WMCN 91.7FM - Macalester College Radio

2012-01-16T15:14:00.000-06:00

1995

2011-12-24T13:01:00.000-06:00

tough economic times

2011-08-31T15:16:00.001-05:00

To all you strangers about to arrive at Macalester. May you soon be well-known...

2011-07-21T20:40:00.000-05:00

for all your sitting under tree needs this summer

2011-03-23T19:36:00.002-05:00

The two stages of spring

2010-12-20T20:45:00.002-06:00

2010-10-31T11:45:00.001-05:00

2010-10-20T21:06:00.001-05:00

mpls usa 1967

2010-10-12T13:51:00.009-05:00

That Pesky Scottish Band . . .

It had been far too long since I'd actually listened to one of their tracks, as my music tastes have been more than a little alt-countryfied of late. Earlier this year, having reached a self-proclaimed point of "creative inertia", they said they were going on hiatus after their latest UK shows concluded, which would mean right about now.

Instead, Roddy and the boys have decided to give their latest album the proper US release it never had. And, to sweeten the deal, if you're going to be anywhere near LA, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, or Cambridge MA in the month of November (which is unfortunately not the case for me), they will be too.

2010-09-29T15:48:00.002-05:00

THE WEBCAST IS BACK

Tune in either on macalester.edu/wmcn OR 91.7 FM in Mac-Groveland and surrounding neighborhoods. We're all about options.

2010-09-27T20:23:00.005-05:00

FALL 2010 WMCN ON AIR

Sadly, not on the web. We're working on getting the webcasting computer back up as fast as we can. You can still tune in around Mac in St. Paul, on 91.7 FM.

We'll let you know here when our webcast is back up. In the meantime, dig out your old clock radio.

2010-09-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

2010-09-05T23:23:00.002-05:00

2010-08-03T11:17:00.002-05:00

My first exposure to the band, and I was instantly in love:

Much more impassioned and awesomely ramshackle than the album version, I think. Special hindsight bonus: Owen Pallett on violin!

2010-07-18T21:33:00.001-05:00

2010-07-13T13:27:00.002-05:00

Also: New album out next month, with the coolest cover I've seen since the early 90s.

2010-06-12T16:47:00.001-05:00

[mp3] the pastels--"something's going on"

2010-05-01T16:33:00.002-05:00

I'm ready to listen to these fellows again. They deserve one more tribute, courtesy of themselves.

And one more, for the victims of the oil spill.

[mp3] Renderers - "Dream of the Sea"

2010-04-28T17:57:00.001-05:00

Sad to see you go.

You too (but not as much).

2010-04-09T11:17:00.001-05:00

2010-04-03T20:36:00.001-05:00

2010-03-20T01:11:00.001-05:00

2010-03-10T19:06:00.001-06:00

2010-02-28T23:27:00.001-06:00

wmcn's back on the air, video is totally unrelated

2010-02-01T15:05:00.000-06:00

2010-01-25T20:37:00.001-06:00

2010-01-11T14:17:00.000-06:00

mcnew dances!

2009-12-23T23:38:00.003-06:00

not the first time you've seen it here, but it captures a snowy minnesota night perfectly

mp3: galaxie 500--"listen the snow is falling"

2009-12-20T15:42:00.002-06:00

2009-12-17T08:33:00.002-06:00

2009-12-03T09:45:00.000-06:00

2009-11-03T15:58:00.000-06:00

2009-10-26T18:34:00.000-05:00

2009-08-23T19:39:00.003-05:00

wcco, 1983: "there is a dangerous tendency with punk to focus on evil and violent instincts." ohnotheskyisfallingwhycantkidsstillbehippies!:

2009-08-22T11:57:00.002-05:00

there are mortals, and then there's neil hamburger. america's funnyman will grace the turf club this sunday.

but which hamburger will we get? will it be the passionate country crooner?

or the scotch-swilling showbiz insider?

only one thing's for sure: that hamburger's debilitating throat illness will be in tow. as neil would say: but thaat's...my life!

2009-08-04T22:59:00.003-05:00

August already? Well, so long, radio blogland, and happy future times. Cue the exit music...

2009-08-03T13:31:00.003-05:00

frequently blogged about (and beloved of wmcn) indie heroes yo la tengo have a new lp on the way, popular songs, and have released a video for album opener "here to fall". it's a super-sweet psychedelic soul jam, and bodes well for the album, which is out september 8:

yo la tengo, the best live band i've ever seen, will be at first ave on october 7

2009-07-27T16:45:00.004-05:00

Things I never knew...

-Kelly Reichardt directed a video for Big Dipper:

-Sofia Coppola directed a video for the Flaming Lips:

Things I knew...

-Both directors and both songs are awesome!

2009-07-25T14:52:00.008-05:00

nothing says summer like slow-burning art music. first up we have the great austin, tx five piece, the american analog set. when they’re on, the band’s slow, precise songcraft hits a sweet spot somewhere between fellow texans bedhead and obvious influence spacemen 3. “know by heart” is probably their finest album, but lately i’ve been digging “the wait,” off 1998’s “the golden band”:

[mp3] the american analog set—“the wait”

***

dirty three are an australian group that make instrumental rock as vast as the queensland sky. key to the group’s sound is the violin of frequent nick cave collaborator warren ellis. on “i really should’ve gone out last night,” ellis plucks his violin to devastating effect, multitracking that noise over other layers of his own playing. guitarist mick turner and drummer jim white are hardly slouches themselves, and play with a sense of economy that, paradoxically, makes the best work of the three sound spacious and huge. their 2001 disc “whatever you love, you are” is highly recommended.

[mp3] dirty three—“i really should’ve gone out last night”

2009-07-18T15:22:00.003-05:00

You Heard The Pop Mix In Your Ears
September 2002

Neu! – Isi
The Shins – Know Your Onion!
The English Beat – Two Swords
The Wipers – Mystery
Catherine Wheel – I Want To Touch You
The Leaving Trains – Light Rain
Husker Du – Flexible Flyer
R.E.M. – Imitation Of Life
Dean Schlabowske – Gary Gilmore’s Eyes
The Sonics – Have Love Will Travel
The Hollies – Postcard
Chuck Berry – Havana Moon
The Spongetones – Return The Boy
The Saints – Save Me

The The – Infected
Ministry – Flashback
Idlewild – You Held The World In Your Arms
Sonic Youth – Rain On Tin
Chapterhouse – There’s Still Life
The Replacements – Johnny’s Gonna Die
Heatmiser – Low-Flying Jets
Medicine – Defective
The Pop Group – She Is Beyond Good And Evil
Bauhaus – Dancing
Minor Threat – Good Guys (Don’t Wear White)

I don’t want to get too sentimental, but I used to really enjoy making pop mixes. (I could call them mix tapes, but who ever put anything but pop songs on a mix tape?) Rob Sheffield jostled a few memories loose for me in his book Love is a Mix Tape, so I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my own. You Heard the Pop Mix in Your Ears was made sophomore year of high school, back when I was doing this sort of thing pretty incessantly. The name follows my pattern (stolen from my sister) of taking a song from the mix and replacing a noun from the title with “pop mix,” and making other necessary adjustments. I could just as easily have called it Light Rain, as it was made while the weather was turning bad and school was starting up. I remember listening to it in my mom’s car a lot, and don’t think it was anything but cloudy that whole time. The songs themselves are generally somber, with intermittent sunshine.

