Theme: Playing Christmas of course |
| I think I did pretty good job of playing mostly new (ie. songs I have never played before) for this year's Christmas show. The highlights were the first and last songs, do yourself a favour and listen to both of them. The starting song was a great 60s German tune extolling the glories of winter in Canada while the last song was recorded and sent to me by my friend Darryl Reimer from Vancouver. Both are sure to return to future Christmas shows. My favourite discovery during the show was a new album by the Bell Rays that included the song "All I wanna Do Is Shag For Christmas" that went well with a Fireball XL5 Christmas favourite "Back Door Santa". TALK - Theme |
December 22, 2006
December 8, 2006
Theme: Playing Catch-up |
| After the last few shows I had a whole lot of leftover songs that didn't get to play and with the Christmas show up next and the Best of show after that I figured I should start out the new year with a clean slate. Thus there wasn't an overall theme to the show but I still think the show went together very well. The only set that had a theme was one inspired by an article I saw in the Globe and Mail by Russel Smith, in it he discusses the fine division of Indie Pop music called Twee Pop. A lot of music I have been listening to and playing on the show lately could be classified as twee. Most of the article is pretty factual discussing the major bands in twee and describing the sound, he calls the Smiths the proto-twee band and that Belle and Sebastian are the current most famous twee band (I think this might have been true with a lot of their early stuff but no so much lately). But, the parts of the article that I really had problems with were his assertions that somehow the music is part of an organized movement striving to be anti-establishment, in my opinion its just happy music that sounds good. He ends the article by saying that the people who like twee are "uniformly women" (based on my gender I disagree) and you outgrow this type of music as you get older (again based on my advanced age I disagree). However, an upside of the article is that I found out about a great band called "I'm from Barcelona" which is how I started out that set. See the original article here:
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November 24, 2006
Theme: Knock, Knock, Ginger Interview |
| This was a very special show as I was joined by most of the members of local band Knock, Knock, Ginger to preview their upcoming EP release show at the Starlight on Thursday, December 7th. The topics of conversation included: the origins of the band, their experiences traveling to and performing at this year's Halifax Pop Festival, the songwriting process, and of course their new EP. One cool thing we also got to do was to play a few songs that came from a contest the band held in conjunction with the Starlight. As part of the contest people could suggest up to 3 songs that the band should cover during their show at the Starlight, the band got an anonymous list of the songs and the person who suggested the song they pick will get a prize pack. So for the show we played some of the suggested songs (which may or may not have been the songs that I suggested), I have marked the songs appropriately below. Once more I would like to thank Milosz, Matt, Lisa, and Owen for coming out to the show and doing such a great job. See more info about the band here: http://www.myspace.com/knockknockginger TALK - Theme Kings of Convenience - I'd Rather Dance With You The Diskettes - Art (C) The Pipettes - It Hurts To See You Dance So Well Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone **See Note 1 TALK (mostly a Milosz set) Acid House Kings - This Heart Is A Stone ** Decemberists - Yankee Bayonet Henry Faberge and the Adorables - Out Of Your League (C) **See Note 2 The Bicycles - Australia (C) Catatonia - Dead From The Waist Down (C) TALK (Matt's set) Ratatat - Wildcat **See Note 3 The Sourkeys - Gossip (C) Two Hours Traffic - Stuck For The Summer (C) Hot Chip - The Warning TALK Knock, Knock, Ginger - Virginia Black (C) ** New Order - Fine Time ** Diana Ross and the Supremes - Love Child ** The Lemonheads - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You TALK Knock, Knock, Ginger - Love Renee (C) TALK Knock, Knock, Ginger - Tragic Love Affair Of Kasey and Jaime (C) **Song that was suggested as part of the contest Note 1: Even after almost 30 years this song really holds up well Note 2: Both of these bands played a show with Knock, Knock, Ginger at the Grad House a few months ago, unforunately they didn't have as good a time as when the other bands played Vancouver: http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2006/11/Take-Your-Shirt-Off Note 3: Matt likes this song so much he has it has the ringtone on his phone, which we proved on the air. |
November 10, 2006
Theme: Money and Gambling |
