8!). And it would be recognized in some other states, and countries. So that means something to me.

Anyway, I'm writing a similar storyline for Finn and Charlie. Some real elements will make their way into this story, and others will be made up.

In the rain: Renegade Craft Fair DJ setlist

2008-09-15T22:11:00.004-05:00

So I DJed for an hour and a half at the Renegade Craft Fair this past Sunday, and it was fun, in spite of the constant rain. When I got there and started my set, I realized I should be playing the sort of music that would make people forget about the rain -- not a nonstop dance party, but not melancholy, either. Optimistic, perhaps... or "sunny". Well, I did play a beautiful melancholy Nina Simone song, but other than that, I tried to keep the sun shining (while still keeping the set eclectic). And the folks at the beer tent next door thanked me afterwards, saying I'd helped their day not suck. So that was nice.

You Belong to Me / Reverend Tom Frost
La Vie L'Amour / Edith Piaf
Savoir Faire / The London Suede
The Way You Walk / Papas Fritas
Headstart for happiness / The Style Council
Diamonds Are Forever / Shirley Bassey
Midnight / Yaz
If I Can't Have You / Eve's Plumb
Don't Wait / The Howard Fishman Quartet
Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick / Ian Drury and the Blockheads
Little Jazz Bird / Blossom Dearie
Nobody / Nina Simone
La vie en rose / Grace Jones
River Deep Mountain High / Annie Lennox
We Are the Sleepyheads. Belle and Sebastian
Wings of a Dove (A Celebratory Song) / Madness
Between Two Waves / Shelleyan Orphan
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left / Andrew Bird
Feelin' / The La's
Funkytown / Zen for Primates
Blind / Hercules and Love affair
Huayno / Yma Sumac
O-o-h Child / The Posies
Can't Go for That / PJ Pooterhoots

Hey Mr DJ

2008-09-11T21:21:00.003-05:00

So I'll be DJing this weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, from 1:30-3pm on Sunday 9/14, down on Division Street 'round about Damen. Come one come all! I'll also be helping out at the CHIRP table.

What kind of music will I be playing? Not sure. Maybe something in an indian summer kind of mood? I have of couple of days to work it out.

This American Life: Tinkerbell

2008-09-06T22:03:00.002-05:00

This American Life has announced the winner and honorable mentions for their t-shirt contest. I did not place. So the only place you will see my entry is right here:

The t-shirt is a reference to the early TAL show "Fiasco!"

I do like the t-shirt they chose as a winner. It's nice, when you don't win, if they clearly chose a better t-shirt. Though I do like mine, too.

John Stewart provides a valuable news service.

2008-09-04T19:25:00.002-05:00

Hi. It's been a while since I've posted.

Anyway, I just saw this video, and I have to say, this is one of the things the Daily Show does best. The juxtaposition of different clips from the same speakers is pretty telling.

A comic

2008-08-23T00:53:00.001-05:00

I've recently had the urge to draw a comic that's sillier and darker than Finn and Charlie. So here it is. Maybe there will be another some day.

Kayaking and thunderheads

2008-08-21T18:00:00.006-05:00

While visiting my mom this past weekend, she took this photo of me. In the distance you can see what looks like a giant thunderhead, which never did rain on us. Maybe it was just a big cool cloud.

Have a mix tape

2008-08-02T12:53:00.001-05:00

I feel the need to provide a little music for people, while in between shows, so here's a little MixWit mix for y'all.

I couldn't find everything I wanted to post in MixWit, and it's possible that some of these songs will suddenly become unavailable. But, you know, ENJOY!

Hellboy, Zerostars at Schuba's, CHIRPlogging, and gardening.

2008-08-02T11:33:00.004-05:00

The week was pretty mellow for me. Without the CHIRP record fair approaching, and without my radio show, I had a kind of welcome respite. (Yesterday I slept in a bit.)

So I went to see Hellboy on Tuesday, which was great fun. Visually, magnificent, and very imaginative. The plot, on the other hand, was a bit predictable. Plot devices signaled their approach from miles away. The writing was also not always up to par. Generally, though, I enjoyed it anyway. There were only a couple of scenes that bothered me, and the rest, I enjoyed. The predictability of the plot is I think comparable to Calendar Girls: it didn't make it not a good movie.

Then on Wednesday I went to see a show at Schuba's: Zerostars, The Summer Salts, and Essex Chanel. My reason for going was to see Zerostars, and they sounded great; they really rocked up there and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The Summer Salts didn't impress me all that much, though they had a few good songs, while I really enjoyed Essex Chanel, especially the second half of the show, a non-stop back-to-back set of dance tunes. (The odd thing about these two bands is that they are some of the same people; The Summer Salts is a trio led by Travis Lee Wiggins, but all the members write the songs together, whereas Essex Chanel is purely a Travis Lee Wiggins project, but has a larger stage band. In spite of crossover, they were pretty different.)

Meanwhile, I've been blogging on the CHIRPlog. I posted a short list of sad songs and an analysis of a Kate Bush cove by the J Davis Trio.

And of course there's gardening to be done. Though there's a lot planted, and most of it doing well (on creeping juniper just went belly-up), there's still a lot of empty space. Oh well. (By "empty" I mean crawling with weeds. So I have my work cut out for me this afternoon.)

Now you must wake up... 7/25 final show extravaganza

2008-07-25T06:25:00.010-05:00

Thank you to everyone who listened, today and over the years. It's been a blast.

Note how neatly my show is bookended with two different versions of "The Party's Over". Of course, the party's not really over.

I will be DJing again, once the Chicago Independent Radio Project gets its webcast up and running. Soon! Soooooon.

Naturally, I kept a copy of this week's show for myself. A nice 2-hour MP3. Yup.

* New

Blossom Dearie / The Party's Over / Jazz Masters 51 / Verve
The Smiths / There Is a Light That Never Goes Out / The Queen Is Dead / Sire
*Beck / Chemtrails / Modern Guilt / DGC
*Freddie Hubbard & the New Jazz Octet / Theme for Kareem / On the Real Side / Four Quarters
Shelleyan Orphan / Century Flower / Century Flower / Columbia
Talking Heads / This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) / Once in a Lifetime (box set) /
Jonathan Richman / Everyday Clothes / Action Packed: the Best of Jonathan Richman / Rounder
*Deer Tick / Ashamed / War Elephant / Feow!
The Aluminum Group / Mattachine Society / Plano / Minty Fresh
*Radius / Hyde Park (I Miss You) / Neighborhood Suicide / The Secret Life of Sound
Canasta / The Model / Find the Time / Broken Middle C
Luxury / Green Hearts / Yellow Pills: Prefill / Numero Group
*The Wedding Present / The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend (Santa Monica and La Brea Version) / El Rey / Manifesto
The Decemberists / The Infanta / Picaresque / Kill Rock Stars
Laurie Anderson / Smoke Rings / Talk Normal Anthology / Rhino
*Allá / La Montaña Sagrada / Es Tiempo / Crammed Disc
*The Fast Bullets / Scrub Yer Pup / The Fast Bullets / Self-released
Patti Smith / Free Money / Horses / Arista
The B-52's / Hero Worship / The B-52's / Warner Brothers
*The Hold Steady / Stay Positive / Stay Positive / Vagrant
*Ratatat / Dura / LP3 / XL
Zerostars / Uptown / Basement Stories / Self-released
Sufjan Stevens / Come On Feel the Illinoise / Come On Feel the Illinoise! / Asthmatic Kitty
The Notwist / Alphabet / The Devil, You + Me / Domino
Milo Binder / Dancing Queen / 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Smash Hit Explosions! / Pravda
Blossom Dearie / Rhode Island Is Famous for You / Jazz Masters 51 / Verve
Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Midnight Radio / Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Atlantic
Smoking Popes / The Party's Over / The Party's Over / Double Zero

My last show on WLUW

2008-07-23T21:59:00.002-05:00

My last show on WLUW is this Friday morning, 7/25, 6-8am CDT. It's going to be a good one! So listen to it.

88.7FM on Chicago's north side; wluw.org anywhere (click on "listen live")

And I'll keep you posted on my future DJing gig with the Chicago Independent Radio Project. In the interim, I guess I will be a non-DJ. Or maybe just a DJ in between projects. Still, I feel ready to leave.

New site for Hitched

2008-07-23T11:57:00.002-05:00

I've rebuilt the web site for my comic, Finn and Charlie are HITCHED. The new version is more robust, and I'm going to stop posting about it here every week. If you want to read it, bookmark this link: hitched.tonybreed.com. You can also now subscribe via RSS, if that's yer thing.

Check it out!

Such a precious thing - 7/19 show (subbing for Megan)

2008-07-19T18:53:00.003-05:00

*New!

!!! / Heart of Hearts / Myth Takes / WARP
Deee-Lite / River of Freedom / Mega Breakfast / Elektra
*The Chap / Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley / Mega Breakfast / Ghostly International
*Beck / Gamma Ray / Modern Guilt / DGC
Parliament / Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker) / Mothership Connection / Mercury/Chronicles
Muscles / Ice Cream / Guns Babes Lemonade / Modular
*The Dials / Amoeba Amore / Amoeba Amore / No Fun
*The Ting Tings / Great DJ / We Started Nothing / Columbia
eX-Girl / Pop Muzik / Back to the Mono Kero / Ipecac
Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Exquisite Corpse / Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Atlantic
Haale / Ay Dar Shakasteh / No Ceiling / Channel A
Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies / Relax / The Homeland / Thrill Jockey
Madness / One Step Beyond / Total Madness: The Very Best of Madness / Geffen
*Johnny Rumble / Almost Dead / Almost Dead / Self-released
Depeche Mode / I Feel Loved / Exciter / Mute
XTC / Generals and Majors / Waxworks: Singles 1977-1982 / Geffen
No Kids / For Halloween / Come into My House / Tomlab
*Flying Lotus / Parisian Goldfish / Los Angeles / WARP
*Allá / El Movimiento / Es Tiempo / Crammed Disc
Ungdomskulen / Witches Mate in the Underground / Cry Baby / Ever
*edIT / Dura / Certified Air Raid Material / Alpha Pup

Who's on Sesame Street now?

2008-07-18T09:33:00.003-05:00

When I was a wee one, I remember Judy Collins was on Sesame Street. There were a lot of others, too, but I can't remember them. Anyhow, the tradition continues with Feist!

Feist on Sesame Street

For my money, the production is a little too slick, but the song is great and will be in my head for the rest of the day.

Sometimes the best is left unsaid - 7/18 Show

2008-07-18T06:09:00.005-05:00

* New!
(r) Requests!

The Polyphonic Spree / Section 29 [Light to Follow] / The Fragile Army / TVT
Laurie Anderson with Peter Gabriel / Gravity's Angel / Mister Heartbreak / WB
Romeo Void / White Sweater / Warm, in Your Coat /
*The Wedding PResent / I Lost the Monkey / El Rey / Manifesto
*Herman Dëne / Pure Hearts / 1-2-3 Apple Tree / Everloving
The Style Council / Changing of the Guard / Confessions of a Pop Group
The La's / Freedom Song / The La's / Go!
Nina Simone / I Put a Spell on You / The Best of Nina Simone / Philips
*Allá / Tú Vida / Es Tiempo / Crammed Disc
Shirley Horn / That Old Black Magic / Trav'lin' Light / Verve
*Ratatat / Mirando / LP3 / XL
Canasta / Microphone Song / We Were Set Up / Broken Middle C
Har Mar Superstar / Body Request / The Handler / Record Collection
*Tilly and the Wall / Cacophony / O / Team Love
Björk / Wanderlust / Volta
Yaz / Midnight / Upstairs at Eric's / Sire
*The Ting Tings / Be the One / We Started Nothing / Columbia
Los Blops / Esencialmente Así, No Mas / Del Volar De Las Palomas /
Toms / Sun / Yellow Pills: Prefill / Numero Group
M+M / Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing / Danseparc
Royce / Girls on Bikes / Tuff Love / Galapagos4
*Bishop Allen / The Monitor / The Broken String / Dead Oceans
*The Notwist / Gloomy Planets / The Devil, You + Me / Domino
*Wolf Parade / The Grey Estates / At Mount Zoomer / Sub Pop
The Returnables / Teenage Imposters / The Returnables / Dirt Nap
The Shangri-La's / Give Him a Great Big Kiss / Myrmidons of Melodrama / RPM
Screeching Weasel / Speed of Mutation / Television City Dream / Fat Wreck Chords
The Vandervoorts / He's Realistic / (no album)

To picnic or not to picnic?

2008-07-15T23:59:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up!

Go read

Why don't you come and fly with me? 7/11 show

2008-07-11T07:14:00.005-05:00

* new
(r) requests

CocoRosie / Sunshine / The Adventures of Ghost Horse and Stillborn / Touch and Go
Jane Siberry / Honeybee / Maria / Reprise
*Deer Tick / Art Isn't Real (Sin City) / War Elephant / Feow!
*The Lines / False Alarm / Memory Span / Acute
Desmond Dekker / Israelites / Israelites / TKO
Nina Simone / Break Down and Let It All Out / The Best of Nina Simone / Philips
*The Notwist / Gravity / The Devil, You + Me / Domino
Cass McCombs / Lionkiller / Dropping the Writ / Domino
The Decemberists / Summersong / The Crane Wife / Capitol
Office / Suburban Perfume / A Night at the Ritz / Scratchie/New Line
*Radius/ Roger's Park (North Pole Bakery) / Neighborhood Suicide / The Secret Life of Sound
Taana Gardner / Hearbeat / Larry Levan's Paradise Garage / West End
Baby Teeth / Diaghelev Was Right / The Baby Teeth Album / Self-released (babyteethmusic.com)
*The Wedding Present / The Thing I Liked Best about Him Is His Girlfriend (Santa Monica and La Brea Version) / El Rey / Manifesto
Patrick Cleandemin / Until You Said I'm Gone / Baby Comes Home / Ba Da Bing
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists / Army Bound / Living with the Living / Touch and Go
The Tourists / It Doesn't Have to Be This Way / Reality Effect / Epic
(r)Beirut / Postcards from Italy / Gulag Orkestra / Ba Da Bing
*Bishop Allen / Click Click Click / The Broken String / Dead Oceans
Annette Peacock / ½ Broken / Been on the Streets Too Long / Ironic Records
Bettye LaVette / Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette) / The Scene of the Crime / Anti-
*Tilly and the Wall / Blood Flowers / O / Team Love
*Silver Jews / What Is Not but Could Be If / Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea / Drag City
Muscles / Hey Muscles I Love You / Guns Babes Lemonade / Modular
*The Ting Tings / That's Not My Name / We Started Nothing / Columbia
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Dead Right / Pershing / Polyvinyl
*The Dials / 18 / Amoeba Amore / No Fun
Troubled Hubble / Nancy / Live at Double Door 5/5/04 /

So, Tony, you're leaving WLUW; what's the deal?

2008-07-10T19:23:00.002-05:00

As I've said, I'll be leaving WLUW at the end of this month. I'm sad to leave the station, but I'm excited about my next project: the upcoming web radio station of the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP). There isn't time in my life to do both, and I'm looking forward to being one of the founding DJs of a new station.

Since last July, WLUW hasn't been the station it used to be. Being a part of WLUW wasn't just a matter of being on the air: we had a sense of mission. We were building something. When Loyola announced that they were taking back the station, everything changed overnight; the mission was gone. We were still trying to run a good station, but with the future uncertain, there was nothing to build.

Loyola didn't talk to the station volunteers for a full 9 months. Make no mistake, we were very poorly treated. Their refusal to meet spoke volumes: we were not important to them. And we were left on our own to parse and re-parse Loyola's meager press release, arguing about what it all meant. This treatment was saddest of all for the 60% of us who were Loyola students (many of whom graduated this year).

Then, after those nine months, a representative came and told us, essentially, not to worry, everything was fine, nothing was changing (aside from the station management — a change he denied Loyola had orchestrated, but that's a topic for another day).

In the meantime, a core group of WLUW volunteers, led by the former program director, had founded the Chicago Independent Radio Project, to create a new, truly independent station. I joined immediately. Initially, for me, it was a new sense of mission, and an outlet for the creative energies that were no longer needed at WLUW. Over the past year, I've seen CHIRP build into something with a good chance of success, and I'm very proud of what we've already accomplished.

Many WLUW djs decided to leave the station as of the moment Loyola took over, but I decided not to. The station was not fun anymore, but I still enjoyed my show. I've only been on air since early 2006 and I just wasn't ready to go yet.

Then CHIRP decided to start a webcast. Sure, it's a smaller audience, and it's not "real radio" yet -- but I want to be a part of it, and I want to be a part of it from square one. The choice was easy for me, and I gave notice.

I respect the decision of those who have decided to stay with WLUW and fight to keep the station great, and I wish them luck. It will not be the station it used to be; Loyola has made sure of that. However, it may still be great. Already, in the week since the official transition, Loyola has become more engaged with the station, fixing equipment problems and looking to the future (whatever that may be).

