Playlist for 2-26-09

This is it, people. This is the last basketball pre-emption of TtAS until next year's season. Can you feel it? Can you feel the tide of music that will engulf you next week when the show returns to its full two-hour glory? Of course you can. You have psychic powers.

Also: If you're one of those fancypants folks with an iPhone, you can now listen to KUCI anywhere you go. Simply download the "Public Radio Tuner" application, and check out California public radio stations. There we are in your ear like some ravenous Lovecraftian worm.

The playlist:

Things that Are Square 2-26-09

(*) = New release

(*) Drew Danburry - Residents in Orange County - This Could Mean Trouble, You Don't Speak for the Club

The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - The Ballad of a Sin Eater -Hearts of Oak
Fugazi - Waiting Room - 13 Songs
Dark Meat - Assholes for Eyeballs - Universal Indians

(*) Matt & Kim - Don't Slow Down - Grand
Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone - Transparent Things
Lullatone - The Bathtime Beat - The Bedtime Beat
Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms vs Bad Arms - The Midnight Organ Fight

(*) Realpeople - Venice - Holland
Guided by Voices - I Am a Scientist - Bee Thousand
Beat Happening - Fortune Cookie Prize - Dreamy


See you next week!

Why There's No Money in My 401(k): A Diary of Obsessive Materialism Vol. II

In an effort to fulfill some bizarre need in my life, I purchase a lot of CDs, both old and new. They are obsessively cataloged and organized and poured over track by track (Seriously, it's obsessive. It involves post-it notes and code and excel spreadsheets). It is truly a labor of love (and an unhealthy psychological imperative). But, since I am consuming so much music, I thought I could use this constant influx for the powers of good. Should I come across anything worth sharing (either a new release or an old favorite), I will share them with you. So you'll love me.

Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 10 (Tzadik)
John Zorn's decades-long career in the downtown jazz scene has seen him exploring jazz to its outer realms, dabbling in heavy metal and hardcore, composing dozens of film scores, creating unholy (and holy) rackets, starting record labels, opening donation-only-funded music venues, and winning MacArthur Genius Grants. If you pick up an album with John Zorn's name on it, you could be getting amazing renditions of the works of Ennio Morricone, or something that sounds like (as my sister described it) a didgeridoo and a horse. The man is capable of anything from the bizarre to the near-unlistenable, and every so often he calms down and makes something beautiful and accessible like his work for the Bar Kokhba Sextet.

Much of Zorn's prolific work is infused with the music of his Jewish roots. The saxophonist's most famous band, Masada, is a jazz quartet that combines traditional extended jazz improv with melodies and themes that draw from Sephardic musical genelogy. After completing the first "book" of Masada songs with his quartet, he has started on book two: the "Book of Angels." Rather than record another decalogue of Masada albums, Zorn has chosen to farm these new compositions out to a variety of musical acts. One of the groups, the Bar Kokhba Sextet, is a group of musicians that perform "Sephardic exotica for young moderns." The musicians involved have performed with everyone from Alan Ginsberg to Tom Waits and the Mountain Goats. Guys like Marc Ribot and Cyro Baptista are all session-musician big guns with the skills to perform any style, and the chops to outplay anyone, which makes the subtle refinement of Lucifer so much more intriguing.

Volume ten in the Book of Angels is an intoxicating mix of jazz, lounge, surf, and world, and mixes them all in with a massive dash of Jewish mysticism. The pieces are sensual, occasionally sounding like the soundtrack to occulted bellydance opium lounges: strings slithering around each other, enticing the listener with their promises of exotic physical delights. In other passages, the music seems far more traditional, like a klezmer party in the Old World, at least until it blends into Ribot's surf guitar improvs (surf's up at Beth Shalom Beach!). The rhythm section of Joey Baron and Greg Cohen lock the whole enterprise down with entrancing polyrhythms, punctuated by Baptista's latin percussion.