Some things I notice looking at the tracklist:
--I’m usually more creative than starting a mix with the first song from an album, but the instrumental “Isi” is a pretty ideal opener, promising all sorts of great things to come with its lush beauty.
--“Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” is a cover of The Adverts’ classic from The Executioner’s Last Songs Americana-spectacular album, with some of the ladies from Freakwater on backing vocals I believe, and it makes a good case that punk songs can often be recast as country songs with minimal rearrangement, especially when they’re about American icons.
--The Shins and Idlewild were two of the few new bands I really liked at the time, because they helped me understand what it might have been like to be a new music listener in the 80s.
--Elliott Smith was easily Heatmiser’s greater songwriter, but Neil Gust’s “Low-Flying Jets” is the most thrilling song on Mic City Sons.

I don't care to reminisce too much. So what is the point of this post, you ask? I’ve made my first-ever digital mix tape! I’d call it my summer mix if the weather wasn’t as depressing today as it was back in September 2002. There are some summery songs on here, but let’s just call it Laughing With An Ear Of Pop.

[1] The Chills – Satin Doll
[2] Liz Phair – Fuck And Run
[3] Duke Ellington – In A Sentimental Mood
[4] St. Vincent – Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood
[5] Bloc Party – One More Chance
[6] Michael Jackson – Leave Me Alone
[7] Jimmy Jones – Good Timin’
[8] Heavenly – Wish Me Gone
[9] The Sleepover Disaster – Funnel Cloud
[10] God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl
[11] The Everly Brothers – Take A Message To Mary
[12] Camera Obscura – You Told A Lie
[13] The Temptations – It’s Growing
[14] Atlas Sound – Maybe Logic
[15] Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto – The Girl From Ipanema
[16] The Damned – Melody Lee
[17] Patrick Wolf – Damaris
[18] Moby – Mistake
[19] Lord Cut-Glass – Even Jesus Couldn’t Love You
[20] The Four Tops – Walk Away Renee
[21] Art Brut – Summer Job
[22] Ramones – Howling At The Moon (Sha-La-La)

Download here.

Note: I hope this is the proper way to disseminate a digital mix tape. I’ve seen them all over the blogs, but never downloaded one myself. Also, these songs would fit handily on a 90-minute cassette, if you feel so inclined.

2009-07-06T18:48:00.007-05:00

the week of june 23-29 saw millions of americans rush to their favorite brick and mortar record store to ensure that dinosaur jr's new album "farm" debuted at number 29, the band's highest chart position...ever!*

the new record, dinosaur's first on indie jagjaguwar and second since the 2005 reunion of original members j mascis, lou barlow and murph, is great, if not quite the equal of 07's blistering "beyond". that makes this dinosaur super-fan happy enough, but the distortion-laden bonus disc with four extra tracks puts it over the top. dinosaur have always recorded mean covers, and their version of elyse's forgotten (and neil young-featuring!) psych gem "houses" is no exception. yet it's zombies cover "whenever you're ready" that blows the roof of the sucker, sounding like the best work of a trio of plaintive gremlins:

[mp3] dinosaur jr--"whenever you're ready"

the bonus disc also features a pair of mascis-penned instrumentals. "show" is a weird song that makes no sense (in a bad way, for once). "creepies" is something a little more special, the pummeling and melodic work of a homespun virtuoso:

[mp3] dinosaur jr--"creepies"

*this sentence is 86% factually accurate

2009-07-05T18:58:00.002-05:00

Shows

Gay Beast (whose famed guitarist I. Rotto is no stranger to WMCN) are at the Turf Club tomorrow night (10 pm, $6). Their new album Second Wave has been getting some press, nowhere more noticeably than a website called Queerty, which spotlights the disc ahead of new ones by Passion Pit and Deerhunter. Yay!

No Age are playing a (poorly advertised) show at the 501 Club on Wednesday (9 pm), with opening act Gay Witch Abortion, who are less beastly than Gay Beast but altogether Witchier. The show is a tie-in with something called the Bicycle Film Festival, and you should go because the 501 Club never has a cover charge.

2009-06-25T18:45:00.000-05:00

2009-06-23T13:25:00.003-05:00

sonic youth did a killer performance of "no way" last night on that show with the guy who used to be on snl on it. the song's from awesome new album "the eternal," which sees the band back on an indie for the first time in ages:

can't quite see what's on thruston's tee? i wonder why not...?uestlove called it "the riskiest shirt ive ever seen on broadcast tv" and commended the act as a "gangsta move". as if you needed more proof that SY still got it.

2009-06-22T22:50:00.006-05:00

I promised something about Randy Newman, so here it is, my second-to-last post ever (?) on this blog. Here’s an amusing video that sums up the dilemma of being Randy Newman quite well (almost as well as Greil Marcus’s musings on the man in Mystery Train):

Newman has long been the unsung genius of pop songwriting. When The Chills wrote “Song for Randy Newman Etc.” they placed him in a pop landscape that included Brian Wilson, Scott Walker and Nick Drake. You might call him the original of Stephin Merritt, a man who works like hell churning out won’t-be hits with an endlessly moldable formula. Newman has just never been ambitious enough for great fame, or his ambitions have merely been cumulative—a body of work composed of two-minute glimpses into the lives of despicable people. You might find him offensive if he didn’t hate his characters as much as you do.

Here’s a great example of his method, a song that could never ever be a hit single in a million years but that is so much more pleasurable and repeatable than just about anything I’ve ever heard on the radio. This narrator’s not despicable though, just sad, self-doubting, a bit funny.

[mp3] Randy Newman - "Memo To My Son"

2009-06-19T13:04:00.004-05:00

4 days!!!!

