Playlist for 3-29-12

Hey!

First and foremost, I'd like to take a moment to thank Cesar Chavez for the important humanitarian work he did. He was a great man. I'd the like to take a second moment for having the day off in his honor. It's a doubly good day.

Also, I played songs on my radio show last night. They were these songs:


Things that Are Square 3-29-12

(*) = New release

Big Mama Thornton - Life Goes On - ...with the Muddy Waters Blues Band

The Specials - Too Much Too Young (Live) - The Singles Collection
tUnE-yArDs - Gangsta - Whokill
Fela Kuti - He Miss Road - Expensive Shit/He Miss Road

Mi Ami - Dreamers - Steal Your Face
(*) Jon Porras - Blue Crescent Vision - Black Mesa

Comet Gain - Don't Fall in Love if You Want to Die in Peace - Réalistes
Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla - Takk...
The Books - Thirty Incoming - The Way Out
(*) Tanlines - All of Me - Mixed Emotions

(*) Hunx - Always Forever - Hairdresser Blues
Thee Oh Sees - Ruby Go Home - Help
(*) Cloud Nothings - Wasted Days - Attack on Memory
Dead Kennedys - Take This Job and Shove It - Bedtime for Democracy

Subhumans - Mickey Mouse Is Dead - The Day the Country Died
King Khan & The Shrines - Welfare Bread - The Supreme Genius Of...
(*) Xiu Xiu - Hi - Always
(*) Perfume Genius - Take Me Home - Put Your Back N 2 It

(*) Sentridoh - Brand New Love - Weed Forestin
Six Organs Of Admittance - Home - School of the Flower
Sir Richard Bishop - Rasheed - Salvador Kali

Ugly Casanova - Cat Faces - Sharpen Your Teeth

Astral blood pours forth from their grevious wounds

I am a huge fan of Wolves in the Throne Room's aesthetic. The ever-present nature imagery, combined with interludes of ambient, hazy white noise admidst the black metal torrent works for me. The whole package reminds me of the book "The World Without Us." In it, the author theorizes what would happen to our remains if, all of a sudden, every person on earth simply vanished. Almost immediately, nature begins to take over, destroying buildings, and ripping to shreds every trace that we were ever here, portraying our society as...a disruptive cancer. I feel like Wolves in the Throne Room would be at peace with that message: the all-destroying power of nature claiming what rightfully belongs to it.

You can pick up the album on the band's webpage, or at Amazon.

And the kids stare at the screen...

I have no idea what took me so long to check out Subhumans. Lord knows I saw the name on the jackets of every 13 year old crust punk at the outdoor mall I used to work at. Part of that Subhumans/Crass/Addicts trifecta. At any rate, fast forward several years and I've been listening to "The Day the Country Died" on repeat for days now. The news cycle was bumming me out, and I wanted an album of anrcho-punk that would put a fire in my gut. This one does it. Plenty of vitriol with some wit and solid (as far as punk goes) songwriting. Lord knows anything with as blackly comic a title as "Zyklon-B-Movie" will get a nod of appreciation from this dude. But that could be my soft spot for wordplay, flicks like "Slumber Party Massacre," and any TV show about WW2.

For festivals end as festivals must

This is about as goth as I get, folks. We'll return you to your normal programming of twee pop and folk-punk shortly.

Sometimes, sad songs about broken hearts won't do. Sometimes, sad songs about broken...society need to fill that emotional void. Thankfully, Death In June will always be there with a ton of apocalyptic imagery to suit your "what's the worst thing I can think of" moods. Set those genocide/war lyrics to a dark, neo-folk guitar arrangement and throw that thing in the ol' ear. See if that doesn't hit the shady parts of your heart. "Enjoy."

March Madness!

Good people of the internet,

Our fair station, KUCI, is in a March Madness competition with the other 63 best non-commercial stations on earth on the website Soundtap.com. Go to their site, sign up, and listen to KUCI up to 90 minutes a day to help us advance.

