February 2, 2007

Theme: Not Groundhog Day On Air: Frank

I didn't have anything to play for Groundhog Day so I decided not to force the issue as a result there was no set on that theme. Yet another song from the swedesplease.com website was the top song of the week. The second set was based on bands that I had either seen just before the show (Camera Obscura and Essex Green) or just after the show (Knock, Knock, Ginger, the Sourkeys, and Bocce): You can hear my review of the Camera Obscura/Essex Green show on the podcast. And no The Clash didn't somehow reform (and resurrect Joe Stummer), the reason I played the Clash was that it was their "Super Black Market Clash" CD that was played between the bands at the Opera House that night. The other concert highlighted in that set occurred right after the show at a small art gallery in Kitchener that featured a great bill of local bands, an giant inflatable alien being thrown around the crowd and local band Bocce blurring the line between the band and the audience (see evidence here, only the guy in the red toque is in the band http://www.pbase.com/owencherry/image/73913070 ). I ended the show with a couple of sets that were a bit more rockin' than most of the music I have played in quite a while (a break from playing all that twee), and I had some initial positive feedback during the show. TALK - Theme The Sanmarinos - Super Sexy TV Girl The Positions - Summer Nights Hot Shot Robot - Kiss My Chernobyl (C) Oh! Custer - Spoiler Bellevue - Special Skills (C) Bellevue - Those Blues (C) TALK Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill Essex Green - Cardinal Points The Clash - City Of The Dead Knock, Knock, Ginger - Upsala (C) The Sourkeys - Anywhere But Here (C) Bocce - Disco Juan (C) TALK Don Lennon - Dance Music HelloGoodbye - Here (In Your Arms) Henry Morgans Solokarriar - An Attempt To Tip The Scales Math and Physics Club - April Showers Dean and Britta - Singer Song **See Note 1 TALK The Hands - So Sweet Kooks - Naive Deerhoof - +81 The Trucks - 3 AM Robyn Hitchcock - The Authority Box TALK Heavens - Patent Pending Novillero - Abbey (C) The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy The Acorn - Dents (C) Jerry Jerry and the Sons Of Rhythm Orchestra - Miller's Cave (C) TALK Shiela E - Holly Rock (from the Krush Groove soundtrack) Note 1: Apparently Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (former members of Luna) are now going by just Dean and Britta (C) Denotes Canadian Content

January 19, 2007

Theme: Best of 2006 Leftovers On Air: Frank

In past years I often tried to play only songs from the new release section of CKMS during the first real (ie. non-specialty) show of the new year. But now I find that most of the new music I play comes from podcasts and blogs and the new release section doesn't really intrigue me as it once did. So most of the stuff I played on this show was new along with some of your suggestions for the Best of 2006. A few random notes on some of the other songs from the show: I played the The Cardigans' Lovefool as it was part of an episode of The Office, when Jim was trying to annoy an office mate by singing the lyrics. At first I couldn't place the lyrics but a web search revealed the name of the song. And for anybody in need of their Indian pop music fix be sure to check out Pretty, Pretty, Priya (which I found out is common female Hindu name also from the web). I ended with the George Krantz song Din Daa Daa which was used in one of the commercial's in the Cannes Best of 2006 commercial movie that I saw the week before the show. I thought the song sounded familiar and when I did some research I saw that it was on the Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo soundtrack ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086999/ ) , I actually thought I might own the vinyl of this soundtrack but I was getting it confused with the soundtrack to Krush Groove ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089444/ ). Krush Groove was obviously cooler starring the likes of: Sheila E., the Beastie Boys, The Gap Band, Run DMC, and the Fat Boys. TALK - Theme Math and Physics Club - Last Dance Knock, Knock, Ginger - The Great Escape (C) Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - I Am Warm And Powerful S'Ambassadeur - The Only Living Girl The The - Slow Emotional Replay TALK (Other people's Best of 2006) Barmitzvah Brothers - Hollow Time Of The Night (C) **Suggested by Milosz Beirut - Postcards From Italy ** Kind of suggested by Sari Glissandro 70 - Portugal Rua Rua (C) **Suggested by Derek Destroyer - European Oils (C) **Suggested by Michelle and Derek TV On The Radio - Hours **Suggested by Michael T. TALK Amy Whinehouse - Rehab Gems - I Can't Help Myself **Also suggested by Derek James Brown - Get On The Good Foot Jenny Wilson - Summertime (The Roughest Time) Todd Rundgren - I Saw The Light TALK The Cardigans - Lovefool Dressy Bessy - All The Right Reasons Jale - All Ready (C) Plumtree - Sodium Chloride (C) The Awkward Stage - We're Going For A Ride (C) TALK Anand Prayag and Chorus - Pretty, Pretty, Priya Niza - El Much Acho De Los Otos Tristes The Pursuit of Happiness - Hard To Launch (C) Dave Rave - Everybody Needs Somebody (C) Statues - Quality Assurance (C) Swan Lake - The Partisan But He's Got To Know (C) TALK George Krantz - Din Daa Daa (C) Denotes Canadian Content