2009-06-09T09:58:00.002-05:00

Yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of the release of Pavement's final album (and the first album I ever waited for), Terror Twilight! It got a four star review in the above issue of Rolling Stone, which also four-starred Moby's Play, The Chemical Brothers' Surrender and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication. That was a fruitful summer in modern music, even if it was the beginning of the end for Moby and The Chemical Brothers and the end of the end for Pavement. I can only hope that a Pavement reunion is more likely than another Jar Jar Binks RS cover, but I know that the only image more startling than the one above is the cover of Terror Twilight itself.

2009-06-01T17:01:00.004-05:00

may has come and gone, and we're now deep in the thick of summer jam season. my favorite jam thus far is a 1968 track by the brazilian psychedelic outfit os mutantes, "panis et circensis". i may have missed out on mutantes mania a couple years ago when the band reunited, but better late than never, right?

"panis et circensis", the opener on the group's self-titled debut, is an absolute delight. written by caetano veloso and gilberto gil, which is like having j mascis and kevin shields write the first track of your new indie band's first album, and opening with a few floydian flourishes, permutations of the song's baroque, circular melody anchor "panis". it sounds a lot like stereolab. trippy without being indulgent, or perhaps so good it doesn't matter how indulgent the song is, "panis et circensis" is ideal for injecting a bit of psychedelia into your saint paul summer:

[mp3] os mutantes--"panis et circensis"

what jams are you rocking this summer?

2009-05-23T16:56:00.003-05:00

a song about brian jones by enduring weirdo musicians psychic tv. i suspect brian would've liked it, but then who knows?:

2009-05-16T01:24:00.000-05:00

well don't believe in people who say it's all been done
they have time to talk because their race is run

wmcn's class of 2009 graduates in about 12 hours. as every graduation needs a theme song, i propose the sorta obvious but totally sweet silver jews track "advice to the graduate." david berman has a way with words i wouldn't pretend to share, so i'll let the song speak for itself.

but i do have a thought to share with classes 2010-infinity. remember that wmcn only exists because of years and decades of love and hard work. it's our little corner of st. paul and beneath its grimy exterior lies something really special. it's in your hands now.

[mp3] silver jews--"advice to the graduate"

2009-05-16T00:10:00.004-05:00

Every graduation needs a theme song (?), so I’ve got one. It comes to us from one of the great 80s synth pop albums, The The’s Soul Mining, and is called “This is the Day.” You might think the sentiment is a bit obvious

This is the day your life will surely change
This is the day when things fall into place

but in the scheme of things (i.e. a preternaturally great pop song), it comes across as an unanswerable prayer shouted in the face of cruel monotony, especially given these lines from “The Sinking Feeling,” the song that follows “This is the Day” on Soul Mining.

The path of least resistance leads to the garbage heap of despair
I think I better get back in bed
I’m just a symptom of the moral decay that’s gnawing at the heart of the country

I don’t think we’re living in Matt Johnson’s England, but I like how a cynic and cultural critic like him can turn a song about sitting in your room into a mantra of imminent renewal. And it works. I believe this is the day every time I hear it.

[mp3] The The - "This is the Day"

-----------------
A good percentage of WMCN graduates tomorrow, but some of the senior constituency aren't letting go of their blogging privileges just yet.

2009-05-10T19:37:00.003-05:00

the bonzo dog band were a group of british art-school outcasts who loved 50’s and 60’s pop so dearly they couldn’t help but parody it. still a cult favorite, the bonzo’s closest american analog is zappa and the mothers. their classic 1968 lp, “the doughnut in granny’s greenhouse,” traversed most genres of popular music that existed at the time, and even created a few (like the lovesick cockney space shuffle of “beautiful zelda”). my favorite track on the album is the languid music hall number “hello mabel,” on which dry british humour and a genuine love of pop coalesce like the most natural thing in the world:

[mp3] the bonzo dog band—“hello mabel”

2009-05-06T22:17:00.003-05:00

No, I don't actually hate Pet Sounds. But I will say this: it doesn't contain either of my favorite Beach Boys songs (and I'm not even talking about "Don't Worry Baby" and "Heroes and Villains"!). That's right. The Beach Boys (as an entity distinct from Brian "God" Wilson) reached a creative peak during the Brother Records era with 1970's Sunflower, which is in every way a group effort, with a message of togetherness and love that is perfect for these post-classes springtime days. WMCN may be off the air, but we're doing our best to keep bringing you the love.

Sunflower is the album where Dennis Wilson emerges as a songwriter to rival his brother and Bruce Johnston announces himself as a groovy manufacturer of breezy love songs, but once again Brian Wilson comes out ahead (with a little help from Mike Love). Here he is to spread the word. It's painful to think that someone somewhere might not have heard these songs.

Late at night I think about the love of this whole world...

[mp3] The Beach Boys - "This Whole World"

All I wanna do is always bring good to you...

[mp3] The Beach Boys - "All I Wanna Do"

Appropriately, Sunflower, like Pet Sounds, was a commercial disaster.

------------------------------
Coming soon: The decidedly non-optimistic 1970s pop stylings of Randy Newman.

2009-04-28T19:18:00.002-05:00

It's the last (and best?) Liner Notes of the year!

2009-04-22T22:02:00.004-05:00

Sneak Previews

After last year’s Microcastle/Weird Era juggernaut, Deerhunteresque became a legitimate, maybe even necessary, adjective, and a new song called “Rainwater Cassette Exchange” can be described as nothing other than Deerhunteresque. The subject matter--a cassette exchange, like a VHS dream, is a great topic for a song--and the album cover fonts alone prove that Bradford Cox and company are currently the leading figures in hazy weird rock ‘n’ roll America.

[mp3] Deerhunter - "Rainwater Cassette Exchange"

Which is not to say that Sonic Youth aren’t still awesome. They show no signs of wear on “Sacred Trickster,” from the forthcoming The Eternal. The three tuneful and ripped albums that preceded this new one have been stellar; what might make The Eternal all the more special is that Mark Ibold (ex-Pavement) is now an official member of the band. Hopefully he will last longer as an official member than Jim O’Rourke.

[mp3] Sonic Youth - "Sacred Trickster"

Jarvis Cocker’s “Angela” has the sound of a classic British Invasion stomp, good enough but failing to indicate whether Jarvis and recordist Steve Albini (whose best recent production work can be found on El Rey, his reunion with incendiary British pop group The Wedding Present) have brought out the best in each other on Jarv’s upcoming Further Complications. Wasn’t that the name of Art Brut’s second album?

[mp3] Jarvis Cocker - "Angela" (in exchange for your e-mail address)

Also on my radar:

Ken Stringfellow (ex-Posies, part-time member of R.E.M. and Big Star, and solo singer-songwriter extraordinaire) seems to have been doing nothing but traveling around Europe and South America since the release of the fantastic Soft Commands in 2004, but last year he found time to record an album with some younger (than him) and energetic dudes called The Disciplines. The result was Smoking Kills (the truest declarative album title since Meat is Murder), which from what I gather is infinitely more rockin’ than anything you’ll find on Stringfellow’s solo albums, and which has finally found a U.S. release. Listen here.

