Theme: Baseball and blip.fm |
| I was happy with my first non-CKMS podcast, however I am still working out some of the bugs in my system. Thus I apologize for any uneven levels, blowing into the microphone, and songs playing on while I was talking. As for the show, Derek sent me a song by The baseball project, an album of songs about baseball put together by Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey. The song I played, "The Yankee Flipper", chronicles the time that Jack McDowell gave the finger to the New York fans and the events that lead up to that moment. Read more about the baseball project here http://www.yeproc.com/artist_info.php?artistId=12539 . I also did a set of songs that I found out about through the website blip.fm , where people recommend songs (or "'blip" them) along with short comments on the songs. I played a few songs from two of my favourite DJs on blip, Seeshell and VanillaJ, unfortunately you have to sign up as a DJ in order to see their picks, but it is free and quick. One of reasons that I have to go on with the show is my reaction when I heard about the passing of Isaac Hayes, the first thing I thought was "I should play an Isaac Hayes song on my next show".
|
August 15, 2008
August 1, 2008
Theme: Last Show On CKMS |
| Well my final show went down exactly as I had hoped; lots of people at the station, lots of people playing songs, lots of people sharing stories about CKMS. Thanks to everybody who came the studio that night and everybody who was listening from near and far. There were sets of music from Dave, Jen, Peter, Sari, Wayne, Karen, Eric, and Derek. I also managed to sneak in a few sets including ones about the Hillside Festival, musicians who had appeared on my show, a set for Charlene, and songs dedicated to friends of the show who were far away. It was also great to have local artists from Knock, Knock, Ginger and Bocce who talked about their upcoming albums and the great race to see which one will be released first. And although we bid a fitting farewell to CKMS that night do remember that Fireball XL5 will continue in podcast form for as long as I am able. I picked up some new equipment last week and I think I am ready to go to start recording at home.
|
July 4, 2008
Theme: Couples and wacky male singers |
| OK I shouldn't really do this, but I'm changing the top song from this show after the fact. Although at the time I said it was The Leslies "Take A Look", since that show I have really grown to love the Hello Saferide song "The Quiz". It is so good, it describes the questions that a girl would ask a prospective boyfriend, questions like: Is your IQ higher than your neighbour’s? And is it very much higher than mine? Can you sleep when I grind my teeth? Do you look away if I slob when I eat? Do you talk in the middle of Seinfeld? Do you get racist or sexist when you’ve had a few? I had just picked up the new album by Mates of State which I am liking very much and that got me thinking about bands where members are romantically involved (no I didn't play Abba). This led to playing I am the World Trade Center, Arcade Fire, and Immaculate Machine, unfortunately after the show I found out that Holiday Flyer are actually a brother/sister duo. |
June 20, 2008
Theme: Venus and Honey
|
| Michelle joined me for this show so the talking bits are lot more interesting then when I do the show solo. After my initial set I managed to squeeze in a set by artists who are going to be playing in the area and a set about honey. I got the idea for the honey set while looking for the song "Shade And Honey" by Sparklehouse and I came upon an MP3 blog entry of songs about honey, so I stole the idea. Of course Michelle rhymed off about 5 more songs about honey during the set but I only had time to play the ones I did. Here is Michelle's description of her sets: My first set started off with a song that was played in the final scene of the movie "Young People Fucking", a great little indie Canadian film for which the title does little justice other than publicity as it is quirky, and humorous, with absolutely no, per say, below-the-belt shots (unfortunately -- this comment added by Frank). The rest of the set included songs I find particularly "summery" including a track from The Cloud Cult who have been releasing their albums on the Earthology Record label, a not-for-profit environmental record label (which includes 100% recycled jewel cases and paper, soy based inks, and the recycling of CD cut scraps into milk cartons). I can't get enough of "I Woke Up Today", I've been listening to it for months and my ears haven't tired in the slightest. Check out a youtube video by Throw Me The Statue - most were shot on the deck of a very windy Seattle ferry ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacCAXDLz10 ). Thao Nguyen put on one of the best live shows I've seen yet this year at Sneaky Dee's back in March, a tireless guitar player she whipped her hair about like the wild Vietnamese Virginian she is. At first listen to her cd "We Brave Bee Stings And All" I wasn't sure if it was a girl or a guy singing, at least at times it sounded at lot like The Flaming Lips. The album is certainly one of my favourites so far this year. I followed my second set up with a number of British bands I've recently discovered (Life Without Buildings, Hefner, Nina Nastasia). Life Without Buildings are from Glasgow, and broke up in 2002, but that girls completely unique vocal style is mind blowing. Also, I had tickets to see Nina at The Drake the night of the radio show but sadly she cancelled. The late John Peel was a huge fan of Nina