Theme: The call it Twee-mas |
| I decided not to talk much during this show, just a whole lot of Christmas music, look for my best of 2009 and best of the decade show in January. Happy Holiday's everyone! |
Thursday, December 10, 2009
December 10, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
November 27, 2009
Theme: I thought she talked about Mark E Smith |
| As this was my last new music show for a while (Christmas show next, then best of shows) I tried to get rid of a lot of leftover songs that I have collected over the last year. Some of them seem very old to me as I have been listening to them for a while on my MP3 player, but I was surprised when I checked my archive and had never played them on the show. Nobody should be shocked that most of the show was in the indie pop/twee side of the musical spectrum. The third set was loosly related to the Jens Lekman song "Maple Leaves" which came up during a shuffle play while a bunch of us were at Erik's place. The song is a story about a guy who misinterprets his girlfriend saying that thier love was "make believe" but he thinks they she said "Maple leaves". Similarly there is confusion between the fall of their relationship and the band with Mark E. Smith, so that's why I played the Fall and the other two songs are just related to people where were also there. Things I referenced on the show: Various blogs I read: http://happyhappybirthdaytome.blogspot.com/ http://alex-loves.blogspot.com/ http://cloudberryrecords.com/blog/ http://heavenisabove.blogspot.com/ http://indiemp3couk.wordpress.com/ Fireball XL5 Setlist - November 27, 2009 TALK Boa Constrictor - Out of Nothing Butcher Boy - Carve A Pattern Red Sleeping Beauty - Summer Tells Stories Cars Can Be Blue - Do You Remember? TALK The Servants - Present Northern Portrait - Crazy Laura Walting - Let's go The Hidden Cameras - In The NA (C) TALK (Jens and related set) Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves The Fall - Totally Wired Sambassadeur - Days Woods - Born To Lose TALK Summer Cats - Super Xylos - In The Bedroom Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - World Music The Micropops - Telephonebaby! TALK (female pop set) Leaving Mornington Crescent - Seventeen **See Note 1 Liechtenstein - This Must Be Heaven Hari And Aino - A Considerate Kind Of Home Sexy Kids - Sisters Are Forever TALK Fireflies - Winter Brown Recluse - Night Train The Late Call - Linnea The Blind King - Driving In America TALK David Cassidy - How Can I Be Sure Note 1: Dedicated to two of my nieces who are both seventeen (C) - Canadian Content |
Thursday, October 29, 2009
October 29, 2009
Theme: What I stole from Cental Services |
| A lot of this show, especially the first set was stolen from the show Central Services, a great radio show that was formerly on CKMS but can now be found on CFRU (www.cfru.ca). Corey and I have very similar tastes in music as you can see from the description of his show: Host Corey W. Schmidt delves into his massive record collection and shares with you some independent pop music delights from around the globe. Side trips are also taken into the worlds of 60s sugar, 70s prog noodling, disco thunder and hot buttered soul, 80s synthesized glam, 90s shoegazing as well as other strangeness that lurks in thrift shop dollar bins. All in all, the best pop music you'll hear all week. You can download the last few Central Services shows from the CFRU website, I highly recommend them. Back to this current show which started out with a funky set that followed along from my top song and then an electro pop set because it seemed to fit there, it was only after these that I got back to my bread and butter indie pop sets. And my big ending that was over 10 years in the making didn't happen. Here is the story, back when I was doing my Masters I remember playing a song with the lyrics "going for my Masters, calling bullshit on my PhD". At the time I thought I would never do a PhD, but then I did do one and I thought that I should really play that song when I was done. Well fast forward to the present and a few weeks ago I had my convocation for my PhD so I thought I should play the song. I had it in my mind that it was by a guy named Wierd Paul (who was popular at CKMS as the time), I went so far as to borrow the album from a friend, but when I listened to the album I couldn't find