Adam Franklin (Swervedriver, Magnetic Morning) has a new solo album called Spent Bullets, which is the best title for a hazy psychedelic rock album since his previous one, the very nice Bolts of Melody. Listen here.

2009-04-18T15:44:00.002-05:00

tomorrow, near-deity/indie legend robyn hitchcock will visit minneapolis to lay down some of his varied body of work, which includes such disparate genres as psych-folk, psych-punk and psych-rock. the indefatigable merchant of surrealism has been one of the finest musicians in the world for thrity years, and is an exemplary live performer:

2009-04-15T01:16:00.002-05:00

my second favorite blog idolator calls the f.u.s.b.i. (that's short for federal united states booty inspectors, in case you didn't already know) track "come on back" an "accidental indie rock gem". i'm inclined to agree; all i can say to introduce the video is that your kitch-dar will be blown to bits:

2009-04-14T21:08:00.004-05:00

It's baaaaaack...

THE SECOND ANNUAL SCOTT TRIBUTE SHOW!!!! Hosted by Nick Kahn and Gautam Mani, our show devoted to the one and only Scott will be on Tuesday, April 28 from 8-9 PM! Chock full of all the music Scott requests but we never play, the show will feature music by Five for Fighting, Nelly Furtado, and Michelle Branch, among others! Feel free to stop by the station or call in to show our most beloved listener some love.

2009-04-12T14:15:00.004-05:00

New, noteworthy, forthcoming, etc.

There’s been an astonishing amount of new music released in the past few weeks, so I’ve written my longest blog post ever in an attempt to make sense of (some of) it all.

“Daniel” by Bat for Lashes (a.k.a. Natasha Khan) is my favorite song of the moment. Kate Bush comparisons are apt (and based on the merits of this song Khan is perhaps the first proper heir to the Kate Bush throne since Tori Amos), but there’s a certain romanticism here that’s been absent from too much of pop music since the 80s. One almost expects Khan to start imitating Concrete Blonde and singing about teenage vampires. Daniel, when I first saw you I knew that you had a flame in your heart… I haven’t been so in love since “Kim and Jessie” in April 2008 or “The Magic Position” in April 2007.

It should be obvious by now that the Pet Shop Boys will never make bad music, but I’m still a bit surprised by the lyrical sharpness and musical sophistication of some of the songs from their new album Yes.

Score! 20 Years of Merge Records is a new covers compilation celebrating the label’s unexpected success and longevity. Any number of its tracks might pique your interest, but I only have ears for The Magnetic Fields’ “Yeah! Oh Yeah!” as interpreted by Tracey Thorn (of Everything But the Girl) and Jens Lekman (of Jens Lekman). It’s not as funny as the original, but it is appropriately morose and very well sung.

[listen] Score! 20 Years of Merge Records

Merge superstars Superchunk have new material for the first time in 8 years, on a just-released EP called Leaves in the Gutter. After such a long absence, you’d expect they’ve either mellowed with age (though singer Mac McCaughan has recently been as giddy as ever with his other band Portastatic) or have returned to announce their continued vitality. Thank God it’s the latter.

[listen] Superchunk - Leaves in the Gutter

During a recent performance at the Varsity Theater, Bob Mould claimed that “I’m Sorry Baby, But You Can’t Stand In My Light Anymore,” from his new album Life and Times, is the best song he’s written in years. It’s not even as good as the other two I’ve heard from Life and Times, but it does feature that earnest Mouldian sentimentalism that I love so much.

Youth Group should be as beloved as Death Cab for Cutie, but despite soundtrack appearances on The OC and elsewhere, they seem doomed to semi-obscurity. Sadly, no Alphaville covers are to be found on their new The Night Is Ours, but they’re still in love with the 80s.

[mp3] Youth Group - "All This Will Pass"

Peter Bjorn & John already defied expectations for the follow-up to 2006’s breakthrough Writer’s Block by releasing a breezy instrumental album last year, so now they’re free to do anything they want on the new Living Thing.

[mp3] Peter Bjorn & John - "Living Thing"

Micachu & The Shapes, in the manner of Los Campesinos!, create music of purposeful messiness that makes Pavement look like a traditional rock ‘n’ roll band in hindsight. The new Jewellery is hit-or-miss, but some of it really hits.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (a.k.a. Owen Ashworth) has a song called "Missoula" on new rarities compilation Advance Base Battery Life and another called "Northfield MN" on new album proper Vs. Children. It seems he's closing in on me, but it's easy to take comfort in his songs even if you don't call those places home.

[listen] Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Man O' War" and more

The Kingsbury Manx have been making shady (by which I mean sunny) pop music since the outset of the 00s, and they continue to do so on the new Ascenseur Ouvert!, where they sound as mellifluously serene and unassuming as The Clientele (or perhaps a bit less assuming).

[listen] The Kingsbury Manx - "Well, Whatever" and more

I will always love Emily Haines best for the haunting vocals and piano playing on her solo debut Knives Don’t Have Your Back, but she always has a lot of propulsive synth-pop to get out of her system, and she’s revived her band Metric to record some of it on the new Fantasies.

[mp3] Metric - "Gold Guns Girls"

Most ex-punk rockers end up playing country music in their middle age, and John Doe & The Sadies are no exception. Doe was the leader of the great Los Angeles punk band X, and The Sadies have previously served as the backing band for The Mekons’ Jon Langford. They sound like they’ve finally found happiness on the new Country Club.

The Sleepover Disaster are a shoegazing band from Fresno, California. That’s not an oxymoron; maybe only in smoggy Fresno could they have conceived a music so beautifully dense. They sound a great deal like late 80s/early 90s British shoegaze wunderkinds Kitchens of Distinction, but a band doesn’t reach Sleepover Disaster’s level of ear-bleeding delirium purely through imitation. I’m a bit behind the times in selling the merits of Hover (released in February), but better late than never.

[mp3] The Sleepover Disaster - "Funnel Cloud," "Friend," and more

Gliss play a sort of shoegazing/garage rock hybrid on the new Devotion Implosion, or maybe they’re just continually rewriting “Just Like Honey.” I’ve noted before that the best shoegazing and dream pop bands are the ones with the most appropriate band, album and song names. Gliss… Hover… Funnel Cloud… there’s been no shortage recently.

[mp3] Gliss - "Morning Light"

If James Yogurt was right, Obits might be a godsend. They’re a new Sub Pop band that cares nothing for self-introspection; on I Blame You, they want only to rock (in a classic Sub Pop way, I mean).