Nastasia, and he also gave enormous props to Hefner, so I have also recently looked into their back catalogue. The final song I played was my favourite single from 2007: The Cave Singers - Seeds Of Night. That song is so beautiful it makes me ache. TALK-Theme Herman Dune - I Wish I Could See You Soon Adam Green - Morning After Midnight Bjorn Kleinhenz - The Quest For Your Heart Joel Alme - The Queen's Corner TALK Fembots - Countdown Our Days (C) Cloud Cult - Journey Of The Featherless Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today Throw Me The Statue - Lolita Thao And The Get Down Stay Down - Swimming Pools TALK Life Without Buildings - The Leanover Hefner - Hello Kitten The Replacements - Unsatisfied Nina Nastasia - A Dog's Life Bonnie Prince Billy - So Everyone TALK The Milwaukee's Best Band - The Way She Goes (C) Parlour Steps - The Garden (C) Knock, Knock, Ginger - Love Renee (C) Rebekah Higgs - Parables (C) Born Ruffians - I Need A Life (C) TALK (Honey Set) Sparklehouse - Shade And Honey Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey Daniel Johnston - Honey, I Sure Miss You Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - A Taste Of Honey Jim White - Crash Into The Sun Judd And Maggie - Sleep Interrupted The Cave Singers - Seeds Of Night TALK Mystery Jets - Half In Love With Elizabeth (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
June 6, 2008
Theme: Trepid House and Shelflife records |
| Sometimes a show just seems to go together well and this was one of those times. A few themed sets along with some random sets and it all comes out well. The second set focused on the bands that were playing that night in the Trepid House, a private house where small bands play in a great intimate environment. One of them were my current favourite band from Guelph "The Magic" who finally had some recorded material that I was able to buy, Torcus was also really good, but unfortunately although I liked the song by Rockenspiel that I played on the show I wasn't able to stay long enough to see them that night. I found out about the Swedish band Kuryakin from the great Swedesplease blog and while checking out the band's record label Shelflife I checked out some of their other recent releases. One of the new bands from the label were described as "modern psychedelic pop songs influenced by the heyday of '90s Madchester." So that allowed me to also play bands from those days including The Charlatans who just happened to have a CD in the new release section of the library. You can download the first three songs in the set from: www.shelflife.com . Of course I had to play a song to mark the passing of Bo Diddley, I thought the song might be a cover of the Jonathan Richman song, it wasn't, but it was still really good. TALK-Theme Acid House Kings - Say Yes If You Love Me The Shermans - Summer In Your Heart Lisa Bouvoir - Belgium Those Dancing Days - Tasty Boy First Aid Kit - Cross Oceans TALK (Trepid House Set) The Magic - Night School (C) Rockenspiel - When You Were Born (C) Torcus - I've Been Down (C) Dearly Beloved - When You Were Born (C) The Johnstones - Last Chance (C) TALK The Gruesomes - What's Your Problem? (C) Mates Of State - My Only Offer Merrymakers - Spinning My Mind Away Ms. John Soda - Go Check New Radiant Storm Kings - Scuttled TALK (Shelflife Records Set) Days - A Part Of The World Kuryakin - Peace Of Mind Ruling Class - Flowers The Charlatans - Oh! Vanity Happy Mondays - Lazyitis TALK Boomdaddy - No Stranger Now (C) **See Note 1 Ivana Santilli - Always Better (C) MG Blues - Shake The Boogie (C) Bo Diddley - Roadrunner Robert Forster - Did She Overtake You Lloyd Cole - Chelsea Hotel (C) **See Note 2 TALK A Popular History Of Signs - Justice Not Vengeance Note 1: The first time I can remember playing a song by someone actually related to me as my cousin Linda sang backup vocals on this song. Note 2: Played in honour of many people I know who were going to see Leonard Cohen in concert. (C) Denotes Canadian Content |
May 23, 2008
Theme: TweePop, Seattle, and little bit of Finland |
| On this show I had a set where I highlighted the CDs that I picked up while I was out west in the week before the show. My first musical stop was Seattle where I saw Lykke Li, El Perro Del Mar, and Anna Ternheim, the show was excellent, the venue was excellent, you can hear my review on the podcast (although I did go to Calgary and Banff as well there wasn't much of a musical part to that part of the trip). Also in Seattle I visited Easy Street Records ( http://www.buymusichere.net/stores/easystreet/ ), a cool fountain( http://nedkahn.com/water.html# and look at the Encircled Stream), and a cool library ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SCL9.JPG ) . TALK-Theme |
May 9, 2008
Theme: Very Random |
| This was pretty much a random show with a poppy set, rockin' set, laid back set, funky set, and even a failed set. I'll just talk about the failed set, ahh the magic of live radio. I played the song Twee by Tullycraft and then had the idea to play songs by the bands that are mentioned in the song. Of course I didn't do any pre-show planning so I was hoping to grab the songs while I was there, but nothing worked out, I couldn't find any of the music either at the station or even on the web. So instead of my usually 5 or 6 song set I only managed to find 2 of the artists mentioned in the song and I just decided to quit the set rather than struggle on. On a side note, one of the bands I did play was the Posies who happened to be playing their 20th anniversary show when I was in Seattle last week, I didn't go, but I saw it listed. TALK-Theme |