the song. My search continues for that song I was looking for, but in the meantime I ended with a song by Wierd Paul song anyway. Things I referenced on the show: Weird Paul's website http://weirdpaul.com/ Fireball XL5 Setlist - October 29, 2009 TALK Pizzicato Five - Happy Sad (CS) Gila - Why Don't We Do It (CS) Gino Soccio - Turn It Around (CS) Brandi Disterheft - Twilight Curtain Sandy Edmonds - Daylight Saving Time **See Note 1 TALK Lioness - You're My Heart Fritz Helder and the Phantoms - Lagerfeld Lady Mr. Suitcase - You Don't Smile Anymore Nakatomi Towers - Cut Me Out Lusine - Two Dots TALK Afternoon Naps - Postcard (CS) Dylan Mondegreen - Girl In Grass The Gladeyes - Monika Wildwood lights - Town and Country Milky Way - In Love (CS) TALK Red Sleeping Beauty - Season's Change My Teenage Stride - We'll Meet At Emily's Marching Band - Make No Plans Hari and Aino - Maple Dent May And His Magnificent Ukulele - You Can't Force A Dance Party TALK (sort of kinda the British set) The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - One Night Stand Town Bike - Hey Hey Ho The Apple Moths - Miserable Town Golden Glow - Streetligher ** See Note 2 Joy Division - Transmission TALK Wierd Paul - Whalin' the Shit Out Of Guys (CS) - Song stolen from Central Services Note 1: The show was recorded the weekend before the clocks changed for daylight saving time Note 2: This song sounded so much like Joy Division I had to play them after. |
Friday, September 25, 2009
September 25, 2009
Theme: I heart Cloudberry Records |
| This show started with two sets dedicated to the record label Cloudberry records ( www.cloudberryrecords.com ). Their website describes themselves as "an indiepop label purveying the sound of jangly guitars based in sunny Miami, Florida", how could I not love them. They look to specialize in shorter products such as 7 inch vinyl, split CD singles, and mini-CDs. The other cool think is that for pretty much all their releases they have at least one song that you can download for free. I also put in an ectro-pop and funky set, something I haven't done in a while, so that was nice. Things I referenced on the show: Maia Hirasawa - The Wrong Way Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEnMc9xakeg link to soul sides blog: http://soul-sides.com/ Fireball XL5 Setlist - September 25, 2009 TALK (Cloudberry Records 1) The Parellelograms - Dream On Daisy The Shandy Express - Surfing On Love's Wave Girl Alliance - Frances And The Dancing Fairies Pale Man Made - In Your Bed Play People - Goes Out TALK (Cloudberry Records 2) Twig - Ciao Ciao Bomb Kevin McGrother - A Week Of Wednesdays The Tartans - My Baby Doesn't Care For You The Westfield Mining Disaster - Hank Williams Saved My Life The Cavalcade - Meet You In The Rain TALK So Many Dynamos - New Bones Golden Glow - Adore Me Voxtrot - Trepanation Party Astrid Swan - Unrelated Bad Hands featuring Nina Kinert - Badn Hands TALK Jenny Wilson - Only Here For The Fight The Bandwagon - Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache Lydia Marcell - The Girl He Needs The Impossibles - Easy To Be Heard Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution TALK The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars Horse Shoes - The Imperial School Rubik - No Escape Afternoon Naps - Beach Bums Maia Hirasawa - The Wrong Way TALK Free Energy - Free Energy The singles - can you go out tonight (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Saturday, September 5, 2009
September 5, 2009
Theme: I Wanna Go Surfin' |
| This was a 4 song set kind of show, just kind of worked out that way. My top song for the show was a song that I heard a while back at the NYC popfest this spring. But I was reminded of the great performance by Karim and his Brown Coach of Leisure podcast ( http://silenttalkie.com/ ). I just can't get the song out of my head. They are also releasing their first EP soon that I'm very much looking forward to. I tried not to talk a lot during this show as I felt there was a lot of talking during the Hillside review show. Keeping with the same sentiment I won't write a lot about the show except to say that I was happy with how it came together. Even got a slow set in which is relatively rare for me. And do listen to the end of the show as the last song by the band Death By Chocolate was fighting to be my top song, but I