Theme: Venus and Honey |
Michelle joined me for this show so the talking bits are lot more interesting then when I do the show solo. After my initial set I managed to squeeze in a set by artists who are going to be playing in the area and a set about honey. I got the idea for the honey set while looking for the song "Shade And Honey" by Sparklehouse and I came upon an MP3 blog entry of songs about honey, so I stole the idea. Of course Michelle rhymed off about 5 more songs about honey during the set but I only had time to play the ones I did. Here is Michelle's description of her sets: My first set started off with a song that was played in the final scene of the movie "Young People Fucking", a great little indie Canadian film for which the title does little justice other than publicity as it is quirky, and humorous, with absolutely no, per say, below-the-belt shots (unfortunately -- this comment added by Frank). The rest of the set included songs I find particularly "summery" including a track from The Cloud Cult who have been releasing their albums on the Earthology Record label, a not-for-profit environmental record label (which includes 100% recycled jewel cases and paper, soy based inks, and the recycling of CD cut scraps into milk cartons). I can't get enough of "I Woke Up Today", I've been listening to it for months and my ears haven't tired in the slightest. Check out a youtube video by Throw Me The Statue - most were shot on the deck of a very windy Seattle ferry ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacCAXDLz10 ). Thao Nguyen put on one of the best live shows I've seen yet this year at Sneaky Dee's back in March, a tireless guitar player she whipped her hair about like the wild Vietnamese Virginian she is. At first listen to her cd "We Brave Bee Stings And All" I wasn't sure if it was a girl or a guy singing, at least at times it sounded at lot like The Flaming Lips. The album is certainly one of my favourites so far this year. I followed my second set up with a number of British bands I've recently discovered (Life Without Buildings, Hefner, Nina Nastasia). Life Without Buildings are from Glasgow, and broke up in 2002, but that girls completely unique vocal style is mind blowing. Also, I had tickets to see Nina at The Drake the night of the radio show but sadly she cancelled. The late John Peel was a huge fan of Nina Nastasia, and he also gave enormous props to Hefner, so I have also recently looked into their back catalogue. The final song I played was my favourite single from 2007: The Cave Singers - Seeds Of Night. That song is so beautiful it makes me ache.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
June 20, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
June 6, 2008
Theme: Trepid House and Shelflife records |
Sometimes a show just seems to go together well and this was one of those times. A few themed sets along with some random sets and it all comes out well. The second set focused on the bands that were playing that night in the Trepid House, a private house where small bands play in a great intimate environment. One of them were my current favourite band from Guelph "The Magic" who finally had some recorded material that I was able to buy, Torcus was also really good, but unfortunately although I liked the song by Rockenspiel that I played on the show I wasn't able to stay long enough to see them that night. I found out about the Swedish band Kuryakin from the great Swedesplease blog and while checking out the band's record label Shelflife I checked out some of their other recent releases. One of the new bands from the label were described as "modern psychedelic pop songs influenced by the heyday of '90s Madchester." So that allowed me to also play bands from those days including The Charlatans who just happened to have a CD in the new release section of the library. You can download the first three songs in the set from: www.shelflife.com . Of course I had to play a song to mark the passing of Bo Diddley, I thought the song might be a cover of the Jonathan Richman song, it wasn't, but it was still really good. TALK-Theme Acid House Kings - Say Yes If You Love Me The Shermans - Summer In Your Heart Lisa Bouvoir - Belgium Those Dancing Days - Tasty Boy First Aid Kit - Cross Oceans TALK (Trepid House Set) The Magic - Night School (C) Rockenspiel - When You Were Born (C) Torcus - I've Been Down (C) Dearly Beloved - When You Were Born (C) The Johnstones - Last Chance (C) TALK The Gruesomes - What's Your Problem? (C) Mates Of State - My Only Offer Merrymakers - Spinning My Mind Away Ms. John Soda - Go Check New Radiant Storm Kings - Scuttled TALK (Shelflife Records Set) Days - A Part Of The World Kuryakin - Peace Of Mind Ruling Class - Flowers The Charlatans - Oh! Vanity Happy Mondays - Lazyitis TALK Boomdaddy - No Stranger Now (C) **See Note 1 Ivana Santilli - Always Better (C) MG Blues - Shake The Boogie (C) Bo Diddley - Roadrunner Robert Forster - Did She Overtake You Lloyd Cole - Chelsea Hotel (C) **See Note 2 TALK A Popular History Of Signs - Justice Not Vengeance Note 1: The first time I can remember playing a song by someone actually related to me as my cousin Linda sang backup vocals on this song. Note 2: Played in honour of many people I know who were going to see Leonard Cohen in concert. (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, May 23, 2008
May 23, 2008
Theme: TweePop, Seattle, and little bit of Finland |
On this show I had a set where I highlighted the CDs that I picked up while I was out west in the week before the show. My first musical stop was Seattle where I saw Lykke Li, El Perro Del Mar, and Anna Ternheim, the show was excellent, the venue was excellent, you can hear my review on the podcast (although I did go to Calgary and Banff as well there wasn't much of a musical part to that part of the trip). Also in Seattle I visited Easy Street Records ( http://www.buymusichere.net/stores/easystreet/ ), a cool fountain( http://nedkahn.com/water.html# and look at the Encircled Stream), and a cool library ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SCL9.JPG ) . TALK-Theme |
