Theme: Some old time garage rock |
| I've been listening to the first set of this show over and over again, it was just a really, really good set. Anchored by the incredible new release by Swedish pop sensation Jens Lekman (he actually did have the number 1 album in Sweden for a week). The album is called "Night Falls Over Kortedala" and it reminds me a lot of the great songs that Jonathan Richman was recording in his prime, so of course I had to play Richman in the set. Interestingly, Lekman's sound is not for everybody and I can see how he might not be eveybody's cup of tea, but for those who are into him they are usually really into him and so you should give him a shot as he might just become one of your favourite artists. The second set ended with Shout Out Out Out Out. Interesting fact I found out about the band while I was listening to a session they did on CBC radio was that their lead singer is the son of a guy who used to be in band called Wilfrid N and the Grown Men. I might be wrong on this but I think that I used to listen the them back in the day. In this case "the day" was back in the late 1980s when I used to listen to a bunch of "garage" bands and I think they were one of them. Not only was it kind of cool that he was able to cover a song by his dad it also gave me a great idea for set of music by garage bands (with the added bonus of making me feel old). Many of the songs I played are available as free downloads from the London music archive provided by CHRW, the UWO campus radio station where I used to be a DJ. Many of the songs from the set I played were from cassette compilations that came as part of homemade music "zine" called What Wave. You can see the archive that contains the What Wave compilations here: http://chrwradio.com/lma/LMA1990.htm TALK-Theme Jens Lekman - Friday Night At The Drive-in Bingo Jonathan Richman - Our Swingin' Pad Juni Jarvi - If We Just Want To Irene - End Of The Line Murder Mystery - What My Baby Said TALK Small Sins - Drunk e-mails (C) Stars - Midnight Coward (C) The Go! Team - Grip Like A Vice You Say Party! We Say Die! - What's The Hold Up? Where's The Fire? (C) Shout Out Out Out Out - For Ever Indebted (C) TALK Wilfrid N And The Grown Men - Sad New Day (C) Misc S - Real World (C) Colour Me Psycho - October God (C) The Gruesomes - You're Not The Boss Of Me (C) The Empty Hours - Same Time, Same Place (C) TALK Those Dancing Days - Hitten **See Note 1 Novillero - Lost Possibilities (C) Stuffy And The Fuses - Joe C (is an idiot) Sun Parlour Players - The Detroit River Is Alive (C) The Zoobombs - Highway A Go-Go **See Note 2 TALK Sunny Intervals - Sixty Seconds To Fall In Love Everyday Sensations - Things We Never Had Little Name - Picked Out The Line Amida - Virtue Was Your Downfall The Saturday People - Man Without Qualities Pipas - Sorry Love The Doers - Just Saying (C) TALK Mission Of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver **See Note 3 Note 1: I really got excited when I first heard about this all girl band from Sweden Note 2: I saw the Zoobombs at the Starlight the week before the show Note 3: There was a description of the recent UN humanitarian envoy to Mynamar (formerly Burma) as a "Mission from Burma", so of course I had to play this song (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, October 12, 2007
October 12, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
September 28, 2007
Theme: Another poppolar.com set |
| As a carry over from the last show, there were still lots of new releases at the station that I played for this show. I also got in a set of new CDs that came in the mail from www.poppolar.com , the best place to get Indie pop in Canada. Erico had the new album by Irene on his website a week after it was released in Sweden. And I had to wait some 30 odd years, but I finally got to play the Shadowy Men From A Shadowy Planet song "5 American, 6 Canadian" and say "They will have to rename the song 5 American, 5 Canadian". However, it was difficult to plan it out so that my show would come on the first day since 1976 that the Canadian dollar finished the day worth more than the American one, but it was worth it for the joke in the end. TALK-Theme Murder Mystery - Love Astronaut Theoretical Girl - It's All Too Much Taken By Trees - Julia **See Note 1 All Girl Summer Fun Band - Grass Skirt TALK Stars - The Ghost Of Genova Heights (c) Square Root Of Margaret - Things People Do (c) Pender - Laundry In London (c) Hot Little Rocket - Like Killers (C) TALK (poppolar set) Irene - Last Forever The Saturday People - Conditonal Tense (Now It's Gone) California Snow Story - Brook Line The Go! Team - The Wrath Of Marcie TALK Junior Senior - Like Music Galactic - Bounc Baby Russian Futurists - Why You Gotta Do That Thing? (c) DD/MM/YYYY - Twin Star (c) TALK Little Name - I Always See The Sunrise Honey Bunch - Mine Your Own Business Emma Pollock - Paper and Glue Rocketship - Your New Boyfriend TALK Bella - Give It A Night (c) Sylvie - Rise And Fall (c) Neighbourhood Noise - Another Face In The Crowd (c) The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight (c) Arthur and Lu - The Ghost Of Old Bull Lee TALK Shadowy Men From A Shadowy Planet - 5 American 6 Canadian (c) Tin Bangs - The Skinny (c) Note 1: This is the newest project from Victoria Bergsman, the former lead singer of the Concretes, but of course most people know her when she joined Peter, Bjorn, and John for the song "Young Folks" (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, August 31, 2007
August 31, 2007
Theme: Pop songs your new boyfriend is too stupid to know about |