Meanwhile, if you've been one of my regular listeners, I'd like to hear from you. Leave me a comment here, or drop me a line at dj [at] tonybreed [dot] com. I'll keep you informed as CHIRP progresses.

Yer Friday morning radio pal,
Tony

Corporate/family fun for all

2008-07-08T23:59:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up and I am tired.

My company's picnics are always strictly employees only. Which is fine.

Did everybody had a good 4th? Among those in the US, at least?

Talking to myself

2008-07-07T16:04:00.001-05:00

Kate Beaton, the latest webcomic phenom, on account of she's damn funny, has written a series of comics in which she's talking to her younger self.

I've been wanting to write one, and then yesterday, on her livejournal, she challenged people to create their own.

So I did it... not bad for a first try. But not exactly... deep.

2 or 3 years in a row in junior high I tried to write a novel over the summer. Those notebooks are probably still somewhere.

I remember standing on the corner with a piece of pizza - 7/4 show

2008-07-04T06:30:00.011-05:00

* new
(r) request

Blondie / Eat to the Beat / Eat to the Beat / Chrysalis
Matt & Kim / Yea Yeah / Matt & Kim / IHEARTCOMIX
*The Futureheads / Hard to Bear / This Is Not the World / Nul
*Bonnie "Prince" Billy / Where Is the Puzzle? / Lie Down in the Light / Drag City
Ushuaia Rocks! / Pink Moon / Un Fro Infierno /
*Sigur Rós / Ára Bátur / Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spillum Endalaust / XL
Richard Bona / Couscous / Munia: The Tale /
St. Vincent / Marry Me / Marry Me / Beggars
Josephine Foster and the Supposed / Silly Song / All the Leaves Are Gone / Locust
The Beach Boys / I Know There's an Answer / Pet Sounds / Capitol
*Frightened Rabbit / Head Rolls Off / The Midnight Organ Fight / Fat Cat
The Sponsors / In and Out of Love / Yellow Pills: Prefill / Numero Group
Mark Ronson feat. Santogold / Pretty Green / Version / RCA
*Wolf Parade / Call It a Ritual / At Mount Zoomer / Sub Pop
Sufjan Stevens / Pickeral Lake / Michigan (Outtakes) / Asthmatic Kitty
Zerostars / Family Tree / Basement Stories / self-released (zerostars.com)
The Aluminum Group / I Blow You Kisses / Happyness / Wishing Tree
*The Notwist / Alphabet / The Devil, You + Me / Domino
*Ladytron / Black Cat / Velocifero / Nettwerk
The Humans / I Live in the City / Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's vol. 3 / Rhino
*The Dials / 3 is Better than 4 / Amoeba Amore / No Fun
Kate Bush / There Goes a Tenner / The Dreaming / EMI Manhattan
J David Trio / There Goes a Tenner / I Wanna Be Kate / Brownstar
Joe Stummer and the Mescaleros / Willesen to Cricklewood / The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer | Music from the Julien Temple Film / Legacy
*Flying Lotus feat. Dolly / Robertaflack / Los Angeles / WARP
Xiu Xiu / Boy Soprano / The Air Force / 5RC
The Fiery Furnaces / A Candymaker's Knife in My Handbag / Rehearsing My Choir / Rough Trade

Featuring Finn and Charlie on bicycles

2008-07-01T23:21:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie are HITCHED is up. The image quality is poor but I'll fix that within a couple of days.

Best line from a movie review ever!

2008-06-27T09:12:00.003-05:00

From Anthony Lane's review of Sex and the City, in The New Yorker, June 9 & 16, 2008:

"I walked into the theater hoping for a nice evening and came out a hard-line Marxist..."

I used to get those kicks for free - 6/27 show

2008-06-27T06:22:00.007-05:00

Today I gave half my show to Brent for his last day of training.

Here's my half:

* new
(r) request

Jamie Lidell / Multiply / Multiply / WARP
Grace Jones / Warm Leatherette / Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions / Island
*The Dials / Joe Lies / Amoeba Amore / No Fun
*Sigur Rós / Við Spillum Endalaust / Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spillum Endalaust / XL
Jacques Brel / Ne Me Quitte Pas / Ne Me Quitte Pas /
M+M / Swimming / This Is the Ice Age / EMI
*Forro in the Dark / Chororo / Dia de Roda / Nublu
OK Go / Here It Goes Again / Oh No / Capitol
*Death Cab for Cutie / No Sunlight / Narrow Stairs / Atlantic
Varla Jean Merman / a video from Logo TV — see clip below!
DeVotchKa / Basso Profundo / A Mad & Faithful Telling / Anti-
Sufjan Stevens / Year of the Ox / Enjoy Your Rabbit / Asthmatic Kitty
*The Wedding Present / Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk / El Rey / Manifesto
True Love Always / The Garden's Inside / Clouds / Teen Beat

Keeping us tried and true

2008-06-24T23:49:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up

Joni Mitchell sang, "We don't need no piece of paper from the city hall / keeping us tried and true," and in a way, it's true for all gay and lesbian couples, like Finn and Charlie. The real marriage is in the relationship, and the acknowledgement of family and friends that you are indeed a committed couple. But at the same time, that piece of paper comes with numerous tangible benefits. To me though, it's not even about the benefits; it's about some kind of official recognition. I've gone a long time without it, and many others have gone even longer.

And now that you've read my spiel, please go and sign this petition at the HRC website. Thank you.

Won't You Please - 6/24/08 show, subbing for Ginny

2008-06-24T18:12:00.002-05:00

Today I subbed for Ginny, in the slot right before Think Pink. I expected to be a little more relaxed, since it's late afternoon, but the traffic on the way delayed me to the point where I arrived almost exactly at 4, which left me a little out of sorts. Also, this week is BMI log week, in which we have to record the composers of each song we play; this made extra work over the course of the show.

On the other hand, I had a request for True Love Always, a band I'd never heard before, and I really liked it. It reminded me of The Aluminum Group — jazzy with nice vocal harmonies.

Other item of note: the opening track of Sigur Rós' new album is in fact called "Gobbledigook". Most of the rest of the songs have Icelandic titles. To me, this is funny.

* New
(r) Request

artist	song	album	label
LCD Soundsystem	Us v. Them	Sound of Silver	DFA
The London Suede	Can't Get Enough	Headmusic	nude/Columbia
*Dosh	Don't Wait for the Needle to Drop	Wolves and Wishes	Anticon
*Orchestra Baobob	Ndéleng Ndéleng	Made in Dakar	World Circuit/Nonesuch
L'Affaire Louis Trio	Volez Volez	L'Homme Aux Mille Vies	Barclay
Mucca Pazza	Chick Habit	A Little Marching Bang	Self-released
*Big Ass Manatee	Billie Jean	1994Ever	Self-released
Klaus Nomi	Total Eclipse	Klaus Nomi	RCA
*Ladytron	Kletva	Velocifero	Nettwerk
Nina Simone	Little Girl Blue	My Baby Just Cares for Me	Duchesse
*Al Green	Standing in the Rain	Lay It Down	Blue Note
(r)Beirut	Carousels	Lon Gisland	Ba Da Bing
(r)True Love Always	Modesto	Clouds	Teen Beat
*Frightened Rabbit	Good Arms vs. Bad Arms	The Midnight Organ Fight	Fat Cat
*Sigur Rós	Gobbledigook	Með Suð I Eyrum Við Spillum Endalaust	XL
Joe Jackson	Beat Crazy	Greatest Hits
Justice	DVNO	†	Ed
*The M's	Don't Be Late	Real Close Ones	Polyvinyl
The Shadows of Knight	Three for Love	Back Door Men	Sundazed
The La's	Son of a Gun	The La's	Go! Discs
Philips&Driver	Grudge ****	Togetherness	Bar None
*Modey Lemon	Become a Monk	Seasons of Sweets	Birdman
Bobby Conn	Vanitas	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
*Elvis Costello	Stella Hurt	Momofuku	Lost Highway
Frank Zappa	Cosmik Debris	Apostrophe'	Rykodisc

Fight for your right to be boring!

2008-06-17T22:54:00.001-05:00

I am scannerless at the moment, so the comic came out a little odd — I did my best with a digital camera. Next week I'll rescan and reload.

We are here at the end of the visit from Kevin. I didn't know exactly where this storyline would go when I started, and I'm not sure I was able to say what I wanted to — three panels a week only gets you so far. In any event, dear reader, if you think you may know who Kevin was based on (and perhaps you think it was you) let me assure you that Kevin comes almost entirely from my fertile mind.

Go read the comic.

Not a cry that you hear at night - 6/13 show

2008-06-13T07:36:00.004-05:00

This week I gave my trainee, Brent, the second hour.

* New!
(r) Request!

tr>

artist	song	album	label
My set:
Jeff Buckley	Hallelujah	Grace	Sony
Hukwe Zawose & Michael Brook	Haliko Chijende (Let's Walk)	World 2003	Narada World
Cody ChesnuTT	Boils	Plague Songs	4AD
*The Futureheads	See What You Want	This is Not the World	Nul
The Blow Monkeys	The Man from Russia	Choices	RCA
Frank Zappa	Uncle Remus	Apostrophe'	Rykodisc
Billy Bragg & the Blokes	Another Kind of Judy	England, Half English	Elektra
*Al Green	What More Do You Want from Me	Lay It Down	Blue Note
Jim O'Rourke	Something Big	Eureka	Drag City
*(r)Animal Collective	Water Curses	Water Curses	Domino
*Santogold	Anne	Santogold	Downtown
Spies Who Surf	Hocus Pocus	20 Explosive Dynamic Super Smash Hit Explosions	Pravda
*The Ting Tings	Keep Your Head	We Started Nothing	Columbia
Saint Etienne	She's the One	Foxbase Alpha	Warner Brothers
Kronos Quartet/Philip Glass	Mina on the Terrace	Dracula	Nonesuch
Brent's Set
*Dizzee Rascal	U Can't Tell Me Nuffin	Maths & English	Def Jux
Medeski Martin & Wood	Just Like I Pictured	Combusticating	Blue Note
The Beautiful South	Don't Fear the Reaper	Golddiggas Headnodders and Pholk Songs
Velvet Underground	Guess I'm Falling in Love	Another View	Verve
The Faint	Some Incriminating Photographs	Media	Saddle Creek
Vandermark 5	Full Deck	Simpatico	Ata Vistic
Pit Er Pat	Emergency	Emergency	Overcoat
Walter Meego	Tommorowland	Voyager	Almost Gold
Can	Spoon	Anthology	Spoon/Mute
Johnny Cash	Cocaine Blues	Live at Folsum Prison	Columbia
*The M's	Don't Be Late	Real Close Ones	Polyvinyl
Air	Remember	Moon Safari	Source/Astralweks
Bonnie Prince Billy	Ease Me In	Lie Down in the Light	Drag City
Spiritualized	I Gotta Fire	Songs in A&E	Fontana International
Langhorn Slim & the War Eagles	Diamonds and Gold	Langhorn Slim & the War Eagles	Kemado

It's kind of like Tetris, actually.

2008-06-10T23:59:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up!

In spite of what this comic might imply, I'm really very free-to-be-you-and-me. Some people have open relationships and others do not, and I don't think one kind is inherently better than the other. It's up to the people in the relationship. I think honesty is more important than anything else.

About a child who now has gone - 6/6 Show

2008-06-06T08:37:00.005-05:00

I think I will never get tired of the song "No Love in Your Heart" by the Earlies.

Playlist:

* New!
(r) Request!

artist	song	album	label
New Order	All Day Long	Selections from Retro	Warner Brothers
Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom	Relevée (dfa remix)	Relevée Remixes	DFA
*Santogold	Say Aha	Santogold	Downtown
*Cloudland Canyon	You & I	Lie in Light	Kranky
The Earlies	No Love in Your Heart	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
The Dials	Sick Times	Flex	Latest Flame
*The Raconteurs	Five on the Five	Consolers of the Lonely	Warner Brothers
*Portishead	The Rip	Third	Island
Ella Fitzgerald	Caravan	The Jazz Sides	Verve
Quasar Wut Wut	Pulling Yams	Taro Sound	Glorious Noise
Kate Bush	Breathing	Never Forever	EMI Manhattan
*Prince Fatty	The Fat Panther	Survival	Rasa
The Talking Heads	Thank You for Sending Me an Angel	More Songs about Building and Food	Sire
Patrick Wolf	The Magic Position	The Magic Position	Tomlab
Joe Clay	You Look Good to Me	Get Hot or Go Home: Vintage Rockabilly RCA '56-'59	Country Music Foundation
*Pomegranates	Late Night Television	Everything Is Alive	Lujo
*Russian Circles	Youngblood	Station	Suicide Squeeze
(r)Curtis Mayfield	Pusherman	Superfly	Rhino
Elmore James	I've Got a Right to Love My Baby	King of the Slide Guitar	Capricorn
Orange Juice	Rip It Up	The Very Best of	Polydor
*Elvis Costello & the Imposters	Turpentine	Momofuku	Lost Highway
*The Last Shadow Puppets	Standing Next to Me	The Age of Understatement	Domino
Patrick Cleandenim	Cognac and Caviar	Baby Comes Home	Ba Da Bing
*Joan of Arc	A Tell-Tale Penis	Boo Human	Polyvinyl
The Postal Service	Sleeping In	Give Up	Sub Pop

I just fond a web tool for making virtual mix tapes, called MixWit. I made this one, which is most of today's show. Some songs are missing because they couldn't be found -- Ella Fitzgerald, for example, and (surprisingly) the new Elvis Costello. It did find Joe Clay, however, which I didn't expect. Also, some of the songs are apparently not full versions, just 20-second teasers. Whaddaya think?

He recovers quickly...

2008-06-03T23:07:00.003-05:00

This week's Finn and Charlie is up.

It's kind of an off week for me. I couldn't get the drawings to look right, and it turned out I drew the frames in the wrong proportions. But hopefully you'll like it anyway, well enough.

Bath

2008-05-28T23:59:00.001-05:00

The weather reports are amusing here... every 12 hours or so they flip flop. If you check the weather in the evening and it says partly cloudy tomorrow, in the morning it will say rain, and vice versa (though, sadly, less often vice versa). So I wonder why I check the reports at all?

Even in the rain, Bath is lovely, I just wish I had better shoes. I was afraid it would be touristy, but though there were heaps of visitors, it still felt real. There are nice shops everywhere, so it feels more like a downtown.

Our hotel is a lovely B&B called Dorian House, just up the hill on the opposite side of the river. It has great views of town, and everyone has lovely gardens. The area is all big Georgian houses made of the same cream-colored stone as the rest of Bath.

We checked out the Georgian rowhouses at the Royal Circus and the Royal Crescent, but they were not more interesting than the rest of town.

Lunch was at a tiny pub... the smallest in Bath, they said. It was about the size of my sister's bedroom in Manhattan. We sat at the bar and had the full-on English Pub experience, complete with friendly barmaid, strapping young yokel, and loud and drunk but gregarious and intelligent barfly. We chatted with the barfly a while. When we said we'd been in Cardiff he gave us the sort of look you'd give a person who said they'd been to Cleveland. Why would you go if you didn't have to? Well, Cardiff was nice, and so, for that matter, is Cleveland. But they are not obvious choices. To eat, I had a fisherman's pie (barfly comment: "the game is, try to find the fish!" — there was plenty of fish), and Eric had a pork pie. And of course, we had more ale. (I find myself referring to drining beer often — but in fact, almost always we are drinking "real ale", the significance of which is somewhat lost on me, but which seems to be vaguely akin to having a "microbrew" in the US: it's code for "better".

We took a tour of the Roman baths, which were really fascinating. As part of the tour you are entitles to drink a glass of the waters as you leave. For heath, people used to drink as much as a gallon a day. It's described as an "acquired taste", but I can describe it better; it's like water from a broken drinking fountain: hot and metallic and generally unpleasant. We downed the glasses, though — an act of will, but perhaps to some salutory effect.

We'd bought tickets to the Royal Theater, and found ourselves without time for a proper early supper or tea, so we split a packaged BLT from Sainsbury's. The play was a double bill, called "Single Spies" — two somewhat related plays by Allen Bennet. The first ("An Englishman Abroad") was just OK; I think the playwright wasn't sure how to tell the story, and the actors seemed really unsure of how to approach the characters. The result was too broad, though still entertaining. The second play ("A Question of Attribution") was better in every way. The story and the acting were so much more nuanced. The actors seemed to really inhabit the parts.

Afterward we went to the pub next door for beer ("Beech Blonde" for me and IPA for Eric) and a snack (a sort of venison bresaola, they said, though it wasn't much like bresaola, plus some olives). We gabbed for a while and got to bed a little late.

