Mid-Morning Razzmatazz

The last one...

2010-08-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

The future?

No, nothing quite like that. At least not yet. Come Sunday I pack up my things and move out east, never again to call this island my home. Or so the plan goes. Of all the people and things I will miss about Victoria, so much comes from my time at CFUV. Among the many lovely people, I'd like to thank Andrea Wong, Andrea Weber, Randy Gelling, Dana Corrigan, Pat McKenna, Justin Lanoue, Christine Comrie, Ashly Kissman, Geneviève Dale, Johnnie Regalado, Donald Kennedy, Troy Lemberg, Tyler Pantella, Ken Tin Lok Wong, Louis Yu, Ryan Ferko, and Blake Enemark for being such wonderful characters. For a taste of what it was like to "work" with these people, this recording will suffice. It was a pleasure rambling into the void alongside you all.

"Christ, a blog." This thing traces what I reckon to be most of my on-air travails, a capsule of much of the sounds that amused and inspired me over the last three years. Mostly just Gainsbourg and Jarvis and whatever else.

Oh, and I misfiled that Plone album after I did that first show back in 2007. I have no idea where it is. And it's out of print. But I don't think anyone else cares. I also contemplated stealing that Hot Chip/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 7", but lost my nerve after announcing my intentions on-air.

Today's show is a selection of good new stuff alongside my favorite songs of farewell. Tailored to my situation. New York and jurisprudence beckons, you know.

Songs:

Cat Stevens - "Tea for the Tillerman" - Tea for the Tillerman
Jarvis Cocker and Kid Loco - "I Just Came to Tell You That I'm Going" - Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited
Serge Gainsbourg - "Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais" - Vu de l'extérieur
Gil Scott-Heron - "New York Is Killing Me" - I'm New Here
News - "New York City" - Hot Off the Press
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - "Departure" - NYC
Baths - "Departure" - Cerulean
Bill Cosby - "Hofstra" - Why Is There Air?
Manic Street Preachers - "Marlon J.D." - Journal for Plague Lovers
The Who - "A Legal Matter" - The Who Sings My Generation
MGMT - "The Youth" - Oracular Spectacular
M.I.A. - "Story to Be Told" - Maya
David Bowie - "A New Career in a New Town" - Low
Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely" - The Life Pursuit
Mike Patton - "Senza Fine" - Mondo Cane
Johnnie Regalado - "On the Couch" [a poem]
Beck - "Lost Cause" - Sea Change
Paul Kimble & Andy Mackay - "Bitters End" - Velvet Goldmine [OST]
The Kinks - "End of the Season" - Something Else by the Kinks
Scott Walker - "Rhymes of Goodbye" - Scott 4
Television - "Marquee Moon" - Marquee Moon
Jarvis Cocker - "You're in My Eyes (Discosong)" - Further Complications

============================
Goodbye Randy's homoerotic Matmos poster.
Goodbye "Mind Your Scents" messages.
Goodbye late-entry lamp (that can so easily be turned into a strobe light).
Goodbye (undeserved) guest-list spots.
Goodbye, my safety blanket. My friend. My waste bin.
Goodbye 104.3 on cable.

Bye.

The penultimate one...

2010-07-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Deerhunter have a new album set to be released in September -- alas, long after this one is written out of CFUV-lore. Files of the new 7" ("Revival" b/w "Primitive 3D"), along with a schlock of unused demos have been making their way across the interwebs. Enjoy, Victoria radio.

I love that opening set. Norwegian shoegaze/noise/bubble-gum. Vraiment Razz.

Songs:

Love - "Alone Again Or" - Forever Changes
Serena Maneesh - "Melody for Jaana" - SM-2: Abyss in B-Minor
Nadja/Ovo - "Movement 2: Trapped in the Jar" - The Life and Death of a Wasp
Emitt Rhodes - "With My Face on the Floor" - Emitt Rhodes
Deerhunter - "Revival" and "Primitive 3D" - Revival [single]
Deerhunter - "Radio Play", "Scruffy Scruff", "Daybeams" - ["Unused Demos"]
Menomena - "Oh Pretty Boy, You're Such a Big Boy" - Mines
Sandor Nemeth's Gypsy Orchestra - "Arato Csárdás" - Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts: Rare and Unheralded Gramophone Recordings from Around the World
Villagers - "Home" - Becoming a Jackal
The Books - "Beautiful People" - The Way Out
Chris Morris - "Acupuncture" - Blue Jam
Troubleman - "Paz" - Babylon Central
Shad - "Lucky 1's" - TSOL
Steve Mason - "Stress Position" - Boys Outside
To Rococo Rot - "Bells" - Speculation
Jaill - "The Stroller" - That's How We Burn
Here We Go Magic - "Casual" - Pigeons
Tender Trap - "Dansette Dansette" - Dansette Dansette
Dan Sartain - "Voo Doo" - Lives
Cool World - "Sun Roof Top" - Gaydream Nation
M.I.A. - "Born Free" - Maya
Wolf Parade - "Two Men in New Tuxedos" - Expo 86
Janelle Monae - "BaBopBye Ya" - The ArchAndroid
Needle - "Sunday on Prozac" - Esopus #8: Spam
Nu-Sensae - "Strange Games" - TV, Death & the Devil

Movietrax: François de Roubaix

2010-07-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I ran into James of Movietrax before I was about to go in to see that Banksy film, he asked if I would be interested in doing an episode. I said yes.

For an artist so obscure, François de Roubaix is one of my main men, I'm every so often going back to the two fantastic Le monde électronique volumes. The music is classical and folk-inflected, experimental, and intelligent -- it's the kind of late 60s/early 70s electronic music that's equally nostalgic yet still sounds of the future. It's incredible how his other great passion, scuba-diving, feels ever present in the music on those compilations. I've included each of the tracks from L'Antarctique, the rejected Cousteau soundtrack, as well as a side of the Olivier Bloch-Lainé EP (that I picked up because of his Brigitte Fontaine connection -- to my glee de Roubaix's arrangements are all over the thing!).

Songs:

Steve Mason - "The Letter" - Boys Outside
François de Roubaix - "Sauvetage" - Le monde électronique de François de Roubaix [vol. 2]
Olivier Bloch-Lainé - "La lavandière" and "N'en dis rien a personne" - La dérive [EP]
François de Roubaix - "L'Antarctique", "Rencontre avec le skua", "Pingoins sur banquise", "Plongée de glace", "Survol", and "Baleines" - Le monde électronique de François de Roubaix [vol. 1]
François de Roubaix - "Les anges", "Larry" - Le monde électronique de François de Roubaix [vol. 2]
Richard Hawley - "Remorse Code" - False Lights from the Land [EP]

Villagers live at CFUV!

2010-07-24T01:26:00.000-07:00

Due to Providence/luck/tour scheduling the wonderful Conor J. O'Brien, the man behind Villagers, a breakout folk rock act from Ireland (signed to Domino) came into CFUV for a live session and interview! With yours truly, alongside my pal Louis Yu (of wooozy.cn fame). And by breakout I mean the fellow's fantastic new album Becoming a Jackal is SHORTLISTED FOR THE MERCURY PRIZE. Which means he could be the next, I don't know. Beth Gibbons. Or Jarvis. Conor, a very talented musician, was an absolute gentleman as well. Plus he lovingly played along with my borderline-homoerotic banter. Play the interview and 3-song set below:

Blackout Beach tonight, MGMT tomorrow

2010-07-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Did it really take this long for someone to think up that title? Fabulous work, that. Added bonus: the album is actually good.

Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes is staging a one-off Blackout Beach performance tonight at the Orange Hall in Fernwood. Which apparently includes Mercer reading out a few of his short stories. I will be there. And then the next night I'm off with chums to watch MGMT disappoint fans of their first album at the Commodore in Vancouver. (Translation: I will most likely have a fantastic two days.)

Songs:

The Stooges - "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" - Raw Power [Legacy Edition]
Suede - "The Wild Ones" - Dog Man Star
Sonic Youth - "Teen Age Riot" - Daydream Nation
Cool World - "Sup Outside" - Gaydream Nation
Disappears - "Lux" - Lux
Teenage Fanclub - "Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe in Anything" - Shadows
Baths - "Lovely Bloodflow" - Cerulean
Autechre - "Nth Dafuseder.B" - Move of Ten
Aphex Twin - "Girl/Boy Song" - Richard D. James Album
Owen Pallett - "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" [Benoît Pioulard remix] - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt [EP]
Steve Mason - "The Letter" - Boys Outside
MGMT - "It's Working" - Congratulations
Blackout Beach - "William, the Crowd, It's William", "Astoria, Menthol Lite, Hilltop, Wave of Evil, 1982", and "Cloud of Evil" - Skin of Evil
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Hot Body Rub" - Before Today
The Love Language - "Summer Dust" - Libraries
Richard Hawley - "The Ellan Vannin Tragedy" ft. Smoke Fairies - False Lights from the Land [EP]
Duncan Browne - "Alfred Bell" - Give Me Take You
Out of Focus - "Blue Sunday Morning" - Cloud Cuckooland: 20 Garish Quills Plucked from the Plumage of Krautrock's Lesser Spotted Flock
Funki Porcini - "This Ain't the Way to Live" - On
Saint Etienne - "Wood Cabin" - Good Humor
Twinkranes - "Put Up a Light" - Spektrumtheatresnakes
Villagers - "Becoming a Jackal" - Becoming a Jackal

Scottish pop, Diamond Rings, more hip-hop (than usual)

2010-07-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

My favorite new album these days. Summer turning to Autumn, shadows approaching. Off-set by the cover art, Carolina blue's never scared anyone outside of March. Guess who just picked up tickets to their Brooklyn show with Belle and Sebastian in September? (I hope this won't be in conflict with my as-of-yet-unannounced class schedule.) At any rate, playing Spearmint's "Scottish Pop", fresh with McGinley and Murdoch namedrops, feels madly appropriate.

One of my favorite Pulp performances. Yeah, I'll come and play your show. And emote. With Richard Hawley ever gorgeous on guitar. Said Hawley has a new EP.

Today's show is three hours, as Patty-McK couldn't do his Voices in Your Head. So this child brings the hits.

Songs:

Spearmint - "Scottish Pop" - A Different Lifetime
Belle and Sebastian - "Stars of Track and Field" - The BBC Sessions
Teenage Fanclub - "The Fall" - Shadows
Roman GianArthur - "Depraved Valet" [ft. Kevin Barnes]
Neon Indian - "6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)" - Psychic Chasms
White Hinterland - "6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)" [Neon Indian cover]
Georgia Anne Muldrow (as Jyoti) - "The Black Mother" - Ocotea
Shoes - Side A: "Saving Mr. Billy's Soul/We Don't Row Enough/Cosmic Clock/Which Jesus Am I/Shit.../So Much For Loving You, Baby/Everything" - Eccentric Breaks and Beats
Diamond Rings - "On Fire" - Wait and See [single]
DVAS - "Society" - Society
Crystal Castles - "Violent Dreams" - Crystal Castles [2010]
Guilty Simpson - "Something Good (Intermission Two)" - OJ Simpson
Shad - "Telephone" - TSOL
The Roots - "Now or Never" ft. Phonte and Dice Raw - How I Got Over
Reflection Eternal - "Lifting Off" - Revolutions Per Minute
Light Pollution - "Deyci, Right On" - Apparitions
Loscil - "Dub for Cascadia" - Endless Falls
Michael Gregory Jackson - "Iomi" - Clarity
Teenage Fanclub - "Into the City" - Shadows
Pulp - "Dishes" - This Is Hardcore
Richard Hawley - "Remorse Code" - False Lights from the Land [EP]
Disappears - "Magics" - Lux
Laurie Anderson - "Dark Time in the Revolution" - Homeland
Emma Tricca - "Lost in New York" - Minor White
Sleigh Bells - "Treats" - Treats
Wiley - "Exp 40" - ".zip 6"
To Rococo Rot - "Ship" - Speculation
Serena Maneesh - "Blow Yr Brains in the Mourning Rain" - SM-2: Abyss in B Minor
Mantler - "In Stride" - Monody
Soft Machine - "37 1/2" - NDR Jazz Workshop, Germany, May 17, 1973

Aldous Snow, Having "Both", Floyd (and covers)

2010-07-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

A radio show! Featuring three gobbets from the new kind-of-funny film Get Him to the Greek (wherein Russell Brand reprises his role of Aldous Snow), including the wonderfully crass and vacuous "African Child (Trapped in Me)" and two tracks written by Jarvis Cocker, the favorite artist of some radio DJ or other. Oooh, new tracks by Black Milk, Chromeo and Dungen!

Scott Walker and the Long Blondes appear to disagree on whether or not "You Could Have (Best of) Both (Worlds)". Both sides of this debate -- nearly 40 years in the making -- will be heard. Also, as Bettye Lavette and the Flaming Lips attest to, Pink Floyd-covering appears to be in the air. As Air remixes MGMT.

And this boy is catching the latter's Vancouver gig later in the month! The Teenage Fanclub album is amazing! Much to be excited about. Click to listen below, after the show.

Songs:

Infant Sorrow - "African Child (Trapped in Me)", "Just Say Yes" - Get Him to the Greek [OST]
Here We Go Magic - "Vegetable or Native" - Pigeons
Light Pollution - "Ssslowdreamsss" - Apparitions
Tame Impala - "Expectations" - Innerspeaker
Scott Walker - "Best of Both Worlds" - Scott 2
The Long Blondes - "You Could Have Both" - Someone to Drive You Home
Sammy Davis, Jr. - "Easy to Love" - The Decca Years
Pink Floyd - "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Bettye LaVette - "Wish You Were Here" - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
The Flaming Lips - "Brain Damage" - The Dark Side of the Moon
The Pastels - "Get 'round Town" - Up for a Bit With The Pastels
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Menopause Man" - Before Today
Dungen - "Marken Låg Stilla" - Skit I Allt
MGMT - "It's Working" [Air remix] - It's Working [single]
The Glitch Mob - "Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul" - Drink the Sea
Black Milk - "Welcome (Gotta Go)" - Album of the Year
Chromeo - "Don't Turn the Lights On" - Business Casual
Black Tambourine - "Throw Aggi Off the Bridge (First Demo)" - Black Tambourine
Splinters - "Dark Shades" - Kick
Neil Innes - "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" - Keynsham
Teenage Fanclub - "Live With the Seasons" - Shadows
Rose Elinor Dougall - "I Know We'll Never" [single]
Moby - "We Are All Made of Stars" - 18
Moby - "One Time We Lived" [Laurent Wolf remix] - Wait for Me. Remixes!

Twilight, Von Südenfed, Steve Mason, etc.

2010-07-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

This Steve Mason album art channels 'Tap. None more black. Unbelievable stuff -- the new Paul Weller album features Kevin Shields and Broadcast. Geoff B. from Portishead says a new album is on its way, and that no one came out to his Beak> gig at Glastonbury. And cheers to Alt of Digits for pointing out that Stranglers track.

And since I've never been able to get into Pavement, Dana and I did a Jarvis-esque "Are They Any Good?" trial of "Cut Your Hair".

Songs:

Portishead - "Requiem for Anna" - Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited
Beak> - "I Know" - Beak>
The Stranglers - "Golden Brown" - Greatest Hits 1977-1990
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - "Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It)" - Dark Night of the Soul
Paul Weller - "7 + 3 (Is the Striker's Game)" - Wake Up the Nation
Twilight - "You're In Love" - Pains of Love
Twilight - "Give Love a Try" - Still Loving You
Beastie Boys - "Get It Together" - Ill Communication
Steve Mason - "Am I Just a Man" - Boys Outside
Orgone - "Overtime" - Cali Fever
Dara Puspita - "Hello, Kawan (Hello, Friend)" - 1966-1968
Shoes - "Give Me Another Day/Not Ready for School/John Goodman Is Too Cool to Cry/Find Me Diagonally/Peoplibrium/Feel What Lies Behind You" - Eccentric Breaks and Beats
Funki Porcini - "Waking Up" - On
Blue Hawaii - "Katie" - Blooming Summer
Von Südenfed - "The Rhinohead" - Tromatic Reflexxions
Tame Impala - "Jeremy's Storm" - Innerspeaker
Ratatat - "Mandy" - LP4
Holy Fuck - "Silva and Grimes" - Latin
La Roux - "Reflections Are Protection" - La Roux
Pavement - "Cut Your Hair" - Quarantine the Past
Georgia Anne Muldrow (as Jyoti) - "Ocotea" - Ocotea
The Glitch Mob - "Fortune Days" - Drink the Sea

Caribou!

2010-06-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

My friends and fellow CFUV-ites Dana and Louis interviewed Dan Snaith of Caribou a few weeks back! You can hear it over yonder.

4 hours of radio, last day at school, Dana and Kim

2010-06-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Did half of my show, wrote two exams, did loverly things off-campus, two more hours of radio with my friends -- pictured above -- Dana (of The Sound Travels) and Kim (this Kim), then coffee/dinner/final Quiz Night of the season. A good day. Dig the music, MGMT/LCD/Ariel Pink love-in abound.

Mid-Morning Razzmatazz [with Dana]:

The xx - "Basic Space" - xx
LCD Soundsystem - "You Wanted a Hit" - This Is Happening
Health - "Die Slow" [Tobacco remix] - Disco 2
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Can't Hear My Eyes" - Before Today
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - "Little Girl" - Dark Night of the Soul
Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles - "As a Mover" - The Grand Bounce
MGMT - "Someone's Missing" - Congratulations
The Beatles - "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" - A Hard Day's Night
Beardo - "Losers" - Beardo
Devo - "Fresh" - Something for Everybody
Kele - "Yesterday's Gone" - The Boxer
Sonny Simmons - "Metamorphosis" - Staying on the Watch
Iggy and The Stooges - "Raw Power" - Raw Power [Legacy Edition]
Ratatat - "Neckbrace" - LP4
Born Ruffians - "Retard Canard" - Say It
Janelle Monae - "Wondaland" - The ArchAndroid
Wolf Parade - "What Did My Lover Say?" - Expo '86
Nas and Damian Marley - "As We Enter" - Distant Relatives
Funki Porcini - "This Ain't the Way to Live" - On
Here We Go Magic - "Casual" - Pigeons
The Tallest Man on Earth - "The Gardener" - Shallow Grave

The Sound Travels [with Dana]:

Funki Porcini - "Moog River" - On
The Acorn - "No Ghost" - No Ghost
Wilco - "Handshake Drugs" - A Ghost Is Born
Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles - "The Hard Canadian" - The Grand Bounce
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Beverly Kills" - Before Today
Janelle Monae - "Come Alive (War of the Roses)" - The ArchAndroid
The Black Keys - "Tighten Up" - Brothers
Iggy and The Stooges - "Doojiman" - Raw Power [Legacy Edition]
Born Ruffians - "Nova Leigh" - Say It
MGMT - "Flash Delirium" - Congratulations
LCD Soundsystem - "You Wanted a Hit" - This Is Happening

Pterodactyl Sneak Attack [with Dana and Kim]:

T. Rex - "Cosmic Dancer" - Electric Warrior
of Montreal - "Coquet Coquette" [single]
MGMT - "Siberian Breaks" - Congratulations
The Drums - "Don't Be a Jerk Johnny" - Summertime!
UNKLE - "Natural Selection" - Where Did the Night Fall
Jarvis Cocker - "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" - Jarvis
LCD Soundsystem - "Home" - This Is Happening
Nas and Damian Marley - "As We Enter" - Distant Relatives
Archie Bronson Outfit - "Hoola" - Coconut

New Divine Comedy, Robyn, etcetera...

2010-06-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

"Robyn is too mainstream for campus radio." - Justin, CFUV Music Director

Well Justin can go eat shit. On a related note, cheers to Justin for scoring the new Robyn album for me. "Jesus Hates Faggots" is a song title for the ages, ain't it? Finally our darling Neil Hannon has a new record to his name...

...even if he can't be bothered to get out of the bath for us. A bottom right corner has ne'er been more rubber duck.

I've finally got around to playing M. de Roubaix again, electronic composer and diver extraordinaire.

Listen:

Songs:

The Stone Roses - "I Am the Resurrection" - The Stone Roses
Robyn - "Dancing on My Own" - Body Talk Pt. 1
Pantha du Prince - "Welt Am Draht" [Animal Collective remix]
John Grant - "Jesus Hates Faggots" - Queen of Denmark
Janelle Monáe - "Neon Valley Street" - The ArchAndroid
Kenickie - "Something's Got to Give" - Get In
François de Roubaix - "Ballet sans balais" - Le monde électronique de François de Roubaix Vol. 2
Georgia Anne Muldrow - "To the Stage" - Kings Ballad
The Divine Comedy - "Neapolitan Girl" and "The Songs That We Sing" - Bang Goes the Knighthood [limited deluxe edition]
Karen Elson - "The Ghost Who Walks" - The Ghost Who Walks

Defektors, Lindstrøm and Christabelle, etc.