| Another week, another guest on the show, this time it was Milosz from the band Knock, Knock, Ginger who came on without his band so we could talk about music. It was also good that Milosz brought his music enabled phone as one of the CD players at the station was broken so it was difficult for me to play consecutive MP3s. His influence can be seen in the second half of the show where we pretty much swapped songs and we also had some good conversations including an interesting one about the importance of editing in music. Milosz supplied me with my top song of the week, The Ladybug Transistor song "Like A Summer Rain" which to me sounded a lot like the Magnetic Fields so I had to play them right after. As it happens, in the two weeks before the show I was made aware of a Tullycraft song from two different people, strange as the song is a couple of years old. The name of the song is "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend Is Too Stupid To Know About" and in it he mentions other bands that he likes to listen to, so the rest of the set contains some of those bands. I ended with a song from the movie "24 Hour Party People" which is a movie about the Manchester music scene and in particular about Tony Wilson the found of Factory Records (Factory Records released such legendary Manchester bands Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays). The reason I played the song was that Tony Wilson passed away a few weeks before the show, and here is an interesting tidbit from his Wikipedia entry (of course this means it might not be true): As with everything else in the Factory empire, Tony Wilson's coffin was also given a Factory catalogue number - FAC 501. This will be the last Factory catalogue number. TALK-Theme The Ladybug Transistor - Like A Summer Rain The Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkeley Dreams Page France - The Ruby Ring Man Bellevue - Carry On (C) Griffin and the True Believers - Tivoli (C) All Girl Summer Fun Band - Later Operator TALK (Funky set) Calvin Harris - Merry Making At My Place The Grey Boy Allstars - Still Waiting Champion - The Plow (C) Azure Ray - New Resolution Wild Magnolias - Somebody's Got (Soul Soul Soul) TALK The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache Belle and Sebastian - For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea Crowded House - Even A Child Acid House Kings - Say Yes If You Want Me Vampire Weekend - Mansard Roof (Live at KEXP) **See Note 1 TALK (Tullycraft set) Tullycraft - Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend Is Too Stupid To Know About The Pastels - Mandarin Alan Clap and His Orchestra - Something Strange Happens Cub - New York City (C) Heavenly - Hearts and Crosses TALK Stars - Take Me To The Riot (C) Miracle Fortress - Maybe Lately (C) Ohbijou - The Woods (C) The Beautiful South - You Keep It All In TALK Happy Mondays - 24 Hour Party People Note 1: Saw them at Sneeky Dees in Toronto the week before the show. (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, August 17, 2007
August 17, 2007
Theme: The Stolen Minks Interview
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| I was very excited before this show as for the first time in a while I was going to have a band come and visit me. I first had the idea when I saw that the Stolen Minks were playing Waterloo the same night as my show, so I e-mailed them and they agreed to come to CKMS before their gig. Unfortunately on the day of the show, they called a little after 6 saying they were just leaving London and didn't know if they would make it to the station time and suggested perhaps making it a phone interview. That's why I might seem a little frazzled in the first half of the show as I was running around looking at the logistics of doing a phone interview. Luckily, they managed to make it to the station around 7:15 pm and drop of two members of the band, Erica and Tiina (yes that is how she spells it) who came on the show for a couple of great interview segments. They talked about touring across Canada in a van, their albums, day jobs, and there was even a reference to Henry Rollins. It was a lot of fun and they put on a great show that night that I had the pleasure of witnessing. Before the Ladies came to the show I got in a ska set that stemmed from my top song of the week: a great, great song by Tim Armstrong (former lead singer of Rancid) called "Into Action" that is guaranteed to get you moving. I also played an Elvis set as the show was a day after the 30th anniversary of his death. In looking around the web for songs to play I found the Belle and Sebastian song "Century of Elvis" from an EP back in 1997. As it was back in the days when Stuart David was part of the band he does one of his telling a story over the music type songs, it is funny and definitely worth a listen. TALK-Theme (Ska Set) Tim Armstrong - Into Action The Planet Smashers - Explosive (C) The Planet Smashers - Raise Your Glass (C) Chris Murray - Dangerous Hearts (C) Dappled Cities - Beach Song TALK (Elvis Set) Deja Voodoo - Elvis Is Dead (C) Belle and Sebastian - Century of Elvis New Pornographers - Graceland (C) Chris Houston - Baby Jesus Looked Like Elvis (C) Elvis Presley - Hard Headed Woman TALK Lucknow Pact - A Few Drinks, A Few Laughs The Rosebuds - Get Up, Get Out The Brilliant Corners - Trudy Is A Squeel The Bartlets - You Are Still Beautiful Two Hours Traffic - When We Finish (C) TALK Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind **See Note 1 Jens Lekman - Black Cab Katie Stelmanis - Hittem (C) The Guest Bedroom - We Need Trips (C) The Stolen Minks - Stop Talking (C) TALK (Stolen Minks Interview Part 1) The Stolen Minks - Peppy Twist (C) The Maynards - Kustom 250 (C) TALK (Stolen Minks Interview Part 2) Ray Condo and His Hard Rock Goners - Sunset Blues (C) All Girl Summer Fun Band - Later Operator TALK Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have To Leave It **See Note 2 The Cure - Friday I'm In Love TALK Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson - Cleanhead Blues **See Note 3 Note 1: One more Hillside throwback, I heard cover versions of both this song and the next while at Hillside. Note 2: As Derek wrote to me, the song sounds so much like the Cure that it should have been called "In Between Fridays I'm in Love Just Like Heaven" Note 3: I played this song as it was from the first CD I every purchased, a blues compilation that I picked up the same day as I bought my first CD player in 1989 in Edmonton. (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, August 3, 2007