January 5, 2007

Theme: Best of 2006 On Air: Frank

Nothing much to say about this one, the first half were my top singles of the year while the second half were my top albums. By definition my best show of the year. You can see all of my top choices listed in order here : http://www.civil.uwaterloo.ca/frseglen/archive/setlists/2006/best_of_2006.htm The astute among you may notice that I didn't play The Math and Physics Club on this show but they appear on the Best of 2006 page. In my own defense, I did mention during the show that I had not heard the album and they might make the top 10. Behind the songs I have done my best to list where I first heard about the song, see the legend below the setlist. TALK - Theme Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks (popcasting) The Concretes - Chosen One (The Wedge) Essex Green - Don't Know Why (You Stay) (bury me not) Cats On Fire - Higher Ground (poppolar) The Tidy Ups - Dizzy Heights (indiepopradio) TALK The Stolen Minks - Peppy Twist (C) (CKMS) The Doers - We're Open (C) (CKMS) Henry Faberge and the Adorables - Out Of Your League (C) (Live - Grad House) Lake Holiday - Press Record Then Play (C) (poppolar) Lovely Feathers - Right Where You Are (C) (Live - Hillside) TALK Amp Fiddler - Right Where You Are (The Wedge) Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream (Zulu Records) Blaze presents UDA featuring Barbra Tucker - Most Precious Love (The Wedge) Hard Fi - Hard To Beat (The Wedge) Bocce - Bicycle Cops (C) (Live - Starlight) TALK Good On Paper - The Message (indiepopradio) El Perro Del Mar - God Knows (You Gotta Give What You Get) (KCRW Song of the Day) Regina Spektor - Fidelity (myboytheriotgirl) Psapp - Hi (KCRW Song of the Day) The Gresham Flyers - Shiftwork (indiepopradio) TALK Knock, Knock, Ginger - Love Renee (C) The Bicycles - Paris Be Mine (C) TALK Memphis - In The Cinema Alone (C) Junior Boys - In The Morning (C) (myboytheriotgirl) TALK Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (myboytheriotgirl) Yo La Tengo - Mr. Tough (bury me not) TALK The Pipettes - Pull Shapes (poppolar) Irene - Little Things That Tear Us Apart (poppolar) TALK Belle and Sebastian - Sukie In The Graveyard popcasting - http://www.geocities.com/popcastingpop/ indiepopradio - http://indiepopradio.blogspot.com/ bury me not - http://www.burymenot.com poppolar - http://www.poppolar.com CKMS - http://www.ckmsfm.ca Hillside - http://www.hillside.on.ca/ Zulu Records - http://www.zulurecords.com/ The Wedge - http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/thewedge/ KCRW Song of the Day - http://www.kcrw.com/ My Boy the Riot Girl - http://www.myboytheriotgirl.com/ (C) Denotes Canadian Content

December 22, 2006

Theme: Playing Christmas of course On Air: Frank

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 Elisa Gabbai - Winter in Canada Stufan Stevens - Get Behind Me, Santa Aztec Camera - Walk Out To Winter Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas (C) TALK David Carswell and Megan Barnes - I Wanna Kiss You This Christmas (C) The Naked and the Dead - Ornament (C) The dbs - Christmastime Yo La Tengo - Rock'N'Roll Santa The Ramones - Merry Christmas The Lickity Splits - You Set My Christmas Tree On Fire TALK Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa The Bell Rays - All I Wanna Do Is Shag For Christmas Solomon Burke - Presents For Christmas The Sonics - Don't Believe In Christmas Shuffle Demons - Jingle Bells (C) TALK The Stars - Fairytale of New York (C) The Diskettes - Noel (C) Buck - Santa Baby (C) The Pipettes - In The Bleak Mid-Winter Young and Sexy - Santa Claus Likes Rich Kids Better (C) TALK The Morrisettes - Canadian Christmas Elvis - Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me The Gems - Love For Christmas Mojo Nixon - Christmas Christmas Eels - Everything's Going To Be Cool This Christmas TALK Fountains of Wayne - Man In The Santa Suit Montreal Jubilation Choir - Go Tell It On The Mountain (C) Julie London - I'd Like You For Christmas Eisley - The Winter Song Claudine Longet - Snow The Pretenders - 2000 Miles TALK Darryl Reimer - Merry Big Ole Christmas (C) (C) Denotes Canadian Content

December 8, 2006

Theme: Playing Catch-up On Air: Frank

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: http://www.civil.uwaterloo.ca/frseglen/images/smith_article01.gif http://www.civil.uwaterloo.ca/frseglen/images/smith_article02.gif Find out more about Twee here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twee_pop TALK - Theme The Positions - Back To Me Starflower - Dance Till Morning Light Los Abandoned - Van Nuys (Es Very Nice) Psapp - Hi The Exteriors - The Hates TALK Knock, Knock, Ginger - You Could've Been My Johnny Marr (C) D'Ubervilles - We're Blowing Up (C) Kelly and the Kelly Girls - Ferris Wheel (C) Duke Spirit - House Is Not A Motel The Pants Situation - Fifty Fifty (C) **I love the name of this band! Los Straightjackets - Peppermint Twist TALK Moses Mayes - Tell Me (C) Sasha Dobson - Without You Evy - Quel Genre De Fille El Perro Del Mar - Here Comes That Feeling Dion - I Was Born To Cry TALK Robyn - Be Mine Goldstoned - Always On My Mind Peter, Bjorn, and John - Let's Call it Off Kings of Convenience - Misread TALK From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona Shade Tree - Stupidest Thing The Broken Hearts Club - Abbotsford and Flemington (C) The Diskettes - Jump Up (C) Henry Faberge and the Adorables - Lonely Postcards (C) Lake Holiday - In Whisper (C) Tom Waits - Lie To Me TALK Blow Monkeys - It Doesn't Have To Be That Way (C) Denotes Canadian Content

November 24, 2006

Theme: Knock, Knock, Ginger Interview On Air: Frank and Knock, Knock, Ginger

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. (C) Denotes Canadian Content

November 10, 2006

Theme: Money and Gambling On Air: Frank and Deep Space Wayne

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.