still can't describe it, you just have to listen. Things I referenced on the show: See video of the performance by The Drums at the NYC Popfest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC4W5SEwdOk Download the Celestial song here: http://musicismygirlfriend.com/celestial/hop-you-know/ Fireball XL5 Setlist - September 5, 2009 TALK (Theme) The Drums - Let's Go Surfing Dylan Mondegreen - Wishing Well Girl Alliance - Straight To My Heart The Champagne Socialists - Blue Genes TALK Papermoon - What are you going to do with me? (c) The San Marinos - On Our Way The School - And Suddenly The Darling Buds - Burst TALK Downdime - Lessons The Charade - A tough Decision Cut Off Your Hands - Happy As Can Be The Mugs - Could It Be TALK The Faintest Ideas - Procrastination Of Every Day Tasks Knight School - Pregnent Again Candy Panic Attack - Heartbreaker Casa Murilo - 19th Floor TALK Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream Horse Shoes - Changing Winds Voxtrot - Berlin, Without Return The Radio Dept. - David TALK Margo & The Nuclear So and So's - As Tall As Cliffs Landon Pigg - Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop Tiny Microphone - Home Celestial - Hope, You Know TALK Phantogram - When I'm Small Glass Cake - We'll Work It Out Jenny Wilson - Like A Fading Rainbow The Understudies - Flickknives TALK Death By Chocolate - Magpie (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Sunday, August 9, 2009
August 9, 2009
Theme: Hillside review |
| A lot of this show was dedicated to my review of the Hillside Festival that took place in Guelph in late July. Apart from the artists that I previously knew about, it is always cool to find out about bands that I didn't know existed. My favourite find this year were the Library Voices, as I said in the show, if Los Campesinos! grew up in Regina instead of Wales, they would have been the Library Voices. Another band I quite enjoyed was FRED, apologies to Bernard for not seeing them at the Starlight for St. Patrick's Day. The first song of the show I first heard on a patio overlooking Niagara Falls, thanks to S for helping to find out the name of the song. The last song was from the movie "500 Days of Summer", a movie I liked on its own but the peppering of indie music throughout made it all the better, thanks to M for getting the song for me. The rest of the show was my usual indie mix. Things I referenced on the show: link to lightning strike at Hillside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQE_JbE2zRU link to Final Fantasy at Hillside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WxTP3ger8 Acid House Kings twitter: http://twitter.com/acidhousekings
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Friday, July 10, 2009
July 10, 2009
Theme: Give me the green light |
| Uncharacteristically I started this show with a funky set as it went well with my pick for my top song of the week. A few of the songs in that set are a bit long so I hope you can make your way through them. The rest of the show was back to the indie pop sound. As well as a leftover set from last show's spotlight on the blog Heaven Is Above Your Head, I also played the song "Heaven Is Above My Head" by Louis Philippe that I assume the blog was named after. As coincidence would have it I heard the Philippe song on another podcast last week. I ended with the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants in honour of the Toronto Raptors signing free agent Hedo Turkoglu (I stole this idea from Peter). Also, a note to anybody looking for something to do on the evening of Saturday, July 18th that I'll be DJing live at the Jane Bond Cafe in Waterloo starting at 10 pm. So if you can make it that would be great and as I wanted to have a more "indie-pop" name I'm calling the DJ nights "The coolest thing about love" after the song by the Smittens. Things I referenced on the show: The One and Other art project - http://www.oneandother.co.uk/ Fireball XL5 Setlist - July 10, 2009 TALK (Theme) Johnny Legend - Green Light Cut Glass - Without Your Love All Because Of You - Dramatics Greyboy featuring Jeremy Ellis - Colour In Between The Lines Johnny Burnette Trio - Honey Hush TALK (leftover HIAYH set) Ann Perry - That's The Way He Is Lois Lane - Turn Me Loose Jackie Deshannon - Find Me Love Bobble Smith And The Dreamgirls - Now He's Gone Patti And The