A band that mixes latin, surf, klezmer, and jazz influences sounds like the recipe for one of those horrible bands you are forced to endure while waiting in line at the movie theaters by South Coast Plaza. The differences are, of course, Zorn's magnificent compositions as the music's melodic base and the sextet's honed-to-perfection improv skills. Any member of this group could blow the doors off of your face's ass with their ability, but the complete vibe of the project would be destroyed. The high point of the entire "Book of Angels" collection, Lucifer offers up an intoxicating and unique musical blend. And while this album has been described as "easy listening" (which is technically accurate), please don't fall prey to that genre's pejorative connotations. This plays more like a dynamic Hebrew rendtion of cool bop combos of years gone by than elevator music. Of course, in comparison to much of Zorn's catalog, nearly anything could be described as easy listening. He is currently the only artist in my library that has an album with an honest-to-Yahweh warning label on it, as certain pieces "may cause nausea....and permanent ear damage." Fear not, young moderns, this album goes down much smoother.

I drop megaton bombs more faster than you blink

Dude. GZA at the Detroit Bar on March 6th? See you there.

Playlist for 2-19-09

Did you tune in last night for my first full two-hour/non-preemptedbybasketball show in a while? My guess is "no" since you're reading this, and everyone who listened was rocked completely into comas. Well...that's exaggeration. I don't think my radio show has ever put anyone in a rock-coma. It may have sprained a rock-ankle one time, though. Still. That's pretty good.

Things that Are Square 2-19-09
(*) = New release

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - Swimming Pools - We Brave Bee Stings and All

Fire On Fire - Heavy D - The Orchard
The Holy Modal Rounders - Mr. Spaceman - 1 & 2
Peter and the Wolf - Safe Travels - Lightness
Devendra Banhart - We All Know - Nino Rojo(*)

Beirut - The Shrew - March of the Zapotec(*)
Vetiver - Everyday - Tight Knit (For Bonnie in Irvine, CA)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw - God Bless the Ottoman Empire - The Way the Wind Blows
Bar Kokhba Sextet - Abdiel - Lucifer: Book of Angels Volume 1

Caribou - Eli - Andorra
Yo La Tengo - Cast a Shadow - Walking Away From You/Cast a Shadow
(*) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Unicorns - Tuff Ghost - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

(*) Hello Seahorse! - Universo 2 - Hoy a las Ocho
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Holly Hobby (Version) - Etiquette
(*) Matt & Kim - Lessons Learned - Grand
Tullycraft - Every Little Thing - Disenchanted Hearts Unite

Marnie Stern - Prime - This Is It...
OOIOO - IOA - Taiga
Man Man - Ice Dogs - Six Demon Bag
Why? - Gemini (Birthday Song) - Elephant Eyelash

(*) Dear Nora - I Get Up, I Get Down - Three States: Rarities 1997-2007
Jay Reatard - Screaming Hand - Matador Singles '08

***Intern Michael takes over, and I go read a book***

The Last Shadow Puppets - Wondrous Place- The Age Of The Understatement EP
The Muslims - Call It A Day - Muslims
Phoenix - Sometimes In The Fall - It's Never Been Like That
The Rakes - Retreat - Capture/Release
Dappled Cities - Vision Bell - Granddance

Wolf Parade - You Are a Runner, and I Am My Father's Son - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - Better Dead Than Lead - Shake the Sheets
Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate - Elephant Shell
The National - Daughters of the Soho Riots - Alligator

The Libertines - Vertigo - Up The Bracket

Why There's No Money in My 401(k): A Diary of Obsessive Materialism (Vol. I)

In an effort to fulfill some bizarre need in my life, I purchase a lot of CDs, both old and new. They are obsessively cataloged and organized and poured over track by track (Seriously, it's obsessive. It involves post-it notes and code and excel spreadsheets). It is truly a labor of love (and an unhealthy psychological imperative). But, since I am consuming so much music, I thought I could use this constant influx for the powers of good. Should I come across anything worth sharing (either a new release or an old favorite), I will share them with you. So you'll love me.

































Galaxie 500 - Peel Sessions(20/20/20)The most memorable Peel Sessions, it seems, are the ones where the bands gave the audience something new. For instance, Belle and Sebastian had an oft-bootlegged 2002 edition where they sloppily (and festively) ripped through a host of Christmas songs. It was fun and intimate (though not always terribly great). If bands on the Peel Sessions had a day to cobble together four tracks, the end product often wouldn't be as good as an album recording, but it also wouldn't be a simple live performance. It was something special and singular that was often squandered on the same old tracks available on the bands' albums. There were bands that took the opportunity, however, to bring the BBC audience a unique experience: new songs, new versions, new arrangements. Galaxie 500 seems to have taken the opportunity, during their two appearances, to share their influences by interspersing fantastic covers between the songs the covers helped inspire.