At least give us a chance to get to the third round where KCRW will stomp our fucking throats.

Playlist for 3-15-12

Happy Friday, folks,

Hope you enjoyed the show last night. I think it went pretty well. No major injuries, nothing caught fire, and only a small amount of unprofessional dead air. Just the kind of expert radio you'd expect after nearly a decade of experience. Things that Are Square: the mark of quality in amateur radio.At least the music ruled.

Things that Are Square 3-15-12

(*) = New release

Brian Eno - King's Lead Hat - Before and After Science

(*) Hunx - Private Room - Hairdresser Blues
The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck - Psychedelic Blues
Beat Happening - Hangman - Jamboree
The Raincoats - Fairytale in the Supermarket - The Raincoats

The Strange Boys - Poem Party - Strange Boys and Girls Club (For Aimee in Irvine, CA)
King Khan & The Shrines - Burnin' Inside - The Supreme Genius of...
The Mummies - Stronger Than Dirt - Never Been Caught
Les Savy Fav - Raging in the Plague Age - Let's Stay Friends

(*) Terry Malts - Tumble Down - Killing Time
The Dismemberment Plan - Girl O'Clock - Emergency & I
(*) Prinzhorn Dance School - Seed, Crop, Harvest - Clay Class
(*) Cloud Nothings - No Sentiment - Attack on Memory

St. Vincent - The Apocalypse Song - Marry Me
(*) Xiu Xiu - Honey-Suckle - Always
The Antlers - I Don't Want Love - Burst Apart
(*) Perfume Genius - AWOL Marine - Put Your Back N2 It

Joanna Newsom - Jackrabbits - Have One on Me
Blood On The Wall - Going to Heaven - Awesomer
Arab Strap - (Afternoon) Soaps - (Afternoon) Soaps
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Killers - Vs. Children

Allo Darlin' - Kiss Your Lips - Allo Darlin'
Dent May - You Can't Force a Dance Party - The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
Belle and Sebastian - Legal Man - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds
Paul Baribeau And Ginger Alford - Born to Run - Darkness on the Edge of Your Town

Defiance, Ohio - Oh, Susquehanna! - The Great Depression
This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb - Trains and Cops - Front Seat Solidarity
Tiger Trap - My Broken Heart - Tiger Trap
Black Flag - Thirsty and Miserable - Damaged
OFF! - Poison City - First Four EP's

Fucked Up - Queen of Hearts - David Comes to Life

Strap your hands 'cross my engines

My love of Paul Baribeau has already been discussed both on this blog and on my radio show. So, when my friend Emily told me about an album's worth of Bruce Springsteen covers that he did with Good Luck's Ginger Alford, I was immediately sold. That's a definite "chocolate in my peanut butter" type situation. Bruce Springsteen writes a fantastic tune, combined with the DIY fun/urgency of folk-punk. That's my steez.

Sorry for the quality of the video, the album this is off of was tour-only, so its kind of #rare/#based. You can pick it up from the folks at No Idea, though.

But the receptionist said I was drunk and asked me to leave

God damn it I love Jens Lekman. That mixture of catchy pop songwriting, storytelling, humor, and emotion is simply a perfect storm of aural pleasure for me. And every time I see him live, it's just....this joyous musical experience. A couple years ago, I got into a free show at SkyBar, of all places, where Mr. Lekman played to a smaller crowd on the other side of a pool. It was a weird, weird setup, the performer being 20 feet from the nearest spectator. And you just knew that if you got into the pool, they would have thrown you out. Anyway.

Jens had just written this song, and it was definitely one of the night's highlights. He explained how Kirsten Dunst had mentioned him in a Swedish interview while discussing what she was currently listening to, and how flabbergasted he was by that. Since she was in his home-town, he found out where she was staying, and tried to track her down. This song is the result. The catchy, charming-as-shit result. It's on Mr. Lekman's most recent EP, "An Argument with Myself," which is available at Jens' store, the record label page, or on Amazon.