Emblems - It's The Little Things TALK (Female indie pop) Pocketbooks - Fleeting Moments Comet Gain - A Kind Of Loving Steso Songs - The Worse The Popguns - Where Do You Go? God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl TALk My Teenage Stride - To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge The Mary Onettes - Dave Fireflies - Butterscotch Hotels - Kite Flight Louis Philippe - Heaven Is Above My Head TALK Little Big Adventure - Happiest Time The Paper Merchants - I Don't Care Loney Dear - Airport Surroundings Ketch Harbour Wolves - So Long To The Ground The Blind King - Driving In America TALK AA-Awesome - I Wish I Were A Belgium **From Karim Harlem Shakes - Sunlight **From Sari or Michelle Candy Panic Attack - What's He Got That I Haven't Love Is All - Wishing Well Project A-Ko - Molten Hearts TALK They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) **Stolen from an idea by Peter (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, June 26, 2009
June 26, 2009
Theme: Heaven is above your head |
| As often happens, as soon as I find a new source of music I go crazy and get obsessed about getting all the music from that source ignoring my regular go-to sources. For this show it was my discovery of the great MP3 blog/podcast called "Heaven is above your head", the blog is based in New Zealand but it appears that it started out in Sweden. The blog seems to have been going a few years and this past February they started a podcast that unfortunately seems to have ended this past week. Although the blog mostly plays the same sort of indie pop that I love, the podcast also has a heavy focus on 60s and 70s soul songs which is very cool. It just kind of worked out that about half of the songs from this show are from HIAYH as well as a set specifically focused on those cool soul songs. http://heavenisabove.blogspot.com/ Even with the focus on HIAYH the show was back to the normal sets divided by different musical types and of course I had to end off with a song by the recently departed Michael Jackson. I know that I haven't really been into anything he has put out in the past 20 years, but when I was growing up Thriller was certainly an album that I (like the rest of world) was in love with. I went with P.Y.T. (Pretty young thing) instead of one of the more famous songs as I remember particularly liking that song back in the day. Also, a note to anybody looking for something to do on the evening of Saturday, July 18th that I'll be DJing live at the Jane Bond Cafe in Waterloo starting at 10 pm. So if you can make it that would be great and as I wanted to have a more "indie-pop" name I'm calling the DJ nights "The coolest thing about love" after last show's top song by the Smittens. Things I referenced on the show: Video for the Biker Boy songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocBZUaFG7C8 video for Juni Jarvi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SaJr58qHw Video for Little Boots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUs9YzY7t-8 Fireball XL5 Setlist - June 26, 2009 TALK (Theme) Sandstream - Teenage Love Biker Boy - Where Do You Go To? Juni Jarvi - Looking At You Is Like Looking At The Sun Baby Doll Lounge - Paisley Shirt (HIAYH) Bunnygrunt - We Suspect He Was Trying To Spell Monkey (HIAYH) TALK Baby Daylinger - You Push, I'll Go Little Big Adventure - The Hateful Eye Mike Snow - Animal Passion Pit - The Reeling Little Boots - New In Town TALK God Help The Girl - Come Monday Night Au Revoir Simone - All Or Nothing Asobi Seksu - Transparence Helen Love - We Love You (HIAYH) Stolen Hearts - Fire (HIAYH) TALK Even As We Speak - I Won't Have To Think About You (HIAYH) Fireflies - Sledding Godsmania - All Gone Wrong Today The Seven Inches - Open-ness And Honesty (HIAYH) The New Breed - Summers Coming (HIAYH) TALK (HIAYH spotlight) Paul Sindab - You Dropped Your Candy In The Sand (HIAYH) Ty Karim - You Just Don't Know (HIAYH) Ann Perry - That's The Way He Is (HIAYH) Mickey And Silvia - Love Is Strange (HIAYH) The Moments - You Said (HIAYH) TALK California Gold - Love Is All You Need (HIAYH) World Atlas - Inner city Kids (HIAYH) Matt & Kim - Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare Moustache Of Insanity - The Cat Chicken Song The Windmills - Beach Girls TALK Michael Jackson - P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (C) Denotes Canadian Content (HIAYH) Denotes song from Heaven is above your head |