Galaxie 500's "Peel Sessions" begins with a cover of the Sex Pistol's "Submission." Whereas the original was ostensibly a love song, the sneer with which it was delivered gave it a certain violence: the title being both "underwater" in love as well as...well....submission. Shown through the lens of Galaxie 500's hazy twee shoegaze, the song becomes a sixties garage-pop ode to being helpless in love (though to be fair, MOST indie pop songs are about being helpless in love). They immediately follow this love-ified punk anthem with a cover of minimalist post-punkers Young Marble Giants's track "Final Day." This time, they transform the tightly wound original into something that sounds like a forgotten Vashti Bunyan track, seeming to soundtrack an idyllic English country afternoon with its soothing folksy charms.

A handful of original tracks follow, as well as cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie, and it's all unbelievably good. It seems completely remarkable that these songs, recorded by a band that broke up over 15 years ago, don't sound dated in the slightest. Lead singer/guitarist Dean Wareham strums away through these languorous and slow pop tracks, letting the reverb pedal do its work. Manageable levels of feedback create backdrops of narcotic bliss for Dean (and co-vocalist Naomi Yang) to croon over, giving pop kids of the world aural parkas to wrap themselves in. These songs are emotional enough for twee romantics to relate to, and the music has this lovely, comforting quality despite the guitar-drone. Galaxie 500 are like a version of the Velvet Underground that you wouldn't be nervous to introduce to your mom. (Unless your mom is a heroin addict, in which case she'd probably want to be the real thing).

Closing out the set is perhaps the highlight of the album. They've taken the wonderful Jonathan Richman's song "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste," and completely made it their own. Transforming the originally a capella track into a guitar-soaked anthem to the youth energy that is at the heart of pop music, Galaxie 500 gives listeners a place to get lost in for it's seven-minute duration. And at the end of that seven minutes, the listener has absolutely no choice but to hit play on the stereo and enjoy all eight songs all over again. With a collection of tracks like this, the chief criticism of the album is that it isn't twice as long. Lord knows people would want to hear it.

Playlist for 2-12-09

Still getting pre-empted for basketball. But we'll be together again soon. Love will save us.


(*) = New release

Tom Waits - Walking Spanish - Rain Dogs

Calvin Johnson - Ode to St. Valentine - What Was Me
Fog - What a Day Day - Ether Teeth
(*) Dear Nora - Girl from the North County - Thee States: Rarities 1997-2007
(*) Hello Seahorse! - OK!...Lobster - Hoy a Las Ocho

(*) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Neutral Milk Hotel - Song Against Sex - On Avery Island
Fishboy - Half Time at the Proper Name Spelling Bee - Albatross: Or How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll
Los Campesinos! - You'll Need Those Fingers for Crossing - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

(*) Tussle - ABACBA - Cream Cuts
Belle and Sebastian- Another Sunny Day- The Life Pursuit

Playlist for 2-5-09

(*) = New release

(*) Antony and the Johnsons - Kiss My Name - The Crying Light

Low - Sunflower - Things We Lost in the Fire
White Rainbow - Gilded Golden Ladies - ZOME
Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste - Peel Sessions

(*) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Capstan Shafts - St. Paul? - The Sleeved and Grandaughters of the Blacklist
(*) Pavement - Stereo - Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
(*) Andrew Bird - Fitz and the Dizzyspells - Noble Beast (For Chris in Irvine, CA)

Calvin Johnson & the Sons of the Soil - Love Travels Faster - Calvin Johnson & The Sons of the Soil
Tom Waits - The Pontiac - Orphans: Bastards
Mount Eerie - Climb Over - Dawn
Built to Spill - Dystopian Dream Girl - There's Nothing Wrong with Love

M. Ward - Let's Dance - The Transfiguration of Vincent (For Ani in Irvine, CA)


Tune in over the next month to hear the new KUCI interns come on my show and suck all over the place. As opposed to the fine programming you normally hear on my show. The highest quality in amateur radio.