More Cardiff

2008-05-27T23:11:00.000-05:00

We'd intended to bike on our last day in Cardiff, but a combination of drizzle and sore legs made it not such a good idea. So we had a day of leisure, just hanging around.

We took a boat down to Cardiff Bay, which was a pretty nice but not exceptionally nice thing to do. We sat on a balcony overlooking the water and had some Brain's beer. The sun came out, but did not shine on us because we were on the wrong side of the building. Still, it was nice.

Back in town, we had a light supper in a new microbrewery called ZeroDegrees (new to Cardiff — they have other locations). The microbrewery seemed to be modelled on US microbreweries, esp. west coast (Portland, etc.). Eric had a Pale Ale (described as an American version of an English bitter) and I had a wheat beer. To eat, we shared a seared carpaccio and a goat cheese pizza, and had salads. It was all very nice.

Steal, borrow, beg?

2008-05-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

This week's Finn and Charlie is up!

I'm having fun with this storyline.

Cardiff

2008-05-27T05:56:00.003-05:00

We've been enjoying Cardiff despite the rain. Apparently it rains all the time here. The plants are lush, of course. Throught the city there are arcades, which are covered shopping streets (some narrow and Victorian, some just like big malls). Typically they are covered with glass peaked roofs, so the sunlight comes in, and the are quite nice... but they do tend to imply that there's a lot of rain.

Yesterday we went up to Caerphilly Castle, which is a massive medieval castle, one of the largest in the UK. It was truly impressive. (Unfortunately, the weather was terrible — light rain with high winds. The fact that we were out in this weather and not inside somewhere made us laugh.) We didn't buy any caerphilly cheese while there.

Then we went down to Penarth, a Victorian resort town south of Cardiff, on the water. There's a pier just like the piers you see in British movies when the people go to the seaside. We had lunch there, looking at the water, and then returned to Cadiff to dry off.

For dinner we went to Cardiff Bay, which is the area just south of Cardiff, on a sort of artificial bay at the mouth of the Taff river. We ate at Gilby's @ the Bay, which seemed like it would be a good place. The food was quite good. I had a galantine of guinea fowl and foie gras with ginger sauce, followed by a fillet of Welsh beef with Welsh rarebit on top, served with a potato thing. Eric had a carpaccio of Welsh beef, and then a chicken dish with a risotto. Note for the future: order beef "rare" if you do not want it well done. We shared a dessert, described as a timbale but basically jello, flavored with Pimm's, with berries in it and sort of a passion fruit puree. That was particularly delicious. (Pimm's is a gin-based drink, usually served with ginger ale and fruit.)

The weather is supposed to be halfway decent today, warm even (though not so far), and we are thinking about renting bikes. Though it will probably rain at some point. I've been checking weather reports, and they basically change constantly — it's worse than Chicago.

Bristol

2008-05-24T21:50:00.002-05:00

We arrived safely in London this morning... we scored upgrades to business class, which made an enormous difference in how much and how well we slept, and therefore how jetlagged we are now. So that was very nice.

On arrival we took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, where we were to catch our train to Bristol. Everything went so much more smoothly than we'd feared (Heathrow can be a mess), and we ended up with over an hour to kill at Paddington. Fortunately it was lunch time.

We went to a Fuller's Pub in the station, where we each had a pint (ESB for Eric, and a blonde called "Discovery" for me) and a sandwich (we shared two: cheddar with chutney, and sausage with pickled cabbage). It was all quite good. I confess I've been afraid of English food — people complain about it so much — but this was just good, basic pub food.

We got on the train for Bristol, and rolled all the way across southern England. From what I saw, the countryside was beautiful, but we were both asleep most of the time. (One reason we decided to go directly to Bristol after London was so we'd have a train trip where we could sleep.)

Bristol is a nice town. It has a good vibe. I like visiting cities that feel like people live there. Bristol is not touristy, but there are people everywhere. Much of it is new, since a lot was flattened in the war, but the new architecture is pretty nice, and there's enough old architecture to maintain interest.

It's also quite hilly. One of the things we did was to climb up to Cabot's Tower, which is in a park atop the tallest hill, overlooking all of Bristol. When we got to the top I couldn't believe we'd climbed so far up — it hadn't seemed like that much. The tower itself was closed for renovations, but you can see plenty from the park.

For dinner we went to the Hole in the Wall, which is a pub off Queen's Square, in the old city and near the harbor and which is reputed to be the model for the "Spyglass Inn" (or something?) in Robert Louis Stevenson' Treasure Island. That's not why we went, though; we went because I'd heard the food was good. It's a creative take on traditional pub food. The inside is homey — mismatched furniture, etc. The food was good. We started with a chicken liver patê served with toast and rowanberry and apple jelly, which was very good. Then I had a pork, apple, and wild boar sausage with caramelized onion mashed potatoes (basically a fancy bangers-and-mash), and Eric had the pot pie of the day, which was beef and vegetable. These weren't as good as the appetizer, but they were still good. The beer selection was not as good a this place — mostly mass-market beers. I had a Stella Artois and Eric had a bitter called something like Timothy Thompson's.

Now we are back in our hotel, and ready for bed.

Incidentally, I don't expect to post every day like this. We didn't bring the laptop. However, this hotel, surprisingly, comes with a computer in the room (The City Inn Bristol — nice place!), and so I'm taking advantage of it.

Tomorrow: Cardiff!

All I did was dream my baby - 5/23 show

2008-05-23T08:07:00.010-05:00

The week I had a trainee, Ritchie, and I had him to the second hour of the show.

* New!
(r) Request!

artist	song	album	label
My first set (6-7):
Rufus Wainwright	Baby	Rufus Wainwright	Dream Works
Laurie Anderson	Babydoll	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
*Otter Petter	Everyone	Fireflies and Lamp Lights	Self-released
*M83	Skin of the Night	Saturdays=Youth	Mute
Air	Left Bank	Pocket Symphony	Astralwerks
*Jamie Lidell	Wait for Me	Jim	Warp
*The Raconteurs	Old Enough	Consolers of the Lonely	Third Man/Warner Brothers
The Andrews Sisters	Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree	Greatest Hits	CURB Records
Bobby Conn	Punch the Sky!/Anybody	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
Ben Folds	In Between Days	Supersunnyspeedgraphic LP	Epic
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black	Back to Black	Island
Future Bible Heroes	Losing Your Affection (Client on Demand Mix)	The Lonely Robot	Instinct
Ritchie's set (7-8):
Dillenger Escape Plan with Mike Patton	Come Up Daddy	Irony Is a Dead Scene EP	Ipecac
Square Pusher	Decathlon Oxide	Maximum Priest EP	WARP
End	Countdown to the End	Sounds of Disaster	Ipecac
*Tokyo Police Club	Graves	Elephant Shell	Saddle Creek
The Kills	Fried My Little Brains	Keep on the Mean Side	Rough Trade
PJ Harvey	White Chalk	White Chalk	Island
*Goldfrapp	A&E	Seventh Tree	Mute
Siouxsie	Here Comes the Day	Mantaray	Decca
*Cut Copy	Lights and Music	In Ghost Colours	Modular
TRS-80	Bamboo Shoots Battle	Backup:01	Invisible
µ-Ziq	Octelcogopod	Bilious Paths	Planet Mu
Plaid	Didymousedid	P-Bane EP	WARP
*Atmosphere	Painting	When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold	Rhymesayers
J Dilla	Let's Take It Back	Ruff Draft	Stones Throw
*Sun Kil Moon	Moorestown	April	Caldo Verde
My second set (8-9):
Cocteau Twins	Lorelei	Stars and Topsoil 1981-1990	4AD
The Mae Shi	Young Marks	HLLLYH	Team Shi
Luxury	Green Hearts	Yellow Pills: Prefill	Numero Group
*Flight of the Conchords	Robots	Flight of the Conchords	Sub Pop
*Portishead	We Carry On	Third	Island
Los Campesinos	Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats	Hold On Now	Arts & Crafts
The Noisettes	Bridge to Canada	What's the Time Mr Wolf	Universal/Motown
(r)Tom Waits	The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)	Small Change	Asylum
*Zerostars	Family Tree	Basement Stories	Self Released (zerostars.com)
*The Last Shadow Puppets	Calm Like You	The Age of Understatement	Domino
Kaspar Hauser	Glass Case Full of Dead, Stuffed Birds	Quixotic/Taxidermy	Backwardmasking
Mustafa Özkent ve Orkestrasi	Üsküar	Gençlik İle Elele	B-Music/Finders Keepers
The Fiery Furnaces	Guns under the Table	Rehearsing My Choir	Rough Trade
*The Cure	The Only One	Single	Sure Tone
*Elvis Costello & the Imposters	Drum and Bone	Momofuku	Lost Highway

Wait, what?

2008-05-20T23:59:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up, finally!

Do enjoy.

And, oh: this story is completely fictional. As time goes by, less and less of what appears in this comic reflects anything that really happened to me. Life is still an inspiration, but, you know, life also tends to lack any narrative arc.

Taking on Tom

2008-05-16T21:39:00.008-05:00

This morning on my show I played Scarlett Johansson. But let's back up.

Some time last year, I heard that Scarlett Johansson, the actress, was recording an album. She had recorded a song for something, and someone was impressed with her voice, and wanted her to record and album. She didn't want to be an actress-turned pop star, like Lindsey Lohan, and she said she would record an album, but it would be all standards. Then she changed her mind and said they would be all Tom Waits covers.

(I should say, this is how I remember the story; I haven't looked up any of this to verify my memory.)

Anyway, I was impressed with that. It's gutsy to take on Tom Waits. He's a unique artist with a distinctive voice and style. He's a great songwriter, but his performance of his songs is as important as the songs themselves. (Compare, to take an extreme example, ABBA: the songs are better written than they are performed, and are highly adaptable to other styles.) Announcing that you are going to do an album of Tom Waits covers says, I think, that you want to be an musician's musician.

So of course, you have to have the chops. Johansson is certainly a talented actress, but that's a different matter from singing. Still, the story was that she had a good voice.

An artist I like a great deal, Holly Cole, did her own album of Tom Waits covers some 13 years ago. Cole is primarily a jazz vocal interpreter, though she has also done pop. Her style is also distinctive, but more importantly, she has the chops. There are some tracks which are perhaps unimaginatively close to the original, but even those are very good. Her slow smoky groove in "Tango Til They're Sore", on the other hand, is quite a surprise, and a real change from the quirky original.

This past Monday I happened to see a link somewhere to watch the video for Johansson's cover of "Falling Down". And I thought, oh yeah, she was making that album, I'm interested to hear it! So I clicked on the link.

It was very meh. The style was a wash of feedback and guitar, like the Jesus and Mary Chain (which seems to be coming up a lot lately; aside from
The Raveonettes, whose recent album, like all of their albums, sounds like JaMC, The Magnetic Fields this year did an album in that same style, called Distortion). It's the sort of style that's good for one or two bands, but you really don't want that much of it. It's also a style that you can hide behind, because of the distortion of the feedback. Her voice was fine, but unspecial. And I thought, OK, now I know what it's like. I was a little disappointed, and a little liberated, because I felt like I was done with the album.

Later that day, it showed up in new rotation at WLUW. I was surprised, because she's such a starlet; does she really need indie radio? On the other hand, the choice of Tom Waits indicates that she'd rather be on indie radio than on top 40. The label is Rhino, which is to me neither indie nor major; it's like another category somehow. Anyway, we'd recently been playing She and Him a lot, which is the pairing of the musician M Ward with the actress Zooey Deschanel. If I can play and like Zooey Deschanel, why not Scarlett Johansson?

There are some differences worth pointing out, actually. Zooey Deschanel is a successful, working actress, but she's not a starlet. She hasn't gotten the same level of attention as Johansson has. I know that should not make difference, but it does. Also, Deschanel teamed up with M Ward, which gives her a certain level of credibility — in fact, it was M Ward who convinced her to make the album. The two recorded together, in more or less equal billing, under the name of "She and Him", whereas Johansson is recording simply under her own name. Finally, Deschanel wrote her own songs, which she'd been doing for years (but hadn't apparently shown to anyone before Ward). Johansson wrote one song, and the rest are covers.

Also, I haven't seen any of the She and Him videos, but the video for "Falling Down" was pretty self-indulgent. It's just clips of Johansson wandering going from place to place and being famous (modeling, acting, driving off in a limo). Maybe "self-indulgent" isn't the right word, but the video is entirely wrapped up in her and who she is; it doesn't seem to be about the song at all, unless there's a parallel I'm missing. It was, to put it simply, the video of a famous actress.

So while my initial thought was to ignore the album altogether, I decided I'd play something this week, and then leave it, unless I was convinced that it was really great stuff.

Other DJs have been playing her, thought I only really heard it once. On Tuesday night, the Women on Women Music Show played her cover of "I Don't Want To Grow Up", which is ultimately pretty odd. The dense layers of feedback are accompanied by an 80's style synth-pop drum line. I could hear, around the edges, the possibility of a really good voice, but I couldn't be sure, under it all. The hosts, Jenny, Emily, and Elizabeth, concluded that is was very meh.

So here's what I did today: I played a Scarlett Johansson Tom Waits cover, followed by a Holly Cole Tom Waits cover, followed by a Tom Waits original. The listener response? One call, right after Johansson had ended and Cole had begun, saying "please play some real Tom Waits". I said absolutely — I'd been intending to.

Still, I think it was an interesting set, and I hope my audience thought so as well.

As for me, I think I'm done with Scarlett Johansson as a singer. She's fine, but not all that interesting.

Meanwhile, another CD that was added to rotation this week is by
the Last Shadow Puppets, and that sounded really good. (I accidentally played two songs — after the break, I started the same CD again. Oops. Both songs were good.)

Get in Your Car and Drive Real Far - 5/16 show

2008-05-16T08:23:00.007-05:00

* New!
(r) Request!

artist	song	album	label
Blondie	Rapture	Best of Blondie	Chrysalis
The Detholz!	I.M.A. Believer	Live on Radio Free Chicago	WLUW
*Jamie Lidell	Out of My System	Jim	WARP
*The Foals	Olympic Airways	Antidotes	Sub Pop
Talking Heads	The Great Curve	Remain in Light	Sire
*Man Man	Mister Jung Stuffed	Rabbit Habits	Anti-
Ella Fitzgerald	Get Ready	Ella	Reprise
Gang of Four	I Love a Man in a Uniform	Return the Gift	v2
(r)Kill Hannah	All That He Wants (American Jet Set)	American Jet Set	Brat Pack
*The Last Shadow Puppets	My Mistakes Were Made for You/Black Plant	The Age of Understatement	Domino
*M83	Graveyard Giri	Saturdays = Youth	Mute
Headlights	Centuries	The Enemies	Polyvinyl
Imogen Heap	Daylight Robbery	Speak for Yourself	RCA Victor

New Order	1963 ('95 Arthur Baker Remix)	Selections from Retro	Warner Brothers
Kristy MacColl	You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby	Galore	IRS
The Cells	They Don't Know	Self-released EP	Self-released
*Zerostars	Sleeping In	Basement Stories	Self-released (www.zerostars.com)
*Scarlett Johansson	Green Grass	Anywhere I Lay My Head	Rhino
Holly Cole	Jersey Girl	Temptation	Alert
Tom Waits	Eggs and Sausage	Nighthawks at the Diner	Asylum
The Normal	Warm Leatherette	Warm Leatherette/T.V.O.D.	Mute
The Cure	Close to Me	The Head on the Door	Fiction
The Happy Mondays	Step On	Pills 'n Thrills and Bellyaches	Elektra
*Portishead	Silence	Third	Island
*Atmosphere	Your Glasshouse	When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold	Rhymesayers
*Tokyo Police Club	In a Cave	Elephant Shell	Saddle Creek
Basement Jaxx	Broken Dreams	Rooty	Astralwerks

Feist	Inside and Out	Let It Die	Polydor
DeVotchKa	Basso Profundo	A Mad & Faithful Telling	Anti-
*Haale	A Dar Shekasteh	No Ceiling	Channel A
*The Thalia Zedek Band	Begin to Exhume	Liars and Prayers	Thrill Jockey
Tijuana Hercules	This Orchard is Rotten	Tijuana Hercules	Black Pisces
The Husbands	Cut Me Loose	There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead	Swami
*Santogold	Say Aha	Santogold	Downtown
The Propellerheads feat. Miss Shirley Bassey	History Repeating (Knee Length Mix)	History Repeating singlem	Wall of Sound
Serge Gainsbourg	Chez Les Yé-Yé	Love and the Beat 1 (L'amour à la Gainsbourg)	Mercury
*Islands	Pieces of City	Arm's Way	Anti-
*The Presets	Yippiyo-Ay	Apocalypso	Modular
(r)Gary Wilson	Gary's in the Park	Mary Had Brown Hair	Stones Throw
Turner Joy	Should Know Better	Hope	Mohofusu
The London Suede	She's in Fashion	Headmusic	Columbia

Smooth, dude

2008-05-13T11:59:00.002-05:00

Finn and Charlie has just been posted.

