Staring At The Sea? No, That's Wednesday

Somber Sunday's playlist:

Blur -- eponymous
The Cure -- Staring At The Sea - The Singles
REM -- Murmur
Siouxsie & The Banshees -- Twice Upon A Time - The Singles

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Music To Grade By, Part II

Today's playlist:
(I hadn't intended to focus on a time period -- these were simply the albums I wanted to hear)

Blur -- Leisure (1991)
(this album is amazing -- one great song after another)
Ride -- Nowhere (1990)
The Charlatans -- Between 10th And 11th (1992)

More promising bands from SXSW

Here's an assortment of offerings that I liked. The links are all myspace links, so you can listen to the bands before deciding whether to invest time & energy into reading actual websites (which most of the bands list on their myspace pages).


1st) The Black Angels

You can tell from listening to this band that they grew up with Velvet Underground records. They could be a good band to see live, on a rainy night. (I will probably profile this band later when I have some time)


2nd) The Fratellis

Hmmm… you'll recognize the first song.. they are only now at SXSW and they have already sold out? I'm not sure what to think of that, but I remember liking the song from the commercials… I'm so torn! So post a comment and tell me what you think of this band.


3rd) The Tokyo Police Club

More Indie Pop sounds


4th) The Wombats

And yet more of the same (but all the bands are worth checking out)

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SXSW Gems

This is the one week of the year that I really miss living in Austin -- the week of the South by Southwest Music Festival. It's when the recording industry and lots of hopefuls descend on the little city to spend a week playing and listening to all kinds of indie music, watching dreams being made or stifled, and hanging out with musicians and music lovers in a surreal environment. Wandering the streets of downtown while this event is on feels a little like Vegas -- time has no meaning, except for keeping track of when your favorite band is going on stage, people roam around in a sort of daze, and everyone is there to have fun. It's a wonderful feeling to walk up and down the streets listening to all kinds of sounds wafting from each door. It's a great time.

This year NPR is acting as a clearing house, posting all kinds of info on the various bands playing, and is hosting an extensive list of links to live broadcasts from the various stages. I'm out of time tonight for posting info, but as these live broadcasts will be archived and available for quite a while, I will update this post with all the best links later in the week. So check back for a complete SXSW resource here. Until then, check out these links:

The Early Years (live)
Robyn Hitchcock (live)
The main NPR SXSW page
The Stooges (live)
Alexi Murdoch (live)
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Couldn't Pass This Up

"The Good, The Bad & The Queen isn't a band. It's more of a project, featuring Blur frontman Damon Albarn, The Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Afrobeat pioneer and drummer Tony Allen and former Verve guitarist Simon Tong. Together the quartet is making some of the smartest and catchiest — if moodiest — Britpop and rock to reach the U.S. in years."

--The above quote is from the NPR website, which is where all the links below lead to..

Take one of my all-time favorite bassists to play along with and put him in anything, and I would probably be excited (he hasn't been in a band since the Clash). Put him together with these guys, though, and the imagination runs wild. So why not see if they are as good as they should be? Listen to a concert performance here, songs from their album here, and a radio interview here.

Oh, and don't forget -- they are also being produced by Danger Mouse.

Find Something New Every Day, Part I

It's nice to have things to check in on every day: news, family, plants, email, etc. So why not add to it? This is the start of a series of sites that might be worth checking every day or so. These sites are all experiments, so I'll have to post updates about these as I discover whether they pay off or not in the long run.. but this first site seems promising: NPR's Song Of The Day. Each work day they profile a song and the artist behind it. The text is very short, and the clip lasts for the length of just one song, so this is hardly a huge time commitment, but the potential payoff is pretty high: discovering a new favorite band, or at least more great music to enjoy and tell your friends about. So here it is -- check it out:

NPR -- Song of the Day

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A Great Musical Resource Masquerading As A Clothing Store

So I finally got around to reading the Bratmail email from last month. They have a bunch of band recommendations in the email (promoting upcoming shows). Of course, all the shows have long since passed, but most of the bands have myspace pages, and some of these guys are cool! So here are a couple of bands that I might just go see sometime:

The Shakes -- 60's garage punk sound

The Tiki Tones -- I don't know how to categorize this one, but I'm hooked!

