KCRW Playlist from 3/28

There is an incredibly decent amount of new music to be excited about right now. Brazilian band, Garotas Suecas appeared on my radar last week courtesy of my ultra savvy friend Roger. It is with no hesitation that I award this week's find of the week to this super cool soul tinged psych band. The 7" who's A-side I played on my show this past weekend is available to order here, and there is apparently a full length due out later this year.

In addition to that discovery, another pleasant surprise last week was Fixing the Charts, the new record from Everybody Was in the French Resistance... Now! Fixing the Charts means what it implies, as with this project Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos, and Dylan Valdes from the Blood Arm offer counter perspectives to the messages put out there in twelve popular songs. Concept records like this one always have the potential to walk a fine line between clever and contrived, this one is decidedly on the side of the former.

Plus I played a lot of Slumberland bands to spotlight the then forthcoming Slumberland 20 year anniversary show (by far the best show I've been to this year so far), and I put forth my version of a tribute to the very sadly now late Alex Chilton.

You can check out the show here!


... And here's the playlist:

Everybody Was In The French Resistance... Now! - Hey! It's Jimmy Mack

Quadron - Pressure

Saturday Looks Good To Me - Meet Me By The Water

The Velvet Satins - Nothing Can Compare To You

The Bamboos - Keep Me In Mind

Garotas Suecas - Codinome Dinomite

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Beulah - Emma Blowgun's Last Stand

The Who - Pictures Of Lily

She & Him - Over It Over Again

Holly Miranda - Sweet Dreams

The Pastels - Everybody Is A Star

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The Replacements - Alex Chilton

Big Star - Thank You Friends

Nada Surf - Blue Moon

Evan Dando - The Balad Of El Goodo

Teenage Fanclub - Tears Are Cool

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Sweet Feeling

Dum Dum Girls - Rest Of Our Lives

Knight School - Jackie The Hero

Sweater Girls - Fingers Crossed

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Boyracer - I've Got It And It's Not Worth Having

Henry's Dress - Winter '94

Go Sailor - Together Forever In Love

The How - Dreaming Of Lily

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The Wedding Present - I'm Not Always So Stupid

Ringo Deathstarr - Every Time

Caribou - Odessa (Nite Jewel Remix)

Tunnelmental Experimental Assembly - Orange

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Pants Yell! - Marble Staircase

Summer Cats - Lazy Susan

Neverever - Coconut Shampoo

Devon Williams - Sufferer

Brown Recluse - Contour And Context

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The New House - Pale Boy

The Superions - Totally Nude Island

Gorillaz - To Binge

Ray Davies - Days

New Pornographers - Jackie

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Toro Y Moi - You Hid

Donovan - Where Is She?

Love Is All - A Side of a Bed

Boards of Canada - Seven Forty Seven

The Sexual Objects: "Merrie England/Demonstration"

The next installment in my listening to/obsessing about/writing about the records I found in Scotland blog post series...

I arrived at Monorail Records slightly nervous about the possibility that I might have to purchase my records from one of my favorite songwriters, and that the words that came out of my mouth could range from anything to a simple thank you when my transaction was complete, to incoherent babble. I was personally hoping for a brief, yet thorough conversation where I said intelligent things about music other than indiepop. In reality, Stephen Pastel was nowhere to be seen, and I realized that the most clever thing that I could do while there would be to buy all of the records that would have cost me a fortune in shipping if I ordered them as imports.

One such record was a 7" single from the Sexual Objects. "Merrie England" b/w "Demonstration" on the Aufgenladen Und Bereit record label. I'd ordered one record from that label before, a split single from the Kingfishers and Wake the President. I was very happy with that still think "You Can't Change That Boy" was one of the strongest songs to come out of 2007. You'll hear plenty about Wake the President around these parts soon though. For now, back to the Sexual Objects. When I purchased the single I had not yet gotten around to listening to the band. I knew that it was the current project of Davy Henderson, Fire Engines' front man. That, combined with my already favorable impression of the label (who I think probably even took their name from a Fire Engines comp) made this one of my most exciting new record purchases of the entire trip.

I started with the "Demonstration" side. It's an intriguing, slow burn of a song with a somewhat 90s indie rock feel. Well, it's that, but something more complex. I've listened to the song many times and can't quite pin point exactly why it's so compelling, but it really is so compelling. In any regard, I'm pretty much always a big fan of any song that can retain it's mystery over a decent number of repeat listens. This one is no exception.

The other side "Merrie England" proved to be possibly more intriguing, and even more enjoyable. It bounces back and forth from a more upbeat take on that same 90s indie rock sound to a fun sort of ramshackle garage thing, and the undercurrent that I hear throughout the song is the exact sort of post punk sound that I would hope for from a former Fire Engine.

If only all record purchase gambles proved this successful...

KCRW Playlist From 3/7

I'm the best kind of exhausted today. Hungry Beat! was super packed, and super fun. We stayed probably too late at Part Time Punks last night to dance for Cure Night, that followed an unexpected (but welcome) fill-in shift at work. Throw in the Clientele show at Spaceland on Friday night (which was the best Clientele show I've ever seen), and of course the radio show on Saturday night/Sunday Morning and I find myself looking back on a pretty full weekend this morning.

The radio show was quite a fun one. Even though no more time had passed between my last show and this show than would have ordinarily given our rotation schedule, the fact that I had been on vacation made it feel like I had not been on the board for ages. In any regard, it felt great to be there.