The boxes are the wrong dimensions, horrors, which makes an already wordy comic look wordier. But, ya know, it's fine.

Eliminate the Ninnies and the Twits - 5/9 show

2008-05-09T06:23:00.012-05:00

Just a playlist now, music notes to come later in another post.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Devo	Through Being Cool	Hot Potatoes	Virgin
Lady Sovereign	9 to 5	Public Warning	Island/Def Jam
*Does It Offend You, Yeah?	Being Bad Feels Pretty Good	You Have No Idea What You are Getting Yourself Into	Almost Gold
*Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds	Albert Goes West	Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!	Anti-
Chin Up Chin Up	Why Is My Sleeping Bag a Ghetto Muppet?	We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers	Flameshovel
*Otter Petter	Moment's End	Fireflies and Lamplights	Self-released
Saint Etienne	Lose That Girl	Trave Edition 1990-2005	Sub Pop
*Cut Copy	Nobody Lost, Nobody Found	In Ghost Colours	Modular
Ella Fitzgerald	Sunny	Things Ain't What They Used to Be	Reprise
Thunderbirds Are Now!	Ppl R Anmls	Make History	French Kiss
Psalm One feat. DJDQ of Glue	Beat the Drum	The Death of Frequent Flyer	Rhymesayer
*Flight of the Conchords	Inner City Pressure	Flight of the Conchords	Sub Pop
Pet Shop Boys	West End Girls	Discography	EMI
Talking Heads	Thank You for Sending Me an Angel	More Songs about Buildings and Food	Sire

Elliott Smith	Baby Britain	XO	Dreamworks
Leonard Cohen	Morning Glory	Dear Heather	Columbia
The Tiger Lilies	Hailstones	Plague Songs	4AD
*Portishead	Machine Gun	Third	Island
*Zerostars	Family Tree	Basement Stories	Self-released (zerostars.com)
The Earlies	The Ground We Walk On	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
*Haale	Off-Duty Fortune Teller	No Ceiling	Channel A
(r)Gogol Bordello	Zina-Marina	Super Taranta!	Side One Dummy
Luxury	Countdown	Yellow Pills: Prefill	Numero Group
The Noisettes	Don't Give Up	What's the Time Mr Wolf?	Universal/Motown
The Husbands	Sha La La Daniel	There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead	Swami
*Clinic	Tomorrow	Do It!	Domino
*Santogold	Lights Out	Santogold	Downtown
Selda	Yaylalar	Selda	B-Music/Finders Keepers

The more things stay the same...

2008-05-06T23:10:00.004-05:00

Another Finn and Charlie is up for your reading amusement.

Inventing Situations - 5/2 show

2008-05-02T10:38:00.000-05:00

One of the new albums in the studio is by the New Zealand parodists Flight of the Conchords. Humor bands can get tiresome, but these guys seem pretty good. The song I played is a parody of a French 60's pop, and features the kind of French dialogue that you can understand if you've ever studied French, ever, even for just a year. It's a funny song (with a funny video).

Anyway, this inspired me to play a full set of French songs. In the 80's, the French pop music scene was a bit of a wasteland, but now they are producing a lot of good stuff. Everyone knows Air by now; they made the soundtrack to the movie The Virgin Suicides, and last year's Pocket Symphony was one of my favorite albums of the year. So, what else is there?

Camille came recommended to me by my friend Graziella. Her music is reminiscent of afropop, with overdubbed harmonies that sound like Zap Mama. I picked Le Fil up last spring (2007), but it's a couple of years older than that.

Les Négresses Vertes started in the late 80's mixing rock with bal musette; sometime in the 90's they shifted their sound to something much more electronic and dancey. I picked up Trabendo in 1999.

Stereo Total is band that's also gotten some international attention. The duo do not sing well, but it's good rock music, and good singing is not required.

I've been trying to think of other French bands I know, that I could have played — Louise Attaque, Les Innocents, Olivia Ruiz, Superbus, L'Affaire Louis Trio, Orwell, Justice, Paris Combo, Uztaglote. Am I missing anything?

(Not to mention Quebecois bands and artists like Ghislain Poirier and Les Sequelles. Really, that's a whole other scene.)

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Talking Heads	Found a Job	More Songs about Buildings and Food	Sire
Bebel Gilberto	Bring Back the Love (Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix)	Bring Back the Love Remixes	Six Degrees
*Pomegranates	Thunder Meadow	Everything's Alive	Lujo
*Jamie Lidell	A Little Bit of Feel Good	Jim	Warp
Universal Jubileers	Childhood Days	Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal	Numero Group
*Portishead	The Rip	Third	Island
Nina Simone	You Better Know It	My Baby Just Cares for Me	Duchesse
The Zincs	Burdensome Son	Black Pompadour	Thrill Jockey
Antony & the Johnsons	Deeper than Love	Antony & the Johnsons	Secretly Canadian
*REM	Mr. Richards	Accelerate	Warner Brothers
The Red Krayola	Born in Flames	Singles (1968 - 2002)	Drag City
Canasta	Microphone Song	We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
*Tokyo Police Club	Your English is Good	Elephant Shell	Saddle Creek
The Smiths	Hand in Glove	Hatful of Hollow	Sire
The London Suede	Can't Get Enough	Headmusic	nude/Columbia
*(r)The Foals	Cassius	Antidotes	Sub Pop
*Flight of the Conchords	Foux de Fafa	Flight of the Conchords	Sub Pop
Camille	La jeune fille aux cheveux blancs	Le fil	Virgin
Les Négresses Vertes	Les mégots	Trabendo	Virgin France
Stereo Total	Miss Rébellion	Paris-Berlin	Kill Rock Stars
*Haale	No Ceiling	No Ceiling	Channel A
*Why?	Simeon's Dilemma	Alopecia	Anticon
Paper Airplane Pilots	Helium Balloon	Western Automatic Music	Spade Kitty
*Zerostars	Sleeping In	Basement Stories	Self-released zerostars.com
Shy Child	Break Your Neck	One with the Sun	Say Hey Records
*Man Man	The Ballad of Butter Beans	Rabbit Habits	Anti-
Astrud Gilberto	Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)	Jazz Masters 9	Verve

Frisky

2008-04-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

So, due to travel this week, I needed to do a single-panel comic, which sort of interrupts the storyline I was working on. This is not how I originally intended to introduce this character, but here he is: enter Kevin. And as introductions go, I kind of like it.

I was patted down by the TSA not too long ago, and I received a speech something like this one. (I did not respond this way, mind you.)

Go read it.

Me and My Mistress the Princess - 4/25 show

2008-04-25T20:46:00.004-05:00

I finally got the Zerostars new album, Basement Stories — hot off the presses, I might add. I've been looking forward to it, and it does not disappoint. There are some great new tunes on it; I particularly like the moody, folky "Family Tree", which is something of a departure for them. The song I played today is more in their usual style, which is power-pop leaning toward chamber-pop. The song ("Uptown") also feature a great rock-out break toward the end.

Next week is my sister's birthday, so I played a song for her today — The Kinks' "Come Dancing". It's a song we both loved in the 80's. It's also a song written about an older sister, from the point of view of a younger brother, and it's probably partly for this reason that the song will forever be linked in my mind with my sister. She listened to my show on the internet today, so she could hear the song (she knew I was playing something, but she didn't know what). It was the perfect song.

It made me try to think about other songs about siblings. Yoko Ono's "Sisters" is more about metaphorical sisters — women in general. Juliana Hatfield's "My Sister" is a good example of a song about siblings, as is Kate Bush's "The Kick Inside" (though it's best not to think too hard about the meaning of that Kate Bush song). The Mortal Coil covered a song called "You and Your Sister", though it's more of a love song, incidentally mentioning a sister. Aside from "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (covered excellently by Rufus Wainwright on the Zoolander soundtrack), I can't think of another song about a brother, though I'm sure there are some.

Any suggestions?

Meanwhile, my playlist:

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Rufus Wainwright	Foolish Love	Rufus Wainwright	Dream Works
The Aluminum Group	Post It	Little Happyness	Minty Fresh
*She & Him	I Was Made for You	Volume One	Merge
*DeVotchKa	Along the Way	A Mad and Faithful Telling	Anti-
*The Heavy	Brukpocket's Lament	Great Vengeance and Furious Fire	Counter
Chin Up Chin Up	The Architect Has a Gun	We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers	Flameshovel
Kate Bush	The Infant Kiss	Never Forever	EMI Manhattan
*Elf Power	The New Mythology	In a Cave	Ryko
Nina Simone	My Baby Just Cares for Me	My Baby Just Cares for Me	Duchesse
Koop feat. Cecilia Stalin	Baby	Waltz for Koop	Quango
*The Kills	Getting Down	Midnight Boom	Red Meat
The Judybats	Being Simple	Pain Makes You Beautiful	Sire
The Kinks	Come Dancing	State of Confusion	Arista
Spanky Wilson & the Quantic Soul Orchestra	You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover	I'm Thankful	Tru Thoughts
Michelle Shocked	On the Greener Side	Mercury Poise: 1988-1995	Mercury
David Bowie	Fill Your Heart	Hunky Dory	Virgin
The Postal Service	We Will Become Silhouettes	Give Up
Camille	La douleur	Le fil	EMI
Neko Case	Soulful Shade of Blue	The Tigers Have Spoken	Anti-
*Why?	The Hollows	Alopecia	Anticon
*REM	Man-Sized Wreath	Accelerate	WB
Balkan Beat Box	Joro Boro	Nu Med	JDUB
*Haale	All These Miles	No Ceiling	Channel A
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Broken Front Teeth	Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Bloodshot
Laurie Anderson	Baby Doll	Talk Normal (Anthology)	Rhino
(r)Wilco	Heavy Metal Drummer	Yankee Hotel Foxtrot	Nonesuch
*Zerostars	Uptown	Basement Stories	Self-released (zerostars.com)
*Make Believe	Wearin' Torn	Going to the Bone Church	Flameshovel
The Husbands	You Know What Sadie?	There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead	Swami
Bonde do Role	Solta o Frango	With Lasers	Domino/Mad Decent
Saint Etienne	Spring	Foxbase Alpha	Warner Brothers

You did what?

2008-04-22T23:59:00.002-05:00

This week's Finn and Charlie is up now.

I've officially been doing this for two years! I've also been a DJ for about the same amount of time. Hmm. I didn't realize I'd started two big new things in the spring of 2006.

No Time to Think about What She's Done - 4/18 show

2008-04-18T22:49:00.002-05:00

There was an earthquake today! This is exciting news in Illinois, where this sort of thing never happens — especially since no one was hurt. It woke me up about 7 minutes before my alarm was to go off, though I didn't know what had happened. It wasn't till I heard the news later and found out the exact time it happened that I realized why I'd woken up to early.

One called made a request in honor of the event: "Of Pressure" by Mirah, which is a song about an earthquake. (Mirah's last album, last year, was a concept piece in which each song was about a different kind of insect.) During the song another caller called to ask if I was playing the song because of the earthquake. Yes. Yes I am.

Not that I would have had any better ideas without the call... "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King? Boy, I bet that got a lot of play on other stations today...

EMI did not apparently send a copy of the new B-52's album, Funplex, to the station, but they did send an album of remixes (which are still being reviewed). So I bought my own copy — of course, how could I not — and today I played my favorite song from the album, "Eyes Wide Open". Now, any time a DJ plays their favorite song from an album, they hope to get a good response (and to be fair, when I got to the office, Julio commented that he'd heard it and liked it). But this time a caller (actually the same caller who requested Mirah) said she though the song was too much like Madonna... or at least she found the lyrics too much like Madonna, though she liked the music. I dunno. I still like the song.

Meanwhile, DeVotchKa's A Mad & Faithful Telling is officially my favorite album of the year so far.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Talking Heads	And She Was	Once in a Lifetime Boxed Set
Bobby Conn	Punch the Sky/Anybody	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
*Goldfrapp	Happiness	Seventh Tree	Mute
*REM	Hollow Man	Accelerate	Warner Brothers
Jacques Brel	Les Bourgeois	Ne Me Quitte Pas
Kate Bush	All We Ever Look For	Never Forever	EMI-Manhattan
*Herman Dune	I Wish I Had Someone That I Loved Well	I Wish That I Could See You Soon EP	Everloving
Phillips & Driver	Oh Starsky	Togetherness	Bar None Records
*Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks	We Can't Help You	Real Emotional Trash	Matador
Amy Winehouse	Some Unholy War	Back to Black	Island
Mavis Staples	99½	We'll Never Turn Back	Anti-
Grace Jones	I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)	Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions	Island
*Crystal Castles	Alice Practice	Crystal Castles	Last Gang
Deee-Lite	What Is Love?	World Clique	Elektra
Happy Mondays	Dennis and Lois	Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches	Elektra
*The B-52's	Eyes Wide Open	Funplex	EMI
Les Négresses Vertes	Les Mégots	Trabendo	Virgin France
(r)Hot Chip	Baby Said	Coming On Strong	Astralwerks
*Elf Power	Fried Out	In a Cave	Ryko
*DeVotchKa	Transliterator	A Mad & Faithful Telling	Anti-
Chin Up Chin Up	I Hope for Tumbleweeds	We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers	Flameshovel
*Haale	Ay Dar Shekasteh	No Ceiling	Channel A
The Fiery Furnaces	My Egyptian Grammar	Widow City	Thrill Jockey
*The Heavy	Set Me Free	Great Vengeance and Furious Five	Counter
Frank Zappa	Uncle Remus	Apostrophe'	Rykodisc
(r)Mirah	Of Pressure	You Think It's Like This but It's Really Like This	K
Antietam	The Hold	Victory Park	Carrot Top
Man Man	Mister Jung Stuffed	Rabbit Habits	Anti-

Hyperbole

2008-04-15T11:28:00.002-05:00

A little late posting tonight because I unexpectedly had to work very late. But it's all good.

Finn and Charlie are HITCHED is now up.

Yo Te Quiero Infinito - 4/11 show

2008-04-11T22:42:00.003-05:00

Have I said this before? Is there a better song that so completely mangles Spanish as The Clash's "Spanish Bombs"? Honestly, I didn't even notice it was Spanish until the guys from Sound Opinions pointed it out. "Yo te quiero" ("yoh teh KYEH-roh") is sung as "yoh teh KEWH-ra". I sing along when this song is on, and I pronounce it right, and well, it makes it all easier to take. It is a great song, after all, and mostly in English.

I tell you I am no Oasis fan, and not even really a big Ryan Adams fan, but Ryan Adams's cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall" is excellent — spare and sort of spooky. "Wonderwall" is a great song. I've liked every cover of it I've heard, including the 60's pop parody by The Mike Flowers Pops (spot-on enough to make me think for a moment that Oasis had covered a song from 30 years earlier).

So this week's show as in anticipation of the CHIRP Record Fair, and I played a number of songs on vinyl, including some b-sides. I played Kate Bush's haunting cover of the traditional song "The Handsome Cabin Boy", as well as the spacy-funky "Monkey Monkey" by Eurythmics, the b-side to "Love is a Stranger." It was fun. There were other things I wanted to play but more or less couldn't — for example, ELP's "Baba Yaga's Revenge", a piece they composed for their version of Pictures at an Exhibition, but I found that the tracks on that album flow together and it would have been murder to cue up. But I listened to it at home the other night, so that was fun. I probably wouldn't have dragged it upstairs and played it without this impetus.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
The Clash	Spanish Bombs	London Calling	Epic
The Shangir-LA's	Out in the Streets	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM
Laurie Anderson	O Superman	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
Kate Bush	The Handsome Cabin Boy	This Woman's Work (b-sides disc II)	EMI
*Haale	Off-Duty Fortune Teller	No Ceiling	Channel A
*DeVotchKa	A Blessing in Disguise	A Mad & Faithful Telling	Anti-
Ryan Adams	Wonderwall	Love is Hell pts 1&2	Lost Highway
Neko Case	Soulful Shade of Blue	The Tigers Have Spoken	Anti-
*Why?	Song of the Sad Assassin	Alopecia	Anticon
The Aluminum Group	The Mattachine Society	Plano	Minty Fresh
*Headlights	Market Girl	Some Racing, Some Stopping	Polyvinyl
Martha & the Muffins	Teddy the Dink	Trance and Dance	DinDisc/RTC
*The Apples in Stereo	On Your Own	Electronic Projects for Musicians	Tep Roc
Wilco	Pick Up the Change	A.M.	Sire/Reprise
The Folk Implosion	One Part Lullaby	One Part Lullaby	Interscope
(r)The Cure	The Edge of the Deep Green Sea	Wish	Elektra
*Faceless Werewolves	Couldn't Believe It Blues	Pardon Me, Are Those Your Claws on My Back?	Super Secret
*Crystal Castles	Courtship Dating	Crystal Castles	Last Gang
Toshinori Kondo	Shosuke-san	(Taihen/Shosuke-San single)
*The Mae Shi	Young Marks	HLLLYH	Team Shi
Luxury	Green Hearts	Yellow Pills Prefill	Numero Group
*The Breeders	Bang On	Mountain Battles	4AD
The Husbands	B.I.L.L.Y.	There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead	Swami
The Tourists	So Good to Be Back Home Again	Reality Effect	Epic
*Vampire Weekend	Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa	Vampire Weekend	XL
Eurythmics	Monkey Monkey	(b-side of Love is a Stranger single)	RCA
Os Mutantes	Panis et Circensis	Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis	Universal
The Futureheads	Skip to the End	News and Tributes	Star Time/Vagrant

Oops

2008-04-08T11:59:00.003-05:00

Finn and Charlie is up

It's late and I'm tired.

