Playlist for 12-22-11 (Christmas Edition)

Hey festive folks,

Here's the playlist for my annual Christmas show. Sadly, it got cut short because UCI's 3-7 men's basketball team preempted my show and pissed all over my holiday cheer. But we made the most of our time together with these winter jams:

Things that Are Square 12-22-11 (Christmas show)

Belle and Sebastian - O Little Town of Bethlehem - Peel Session

Shannon and The Clams - All I Want For Christmas Is You - ...Ruin Christmas
The Sonics - Santa Claus - Here Are the Sonics!!!
Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool this Christmas - Cancer for the Cure
The Polyphonic Spree - Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - Maybe This Christmas Tree
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas - Etiquette

Okkervil River - Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas -
Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See
Pedro the Lion - The First Noel - The First Noel
Woods - Christmas Time Is Here - Unreleased
The Go-Go's - I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas with a Dalek - I'm Gonna
Spend My Christmas with a Dalek
Sunn O))) - Cursed Realm (Of the Winterdemons) - Black One

The kings of budget rock

The Mummies are simply a better band than most other bands.

Bad brains, cold heart, just need some help to make it start again

After discovering Shannon and the Clams's amazing 2011 album "Sleep Talk" (available hereor here), I had to investigate further into their discography.

Their previous album, "I Wanna Go Home" isn't as strong (in my humblest of opinions), but still contains the garage-rock romanticism flavored with heavy doses of the 1950s and sprinkled with imagery of warlocks and ghosts (aka "the recipe to make DJ Kyle love something fervently). Plus, I got the chance to see them live and they covered "Paranoid" as their encore and I basically shat my pants while I air guitared. ILU Shannon and the Clams.

Playlist for 12-15-11

Hey folks,

Short show this week due to a pre-emption for college basketball. And next week, what whould have been my annual Christmas show, is also getting cut short. Damn you, college athletics! You're killing the magic baby Jesus!

Anyway...Here's what I played last night.

Things that Are Square 12-15-11

(*) = New release

Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain - Didn't It Rain

Earth - Divine and Bright - Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars (For Doug in Echo Park, CA)
Low - Sunflower - Things We Lost in the Fire
(*) Barn Owl - Turiya - Lost in the Glare
(*) Atlas Sound - Terra Incognita - Parallax

(*) Radiohead - Separator (Four Tet Rmx) - TKOL RMX 1234567
Caribou - A Final Warning - The Milk of Human Kindness

(*) Dntel - Anywhere Anyone (Nobody Remix) - Life Is Full of Possibilities: Deluxe Edition

Stands to re-post

I'm fairly certain that I've posted this jam before, but if I can listen to it a bunch of times in a row forever, you can probably stand to hear it one more time.

I need to compile an album's worth of inspirational tunes like this. Any suggestions? What gets you going?

Lessons from history

I love when experimental music holds up to the point that it's almost accessible. I mean, this thing is nearly 20 years old, features members of the New York "no-wave" scene, and now it's almost catchy. Are we just used to more dissonant and challenging music in our experimental tunes? Or was this song so accurate in its progressiveness that it foretold what would become "normal" music two decades after? Either way this song rules. And Glenn Branca rules. Look, our band even stole the logo from this album for our shirts:

Playlist for 12-8-11

Hey folks!

Have you guys thought about what you want for Christmas (or another gift-giving Winter holiday of your choice)? What's that? You want the playlist from last night's radio show? Weird. That's an easy one. I figured you would have gone bigger than that. Oh well. Enjoy, revelers.

Things that Are Square 12-8-11

(*) = New release

Sunset Rubdown - Apistat Commander - Remixed & Covered

(*) M83 - Steve McQueen - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
John Maus - Hey Moon - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Twin of Myself - Eating Us
Boards of Canada - Telephasic Workshop - Music Has the Right to Children

Let's Drive to Alaska - A Bell and a Mirror - A Bell and a Mirror
The Album Leaf - On Your Way - In a Safe Place
Optiganally Yours - Figaro - Exclusively Talentmaker
(*) Atlas Sound - The Shakes - Parallax

(*) Emperor X - A Violent Translation of the Concordia Headscarp - Western Teleport
Smog - Held - Knock Knock
Mercury Rev- Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp - Deserter's Songs
(*) Los Campesinos! - By Your Hand - Hello Sadness

Jonathan Richman - Vincent Van Gogh - Not So Much to Be Loved As to Love
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - Broken Broken Broken Heart - 'Em Are I
Talulah Gosh - Be Your Baby - Backwash
Comet Gain - Ripped-Up Suit! - Réalistes

(*) Thee Oh Sees - Heavy Doctor - Carrion Crawler/The Dream EP
The Jesus Lizard - Monkey Trick - Goat
Drive Like Jehu - Here Come the Warm Plows - Yank Crime
(*) Tom Waits - Satisfied - Bad As Me

(*) Sigur Rós - Svefn-g-Englar - Inni

A timeless battle

Listen. I don't like synthesizers. They're the enemy of the guitar (clearly the best instrument). So when I say that John Maus's "We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves," an album where guitars are not to be found, is a solid disk, I want you to understand what that means. It means that despite being awash in something so foul as a keyobard, Mr. Maus creates an album of echoy space-pop that even this rock traditionalist can get behind.

P.S. Seriously fuck synthesizers.

Too many cusses to be a radio smash

Been listening to the Flaming Lips's "In a Priest Driven Ambulance" all morning. A nice scuzzy slab of psych-pop wonderfulness.

Playlist for 12-1-11

Hey folks,

It felt good to be back on the radio after my Thanksgiving-related absence. I was in Vegas, doing the things one does in Vegas. I'm legally not allowed to tell you about it, though. That "what happens in Vegas" thing isn't just a clever marketing slogan. It's a law. Who knew?

Things that Are Square 12-1-11

(*) = New release

Swans - I Am the Sun - The Great Annihilator

Altar of Plagues - When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean - Mammal
Liars - We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own - They Were Wrong So We Drowned
The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2 - The Glow, Pt. 2

(*) Tom Waits - Chicago - Bad As Me
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Deanna - Tender Prey
Françoise Hardy - Suzanne - Comment te Dire Adieu (For Scarlett in Torrance, CA)
Fugazi - Suggestion - 13 Songs

Treepeople - Big Mouth Strikes Again - Something Vicious for Tomorrow
Smith Westerns - Weekend - Dye It Blonde (For Leonard in Irvine, CA)
(*) The Beets - Friends of Friends - Let the Poison Out
(*) Thee Oh Sees - Contraption/Soul Desert - Carrion Crawler/The Dream EP

Void - My Rules - The Faith/Void Split
Swell Maps - H.S. Art - A Trip to Marineville
The Fall - Cruiser's Creek - This Nation's Saving Grace
Heavenly - C Is the Heavenly Option - Le Gardin de Heavenly

(*) Los Campesinos! - Songs About Your Girlfriend - Hello Sadness
Spacemen 3 - Walkin' with Jesus - The Perfect Prescription
Brian Eno - By This River - Before and After Science
(*) Sigur Rós - Lúppulagið - Inni

Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw - Night Gallery I - Night Gallery
White Rainbow - Major Spillage - New Clouds

(*) Girls - Honeybunny - Father, Son, Holy Ghost