August 3, 2007
Theme: Hillside Review |
| This was the first show since the Hillside Festival so I played a couple of the bands that made an impression on me during the festival. My biggest surprise was a band that was probably the youngest band to play the festival as they were the winner of the Guelph high school band contest. They are called "Dance Hall Free For All" (just say that out loud a couple of times, it makes you feel good) and have a great funky sound that really impressed me. Other highlights of the festival were Mother Mother, Immaculate Machine, Two Hours Traffic, and in their first North American show Los Campensions. I won't go into detail as you can read my full review here: http://www.stillepost.ca/boards/index.php?topic=86678.0 (near the bottom of the page as Steve Zodiac of course). The rest of the show was a mix between a slow set, a funky set, and a set of a few leftovers from the last couple of shows. The funky set started with a song going out to Mary who likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover the Sly and the Family Stone song "If You Want Me To Stay". If you remember I saw Sly in concert during my recent trip to Italy and he was actually on stage during this song. I ended with The Zombies "Time of the Season" because The Immaculate Machines covered it as their last song when I went to see them at the Jane Bond the week before the show. Then I was watching a documentary on the 60s a few days later and sure enough I heard the songs once again. TALK-Theme |
Friday, July 20, 2007
July 20, 2007
Theme: Italy review and Hillside Preview |
| If I sound a bit tired during this show, it is because I woke up that morning in Rome, got on a plane to Toronto, got back to Waterloo, had half an hour at home, and then had to get on my bike for the radio show. So when the show ended it was the equivalent of 2 am for me. I didn't pick up any CDs during my recent trip to Italy and Poland however I did see a very unique show as the conference I was attending was happening in the same city as Umbria Jazz festival. It turns out this is a pretty major jazz festival in Europe and it made certain aspects of the conference pretty cool in that there was live jazz music on one of the free stages from noon to midnight. On the bad side it made finding a place to stay difficult, I ended up finding a place way out of town that required a bus ride and then calling the B&B owner to pick me up. The last day I was there, I noticed that both Solomon Burke and Sly and the Family Stone were playing as part of the jazz festival so I had to get a ticket (even though it meant getting back to my B&B at 12:30 am and having to wake up the owner). Nothing like a couple of Hillside preview sets to boost up that Canadian Content. For those who don't know, Hillside is an annual festival in Guelph that features great music, great food, and just a great vibe. For this show I previewed some of the bands that were playing Hillside and next week I'll have my Hillside review TALK-Theme Note 1: Venice was referred to as the "Most Serene Republic" |
Friday, July 6, 2007
July 6, 2007
Theme: More Calvin Johnson than you can stand |
| Another week another show. Between the Denver set (where I purchased the latest Calvin Johnson album) and the set of music highlighting his recent shows, there was a definite Calvin Johnson bent to a lot of the show. After seeing him at the Music Gallery last Saturday with Julie Doiron I found out that he was playing a backyard show in Guelph on Wednesday. I liked him so much the first time I had to see him the second time. It is a good time for the new release section at CKMS with lots of good stuff to play including a couple of surprises such as Code Pie and the Immaculate Machines. There was also a new album by Carolyn Mark, there used to be a time when I would have been very excited by this, but I don't know if I have been all that excited by her recent stuff. However, she and Geoff Berrner are playing the Jane Bond in September and I'll probably go and see them. The second last set had a mish-mash of ideas: - the Rubinoos song (thanks Dan) that is the centre of the controversy with Avril Lavigne (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/308830/avril_lavigne_sued_over_girlfriend.html ) - the original of the song that was my top song last week - and a small feature on a recent great commercial song for Maynard's candy, the one with the girl in the red polka dot dress walking along a street and then splits into different versions of herself. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ7pGMfVNVg ) After much research I think I am correct that the band is a Canadian band called Major Maker and the song was written for the commercial and there are no plans to create a full version of the song. However, one of the members of Major Maker is Lindy, so perhaps I will one day be able to ask him as he plays the Jane Bond every once in a while.
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