The Hi-Fi Test: Vinyl vs. CD

2008-04-07T12:21:00.002-05:00

My post is up at the Chicago Indie Radio Project site.

I took some time this past weekend to compare vinyl and CD versions of “Oh What a World”, from Rufus Wainwright’s 2003 album Want One, and “Hello Earth”, from Kate Bush’s 1985 album The Hounds of Love.

Go read the post!

Interestingly, a previous post (by someone else) provided a link to compare two MP3 files at different levels of quality. I confess I failed the test... the first time, I took it using cheap headphones at work; the second time, I fed my computer into my home stereo to test it. I couldn't tell the different — but I'll say this, both versions sounded tinny and weak to me, especially on my home stereo. It may be related to the way my computer does audio output.

Oh, and speaking of CHIRP web site posts, this one is too funny.

The Truth Is I Was Shocked - 4/4 show

2008-04-04T21:56:00.000-05:00

A word about Frank Zappa: it always impresses me the extent to which he was both brilliant and weird. "Montana" is a good example: musically, a good song -- well constructed, good melody, etc -- about moving to Montana to grow dental floss. ("Raisin' it up / and waxin' it down / in a little white box that I can / sell uptown".) This is par for the course in the land of Zappa. And other people have written absurd music, but I don't think anyone has done it as well.

I'm afraid I don't have anything more to say about music this week... I spent a good chunk of my energy writing a blog entry for the Chicago Independent Radio Project, which should be up there soon.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
LCD Soundsystem	Time to Get Away	Sound of Silver	DFZ/Capitol
Nina Simone	Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat's Heavenly Houxe Remix)	Verve Remixed²	Verve
Bobby Conn	Twenty-One	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
*Headlights	Get Your Head Around It	Some Racing, Some Stopping	Polyvinyl
*Meat Number 5	Fresh City	Meat Number 5	Anodyne Electric Company
Frank Zappa	Montana	Overnight Sensation	Rykodisc
Yaz	Midnight	Upstairs at Eric's	Sire
Fats Domino	Whole Lotta Lovin	The Best of Fats Domino	EMI
*She & Him	Why Do You Let Me Stay Here	Volume One	Merge
The Deltholz!	Mister Electricity	Who Are...	Vortecs
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians	Little Miss S.	Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars	Geffen
*Beach House	Some Things Last	Devotion	Carpark
Ratatat	Wildcat	Classics	XL
Laurie Anderson	Credit Racket	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
The Magnetic Fields	Washington, D.C.	69 Love Songs Vol. 2	Merge
The Ponys	1209 Seminary	Turn the Lights Out	Matador
*Bauhaus	Adrenalin	Go Away White	Bauhaus Musik
(r)The Pixies	Levitate Me	Come On Pilgrim	4AD
Arms and Sleepers	Black Paris 86	Black Paris 86	Expect Candy
Canasta	The Model	Find the Time	Broken Middle C
*The Apples in Stereo	Shine (In Your Mind)	Electronic Projects for Musicians	Yep Roc
Blops	Esencialmente Asi No Mas	Del Volar De Los Palomas	Shadoks/Normal
Henry Padovani	Y a plus de saisons	A croire que c'était pour la vie	CIA
Yma Sumac	La Molina	The Ultimate Yma Sumac Collection	Capitol
*Singer	Oh Dusty	Unhistories	Drag City
*The Heavy	Coleen	Great Vengeance and Furious Fire	Counter
*The Mae Shi	Young Mark	HLLYH	Team Shi
Alice Smith	Love Endeavor	For Lovers, Dreamers and Me	BBE
Scritti Politti	Road to No Regret	White Bread Black Beer	Nonesuch/Rough Trade

Just say no!

2008-04-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Last week an anonymous reader pointed out that "yenta" does not mean "matchmaker", even though Yente was the name of the matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof Which is something I kind of knew but forgot. Any way, there you go.. I listen to comments.

This week's cartoon is up now.

Indie Radio! Records! Blogging!

2008-03-31T21:48:00.003-05:00

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).

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

2008-03-28T10:37:00.004-05:00

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

Listen to your yenta!

2008-03-25T23:26:00.002-05:00

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?

I Am Pure and Steady - 3/21 show

2008-03-21T08:55:00.002-05:00

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

Wow! Awesome!

2008-03-18T22:43:00.002-05:00

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

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

2008-03-11T00:01:00.002-05:00

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

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

2008-03-10T09:00:00.005-05:00

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

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

2008-03-06T10:14:00.004-06:00

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

Wasting time

2008-03-04T23:48:00.005-06:00

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.

Nihil sub sole novum - 2/29 show

2008-02-29T10:18:00.002-06:00

Leap day!

One of the fun things about having an iPod shuffle is that in presenting random music, you're attention is drawn to songs you might not have have noticed otherwise. I can't say that the first track from Bobby Conn's 2007 album King for a Day would have caught my ear. Listening to the album as a whole, you're much likelier to notice the more single-like songs, like "Anybody" or "Love Let Me Down". However, heard out of context (and with the intimacy of headphones), "Vanitas" is a thrilling, nearly operatic torrent of rock. The lyrics are in Latin and taken from Ecclesiastes; need I say more? "Nihil sub sole novum": "Nothing is new under the sun". I've been wanting to play this song for a while, but wasn't sure how to fit it into the show. My solution? Make it the opening tune. (It's also a long song, which is useful for a day in which I got to the station a little later than I like, since I had to shovel snow again.)

So how do you follow a song like "Vanitas"? Not an easy question. I don't want to inflict too much sturm und drang on my listeners at 6am. What I needed was to carry forward some of that drama, while at the same time dialing it down a bit and introducing just a little more pop sound. Solution? Morrissey... specifically, his most fabulously over-the-top piece of drama, "November Spawned a Monster".

Rounding out the set, something from the new Magnetic Fields album. The silliness of the lyrics, over the heaviness of the feedback-laden style of the new album (Distortion), combined with Stephin Merritt lugubrious baritone... I think it was the perfect ending to the set.

I played a couple of tracks off vinyl today, as well. Years ago, while shopping at a local records store (Reckless, most likely), I ran across a record from 1984 by a man named Robert Görl, with the amusingly tacky name of A Night Full of Tension. What caught my eye was the little hand-written sticker on the front: "featuring additional vocals by Annie Lennox". Sold! I haven't listened to the whole album in a while; I remember it as dark technopop and largely forgettable. (Now that I've written that I'll have to give it another listen; maybe I'm wrong?) In any event, I did remember one song that's particularly good: "Darling Don't Leave Me". Annie Lennox is well-featured in this one &151; sort of a featured-backing-vocal, like Helen Terry in Culture Club — and the song has that edgy, off-kilter quality that made early Eurythmics so great.

The other track played off vinyl is my favorite by The Flying Lizards. They are almost exclusively known for their cover of the song "Money" (a song that was used between news items during todays "Democracy Now", which followed my show), but there's much more to their work than that. Their self-title album begins with their aggressively shrill version of Kurt Weill's "Mandalay Song", almost daring you to turn off the stereo. Perseverance is rewarded with track two, the lovely "Herstory". The song has a slow sexy groove, with sardonic lyrics about sexism. The accented singspiel of Money and the nasal shrillness of "Mandalay Song" are replaced with earnest and soft female vocals intoning "You can still make money by singing sweet songs of love", complimented by spoken cockney men's voices repeating "I own you | You don't own me | You are my territory". This song made it onto many mix tapes I made in college.

I almost lost that record, actually. I found it in a record store in Montreal; it's not an easy album to find. I lent it to my friend Mark so that he could get a copy made for himself on CD (a trick that needed very specialized equipment at the time, which I could now do at home if I had the time). I left it with him in Providence for a while, and I think we both forgot about it. Then Mark moved, I think, and decided to unload most of his possessions before doing it. Before selling (or throwing out, I forget which) his records, he let a friend go through them and pull out anything he wanted. When I heard about this, I thought, oh hell, he still had my Flying Lizards album. Hell. So I met this friend of Mark's (someone I didn't yet know), probably at Fellini's Pizzeria on Wickenden in Providence where we all hung out that summer, and it turned out that yes, he had pulled The Flying Lizards. He saw it and knew it was something rare and worth having, and he kept it — and then, when he found out it was mine, he gave it back to me. It's been many years since then, and I still feel thankful (even if I rarely listen to the album). I think his name was Damian. Thanks, Damian.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Bobby Conn	Vanitas	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
Morrissey	November Spawned a Monster	Bona Drag	Sire/Reprise
*The Magnetic Fields	Zombie Boy	Distortion	Nonesuch
*Bon Iver	Skinny Love	For Emma, Forever Ago	Jagjaguwar
(r)Volt	Testbild	Volt	In the Red
Romeo Void	Talk Dirty to Me	Warm, in Your Coat	Columbia/Legacy
Patrick Wolf	The Magic Position	The Magic Position	Tomlab
*No Kids	For Halloween	Come into My House	Tomlab
*Vashti Bunyan	Coldest Night of the Year	Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind	Dicristina
Toms	Sun	Yellow Pills: Prefill	Numero Group
*British Sea Power	A Trip Out	Do You Like Rock Music?	Rough Trade
The Returnables	Teenage Imposters	The Returnables	Dirt Nap
Papas Fritas	I Believe in Fate	Buildings and Grounds	Minty Fresh

The Polyphonic Spree	Section 22 [Running Away]	The Fragile Army	TVT
Robert Görl feat. Annie Lennox	Darling Don't Leve Me	A Night Full of Tension	Mute Records
The Whitsundays	Already Gone	The Whitsundays	Friendly Fire
*The Way It Is	Fell in Love with a Carbomber	Be Still My Beating	Bull Independence
Camille	Baby Carni Bird	Le Fil	EMI
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black	Back to Black	Island
The Flying Lizards	Herstory	The Flying Lizards	Polygram
*Cat Power	Aretha, Sing One for Me	Jukebox	Matador
(r)Johnny Cash	Orange Blossom Special	Live at Fulsom Prison	Columbia
*Liam Finn	Energy Spent	I'll Be Lightening	Yep Roc
(r)The Books	An Animated Description of Mr. Maps	Lost and Safe	Tomlab
*Burial	Etched Headplate	Untrue	Hyperdub
The Eternals	This Mix Is So Bizarre	Heavy International	Aesthetics

Billy Bragg	Never Had No One Ever	The Smiths Is Dead	Les Editions Indépendents/Les Inrockuptibles
Bettye LaVette	Sleep to Dream	My Own Hell to Raise	Anti-/Epitaph
Yazbek	Son of a Gun	Damascus
Ushuaia Rocks!	Pink Moon	Un Fro Infierno
*Mahjongg	Tell the Police the Truth	Kontpab	K
Pansy Division	Luv Luv Luv	The Essential Pansy Division	Alternative Tentacles
*Sons & Daughters	Chains	This Gift	Domino
Emotional Rescue	Nostalgia	Emotional Rescue	Think Tank Records
*The Helio Sequence	Lately	Keep Your Eyes Ahead	Sub Pop
*Valet	Fire	Naked Acid	Kranky
(r)The Anniversary	Shu Shabat	Designing a Nervous Breakdown	Vagrant
The Aerovons	Say Georgia	Resurrection	RPM
*Kelley Stoltz	To Speak to the Girl	Circular Sounds	Sub Pop
Josephine Baker and the Supposed	Who Will Feel Bitter at the Day's End?	All the Leaves Are Gone	Locust
REM	Superman	Life's Rich Pageant	I.R.S.
I'm from Barcelona	We're from Barcelona	Let Me Introduce My Friends	Mute

Nobody's off the hook

2008-02-27T23:53:00.002-06:00

I think that's the name of a song, but I can't think of who it's by.

Anyway, this week it's a comic: Finn and Charlie are HITCHED... coming to you one day late.

Like a wheel inside a wheel - 2/22 show

2008-02-22T08:06:00.001-06:00

No notes this week

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Talking Heads	Slippery People	Once in a Lifetime box set
The Polyphonic Spree	Section 29 [Light to Follow]	The Fragile Army	TVT
Office	Paralyzed Prince	A Night at the Ritz	Scratchie/Newline
*Rafter	zzzpenchant	Sex Death Cassette	Asthmatic Kitty
Hey Willpower	Phenomenon	P.D.A.	Tomlab
Army of Lovers	The Particle Song	Massive Luxury Overdose	Giant
Chromeo	Tenderoni	Fancy Footwork	Vice
The Smoking Popes	Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart	The Party's Over	Double Zero
*Cat Power	New York	Jukebox	Matador
*Liam Finn	Lead Balloon	I'll Be Lightning	Yep Roc
*The Magnetic Fields	Three-Way	Distortion	Nonesuch
Frank Zappa	Cosmik Debris	Apostrophe	Rykodisc
Aesop Rock	Coffee	None Shall Pass	Definitive Jux
Nina Simone	Sinnerman (Felix da Housecat's Heavenly House Mix)	Verve Remixed²	Verve
Elvis Costello	Accidents Will Happen	Armed Forces	Ryko
Laurie Anderson	Smoke Rings	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
*Ruckus Roboticus	When I Grow Up	Playing with Scratches	Grease
*Ghislain Poirier	Hit & Red	No Ground Under	Ninja Tune
*Hot Chip	Ready for the Floor	Made in the Dark	Astralwerks/DFA
The Race	Ice Station	Ice Station	Flameshovel
Haale	Floating Down	Paratrooper	Darya
*Ungdomskulen	Modern Drummer	Cry-Baby	Ever
The Fiery Furnaces	The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry	Bitter Tea	Fat Possum
*The Whitsundays	Antisocial	The Whitsundays	Friendly Fire
Mark Ronson feat. Santo Gold	Pretty Green	Version	RCA
They Might Be Giants	Take Out the Trash	The Else	Idlewild
Grace Jones	Demolition Man	Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions	Island

Busted

2008-02-19T00:27:00.002-06:00

This week's Finn and Charlie, for your amusement.

In Vienna we sit in a late-night café - 2/15 show

2008-02-15T23:11:00.003-06:00

No notes today...

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Kraftwerk	Trans-Europe Express	Trans-Europe Express	Capitol
Kelley Polar	Chrysanthemum
*Mary Möör	Pretty Day	Bippp: French Synthwave 1979/85	Everloving
*Ghislain Poirier	It's a War War War	No Ground Under	Ninja Tune
eX-Girl	Venus vs. Gas Onna	Endangered Species	Alternative Tentacales
*Bon Iver	Lump Sum	For Emma, Forever Ago	Jagjaguwar
*Ruckus Roboticus	Here We Go	Playing with Scratches	Grease
Van Morrison	The Way Young Lovers Do	Astral Weeks	Warner Brothers
Sarah Vaughn	Whatever Lola Wants (Gotan Project Remix)	Verve Remixed²	Verve
Martha and the Muffins	Whatever Happened to Radio Valve Road?	Danseparc	One Way
*Cat Power	Blue	Jukebox	Matador
Joni Mitchell	Amelia	Hejira	Asylum
Quasar Wut-Wut	Thankful Hank and the Guzzard	Taro Sound	Glorious Noise
Canasta	All This Dust	We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
Rufus Wainwright	The Art Teacher	Want Two	Geffen
Eurythmics	For the Love of Big Brother	1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)	RCA
Pit Er Pat	Solstice	Pyramids	Thrill Jockey
*L'ocelle Mare	#5	L'ocelle Mare	Sick Room
*Rafter	Love Time Now Please	Sex Death Cassette	Asthmatic Kitty
The Futureheads	Meantime	The Futureheads	Sire
*Mahjongg	Problems	Kontpab	K
Tom Schraeder & His Ego	The Whiskey Song
The Judybats	Our Story	Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow	Sire
*Spiller Whale	Dark Horse Flame	Fresh Tables EP	Uncle Grandpa
*The Aluminum Group	Beautiful Eyes	Little Happyness	Minty Fresh
The Shangri-La's	Out in the Street	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM
The Cells	They Don't Know	Self-released EP	Self-released

Foot-in-mouth disease

2008-02-13T23:46:00.002-06:00

I'm tired. I just posted Finn and Charlie, a day late. You should go read it. Totally.