2010-06-11T14:10:00.000-07:00

O, how I am loving that record. I did the show from 8-10 AM today, as I had to do Patty's timeslot (the staff were at the NCRA conference on Gabriola). The entire second side of the Defektors LP! Cool spotlight! ...I had to go to the washroom so I just threw something on. It's good, though.

Listen:

Songs:

Defektors - "Never Really Tried", "Don't Like Anything", "Kickfirstone" and "Burning Light" - Bottom of the City
The Auteurs - "Unsolved Child Murder" - After Murder Park
Colin Blunstone - "She Loves the Way They Love Her" and "Caroline Goodbye" - One Year
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - "Higa Noboru" - Between My Head and the Sky
The Fall - "Mexico Wax Solvent" - Your Future Our Clutter
Paten Locke - "Brava" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Lindstrøm and Christabelle - "Looking for What" and "Lovesick" - Real Life is No Cool
BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Ben Foster - "Doctor Who Closing Credits" - Doctor Who - Series 4 [OST]
Vincent Gallo - "I Wrote This Song for the Girl Paris Hilton" - When
Flying Lotus - "Recoiled" - Cosmogramma
White Hinterland - "Cataract" - Kairos
Manic Street Preachers/The Horrors - "Doors Closing Slowly" "[remix]" - Journal for Plague Lovers Remixes
Nedry - "Swan Ocean" - Condors
La Roux - "In for the Kill" and "Cover My Eyes" - La Roux
Still Going - "Spaghetti Circus" - The Juan MacLean: DJ-Kicks
Liars - "Proud Evolution" - Sisterworld
The Dolphins - "Mark's Song" - Nation of Saints: 50 Years of Northampton Music
David Bowie - "Star" - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
of Montreal - "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal" - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
UNKLE - "The Answer" - Where Did the Night Fall

Horrors, PGirls, Major La Roux, etc.

2010-06-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Photos of Parenthetical Girls are always ridiculous/wonderful. Zac-on-pedestal taken in Genoa (via theredbird). Dig some new stuff from the group, including a live track by Explode Into Colours with Zac guesting on vox.

An upbeat show. For happy boys and girls! Tyler Pantella of Pterodactyl Sneak Attack elegantly sat-in for the second hour whilst I fucked off to class. Dude wears PVC. So I give him more.

Why don't you listen?

Songs:

The Horrors - "Do You Remember" - Primary Colours
Serge Gainsbourg - "Cargo culte" - Histoire de Melody Nelson
Pulp - "My Legendary Girlfriend" [single]
Explode Into Colours - "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" ft. Zac Pennington [live] - Into the Woods Sessions
Parenthetical Girls - "On Death and Endearments" - Privilege Pt. 1: On Death and Endearments
Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination - "The Lord's Prayer" - Nigeria Special Vol. 2
Serena Maneesh - "Reprobate!" - S-M 2: Abyss in B-Minor
Janelle Monáe and of Montreal - "Make the Bus" - The ArchAndroid
Stereo Total - "Larmes de métal" - Baby Ouh!
Major Lazer and La Roux - "Independent Kill" ft. Candi Redd - Major Lazer and La Roux Presents LazerProof
Jamie Lidell - "It's a Kiss" - Compass
Kenickie - "P.V.C." - At the Club

Show: Elliott's Third Eye, Publishing Demos, etc.

2010-05-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Matt Elliott, the man behind the immensely depressing Drinking Songs album I've owned for years, is another artist I can file under the 'connected to Chris Morris' variety. Under his moniker The Third Eye Foundation Elliott contributed a song to what would have been a compilation inspired by Morris' Blue Jam. Sadly, only two of the songs ever saw the light of day.

They were young, they had a bunch of songs piled up. They made publishing demos. In light of the archival Kris Kristofferson release, Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 (just issued on Light in the Attic), I've brought out my old Jackson Browne Nina Demo bootlegs. Hear "The Fairest of the Seasons" go from crackly demo to Velvets-overpowered masterpiece. That photo was taken by Linda Eastman (later McCartney), back when Browne would play coffee houses with his girlfriend Nico -- whilst they were drenched in 35mm film projections. None more art.

The Caribou and Toro Y Moi concert is tonight! Instant Party!

Why don't you listen?

Songs:

Cilla Black - "Step Inside Love" - The Best of the EMI Years
Matt Elliott - "The Guilty Party" - Drinking Songs
The Third Eye Foundation - "Push Off My Wire (vs. Chris Morris)" - I Poo Poo on Your Juju
Funky Monkey - "Down with Mr. Majestyk" - The Fantastic Journey
Tobacco - "Creepy Phone Calls" - Maniac Meat
UNKLE - "Ever Rest" ft. Joel Cadbury - Where Did the Night Fall
Flying Lotus - "Do the Astral Plane" - Cosmogramma
Toro Y Moi - "Imprint After" - Causers of This
Caribou - "Lalibela" - Swim
Caribou - "The Barn" - Marino
Holy Fuck - "Red Lights" - Latin
Elf Power - "Felt Good to Burn" [Flaming Lips cover] - Come On [EP]
Serena Maneesh - "D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D" - S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor
Kris Kristofferson - "When I Loved Her" - Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72
Jackson Browne - "Marianne" and "The Fairest of the Seasons" - The Nina Publishing Demos [1967]
Nico - "The Fairest of the Seasons" - Chelsea Girl
Frog Eyes - "A Flower in a Glove" - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Crystal Castles - "Suffocation" - Crystal Castles [2010]
Frank Rothkamm - "Zahra Fugue 23" - Zahra Fugues
Soft Machine - "E.P.V." - NDR Jazz Workshop, Germany, May 17, 1973
Sade - "Skin" - Soldier of Love
Stereo Total - "Illégal" - Baby Ouh!
LCD Soundsystem - "One Touch" - This Is Happening
South - "All in for Nothing" - From Here on In

Fill-in: We Are Ugly But We Have the Music

2010-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Donald of We Are Ugly was off doing whatever young men do last Thursday, so a gallant troupe of radio stars took over his 1030-midnight slot for the night -- Dana (The Sound Travels), Johnnie (Music to Make Dinner By), Louis (Sound Unlimited), Troy (The Action Index), Tyler (PS-Attack), Blake (Beating Around the Bush), and, uh, me.

The above photo has (L-R) Louis and Dana posing like their UVic brethren did before them.

Scream Room and Titus Rorschach were live in session!

Why don't you listen?

Songs:

The Fall - "Cowboy George" - Your Future Our Clutter
Frog Eyes - "Policy Merchant 2: Ah Shit, Man" [with commentary] - 7"
Holy Fuck - "SHT MTN" - Latin
Frog Eyes - "Lear in Love" - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Scream Room - "Session with Oblique Strategies" [live]
She and Him - "Don't Look Back" - Vol. 2
Interview with Johnnie Regalado
Louis Yu - "My Rating Scale" - Gross
These New Puritans - "Attack Music" - Hidden
Broken Social Scene - "All to All" - Forgiveness Rock Record
Scream Room/Scr3am - "Session 2" ft. Titus Rorschach [live]
Interview with Titus Rorschach (Part 1)
Titus Rorschach - "Every Little Leech" - Sideways Dollar Sign (Two Dots)
MGMT - "Someone's Missing" - Congratulations
Interview with Titus Rorschach (Part 2)
Hello Blue Roses - "Foam Hands" - 7" [with commentary and guest vocals]
Flying Lotus - "Zodiac Shit" - Cosmogramma
Gregest - "I Want You" - I Want You!
Interview with Tyler Pantella
Crystal Castles - "Baptism" - Crystal Castles [2010]
"Randy" Segment
Spookey Ruben - "Wendy McDonald" - Transportation Vol. 1
Interview with Blake Enemark of Forestry
Parenthetical Girls - "Song for Ellie Greenwich" - Entanglements
"Dana on the Street"
Parenthetical Girls - "The Best Thing" and "Everybody Got" - The Scottish Play (Ivor Cutler)
Tobacco - "Mexican Ice Cream" - Maniac Meat

Show: Kevin Shields and Patti Smith

2010-05-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

My Bloody Valentine hero Kevin Shields has done some nifty collaborations over the years -- whether its with Primal Scream, Le Volume Courbe, or on the Paul Weller record(?). His 2005 performance with Patti Smith might top them all, however -- as he supplied accompaniment to Patti's reading of her book The Coral Sea in London. You can download the hour-long performance here.

...and playing a Plastic Ono Band/Kenickie set makes this radio thing all worthwhile.

Why don't you listen?

Songs:

Deerhunter - "Agoraphobia" - Microcastle
John Grant - "Where Dreams Go to Die" - Queen of Denmark
Jacques Dutronc - "La métaphore" - Jacques Dutronc [1968]
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - "Calling" - Between My Head and the Sky
Kenickie - "And That's Why" - Get In
J Dilla - "Morning Order" - Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes
Lou Bond - "Why Must Our Eyes Always Be Turned Backwards" - Lou Bond
The Baldwin Brothers - "Dream Girl" - Cooking With Lasers
My Bloody Valentine - "Loomer" - Loveless
Patti Smith with Kevin Shields - "The Coral Sea" - 22 June 2005, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
The Twilight Sad - "Seven Years of Letters" - Forget the Night Ahead
Crystal Castles - "Empathy" - Crystal Castles [2010]

Show: Lo, an It Girl!

2010-05-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

Of note on today's show are the two tracks from Tim Buckley's sprawling opus Lorca, as well as a live version of his splendid "Song for Janie". The girl who cut my hair the other day? Her name? Janie. BELIEVE.

As well, one of the five wicked interviews between Chris Morris and fellow comedian Peter Cook. Last week I had a pretty wonderful Morris-themed package arrive in the mail, which included his biography Disgusting Bliss, the short film My Wrongs #8245-8249 and 117, and the Why Bother? album. I've become something of a fan, yes.

Long Hot Summer, Lorca, Logos, Louwop... That shit was all unplanned, too. I swear.

Power outages throughout make this a rather ghetto listen.

Why don't you listen?

Songs:

Venini - "Carnival Star" - Carnival Star [single]
Billy Nicholls - "Girl From New York" - Would You Believe
Louwop - "Hamba Outro" - The Great Escape
Frog Eyes - "Rebel Horns" - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Atlas Sound - "Shelia" - Logos
The Divine Comedy - "Leaving Today" - Absent Friends
A Personal Phono-Wank: The Style Council - "Long Hot Summer" - Sweet Loving Ways
Let's Wrestle - "My Schedule" - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's
The Fall - "O.F.Y.C. Showcase" - Your Future Our Clutter
MGMT - "Song for Dan Treacy" - Congratulations
Adele - "Daydreamer" - 19 [request by Bryanda!]
Hot Chip and Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "I Feel Bonnie" - 7"
Sleeper - "Lie Detector" - The It Girl
These New Puritans - "Time Xone" - Hidden
Groove Armada - "Cards to Your Heart" - Black Light
Jack Splash - "Love Is a Symphony" - King of the Beats Vol. 1
Simon Bookish - "A Deception (Municipal Mix)" - Trainwreck/Raincheck
Peter Cook and Chris Morris - "Bears" - Why Bother?
Tim Buckley - "Song for Janie" - Live at the Folklore Center, NYC: March 6, 1967
Tim Buckley - "Anonymous Proposition" and "I Had a Talk With My Woman" - Lorca
Caribou - "Leave House" - Swim
Instra:Mental - "Photograph" - Commix: Fabriclive 44
Japandroids - "Art Czars" - 7"

Show: Midfield General, Genius Within

2010-05-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure what this is. But I damn well played it for you. Aussi, the new Frog Eyes is actually SICK. Do not wholly dismiss Dana Corrigan's blindly hyperbolic praise (actually Dana is reticent with his praise for this record...but I wrote that sentence long before consulting him and am loathe to give it up).

Them gigs: The show I organized for the station at Fort St Cafe last night went surprisingly well -- DJ Longshanks was fantastic with his Buddha/vinyl set, whilst Techromancer and Nail Salon were in equally fine form. The new line-up of the latter is exponentially better than the original incarnation. They were all spacey and intelligent. Toronto's Digits (whose album Hold It Close was a favorite from last year) closed out the night. Also, Owen Pallett is in town on Monday.

CFUV is sponsoring the showings of Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of this month at Cinecenta (link). When did Cinecenta's site become so sexy? A mass of Gould download cards have been mysteriously littered throughout the station. The two pieces on today's show are included in the download. Come by the station and you could probably get one for yourself. Also, GG was a bit Buckley-esque in his youth, no?

Listen:

Songs:

Caribou - "Jamelia" - Swim
Michael Alexander St John and Chris Morris - "Dance News 2" - Blue Jam (ep. 3.2)
Nobuo Uematsu - "Waltz for the Moon" - Final Fantasy VIII [OST]
Midfield General ft. Noel Fielding - "Midfielding" - Spoken Word EP
Deerhunter - "Cover Me (Slowly)" - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Richard Hawley - "Born Under a Bad Sign" - Coles Corner
The Fall - "Who Makes the Nazis?" - Hex Enduction Hour
Techromancer - "Feel How I Feel" - Space Duel
Toro y Moi - "Talamak" - Causers of This
Saint Etienne - "Zipcode" - Sylvie [single]
Cock and Swan - "Sunset Burns" - Unrecognize
"GIG REVIEWS" WITH CHRISTINE COMRIE
Om Unit - "Encoded" - Elevator Music 1 (Fabric)
Excepter - "Teleportation: ASK" - Presidence
John Lennon - "Mind Games" - Mind Games
Final Fantasy/Owen Pallett - "Blue Imelda" - Spectrum, 14th Century EP
Erykah Badu - "You Loving Me (Session)" - New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
Juiceboxxx - "Thunder Jam #5 (Grunge Version With Possible Fathers)" - Thunder Zone Vol. 1
Herpes - "Verzettelt" - Das kommt vom Küssen
MGMT - "Congratulations" - Congratulations
Frog Eyes - "The Sensitive Girls" - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Wooden Shjips - "Vampire Blues" - Vol. 2
Sally Seltmann - "Book Song" - Heart That's Pounding
Helena Bonham Carter - "The Worst Pies in London" - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [OST]
Mulatu Astatke - "Green Africa" - Mulatu Steps Ahead
Jonathan Coe - "Tower Hill" ft. Louis Philippe and Danny Manners - 9th and 13th
Glenn Gould - 4 Ballades, Op. 10: No. 3 "Intermezzo" in B Minor - Allegro - Brahms: 4 Ballades, 2 Rhapsodies
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria - The Goldberg Variations - Glenn Gould Plays Bach (1981)
Janina Angel Bath - "Life Everlasting Flowers" - Gypsy Woman

Show: Marianne to Amsterdam

2010-04-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

Album Spotlight: Marianne Faithfull - Kissin' Time (2002)

I only just found out about this record. Marianne surrounded herself with some fantastic collaborators -- Blur, Dave Stewart, Beck, (to a lesser extent) Billy Corgan, and Pulp, sounding at the height of their powers. In fact Jarvis et al. sounding less like the band that would've just made the hazy We Love Life than they do their festival-crashing, pop hero selves from the 90s. I only now just learned about EBows. Three songs for Marianne 'cos she's so amazing. Oh, and do check out this knockout performance of "Sliding Through Life on Charm" ft. Mr. Sunday Service here.

I was going to do a spotlight on Dodgem Logic, Alan Moore's new magazine (with its accompanying Northampton music album). Alas -- a fire alarm went off. Emergency no-show programming ate up a bit of the show. Again, ALAS. I suppose we'll Dodgem next week.

I realized that I have three different recordings with the title "Amsterdam" on my laptop. I then decided this fact must be communicated to Greater Victoria listeners. Two are English covers of the Brel song via Scott Walker and Bowie (who according to the latter have a mutual ex-girlfriend! Sexy London Town!). The third is an original off of the new White Hinterland album. Related, Casey Deinel photographs as lovely as her music sounds. Also of note -- finally spinning my copy of the Otley soundtrack, and RIP Steve Reid, whose NYC album was a lovely listen for me back in late 2008.

Listen:

Songs:

Chris Morris - "Moyles Sting" - Blue Jam
John Grant - "I Wanna Go to Marz" - Queen of Denmark
Bonnie "Prince" Billy + The Cairo Gang - "Someone Coming Through" - The Wonder Show of the World
The Zombies - "The Way I Feel Inside" - The Original Studio Recordings, Vol. 1
Bonobo - "Kong" - Black Sand
Relaxed Muscle - "Rod of Iron" - A Heavy Nite With...
Stanley Myers - "Tell Her You Love Her (Instrumental)" - Otley [OST]
Stanley Myers ft. Alex Keenan - "Tell Her You Love Her (Vocal)" - Otley [OST]
Marianne Faithfull - "Sliding Through Life on Charm", "Sex With Strangers", and "Song for Nico" - Kissin' Time
Nico - "Winter Song" - Chelsea Girl
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - "Departure" - NYC
Scott Walker - "Amsterdam" - Scott
David Bowie - "Amsterdam" - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: 30th Anniversary Edition
White Hinterland - "Amsterdam" - Kairos
The Apples in Stereo - "No One in the World" - Travelers in Space and Time
Caribou - "Found Out" - Swim
Instruments - "Decent Worm" - National Laboratory
Fire alarm/shitty emergency playlist
David Byrne + Fatboy Slim - "Here Lies Love" ft. Florence Welch - Here Lies Love
Nedry - "Squid Cat Battle" - Condors
The Go-Go's - "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With a Dalek" [single]
Deux - "Game and Performance" - The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1

Show: Artists not interviewed by me

2010-04-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's today's theme.

The Charlotte Gainsbourg show was pretty fantastic. The unexpected was played -- we got to hear her rendition of "Just Like a Woman," her contribution to the I'm Not There soundtrack. (Randy, station manager, found it superior to the Dylan original. Me: "Either way, it's Jewish"). As well, she played two of her father's songs(!!!), "Couleur Café," and the Melody Nelson track "L'hotel particulier". The latter of which was probably the highlight of the show. Jogger was unexpectedly on the bill that night -- as it turns out one of the guys played guitar and violin in Charlotte's band. Anyways, earlier that day fellow CFUV-ite Geneviève brilliantly stepped in to interview Charlotte whilst I wrote an essay about the English anti-slavery movement. The questions you'd think were mine are mine, nice of Gen to ask them. Listen to it in all its glory! The interview that is, not the exam.

As well, I've included a bit from Hot Chip's live session with Lauren Laverne from earlier in the month. The new album is getting a rough treatment at the station: I saw it in the Music Director's office with the post-it "Give this an old number -- it blows hard" (old numbers are the MD kiss of death, removing the record from chart eligibility). Yet I like it just fine. Hearing "I Feel Better" without the studio sheen may even appeal to some doubters out there. Related inclusions: Scritti Politti, Green Gartside's band (Green guests on the Chip session -- he's on the far right in that photo), and a track from Ms. Laverne's erstwhile pop career in Kenickie. Team-Laverne's show blog can be found here.

I had to (sort of) break away from the day's "not interviewed by me" theme by recounting a bit of what Dickon Edwards (Fosca, Orlando) had to say in his responses to our little email interview. The piece should find its way into an online or paper edition of Renegade Radio in the coming months. The Sondheim and New Order tracks played at the end of the show are some of those Dickon mentioned. Check out Dickon's diary here, and the Fosca site, which includes a free download of the gorgeous "Confused and Proud". Related -- turns out his mother is something of a quilting pop star.

Listen:

Songs:

Destroyer - "My Favourite Year" - Trouble in Dreams
Vincent Gallo - "Laura" - When
Glenn Miller - "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)" - The Essential Glenn Miller
Ronnie Hazlehurst and Stephanie Reeve - "Are You Being Served?" [TV theme]
Jogger - "Just Briefly" [remix] - This Great Pressure
[Charlotte Gainsbourg Interview by Geneviève Dale]
Serge Gainsbourg - "L'hotel particulier" - Histoire de Melody Nelson
Astrud Gilberto - "So Nice" - Lounging With Fairmont III
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings - "Window Shopping" - I Learned the Hard Way
Del tha Funkee Homosapien - "Slam Dunk" - 11th Hour
Slam Dunk - "Slowdance" - Slam Dunk
Scritti Politti - "Hegemony" - Early
Hot Chip - "I Feel Better" - Live on Lauren Laverne, 6Music, 04/09/10
Kenickie - "Magnatron" - Get In
MGMT - "Someone's Missing" - Congratulations
Caribou - "Sun" - Swim
Dory Previn - "The Lady With the Braid" - In Search of Mythical Kings (The U.A. Years)
Fosca - "Evening Dress at 3PM" - The Painted Side of the Rocket
Paul Gemignani, Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters - "Sunday in the Park with George" - Sunday In the Park With George (Original Cast Recording)
New Order - "Weirdo" - Brotherhood
Happy Birthday - "Subliminal Message" - Happy Birthday

Show: Aphex Twin, Harlem 'n' Hawley

2010-04-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. James? Yes.