| For this show Deep Space Wayne was my guest and he was celebrating his poker victory the night before by playing a few songs about money or gambling (I can't believe he beat me not once but twice when I had a straight). Before he got there I played some of the songs that I had built up over the last little while since I had theme for the last few shows. The second set started with Lloyd Cole whom I recently saw in Toronto at the Mod Club. It was a great show where he concentrated on a lot of his earlier solo material and songs that he did with the Commotions, not being a fan of his most recent album "Antidepressant", this was quite alright with me. However, the song I played during the show is the best from Antidepressant. I ended the show with The Jolly Llamas who were playing that night at the the inaugural Sonic Boom Awards. These were CKMS sponsored awards for both programmers and local artists, just like those track and field events in public school where everybody got a ribbon, I tied for Most Memorable Voice (not best or coolest, but most memorable, I don't know if that is a compliment or not). TALK - Theme Irene - Into the Sun Little Name - How To Swim And Live Cats On Fire - Draw In The Reins Shade Tree - Where Do We Go From Here Lovejoy - In The Rain TALK Lloyd Cole - NYC Sunshine Great Aunt Ida - Little Voice (C) Stuart Staples - There Is A Path **Note 1 Young and Sexy - Satellite (C) Carolyn Mark - Chumpville (C) TALK Ohbijou - St. Francis (C) De Novo Dahl - Shout El Perro Del Mar - God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get) The Lovely Feathers - Photocorners (C) Howe Gelb - But I Did Not TALK Bocce - Bicycle Cop Bears (C) **See Note 2 Shout Out Out Out - Self Loathing Rulz (C) Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor (DSW) The Rapture - Get Myself Into It The Beta Band - Outside (DSW) TALK Tokyo Police Club - Nature Of The Experiment (C) (DSW) The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt Jesus and Mary Chain - Far Gone And Out (DSW) The Cliks - Start Leading Me On (C) Sonic Youth - Reena (DSW) The O'Jays - For The Love Of Money (DSW) TALK The Jolly Llamas - Jenna's Vegan Docs (C) (C) Denotes Canadian Content (DSW) Denotes song picked by Deep Space Wayne Note 1: This song features the former lead singer from Lambchop who has one of the most distinct voices in music. Note 2: The second last set started out with a couple of bands that I caught at the Starlight a few days before the show, Bocce and Shout Out Out Out. Although their website says that SOOO has 4 bass players; I only saw 2 of them along with 2 keyboardists, 2 drummers, and a singer. They were almost as high energy as the local opener Bocce. |
October 27, 2006
Theme: Big and tall and short |
| The theme for this show was Big and Tall and Short (after a sign I saw for a store in Hamilton) so all the songs I played were either over 6 minutes or under 2 minutes long. I think it went OK, but it was difficult to mix the two different song lengths, as in general the shorter songs were happy indie pop while the longer ones were more groovy laid back songs. I made sure to note the lengths of each of the songs in the setlist. I got a couple of suggestions of songs to play, but I couldn't justify playing Onita's suggestion of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, as at 18 minutes it would have taken up too much of the show. The last song (Abe Vigoda's dead) was 15 seconds short of 6 minutes but I let it go as it was my tribute to Halloween. However do note that Abe Vigoda is indeed alive, this is confirmed by the website www.abevigoda.com where the current state of Mr. Vigoda is displayed (you can also get this as an add-on to Firefox). I still remember the Letterman episode where they quelled the original Abe Vigoda is dead rumour by having him in the show's control room. Does anybody still watch Letterman anymore or has everybody moved to Stewart/Colbert? And although I had to play a first song I'm not considering it my top song of the week. It was a busy time for me before the show with being in Saskatchewan for a week and a couple of birthdays so I couldn't find a song that had that something something that it needs to be my top song. TALK - Theme Nicole Willis and the Sound Investigators - No One's Gonna Love You (6:05) Bran Van 3000 - Astounded (C) (5:56) Ivana Santilli - Sun + Moon = Tomorrow (C) (6:01) The Pipettes - I Love You (1:38) The Diskettes - Art (C) (1:42) TALK The Bicycles - Sure Was Great (C) (1:35) Arcade Fire - No Cars Go (C) (6:02) The Doers - We're Open (C) (1:55) Yo La Tengo - Heard You Looking (7:01) **Suggested by Chris D Chixdiggit - Getting Air (C) (1:33) **Suggested by Chris D TALK Dengue Fever - 1000 Years Of A Tarantula (6:43) Cassius - The Sound Of Violence (7:13) Junior Boys - Like A Child (C) (6:07) Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Butterball (6:18) TALK CUB - Your Bed (C) (1:32) The Sin-Tones - Trailer Park Sadie (C) (1:43) Unrest - Cath Carroll (10 cc mix) (7:13) King Curtis - Memphis Soul Stew (7:36) The Pipas - Riff Raff (1:51) TALK spinnwebe.com - Abe Vigoda's Dead (Premorteum mix) (5:45) (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