The very young need the sun - 2/8 show

2008-02-08T17:23:00.000-06:00

We have been having miserable, miserable weather lately. We'll have a big snowstorm, then a little more snow, and then a little more snow, and then a rainstorm, and then snow again. This week we had sleet, which collected in the form of slush, which then turned into snow. All around the city there was an inch of ice adhering to sidewalks, streets and what-have-you. It is time for an escape!

One way I used to escape from winter, in college, was to listen to Haircut One Hundred. The sunny, Caribbean-influenced pop makes me feel like I'm in Florida, somehow. So I played them on today's show, and tried to pick a number of other sunny, summery-or-warm-climate tunes.

I wanted to start with "The Tide Is High", by Blondie, but it turned out we don't have that album at the station (though we have four others), so I played "Pretty Baby", from Parallel Lines — a very sunny song, though it lacks the Caribbean/Reggae influence of "The Tide Is High".

"Bubbles", by Free Design, is also not specifically a summer-or-warm-climate song, but it has a cheerful sunny sound. Free Design was a jazz-pop group from the late 60's and early 70's, made up of 5 brothers and sisters. "Bubbles", about the pleasures of bubble gum (seriously), shows strong jazz-vocal influences, while being, at the same time, almost saccharine sweet. It would be a bit much to listen to a whole album, but they are awfully fun mixed in with other music.

Sergent Garcia, on the other hand, is really warm-climate music. This Paris-based group (which I discovered in 1999) mixes Afro-Cuban sounds with Hip-Hop. The lyrics are mostly in Spanish, and the beat is infectious — you've just got to move your body when you listen. "Jumpi" is one of my favorite songs from the album, and it features raps in both French and Spanish.

Ojos de Brujo is a band I discovered more recently, while in Spain. They describe their music as "Nuevo Flamenco", and it combines Flamenco with various modern pop and dance sounds. "Color" is particularly wild, with funky, jerky beats.

Josephine Baker's "Don't Touch Me Tomatoes" is a song I found on a compilation I bought for Eric years ago, called Divas Exotica. The quality of the sound in this song is much better than on the Josephine Baker boxed set we also have, and her voice is deeper as well; I think it must have come from one of her later performance, in the 60's or 70's (when she was, herself in her 60's). It's got great Caribbean flair.

The The B-52s' 1989 album Cosmic Thing is, to me, very much a summer album. In an interview, one of them explained the album by saying something along the lines of, "some people stay in Athens, Georgia and write about living in New York; we were in New York and writing Athens, Georgia." Any number of songs on it have a real hot summer feel. "Junebug" is by no means the best song on the album, but it's fun, and a really good party tune. (Sample lyric: "go go go go go-go-go, whoah whoah whoah whoah whoah-whoah-whoah!")

And finally, I did choose Le Tigre's "Dyke March 2001" on the grounds that the Dyke March is in June. The version I played is perhaps a bit repetitive (I should check out the original, non-remixed version), but it's still pretty amusing. It's a techno-dance beat, with a sample of a woman saying, somewhat earnestly, "I like to come to the dyke march because I like to be surrounded by..."; the sentence is alternately finished with "women", "naked ladies", and occasionally "feminist fury". (I'm not sure if the original version's lines are mixed up the same way.)

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Blondie	Pretty Baby	Parallel Lines	Chrysalis
Free Design	Bubbles	Kites Are Fun (The Best of Free Design)	Varese Saraband
*Hello Blue Roses	St. Angela	The Portrait Is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty	Locust
Keep feat. Yukimi Nagano	Summer Sun	Waltz for Koop	Quango
Count Basie	Love Me or Leave Me	The Essential Count Basie Vol 1	Columbia
*Dengue Fever	Sober Driver	Venus on Earth	M80
Haircut One Hundred	Love Plus One / Pelican West	Arista
*Ghislain Poirier feat. Ambitieux, DJ Netik	Ladies & Gentlemen	No Ground Under	Ninja Tune
Sergent Garcia	Jumpi	Un Poquito Quema'o	Virgin
Josephine Baker	Don't Touch Me Tomatoes	Divas Exotica	Capitol
*Spiller Whale	Raptures & Drynesses	Fresh Tables EP	Uncle Grandpa
Royce feat. Robust	Girls on Bikes	Tuff Love	Galapagos4
*The Whitsundays	Antisocial	The Whitsundays	Friendly Fire
Ojos de Brujo	Color	Techarí	Diquela
The Dials	Nothing but Crazy	Flex Time	Latest Flame
The B-52's	Junebug	Cosmic Thing	Reprise
The Gossip	Standing in the Way of Control	Standing in the Way of Control	Kill Rock Stars
Le Tigre	Dyke March 2001 (Reid's Afro-Dykey Mix)	Remix	Mr. Lady
*Ungdomskulen	Modern Drummer	Cry-Baby	Ever
Frank Zappa	Valley Girl	Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch	Barking Pumpkin Records
(r)Out Hud	The Stoked America	Let Us Never Speak of This Again	Kranky
*Rafter	Chances	Sex Death Cassette	Asthmatic Kitty
*Yeasayer	Forgiveness	All Hour Cymbals	We Are Free
*Sam Shalabi	Jessica Simpson	Eid	Alien8
Mucca Pazza	Alarm!	A Little Marching Band	Self-released
*Valet	Fire	The Second Marriage Records Compilation	Marriage Records

No twinks!

2008-02-05T22:54:00.000-06:00

This week's Finn and Charlie are HITCHED strip is up.

This one ended up going in a different direction than I'd originally intended.

Hear the cavemen singing - 2/1 show

2008-02-01T12:20:00.000-06:00

This morning was a snowy one — the snow started yesterday in the afternoon and continued straight through my show, tapering off around noon. In the morning there were great piles of snow all over the place. I had shoveled my own walk last night at 6:30 and 10pm, and I did it again this morning at 5am; it will need to be done again.

So I thought I'd try to focus my show on playing songs that made people feel like getting up. You know, on a day like this you need an extra nudge. I invited listeners to all in with suggestions, and I got quite a lot of requests.

My first request was for "something by Tom Waits", and I chose one of my favorites, "Eggs and Sausage (in a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)" — it's technically a late-night song, but it works exceptionally well as a morning song (and I also got a call commending me on that choice, from a man who'd just spent half an hour digging his car out of the snow, and was getting in to drive to work).

The next request was for something that was recently in rotation here: Bonnie "Prince" Billy's mellow cover of "Am I Demon?" by Danzig. (The caller couldn't remember the song exactly, and I think he actually asked for a cover of Fugazi by Uncle Tupelo, but I'm pretty sure this is what he meant.) I haven't heard all of this Bonnie "Prince" Billy EP, but I liked this song the most.

Next I got a call for Sonic Youth... not a real wake-up-and-get-going song (like maybe "Kool Thing"), but rather the more experimental, spoken-word-over-instruental-drone "Tom Violence" from Evol. The story it tells is a bit disturbing, and it's not particularly melodic; I might not have chosen it myself for a day like today, though it's quite a good piece of music ultimately. It's sort of arresting.

Next request? Something completely different from the last: a band I'd not heard of called Death by Chocolate, which turns out to be very entertaining and silly spoken word over electronic melodies reminiscent of video games.

Rounding out the day's requests was the Groove Armada, requested by a listener who had just failed to win concert tickets from me. His voice was familiar; I think he may be a regular caller I have, from Brazil. This song also closed out my set.

Meanwhile, yesterday Julio gave me a couple of CDs he'd reviewed, and asked me to drop them off at the station. One of them didn't sound too appealing, but he convinced me to give it a listen on the way home. It surprised me completely: I loved it. Ungdomskulen comes out of Norway and plays very heavy, hard music. I'm not especially a fan of Metal, or even lots of guitar, and I expected something along those lines. And I think there is some Metal in this music, and certainly a lot of guitar; but there's also good bass and drum, and non-screaming vocals, and hooks, and musical complexities. There's a little bit of the Rapture's punk-disco, and a little of Frank Zappa's jazz-rock-guitar, and it's all happening at once. Relentless, but in a good way. So I played a song, and left the CD for the Music Department. They may chose to put it in rotation; I hope they do.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Echo & the Bunnymen	Seven Seas	Ocean Rain	Sire/Rhino
Troubled Hubble	Nancy	Penturbia	Latest Flame
*Dengue Fever	Seeing Hands	Venus on Earth	M80
*Ween	Blue Balloon	La Cucaracha	Rounder
Os Mutantes	Panis et Circenses	Tropicália ou Panis et Circenses	Universal
Selda	Yaylalar	Selda	B-Music/Finders Keepers
*Bob Mould	Return to Dust	District Line	Anti-
*The Aluminum Group	Post It	Little Happyness	Minty Fresh
The Smiths	There is a Light That Never Goes Out	Singles	Reprise
(r)Tom Waits	Eggs and Sausage (in a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)	Nighthawks a the Diner	Asylum
Lady Sovereign	At Little Bit of Shhh	Publis Warning	Island/Def Jam
The Wolfgang Press	Louis XIV	Queer	4AD
(r)Bonnie "Prince" Billy	Am I Demon?	Ask Forgiveness	Drag City
*Hello, Blue Roses	Scarecrow	The Portrait is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty	Locust
Elliott Smith	Baby Britain	XO	Dreamworks
The Shangri-Las	Give Him a Great Big Kiss	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM
Martha and the Muffins	Obedience	Danseparc	One Way
*Yeasayer	No Need to Worry	All Hour Symbols	We Are Free
(r)Sonic Youth	Tom Violence	Evol	SST Records
*Ungdomskulen	Witches Mate in the Undeground	Cry-Baby	Ever
*Spiller Whale	Dark Horse Flame	Fresh Tables	Uncle Grandpa Records
(r)Death by Chocolate	The Land of Chocolate	Death by Chocolate	Jetset
*Sam Shalabi	End Game	Eid	Alien8
*Pedro	Hallelujah	You, Me & Everyone	Mush
Wild Sweet Orange	I'm Coming Home
*Saint Bernadette	I Own the City	In the Ballroom	Exotic
(r)Groove Armada	Purple Haze	Lovebox	Jive Electric

The hills are alive with the sounds of teenage romance

2008-01-29T00:00:00.000-06:00

The saga continues...

Go read Finn and Charlie

Oh God of Progress, have you degraded or forgot us? - 1/25 show

2008-01-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

It's no secret that one of my favorite artists is Sufjan Stevens, though I suppose I don't play him on the radio as much as I could. He got a name for himself by announcing plans to make an album for each state of the US, beginning with his home state of Michigan. So far, he's made two, and the second one was Come On Feel the Illinoise!. Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State was better, perhaps because it was more personal, but I do like Illinoise. The title track has an epic quality (it's written into two parts: "Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition" and "Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream"), but it's also fun and upbeat.

Incidentally, a year ago or so, one of the DJs at our station, Mary, got involved in a MasterCard "Priceless" YouTube campaign. She was asked to talk about Reckless Records, and in the course of her video (shot at odd, unflattering angles), she jokingly pronounced "Illinois" as "Illinoise", referring to Stevens' album. The YouTube comments were scathing and rude — people asserting that she probably wasn't a DJ (she is), and probably not even from Chicago if she couldn't pronounce "Illinois". While it is true that she didn't chose her subject, the vitriol in the comments was astounding to me. Honestly, who takes the time to leave a comment like "I hated your video so much I didn't watch it?" Rule of thumb: never read YouTube comments; they are almost uniformly asinine.

It's been cold and snowy in Chicago, and cold snowy days make me want to listen to Martha and the Muffins' This Is the Ice Age. It may be just that I got the album in the winter of my freshman year of college, and listened to it over and over again, so that it's indelibly associated with winter in my mind. In particular, though, it's the slick, icy title track (as opposed to the antic "You Sold the Cottage", which of course makes me think of summer).

Two new albums in recently, that I think bear a closer listen. Saint Bernadette's In the Ballroom is a bit jazzy, with gutsy vocal provided by Meredith DiMenna. (DiMenna is, as it happens, the vocalist behind Chunky Pam, though not the actress who protrays her; in any event Saint Bernadette is nothing like Chunky Pam.) Yeasayer's All Hour Symbols is dense, and complex, with a psych-rock edge.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Sufjan Stevens	Come on feel the Illinoise!	Come on feel the Illinoise!	Asthmatic Kitty
Lilly Allen	LDN	Alright Still	EMI
Zerostars	Sleeping In		Self-released
*Bob Mould	Shelter Me	District Line	Anti-
*Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden	Saturday Night	Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden	Red Valise
Martha and the Muffins	This Is the Ice Age	This Is the Ice Age	EMI
Annie Lennox	River Deep, Mountain High	Walking on Broken Glass Single
*Mise en Abyme	Father Shore (Trilobites)	The Second Marriage Records Compilation	Marriage Records
*Saint Bernadette	Sidestep	In the Ballroom	Exotic
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black	Back to Black	Island
Dan Deacon	Okie Dokie	Spiderman of the Rings	Carpark
*Food for Animals	Bulk Gummies	Belly	Hoss
Laurie Anderson	The Day the Devil	Strange Angels	Warner Brothers
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	Shake the Sheets	Shake the Sheets	Lookout
Fazzini	Dell	Sulphur, Glue the Star	Locust
(r)The Books	Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again	Thought for Food	Tomlab
*Hello, Blue Roses	Coming through Imposture	The Portrait Is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty...	Locust
*The Hidden Mitten	Marry Up	Roma! Roma! EP	Self-released
*The Mary Onettes	Still	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
The Futureheads	The Hounds of Love	The Futureheads	Sire
Lene Lovich	New Toy	Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's Vol. 3	Rhino
*Yeasayer	Sunrise	All Hour Symbols	We Are Free
Josephine Foster and the Supposed	Jailbird (Hero of the Sorrow)	All the Leaves are Gone	Locust
Jean-Claude Vannier	Mort du Roi des Mouche	L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches	B-Music/Finders Keepers
Califone	Pink & Sour	Roots and Crowns	Thrill Jockey
*Dengue Fever	Mr. Orange	Venus on Earth	M80
U2	Night and Day	Red Hot + Blue	Chrysalis

Myspace?

2008-01-22T22:58:00.000-06:00

Finn and Charlie has been updated. Go read!

Also, I've just added ads to my site via Project Wonderful, which offers a system of bidding on ads. Currently ads on my site are free. Any takers?

I'm also going to start advertising my site... but I have to create the ad first.

E Glassala Tuffm I Zimbra! - 1/18 show

2008-01-18T13:56:00.000-06:00

The lyrics to "I Zimbra" by Talking Heads are nonsense words — or more accurately, they are meaningless words taken from a dadaist phonetic poem (Gadji Beri Bimba). And if you buy the record, you'll find the full lyrics to this song printed there on the sleeve with the other lyrics. The song, meanwhile, is a great dance song, with energetic African beats.

New in the studio this week was Dengue Fever's new album Venus on Earth, which I reviewed for the station. Dengue Fever is doing something no one else in the U.S. is doing, as far as I know: Khmer-language surf-rock. It's common in Cambodia, which was introduced to surf-rock by American G.I.s during the Vietnam war. In any event, foreign-language rock is just my kind of thing, as a linguist-and-music geek. Unusually, though, my favorite song on the album is "Sober Driver", a duet sung in English. The song has a slow, smokey groove, and the lyrics are in the form of a conversation. The verses are sung by the Cambodian lead singer, Chhom; she (as the character in the song of course) is drunk, out late at a party somewhere, and trying to get a ride home from the man she's called. His lines (sung by Zac, guitarist and one of the two American brothers who founded the band) are the refrain, as he complains about being used by her for free rides. Chhom does an excellent job of portraying the girl who flirts and coos to get what she needs from people; she seems helpless (she doesn't know where she is or how she got there), but you get the feeling she's not really all that helpless. Zac, meanwhile, sings his lines almost like a mantra, to remind himself of why he should not give her a ride; he wants to pick her up, but he doesn't want to be used. The song doesn't really resolve the story, leaving you wondering what happens next.

Eric asked me to play "Small Town Boy" by Bronski Beat for him. I didn't think the studio had a copy, so I looked for my own last night and found a 12" remix that I acquired from somewhere. This version is 9 minutes long, and begins much more spare and melancholy than the regular radio cut. The song is very much a product of the late 80's environment for gay rights. The small town boy of the song leaves his small town home to search for love and acceptance in the big city (a story which certainly still plays out even today). The lyrics are really very melancholy: "You leave in the morning with everything you own in a little black case"; "You never cried to them just to your soul" — but the melancholy is counterbalanced by the upbeat dance music underneath. This speaks to the trope of the era, in which a young gay boy comes to the city and finds what he's looking for at the gay dance clubs: the music frees him. So this 9-minute version changes the song a little, by starting with real melancholy, and then coming back again at the faster tempo. Eric and I have decided we prefer the radio edit.