Friday, May 9, 2008
May 9, 2008
Theme: Very Random |
This was pretty much a random show with a poppy set, rockin' set, laid back set, funky set, and even a failed set. I'll just talk about the failed set, ahh the magic of live radio. I played the song Twee by Tullycraft and then had the idea to play songs by the bands that are mentioned in the song. Of course I didn't do any pre-show planning so I was hoping to grab the songs while I was there, but nothing worked out, I couldn't find any of the music either at the station or even on the web. So instead of my usually 5 or 6 song set I only managed to find 2 of the artists mentioned in the song and I just decided to quit the set rather than struggle on. On a side note, one of the bands I did play was the Posies who happened to be playing their 20th anniversary show when I was in Seattle last week, I didn't go, but I saw it listed. TALK-Theme |
Friday, April 25, 2008
April 25, 2008
Theme: Carl!! and Wesley Willis |
My top song this week was most definitely the oldest top song I have ever had, the reason I heard it was that I watching a documentary on the rise of British music in the 60s and they discussed the Yardbirds who originally featured Eric Clampton on guitar. But this particular song "For Your Love" is the song that drove him out of the band as he considered himself a serious musician and didn't want to do the kind of light fare that the band was doing. Of course the song fits pretty well into the type of pop that I play on my show. Before this show I went to see a couple of music related documentaries at the HotDocs festival in Toronto, you can hear my reviews on the podcast. There was also a set of music about the CARL! festival that went on the weekend after the show at the fantastic Trepid House, a private house in Waterloo that puts on a lot of great shows. And on a sad note, I ended the show with the Frank Sinatra song "I'll be seeing you" as a tribute to Mr. Jeffery Millar who unfortunately passed away a few weeks before the show. Jeffery was a friend from Waterloo back in my IMPRINT days, he was a fantastic person who will be missed. TALK-Theme The Yardbirds - For Your Love Under the Pines - My Architechs Data Rock - I Will Always Remember You Doug Hoyer - Emma (C) Must Be Tuesday - My Boyfriend's Girlfriend (Isn't Me) (C) TALK Bellevue - I've Been Meaning To Get Thearapy (C) The Wet Secrets - Get Your Own Apartment (C) Minus The Bear - Throwin' Shapes The Sound Of Arrows - Danger! TALK Wesley Willis - Jello Biafra Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas The Johnnys - I'm Hot (I Get What I Want) (C) Cassius - Rock Number One TALK (Carl!! Festival Set) The Liptonians - Charlie's Back (C) Mixylodian - Free For All (C) Sunparlor Players - If The Creeks (C) Horses - 14 Years (C) Lake Of Stew - Water Bill (C) TALK Katie Stelmanis - Join Us (C) Rick White - Birds And Bees (C) Los Campesinos - Knee Deep At ATP The Heavy - Coleen Lyrics Born - Like It, I Love It Little Dragon - No Love TALK Frank Sinatra - I'll Be Seeing You (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
Friday, April 11, 2008
April 11, 2008
Theme: RIP NQRS |
For this show I spent the first set lamenting the loss of a great podcast that after about a year of putting out great indie-twee called it quits. The podcast was called Not Quite Rocket Science and each show had a theme like boy/girl vocals, cover songs, and one titled "Pa pa pa pa ra pa pa pa pas!". And if you remember back a few months, most of the my last Christmas was stolen from them. It looks like the main website is no longer working, but you can get see some of the shows here: http://www.last.fm/user/miss_ladybug/journal/ There was also a set based on a link that Derek sent to me (http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/2008_04_07.php) that mentioned David Barclay who was a member of show favourite The Diskettes, along with many other musical projects. As well as music that David actually made, I also got a few ideas for the set from the mp3 blog that he contributes to : http://www.popsheep.com/ I also went through a lot of my backlog of leftover songs but I was glad to get suggestions from Michelle, Milosz, and Stephen P.
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Friday, March 28, 2008
March 28, 2008
Theme: The best thing about New York City is you and me |
This show seemed like it was over before it started, it just went by in flash. Unfortunately for the people who were actually listening (or about to listen on the podcast) I did a lot of talking, mostly about my trip to New York City the weekend before the show. I won't go into the stories here, but if you do check out the podcast you can hear about why we went, the flights from hell, and a first hand account of NYC's Bowery Ballroom. The top song this week was from a very unknown artist from Winnipeg whom I saw on Muchmusic's The Wedge (yes it is still on Wayne), the song just grabbed me with its funky feel and cool vocals. TALK-Theme Voldis - Flashlight (C) The Lions - Jungle Struttin The Heavy - That Kind of Man Little Dragon - Forever Daddy Long Legs - Drives the Girls Crazy (C) TALK Los Campensinos - Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats Woodhands - I Wasn't Made For Fighting (C) Bocce - Disco Juan (C) Hilotrons - Lights Off (C) The Magic - Door To Door (C) TALK (New York City Set) Vampire Weekend - Campus Saturday Looks Good To Me - Make A Plan The Crash - Reasons To Sing Sons And Daughters - Johnny Cash The Brunettes - Obligatory Road Song TALK We Are Scientists - After Hours The B-52s - Hot Corner The Teenagers - Feeling Better White Town - Taste Of A Girl These United States - First Sight TALK Girlfriendo - Make Up Fitness Forever - Bachrach Kimkio - Dogru Hawksley Workman - Piano Blank (C) Matthew Barber - I'm Gonna Settle My Accounts With You Billy Bragg - I Almost Killed You TALK Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - We Call On The Author (C) Denotes Canadian Content |