Thursday, June 11, 2009
June 11, 2009
Theme: The New York City Popfest |
| This show highlighted my experience at the New York Popfest back in May, in fact the first two sets were from CDs that I bought at the festival. The next set was a combination of other bands that played the festival and songs that were covered during the shows. Overall, it was a great time and of course being in New York City is always cool, especially walking around Harlem at 2 in the morning. The best conversation I overheard on the subway was one teenage girl telling her friend that she was bummed that she didn't have her iPod, the cops took it when she got busted and she hasn't had the time to get up to the Bronx and get it back, but she only has a month to do it. I won't go into a detailed description of the festival here as you can see the daily summary of my impressions of the New York Popfest on the Wall the Fireball XL5 radio show facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2437232020 Fireball XL5 Setlist - June 11, 2009 Smittens - 11:11 My Teenage Stide - Grim Wind Cats On Fire - Steady Pace Eux Autres - When I'm Up TALK Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart Burning Hearts - Iris Pants Yell! - Tried To Be Good A Faulty Chromosome - Bad Things TALK The Radio Dept. - Freddie And The Trojan Horse The Drums - Me And The Moon Very Truly Yours - Homesick The Sixths - Falling Out Of Love (With You) Matt Pond PA - In The Aeroplanes Over The Sea The Go-Betweens - People Say TALK The Lucksmiths - Good Light Spent - Excuse Me While I Drink Myself To Death Surf City - Dickshakers Union Pretend You're Happy - The Other Side Of The Earth Matt & Kim - Daylight TALK Threatmatics - Big Man The Interiors - My Little Pony Ribbons - Plain The Fizzbombs - Sign On The Line TALK Nouvelle Cuisine - Comunicacion no verbal (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, May 8, 2009
May 8, 2009
Theme: Derek Weiler (1968-2009) |
| This was at the same time the easiest show to do and the hardest. As most of you probably heard my very good friend Derek Weiler passed away in April. I felt that just playing a set or two in a regular show wasn't enough thus this entire show is about Derek. It contains songs that had special connections between me and Derek from the first day we met to the last time I saw him. His influence on my musical tastes (and those of countless others) will be evident in the music I listen to for the rest of my days. If Derek thought that you had even a hint of interest in music you were sure to receive a mixed CD or back in the day a mixed tape. And it wasn't just about the music, but it was about the handwritten linear notes, with special notations for the songs he thought you would really like. Since meeting Derek at a Johnny Cash concert back in the fall of 1991, I can't count the number of bands that I first heard of from him, be it from a mixed tape, mixed CD, in a car, or being dragged to a concert by a band I had never heard of but ended up loving. Apart from going to countless concerts together we also co-hosted a weekly radio show for a little over a year (Jan 1993 to April 1994) called Wackyland, this was the real start of my musical education. This education never stopped as I played a song he recommended on my last podcast and finally got to another recommendation on this show. Every once in a while in the past month I've heard a tidbit about a band and I think "I should really e-mail that to Derek", but then I realized that I can't do that anymore, and that's something I'm going to miss every single day. Again most of you probably know about this, but if not you can see all the things that people have written about Derek on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=69655274189
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Monday, April 6, 2009
April 6, 2009
Theme: Back in action |