Playlist for 3-8-12

Folks!

I did my first two-hour radio show in a good, long while last night. I had forgotten how hard that is. Thankfully, folks were kind enough to make requests and help me fill the time. Good things happen when we help each other. I am trying not to abuse this new "I ask my listeners for things and they give them to me" power. I really can't be trusted with that.

But here's the music I played!

Things that Are Square 3-8-12

(*) = New release

(*) Disappears - Replicate - Pre Language

Guided By Voices - My Valuable Hunting Knife - Alien Lanes
Why? - Dumb Hummer - Rubber Traits
Fog - Cockeyed Cookie Pusher - Hummer
The Head And The Heart - Rivers and Roads - The Head and the Heart (For Nina in Irvine, CA)

Phil Ochs - Cops of the World - Phil Ochs In Concert
Kimya Dawson - The Competition - Remember that I Love You
Billy Bragg - Richard - Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy
(*) The Magnetic Fields - All She Cares About Is Mariachi - Love at the Bottom of the Sea

Gwar - Sadam a Go-Go - This Toilet Earth (For Andy in Orange, CA)
Shannon and The Clams - The Warlock in the Woods - I Wanna Go Home
Times New Viking - Move to California - Born Again Revisited (For Tina in Newark, NJ)
(*) Ceremony - Adult - Zoo

(*) Xiu Xiu - Born to Suffer - Always
Sunset Rubdown - Winged/Wicked Things - Random Spirit Lover
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Into My Arms - The Boatman's Call
The Pack A.D. - Take - Unpersons (For Anthony in Irvine, CA)

(*) Perfume Genius - Dark Parts - Put Your Back N 2 It
Einstürzende Neubauten - Zampano - Silence Is Sexy
Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator - Computer World
Belle and Sebastian - Electric Renaissance - Tigermilk

Jonathan Coulton - Still Alive - Portal (For Alex in Irvine, CA)
Jens Lekman - Waiting for Kirsten - An Argument with Myself
(*) Sentridoh - Jealous of Jesus - Weed Forestin'
The Tallest Man on Earth - Troubles Will Be Gone - The Wild Hunt (For Perry in Irvine, CA)

The War On Drugs - Baby Missiles - Salve Ambient
Pere Ubu - Nonalignment Pact - The Modern Dance

The Pogues - A Pair of Brown Eyes - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash

Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?

Been listening to Billy Bragg's "Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy" and adoring it. Not quite folk, not rock and roll, just this comfortable little middle ground of doing his own thing with beautiful lyrics and a fantastic knack for melodic songwriting. And with quite a few above-average songs on the EP, the fact that "A New England" is so huge a standout is a testament to just how big a song it is. If you listen to it and it does nothing for you, you probably just aren't a fan of well-written songs, because that is the jam. That's right. I just made the claim that if you don't agree with me you don't like good things. This IS the internet, after all, right?

Playlist for 3-1-12

Internet!

What a great show last night. Lots of good listeners and good times and fun songs. It put me in such a good mood. It's like musical Wellbutrin. Or aural coke. Yeah, let's call it coke. The playlist looked like this:

Things that Are Square 3-1-12

(*) = New release

The Mountain Goats - Song for the Julian Calendar - Full Force Galesburg

(*) Perfume Genius - Hood - Put Your Back N 2 It
Xiu Xiu - Sad Pony Guerilla Girl - A Promise
Final Fantasy - Adventure.exe - Has a Good Home
cLOUDDEAD - Dead Dogs Two - Ten

(*) Prinzhorn Dance School - I Want You - Clay Class
(*) Black Bananas - Rad Times - Rad Times Xpress IV
The Modern Lovers - Someone I Care About - The Modern Lovers
(*) Bad Weather California - I'll Reach Out My Hand - Sunkissed

(*) Cloud Nothings - No Future/No Past - Attack on Memory
Beat Happening - Bad Seeds - 1983-85
The Blood Brothers - Crimes - Crimes