[mp3] Obits - "Fake Kinkade"

When Liner Notes went to press, I hadn’t actually listened much to Kingdom of Rust by Doves, but I can now say the following continues to be true: they’ve built for themselves a remarkably consistent body of work.

The Courteeners released their debut St. Jude last year, and on their recent tour opening for Morrissey they seem to be doing everything in their power to gain an audience in the U.S. (giant banner, perfectly timed jacket removals, merch table plug, etc.). Their brand of Brit-pop is a bit generic, but last Monday at the State Theater singer Liam Fray reached such a peak of emotional intensity during the chorus of standout “Please Don’t” that you could believe they’re in it for more than the money.

[watch] The Courteeners - "Please Don't"

After their merely good debut album failed to deliver on the promise of their first two brilliant EPs, Voxtrot went into hiding, and have now reemerged with the song “Trepanation Party.” The way they’re aping the 80s might seem desperate, but they pull it off beautifully, thanks to those booming drums (which could stand to be a bit more booming).

[mp3] Voxtrot - "Trepanation Party"

Crystal Stilts might never change. Digital single “Love is a Wave” is another sludgy pop delight.

[mp3] Crystal Stilts - "Love is a Wave"

One can’t expect The Mary Onettes to have another set of heavenly melodies so soon after their sparkling 2007 debut, so the new 3-song EP Dare is a much more modest offering, both in terms of length and catchiness. Still, its 12 minutes are ethereal and pretty and demonstrate again that though they sound like the great 80s pop band that never was, they have a style distinctly their own.

[listen] The Mary Onettes - "Dare" and more

Maximo Park released what might be my favorite debut album of the decade, A Certain Trigger, in 2005, and then seemed to lose a good deal of their energy (though none of their loudness) on follow-up Our Earthly Pleasures. The two leaked tracks from forthcoming Quicken the Heart promise good things, if not a return to past greatness (one wonders why singer Paul Smith wants to blend in with the band now, rather than lead the way with his expressive and acrobatic vocals). Lead single “The Kids Are Sick Again” sounds a bit shapeless at first, but then reaches a synth-fueled glory at the 2:30 mark that reveals the preceding minutes as perfectly planned buildup. Good stuff.

2009-04-05T18:02:00.003-05:00

We're expanding our operations! You may have noticed the last issue on the periodical shelves at fine St. Paul retailer Eclipse Records. Where will Liner Notes turn up next?

Of interest this time out: the return of former editor/head writer Steve Saccharin.

2009-04-03T16:01:00.005-05:00

monday, april 6 will mark morrissey's first concert in minnesota in 9 years, a day on which local depressives will no longer suffer the indignity of never having seen their hero croon in the flesh. as dr. james yogurt noted in a recent "liner notes," the man has been on a tear of late, with 2009's "years of refusal" ranking among his best solo work.

morrissey's renaissance began way back in 2004 with "you are the quarry," a concept album about mike joyce. lead single "first of the gang to die"--probably written about and for morrissey's huge l.a. latino fanbase--is still a stunner:

two years later, camera obscura put out the amazing "lloyd i'm ready to be heartbroken" in advance of their disc "let's get out of the country." listen to the chugging guitar riffs that introduce and propel both songs--they're exactly the same!:

bonus points to camera obscura for cribbing from later period morrissey as well as the smiths, and also to everyone who's been waiting nine years (or a lifetime) to see this absolutely singular performer and finally getting the chance.

2009-04-01T12:08:00.003-05:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds? How could its cloying sentimentalism and predictable melodies have ever been mistaken for genius? Here's the ultimate proof of the album's utter dreariness.

2009-03-24T02:26:00.004-05:00

Fraser and Debolt - s/t - Don't Let Me Down (1971)

A great Beatles cover from a great album that practically nobody has heard of. So I uploaded it to Youtube..

"One of the many sad secrets of the popular music business is the way this little gem languished in obscurity. It should have been heard by millions, but disappeared at the height of psychedelia." -Mark Allan(Allmusic)

2009-03-23T23:00:00.005-05:00

slightly more new music

fucked up have a new single and, as you might expect, it rules:

[mp3] fucked up--"no epiphany"

also, some weirdo detroit proto-punk band called death, who only ever released one single in 1971 before turning into a gospel group, recently put out an album of their previously unavailable early 70's material on drag city. crazy stuff:

[mp3] death--"politicans in my eyes"

"black hearted love", the tunefully dissonant first single from pj harvey and john parish's "a woman a man walked by", has a video:

and as long as we're grooving on the hard stuff, you can stream "crack the skye", the new album from prog-metal monsters mastodon, at their myspace

2009-03-21T13:08:00.006-05:00

New Music Round-Up

Speaking of the Condo Fucks, their new covers album Fuckbook isn’t that great, but I guess it’s not supposed to be. The trio, who are and are not the same band as Yo La Tengo, blaze through some raucous garage rock versions of lesser-known songs by well-known musicians (Elvis, Richard Hell, The Flamin’ Groovies), seemingly in one long take. It’s everything you’d expect from the title, which is pretty clever (YLT once released a covers album called Fakebook). It is so excessively ramshackle as to be innocuous, but also a nice reminder of Yo La Tengo’s rockin’er ambition(lessnes)s, and of the fact that Ira Kaplan’s praise of the Bad Brains in the liner notes for that band’s 1982 debut was more than academic.

The Isles’ Troika recalls the good old days of Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, Felt, Orange Juice, and The Smiths, with a small debt to Beat Happening. But while I’m making imperfect comparisons, I’ll mention The Dears, a Canadian band whose music channels a later era of Brit-pop—Suede, Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers. Like The Dears, The Isles aren’t especially derivative, but they give the impression that they’ve had a dream of the ideal pop music, and upon waking can’t get it to sound quite as good. So Troika may only be 75% of the way there, but it’s well worth your while.

[mp3] The Isles - "Fall of the Favorite"

Continuing our trajectory toward the very best new music, here’s my album of the moment: Jeremy Jay’s Slow Dance is the one (they come along every year) that has helped make tangible, more than the weather, the impression that spring is here. As with last year’s “Alpharhythm” single, Jeremy Jay still wants nothing other than to dance, but these songs pulse with deeper emotion, as melancholic as the best of Lou Reed’s Transformer or Jonathan Richman’s early somber ballads. Like all the best pop music, the songs could not be simpler; occasional synths keep things interesting, and while Jeremy Jay has as unremarkable a personality as Lou Reed, his voice will make you hang on every word. Calvin Johnson produces, and does percussion on this one:

[mp3] Jeremy Jay - "Will You Dance With Me?"