Mr. Hawley? Mm-hm.

JDOG? YA

I had an interview lined up with Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Empress, which would have been absolute magic. But instead on Monday I'll be in some hell-hole classroom writing an exam on the Atlantic Slave Trade. I was ...blessed with another hour of programming after the show proper, so extra Gonjasufi and disco-opera David Byrne!

Listen:

Songs:

Harlem - "Someday Soon" - Hippies
Malachai - "Another Sun" - Ugly Side of Love
Richard Hawley - "Tonight the Streets Are Ours" - Lady's Bridge
Field Music - "You and I" - Field Music (Measure)
Bibio - "Cry! Baby!" - Ambivalence Avenue
Simon Bookish - "Synchrotron" - Everything/Everything
The Smiths - "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" - The Sound of the Smiths
Aphex Twin - "4" - Richard D. James Album
The Morning Benders - "Pleasure Sighs" - Big Echo
Half Man Half Biscuit - "Joy Division Oven Gloves" - Achtung Bono
Black Tambourine - "Black Car" - Black Tambourine
Lawrence Arabia - "The Crew of the Commodore" - Chant Master
Broken Bells - "Trap Doors" - Broken Bells
Bola Johnson and His Easy Life Top Beats - "Jeka Dubu" - Nigeria Special Vol. 2
Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars - "Oruwiebie Magazine Bobo Medley" - Rise + Shine
Gonjasufi - "Duet" - A Sufi and a Killer
Toro y Moi - "You Hid" - Causers of This
Om Unit - "Lightrids" - Martyn: Fabric 50 Radio Mix
Neon Indian - "Sleep Paralysist" - Green Label Sound
White Hinterland - "Moon Jam" - Kairos
Roxy Music - "Chance Meeting" - Roxy Music
David Byrne + Fatboy Slim - "Dancing Together" ft. Sharon Jones - Here Lies Love
Archie Bronson Outfit - "Bite It and Believe It" - Coconut
Amen Corner - "Hey, Hey Girl" - Selected Hits, Vol. 1
The Besnard Lakes - "Chicago Train" - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Morning Song" - 5:55
Cock + Swan - "Holding On" + "I Let Me In" - Unrecognize
Gonjasufi - "She Gone" - A Sufi and a Killer
Lonelady - "Intuition" - Nerve Up
Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby - "Hicky Burr" - The Original Jam Sessions, 1969
Fela and Africa 70 - "Who're You?" - Nigeria Afrobeat Special
Jarvis Cocker - "Jamma! 1" ft. Max Eastley - Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service
Roky Erickson With Okkervil River - "True Love Cast Out All Evil" - True Love Cast Out All Evil
Cecilia Bartoli - "Misero pargoletto" - Sacrificium
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Le chat du café des artistes" - IRM
David Byrne + Fatboy Slim - "Please Don't" ft. Santigold - Here Lies Love

Show: "Philip Glass, bigger than he actually is?"

2010-04-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Our young man is attending Philip Glass' solo piano concert tomorrow evening. Sorry, what was that? "Will I be wearing a corduroy jacket?" YOU DON'T KNOW ME AT ALL. As you can tell, I played two tracks from Glass' score to Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream. You know, I once played the entire soundtrack on an episode of my old show. What do you mean "That sounds like lazy programming"?

Also, an excerpt from an early episode of Jarvis' show! It's a description of how we physiologically experience music, according to one Greg Milner. The reading can be downloaded at JC's blog.

Stream:

Songs:

Sparks - "Amateur Hour" [Live at Fairfield Halls 09/11/75] - Kimono My House [reissue]
Little Dragon - "Feather" - Feather [single]
The Pipettes - "Stop the Music" - Stop the Music [single]
Gigi - "Won't Someone Tell Me?" ft. Mirah - Maintenant
Jamie Lidell - "Another Day" - Jim
Belle and Sebastian - "Jonathan David" - Sing Jonathan David
Spearmint - "A Happy Ending" - My Missing Days
Massive Attack - "Girl I Love You" ft. Horace Andy - Heligoland
Phono d'enfant - "Dark Ones" - White Blossoms
Gonjasufi - "Sheep" - A Sufi and a Killer
Ghostkeeper - "Don't Come Knocking" - Ghostkeeper
These New Puritans - "Drum Courts-Where Corals Lie" - Hidden
Chris Morris - "Morton Interview" - Blue Jam
Dragon Turtle - "Moon Fallout" - Almanac
Blessure Grave - "Hope for the Worst" - Judged by Twelve, Carried by Six
Philip Glass - "Death on the Boat", "Cassandra's Dream Finale" - Cassandra's Dream
Frank Rothkamm - "Zahra Fugue 8" - Zahra Fugues
Pulp - "The Trees" - We Love Life
Jarvis Cocker - [A reading from Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music] - Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "In the End" - IRM
Space - "Female of the Species" - Spiders
Tobacco - "Sweatmother" - Maniac Meat
Quasi - "Everything and Nothing at All" - American Gong
Cecilia Bartoli - "Parto ti lascio, o cara" - Sacrificium

Show: Montague Terraces, Chilton, Hong Kong

2010-03-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks until the Charlotte Gainsbourg concert! Getting my undergrad on the island has proved a solid means to finally seeing one of my all-time favourites. Methinks one song each from her last two records is a good way to get one and all psyched for the show. Apparently AM is opening for the lady.

In sad news, Alex Chilton passed away last week. He of course fronted Big Star, one of the bands that I've loved since high school. It's still unnerving how relatively unknown the band is. Just molecules away from superstardom. The tribute/obituary penned by Paul Westerberg can be read here.

I've played The Family Cat before, yes. But just arrived at chez radio host is their 7" single "Kolombus" b/w "Montague Terrace (In Blue)". The latter being one of the greatest songs written by this man:

The original to be juxtaposed with the cover by le chat. I don't even own a turntable at the moment (luckily the station has many), so my reaction to the 90s UK-indie rendition will occur LIVE.

And that Hong Kong in the 60s track is magic stuff.

Stream, you genius:

Songs:

DJ Center - "The Rain" - Everything in Time
Georgia Anne Muldrow - "Industrial Bap" - Kings Ballad
Field Music - "In the Mirror" - Field Music (Measure)
Jake Thackray - "To Do With You" - Jake in a Box: The EMI Recordings 1967-1976
Scott Walker - "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" - Scott
The Family Cat - "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" - [7"]
Ivor Cutler - "Life In a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2 (Episode 16)" - Privilege
Ivor Cutler - "I Ate a Lady's Bun" - A Flat Man
These New Puritans - "Attack Music" - Hidden
Excepter - "The Anti-Noah" - Presidence
Scarlet's Well - "Mermaid" - Black Tulip Wings
Brigitte Fontaine - "Moi aussi" - Brigitte Fontaine
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Night-Time Intermission" - 5:55
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Trick Pony" - IRM
AM - "Self Preservation" - Future Sons and Daughters
The Magnetic Fields - "You Must Be Out of Your Mind" - Realism
Big Star - "Nightime" - Third/Sister Lovers
MGMT - "Flash Delirium" - Congratulations
The Hundred in the Hands - "Undressed in Dresden" - Dressed in Dresden
Robyn - "Jack You Off" - The Rackomonie EP
Bobby Womack - "Across 110th Street" - The Best of Bobby Womack: The Soul Years
Gorillaz - "Cloud of Unknowing" ft. Bobby Womack + Sinfonia Viva - Plastic Beach
Sally Shapiro - "Dying in Africa" (Nicolas Makelbrge cover) - The Seven Year Itch [comp.]
Hong Kong in the 60s - "Footsteps" (The Last Skeptik Remix) - Footsteps [single]
A Broken Consort - "A Mercy Kill" - Crow Autumn
Jarvis Cocker - "Petey's Song" - Fantastic Mr. Fox [OST]
Teeth Mountain - "Soft Beast" - Teeth Mountain

My review of the new Gorillaz -- in Chinese!

2010-03-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

Of course, thanks to Louis of Sound Unlimited for asking me to do it/translating. Check out the whole article/look at indecipherable symbols over at woozy.cn, which apparently "all the Chinese hipsters read," according to said Louis.

None more excited.

2010-03-13T00:28:00.000-08:00

Show: Suicide Journalist

2010-03-11T01:42:00.000-08:00

CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG IS PLAYING VICTORIA: !!!

...and of lesser importance I did a show from 2-3pm, coming to you on a Thursday, not mid-morning, and only an hour long. This is because tomorrow my regular time-slot will be dedicated to our 2010 Fundrive! At which time I will kindly ask my listeners for donations to the station capital fund. Because we need a shiny new transmitter if we want to fulfill the "radio" part of our mandate. A few of my fellow CFUV-ites should be in the studio with me to cheerlead.

I finally received my copy of Chris Morris' out-of-print Blue Jam -- which amounts to something between sketch comedy and an ambient record (it was suitably released on Warp). "Suicide Journalist" nicely captures the nonsense of any self-absorbed 'intelligentsia'. What a nasty sentence, that one.

edit -- A few people phoned in saying how much they loved the Morris sketch. Warms my heart to know CFUV listeners are such a lovable, depraved bunch.

Plus the Parenthetical Girls/Xiu Xiu split single of Morrissey covers.

Remember, tune-in and phone-in tomorrow with your monies! I prepared a little radio play that involves an animal kingdom wherein one Missy Muskrat only makes reactive donations to causes. Will she become proactive and learn to support the station she loves? Find out tomorrow... But listen to today's show WROIGHT NOW:

Songs:

Blessure Grave - "Resting Place for Two" - Judged By Twelve, Carried by Six
The Soft Pack - "Parasites" - The Soft Pack
Cecilia Bartoli - "In braccio a mille furie" - Sacrificium
Somnambulist - "Things I Was Due to Forget" - The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1
Chris Morris - "Blue Jam Intro" and "Suicide Journalist" - Blue Jam
Parenthetical Girls - "Handsome Devil" [Smiths cover]
Xiu Xiu - "Hated for Loving" [Morrissey cover]
Xiu Xiu - "Falkland Rd." - Dear God, I Hate Myself
Gil Scott-Heron - "I'll Take Care of You" - I'm New Here
Toro Y Moi - "Blessa" - Causers of This
Moon Duo - "Escape" - Escape

Show: A Zef Tree in the Meadow

2010-03-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

Mark E. Smith of the Fall! I played him last week. But also, my mom! "A Tree in the Meadow" by Mlle Squires was #1 in Britain the day of her birth, and since East Africa was a UK colony, I forced the connection (no Tanzanian charts are to be found, sadly).

I always stumble when discussing Gainsbourg. So very uncomfortable with French pronunciation.

I had to do an impromptu fill-in after the show which was particularly unremarkable. (More Gigi and Gil Scott-Heron, but you people already got your fix, right?) It is therefore not included in the following:

Songs:

God Help the Girl - "Perfection as a Hipster" - God Help the Girl
Gil Scott-Heron - "Running" - I'm New Here
Pulp - "Seconds" - The Sisters EP
Lazlo Supreme - "Fly Drexler" - Evil Made Easy
Metawon - "Right on Time" ft. Jeff Spec + Ghettosocks - Choplifter!
Paten Locke - "Just Me" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Strong Arm Steady - "Two Pistols" ft. Mitchy Slick - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Dorothy Squires - "A Tree in the Meadow" - Britain's First Number Ones 1945-1952
Cat Power + Karen Elson - "I Love You (Me Either)" - Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited
Tricky - "Au revoir Emmanuelle" - Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited
Efterklang - "Full Moon" - Magic Chairs
DJ Center - "Strings" - Everything in Time
Gigi - "Dreams of Romance" ft. Zac Pennington - Maintenant
Parenthetical Girls - "Afterwords" - A Song for Ellie Greenwich [single]
Toro Y Moi - "Freak Love" - Causers of This
Massive Attack - "Rush Minute" - Heligoland
Holly Miranda - "Joints" - The Magician's Private Library
Four Tet - "Sing" - There Is Love In You
Depatterning - "For a More Complete Story..." - Forestry Lessons EP
Field Music - "The Wheels Are in Place" - Field Music (Measure)
Michael Yonkers and the Blind Shake - "Wise Mr. Owl" - Cold Town-Soft Zodiac
Malachai - "Fading World" - Ugly Side of Love
Die Antwoord - "Beat Boy" - $O$
Owen Pallett - "Oh Heartland, Up Yours!" - Heartland
Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté - "Be Mankan"- Ali + Toumani

Pressy McPress: New Renegade

2010-03-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of our station magazine has just come out, and can be found all around campus, and at trendier locations downtown (i.e. if it sells hemp, vinyl, and/or coffee you're in the right place). It looks like this:

Which reminds me of this Judy Collins cover. Though our lady doesn't have Judy Collins' "georgas" eyes. GET IT? I wrote a few things for this issue, including a Q+A with Alt Altman of Digits, a review of Owen Pallett's new album Heartland, and a profile of my friend Dana's show The Sound Travels. One may remember Dana wrote one for my show some months back. Have a look-see online, then go grab the real deal around town...

Don't forget to tune-in tomorrow for the show, the next-level Zef of Die Antwoord meets 1940s pop standards. Could, but shouldn't be missed.

Show: Erykah Badu // St. Isabelle (Adjani) of France

2010-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

Erykah Badu!

VENERATED ON THIS DAY

St. Isabelle of France!

STREAMTHISSHIT:

Songs:

"Friendly Fires" [actually Au Revoir Simone] "Paris" (Aeroplane remix) - A-Trak: Fabriclive 45
The Last Poets / Pheek - "When the Revolution Comes" - Jay Haze: Fabric 47
Freeway and Jake One - "One Thing" ft. Raekwon - The Stimulus Package
Massive Attack - "Babel" - Heligoland
Moon Duo - "Untitled" - Escape
The Family Cat - "Hamlet for Now" - Magic Happens
Erykah Badu - "Window Seat" - [single]
Strong Arm Steady - "Questions" ft. Planet Asia and Fashawn - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Amanda Blank - "Get Um Girl" - B-More Gutta
Isabelle Adjani - "Je t'aime idiot" - Pull marine
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "La collectionneuse" - IRM
Beach House - "Lover of Mine" - Teen Dream
RJD2 - "Tin Flower" - The Colossus
Turquoise Days - "Blurred" - The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One
The Fall - "Time Enough at Last" - Code: Selfish
Gregest - "I Want You" - I Want You!
Lightspeed Champion - "Marlene" - Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Hot Chip - "Hand Me Down Your Love" - One Life Stand
Brasstronaut - "Ravan" - Mt. Chimaera
Tonstartssbandht - "Subtropic Gleme Rock" - Dick Nights
Ernest Gonzales - "Etchasketch Trees" - Been Meaning to Tell You
Gil Scott-Heron - "On Coming From a Broken Home (Part 2)" - I'm New Here
Holly Miranda - "No One Just Is" - The Magician's Private Library
Pantha du Prince - "Behind the Stars" - Black Noise

New show tomorrow...

2010-02-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

As sexy as Holly Miranda? I can only hope. I'll play her new record just in case.

In sad news, BBC 6 Music is getting axed. My internet has become infinitely less colorful. Hopefully Lady Laverne and Count Cocker will find home on another digital service...

Anyways, tune-in tomorrow 9am-11am.

Wednesday Night Nexus

2010-02-20T20:22:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday Dana (The Sound Travels, Fridays 3pm-4pm), Louis (Sound Unlimited, Thursdays, 10pm-12am) and I filled-in for Salt and Pepper from 10 until midnight. The result was a smoky set of CFUV in-jokes and some fine music. The new album by locals Foresty was discussed. As well: love advice from "Dr. Louis," the sexiest sound I can make on air, getting tricked into making a hate crime by said Dr. Louis (involves cats, Bowie and Cathay). Banter, laughter.

THE NEXUS:

Songs:

Jessica Pavone - "Wednesday's Rules" - Songs of Synastry and Solitude
Spearmint - "The Flaming Lips" - A Different Lifetime
Jonathan Coe - "9th and 13th" - 9th and 13th
Forestry - ??? - Forestry (as a part of Perhaps They Are Worth Our Time?)
Massive Attack - "Saturday Come Slow" ft. Damon Albarn - Heligoland
David Bowie - "Introduction", "The Duck, Dialogue With The Bird, Attack Of The Cat" - Prokofiev: Peter & The Wolf, Op. 67
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Time of the Assassins" - IRM
Gil Scott-Heron - "Me and the Devil" - I'm New Here
Pulp - "Do You Remember the First Time?" - His 'n' Hers
The Magnetic Fields - "You Must Be Out of Your Mind" - Realism
Crown Land - Pop Singers and Politicians
Holly Miranda -"No One Just Is" - Magician's Private Library
Ent - "Silver Moment" - Welcome Stranger
Four Tet - "Sing" - There Is Love In You
Real Estate - "Fake Blues"

Show: Smokey Robinson // (Tony) Conrad of Piacenza

2010-02-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

Smokey Robinson!

VENERATED ON THIS DAY

Conrad of Piacenza!

Stream? STREAM.

(In parts four, two hours ne'er more)

Songs:

Pulp - "This Is Hardcore" - This Is Hardcore
DJ Center - "A Few Good Words" ft. Njimole - Everything in Time
Strong Arm Steady - "True Champs" ft. Montage One, Oh No, and Roc C - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Paten Locke - "After You" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - "I Second That Emotion" - The 35th Anniversary Collection
Gorillaz - "DARE" - Demon Days
Andrew Bird - "Theme 1 (Waltz)" - Ballad of the Red Shoes EP
Jessica Pavone - "The Harbinger" - Songs of Synastry and Solitude
The Magnetic Fields - "Always Already Gone" - Realism
Four Tet - "Plastic People" - There Is Love in You
Tony Conrad w/ Faust - "The Pyre of Angus Was in Kathmandu" - Outside the Dream Syndicate
Gil Scott-Heron - "The Crutch" - I'm New Here
UNKLE - "Natural Selection" - Where Did the Night Fall
Tonstartssbandht - "Yo A.J.J. Hess" - Dick Nights
Thee American Revolution - "Haircut" - Buddha Electrostorm
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Greenwich Mean Time" - IRM
Lawrence Arabia - "Apple Pie Bed" - Chant Darling
Midlake - "Bring Down" - The Courage of Others
Tindersticks - "Hubbards Hills" - Falling Down a Mountain
Basia Bulat - "Walk You Down" - Heart of My Own
Michael and the Mumbles - "I'm Cryin'" - Michael and the Mumbles
Elastica - "Never Here" - Elastica
The Dead Science - "Sam Mickens' Dream" - Frost Giant
Dobie Gray - "No Room to Cry" - The In Crowd
Massive Attack - "Psyche" - Heligoland

Show: Michael McDonald (...) // St. Julian [Cope]

2010-02-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

Michael McDonald, born 1952. Above, 'shopped into a Grizzly Bear hang-out.

VENERATED ON THIS DAY

St. Julian the Hospitalier

I've been into Spank Rock like mad for the last week, both YoYoYoYoYoYo and their Fabriclive 33 compilation -- the station copy of the latter is a weird radio-friendly mix, and is a bit different from the commercial version... I don't think the Talking Heads remix I played is otherwise available. So, EXCLUSIVE.