I can't decide if my favorite discovery for the show this past week was Gold-Bears, or Warm Morning. I'm pretty inclined to give Gold-Bears the advantage since they are from my hometown (Atlanta), feature Stewart Boyracer on drums for the track that I played, and have themselves a giddily shambolic quality that's much like Boyracer, and Superchunk. I'm looking forward to the two singles they have promised for this year on Magic Marker, and Cloudberry. You can test Gold-Bears out for yourself over at Indiepages. On the other hand, Warm Morning sounds so gentle, and lovely, and well... warm. The song that I played "I'll be Fine" was one that I listened to several times this past week, I was struck by how subtle and sweet it sounds. It seems constructed entirely to produce good feelings in all who encounter this absolute gem of pure pop. I haven't quite figured out how to order their new record Too Far From the Stars yet, perhaps an email to the band is in order? They appear to have been around for awhile, I'll let Heaven is Above Your Head tell you more of their back story. While you're over there, you'll definitely want to grab that mp3 for "I'll be Fine." As for me I suppose I have to call a find of the week tie for Gold-Bears, and Warm Morning. Always a good thing.

I also might have to take a nap...

You can listen to my full radio show here.


Playlist is as follows:
Javelin - Moscow 1980

Garcons - Encore L'Amore (Leo Zero Edit)

Broken Bells - Mongrel Heart

Stereolab - Ping Pong

Warm Morning - I'll Be Fine

Pants Yell! - Tried To Be Good

Young Marble Giants - Wurlitzer Jukebox

Corinne Bailey Rae - Paris Nights/New York Mornings

Myron & E With The Soul Investigators - It's A Shame

Mavis - Feeling Lucky (Feat Edwyn Collins) (!)

Knight School - Prismatic Room

Crystal Stilts - Love Is A Wave

Beachniks - Coney Island

The Art Museums - Sculpture Garden

Gil Scott-Heron - Running

East Of Underground - Smiling Faces Sometimes

The Turtles - Can I Get To Know You Better

The Magnetic Fields - Always Already Gone

Northern Portrait - New Favorite Moment

Gold-Bears - Jezzer

Blair - Candy In The Kitchen

Miike Snow - Sylvia (Hook & Sling & Goodwill Remix)

The Radio Department - This Time Around

The Flatmates - You're Gonna Cry

She & Him - Thieves

Primal Scream - Ivy Ivy Ivy

Frightened Rabbit - Skip The Youth

Crocodiles - I Wanna Kill

Roxy Music - Virginia Plain

Nada Surf - Electrocution

Okkervil River & Roky Erickson - Goodbye Sweet Dreams

Ride - Leave Them All Behind

Serena-Maneesh - I Just Want To See Your Face

Toro Y Moi - Imprint After

Daedelus - Order Of The Golden Dawn

Sugar Minott - Never Too Young

The Pastels - Baby Honey

Pantha Du Prince - Bohemian Forest

Girls at Our Best! "Go For Gold"

I've been pouring over the records that I brought home with me from Scotland still somewhat in shock due to all of the rather incredible finds I uncovered. I thought about noting them all in one post sort of laundry list style. Then I thought it would be more fun to listen to the records one at a time, and write a few words about why I was so excited about finding whatever record it is I happen to be writing about that day. It's mostly just a nice excuse for a few weeks of pre-determined channels for my geeky obsessiveness. I'll start with the 7"s then work my way onto the longer records as I go along.

First up, Girls at Our Best! There have been many times in my life when I've walked into a record shop, and dug through every 7" in the place muttering "please, please, please" under my breath hoping that I would turn up something from this band. I've looked on Ebay, and seen decent deals, but the timing was never quite right on any of those. So when I found this one, absent mindedly flipping through the G drawer at Elvis Shakespeare in Edinburgh, I almost yelped. I forgot that I was meant to be looking for it, and in a way that kind of made it more exciting. Sometimes you hear a band that seems to be a living embodiment of everything that you know to be fantastic and cool. There might be bands that mean more to you, and you know that there are definitely bands that are, in fact, more cool. Still sometimes you hear something and think "If all music sounded exactly like this, I'd probably be o.k. with that."

I'd heard of the band many times before I actually heard them, and I probably heard them many times before I knew what I was hearing. I'm pretty sure that "Getting Nowhere Fast" was the one that finally caught my attention enough to put it all together. That song had a cool female vocal part, a cool guitar lead, a cool bass line. Everything in the song was perfectly in place so that you knew it had plenty in common with other post-punk songs, and other rock songs, but there was just something a bit lighter about it that made it seem that much more fun. The 7" that I now own, for example, has an Old Western theme as it's basis for the A-side which is carried out in the context of something of a disco song. The b-side "I'm Beautiful Now" is probably one of the best showcases for singer Judy Evans' unique, high pitched singing voice. And it's impossibly catchy with a build up towards the end that has the potential to leave you out of breath. This is most likely because it's almost impossible to hear the song and not want to dance.

I had some pretty good record finds on my trip, but this one might very well be the biggest stand out.

Here's a rather interesting video that someone put together for "I'm Beautiful Now." I'd not heard of this show "Lazy Town" before coming across this video, it definitely seems to have gotten a strong response from people commenting. Still, it's a way to hear the song, so that's good...