I love it for the music, but mostly for the cover:

What happened to the days when iconic artist photos were all one needed to sell an album?

Lastly, the new Patrick Wolf video is great, as wonderfully vain as ever.

2009-03-19T22:23:00.003-05:00

Neil Halstead played at the Turf Club last night. His music has grown increasingly folkier over the years, since his shoegazing trailblazing days with Slowdive in the early 90s. Judging by the show, his folkward tendencies haven't abated. That's not a bad thing, though, as his voice can be described by any number of adjectives that end in -ous: mellifluous, sonorous... glorious? Yes, that too. The evidence is on last year's quite nice Oh! Mighty Engine, which would be the Pink Moon to Sleeping on Roads's Bryter Layter if Halstead wasn't such an optimist.

I'm all for nostalgia trips by aging musicians, but the Turf show was something different, something better: a man who's moved on to something new, who doesn't play the old songs in the same way anymore. When he brought back--to my surprise--the Slowdive classic "Alison," once the greatest song of all time, to close the set, he didn't haul out the effects pedals, instead just turned it into a country song. It's funny now to look back at 1993...

As for the video, isn't it a bit rote? It's full of all the swirling images you'd expect, but not very creative aside from that, nor able to convey the song's great beauty. And there's something about seeing all those Alison stand-ins that deflates the legend a little bit. I'd prefer for her to remain as enigmatic as possible.

2009-03-19T01:49:00.003-05:00

the condo fucks: who are they and why are they so mysterious?

2009-03-17T17:39:00.003-05:00

i'm not one of those josh homme fanboys--who if you've ever met one you know sure do love josh homme--but for the past couple days i've been playing "i wanna make it with chu" non-stop. it's a song from his desert sessions project, and one written and performed with the great pj harvey. a languid, sultry blues number, homme liked the track so much he later rerecorded it with queens of the stone age and released it as a single. the desert sessions version is the way to go, however, and this live version is pretty cool:

2009-03-11T23:56:00.003-05:00

I think it was around this time last year, when spring was teasing us all, that I was listening to Massive Attack quite a bit. They're ideal for the month of March, when the world is bleak and happier days ahead seem (sometimes) imminent. They made some of the best produced music of the 1990s, and with the possible exception of Radiohead, had some of the most expensive looking videos. Here are the opening tracks from their first three albums, which are oddly all about the same thing, in a way.

"Safe From Harm"

Embedding for "Protection" is disabled, but suffice it to say it's maybe their best song, and I don't begin to understand how the one shot (?) video was pulled off.

"Angel"

2009-03-10T15:12:00.002-05:00

New Brother Ali EP "The Truth is Here"

out today, 3/10!
9 New Tracks from the Big Bad Brother, all dope. Make sure you check it out. You can get it at Fifth Element, Cheapo, other CD Stores, or online (iTunes, Amazon)

2009-03-09T13:43:00.000-05:00

2009-03-08T16:12:00.000-05:00

Liner Notes ist rad.

2009-03-07T17:13:00.007-06:00

a post-founder's day slump was averted this morning when my thermals 7" finally arrived in the mail. the killer first single/title track of the forthcoming and sure to be awesome fourth lp "now we can see" can be found here, so i thought i'd post a cool demo version of the single--which even in demo form sounds super-polished compared to the mind blowingly lo-fi "more parts per million," the band's first disc--and a demo of its b-side, "my world":

the thermals--"now we can see" (demo)
the thermals--"my world" (demo)

2009-02-27T12:50:00.000-06:00

3RD BLOGIVERSARY

2009-02-27T11:08:00.006-06:00

new dinosaur jr!

2009-02-24T15:34:00.004-06:00

I’ve been writing a novella loosely based on the life of Daniel Johnston, relocated from Texas to Montana and renamed Sam Barry (like Robert Johnson, if Daniel Johnston didn't exist, someone would have had to invent him). A lot of the main action takes place in 1983, so I’ve been fairly immersed in the music of that year recently. This includes, of course, two of Johnston’s 1983 masterworks, Yip/Jump Music and Hi, How Are You, but also a good amount of synth-pop. Johnston had nothing to do with synth-pop, as far as I know, but his fictional alter ego likes it a great deal. Sam Barry plays a Casio, not a chord organ, so this particular area of his musical taste doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.

...is one of the big names in 80s pop music, at least in my narrow world of listening. He was a founding member of Depeche Mode and one-half of the duo called Yazoo, renamed Yaz for American audiences. Clarke could not have had a better chanteuse for his songs than Alison Moyet; I'd like to think of her as the guiding spirit of my writing, both because she wrote the duo’s most affecting track, 1983’s “Nobody’s Diary” (a particular favorite of Mr. Barry), and because of the pervasive influence on my emotions of her lovely cover of Jules Shear’s “Whispering Your Name” (also 1983) on her 1994 album Essex.

When Yazoo broke up, Clarke placed an ad in British music magazines looking for a new singer, and found Andy Bell, who sounds a great deal like Alison Moyet and is also a man. Clarke and Bell then started recording together as Erasure, just about the greatest thing that ever happened in pop music.

I’ve also just started listening to The Three O’Clock’s Sixteen Tambourines and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s Dazzle Ships (both, by sheer coincidence, from 1983). The former is a fine artifact of the Paisley Underground scene; its standout track, “Tomorrow,” makes fine use of processed vocals.

[mp3] The Three O'Clock - "Tomorrow"

The Three O’Clock were once photographed eating pizza by the sister of a member of another early 80s pop band called The Pandoras. Kim Shattuck of The Muffs was also once a member of that band, and she was recently a guest on Big Take Over editor Jack Rabid’s online radio show!

Dazzle Ships was the follow-up to OMD’s ultra-classic Architecture and Morality, and the band used a lot of experimental techniques—synchronized speaking clocks, stitched together samples, including a child’s electronic spelling toy—to create the album and avoid writer’s block, in light of the overwhelming expectations of another masterpiece. But aside from the numerous, and successful, sound collages that punctuate the album, there are a number of more conventional standout tracks: “International” features one of the best pop vocals I have ever heard, while “Genetic Engineering” is Eno-esque to great effect.

[mp3] Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "Genetic Engineering"

But despite all these more expensively produced sounds crowding the ether, Mr. Barry does the Daniel Johnston thing for the most part, direct and sad.