STREEEEEEEAM:

(shite commentary of arts in four parts)

Songs:

Staygold - "Backseat" ft. Robyn, Spank Rock, and Damien Adore
Spank Rock - "Bump" - YoYoYoYoYoYo
Talking Heads - "Girlfriend Is Better" - Spank Rock: Fabriclive 33 [radio edition]
Juiceboxxx - "I'm a Man" ft. Spank Rock - Thunder Zone Vol. 1
Four Tet - "Angel Echoes" - There Is Love in You
DJ Center - "Leave the City Outside" ft. Oddisee - Everything in Time
Grizzly Bear - "While You Wait for the Others" ft. Michael McDonald [single]
Gil Scott-Heron - "Your Soul and Mine" - I'm New Here
Florence + the Machine - "You've Got the Love" [The xx remix] - Lungs
The xx - "Basic Space" - xx
The Teardrop Explodes - "Pure Joy" - Wilder
Dubstar - "Everyday I Die" - Random (A Gary Numan Tribute)
Millionyoung - "Chlorophyll" - Sunndreamm EP
Mark Jones, KRON-TV/KRON-4 [Bubb Rubb and Whistle Tips segment]
Ghettosocks - "Onlyindamornin'" - Treat of the Day
Heiki - "Sound Testa" - Paper + Sound
Funky Monkey - "The Hitman™ 2/ Love Song for a Hitman" - The Fantastic Journey
Strong Arm Steady - "Get Started" ft. Talib Kweli - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Phantogram - "Turn It Off" - Eyelid Movies
Los Campesinos! - "Who Fell Asleep In" - Romance Is Boring
Van Dyke Parks - "The Attic" - Song Cycle
Jessica Pavone - "Housework" - Songs of Synastry and Solitude
Pantha du Prince - "Stick to My Side" - Black Noise
Laura Veirs - "July Flame" - July Flame
Aidan Baker - "Liminoid (Part III)" - Liminoid / Lifeforms

Show: Featuring Ms. Emily // Hal Blaine, St. Agatha

2010-02-05T01:44:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

"Psychedelic percussionist" Hal Blaine

VENERATED ON THIS DAY

St. Agatha

Friend/actress/music lover Emily Piggford co-hosted today's show! Her selections are those emphasized below. ...don't you know.

Stream the episode (available after the show):

(Ever in four parts)

Songs:

Pink Floyd - "See Emily Play" - Relics
Neil Young - "Only Love Will Break Your Heart" - After the Goldrush
Saint Etienne - "Only Love Will Break Your Heart" - Foxbase Alpha
Mother Mother - "Burning Pile" and "Wrecking Ball" - O My Heart
Hawksley Workman - "We'll Make Time" [single]
Hal Blaine - "Wiggy" - Psychedelic Percussion
Gil Scott-Heron - "New York Is Killing Me" - I'm New Here
Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron - "The Bottle" - Winter in America
Kim Weston - "Love Me All the Way" - The Best of Kim Weston
Joanna Newsom - "This Side of the Blue" and "Sprout and Bean" - The Milk-Eyed Mender
Jessica Pavone - "Once Again" - Songs of Synastry and Solitude
Junior Boys - "Birthday" - Daytrotter Session - 9/1/2009
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven Can Wait (Nosaj Thing remix)" - IRM
Hellocharlie - "Crunch" - Confortable Dimensions for Suitable Structures EP
Beast - "Mr. Hurricane" - Beast
Junk Culture - "City Side" - West Coast
Spoon - "Out Go the Lights" - Transference
Jarvis Cocker - "I Never Said I Was Deep" - Further Complications
Meatdraw - "We Have the Nighttime" - Meatdraw
Gotye - "Hearts a Mess" - Hearts a Mess Remix EP
Michael and the Mumbles - "Come On" - Michael and the Mumbles
Michael Yonkers and the Blind Shake - "Radon Detector" - Cold Town - Soft Zodiac

Preview of next show...

2010-02-02T21:29:00.001-08:00

With a special guest host! Not Gil Scott-Heron, sadly.

Show: Andrew Loog Oldham // St. Juniper

2010-01-29T00:34:00.000-08:00

BORN ON THIS DAY

VENERATED ON THIS DAY

Stream the episode (available after the show):
(still in 4 parts...)

Songs:

Caribou - "Odessa" - Swim
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim - "Please Don't" - Here Lies Love
Justice - "Beginning of the End"
The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - "The Last Time" - The Rolling Stones Songbook
The Last Shadow Puppets - "Standing Next to Me" - The Age of the Understatement
Donovan - "Jennifer Juniper" - The Essential Donovan
Owen Pallett - "Red Sun No. 5" - Heartland
Beach House - "10 Mile Stereo" - Teen Dream
Tindersticks - "Harmony Around My Table" - Falling Down a Mountain
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Le chat du café des artistes" - IRM
Fosca - "I Know I Have Been Happier" - Diary of an Antibody
Massive Attack - "Saturday Come Slow" ft. Damon Albarn - Heligoland
Animal Collective - "On a Highway" - Fall Be Kind EP
Beck - "Harry Partch"
Michael and the Mumbles - "I Need Her" - Michael and the Mumbles
Beardo - "John Lennon" - Beardo
Pulp - "Your Sister's Clothes" - His 'n' Hers [Deluxe Edition]
Parenthetical Girls - "Evelyn McHale" - Privilege, Pt. 1
The Macadamia Brothers - "Ripper Ease" - Tiger Sauce
Gil Scott-Heron - "Me and the Devil" - I'm New Here
Etienne Jaumet - "Through the Strata" - Night Music

I think there will be Junior Boys tix to give away. Update: No one wanted them :) Trying to make the show sound better initially makes things worse. "The night is darkest before the dawn." Life can be summed up by a series of Nolan-Batman one-liners.

Show: "Norway" // "Haughty Deb"

2010-01-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

Background music brought to you by:

Wire - Pink Flag (though I was told the vocals were distracting when I was on the mic. So I grabbed...)
Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz - Diz & Getz (...instead.)

Stream the episode (available after the show):
(still in 4 parts...)

Songs:

Beach House - "Norway" - Teen Dream
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven Can Wait" - IRM
Suede - "He's Dead" - Sci-Fi Lullabies
The Long Blondes - "I Liked the Boys" - Couples
Black Box Recorder - "I Ran All the Way Home" - Passionoia
CFCF - "Half Dreaming (reprise)" - Continent
Gorillaz - "Stylo" ft. Mos Def and Bobby Womack - Plastic Beach
Dam-Funk - "One Less Day" ft. G-Shaft - Toeachizown
Animal Collective - "What Would I Want? Sky" - Fall Be Kind EP
Tonstartssbandht - "Walken With Jesus" - An When
Tonstartssbandht - "Haughty Deb" - Dick Nights
Owen Pallett - "Keep the Dog Quiet" - Heartland
Vic Chesnutt - "My New Life" - Skitter on Take-Off
Leonard Nimoy - "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" - Spaced Out: The Best of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
Tindersticks - "Keep You Beautiful" - Falling Down a Mountain
James Husband - "Window" - A Parallax I
Beardo - "Losers" - Beardo
DOOM - "Fire Wood Drumstykx" and "Sniper Elite" [both ft. J. Dilla] - Unexpected Guests
Paten Locke - "Funky Hit Record" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Etienne Jaumet - "Entropy" - Night Music
Massive Attack - "Pray for Rain" - Splitting the Atom EP
Girls - "Headache" - Album
The Horrors - "Little Victories" - Strange House
Junk Culture - "That's Not Me" - West Coast
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "There Is a Light" - Kollaps Tradixionales

Quiz gloating // Show

2010-01-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

Stream the show online:

(...four parts)

My team's fine victory at the Friday Quiz at the Fort Cafe garnered some gift certificates for Ditch Records -- which led to these Scottish additions to the soundscape:

Beating the teams of 35-year-old indie types is definitely a perk. They don't know everything, then? But what of their Buddy Holly glasses and scarves? With the vouchers I picked up records for my teammates -- some My Bloody Valentine and Miles Davis for good friend/populist whore/coward re: anything even vaguely non-conventional, and Deerhunter's Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. for the ever-friendly budding neuroscientist. Obviously, I didn't dare try to choose anything for this guy.

Today's show -- new music by The Knife from their upcoming Darwin-themed opera, and more of the fabulous electronics of Etienne Jaumet. The new alt-country Sunset album is growing on me -- so what if Baird is not psychedelic anymore? Grow up, Geoffrey. That's what we have Thee American Revolution for. And of course, Owen Pallett (no longer Final Fantasy) has released his latest opus Heartland, which is about as fantastic as anything he has ever done. I scored a reviewer copy!

Andrea from Gumdrops and Lollipops finished her dissertation at UVic and moved out east. Us kids are growing up. And R.I.P. Jay Reatard, who sadly passed away in his sleep on Tuesday.

Songs:

DOOM - "Project Jazz" ft. Hell Razah, Talib Kweli, and Viktor Vaughn - Unexpected Guests
Blakroc - "Hard Times" - Blakroc
Neon Indian - "Should Have Taken Acid With You" - Psychic Chasms
Massive Attack - "Unfinished Sympathy" - Blue Lines
The Knife - "Colouring of Pigeons" - Tomorrow, In a Year
Broadcast - "Where Youth and Laughter Go" - Extended Play
Etienne Jaumet - "At the Crack of Dawn" - Night Music
Jay Reatard - "Fluorescent Grey" - 7" [split with Deerhunter]
Thee American Revolution - "In Your Dreams/Japanese Clone" - Buddha Electrostorm
Simon Bookish - "The Trial" - Mojo: The Wall Rebuilt Pt. 2
Owen Pallett - "What Do You Think Will Happen Now?" - Heartland
Fred Astaire - "Let's Face the Music and Dance" - Top Hits of the 1930s
Tonstartssbandht - "Andy Summers" - An When
Sunset - "Green Truck" - Gold Dissolves to Gray
Tindersticks - "Black Smoke" - Falling Down a Mountain
Echo and the Bunnymen - "The Idolness of Gods" - The Fountain
The Macadamia Brothers - "Chancery" - Tiger Sauce
Sally Shapiro - "Jackie Junior" [Junior Boys Remix] - Remix Romance Vol. 1
jj - "Ecstasy" - nº 2
Dam-Funk - "Mirrors" - Toeachizown
Martina Topley-Bird - "Poison" - [single]
Isaac Hayes - "One Woman" - Hot Buttered Soul [reissue]
The Duckworth Lewis Method - "Mason on the Boundary" - The Duckworth Lewis Method
Brian Eno - "On Some Faraway Beach" - Here Come the Warm Jets
Tonstartssbandht - "Sarajevo Preadub" - DICK NIGHTS [best album title of the year]

Comics in Music

2010-01-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

What happens with artists typically known for their work in comics move into that artistic realm of sound expressed through time...?

When Comic Rock Stars

Try to Be Actual Rock Stars

Recognize the fellow second from the left? Comics legend Grant Morrison (Batman, Final Crisis, Kill Your Boyfriend) spent his youth as a guitarist and vocalist in a few Glasgow rock groups, including The Mixers (pictured above), DHK, The Fauves, and Jenny and the Cat Club. A nice retrospective of these groups (and others) can be found over at Spirophone, a site ran by Dannie Vallely and Ulric Kennedy -- principle members of the groups Grant played in.

Alan Moore (Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Prometheus) is about as big as comic writers get. But did you know that he dabbles in music when not crafting them influential books/lambasting writers for being inspired by said books? In 1983 he put out a single with Alex Green and David J. from Bauhaus as The Sinister Ducks. Yes. He did. "March of the Sinister Ducks" b/w "Old Gangsters Never Die". Trivia: Kevin O'Neil, Moore's collaborator on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, supplied the single's cover art. Moore also supplied the lyrics for the song "Leopardman at C+A" by The Dirtbombs.

Who else? One of my favorite artists, Frazer Irving (Klarion the Witch Boy, Azrael, Gutsville) is currently in a band called Atomic Heart Brother, a bluesy psychedelic rock group, not unlike 60s weirdos Blossom Toes -- entirely complimentary to Frazer's dark, swirling paints. And as many know, Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett is one half of Gorillaz, and last year supplied artistic direction for the Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West (along with Gorillaz/Blur songwriter Damon Albarn). Good for us -- Jamie and Damon are slated to drop their next album in the new year, and judging from the demos previewed on Zane Lowe, it should be mighty fine.

Unrelated to comics, the latest in bands that aren't particularly conducive to finding out about through search engines is The William Blakes (not the poet ...plural), a Danish band with their new album Wayne Coyne (not the Flaming Lips frontman). Yes. Also, some very nicely recorded local folk from Old Life Records' latest Macadamia Brothers album.

Comics in Music:

Gorillaz - "Kids With Guns" - Demon Days
Gorillaz - "Electric Shock" [demo]
Monkey - "Heavenly Peach Banquet" - Journey to the West
The Sinister Ducks - "March of the Sinister Ducks" and "Old Gangsters Never Die" - 7"
The Dirtbombs - "Leopardman at C+A" - We Have You Surrounded
Atom Heart Brothers - "Soul for You" - Atom Heart Brothers
The Mixers - "Love Hurts" - All for Art and Art for All
Jenny and the Cat Club - "No-One Loves You at All" - Bludgeoned!
The Fauves - "Hello Cruel World"

...and:

Los Campesinos! - "Ways to Make It Through the Wall" - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Ghettosocks - "Out for Treats" - Treat of the Day
Birds + Batteries - "Sneaky Times" - Up to No Good
Crush Buildings - "New Argyle" - Surrender Sleep
Junk Culture - "Carmel Valley Girls" - West Coast
DOOM - "?" ft. Kurious - Unexpected Guests
Girls - "Ghost Mouth" - Album
Arctic Monkeys - "Sketchead" - Cornerstone [single]
We Were Pirates - "Little Monsters" - Cutting Ties
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Little Monsters" - 5:55
The William Blakes - "The Magician" - Wayne Coyne
Systems Officer - "We Breathe Dust" - Underslept
Sunset - "Sunshine Hair" - Gold Dissolves to Gray
The Macadamia Brothers - "The Incident at Ross Bay" - Tiger Sauce
Vapid - "Die" and "Take a Walk, Baby" - Practically Dead
Tonstartssbandht - "Softly Kidding" - An When
The Da Vincis - "Nickels and Dimes" - See You Tonight
The xx - "Infinity" - xx

CFUV -- End of the Year Charts 2009

2010-01-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

CFUV Top 100 for 2009

+ denotes local artist/band
* denotes Canadian artist/band
1. Various - The Third Old Life Compilation (Old Life) +

2. Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (Endearing) *

3. Almonds, Cohen - Amazing Grass (Old Life) +

4. Blackout Beach - Skin Of Evil (Soft Abuse) +

5. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)

6. Health - Get Color (Lovepump United)

7. Various - Dark Was The Night (4AD)

8. Clues - Clues (Constellation) *

9. 'It It - Hang Out (Old Life) +

10. Immaculate Machine - High On Jackson Hill (Mint) +

11. Miles Jones - ...Is Runaway Jones (Mojo) *

12. Lightning Dust - Infinite Light (Jagjaguwar) *

13. Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown)

14. Black Mold - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz (Flemish Eye) *

15. Andre Ethier - Born Of Blue Fog (Blue Fog) *

16. Chet - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home (Absolutely Kosher) +

17. Elephant Island - Don't Say You Don't Know What You Want (s/r) +

18. Ruthie and Winfield - Rough Bubba Trauna (s/r) +

19. K'naan - Troubadour (Octone/A&M) *

20. My Friend Wallis - When The Blue Turned Yellow (s/r) +

21. Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End Of Day (DGC)

22. Camera Obscura - My Maudline Career (4AD)

23. Shearing Pinx - Weaponry (Divorce) *

24. Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens - What Have You Done, My Brother? (Daptone)

25. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine (Jagjaguwar) +

26. Tune-Yards - Bird-Brains (Marriage/4AD)

27. Islands - Vapours (Anti-) *

28. Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid (Nonesuch)

29. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar) *

30. N.A.S.A. - The Spirit Of Apollo (Anti-)

31. Woods - Songs Of Shame (Shrimper)

32. Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band (Sub Pop)

33. Jon-Rae Fletcher - Oh Maria (Weewerk) *

34. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti-)

35. Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms (Secret City) *

36. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange (Kranky)

37. PPP - Abundance (Ubiquity)

38. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns (s/r) *

39. Why? - Eskimo Snow (Anticon)

40. Peggy Sue - Lover Gone EP (Yep Roc)

41. The Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan (Arts & Crafts) *

42. Candi Staton - Who's Hurting Now? (Honest Jon's)

43. Beyond The Pale - Postcards (Borealis) *

44. Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem (PW Elverum & Sun)

45. Phosphorescent - To Willie (Dead Oceans)

46. Handsome Furs - Face Control (Sub Pop) *

47. The Condo Fucks - Fuckbook (Matador)

48. Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love (Jagjaguwar) *

49. Lullabye Arkestra - Threats/Worship (Vice) *

50. Light Sweet Crude - Ruin and Beauty (s/r) +

51. A.C. Newman - Get Guilty (Last Gang) *

52. Chali 2na - Fish Outta Water (Decon)

53. Matt & Kim - Grand (Fader)

54. City Center - City Center (Type)

55. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (Warp)

56. Jim Byrnes - My Walking Stick (Black Hen) *

57. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels (Nettwerk) *

58. The Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth (s/r) *

59. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City)

60. The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours (Black Hen) *

61. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm (Jagjaguwar)

62. Hot Panda - Volcano...Bloody Volcano (Mint) *

63. Alice Russell - Pot Of Gold (Six Degrees)

64. Hylozoists - L'ile de Sept Villes (Outside) *

65. Wavves - Wavvves (Fat Possum)

66. Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (Kranky) *

67. K-os - Yes! (Crown Loyalist/Universal) *

68. D.O. - Stay Driven (Northstarr) *

69. Nadja - When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV (The End) *

70. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Slumberland)

71. Think About Life - Family (Alien8) *

72. DD/MM/YYYY - Black Square (We Are Busy Bodies) *

73. Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)

74. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)

75. Grand Analog - Metropolis Is Burning (Urbnet) *

76. Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract (Sony)

77. Joan Of Arc - Flowers (Polyvinyl)

78. Japandroids - Post-Nothing (Unfamiliar) *

79. Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)

80. No Age - Losing Feeling EP (Sub Pop)

81. James Keelaghan - House Of Cards (Borealis) *

82. Wilco - Wilco The Album (Nonesuch)

83. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3 (RocNation/Warner)

84. Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Mute)

85. The Breakmen - When You Leave Town (s/r) +

86. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador)

87. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (Domino)

88. The Very Best - Warm Heart Of Africa (Green Owl)

89. Set Your Goals - This Will Be The Death Of Us (Epitaph)

90. Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware (Drag City)

91. The Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra - Seven Good Years (s/r) +

92. Micachu & The Shapes - Jewellery (Rough Trade)

93. Joel Plaskett - Three (MapleMusic) *

94. Lee Harvey Osmond - A Quiet Evil (Latent) *

95. Magik Markers - Blaf Quarry (Drag City)

96. Elfin Saddle - Ringing For The Begin Again (Constellation) *

97. Lewd Acts - Black Eyed Blues (Deathwish)

98. Yacht - See Mystery Lights (DFA)

99. Converge - Axe To Fall (Epitaph)

100. M. Ward - Hold Time (Merge)

CFUV Electronic Top 20 of 2009

1. Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Mute)

2. Digits - Hold Is Close (s/r) *

3. Various - Manoeuvres 3: A Collection Of B.C. Electronica (So Called) *

4. Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls - Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls (Ubiquity)

5. Nosaj Thing (Alpha Pup)

6. Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure (Wichita)

7. Clark - Totems Flare (Warp)

8. Shout Out Out Out Out - Reintegration Time (Normals Welcome) *

9. Odd Nosdam - T.I.M.E. (Anticon)

10. Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself (Bpitch Control)

11. Bonnie Pope & Micah - My Name Is Caleb and I Like To Dance (s/r) +

12. Chromeo - DJ Kicks (!K7) *

13. Ear Pwr - Super Anmal Brothers III (Carpark)

14. Let's Go To War - Karmageddon (Last Gang) *

15. Land Of Kush - Against The Day (Constellation) *

16. Kona Triangle - Sing A Sapling Into Existance (Porter)

17. Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care (Domino) *

18. MSTRKRFT - Fist Of God (Last Gang) *

19. Dan Deacon - Bromst (Carpark)

20. DJ Champion - Resistance (Saboteur/MapleMusic) *

CFUV Hip Hop Top 20 of 2009

1. Miles Jones - ...Is Runaway Jones (Mojo) *

2. Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown)

3. K'naan - Troubadour (Octone/A&M) *

4. Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End Of Day (DGC)

5. N.A.S.A. - The Spirit Of Apollo (Anti-)

6. PPP - Abundance (Ubiquity)

7. Chali 2na - Fish Outta Water (Decon)

8. K-os - Yes! (Crown Loyalist/Universal) *

9. D.O. - Stay Driven (Northstarr) *

10. Grand Analog - Metropolis Is Burning (Urbnet) *

11. Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract (Sony)

12. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3 (RocNation/Warner)

13. Langdon Auger - Inaugeration (s/r) +

14. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II (EMI)

15. Zion-I - The Takeover (Gold Dust Media)

16. Odd Nosdam - T.I.M.E. (Anticon)

17. Classified - Self-Explanatory (Sony) *

18. Muneshine - Status Symbol (Urbnet) *

19. Dead Prez & DJ Green Lantern - Pulse Of The People (Invasion)

20. Busdriver - Jheli Beam (Anti-)

CFUV International/World Top 20 of 2009

1. The Very Best - The Warm Heart Of Africa (Green Owl)

2. The Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra - Seven Good Years (s/r) +

3. The Budos Band - The Budos EP (Daptone)

4. Beirut - March Of The Zapotec (Pompeii)

5. The Sultans Of String - Yalla Yalla! (s/r) *

6. The Aggrolites - IV (Hellcat)

7. The Black Seeds - Solid Ground (Easy Star)

8. Pax Nicholas & The Nettey Family - Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef (Daptone)

9. Novalima - Coba Coba (Cumbancha)

10. Mr. Something Something - Shine Your Face (World) *

11. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou - Vol. 2: Echos Hypnotique (Analog Africa)

12. Easy Star All Stars - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Dub Band (Easy Star)

13. Kailash Kher & Kailasa - Yatra (Cumbancha)

14. Chicago Afrobeat Project - Off The Grid (s/r)

15. Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt - Slide To Freedom 2 (Northern Blues) *

15. Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (Strut)

16. Extra Golden - Thank You Very Quickly (Thrill Jockey)

17. Bebel Gilberto - All In One (Verve Forecast)

18. Los Texmaniacs - Borders Y Bailes (Smithsonian Folkways)

19. Baaba Maal - Television (Palm Pictures)

20. Oumou Sangare - Seya (Nonesuch)

CFUV Jazz Top 20 of 2009

1. Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract (Sony)

2. Normand Guilbeault Ensemble - Homage a Mingus: Live At Upstairs (Ambiances Magnetiques) *

3. Fire! - You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago (Rune Gramofon)

4. Ross Taggart Trio - Presenting... (Cellar Live) *

5. Simon Fisk Trio - Unless (Cellar Live) *

6. Bill Frisell - Disfarmer (Nonesuch)

7. Amanda Tosoff - Wait and See (Cellar Live) *

8. Land Of Kush - Against The Day (Constellation) *

9. Cory Weeds Quintet - Everything Is Coming Up Weeds (Cellar Live) *

10. Nels Cline - Coward (Cryptogramophone)

11. Joshua Redman - Compass (Nonesuch)

12. Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (Strut)

13. Jon Miller Quartet - Orchidology (s/r) +

14. Rudresh Mahanathappa Indo-Pak Coalition - Apti (Innova)

15. Viviane Houle - Treize (Drip Audio) *

16. Chris Davis - A Night Remembered (Cellar Live) *

17. Brad Shepik - Human Activity Suite (Songlines) *

18. Jerry Granelli V16 - Vancouver 08 (Songlines) *

19. Tim Posgate Hornband - Banjo Hockey (Black Hen) *

20. Kirk MacDonald Quartet - Songbook, Vol. 1 (Addo) *

CFUV Loud Top 20 of 2009

1. Shearing Pinx - Weaponry (Divorce) *

2. Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem (P.W. Elverum & Sun)

3. Lullabye Arkestra - Threats/Worship (Vice) *

4. Nadja - When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV (The End) *

5. Lewd Acts - Black Eyed Blues (Deathwish)

6. Converge - Axe To Fall (Epitaph)

7. Reign Supreme - Testing The Limits Of Infinite (Deathwish)

8. Litany For The Whale - Dolores (Molsook)

9. Tonnn/Lice - Split (s/r) *

10. Sunn o))) - Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord)

11. Doomriders - Darkness Comes Alive (Deathwish)

12. Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights (Load)

13. Vicious Cycle - Pale Blue Dot (Deranged) *

14. 3 Inches Of Blood - Here Awaits Thy Doom (Century Media) *

15. Nadja - The Bungled and The Botched (Blocks) *

16. Pulling Teeth - Paranoid Delusion/Paradise Illusions (Deathwish)

17. Nebula - Heavy Psych (Teepee)

18. Voivod - Infini (Sonic Unyon) *

19. Buried Inside - Spoils Of Failure (Relapse) *

20. Double Dagger - More (Thrill Jockey)

CFUV Folk/Roots/Blues Top 20 of 2009

1. Andre Ethier - Born Of Blue Fog (Blue Fog) *

2. Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens - What Have You Done, My Brother? (Daptone)

3. Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid (Nonesuch)

4. Jon-Rae Fletcher - Oh Maria (Weewerk) *

5. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (Anti-)

6. Peggy Sue - Lover Gone EP (Yep Roc)

7. Candi Staton - Who's Hurting Now? (Honest Jon's)

8. Beyond The Pale - Postcards (Borealis) *

9. Phosphorescent - To Willie (Dead Oceans)

10. Light Sweet Crude - Ruin and Beauty (s/r) +

11. Jim Byrnes - My Walking Stick (Black Hen) *

12. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels (Nettwerk) *

13. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City)

14. The Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours (Black Hen) *

15. James Keelaghan - House Of Cards (Borealis) *

16. Wilco - Wilco The Album (Nonesuch)

17. The Breakmen - When You Leave Town (s/r) +

18. Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware (Drag City)

19. Lee Harvey Osmond - A Quiet Evil (Latent) *

20. M. Ward - Hold Time (Merge)

CFUV Top 20 Reissues and Such of 2009

1. Various - Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970's Funky Lagos (Strut)

2. Various - Black Rio 2: Original Samba Soul, 1971-80 (Strut)

3. Various - Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical and Calypso Funk On The Isthmus, 1967-77 (Soundway)

4. Flipper - Generic Flipper (Water)

5. Various - Eccentric Soul: Smart's Palace (Numero Group)

6. Elder Utah Smith - I Got Two Wings (CaseQuarter)

7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (Legacy/Sony)

8. Various - Open Strings: 1920s Middle Eastern Recordings (Honest Jon's)

9. Rodriguez - Coming From Reality (Light In The Attic)

10. Various - Ghana Special: Modern High-Life Afro Sounds and Ghanian Blues, 1968-81 (Soundway)

11. The Monks - Black Monk Time (Light In The Attic)

12. The Vaselines - Enter The Vaselines (Sub Pop)

13. Various - Well Hung: 20 Funk-Rock Eruptions From Beneath Communist Hungary (Finder's Keepers/B-Music)

14. Pax Nicholas & The Nettey Family - Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef (Daptone)

15. Royal City - Royal City (Outside) *

16. Various - 1970s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground (Sublime Frequencies)

17. Iron and Wine - Around The Well (Sub Pop)

18. Flipper - Gone Fishin' (Water)

19. Har-You Percussion Group - Sounds Of The Ghetto Youth (ESP-Disk)

20. Barbara Lynn - Here Is Barbara Lynn (Water)

[Thanks to Justin for compiling these]

Top 30 Tracks: 2009

2010-01-07T01:13:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of people, my listening habits have changed in the last few years -- very rarely do I sit down with an entire album and experience it as a whole. Instead, it's a song or two, or a playlist I conjure up on any given day. 2009 saw me sell off a good 3/5 of my record collection, not to mention several stacks of books I had amassed over my university years. John Cale, Rainbow Ffolly, Maupassant and their friends were making it hard to move around my room, and -- love them as I did at the time -- I couldn't conceive my revisiting any of them any time soon. So, out went the old.

I only picked up around twenty records last year, relying mostly on what would came into the station. Not to forget what came out of the daily trawling of the internet. All on shuffle. Therefore the following list of my thirty favorite tracks from 2009 is much more representative of what I was into from the past year than my "top albums" could ever be.

#30 - Japandroids - "The Boys Are Leaving Town"

Two-piece punk rock group from Vancouver throw together an anthem, repeating the song title ad nauseam. They were set to play the island, but then one of them got into a car crash...

[Video]

#29 - Tonstartssbandht - "Midnite Cobras"

I thought these kids were the next big thing, having seen their name thrown about RYM and online. But turns out they're madly obscure. Still -- some great lo-fi by two brothers from Florida that have set up shop in Montreal.

[Video]

#28 - Thavius Beck - "Absinthe"

A slew of good electro came into the station all at once around the time I started up my new show -- Thavius Beck was a big part of that. Experimental and complex, yet all anchored with a nice piano bit. No video, sadly.

#27 - The Flaming Lips - "Convinced of the Hex"

This really came as a surprise for me. Coyne and Co. were always a one song band for me -- "Felt Good to Burn", and really I preferred the Elf Power cover -- yet here they return with Embyronic, which sounds entirely fresh, ambitious, if not a bit brave. Take the opening track to the album, that begins with unpalatable shit and gives way to a brilliant groove.

[Video]

#26 - Miles Jones - "Never Too Late" ft. Black Milk

Miles Jones Is... Runaway Jones made my best albums list, and was my favorite hip hop record of the year (though Madlib and Louwop too put out solid stuff. And this Doom album that I've been listening to his actually pretty damn good). For "Never Too Late" Jones called in one of my favorite producers, Black Milk, whose Dilla-inspired beats have been something to watch for these past couple of years. Black Milk is in fact one of the few artists both my brother and I can agree on.

[Video]

#25 - Kid Cudi - "Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)"

Yeah, I dug Kid Cudi this year. As did millions of rubes and hipsters alike across the globe. People cut him up because his lyrics are supposedly shit -- I really couldn't care less when things are this catchy. Seeing footage of him, Mos Def, Kanye and co. freestyle with Damon Albarn was pretty great too.

[Video]

#24 - Simian Mobile Disco - "Audacity of Huge"

Jas Shaw and (Arctic Monkeys/Last Shadow Puppets producer) James Ford. Douchey-yet-excitable dance pop. When was the last time you heard Tammy Fay Baker referenced in a pop song?

[Video]

#23 - The Happy Hollows - "Tambourine"

Pop-punk L.A. three-piece, female vocals. This is a song about a girl and her infatuation with Billy Corgan, her seduction of a Republican Corgan look-alike, and in the fallout joining some shitty band. And I suppose, writing this song. I listened to this song nearly 40x straight doing inventory at work...

[Video]

#22 - Massive Attack - "Splitting the Atom"

This came out of nowhere. The same week as the new Tricky album. Bristol-folk think alike, maybe. A timeless groove, despite the vocals. This EP gets a boy excited for the upcoming album.

[Video]

#21 - Mos Def + Talib Kweli [Black Star] - "History"

Yes, Black Star got together on Mos Def's latest album The Ecstatic. Tempo and pitch shifts, both MCs playing off each other as you'd expect from seasoned collaborators. Nearly makes up for "Mr. Most Definitely" getting shamed by Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher. Dude, if you don't have any properly thought out arguments, shut the fuck up. It's better to be apolitical. Just get in the booth and make them hits.

[Video]

#20 - Music Go Music - "Warm In the Shadows"

A few weeks ago I would've ranked this much higher -- nine minutes of golden ABBA envy. Then I had to sit through it in the studio with Louis. IT WOULDN'T END.

[Video]

#19 - Amanda Blank - [various]

Spank Rock collaborator (they even share a Twitter account!) Amanda Blank was on heavy rotation for me in the last few months of 2009, and I can't really choose a single track. "Might Like You Better"? "Super Freek"? "DJ"? All glorious filth. If I end up studying in Philly next year, you're damn right I'll be at her shows. Getting stabbed.

[Video - "Might Like You Better"]

#18 - God Help the Girl - "Funny Little Frog"

So slick, so adorable. Stuart Murdoch really chose the perfect girl to receive divine assistance -- Ms. Ireton is perfectly naive and impressionable on these tracks. Though this Belle + Sebastian cover (can you cover ones own project?) is more of a straight up, pleading love song that is easy to love.

[Video]

#17 - Chromeo - "I Can't Tell You Why"

If the GHtG project got me to rethink my Green Eggs and Ham-esque hatred of Belle + Sebastian, Montreal's Chromeo might be doing the same type of thing for 70s easy rock. They reworked fucking Leo Sayer on DJ-Kicks, and this, this thing here is an Eagles cover. Yes. I'm devolving.

[Video]

#16 - Shirley Lee - "Dissolving Time"

One bus ride home I downloaded this song from Shirley's first solo record, around the same time I was first getting into his band Spearmint. Deadly serious stuff here, as Shirl seems to be fighting against the Fates. Time does seem to disappear into nothing at times. Or, you're in a shit medieval history class that won't end. Couldn't find a video. But ooh, a dissenting opinion.

#15 - LCD Soundsystem - "45:33 Prince Language Remix"

When I interviewed Techromancer, Andrew too was spinning the latest remix record Mr. Murphy. This is my favorite from the album -- groovy soul paired with desperate lyrics. At seven minutes, it's one of the shorter tracks, somehow. No video :(

#14 - The xx - "Islands"

One of the bands it was impossible to avoid this year, and have been catapulted into the indie mass consciousness. This is the real killer off of the album -- contemplative, ethereal stuff. Is it synthetic? Perhaps. It's deadly, precise music to be sure.

[Video]

#13 - Manic Street Preachers - "Peeled Apples"

So when I said I only rarely listened to an album in its entirety, the Manics' Journal for Plague Lovers is one of those exceptions. Rage! This one works best, though -- the echoes, screaming Richey's lyrics about Chomsky, it's all golden. Green, with mottled skin and pustules, perhaps, but golden all the more.

[Video]

#12 - The Horrors - "Sea Within a Sea"

I found this after it had gone out of chart rotation, sadly. Otherwise I would've played the shit out of it on-air. A band finding its sound, this glorious closing track showcases it well. Again, Geoff Barrows has a heroic first name.

[Video]

#11 - Tricky - "Joseph"

Although Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew has its sketchier parts, I was surprised at the vitriol that it inspired in Louis (host of the Thursday show Sound Unlimited). But this reworking of "Joseph" from Knowle West Boy makes it some necessary stuff. Dance! Ignore the other shit.

[Video]

#10 - Deluka - "Cascade"

Birmingham-turned-Brooklyn synth-pop heroes that went #1 on the CFUV charts a few months back. Perhaps I had something to do with it. But you can't deny the catchy goodness of track that starts off their latest EP. No video, but apparently one is in the works...

#9 - Chet - "An Abiding Love Despite Adversarial Vice"

Dana (of The Sound Travels, also on Fridays, and co-host extraordinaire) thinks this ruins the album -- I think it's a fifteen-minute epic, and easily the best thing crafted on the island this year. Yes, better than the shitty Petrarch essay I wrote last month. Savior of local music! No video, obviously.

#8 - Digits - "Sarah"

As I'm incapable of abstract thought, I thought this was about a single girl. But no -- this 'Sarah' is a composite, a song about all the lust and infatuation a young man is blinded by in smokey nightclub situations. My interview with Alt Altman is here. No video, either -- but you can download the track for free over at Last.fm.

[Download]

#7 - Atlas Sound - "Sheila"

Deerhunter and its progeny have ruled for the last while, ever since Bradford Cox answered an early leak of their 2008 album with a bonus double LP, Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. The Georgia boys didn't let up in 2009, either, as guitarist Lockett Pundt released his first solo album as Lotus Plaza, and frontman Cox followed up with the latest Atlas Sound record, Logos. This is one totally gorgeous, classic melody, that matches last year's "Agoraphobia". And that's no easy feat.

[Video]

#6 - Parenthetical Girls - "Thank God It's Not Christmas"

A Sparks cover? Yes. Zac and the girls update the 70s glam track, but only to the 80s -- gone is the Mael brothers' groove, instead replaced with plastic synths, tinkling glockenspiels and Pennington's quiver. One hell of a Christmas present, considering it, and its B-side were up for free download. If you haven't yet, find their Scott Walker/Bartok/Van Dyke Parks-inspired opus Entanglements from last year.

[Download]

#5 - Wild Beats - "Hooting and Howling"

Go one post down and you can see my review of their new album for Renegade. Tribal, post-punk yearning. Major stuff.

[Video]

#4 - Bibio - "Jealous of Roses"

Bibio's eclectic Ambivalence Avenue easily made my top 10 list, and this high-powered funk was the best of the bunch. Just listen.

[Video]

#3 - Jarvis Cocker - "Further Complications"/"You're In My Eyes (Discosong)"/"Girls Like It Too"

A good year for Jarvis. Like the Manics album, Further Complications was one of the few albums I rocked in its entirety in 2009. The title track and "You're In My Eyes (Discosong)" were major for me -- seeing Jarvis belt them live was a great experience. But the B-side "Girls Like It Too", a tribute to John Peel (quoting the legendary DJ's bit of sex advice to a younger Ravenscroft) was also fine listening. I shan't give him three spots, however. Videos:

["Further Complications"]
["You're In My Eyes"]
["Girls Like It Too"]

#2 - Arctic Monkeys - "Cornerstone"

Oh my. Alex Turner captured hearts in 2008 with his project The Last Shadow Puppets with pal Miles Kane (not to forget Owen Pallett and James Ford's studio work). In 2009 he was back with the Arctics, and crafted this ballad, arguably his best song yet -- a memorable song about calling a girl the wrong name. Ting Tings but from the other side. With pirate references, for some reason. Pompous and wonderful promotional video:

[Video]

#1 - Girls - "Lust for Life"

'I wish I had a boyfriend...'

Dana: Are you trying to tell me something, Geoff?

Nah man. Chix are hot. This is just the greatest song of the year, and I wanted you to know it. Perfectly emulating early Elvis Costello, this is so insidiously catchy, and so gay that it frightens my brother out of whatever room I have it blaring in. The NSFW penis-microphone video is beyond epic/fitting.

[Video, NSFW^2]

That's it! 2010 should see my ceremonious return to America -- busy times ahead. If you read this, thanks.

Renegade - Winter 2010

2010-01-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

If you see this thing around campus or downtown, pick it up! Not only is it not laced with anything harmful, some of my verbosity can be found within! And can be consumed by you, you literate fool you.

First off, an interview with local heartthrobs Techromancer. A few months back Calli and Andrew came in and previewed their upcoming record Space Duel. Click! Read! Very sexy photos.

...plus my review of Wild Beasts' knockout sophomore record Two Dancers.

A horrifyingly bad hip hop review is on the page opposite. I shan't say more.

NEW YEARS 2010

2010-01-01T04:31:00.000-08:00

2010 already! Which means if you don't become successful soon you are worthless.

Your favourite sundry collection of pop music is now at its new time slot.

Songs:

Tindersticks - "Marbles" - Tindersticks
Girls - "Morning Light" - Album
Thee American Revolution - "Electric Flame" - Buddha Electrostorm
Jacques Dutronc - "L'opportuniste" - L'opportuniste
Brigitte Fontaine - "Blanche Neige" - Brigitte Fontaine est... folle
Tricky - "Slow" - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew
WhoMadeWho - "The Plot (Discodeine Remix)" - Fabriclive 48
Junk Culture - "West Coast" - West Coast
Neon Indian - "Mind, Drips" - Psychic Chasms
Tuxedomoon - "Litebulb Overkill" - Desire / No Tears
Massive Attack - "Psyche (Flash Treatment)" - Splitting the Atom EP
Michael and the Mumblers - "I Tried" - Michael and the Mumblers
Elf Power - "Felt Good to Burn" - Come On [EP]
The Creation - "Life Is Just Beginning" - Our Music Is Red, With Purple Flashes
The Horrors - "Who Can Say" - Primary Colours
Arctic Monkeys - "Fright Lined Dining Room" - Cornerstone [EP]
Blur - "Trimm Trabb" - 13
Vapid - "Death of Youth" and "Choke" - Practically Dead
Etienne Jaumet - "Mental Vortex" - Night Music
CFCF - "You Hear Colours" - Continent
Kona Triangle - "Mango Rubicon" - Sing a New Sapling into Existence
Paten Locke - "Good Muse" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Jern Eye - "Blowin' Up" ft. Roc C and Nightclubber Lang - Vision
Tonstartssbandht - "Welsh Souper" - An When
Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin - "Le canari est sur le balcon" - Je t'aime moi non plus
Pierre Perpall - "Virens danser" - Chromeo: DJ-Kicks
Blondie - "X Offender", "Little Girl Lies", "In the Flesh", and "Look Good in Blue" - Blondie

New time-slot tomorrow!

2009-12-31T18:50:00.001-08:00

9-11 AM on CFUV!