One of these days I need to make it over to see the store: Brat

Bessie 2.0

You won't believe this amazing site:

http://www.radmonkeycowbells.com/

Electronic cowbells. Yes, that's right -- not only can it digitally amplify the sound, but it can reproduce "12 of the world's most sought after cowbells." How cool is that? Don't forget to visit their test page, which includes detailed descriptions of each of the 12 sounds and lets you test them out with the click of a mouse. You must try it (and post a message letting me know your favorite one!).


Oh, and if you like this product, you should really check out their Dead Quietenator, which digitally reproduces "various pure silences" that you cannot get anywhere else (you can even listen to 3 of those silences on their test page). Of course, I prefer the Virtual Studio Visitor that lets you digitally create the annoying presence of unwanted drop-in visitors to your studio (just in case you like how the uninvited guests affect your creative process but you don't have enough friends to drop in on you and produce the effect in the old fashioned way).

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On The Roq

This is Rodney's Day!! Today he gets a star on Hollywood Blvd, and a concert in his honor (at the Henry Fonda Theatre -- don't miss it!)

So take a look at his myspace page, comb through his playlists from the last year to see a great mix of old favorites and new ideas, and then listen to him here on Sunday nights, 12am to 3am (yeah, technically Monday morning..)

We love you Rodney! Congratulations!

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Green Eggs and Dylan

It's the perfect combination -- Bob Dylan and classic Dr. Seuss stories. It'll make you laugh on multiple levels, and then will make you want to pull out both your old Dylan records and your childhood books. What can be better than that?

Listen to someone pretending to be Dylan recite Dr. Seuss stories set to Dylan-esque music here (you might need to open it with a Netscape or Firefox browser, as IE cannot always play it -- all you will hear is a track that emulates the wonderful crackling sound of an old vinyl record playing "silence") (Track #2 -- Green Eggs & Ham is my favorite)

(and thanks to Ghost in the Machine for the link)
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Sunday's Sounds

Today's playlist: streaming radio from Indie 103:

Your radio reception may be bad, but never fear! You don't have to miss a minute of your favorite radio programs. Many radio stations have web pages that can connect you to their programming. Once such example is Indie 103.1, a Los Angeles station that has a show hosted by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (called Jonesy's Jukebox). Listen to it and all the Indie shows live right here.

Other great radio programs will be posted throughout the month, so check back often for more great tunes.

7021 Hollywood Boulevard (Between La Brea & Highland)

Rodney was my hero. First, he was a huge supporter/friend of my favorite childhood band, The Monkees (he even appeared on their show, albeit as a stand in for Davy). Then, as I got older, he brought all the best bands into my bedroom every Sunday night whether I was old enough to go see them in the clubs or not. He had the best radio show ever - on KROQ in LA. He was the first to play The Ramones, The Cure, The Go-Go's, The Smiths, X, Adam Ant, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Echo & The Bunnymen, and almost every other band I ever cared about growing up. When I was about to move away from LA, I called Rodney on the phone just to tell him how great he was and how much I was going to miss his show. It's a good thing he didn't put me on the air because I actually cried on the phone. He was so sweet -- he offered to send me a T-shirt, and recommended that I ask my friends to tape record his show for me and send me the tapes. That was cool, and I still have the shirt.

Now Rodney is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And not just any star in any location -- he'll be between La Brea & Highland: a highly trafficked area, with good parking and lots of good reasons to be there aside from visiting the star. So there will be no excuse for not checking it out. I only wish I didn't have to teach on the day they will present him with it -- I would really love to be there!

Congratulations, Rodney Bingenheimer. Now you will forever be amongst the stars!

Go see the ceremony if you can:
Friday, March 9th, 2007, 11:30am,
7021 Hollywood Boulevard (Between La Brea & Highland)