2009-02-22T13:01:00.005-06:00

Sunday Post 2

Two great and famous songs by women, about women, and why the forceful stating of their messages in the lyrics contributes to their greatness:

1. Lucinda Williams, “Passionate Kisses”

I used to dislike the third verse, believing that Lucinda was shouting overtly, in slogan form, what was suggested so beautifully in the details of the rest of the song. That verse seemed like space filler, waiting for further rich and yet unimagined details to take its place. But while the modesty of the song’s opening lines

Is it too much to ask?
I want a comfortable bed that won’t hurt my back.

strikes me as much more evocative than the forcefulness of the last

I shout it out to the night
“Give me what I deserve, ‘cause it’s my right.”

that last verse is in keeping with the progression of the lyrics, the subtle suggestion of multiplying empowerment. In the second verse, Lucinda wants a “full house and a rock ‘n’ roll band,” and by the third she is riding the momentum of her own rock ‘n’ roll song, recognizing her ability to make more than just small demands. She wants the things that Virginia Woolf knew a woman needed—“pens that won’t run out of ink and cool quiet and time to think”—while the song itself, the beauty of her own creation, suggests that she must already have them to a degree.

And still that last verse is more tentative than I have let on. First she asks if she wants too much, and when she shouts out to the night, perhaps no one is listening. She then arrives again at her desire for passionate kisses; she must already know what they feel like, and she sounds not like a woman who lacks anything, but like a woman who is reminding herself why she deserves what she already has. In the end, it is not so much a song of empowerment, but a distinctly American song about deserving happiness.

2. Tori Amos, “Crucify”

I’ve been looking for a savior in these dirty streets
Looking for a savior beneath these dirty sheets
I’ve been raising up my hands, drive another nail in
Got enough guilt to start my own religion

I know a lot of people might be repulsed by lyrics like these, and their seeming indulgence, but I would hesitate to call them indulgent. There is a meta element to this song as well. It is not about searching for a savior and feeling victimized, but about a woman defining her sexuality in that context, defining herself as Jesus Christ. Tori convincingly occupies that role through the theatrical performance of these lyrics—she is self-aware, she knows what her project is. She may very easily start her own religion: the song, with its confessional lyrics and meticulous orchestration, is a comforting one to be alone with, and one in which the hand of the author is readily apparent.

Why write about these songs now, you ask, to which I respond, why not? I listen to them still.

2009-02-22T12:52:00.005-06:00

Sunday Post 1

In unrelated news, I caught the culminating concert of the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts at the Ted Mann Concert Hall last night. I missed the late show at the Bedlam Theater, with famed electronic act Pole headlining, and that would certainly have been the more instantly gratifying performance to see. The concert at Ted Mann was a more formal and traditional setting, though musically unconventional, for “serious” electronic musicians to showcase their work.

Keir Neuringer

The highlight for me was in fact the most conventional piece, Josh Clausen’s “she quietly enters and leaves the fray.” It featured a pianist playing Tori Amos-esque (since she’s on my mind) trills and runs against a glitchy soundscape that was a pale (but still solid) imitation of prime Autechre.

Another performance, Lorenzo Bianchi and MK’s “Comfort,” featured dancers engaged in strange rituals even more baffling than the description in the program: “The dynamic of exploration is set up through a permanent decision-making. Forms are crossed in view of constant mobility. The choreographic identity of the performer is entrusted to the ‘other’ as a continuous removal of the self.” Worst abstract ever! The only high point of that performance was the inexplicable blasting of Underworld’s epic “Mmm Skyscraper I Love You” (unattributed in the program) through the concert hall’s glorious soundsystem, followed by a Tim Hecker-esque drone that was probably just a Tim Hecker track, also unattributed.

The night “climaxed” with Joel Ryan and Keir Neuringer’s “OrAir,” composed entirely from live saxophone, processed mostly with delay effects. I agree with the general consensus that the piece was masturbatory and musically unintelligent, though there was a brief moment when something uncanny happened. Neuringer’s movements—frantic and deliberate noodling, especially on the saxophone’s mouthpiece—seemed to have merged so completely with the processed sound that it became unclear who was leading the performance. By controlling Neuringer’s sound with his computer tweakings, Joel Ryan seemed to be controlling his body by extension. Was this an intentional optical trick? Watching Neuringer’s jerky fast forward motions, I felt I had entered a twilight zone, or like I was watching a movie in which the gaps between frames were visible, or like Neuringer was illuminated with a strobe light. There must be a neurological explanation.

2009-02-19T01:29:00.002-06:00

mp3: beat happening--me untamed

2009-02-17T15:03:00.001-06:00

Make sure you listen in thursday night to Lloyd and Nolan's show. 8pm (Central Time)

2009-02-15T19:12:00.002-06:00

The textiest edition yet! Tomorrow: find it on paper; listen to WMCN!

2009-02-11T10:57:00.005-06:00

way back in october, out magazine published a list they call "the 100 greatest, gayest albums of all time" ("The ballots have been cast. The gay experts have spoken.") when i saw the magazine this morning, i assumed "hunky dory" would top the list; it's not even in the top 20, while the comparatively heterosexual and slightly inferior "ziggy stardust" comes in at number one. still, it's a pretty good list even if you can quibble with bits of it (is "purple rain" truly prince's gayest album? what on earth is "sgt. pepper's" doing here?--the criteria aren't exactly clear). a few of the wmcn-endorsed discs on the list:

2. the smiths "the smiths"
8. madonna "the immaculate collection"
12. the velvet underground & nico "the velvet underground and nico"
38. dusty springfield "dusty in memphis"
45. bikini kill "pussy whipped"
49. patti smith "horses"
60. r.e.m. "automatic for the people"
61. sleater-kinney "dig me out"
71. t.rex "electric warrior"
88. husker du "zen arcade"
92. morrissey "viva hate"

what say you?

2009-02-09T20:43:00.000-06:00

2009-02-02T17:42:00.002-06:00

My early vote for best band of the decade should come as no surprise, at least not to myself: it’s Idlewild! I first heard 100 Broken Windows roundabout eight years ago, and it was maybe the only new album at the time that I held, and still hold, in the same esteem as my other life-changing early 00s discoveries (Let It Be, Zen Arcade, etc.). The band recently announced they’ll be pulling a Radiohead and bookending the decade with a new album sold directly to fans. The bonus goodies are enticing, but what’s especially good news for American fans is that the release of this new album will put an end to years of Idlewild being shafted by American distributors. Most of their albums have languished in import limbo months and years after their UK releases; only their last album, Make Another World, got a timely American release, and that was on a label whose American branch folded not long after.

Idlewild are currently in the studio, and if they continue to follow R.E.M.’s trajectory (their last album was a Life’s Rich Pageant-esque return to rock), they should be making their Document right about now, which bodes well for commercial success. Here they are at their R.E.M.est best. Go to 2:56—that is not Michael Stipe on guest vocals.

(I find it most peculiar that MTV was still playing videos in 2005, and even more peculiar that some version of Alternative Nation was still on the air.)