Noise Pollution (Or, Orange Juice with Amanda Blank)

2009-12-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Johnny is away for the holidays, so I'm back on late-night for a show, doing his Noise Pollution tonight from 9-10:30. Which means I get to finally play some Amanda Blank pussy-made-of-gold-isms without fear of offending the morning crowd.

Not to mention a bit from comedy great Patton Oswalt's latest record. Followed with some Glasgow pop via Orange Juice (and its progeny), and Birds + Batteries, who, according to their distributor, like their Scary Monsters-era Bowie very much. Remember -- Mid-Morning Razzmatazz is at a new time-slot starting next show (January 1, New Years Day) -- 9 to 11 am! Two hours!!

Songs:

Spearmint - "A Trip Into Space" - A Week Away
Patton Oswalt - "The Magician" - My Weakness Is Strong
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven Can Wait (Nosaj Thing Remix)" - IRM
Oakenfold ft. Brittany Murphy - "Faster Kill Pussycat" - [single]
Amanda Blank - "Might Like You Better" - [single]
Amanda Blank - "Super Freek" [remix] - Observe and Report [soundtrack]
Orange Juice - "Falling and Laughing" - A Casual Introduction: 1981/2001
Edwyn Collins - "A Girl Like You" - A Casual Introduction: 1981/2001
Music Go Music - "Warm in the Shadows" - Expressions
Saint Etienne - "Lose That Girl" - Good Humor
Tonstartssbandht - "Midnite Cobras" - An When
Tricky - "Numb" - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew
The Lytics - "I'm Here" - The Lytics
Birds + Batteries - "The Villain" - Up to No Good

Listen live!

Afterword
My brother Warren and Louis (from Sound Unlimited) guested on the show. Louis said the new Tricky album was shit. I disagreed. BATTLE.

CFUV Charts - December 14, 2009

2009-12-23T05:39:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason those earshot! charts for CFUV don't get updated regularly, so here are the final charts of the year. Emboldened are those records that are good.

CFUV Top 30 - Week of Dec 14, 2009

**reported to CMJ, Dusted, Chart Magazine**

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights (Load)
BlakRoc - BlakRoc (s/r)
Converge - Axe To Fall (Epitaph)
Various - Daptone Gold (Daptone)
Tonstartssbandht - An When (Does Are)
Leonard Cohen - Live At The Isle Of Wight, 1970 (Legacy/Sony)
Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live (Anti-)
Dog Day - Elder Schoolhouse (12-inch; Divorce) *
The Homemade Jamz Blues Band - I Got Blues For You (Northern Blues)
DOOM - Unexpected Guest (Gold Dust Media)
Light Sweet Crude - Ruin and Beauty (s/r) +
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart (reissue; DeSoto)
Chromeo - DJ Kicks (!K7) *
Six Organs Of Admittance - Luminous Night (Drag City)
BK-One with Benzilla - Radio Do Cannibal (Rhymesayers)
Lee Fields - My World (Truth & Soul)
Corb Lund - Losin' Lately Gambler (New West/Universal Canada) *
The Slew - 100% (Puget Sound) *
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms (Lefse)
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (reissue; Stax)
Various - Ghana Special: Modern Highlife Afro-Sounds and Ghanaian Blues, 1968-81 (Soundway)
Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)
Girls - Album (True Panther Sounds)
Red Mass - Red Mass (Semprini) *
Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans)
Kris Kristofferson - Closer To The Bone (New West)
Massive Attack - Splitting The Atom EP (Virgin)
Coalesce - Oxep (Relapse)
Hawkes - MVIII (s/r) *
Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone (7-inch; Domino)

*Canadian

Christmas Show! Kind-of. New Parenthetical Girls!

2009-12-17T23:46:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! May Starman help the province's homeless achieve personal closure this holiday season, and later bring them along for dinner at the O'Dares. Oh, I'm just being silly. The government will have them all shipped off into the interior for the Olympics.

It wouldn't be a "Christmas show kind-of" without Bowie 'n' Bing, would it? At least not one with me lisping on the mic.

Parenthetical Girls have been busy with their 'non-conventional' releases this year, following a very strange EP on Tomlab, the spoken word/minimalist pop of The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (If Occasionally Misguided) Tribute to the Works of Ivor Cutler, Zac P. and co. have pressed a limited Holiday 7" called The Christmas Creep. The single features a cover of the Sparks' track "Thank God It's Not Christmas" (reminding one how the Mael Bros. are most certainly PGirls' spiritual predecessors). On the other side is an original, "Flowers for Albion", a bittersweet song about the Luftwaffe sending Britons their love. Since it's such a limited run (150 copies, only $5 each), the band have the songs up for download for free on their site.

Other X-Mas tracks include a song from Elastica's 'infamous' Holiday session, and a single by The Long Blondes called "Christmas Is Cancelled". I learned of the latter from Phonogram writer Kieron Gillen's brief residency over at Warren Ellis' Whitechapel forum, where KG related Phono-secrets and how surprisingly not shit The Horrors turned out to be (probably something to do with their working with Portishead's Geoff "I Spell My Name the Correct Way" Barrow).

The others aren't Christmas ones. Whatever. Play that new Dylan album! No. It should be noted that the new Massive Attack and Tricky records are totally sick, and should be checked out.

Listen:

Songs:

Massive Attack - "Splitting the Atom" - Splitting the Atom EP
Tricky - "Joseph" - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew
Tonstartssbandht - "5ft7" - An When
Tonetta777 - "Drugs Drugs Drugs" - YouTube
Bing Crosby and David Bowie - "Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)" - [single]
Parenthetical Girls - "Thank God It's Not Christmas" - The Christmas Creep [7"]
Kenickie - "People We Want" - At the Club
Neon Indian - "Deadbeat Summer" - Psychic Chasms
Elastica - "I Wanna Be a King of Orient Aah" - The Radio One Sessions
The Long Blondes - "Christmas Is Cancelled" - [single]
Destroyer - "Dark Leaves Form a Thread" - Trouble in Dreams
Chet - "An Abiding Love Despite Adversarial Vice" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home

Best of 2009

2009-12-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Oh, 2009. It feels just like the other day I started this Buffy calendar of mine. A good year for music -- even if it doesn't measure up to the absolutely wonderful year that was 2008. Although nothing comes close to what Portishead, Parenthetical Girls, Simon Bookish, The Dead Science or Deerhunter did last year, I present my favourites from the 2009th Year of Our Lord...

Mid-Morning Razzmatazz

A Year's End Special!

Best of 2009

First up -- the two songs that I loved most this year that so happened not to be on any of my Top 10. The lovely single "Cornerstone" by Arctic Monkeys (have a gander at its very cute promo video), and "Tambourine" by The Happy Hollows, a raucous jam with a little insight into starting crappy bands whilst crushing over Billy Corgan. Now for the list proper:

10. Ladytron - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08 (self-released)

I remember dismissing Ladytron after a single listen last year -- proves how one's taste can change in a few months. A very solid electroclash record here, and sounds great! I mean, for a live album. I remember on the music forum I frequent that some kid was trying to find a live version of Television's Marquee Moon. Enter snarky troll: "Why do you want a slightly inferior version of your favorite album?"

9. Miles Jones - Miles Jones Is... Runaway Jones (Mojo)

An underground hip-hop record by Toronto's Miles Jones, which features a knockout track produced by Black Milk. In the end I more-or-less played the entire album on the show.

8. Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure (Wichita)

A fine dance album by the prolific team that features James Ford, the producer/drummer that helped make last year's Last Shadow Puppets record such a success. In no ways a perfect album, but it does contain some very catchy tracks, take "Cruel Intentions", "Bad Blood", "Synthesize", and the Tammy Faye Baker name-checking "Audacity of Huge". I remember Aliya played this on her last broadcast of Beaker + Honeydew. And CFUV has been less electronic and fun ever since.

7. Shirley Lee - Shirley Lee (Hitback)

I fell back in love with Britpop this year, in no small part to Kieron Gillen and Jame McKelvie's fantastic comic Phonogram, which focuses on the subjective listening experiences of various music lovers (riffing off of the motif of music as a form of magic). Anyways, where the first series of Phonogram focuses on one man's Britpop Vergangenheitsbewältigung, series two is about one night in a Bristol club, each issue telling a different character's reading of the night. Let's tie this into the Shirley Lee album up there. Image released a tribute paperback comic called This Is a Souvenir: The Songs of Spearmint and Shirley Lee, Gillen/McKelvie used their spot in the book as a preview of series two of Phonogram. So, as an overnight Phonofan I picked up This Is a Souvenir, and fell in love with Spearmint along the way. Shirley, the band's frontman, released this first solo album of his last February, a collection of heartfelt, introspective indie-rock not unlike what you would expect from Chad Van Gaalen (I'm coming to learn that RIYLs don't have to be exact. Thanks Justin!).

6. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue (Warp)

Probably the 'objectively-everybody-likes-that-one' pick for this year. Bibio is the recording moniker of British electronic producer Stephen Wilkinson, and his latest album is a very eclectic listen.

Included are the chopped-up indie pop of the title track, an instant funk classic in "Jealous of Roses", a 60s psych-folk vignette ("All the Flowers"), acoustic lullabies ("Lovers' Carvings"), and, y'know, some knockout electronics ("S'Vive", "Sugarette").

5. Digits - Hold It Close (self-released)

An intelligent electropop record by Toronto's Alt Altman, and my favorite Canadian release of the year. "Sarah" is amazing. As is "Saturation". "Volley Into the Night"! "Monster"! Hold It Close has been a mainstay in my soundscape for nearly the last three months, and I don't see it coming out of rotation any time soon. Kindly Alt also did a phone interview for the show last month!

4. God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl (Rough Trade)

I've come to realize my distaste for Belle and Sebastian was of the Green Eggs and Ham variety. So to all you Samiams that tried to convince me they're not shit, you just might be right, if Stuart Murdoch's work on this yet-to-be musical is any indication. Man, the girl they found to sing (Catherine Ireton) does some brilliant work here. The quivers! The faux-naivete! Major fluff.

3. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (Domino)

I wrote my little heart out reviewing this album for the next Renegade Radio, so I'll post that once it's in print. Anyways, operatic rock group from Kendal and Leeds put out something much more complex and oddly "rootsy" only one year after their very accomplished debut Limbo, Panto. Hayden Thorpe is the new Bryan Ferry.

2. Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers (Columbia)

In many ways the spiritual successor to their 1996 album The Holy Bible -- James, Nicky and Sean once again put the words of their lyricist sometimes-guitarist Richey James Edwards to music. Brash, angry, Albini-produced rock music. Would I have picked this up without having read Phonogram (series one ends with a Manics obsessed fangirl ghost killing itself, and then a sing-a-long to "Motorcycle Emptiness")? Arguably not. Am I a total cock for turning down those comp tickets to go see the band when they were in Vancouver? Most definitely so.

1. Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications (Rough Trade)

These days I'm quite certain Jarvis is my favorite pop star (Bowie? Scott Walker? Owen Pallett? PFFFT). Nary a day goes by where His 'n' Hers, Different Class, nor indeed, this here solo record of his does not get a spin. Like the Manics record, Albini gives a nice rough, live sound to the album. Some instant JC classics here -- "Further Complications", "I Never Said I Was Deep", "Homewrecker!" and the little world of its own that is "You're In My Eyes (Discosong)". Seeing the fop live in concert was pretty magical stuff.

So there you have it. Eight of the ten are British, so I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about. Note, everything that I enjoyed this year that didn't crack the top ten can be found here. Tune in to hear the show 8-9 AM December 11th!

Songs:

The Happy Hollows - "Tambourine" - Spells
Arctic Monkeys - "Cornerstone" - [single]
Ladytron - "Black Cat" - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
Miles Jones - "Never Too Late" ft. Black Milk - Is... Runaway Jones
Simian Mobile Disco - "Audacity of Huge" - Temporary Pleasure
Shirley Lee - "Dissolving Time" - Shirley Lee
Bibio - "Jealous of Roses" - Ambivalence Avenue
Digits - "Sarah" - Hold It Close
God Help the Girl - "Funny Little Frog" - God Help the Girl
Wild Beasts - "Hooting and Howling" - Two Dancers
Manic Street Preachers - "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" - Journal for Plague Lovers
Jarvis Cocker - "You're In My Eyes (Discosong)" - Further Complications

Fabriclive, David Axelrod, Final Fantasy

2009-12-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

More this week from that Filthy Dukes remix record put out as part of the Fabriclive series -- #48 to be exact. It features greats like Daft Punk, Sebastien Tellier, Sparks, and Aphex Twin, but I went for some local-ish talent (with the Portland-based band Hockey) and one group that received steady hype around the station this year (Phenomenal Hand Clap Band).

...and talking with folks that I don't get to see around these days (for geographical reasons) got me thinking about LA-producer/arranger/composer David Axelrod -- thanks to Palmer for the (be it one-sided) conversation. A good photo up there, Axelrod contemplating his next move as his oft-called upon vocalist Lou Rawls (left) stands, awaiting orders.

Plus, new Final Fantasy! You can download Owen's upcoming single from Heartland over at Domino, called "Lewis Takes a Stand". Followed up with "The Donor", his contribution to the Judee Sill tribute Crayon Angel from this year.

Listen (archived version available after the show):

Songs:

Lovelock - "Maybe Tonight" - Chromeo: DJ-Kicks
Phenomenal Hand Clap Band - "You'll Disappear" - Fabriclive 48
Hockey - "Learn to Lose" [Filthy Dukes remix] - Fabriclive 48
Paten Locke - "Soup for One" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Lou Rawls - "Dead End Street (Parts 1 and 2)" - David Axelrod Anthology II
Portishead - "Magic Doors" - Third
Final Fantasy - "Lewis Takes Action" - Heartland
Final Fantasy - "The Donor" - Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill
James Husband - "While the Boys Went Down Under" - A Parallax I
Girls - "Lust for Life" - Album
The xx - "Crystallized" - xx
The Flaming Lips - "Watching the Planets" - Embryonic
Vitaminsforyou - "Me and My Mirror" - He Closed His Eyes So He Could Dance With You
You Say Party! We Say Die! - "Laura Palmer's Prom" - XXXX

Bonus: My talking to the staff earlier in the week!

Me: Any new stuff for me?
Justin: I think there was some Domino, which usually means some shitty BritRock, right?

Pat: I deleted these Cribs tracks that I didn't want on my computer and I thought of you.

(I've been pigeonholed.)

...next week: Best of 2009!

2009: Some good music

2009-12-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

December is upon us! This year went by mightily fast. I've put together by Best of '09 show; a Top 10 list with a couple of other tracks to round out the hour. But what of all the other stuff I enjoyed from this year? Here's a list of albums from this year that aren't shit:

Ian Brown - My Way (Stone Roses singer is still alive. And making half-decent pop -- if entirely pompous.)
Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective (Ambient rock record by Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt)
The Horrors - Primary Colours (Formerly shit band grow up, call in Portishead's Geoff Barrow. Pretty fantastic, really.)
Atlas Sound - Logos (Not as good as Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., but not a misstep either. That song with Panda Bear is incredibly irritating, though)
Ladytron - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Impressive, manic piece of psychedelic catharsis.)
Chet - Chelsea Silver Please Come Home (The best local band puts out a beautiful folk rock album. If you've a soft spot for falsettos, check this out)
Tonstartssbandht - An When (Imaginative lo-fi fucks that are bound to blow up one day. Or revel in their obscurity and be poor.)
James Husband - A Parallax I (Jeremy from of Montreal compiles all of his solo works, a nice collection of psychedelic indie rock)
The Pastels / Tenniscoats - Two Sunsets (Glasgow mainstays team up with a Japanese pop group to create a dreamy twee/folk pop record)
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day (Makin' cash, and a few solid tracks on the way)
Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure (Italo Disco 'n' shit. Good)
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (Ambient electronics)
Japandroids (Ludicrously excitable fellows. See "The Boys Are Leaving Town")
Paten Locke - Super Ramen Rocketship (Soulful hip hop. Dilla-esque? I have no idea what I'm talking about)
Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract (Jazzy hip hop, but actually has its garagey moments!)
Raekwon - Built Only For Cuban Linx II (Solid Wu album)
The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead (Dark shoegaze. With Scottish vocals.)
The xx - xx - (More hype to be believed.)
Filthy Dukes - Fabriclive 48 [DJ compilation]
You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX
Mos Def - The Ecstatic (A solid album, although Mr. Most Definitely's idiotic rants on Real Time kind of ruin it for me)
Plastiscines - About Love (French girls that think they're Elastica)
Girls - Album (Elvis Costello impostors LOL, believe some of the hype)
Jern Eye - Vision (Great underground hip hop)
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor (More operatic rock from the young master of the genre, though he does his best here to emulate Billy Corgan)
Sunset - "Loveshines II" - 7" (Bill Baird and co. put out one of last year's best albums, and this single is more of the same. It's too bad Gold Dissolves to Gray, the album they put out after this, is pretty subpar...)
St. Vincent - Actor (She plays guitar and doesn't comb her hair)
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath (Breezey, soulful folk rock)
Thavius Beck - Urban/Subsonic (Experimental, ambitious electro)
Black Mold - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz (Chad VanGaalen fucks around with electronics in his basement, which actually makes for a pretty good album).
Health - Get Color (Noise! Not really. But good!)
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 The Remixes (Songs are too long, but some of it, like the Prince Language Remix, are absolutely killer)
Deluka - Deluka EP (Chart fuckery by myself helped this go #1 back in late October! Danceable, arrogant synthpop to be enjoyed by danceable, arrogant types)
Various - Eccentric Soul: Smart's Palace (A fine Numero Group compilation. Is it just me or did they release a lot more stuff in 2008 than they did this year?)
Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute To... (Hip hop. Yes. Madlib, yes.)
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug (Brit Rock superstars offer both their most solid, and mature record to date)
The Happy Hollows - Spells ("Tambourine", really. Fun, girl-fronted, noisy indie rock)
Blur - All the People: Live at Hyde Park 02 July 2009

Girls like it too!

2009-11-27T04:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, the biggest news imaginable: a new Jarvis single! The A-side is the very good "Further Complications", (title track form the new album), but it's backed with a real gem in "Girls Like It Too". The B-side is inspired by some sex advice John Peel gave his brother once upon a time.

Also, I just found out about Chromeo. Yikes they're awesome.

