November 9, 2007

Theme: Fun with Bruce On Air: Frank and Bruce

I was lucky enough to have a guest on this week's show in the form of Bruce who came all the way from Saskatoon just to be there (well actually he might have had a meeting in town or something like that as well). As a result of having a guest you might notice from the length of the setlist that we talked a lot and didn't play nearly as many songs as a usual week. For the first time in a while I played a funky/jazzy/dancy kind of set, I know it has been a while as some of the songs came from the CDs I made a few months ago. The rest of the show was a mish-mash of whatever Bruce and I felt like playing, but overall we mixed up picking out most of the music so I didn't note who picked what on the list. One thing we didn't really talk much about till nearly the end of my show was recent trip to Chicago, but I did manage to get in my two stories that came from riding on the Chicago subway (you will have to listen to podcast to find out more). But I didn't have the time to properly talk about the main reason that I went to Chicago was to see Jens Lekman, so I'll try and do a better recap on the next show. TALK-Theme The Sonics - Stychnine Immaculate Machine - Broken Ship (C) Chuck Prophet - Doubter of Jesus (All Over You) The Fiery Furnaces - The Old Hag Is Sleeping The Voom Booms - Nine Ships TALK (funky/jazzy/dancy set 1) Stan Getz - The Girl From Ipanema The Trinidad Steel Band - Sissy Strut Ruby And The Romantics - Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore Time Box - Beggin' Roisin Murphy - Let Me Know **See Note 1 TALK (funky/jazzy/dancy set 2) Gorillaz - Rock The House Buck 65 - Dang (C) David Bowie with The Pet Shop Boys - Hallo Spaceboy Small Sins - I Need A Friend (C) Thievery Corporation - Vivid TALK Eugene Ripper - Banks Of Newfoundland (C) **See Notes 2 and 3 Dog Day - Oh Dead Life (C) Neverending White Lights - The World Is Darker (C) The Weakerthans - Sun In An Empty Room (C) Jens Lekman - Sipping On The Sweet Nectar TALK Feist - I Feel It All (C) Note 1: Out of all the songs I played this week this is the one I have listened to the most since the show. Note 2: The last time Bruce and I had seen each other was at a conference in St. John's, Newfoundland at a conference, thus this song seemed appropriate. Note 3: Another note about this song was that it came from a CD that was sent to me by Eugene Ripper. (C) Denotes Canadian Content

October 26, 2007

Theme: Party rock to Twee On Air: Frank

Once again I had to make a comparison between Jens Lekman and Jonathan Richman (and I know I promised that this would be the last time during the show but I might have to do it just one more time). In both of these songs they narrate a little story about their past that goes along with the song, they even have some of the same articulation. In the case of Lekman, this version of the song is 7 minutes long from the digital-only EP that was released before the album and it gives a lot more background on the story than the 4 minute version that is on the CD. Not much else to say about the rest of the show: a set about upcoming shows, a party rock set, and a few random sets of great songs. A few notes about a few of the songs are shown below. TALK-Theme The Brunettes - Baby Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through Heavenly - Three Star Component The San Marinos - Guess How Much I Love You TALK (Upcoming show set) Bella - None Will Ever Know (C) Knock, Knock Ginger - Syllables (C) Square Root of Margaret - Time Bomb (C) The Pipettes - Dance & Boogie **See Note 1 TALK (very Twee) Jens Lekman - Postcard For Nina Jonathan Richman - Monologue About Bermuda Oh! Sweet Music - Four Long Years Tullycraft - The Punks Are Writing Love Songs TALK (party rock) Shout Out Out Out Out - Chicken Soup For The F*** You (C) **See Note 2 The Russian Futurists - These Seven Notes (C) Bocce - Again Again Again Again (C) The Go! Team - Doing It Right TALK Tokyo Police Squad - Box (C) The Sequins - Lost Art Of Friendship Chuck Prophet - Doubter Out Of Jesus Simply Saucer - Bullet Proof Nothing (C) Small Sins - On The Line (C) TALK Juni Jarvi - Asleep Note 1: I don't like that the Pipettes put a couple of extra songs on the US release of album after I bought the import version last year. Note 2: Saw them at the Starlight the night before the show, crazy crowd, great show. (C) Denotes Canadian Content

October 12, 2007

Theme: Some old time garage rock On Air: Frank

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

September 28, 2007

Theme: Another poppolar.com set On Air: Frank

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

August 31, 2007

Theme: Pop songs your new boyfriend is too stupid to know about On Air: Frank and Milosz

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

August 17, 2007

Theme: The Stolen Minks Interview On Air: Frank, Tiina, and Erica

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

August 3, 2007

Theme: Hillside Review On Air: Frank

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 Saturday Looks Good To Me - The Girl's Distracted Lucky Soul - Get Outta Town! The Envelopes - It's The Law The Electric Pop Group - Don't Bring Me Out All Girl Summer Fun Band - Dreamy You TALK (Hillside Review) Dance Hall Free For All - Tomorrow In Thailand (C) Mother Mother - Dirty Town (C) Immaculate Machine - Nothing Ever Happens (C) Two Hours Traffic - Jezebel (C) Los Campensinos - It Started With A Mix TALK (slow set) Keren Ann - In Your Back Griffin and the True Believers - The Cat (C) Paul MacLeod - Tomorrow (C) The Bird And The Bee - Because TALK (funky set) Sly And The Family Stone - If You Want Me To Stay **For Mary John Legend - Slowdance Clarence Carter - Too Weak To Fight Otis Redding - Mr. Pittiful Broadcast - Before We Begin TALK Ghost House - Mail Lady (C) Hallelujah The Hills - Wave Backwards To Massachusetts The Planet Smashers - Raise Your Glass (C) Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf The Geraldine Fibbers - California Tuffy TALK They Might Be Giants - Bee And The Bird Of The Moth California Snow Story - Out Of Time The Sweet Homewreckers - Nineties On Your Side (C) Boy Omega - By Midnight We'll Give It A Go Liechtenstein - Stalking Skills TALK Zombies - Time Of The Season (C) Denotes Canadian Content