October 13, 2006
Theme: Accordion Fever |
The accordion themed show went very well, and again before I scare anybody off from listening to the show, I only started off each set with a song that contained some accordion. As well during each talking break I read some selections from the Geoff Berner booklet: How to be an Accordion Player, get more information about it here: http://www.geoffberner.com/introduction.htm Note that unlike the Corrine Bailey Rae song, I am aware that the Lilly Allen song "Smile" is a popular song, but I played it anyway. The third set came from music that I had recently purchased from the great indie pop website: www.poppolar.com After the side projects set I was made aware that I had done a great injustice by not playing the band Dump after playing Yo La Tengo (Dump is a side project of Yo La Tengo's James McNew), I corrected this great injustice during this show. TALK - Theme The Rascals - Groovin' Amp Fiddler - Right Where You Are Lily Allen - Smile Bic Runga - Say After Me Hawksley Workman - You Me And The Weather (C) TALK Wet Spots - Blitzkrieg Polka (C) **See Note 1 The Snow Fairies - The Life Of A Total Square The Besties - Prison Song Sandro Perri - Circles Axel Yngvell - The Great Big Saturday Nils Folke Valdemar - The Taking Off Of Pants TALK (poppolar.com set) The Cajun Ramblers - Venez A Louisianne (C) **Digital Tape The Pipettes - One Night Stand Cats on Fire - The Smell of An Artist The Tidy-ups - Death To The Tidy-ups Pipas - Basements Lake Holiday - Don't Stay Forever (C) TALK They Might Be Giants - Istanbul Not Constantinople Wax Tailor - Que Sera Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye (C) Memphis - In The Cinema Alone (C) Two Hours Traffic - Jezebel (C) TALK Jens Lekman - Julie (Remix) Square Root of Margaret - The 3-D Breeze (C) Yo La Tengo - Point and Shoot Dump - Erotic City The Reverb Society - Shake Don't Stir (C) TALK Geoff Berner - We All Gotta Be A Prostitute Sometime (C) Note 1: The show was during the annual Oktoberfest festival in Kitchener-Waterloo and this song mentions the festival. (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
September 29, 2006
Theme: Side Projects |
| The side projects theme really got people thinking so I got lots of suggestions for bands to play. A great suggestion was made by Chris F. who remembered that I had told him about seeing NoMeansNo before the show and came up with the Hanson Brothers a side project of NoMeansNo. Also topical as hockey season started the week after the show. Deep Space Wayne suggested that I could have just done the whole show based on Broken Social Scene which is pretty much a band that is a side project of people from other bands. I made an impulse buy the night before the show and picked up the acclaimed and influential album "Colossal Youth" by the Young Marble Giants. I first heard of Stuart Moxham of the band because of his involvement with the Stephin Merrit project The 6ths as well I have heard lots of people praise him so I decided to go for it. So far I'm really liking it. I also played songs from few other CDs I picked up right before the show. TALK - Theme Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman - Young Folks Cats On Fire - Higher Ground ^^ Jim Noir - Key of C Dyrdin - Popp & Co ** Young Marble Giants - Salad Days TALK ## The Stars - Reunion (C) ++ Amy Milan - He Brings Out The Whiskey In Me (C) ++ ** Memphis - Incredibly Drunk on Whiskey (C) Violet Lyal - To You Leaving (C) TALK ## NoMeansNo - I Need You (C) **Suggested by Chris F. ++ The Hanson Brothers - 100 + 10% (C) ## New York Dolls - Personality Crisis **Suggested by Karen M. ++ Buster Poindexter - All Night Party TALK ## Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Chicken Dog **Suggested by Chris D. ++ 20 Miles - Mend Your Heart Ladyhawk - The Dugout (C) **Suggested by Rick W. ^^ Sound Team - Your Eyes Are Liars Yo La Tengo - Watch Out For Me Ronnie TALK ## Metric - Combat Baby (C) **Sort of suggested by Chris D. ++ Emily Haines - The Lottery (C) Those Transatlantics - The Other Cheek Great Aunt Ida - We Say No (C) ^^ The Icicles - Snowman TALK ## New Order - Regret ++ Electronic - Late At Night ** Junior Boys - In The Morning (C) TALK Jonathan Richman - Since She Started To Ride **See Note 1 Harvee - No One Here **See Note 2 ## Original band ++ Side Project ** Bought the day before the show at Soundscapes ^^ Doesn't mean anything but I just really wanted to make the setlist really, really, confusing Note 1: Dedicated to Mike and Jackie, I decided to play the song because of a conversation I had with them and Jackie talking about spending a lot time at the barn looking after horses |
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