Play:

Songs:

Chromeo - "Nice 'n' Clean" - Yo Gabba Gabba! Music Is Awesome
Chromeo - "Fancy Footwork" - Fancy Footwork
Chromeo - "I Can't Tell You Why" - DJ-Kicks
Jogger - "Champing at the Bit" [live] - The Great Pressure
Ladytron - "Kletva" - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
Jern Eye - "Change" ft. Lunar Heights - Vision
Shirley Lee - "The Lights Change" - Shirley Lee
Girls - "Lauren Marie" - Album
James Husband - "The Darkestness" - A Parallax I
El Perro Del Mar - "Heavenly Arms" - Love Is Not Pop
Jarvis Cocker - "Girls Like It Too" - (7")
Tonstartssbandht - "Black Country" - An When

Second Hour:

Excelsior Spring - "Happy Miranda" and "It" - [single]
Brian Eno - "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" - Here Come the Warm Jets
Emitt Rhodes - "Promises I've Made" - Emitt Rhodes
Lulu - "To Sir With Love" - To Sir With Love [soundtrack]
The Creation - "If I Stay Too Long" - Our Music Is Red, With Purple Flashes
The Da Vincis - "Hotel Elysée" - See You Tonight
Chet - "The Night the Night" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home
Kenickie - "Brother John" - At the Club
Blur & Francoise Hardy - "To the End" - Country House [single]
Paten Locke - "Til the Dawn" - Super Ramen Rocketship
Leo Sayer - "Easy to Love" - Chromeo: DJ-Kicks
Atlas Sound - "Sheila" - Logos
Audio Soul Project - "Reality Check (Vincenzo Remix)" - Fabriclive 48

Comix! With ratings: (writing//art)

Blackest Night #5. The reanimated Bruce corpse was kind of dumb, but watch Morrison turn this plot point into gold. As he does. All the time. Reis continues to rock, though. (3//4)
Dark Avengers: Ares #2. This is shaping up to be something cool. My Marvel purchases are few and far between, but Kieron Gillen's top-notch words have me interested. (4//4)
Detective Comics #859. How is this not the best selling book on the market? The art is unparalleled, JH Williams III again meshing the cute, Darwyn Cook styled past sequences with his trademark hyper-realist treatment for Batwoman. Plus we get more of the monster movie aesthetic for the moments with the coven. About as good as these things get. (4.5//5)
JLA #39. Me: Do you find James Robinson's dialog is lacking these days? Gareth: I've stopped reading him. Me: Ever since he came back? Gareth: Before he ever left. (2.5//3)
Justice League: Cry for Justice #5. Robinson shit-on continued. Yes the dialog is hokey. But he also seems to be given filler books as well. Ultimately nothing ever happens in any of the Superman books he writes. Some of this water-treading has to be impressed-upon JR. ...let's hope he has some more free rein in the months to come. But more of The Shade in this one! And Red Arrow gets his arm cut off. Yes, spoilers. Nobody is reading this anyways. (2.5//4)
Madame Xanadu #17. Amy Reeder Hadley really gives this book some elegance. And for her to come off a Kaluta arc and be able to impress really says something. And Wagner can write well blah blah blah (4//4)
Spider-Man Clone Saga #3. Nostalgia and shit, right? Slowly wearing off. DeFalco sucks. (1.5//2.5)
Thor Giant Size #1. JMS! Kieron Gillen! A reprint I didn't read! (4//4)
World's Finest #2. Bought this the day after at lunch. Pointless, Sterling's dialog was corny. Fuck, man. Have you ever had a conversation before? (1.5//2.5 -- but that Phil Noto cover is very nice indeed)

Jimmy-T Beauty by Strings

2009-11-24T00:46:00.000-08:00

Speaking of James Taylor's debut on Apple -- the strings section to "Sunshine Sunshine" is truly gorgeous. The song does get exponentially worse when James hits the mic, so just enjoy the intro, looped by moi:

Monsters (Monstres?), featuring Brother Power

2009-11-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

Play (split into two parts):

Great new stuff, even if that Q-Tip record has been available for around a decade. "Barely in Love" could've really been anything, it's fascinating Tip turned it into the crunchy, garagey gem that he did. And it is cool to have of Montreal multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Huggins' James Husband work compiled on A Parallax I (out on Polyvinyl). When I interviewed Davey Pierce from the band last year I was under the impression I'd be talking to Jeremy right up until the last minute -- I still asked Davey about James Husband (lazy thing I am). Turns out Davey plays bass here and there on the James Husband stuff. Oh, and dig that song by The Clientele. Breezey folk rock, got me thinking of that wonderful album James Taylor did on the Beatles' Apple label back in the late 60s. Deadline for the next Renegade Radio has come and gone, I should have another review and and an interview in print.

Marking papers was interesting. The really good ones and the abominations were easy to grade, but the mediocre ones! Argh. Like trying to rate U2 records.

Congrats to Barry and Joel who called-in and won tickets to the Hidden Cameras and Billy Bragg! Respectively.

Songs:

Githead - "Take Off" - Landing
Q-Tip - "Barely in Love" - Kamaal the Abstract
Manic Street Preachers - "Virginia State Epileptic Colony" - Journal for Plague Lovers
James Husband - "Waiting on Rayne" - A Parallax I
Atlas Sound - "My Halo" - Logos
DJ Champion - "The Monstre" - Resistance
Pulp - "Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)" - Masters of the Universe: Pulp on Fire 1985-86
Girls - "Laura" - Album
The Clientele - "Walking in the Park" - Bonfires on the Heath
Digits - "Monster" - Hold It Close
The xx - "Heat Skipped a Beat" - xx
Louwop - "For the Love" - The Great Escape
Raekwon - "New Wu" ft. Ghostface and Method Man - Built Only for Cuban Linx II

Comix:

Brave and the Bold - I'm starting to think writing B+tB is the best gig in comics. Choose two heroes that a) really should've teamed-up by now, or b) have no right being in the same universe as each other -- anything, as long as it makes for a good book. This Bats/Brother Power the Geek was great, I actually teared up a bit. Yes. I did. Brother Power, the embodiment of all things RFK and 60s-style hope. Man, if I was in JMS' position. Space Ghost and Mr. Tawky Tawny!
Flash: Rebirth - reminded me of the new Star Trek film; is Barry Allen's entire life a divergent continuity? Egad!
Adventure Comics - A book about how pure-suck SB Prime turns out to be pure-suck. Johns may be writing too many books, methinks.
Azrael - It's great and all that Lane wears sneakers, but I'm glad to see all the wacko fundamentalists of days gone by come looking for the new Az.
Hellblazer - I have yet to read a bad Constantine book. JC in India! A good point is raised, in how westernized religion is in the DC and Vertigo universes. Marvel's is much more ...cosmopolitan in that sense, with all the Norse and Greco-Roman gods running around, in addition to Mephisto (their devil) and the Beyonder/Thanos cosmic types.
Vigilante - Why did I assume this incarnation of Vigilante was totally divorced from the 80s Adrian Chase one? Turns out this is one Dorian Chase, Adrian's brother. And, c'mon, Marv Wolfman was bound to reference his old series. This realization of mine is not particularly timely, given the title was just canceled. Shall be picking up the trades whenever they get around to putting them out. P.S. the ending to the original Vigilante series was about as moving as these things can be.

Marv doesn't glamorize things -- Adrian Chase may be one of the most true-to-form, genuine human beings in superhero comics. You would have to be a very conflicted, even disturbed individual to work both sides of the system (to be a D.A./judge and kill?). Poor, deplorable bastard. One of my favorites.

Interview: Digits' Alt Altman // Joys of dot matrix

2009-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

Alt Altman, the electronic artist behind the wonderful Digits album Hold It Close, joined me today from Toronto for an interview. Played "Saturation" and "Warrant for Your Love" from his album, accordingly. I love how Alt's promo photos in no way prepare you for danceable electronics. I'm sorry, need to get at your mailbox? Spot of tea?

My general distaste for everything Belle 'n' Sebastian may be waning as Stuart Murdoch's 'God Help the Girl' project is actually pretty wonderful, see "Funny Little Frog". More pop of the Scottish persuasion with The Pastels' "About You", be it with the Japanese group Tenniscoats helping them at it.

This Gary Numan tribute record Random (Beggars Banquet, 1997) is something of a Britpop hidden gems compilation. Rarities from Bis, Kenickie, Dubstar, proto-Gorillaz electronic Damon Albarn, plus Saint Etienne. I like how more than a decade on Damon pleases the masses on Parlophone, then fucks off to Beggars for his weirder output (as that Monkey record on XL from last year attests to). Link to the album over at trusty RYM.

CFUV is on a new music lull given our trusty 20 year old dot matrix printer (that's been good for printing labels for CDs as we need them, as opposed to sheets of the things) isn't particularly compatible with new computers. At all. While this nonsense gets sorted out I'll just play the live Ladytron thing over and over and over again. (Actually, they sorted the printer thing out. Hence Sunset and The xx records.)

Play (available after the show):

Songs:

Sleeper - "Factor 41" - The It Girl
Digits - "Saturation" and "Warrant for Your Love" ft. Rebbecca Applebaum - Hold It Close
Ladytron - "Discotraxx" - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
Damon Albarn + Matt Sharp - "We Have a Technical" - Random [Beggars compilation]
Serge Gainsbourg + Bridget Bardot - "La javanaise" - Bonnie and Clyde
God Help the Girl - "Funny Little Frog" - [single]
The Pastels / Tenniscoats - "About You" - Two Sunsets
Sunset - "Fishtown" - Gold Dissolves to Gray
The xx - "Islands" - s/t
Chet - "The Clement" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home (Sadly the Chet song got cut off due to a power outage.)

Comix:

James Robinson's Starman -- the first two volumes. I had no idea it was going to be so amazing, given my prior knowledge of Robinson is from the so-bad-its-good Cry for Justice mini that's going on. The crossroads between a deep sense of continuity, innovation, and all things geek culture. Of course, drawn by rock star Tony Harris (Ex Machina). Plus vol. 2 contains some earlier work by JH Williams III -- a visionary who still takes the time to respond to each of his fans' banal comments. Omnibus 3 to be purchased.
Cerebus. Again, my knowing a celebrated creator (here, Dave Sim) from his current output (Glamourpuss) is shattered upon going through what they're actually known for. Be it less so, given Glamourpuss is so awesome. Literary, gorgeous art, and sensibly anti-feminist. Kitchener's finest.

Now for this week's comic purchases, with at-the-register annotations by the self-styled Eisner-nominated cartoonist Gareth Gaudin (Legends Comics was at the last SDCC nominated for best comic shop. So, Eisner-nominated cartoonist in the same manner Ben Affleck is an Oscar-winning actor).

Phonogram 2.5 -- "Yes, should be exciting."
Batman and Robin -- [Nods. Hardly anything needs to be said about a Grant Morrison comic.]
Batman/Doc Savage Special -- Gareth slips me a copy on the sly whilst his compatriot Lloyd goes on about how Diamond missed their order for the issue.
Red Robin -- "Ugh, Geoff. You're killing me."
Starman Omnibus 3 -- "Ooh, Starman." Pronounced 'Starmin'.
S.W.O.R.D. #1, featuring Team Phonogram. "Ah, the new S-WORD. Very clever way to tell us how shit it's going to be."

Petrarch: On Snobbery?

2009-11-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

"Though truth has always been hated, it is now a capital crime. No doubt the hatred of truth has grown and flattery and falsehood now reign supreme because of the growing sins of mankind. I recall often having said this, and sometimes even writing it, but it ought to be said and written more often. The lament will not cease before the pain departs. This idea led me some time ago to write the Bucolicum carmen, a kind of cryptic poem which, though understood by only a few, might possibly please many; for some people have a taste for letters so corrupt that the well-known, no matter how sweet its flavour, offends them, while every mystery, no matter how sour, charms them. Strange how it's the weak who so often look for troubles to shoulder."

-"Book Without a Name"

Snobbery, art-making, etc. No reason to look past the early fourteenth century, me thinks.

New Jarvis videos

2009-11-06T19:23:00.000-08:00

Young Master Cocker's promo video for his next single "Further Complications" is up. I've ordered the limited ed. 45, an excited boy I be.

Also, Jarvis guested at Gonzales' nightclub? residency in London. Check:

Gonzales VS Jarvis Cocker - Francophobia (Live At The Pigalle) from akdonovan on Vimeo.

2 Shows, 1 Morning -- All Geoffrey

2009-11-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

Extra long show, as Mehdi has the week off from The Hidden News. Which allows me to play that show I had prepped for last week (Hour 1), and do some slight chart-fuckery (Hour 2). That up there is the cover for Expressions, the new Music Go Music album out on Secretly Canadian, which is awesome. ABBA-inspired, hazy synthpop. Highly recommended -- check their groovy 10 minute track "Warm In the Shadows". That, the Digits, Champion, and Ladytron records, all have me sufficiently electro-fied. Deluka went #1 at the station the week before last, of all things.

The Happy Hollows, an LA pop punk group's album Spells has been getting many a listen from me. Actually I can't vouch for the entire record, as I've only been playing "Tambourine" on loop. Girl has fucked up dream that involves Billy Corgan. Remembers how she had a crush on Billy Corgan in high school (which reminds me of Calli from Techromancer telling me about how she wrote an essay in Grade 9 on how Shirley Manson from Garbage was her idol). Girl dates Republican who looks like Billy Corgan, tries to change him, to make him interesting. Doesn't work, joins a shitty band and writes this song, I assume. Yes it sounds a bit vapid, and yes, it's one of the more wonderful things I've heard in the last while.

Download (available after the show):

Razzmatazz - November 6, 2009

Songs (First Hour):

Rubik - "Altitudes" - Dada Bandits
Pulp - "Mile End" [live] - The John Peel Sessions
Chet - "Saint Jerome, My Baby Tames Lions" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home
Manic Street Preachers - "All Is Vanity" - Journal for Plague Lovers
Ladytron - "True Mathematics" - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
Digits - "Volley Into the Night" - Hold It Close
Ian Brown - "Marathon Man" - My Way
Music Go Music - "Warm In the Shadows" - Expressions
DJ Champion - "Resistance" - Resistance
Deluka - "O.M.F.G." - Deluka [EP]
of Montreal - "Brush Brush Brush" - Yo Gabba Gabba! Music Is Awesome
You Say Party! We Say Die! - "Lonely's Lunch" - XXXX

Songs (Second Hour):

The Long Blondes - "Century" - Couples
Ladytron - "Seventeen" - Live at London Astoria 16.07.08
The Happy Hollows - "Tambourine" - Spells
Digits - "Wait It Out" - Hold It Close
Spearmint - "The Flaming Lips" - A Different Lifetime
The Flaming Lips - "Powerless" - Embryonic
The Twilight Sad - "Reflection of the Television" - Forget the Night Ahead
Simian Mobile Disco - "Audacity of Huge" - Temporary Pleasure
Jern Eye - "Beautiful" - Vision
Manics - "Marlon J.D." (NYPC's Wire Up Mix) - Journal for Plague Lovers Remixes

Comix:

ASM - last of the Ben Reilly/Kaine arc, and the last issue of in-continuity Spidey I'll be buying for the foreseeable future. I'm happy the Clone Saga mini is still coming.
That's it for new stuff. Regrettably. I have these weird off-weeks with my pull-list in the next few months when nothing from my subscriptions come out. But I picked up Joss Whedon & Fabio Moon's Sugar-Shock one-shot, which was fine. Earlier in the week I read Ambush Bug #7 (really as bad as everyone writes), the totally wicked JLA: Earth 2 (Morrison and Quitely? Unstoppable), got caught up on that other Geoff's Flash Rebirth, plus I found a copy of Kieron Gillen's Newuniversal: 1959. Speaking of Gillen, next week Phonogram 2.5 comes out! Finally!! And his S.W.O.R.D. on-going kicks off. Good reading to be had.

Next week -- Live interview with Toronto's Alt Altman, aka Digits!

...who gets double-played this week, as his Hold It Close record really is that awesome.

No show today

2009-10-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

A no-show means no show, after all. How I can set three different alarms and still not wake up means a) I'm not an early morning person and/or b) I must set more alarms to ensure I get to the station to do the show I had spent an hour or two preparing the day before.

Don't take 6 classes, do a radio show and work multiple jobs, people.

Comix:

Kieron Gillen's Dark Avengers: Ares -- waiting for these last issues of Phonogram has been grueling. Luckily KG is kicking ass with his Marvel work "on the side" (for you see, the indie book that's in printing limbo is naturally the day job).
Blackest Night -- Seeing the Jean-Paul Valley Azrael zombie made me feel a bit awful. Leave my favorite characters alone, you whores! Flash is definitely front and center, I suppose it's nice to see Geoff "spelled-with-a-jee-like-me" Johns bringing Barry Allen back to iconic status.
Spidey: Clone Saga -- writing was less shit this issue, still bringing back loads of memories of Marvel in the 90s. I recall how the Smoke & Mirrors arc just blew my mind back in the day.
Madame Xanadu -- Matt Wagner: master storyteller. Madame X recommending a potential client to seek psychiatric help before consulting the tarot deck was classic.
Detective - "There's this guy, JH Williams III and he's just breaking all the rules, man."

Major fucking dork's second trip to the store this week:

World's Finest - Chis Kent is ... an interesting character?
Arkham Reborn - not as creepy and thrilling as the one-shot during Battle for the Cowl, but still alright.
An old issue of Countdown (#21 to be exact). I couldn't recall why I had made a note to purchase this 'til I saw Batman Beyond halfway through. Oh, Terry. So awesome.

Digits, Chet

2009-10-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Download:

Razzmatazz - October 23, 2009

Electropop fella Alt Altman has just released an album as Digits, it's called Hold It Close. And it's totally knockout. I doth predicteth my verily playing the shit out of it. Skip ahead to the track "Sarah" if you're pressed for time**. But you're not. Enjoy the entire show. It's for you, acquaintances. And internet. **Actually, the kindly artist allows you to download it for free here.

Songs:

Chet - "Allerseelen" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home
My Life Story - "The Garden Fence Affair" - Megaphone Theology
Wild Beasts - "Hooting & Howling" - Two Dancers
The Clientele - "Never Saw Them Before" - Bonfires on the Heath
Digits - "Sarah" - Hold It Close
Deluka - "Wake Me Up" - Deluka [EP]
You Say Party! We Say Die! - "She's Spoken For" - XXXX
The Stone Roses - "She Bangs the Drums" - s/t [reissue]
Ian Brown - "So High" - My Way
Manic Street Preachers - "Pretension/Repulsion" - Journal for Plague Lovers
Arctic Monkeys - "Potion Approaching" - Humbug
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - "Trouble" - Through the Devil Softly
Miles Jones - "Never Wrong" - Miles Jones Is Runaway Jones
Louwop - "One 2 Check" - The Great Escape

Comix:

Hellblazer - more Bisley on art, more awesome. Constantine writings always tend to be good, but Peter Milligan does deserve a nod for his great work these days.
ASM - Yay, Kaine.
Ex Machina - Tip: don't let some crazy pseudo-ex who thinks you might be gay get superpowers.
Azrael - People are saying Bachs' art is muddy, but things really could be worse. Plus having Frazer Irving do the lead-in to your book will make most art that comes thereafter look like shit.
Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance - the Twitter feed disappeared, and they ended with some Morrison-esque ambiguity. I enjoyed the series, but I could've done with a bit more of the dance they had advertised.

I'll probably go pick up the latest issue of JLA today for a) reviews point toward it being a trainwreck, and b) it ties into James Robinson's related JL: Cry for Justice, simultaneously the worst and best thing on the shelves these days. Heroes WILL act out of character. Gays WILL be killed off in some clueless and offensive fashion.

Fill-in w/ Dana again: Circles

2009-10-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

Download:

Circles - October 20, 2009

Fill-in for Ron of Circles. Turns out darling Aliya who does the show before (Beaker & Honeydew) is moving on to more grown-up things/traveling/thesis DEFENSE. You can listen to her goodbye show at that there link.

Songs:

Digits - "Saturation" - Hold It Close
Ian Brown - "Just Like You" - My Way
The Stone Roses - "I Am the Resurrection" - s/t [reissue]
Atlas Sound - "Sheila" - Logos
The Flaming Lips - "Convinced of the Hex" - Embryonic
The Pastels/Tenniscoats - "Vivid Youth" - Two Sunsets
Codes in the Clouds - [untitled?] - Paper Canyon
Karl Blau - "Dark Sedan Returns" - Zebra
Hidden Cameras - "Colour of a Man" - Origin:Orphan
Blur - "Music Is My Radar" - [single]
Deluka - "O.M.F.G." - Deluka [EP]
Manic Street Preachers - "This Joke Sport Severed (Patrick Wolf's Love Letter to Richey Remix)" - Journal for Plague Lovers Remixes
Chet - "The Turning Bell" - Kauai
Deerhunter - "Operation" - Weird Era Cont.
Chet - "Every Night a Supper Wine" - Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home
Blur - "Coffee & TV" - 13

Oh shit? Stone Roses at #6? in 2009? Feel my strength. Deluka broke the top 30 as well. Next week should be wild if my fill-in chart fuckery charms have worked.

Beating Around the Bush: Fill-in w/ Dana

2009-10-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

Download:

Beating Around the Bush: October 18, 2009

Dana: The show ended in fine form with questionably appropriate comments from Geoff about Victoria's music venues. Next show host, Jimmy, was not too pleased with derogatory snipes our host made concerning a certain venue that will go unnamed to respect the opinion of that host. Other than that today's fill-in was filled with some new music, a little bit of the old, some hip-hop, some local artists (Chet) and many more. Turned out that I could hum along to "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and sure enough Geoff's Brit-pop heroes were covering some homegrown talent, Neil Young. There were some rumors that Blake, usual host of "Beating Around the Bush" was at the Gay Rodeo, but such rumors have yet to be substantiated.

Songs:

Arctic Monkeys - "Cornerstone" - Humbug
Deluka - "Cascade" - s/t EP
Stone Roses - "Song for My Sugar Spun Sister" - s/t [reissue]
Wilco - "Shot in the Arm" - Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
Lou Barlow - "Sharing" - Goodnight Unknown
Shearing Pinx - "I Am Jim O'Rourke" - Weaponry
Saint Etienne - "This Is Radio Etienne" & "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - Foxbase Alpha
Long Blondes - "You Could Have Both" - Someone to Drive You Home
Manic Street Preachers - "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" - Journal for Plague Lovers
Chet - "Election: A Broke Arm" - Kauai
The Beats - "Cold Lips"
Kid Cudi - *"Make Her Say" ft. Kanye West & Common - Man on the Moon: The End of Day

*Even though Geoff announced the Ratatat/MGMT track

P-Pop

2009-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Download:

Razzmatazz - October 16, 2009

Dance music in the morning continues. Played the wrong Divine Comedy song for my theme but fuck it.