Speaking of melancholy, today I finally got around to playing a song I find very sad: "Soldier's Things", as covered by Holly Cole. I haven't yet heard the original Tom Waits version; some of Cole's Waits covers are very true to the originals, while others are real reinterpretations. I suspect this one is close to the original, because I can't imaging singing this any other way than Cole's slow ballad. Lyrically, it sounds like a song from a musical; it wouldn't be out of place in Les Miserables. (Interestingly, Waits' version appeared recently on the soundtrack to the movie Jarhead.) It's the last lines of the song that get me every time: "Oh and this one is for bravery |And this one is for me | And everything's a dollar | In this box".

Is it the saddest song I played today? You be the judge. There are some others there that give it a run for the money. And it wasn't all sadness today, of course: "Manteca" and "Danger! High Voltage" are nothing but fun.

The playlist:
*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Talking Heads	I Zimbra	Once in a Lifetime (Box set)
Dizzy Gillespie	Manteca (The Funky Lowlives Remix)	Verve Remixed²	Verve
*Vampire Hands	Opium Typhoon	Virgin Dust American Lips	Freedom-form
*Bonnie Prince Billy	I Came to Hear the Music	Ask Forgivemess EP	Drag City
Pajo	Oh No No	Pajo	Drag City
Holly Cole	Soldier's Things	Temptation	Alert
*Dengue Fever	Sober Driver	Venus on Earth	M80
Bronski Beat	Smalltown Box	12" Remix	MCA Records
(r)The Electric Six	Danger! High Voltage	Fire	XL
Malcolm Middleton	We're All Going to Die	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby
Ben Folds	In Between Days	Supersunnyspeedgraphic: the LP	Attacked by Plastic/Epic
The Fiery Furnaces	Egyptian Grammar	Widow City	Thrill Jockey
*Mira Bilotte	As I Went Out One Morning	I'm Not There OST	Columbia/Sony
Johnny Cash	Give My Love to Rose	Live from Folsom Prison	Columbia
Woody Guthrie	Black Jack Davie	Worried Man Blues	Special Music
Amália Rodrigues	Não Quero Amar	Lisboa a Noite	Planet Records
*Cass McCombs	Pregnant Pause	Dropping the Writ	Domino
*The Aluminum Group	Headphones	Little Happyness	Minty Fresh
The Other Two	Selfish	The Other Two and You	Qwest/Reprise
Canasta	Busride	We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
*Karl Blau	If I Died on You	The Second Marriage Records Compilation	Marriage
The Tourists	Circle Fever	Reality Effect	Epic
Patti Smith	Dancing Barefoot	Land (1975-2002)	Arista
*The Vandelles	Swell to HEaven	The Vandelles	Safranin Sound
*Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble	Cause and Effect	Black Unstoppable	Delmark
Kronos Quartet	El Llorar	Nuevo	Nonesuch

Ancient Chinese Curse

2008-01-15T23:40:00.000-06:00

Are those ancient Chinese curses real? Or were they made up in a fortune cookie factory in Santa Monica?

Who knows.

Anyway, yup, it's time once again for Finn and Charlie are Hitched

From station to station - 1/11 show

2008-01-11T13:48:00.000-06:00

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

Syllogism?

2008-01-08T23:21:00.000-06:00

Based on a real conversation at work, this week's Finn and Charlie are Hitched!

Redesign!

2008-01-05T13:28:00.000-06:00

I finally completed a redesign of my blog and personal web site. I started in months ago; you know how it goes.

So what do you think? Too purple? Not purple enough?

Goodbye to the Brixton sun - 1/4 show

2008-01-04T09:26:00.000-06:00

Best of 2007 show today...

1) LCD Soundsystem / Sounds of Silver
* Nine tracks' worth of awesome. Good dance music, but also a little deeper than that. More consistent than the previous album.

2) Patrick Wolf / The Magic Position
* It still surprises me how much I like this one. Sort of a cross between Marc Almond and Rufus Wainwright.

3) New Pornographers / Challengers
* A solid yet varied pop album. Probably the secret ingredient is Neko Case.

4) Haale / Paratrooper/Morning
* Two simultaneously- released EPs rather than one album, actually. I discovered this one last spring, and it bowled me over. Music for people who thought Dead Can Dance would be better with electric guitar.

5) The Polyphonic Spree / The Fragile Army
* Up till now I haven't been all that impressed with the Polyphonic Spree... maybe I just didn't give them a fair chance before. Anyway, this album grabbed me and made me listen, and you know what? It's real good.

6) The Noisettes / What's the Time Mr Wolf?
* The Noisettes grabbed me, knocked me around, threw me against a wall, and made me listen. This is the hardest rock album of the list. Lead singer Shingai Shoniwa has a fantastic voice.

7) Battles / Mirrored
* I use 30% more of my brain listening to Battles compared with other indie rock. Patterns on top of patterns, slightly psychedelic: Battles makes the whole Math Rock genre less annoying.

8) Cass McCombs / Dropping the Writ
* This man has a great voice, and has put together a well-varied, solid album.

9) The Earlies / The Enemy Chorus
* Mix prog rock with electronica and Sugar-era Bob Mould and this is what you get.

10) Air / Pocket Symphony
* When Charlotte Gainsbourg's album came out this year, and all the music was by Air, I thought I liked it better than Air. But after a few months I realized that Pocket Symphony was the better album. It's a little bit like a warm bath. In a good way.

11) Jens Lekman / Night Falls over Kortedala
* Our favorite Swede has been studying 60's pop. The orchestrations are sometimes over the top, but hey, I like them anyway.

12) Rufus Wainwright / Release the Stars
* I wanted Rufus to give us a great album this year, and I didn't really get it. It is, however, good, and I know I'll be listening to it for years to come — maybe just not as much as Want One or Poses.

Honorable mention — albums I also thought were notably great but for one reason or another dropped out of my top list:

Mavis Staples / We'll Never Turn Back
Andrew Bird / Armchair Apocrypha
Office / A Night at the Ritz
Mirah and Spectratone International / Share This Place
St Vincent / Marry Me
Uztaglote / La liberation des corps

I'll admit I dropped Office from the top dozen because A Night at the Ritz is nearly identical to last year's self-released Q&A, which was #9 on my 2006 top list. It is, however, a great album, and one of the new songs makes my list of top songs for 2007.

Top Songs of 2006:

Architecture in Helsinki / Heart It Races
LCD Soundsystem / Someone Great
Iron & Wine / Boy with a Coin
The Polyphonic Spree / Section 29 [Light to Follow]
The Earlies / Burn the Liars
Aesop Rock / Coffee
Jens Lekman / Postcard to Nina
Office / Suburban Perfume

And now, today's playlist:

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
The Clash	The Guns of Brixton	London Calling	Epic
Laurie Anderson	From the Air	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
*The Stone Roses	She Bangs the Drum	Selections from the Brit Box	Rhino
*Daft Punk	Da Funk/Daftendirekt	Alive 2007	Virgin
*White Williams	New Violence	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
The Aluminum Group	A Boy in Love	Plano	Minty Fresh
The Postal Service	Such Great Heights	Give Up	Sub Pop
The Magnetic Fields	When My Boy Walks Down the Street	69 Love Songs Vol 2	Merge
*Vampire Hands	Opium Typhoon	Virgin Dust American Lips	Freedom-form
*Ween	Blue Balloon	La Cucaracha	Rounder
Rufus Wainwright	Do I Disappoint You	Release the Stars	Geffen
Jens Lekman	Sipping on the Sweet Nectar	Night Falls over Kortedala	Secretly Canadian
Air	Left Bank	Pocket Symphony	Astralwerks
The Earlies	No Love in Your Heart	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian

XTC	The Man Who Sailed around His Soul	Skylarking	Geffen
Michelle Shocked	Street Corner Ambassador	Mercury Poise: 1988-1995	Mercury
*Sufjan Stevens	Ring Them Bells	I'm Not There (Original Soundtrack)	Columbia/Sony
*Tokyo Police Club	Box	Smith EP	Paper Bag
The Cells	Grocery Store	Self-released EP	Self-released
The Pixies	Levitate Me	Come On Pilgrim	4AD
*Joe Lally	Tonight at Ten	Nothing is Underrated	Dischord
*Cass McCombs	Full Moon or Infinity	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Battles	Race In	Mirrored	WARP
The Noisettes	Count of Monte Christo	What's the Time Mr Wolf?	Universal/Motown
The Polyphonic Spree	Section 22 [Running Away]	The Fragile Army	TVT
*Moving Units	Dark Walls	Hexes for Exes	Metropolis
OK Go!	Antmusic	OK Go! EP	Self-released

Björk	Big Time Sensuality	Debut	WEA Elektra
Danger is My Middle Name	Sidecar One	Myspace
The Jam	In the City	Beat Surrender	Karusell
*The Hives	Return the Favour	The Black and White Album	A&M
*Malcolm Middleton	We're All Going to Die	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby
Public Enemy	Welcome to the Terrordome	Fear of a Black Planet	Def Jam/Columbia
*Pedro	Spools	You, Me & Everyone	Mush
Haale	Morgue Sahar	Morning	Darya
The New Pornographers	Mutiny, I Promise You	Challengers	Matador
Patrick Wolf	Accident & Emergency	The Magic Position	Tomlab
LCD Soundsystem	Time to Get Away	Sound of Silver	DFA/Capitol
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy	I'm Loving the Street	Ask Forgiveness EP	Drag City
Zerostars	The Good Can't Escape	The Good Can't Escape	Self-released
Os Mutantes	Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar Um Amigo	A Divina Comedia Ou	Omplatten
*The Dragons	Sandman	BFI	Ninja Tune

Happy New Year's from Finn and Charlie.

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

Ching-ching!

Finn and Charlie

Like a Bullet to the Ocean - 12/28 show

2007-12-28T13:49:00.000-06:00

Continuing from last week, I played a set of some more of my absolute favorite tracks from 2006:
"Boy with a Coin" by Iron and Wine; "Postcard from Nina" by Jens Lekman; "Section 29 [Light to Follow]" by The Polyphonic Spree; "Burn the Liars" by The Earlies. Whereas last week's best-of set was danceable, this week's was more mellow (though still generally uptempo).

Next week: my top albums of 2007! Yow!

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Blondie	11:59	Parallel Lines	Chrysalis
The Smoking Popes	No More Smiles	Destination Failure	Capitol
*The Hives	T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.	The Black and White Album	A&M
*Daft Punk	One More Time/Aerodynamic	Alive 2007	Virgin
Deee-Lite	Power of Love	World Clique	Elektra
*Sally Shapiro	Anorak Christmas	Disco Romance	Paper Bag
The Husbands	Tell Me Your Love Is Only Mine	There's Nothing I'd Like More than to See You Dead	Swami
Joe Clay	You Look Good to Me	Get Hot or Go Home: Vintage RCA Rockabilly '56-'59	Country Music Foundation
Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Tradizional	Gruppo Romm Dracula's	Romm
The Sugar Cubes	Cat	Life's Too Good	Elektra
Zerostars	Sleeping In	2nd album preview	Self-released
*Blur	Tracy Jacks	Selections from the Brit Box	Rhino
Scritti Politti	Road to No Regret	White Bread Black Beer	Nonesuch/Rought Trade
Laurie Anderson	It Tango	Big Science	Warner Brothers
*Tom Brosseau	Committed to Memory	Cavalier	FatCat

Talking Heads	Good Thing	More Songs about Buildings and Food	Sire
Fazzini	Duplex	Sulphur, Glue the Star	Locust
(r)Patti Smith	Because the Night	Easter	Arista
*Cass McCombs	Crick in my Neck	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Frank Zappa	No Not Now	Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch	Barking Pumpkin Records
*White Williams	I Want Candy	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*Tokyo Police Club	Be Good (RAC Remix)	Smith EP	Paper Bag
Iron and Wine	Boy with a Coin	The Shepherd's Dog	Sub Pop
Jens Lekman	Postcard from Nina	Night Falls Over Kortedala	Secretly Canadian
The Polyphonic Spree	Section 29 [Light to Follow]	The Fragile Army	TVT
The Earlies	Burn the Liars	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
*The Mary Onettes	The Companion	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
Konrad	Canyon Blue	First Disguised as Last	Radical Turf
*Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti	An Appeal from Heaven	Scared Famous	Human Ear Music

James Brown	Give It Up or Turnit A Loose	Sex Machine (Live)	Polydor
Martha and the Muffins	You Sold the Cottage	This Is the Ice Age	EMI/Virgin
*Moving Units	Wrong Again	Hexes for Exes	Metropolis
*Joe Lally	Skin and Bone	Nothing is Underrated	Dischord
(r)Peter Bjorn and John	Young Folks	Writer's Block	Wichita
*Pedro	I Am Keeping Up	You, Me & Everyone	Mush
OK Go	Here It Goes Again	Oh No	Capitol
The Blow Monkeys	It's Not Unusual	Wildflower 12"	RCA
*The Dragons	Cosmosis	BFI	Ninja Tune
*Richard Youngs	Low Bay of Sky	Autumn Response	Jagjaguwar
The Read Letter feat. Nate Van Allen of the Siderunners	Can the Circle Be Unbroken?	Live on WLUW	WLUW
Orange Juice	Rip It Up	The Very Best of	Polydor
Gilberto Gil	Bat Macumba	Tropicalia: Ou Panis Et Circensis	Universal
The Smiths	William It Was Raally Nothing	Louder Than Bombs	Sire

Happy Holidays from Finn and Charlie

2007-12-25T00:01:00.000-06:00

I spent a lot of time today wrangling a gimpy hotel scanner to bring you this comic. Why? Because I love. So enjoy.

Finn and Charlie are HITCHED!

We Found You Lying - 12/21 show

2007-12-21T18:07:00.000-06:00

Happy Winter Solstice! In honor of the solstice I played "Solstice" by Pit Er Pat, which is a local Chicago band. The song has nice off-kilter rhythms, and if probably my favorite off that album (which was I think from last year).

In honor of Christmas I played a Christmas tune — I meant to play more, but sort of forgot. The song I played was Sufjan Stevens' "Get Behind Me Santa", which is a fun and silly song he wrote for his 2006 Christmas Album (he has produced a short Christmas album every year for the past five).

(A little secret: whenever I begin a show with a Siouxsie and the Banshees remix, it means I was running a little late, and wanted an extra-long first song so I could get settled. I'm never late, but I like to get there 15 minutes early; if I only have 5 I feel a little stressed.)

I also played set of some of my absolute favorite tracks from 2006:
"Coffee" by Aesop Rock featuring John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats; "Someone Great" by LCD Soundsystem; and "Heart It Races" by Architecture in Helsinki. All three are uptempo and danceable; "Coffee" and "Heart It Races" have quirky rhythms, while "Someone Great" is more standard electro. Interestingly, "Someone Great" rather faded between the two other songs, which I did not expect, since it really is a stand-out track.

Three more stand-out tracks next week!

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Siouxsie and the Banshees	Cities in Dust (Eruption Mix)	The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees	Polydor UK
Pit Er Pat	Solstice	Pyramids	Thrill Jockey
*White Williams	New Violence	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*The Dragons	Your Way Too	BFI	Ninja Tune
The Judybats	Pain Makes You Beautiful	Pain Makes You Beautiful	Sire
Jamie Lidell	Multiply	Multiply	WARP
*Ween	Blue Balloon	La Cucaracha	Rounder
Quasar Wut Wut	Thankful Hank and the Guzzard	Taro Sound	Glorious Noise
The Shangri-La's	Give Him a Great Big Kiss	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM
*Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffitti	Are You Gonna Look After My Boys	Scared Famous	Human Ear Music
*Bonnie 'Prince' Billy	Am I Demon	Ask Forgiveness EP	Drag City
Woody Guthrie	Pretty Boy Floyd	Worried Man Blues	Special Music
Luciana Souza	Corcovado	North and South	Sunnyside
Sufjan Stevens	Get Behind Me Santa	Songs for Christmas Vol V: Peace	Asthmatic Kitty
Adam and the Ants	The Magnificent Five	Kings of the Wild Frontier	Columbia
*Moving Units	Crash 'N' Burn Victims	Hexes for Exes	Metropolis
Office	Big Bang Jump!	A Night at the Ritz	Scratch/New Line
*Daft Punk	Around the World/Harder Faster Stronger	Alive 2007	Virgin
*Wire	Our Time	Read & Burn 03	Pink Flag
*Antony and the Johnsons	Knockin' on Heaven's Door	I'm Not There OST	Columbia/Sony
(r)Mahjongg	THE rRABBITT	Raydoncong	Cold Crush
(r)Alkaline Trio	Metro	Singles	Asian Man Records
Aesop Rock	Coffee	None Shall Pass	Definitive Jux
LCD Soundsystem	Someone Great	Sound of Silver	DFA/Capitol
Architecture in Helsinki	Heart It Races	Places Like This	Polyvinyl

Finn is always right

2007-12-18T00:28:00.000-06:00

He can't help it, it's just how he was built.