| Yes it has been a while since the last show, sorry about that. The good news is that I managed to submit my PhD thesis this week, the downside was that I wasn't able to put out a show for over 2 months. Hopefully I should be able to keep a regular schedule from now on. The thing is that I never stopped accumulating music over the past 2 months so I really have enough material for about 4 shows, but I didn't think that putting out a 6 hour show was a good idea. So I kept it down to its usual 2 hours and just took a small dent of the backlog. Apart from playing all the pent up songs from the last 2 months I also did a spotlight on Wee Pop records ( www.weepop.net ). This is a record label out of England that specializes in TWee pop on the format of mini-CDs so each one can only hold about 20 minutes of music. Each release has a very limited edition and the liner notes are all handmade, this combined with the size just makes each release really cute. But they do pose a storage problem as they don't fit well with regular CDs. I got a delivery of 5 releases from Wee Pop just after the last show. Hopefully it won't be such a long break before the next show. Fireball XL5 Setlist - April 6, 2009 TALK-Theme My Teenage Stride - Ears Like Golden Bats Young Rival - Your Island Hooded Fang - Land Of Giants (C) Cuddle-pop - You Moustache of Insanity - I Need MORE!!! TALK Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele - Meet Me In The Garden Nickel Eye - Brandy Of The Damned The Very Most - April Is The Kindest Month FemBots - My Hands Are A City (C) Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Take Off Your Sunglasses TALK (Wee pop records spotlight) One Happy Island - Temporary Tattoo Horowitz - Drop The Hat Megamoog - Icicle Little My - Sellotape My Hands The Endless Bummer - Boring But Beautiful (C) TALK The Dodos - Winter **See Note 1 The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Really Love You Anymore Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career Red Sleeping Beauty - Don't Say You Love Me The Killers - Spaceman TALK Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - 1999 The Sound Of Arrows - M.A.G.I.C. Lowood - Crash Niels Nielsen - It's All In My Head Architechture In Helsinki - That Beep TALK Black Kids - Listen To Your Body Tonight **See Note 2 Mates Of State - My Only Offer Note 1: The banjo and voice on the song by the Dodos reminded me a lot of Stephin Merrit, thus the reason for playing the Magnetic Fields right after Note 2: I went to see The Black Kids and Mates of State in Toronto just after the show (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, January 30, 2009
January 30, 2009
Theme: Lots of new music |
| Between my Best of 2008 and the Christmas show, it has been a while since my last show of new music. And of course you have to remember that most of the music I play is stuff that I've been introduced to in the past month or so as well as some familiar songs sprinkled in. So it was nice to get back to playing some of my recent finds along with one set of music from CDs that I picked up from other people during the holidays. So thanks to Derek, Sari, and Michelle for their contribution to the show. In that set I also played a song that I found out from the resurrection of a great show that used to be on CKMS called "The Brown Couch of Liesure". Karim, the host of that show, finally got his act together and is now putting out a weekly podcast from his website ( silenttalkie.com ). He is always listening to great music and I recommend that everybody listen to his podcast and of course I'm sure I'll be stealing lots of stuff from his playlists in the future. Fireball XL5 Setlist - January 30, 2009 |
Friday, January 2, 2009
Januray 2, 2009
Theme: Best of 2008 |
| As usual not much to say about this show, simply my best singles and albums from the past year. It shouldn't be much of surprise that my number one album from the past year was Lykke Li's Youth Novels, a great album from top to bottom that I never get sick of listening to. I was also happy to have seen her twice during the year, once in Seattle and then in Toronto for my birthday. It is also not surprising that just like Lykke Li, Black Kids (my second favourite album from 2008) also had a single on my list from 2007. I had to put Black Kids on as number two as every time I was listening to my MP3 player on shuffle and a song came up that I didn't recognize that I liked when I looked it up it was often by the Black Kids. You can listen to my reasoning for my other picks from the show. On the setlist I have tried my best to remember how I found about the bands on the setlist. Fireball XL5 Setlist - January 2, 2009 |
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