Songs:

Annie - "I Don't Like Your Band" - Don't Stop
Deluka - "Cascade" - Deluka [EP]
Techromancer - "Young Cubs"
Kid Cudi - "Day n Night (Nightmare)" - Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Hudson Mohawke - "Velvet Peel" - Butter
The Long Blondes - "Giddy Stratospheres" - Singles
Manic Street Preachers - "Bag Lady" [Jonathan Krisp Remix] - Journal for Plague Lovers Remixes
Black Mold - "Finally Someone Invented a Teleporter" - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz
You Say Party! We Say Die! - "There Is XXXX (Within My Heart)" - XXXX
The Twilight Sad - "I Became a Prostitute" - Forget the Night Ahead
Arctic Monkeys - "Dangerous Animals" - Humbug
The Stone Roses - "Elizabeth My Dear" - s/t [remaster]
Ian Brown - "Stellify" - My Way

Dana of The Sound Travels is doing a live session with local greats Chet, which is awesome. Then I'm on-air again interviewing local electrobabes Techromancer. Between all the awesome is a midterm on Ukrainian history. Silly Cossacks.

Charlotte, A.Human

2009-10-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

Download:

Razzmatazz - October 9, 2009

As I wrote awhile back, Charlotte Gainsbourg called in Beck to help craft her latest record, and the title track from IRM is now up for download at her website. Exactly the kind of thing I want to hear these days -- percussive, electronic, tad aggressive. I suppose she had enough time relaxing with Air, Jarvis, and Neil on 5:55 and is content to finally rock out a bit.

Came across London electropop group A.Human on their label's site. I liked this bit from their bio: "Their meeting was forced through employment, serving lamb cordial to suited no brains who cared more for the wage than they did for their souls."

I've been listening to this Kid Cudi record like mad, makes up for those Funkadelic albums that I wasted time with (Shit songs. About shit). Good to see that the Stone Roses' debut got a decent remaster, one of those great albums that always sounded muddied. You'll get to hear some of those sparkly 'n' clear John Squire riffs in the weeks to come, this show I played one of the demos off the bonus disc. Also, a preview of Final Fantasy's next record Heartland -- a demo called "Red Sun" that's on a recent Arts & Crafts compilation.

Songs:

Kid Cudi - "Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)" - Man On the Moon: The End of Day
LCD Soundsystem - "45:33 Prince Language Remix" - 45:33 The Remixes
Simian Mobile Disco - "Cruel Intentions" - Temporary Pleasure
Charlotte Gainsbourg - "IRM" - IRM
You Say Party! We Say Die! - "Cosmic Wanship Avengers" - XXXX
A.Human - "Ten Men" - Pacey Singer [EP]
No Age - "Genie" - Losing Feeling [EP]
Gold Rush - "Thought You Cared" - #1
Arctic Monkeys - "Dance Little Liar" - Humbug
Final Fantasy - "Red Sun" [demo] - Friends In Bellwoods 2
The Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored" [demo] - s/t [remaster! / bonus disc]
Miles Jones - "Trust Me" ft. RaSoul - Runaway Jones

Comix:
I've been on a Grant Morrison kick lately, with his Batman: Gothic, some old JLA: Classified issues and what I've been able to scrounge of his Seven Soldiers minis from the dollar bins (nearly 3/4 of the books for less than $15 isn't bad at all).

Amazing Spider-Man #608 (Clone Saga month has me nostalgic, returning to the title of my youth. Actually those memories are of Untold Tales of Spider-Man, which I'd get for $1.12 -- WITH ANOTHER FULL-LENGTH COMIC ON THE FLIPSIDE -- ah, simpler times.)
Batman Annual #27 (When it comes to Azrael, I'm an easy sell. Can't wait for the on-going.)
Batman and Robin #5 (Morrison! I even liked Tan's art this week.)
Justice League: Cry for Justice #4 (I've tricked myself into thinking this is satire.)
Planetary #27 (I bought this final issue without having really followed the series. Which is a tad retarded. Since I had no emotion riding on this one, heart-strings remain un-tugged -- but I liked the time travel theory shit. Might pick up the trades.)

Nadja/Shearing Pinx/Verisimilitude

2009-10-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

The (CFUV 25th Anniversary) Nadja gig on Wednesday was pretty good, with Verisimilitude (featuring fellow radio host Tyler**), Vancouver punk act Shearing Pinx (who were the best of the night, by far). Nadja were okay, if a tad boring. I just wanted that My Bloody Valentine cover that they do, I suppose. Or a song. Any song. Left sufficiently alienated.

Verisimilitude

Shearing Pinx

Nadja

** I tried to find a good, descriptive anagram of Tyler's show Pterodactyl Sneak Attack, all I had in the end was...
"Tyler P. naked attack o' scat".

Waiting Game

2009-10-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

More brand new adds -- white boy soul from Monsters of Folk (the 'supergroup' of M. Ward with Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket fellows), genuine soul from Barbara Lynn, and some gay pop chamberisms via the Hidden Cameras -- alongside the newer stuff I've been digging the last few weeks. Also, Saint Etienne and Simon Bookish, who I realized worked together on the former's Finisterre album. And Kenickie!

Razzmatazz - Oct. 2, 2009

CFUV has wrangled Toronto droney/psychedelic duo Nadja to the city, playing next Wednesday (October 7) at Open Space. Attend!

Songs:

Saint Etienne - "Erica America" - Good Humor
Simon Bookish - "Colophon" - Everything/Everything
Kenickie - "Run Me Over" - Get In
Arctic Monkeys - "Secret Door" - Humbug
Wild Beasts - "Two Dancers (II)" - Two Dancers
Miles Jones - "No More" ft. Marinda - Runaway Jones
Destroyer - "Ravers" - Bay of Pigs [EP]
The Hidden Cameras - "Walk On" - Origin:Orphan
Monsters of Folk - "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)" - s/t
Barbara Lynn - "Only You Know How to Love Me" - Here Is Barbara Lynn
Nadja - "The Bungled & the Botched" - The Bungled & the Botched

Comix:
Glamourpuss remains Glamourpuss, and Tom DeFalco's writing on that Spider-Man: Clone Saga rehash is jaw-droppingly shit. Judd Winick terrible. Also, this week's Thor (being my first issue of Thor, ever) was at times baffling. What is the nature of Thor's divinity? Is he wholly human when he's Dr. Blake? They should be including some kind of Asgardian Nicene Creed to dispel such confusion. Last thing I need is to be dismissed at my local shop as some unfounded monophysite.

Eve-tasl

2009-09-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

What would have been a night marked with another miraculous Final Fantasy performance became a bit of a bust -- Owen fell ill, so everyone fucked off to watch Beach House. I ended up at home having cookies for dinner listening to Saint Etienne. Which has its advantages. Probably not. If I had paid for this Rifflandia pass I'd be feeling mightily ripped-off.

Razzmatazz - Sept-25-09

Some Black Box Recorder, a preview of what Damon Albarn has planned next for Gorillaz, and some nice electronics via Simian Mobile Disco, Bibio, and local band Techromancer -- with whom I might be conducting an interview in the next few weeks.

The 15 minute-epic, disco-y Destroyer track.

Songs:

Black Box Recorder - "These Are the Things" - [single]
Gorillaz - "Broken" [demo]
Destroyer - "Bay of Pigs" - Bay of Pigs [EP]
Techromancer - "Spoiler Alert" - Space Duel
Beastie Boys - "The Vibes" - Ill Communication [remaster / bonus disk]
Black Mold - "Uke Puke" - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz
Simian Mobile Disco - "Bad Blood" - Temporary Pleasure
Arctic Monkeys - "Cornerstone" - Humbug
Wild Beasts - "Underbelly" - Two Dancers
Bibio - "Sugarette" - Ambivalence Avenue

Comix:
Two story-arcs finished this week for me in Madame Xanadu and Detective Comics, a little sad knowing that Kaluta won't be around next month for the former. At least JHW3 is still sticking around with Rucka on Detective for the rest of the year. Simon Bisley's interiors on Hellblazer are pretty fantastic (Biz, who usually sticks to the covers, creeps inside for two issues). The tweeting in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance continues to entertain.

Big test tomorrow.

GZA

2009-09-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

School all day (ending with a German lit class where 4/40 of the students actually did the reading. As one of the 36, I felt kind of bad). Saw a bit of "Covers for a Cause" at Lucky, where Forestry was playing -- a band featuring fellow CFUV-ite Blake Enemark (Dante to my Cacciaguida). Then, GZA! Shitty iPhone pics galore can be found here.

Comics tomorrow, Final Fantasy on Thursday! Formidable vocational examination on Saturday.

9-18 / Next week's shows

2009-09-17T06:27:00.000-07:00

Next week is pretty fantastic for live music -- Arctic Monkeys and Manic Street Preachers will be in Vancouver, GZA performs Liquid Swords in entirety at Sugar, and Rifflandia happens in town at the end of the week -- which includes one of my pop heroes Final Fantasy aka Owen Pallett. Can't see all of them, sadly. Pictured there is Owen (on the left) with his old Les Mouches bandmate Matt Smith (he released an album on Blocks a couple of years back as Nifty). I'll probably end up seeing GZA and Owen. Which is so ridiculously awesome. Anyways, download today's show:

Razzmatazz - Sept. 18 - 09

The station charts aren't a shitfest this week, thanks to the guys who did the hip hop marathon on Monday. That Miles Jones record I've been playing hit #1, with Mos Def right behind. Plus, Postmarks at #7, Patrick Wolf at #14! A nice break from the usual 'nepotism' (the local indie-kids whose friends have shows). Did not Michael Ignatieff warn against the dangers of such nationalism, people? (In an old documentary of his where he managed to claim that he, like the Northern Irish, was without a nation to properly identify with. Here's hoping Canada can accommodate this twat.)

Interesting stuff: Gavin, one of my childhood pals, is now a DJ for a very good hip hop act in Winnipeg called The Lytics. They have a new CD that you should definitely check out.

DJ Action-Rick. Or, Gavin. What semi-photorealism! The crosshatching on his facial hair is worth the price of admission. Watch out, Hal Foster.

Songs:

Fosca - "Confused and Proud" - The Painted Side of the Rocket*
Steve Harley - "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" - Velvet Goldmine [soundtrack]
Wild Beasts - "We Still Got the Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues" - Two Dancers
Montag - "Softness, I Forgot Your Name" ft. Owen Pallett - Going Places
Thavius Beck - "The Nature of Humans" - Urban/Subsonic
Black Mold - "No Dream Nation" - Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz
Health - "Die Slow" - Get Color
Patrick Wolf - "Battle" - The Bachelor
Manic Street Preachers - "Me and Stephen Hawking" - Journal for Plague Lovers
GZA/Genius - "Living in the World Today" - Liquid Swords
Miles Jones - "Coast to Coast" ft. Kae Sun - Runaway Jones
The Lytics - "Big City Sound Girl" - The Lytics [EP]
Why? - "Into the Shadows of My Embrace" - Eskimo Snow

A majestically gay track. Download for free at the band's behest, here!

Comix:
Frank Quitely leaves Batman & Robin, and how tame Phillip Tan looks in comparison (all these "Green Lantern" artists are unexciting these days, except Doug Mahnke, who is always kicking ass). Luckily the great Cameron Stewart (read his Sin Titulo online) and rock star Frazer Irving get to shine on the book hereafter. Ex Machina continues to be a testament to Brian K. Vaughan's master storytelling; our seemingly progressive protagonist mayor is (a mere 5 issues from series end) looking to be a pro-life/delusional/election-rigging nutjob. And I trusted him!

Pressy McPress-Press

2009-09-15T00:20:00.001-07:00

The lines between press and self-promotion are blurred in the latest issue of Renegade Radio, as Dana wrote a sparkling show profile for this here program. As well, check my review for Jarvis' album Further Complications, borderline run-on sentences and all. Copies of Renegade can be found about town and on campus.

I bought another Manics album from Ditch today, Send Away the Tigers, and told the guys working that I was seeing the band play next week (Longshanks replied "...that's great," yet his expression belied more of a "UR FAG").

Show / Back in school

2009-09-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

Razzmatazz - Sept-11-09

It is the final year as an undergraduate for our young hero, and I really don't think it'll be that bad. I picked up the lovely new album by Sally Shapiro, My Guilty Pleasure. Gorgeous disco from a Swede who releases on Toronto's Paper Bag Records (for some reason). At this moment, it's probably my favourite album of the year -- played the closer "Miracle". When I was looking for the album at Ditch I couldn't find it in the stacks, so I asked the record store gal who had just unpacked it. Providence, people.

I also pseudo-analyzed some of Dead(?)-Manic-Richey's lyrics on Journal for Plague Lovers, as I don't think the term 'begging the question' is used in any sensible way on "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time". Not that pop lyrics should garner such a douchey response, but when you're supposedly a literate 'voice of a generation' you should be more careful. Bah. Great song, though. Should I go to Van to see them at the Commodore on the 22nd? Argh... if I can score comp tix, maybe? I could always catch a late flight, so I wouldn't have to stay the night.

The final song I played, "Hooting and Howling" by Wild Beasts was cut off, but here's the music video they just put out for it:

Songs

Beastie Boys - "Sabotage" - Ill Communication [remaster]
Yo La Tengo - "Here to Fall" - Popular Songs
The Auteurs - "Lenny Valentino" - Now I'm a Cowboy
Manic Street Preachers - "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" - Journal for Plague Lovers
Plastiscines - "Barcelona" - About Love
The Horrors - "Sea Within a Sea" - Primary Colours
Pantychrist - "Purple Butterflies" - s/t [damnit, Kim]
Sally Shapiro - "Miracle" - My Guilty Pleasure
Miles Jones - "Say What" ft. Shad K - Runaway Jones
Bibio - "S'Vive" - Ambivalence Avenue
Final Fantasy - "Blue Imelda" - Spectrum, 14th Century
Wild Beasts - "Hooting and Howling" - Two Dancers

Comix
This week was decent. This whole "Blackest Night" dealie is getting lame fast, and the Batman crossover is no exception. Geoff Johns' Adventure Comics was as touching/reverent as the last issue, and Red Robin continues to entertain (Ramon Bachs' art is really starting to grow on me). Next week my pull-list has Grant Morrison and Ex-Machina, so things should be good.

Hmm... they're playing "St. Petersburg" by Supergrass at Finnerty's.

Fill-in: Circles

2009-09-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

Circles! But was it an Instant Party? (Respect to those privy to the mod reference.) Yes, Dana (The Sound Travels, Fridays 3-4 PM) and I filled in for Ron and his show Circles. What started off as a Beastie Boys set snow-balled into an hour of hip hop, ending with a rather eclectic mash of shit. I downloaded the autotune application T-Pain made (named, of all things, I AM T-PAIN). Make shitty autotune tracks from your iPhone! I made some show promos for le Razzmatazz, like this one. Yes. I also threw a bunch of the stupid things into the broadcast. I'm still a child.

Anyways, download below (it's split up between three mp3s in a zip file. For such convolution, Aliya of Beaker and Honeydew can be blamed. Station Manager Randy had to save the day by pulling these off of the auto-logger-thingy).

Circles - September 9, 2009

Songs:

Air - "Do the Joy" - [single]
Beastie Boys - "Beastie Boys" - Sounds of Science: The Beastie Boys Anthology
Beastie Boys - "Get It Together" - Ill Communication [remaster]
Beastie Boys - "Too Many Rappers" ft. Nas - [single]
Spank Rock - "Rick Rubin" - Yo Yo Yo
Mos Def - "Auditorium" - The Ecstatic
Miles Jones - "Never Too Late" ft. Black Milk - Runaway Jones
Black Milk - "Try" - Tronic
Method Man & Redman - "Dangerus Mcees" - Blackout! 2
Final Fantasy - "The Butcher" - Spectrum, 14th Century
Women - "Black Rice" - s/t
Wizardzz - "Glimpse of the Hidden City" - Hidden City of Taurmond
Plastiscines - "Camera" - About Love
Elastica - "Car Song" - s/t
Blur - "Popscene" - Modern Life Is Rubbish
Wild Beasts - "All the King's Men" - Two Dancers
Ray Davies - "Victoria" - The Kinks Choral Collection
Bibio - "Lovers' Carvings" - Ambivalence Avenue

Today's Show / Episodes of Razz now archived online!

2009-09-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

Big hair! Big riffs! Big hype! The latest Arctic Monkeys album Humbug has hit Stateside/arrived at the station, and on the first few listens I'm loving it. Played the lead single "Crying Lightning" from the album.

As noted above, you can now DOWNLOAD ARCHIVED SHOWS! You don't believe me. Yeah? Well I bought a fucking domain name. Shit is hosted. Download away!

Razzmatazz - Sept-4-09

I'd be very surprised if Bibio doesn't end up on my Top 10 at year's end (which will be drenched in self-importance, as last year's was) -- it's a real eclectic record; compared to last week's soul-pop, "All the Flowers" is some spindly, eerie minimalist psych. The Deerhunter and Mos Def are particularly killer tracks too.

Songs:

Arctic Monkeys - "Crying Lightning" - Humbug
Deerhunter - "Disappearing Ink" - Rainwater Cassette Exchange
The Junction - "Pick Your Battles" - Another Link in the Chain
The Pipettes - "Tell Me What You Want" - We Are the Pipettes
Bibio - "All the Flowers" - Ambivalence Avenue
Adventures in Stereo - "When You're Gone" - Alternative Stereo Sounds
The Postmarks - "I'm in Deep" - Memoirs at the End of the World
Patrick Wolf - "Count of Casualty" - The Bachelor
Gold Rush - "Electric Lettuce" - #1
Zeus - "That's All" - Sounds Like Zeus [EP]
Miles Jones - "Never Wrong" - Runaway Jones
Mos Def - "History" ft. Talib Kweli - The Ecstatic
Method Man & Redman - "Dangerus Mcees" - Blackout! 2
Black Mold - "Gummed Desk" - Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
Health - "We Are Water" - Get Color

Ramblings:
When you listen to music, what do you see in your mind's eye? Can you see the artist performing the song? Do you envision yourself in the artists' place? Swirling images? Or are you so completely engrossed by the music you don't visualize anything at all? I conducted a particularly unscientific poll over at my dearest RYM (rateyourmusic.com, which really should get a different name now that we can rate/review films).

At the time of writing, 45/62 of respondents said they visualize something, most choosing "other visualizations" over the artists/themselves/the swirling whatever. Some responses:

Carbone said: "More often than not ... I will end up, almost subconsciously, creating some sort of warped story in my head based on song titles, what lyrics I can here in the songs, and what the songs is actually doing ... one just seems to develop as I'm listening."

MrDoctorHashbrown said (about the Ulver record Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler): What strange purple trees! And a purple sky! Why is everything purple? Well, the clouds aren't purple. Man, what you can see from up here! Come to think of it, I think I'll go explore down there. I hope it's not too dangerous..."

nos (an intelligent, purist troll) said that "visualisations generally imply lower quality of music, for me. Good music absorbs attention. Poor music requires decoration" -- Waldo1692 refuted saying that "good music triggers "decoration"".

How about you guys? What goes through that head of yours when you blast T-Pain?

Comix:
Nothing particularly great came out in comicsland this week (last week was totally killer, so I'm not complaining). Picked up the beautifully drawn and horrendously written second issue of Justice League: Cry for Justice (I feel bad for Cascioli, last series he had to work with Judd-fucking-Winick, the bane of DC. Not to be confused with Bane of DC, who is more than cool). Also, my re-orders of the ever-schizoid glamourpuss arrived, a series that is equal parts comic art scholarship (mostly focusing on the great photorealists) and faux-fashion zine (issue 8 featured a review of the Olsen twins' latest book). Here's an example of artist/writer Dave Sim's brilliance:

Some context -- in the page before this model ("N'Atashae") broke down, wondering "if there was more to life than strapless gowns" or her "little black dresses". She realizes that there, in fact, is(!), as she recalls all the clothes she had forgotten about ("She wept piteously the rest of the night,"). The captions for the above page, if you can't read it: The next day, wandering in the elaborate gardens of the Monte Carlo villa, in her Yves St. Laurent coat and pumps and Loro Piana gloves and hat she wondered ... (not for the first time) if her role model and personal hero Mahatma Gandhi, had ever experienced moments of self-loathing such as she had the night before. She rather thought he must have. And she found the thought... INSPIRATIONAL.

A wonderful moment for Canadian literature. Some people accuse Sim of sexism ... but this is too psychotic to be anything but satire. I hope to God.