Finn and Charlie are HITCHED!

To Keep Our Dazed Lives Going - 12/14 show

2007-12-14T17:47:00.000-06:00

Does anyone know how to pronounce "Brakhage"? This is the name of the first song I played today, by Stereolab (and a song I discovered when it was used in a commercial, I think for Volkswagen). Stan Brakhage (the namesake of the song) was an American experimental filmmaker; you can find all kinds of information about him online, but not the pronunciation of his name.

Browsing through the WLUW catalogue this morning, I found an Afrika Bambaataa album from 2004. I don't know Afrika Bambaataa all that well; to me, he's mainly a name from the student-painted murals in my high school (mostly painted in the late 70's and maybe the early 80's — other artists honored included Jethro Tull). I knew he's a well respected name in the music industry; I didn't realize he was still producing music, though. I also hadn't realized Gary Numan was still active as well, though I knew he'd had a full career beyond his 1981 hit "Cars". So I pulled the CD to play, and ended up playing the track that the two collaborated on, along with MC Chatterbox. It was a fun track, and Gary Numan's sound came through loud and clear (not always the case with collaborations like that).

Well, now is the time of year when I put together my best-of-the-year list, which is always hard. There was a lot of good stuff this year — my short list for the top 10 albums ended up with about 20 albums on it. I'm whittling it down, and I should be settled on it by my 1/4 show, maybe even my 12/28 show.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Stereolab	Brakhage	Dots and Loops	Elektra
Throwing Muses	Fish	Lonely is an Eyesore	4AD
*White Williams	The Shadow	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
(r)Sondre Lerche	Two Way Monologue	Two Way Monologue	Astralwerks
*The Dragons	Food for my Soul	BFI	Ninja Tune
*Cass McCombs	That's That	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Van Morrison	Spanish Rose	Bang Masters	Epic/Legacy
Neko Case	Train from Kansas City	The Tigers Have Spoken	Anti-
*Daft Punk	One More Time	Alive2007	Virgin
*G&D	Time	The Message	Uni Versa
The Aluminum Group	Be Killed	Happyness	Wishing Tree
Martha and the Muffins	Women Around the World at Work	This is the Ice Age	EMI/Virgin
The La's	Feelin'	The La's	Go!
Tom Waits	Train Song	Frank's Wild Years	Island
Haale	This High	Paratrooper	Darya
*Six Organs of Admittance	Jade Like Wine	Shelter from under the Ash	Drag City
*A Place to Bury Strangers	Breathe	A Place to Bury Strangers	Killer Pimp
Blur	Ther's No Other Way	Leisure	SBK Records
*Push-Pull	Brain Fever	3 EP	Joyful Noise
Madness	Shame and Scandal	The Dangerman Sessions	Live & Intensified
Har Mar Superstar	Bird in the Hand	The Handler	Record Collection
Afrika Bambaataa featuring Gary Numan and MC Chatterbox	Metal	Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light	Tommy Boy
Walter Meego	Through a Keyhole Tour	Through a Keyhole Tour EP	self-released
*Malcom Middleton	A Brighter Beat	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby
Zerostars	Fearless	The good Can't Escape	self-released
The Shangri-La's	Give Him a Great Big Kiss	The Myrmidons of Melodrama	RPM
(r)Asian Dub Foundation	Strong Culture (Juttla & Charged remix)	Frontline 1993-97	Beggar's Banquet

Elegance is Refusal

2007-12-12T23:24:00.000-06:00

This week's Finn and Charlie is up now.

Don't Point That Gun at Me - 12/7 show

2007-12-07T11:34:00.000-06:00

I can't help it; whenever I hear a song from disc 2 of New Order's early best-of Substance, it reminds me of sitting in a restaurant in O'Hare airport in 1991. I'd gotten the tape of Substance a few years earlier, and knew all the songs well; I bought the CD in the fall of my sophomore year of college, which doubles the amount of music by adding disc 2. So it was at Christmas of 1990 that I was just getting to know the music on this second disc. On this particular trip, I'd bought my tickets way in advance, and the airline had changed the departure time by some 5 hours. I didn't find out till I got to the airport; it had been my travel agency's responsibility (remember them?) to inform me of the change, and for whatever they just hadn't. So I found myself waiting at O'Hare for 5 hours, killing time having lunch and listening to music, and this is the CD I remember.

"1963" is an odd song; it's basically a ballad (in the strict definition of a song that tells a story), which is unusual for New Order (whose lyrics typically are only barely meaningful). It tells the story of a man who kills his wife, told from the point of view of the wife, sung by a man. I don't expect to feel anything from New Order songs, except perhaps from the quality of the music itself (minor keys, arpeggios, staccato beats, etc), but somehow I do find myself affected by this song when I listen to it. This refrain, sung without passion by Bernard Sumner, "Johnny, don't point that gun at me | there's so many ways our lives have changed | but please I beg don't do this to me". It's the lack of passion that makes the song poignant. Words that should be of terror are sung with resignation, as if the main character is already dead when she sings, just looking back at the time when it all ended.

So that song started my show today.

Today was the first day I played LPs, starting with "Aeroplane City Lovesong" by the Blow Monkeys, which was maybe an odd first choice. The Blow Monkeys started our as a jazz-punk band, but by the time of this second album (Animal Magic) they were more jazz-pop; in later albums they made pop, dance-pop, and more jazz-pop, but never returned to the early punk edge. I also played something from the first album by Underworld. Underworld's first two albums are of a style very different from their later career (and they have a new album I haven't heard yet). The Underworld of "Glory! Glory!" and the Underworld of "Born Slippy" are essentially two different bands with the same name. The third LP was the Tourists, the power-pop band Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were in before they started Eurythmics. The Tourists' music is more raw than the early Eurythmics music that Stewart and Lennox produced right afterward. It lacks the oversampled harmonies and crooning vocals; vocals instead are handled mostly by Peet Coombes and Annie Lennox singing together. It's interesting to compare the music to the later music by Eurythmics, and my Lennox and Stewart on their own, but also, it's good music on its own.

Finally, I got a request today for The Soft Pink Truth, which is essentially a house music project by Matmos' Drew Daniel. Matmos' music is always interesting, and I enjoyed the song by The Soft Pink Truth that I played. But, in the further adventures of "how funny is the world", I was looking at the liner notes, and there's a picture of Blevin Blectum (who plays on one of the other tracks on the CD). Who's that? The stage name of a classmate from high school. I didn't know her well, but we were in advanced English together for a few years. Her cousin is Gavin Russom, who, with Delia Gonzalez, had an CD that was in rotation at WLUW last year; I went to high school with him, too, though he was a few years younger. So I googled Blevin Blectum and found reference to her brother, who was a friend of mine; it turns out he records under the name Kelley Polar. Check out the song "Chrysanthemum". It's good.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
New Order	1963	Substance	Qwest
The Art of Noise	How Rapid?	In No Sense? Nonsense!	China
Carmen Miranda	Mama Eu Quero	Divas Exotica	Capitol
The Fiery Furnaces	Tropical/Iceland	EP	Rough Trade
*White Williams	New Violence	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*The Mary Onettes	Explosions	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
Charles Mingus	Boogie Stop Shuffle	Mingus Ah Um	Columbia/Legacy
Curtis Mayfield	Superfly	Superfly	Rhino
The Blow Monkeys	Aeroplane City Lovesong	Animal Magic	RCA
*Cass McCombs	Pregnant Pause	Dropping the Writ	Domino
*The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Broken Front Teeth	The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir	Bloodshot
Underworld	Glory! Glory!	Underneath the Radar	Sire
Laurie Anderson	Strange Angels	Strange Angels	Warner Brothers
*White Rabbit	Dinner Party	Fort Nightly	Say Hey
Squirrel Nut Zippers	Gift of the Magi	Christmas Caravan	Mammoth
Lena Horne	'Deed I Do	Some of the Best	Stanyan
Ronnie Whitehead	Begging You	Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg	Numero Group
*Morning Recordings	Sugar Waltz	The Welcome Kinetic	Loose Thread
*Muscles	Ice Cream	Guns Babes Lemonade	Modular
Les Negresses Vertes	Hou! Mamma Mia	10 Remixes	Razzia Disques
The Tourists	Don't Say I Told You So	Luminous Basement	Epic
*Prefuse 73 feat. School of Seven Bells	The Class of 73 Bells	Preparations	WARP
*The Hives	Tick Tick Boom	The Black and White Album	A&M
(r)The Soft Pink Truth	Media Truth/Vampire State Building	Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want...	Tigerbeat6
Os Mutantes	Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor	A Divina Comedia Ou	Omplatten
(r)José Gonzalez	Teardrop	In Our Nature	Mute
Barenaked Ladies	Hannukah Blessings	Barenaked for the Holidays	Desperations Records
*Malcolm Middleton	We're All Going to Die	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby

There's a fine line between kitschy and tacky

2007-12-04T23:46:00.000-06:00

Or maybe not... this week's Finn and Charlie

Backposting, catching up.

2007-12-02T22:57:00.001-06:00

So I have a bad habit of sitting on posts I'm still working on, and then posting them finally, dated as though they hadn't been released late. So for example, my playlist from Friday is dated 11/30, but actually I put it up about 5 minutes ago.

The only thing that regularly goes up on time is Finn and Charlie. So if you are interested in my music writing and playlists, you might want to check out the last few posts, in case you missed something.

Also, you may have noticed that while writing about our trip to Italy, I stopped about halfway through. There were a couple of days in the middle where my diary was little more than notes that needed fleshing out, and that delayed me (that and lots of business trips, and Thanksgiving, and, you know, life). Anyway, the full trip has been posted, and you can read it all here.

Just being human - 11/30 show

2007-11-30T10:28:00.000-06:00

I still don't know how I feel about Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti. He's got a new album, and thus far I've only heard one song. It was pretty good but had a disorganized quality that didn't quite work for me as a song. I've always liked the song "Interesting Results" (from an earlier album), but I didn't find anything on that album I liked nearly as much.

The new artist most piquing my curiosity at the moment is White Williams, in part because the album art kind of freaks me out (check it out here). It's funky and fun and a little messy. Anyway, I'm giving it more of a listen.

I'm also thinking good things about what I've heard so far from Cass McCombs.

Another thing I need to hear more of is the I'm Not There Original Soundtrack. The tracklist for the two-disc set is littered with interesting artists and pairings. How would Karen O handle "Highway 61 Revisited"? Very well, it turns out. And Sonic Youth on the title track? Good, though maybe not a standout. Iron & Wine and Calexico working together? I'd like to hear that, but I haven't had a chance yet. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Calexico together on "Just Like a Woman"? I can't imagine what it'll be like; I'll just have to listen and see. Anyway, I'm looking forward to giving the whole thing a listen.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Rufus Wainwright	Do I Disappoint You?	Release the Stars	Geffen
Ben Folds	Dog	Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP	Attacked by Plastic/Epic
*The Mary Onettes	Void	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
*The Corals	Who's Gonna Find Me	Roots and Echoes	Columbia
Os Mutantes	Panis et Circenses	Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis	Universal
Bobby Conn	Punch the Sky!	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
Bobby Conn	Anybody	King for a Day	Thrill Jockey
*White Williams	I Want Candy	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
Marlene Dietrich	Near You	Divas Exotica	Capitol
Haale	Navayee	Morning	Darya
Gary Ogan and Bill Lamb	I Want to Live	This Mortal Coil Box Set: Original Versions disc	4AD
Andrew Bird	Simple X	Armchair Apocrypha	Fat Possum
*Malcolm Middleton	Fight Like the Night	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby
Mess Up the Mess!	Esprit d'Escalier	You Remind Me of Summer Vacation	Paroxysm
*Six Organs of Admittance	Final Wing	Shelter from the Ash	Drag City
Echo & the Bunnymen	Do It Clean	Crocodiles (reissue)	Sire/Rhino
(r)Stars	Soft Revolution	Set Yourself on Fire	Arts & Crafts
The Earlies	Burn the Liars	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
*Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti	Gopacapulco	Scared Famous	Human Ear Music
(r)*Sonic Youth	I'm Not There	I'm Not There OST	Columbia/Sony
Henry Padovani	Y a plus de saisons	A croire que c'était pour la vie	CIA
Rosa Passos	Águas de Março	Best of Rosa Passos	Velas
The Aluminum Group	Chocolates	Plano	Minty Fresh
*Figurines	Drove You Miles	When the Deer Wore Blue	Control Group
*Sigur Ros	Hljómalind	Hvarf/Heim	XL
Savath and Savalas	Faltamos Palabras	Golden Pollen	Anti-
*Cass McCombs	Full Moon or Infinity	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Office	Plus Minus Fairytale	A Night at the Ritz	Scratchie/Newline
(r)LCD Soundsystem	Disco Infiltrator	LCD Soundsystem	Capitol/DFA

Thanksgiving chez Finn and Charlie 2007, part II.

2007-11-27T11:59:00.000-06:00

This week's comic is a litle late; I subbed for a sick DJ at the station last night. Playlist coming later, for those who look for such things.

Meanwhile, enjoy the cartoon!

Pretending the echoes belong to someone... subbing for Claire on 11/26

2007-11-26T19:08:00.000-06:00

Today I received an email news update from the Chicago Tribune that Jeannette Sliwinski had been sentenced to 8 years in prison for the killing of three local Chicago musicians. Sliwinski had intended to kill herself when she accelerated up to 87 miles per hour before slamming into stopped traffic — but she didn't kill herself; instead she killed the three men in the car she hit: Douglas Meis, Michael Dahlquist, and John Glick.

I first heard about this story in the spring of 2006 when I was doing a Memorial Day show. I invited listeners to call in with suggestions of musicians who had died, and this was one of the stories I heard.

So I decided to honor their memory again today by playing a song by each of the bands that they were in: The Dials, The Returnables, and Silkworm. And I read a little about the story in the paper.

I got a call thanking me for the tribute, by someone (a friend, or a relative perhaps) who had been in the courtroom earlier when the sentence was read. He told me that with good behavior she'd only have to serve 4 years, and with time served, that's less than two years away.

I didn't know what to say; to me this story had been sort of abstract, another person's tragedy. But this phone call brought it home and made it concrete. There is real pain behind the news, but you don't fully understand that until you are talking to someone involved.

I did make me think about the nature of community radio. We the DJs come from the community, and we play for the community, and sometimes what we play is about the community, and sometimes the community calls us and we make a connection.

I thanked him for calling and giving the information. It was very touching, and I'm glad he liked the set.

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
The Postal Service	We Will Become Silhouettes	Give Up	Sup Pop
The Beautiful South	You Keep It All In	Carry On Up the Charts	Mercury
*Morning Recordings	Join the Curtains	The Welcome Kinetic	Loose Thread
Kate Bush	Top of the City	The Red Shoes	Columbia
The Moodswings	Rainsong	The Moodswings	Arista
Maya Angelou	Since Me Man Has Done Gone and Went	Divas Exotica	Capitol
*White Williams	In the Club	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
*Speck Mountain	Stockholm	Summer Above	Burnt Brown Sounds
eX-Girl	Venus vs. Gas Onna	Endangered Species	Alternative Tentacles
Grandmaster Flash	The Message	The Message	Sakkaris
The Dials	Nothing But Crazy	Flex Time	Latest Flame
The Returnables	Teenage Imposters	The Returnables	Dirt Nap
Silkworm	Penalty Box	It'll Be Cool	Touch and Go
*The Mary Onettes	The Laughters	The Mary Onettes	Labrador
*Figurines	Hey Girl	When the Deer Wore Blue	Control Group
Rufus Wainwright	April Fool	Rufus Wainwright	Dreamworks
Laurie Anderson	The Day the Devil	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
Meryn Cadell	Inventory	Angel Food for Thought	Bongo Beat
*Muscles	Chocolate Raspberry Lemon & Lime	Guns Babes Lemonade	Modular
*Six Organs of Admittance	Jade Like Wine	Shelter from the Ash	Drag City
Nina Simone	Kangaroo	It'll End in Tears	4AD
Robert Pollard	Tomorrow Will Not Be Another Day	Normal Happiness	Merge
Troubled Hubble	Everything's Going to Be Fine in Canada	The Sun Beamed Off	Magic Spot
*The Owls	Apocalypse	Daughters and Suns	Magic Marker
*Citay	First Fantasy	Little Kingdoms	Dead Oceans
Aztec Camera	Down the Dip	High Land, Hard Rain	Tokuma Japan/Rough Trade
Bettye LaVette	Sleep to Dream	I've Got My Own Hell to Raise	Anti-/Epitaph
*Band of Horses	Islands on the Coast	Cease to Begin	Sub Pop
The Go-Go's	You Can't Walk in Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)	Beauty and the Beat	I.R.S.