2009-01-31T19:03:00.003-06:00

I wrote about my love for Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours a couple times last year, but could it be that my enthusiasm was built upon a falsehood? As it turns out, I have never heard the album in its "proper sequencing." I noticed a while back that my tracklisting for the album was in alphabetical order, which I found fishy, as Cut Copy don't strike me as a band that would go for gimmicky sequencing a la The Magnetic Fields. The solution was simple: no track number tags! This story is boring in and of itself, but there are two useful conclusions to be drawn:

1) The album is in decline. When an album geek like myself no longer pays attention to the all-important aspect of sequencing, something is terribly wrong.

2) In Ghost Colours is great however you listen to it, but best experienced in alphabetical order. I fell in love the moment "Eternity One Night Only" first gave way to "Far Away," and while front-loading is a problem on some albums, to have "Far Away," "Feel the Love" and "Hearts on Fire" all up front is a many-splendored thing ("Feel the Love" is the album's best moment, but not an ideal opener). Certainly the transitions are a bit smoother when the album is heard in the "proper order," and I always wondered why it ends in a burst of noise (what is now track #4, "We Fight for Diamonds"). But I also loved that ramshackle unpredictability, which is missing now.

2009-01-27T19:48:00.007-06:00

last december, during a bout of finals-time blues, i staggered into cheapo and stumbled upon the coolest find of my record-buying life: a copy of twin/tone's 1978 comp "big hits from mid-america volume 3". the title's a nod to two previous volumes put out in the sixties by twin cities label soma.

twin/tone, sadly defunct, was one of the great american indie labels. the label gained its modicum of fame in the eighties, putting out lps by the the replacements and soul asylum, but the 14 bands and 22 songs on "big hits" suggest twin/tone got off to a rip-roaring start as well (the comp was the label's ninth release).

the compilation is essentially a document of the late seventies twin cities scene (well, part of it; an equally strong minneapolis r&b scene would produce a certain lavender-loving lothario, among others), an angry, sinewy amalgamation of summer of hate punk, new wave-ish sounds and good old fashioned garage rock. the quality of the double lp—every song is good—is a testament to how inspiring punk was, how solid and adaptable its formula is, and the awesomeness of the mpls/stp scene.

a few favorites from the album (the mp3s are kinda quiet, so you'll want to turn your speakers up):

uruguay 1983--nnb
complicated fun--the commandos
swan lake, mn--the swan lake six
paper girl--the jets

2009-01-22T13:28:00.004-06:00

important events in american history aside, the most exciting news of the past week was, unsurprisingly, robyn hitchcock-related. the indefatigable merchant of surrealism has a new album out in february, “goodnight oslo”. new material from robyn is always cause for celebration, all the more so because the record will feature the excellent venus 3 backing him up. weak at the knees in response to this news, all i could do was to preorder the record, which comes with 3 bonus tracks.

among these is the superlative “up to our nex,” a song that will be familiar to viewers of the dreadful “rachel getting married”. “nex” is a jangle attack, punctuated by bursts of horn, and shows robyn and the boys in fine form. a different version of the track will appear on “goodnight oslo”.

mp3: robyn hitchcock & the venus 3--"up to our nex"

2009-01-12T21:11:00.007-06:00

speaking of reissues and the like, this fall audika put out a collection of gorgeous bedroom-country by the late arthur russell. russell, an iowa native, will forever be associated with an avant-garde strain of disco, and while that’s all well and good, “love is overtaking me” (a title to die for) showcases the auteur’s outstanding talents as a singer and more traditional songwriter. the results are lovely and intimate—somewhere between gram parsons and daniel johnston, with vocals reminiscent of dylan’s “nashville skyline” croon.

the lovesick “i couldn’t say it to your face” is the standout on a disc of standouts, devastating in its simplicity and directness:

mp3: aruthur russell—“i couldn’t say it to your face”

2009-01-06T19:07:00.001-06:00

show me
a word that rhymes with pavement
and i will kill your parents
and roast them on a spit
i’d be remiss if i let the recent reissue of pavement’s “brighten the corners” pass by unrecommended. it's the fourth in matador’s super-deluxe series of pavement reissues, which have to be the best reissues of anything ever.

as the alex ross essay in the booklet notes, “a pavement album is a series of small labyrinths.” “btc”, while merely the third stoned-est pavement disc, is no different in this respect, as baffling and mellifluous as the stone cold classics that preceded it, if a bit more paranoid and professional-sounding.

the album is bizarrely hated-on in some quarters, but the reissue’s wealth of b-sides, outtakes, radio sessions and slay tracks make a pretty convincing argument for “btc’s” awesomeness. particularly great is nigh-perfect “spit on a stranger” b-side “harness your hopes,” a song that should get its own chapter in indie-pop textbooks

mp3: pavement—“harness your hopes”

p.s. r.i.p. ron asheton, without whose guitar whose guitar punk, hardcore and indie might have never existed

2009-01-05T10:27:00.004-06:00

Lloyd and Nolan nominated for a Twin Cities Hip Hop Award

DJs Lloyd and Nolan have been nominated for Best Radio Show at the Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards. You can vote by clicking here or going to:

http://www.myspace.com/tchiphopawards

Make sure you scroll down on the page and V-O-T-E!

2009-01-02T14:11:00.003-06:00

My resolution: write even more for the blog than I usually do.

The Del Fuegos’ Boston, Mass. is the point where The Replacements (ah!) meet The Georgia Satellites (ugh). That might also indicate early Soul Asylum, but the description is especially apt here. The band has a ragged Westerbergian rock ‘n’ roll soul, but they’re not far from being a bona fide bar band extraordinaire (they almost made it big), the type that is only a few steps removed from hair metal. I wrote about their Embarrassment connection and their appearance in a line from a great Juliana Hatfield song in a post last year, but now I’ve actually started listening to them, and can say they’re most definitely allusion-worthy. Boston, Mass. is a great archetypal rock album full of glorious metronomic drumming and singer Dan Zanes vamping like Sky Saxon or Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It strikes me as fortuitous that the album was released in the same year as The Replacements’ Tim, and also Green on Red’s No Free Lunch, whose bluesy Americana it approaches on this one:

[mp3] The Del Fuegos – “Night on the Town”

Note: Much of The Del Fuegos’ output, long out of print on CD, has recently been reissued on Wounded Bird Records (excluding fourth and final album Smoking in the Fields, which I know there’s a copy of lurking somewhere in my sister’s house). Of course WMCN never had to worry, because Warner Bros. was sending us the band’s records back in the glory days.

2008-12-30T12:53:00.002-06:00

new year's resolution: become as cool as jarvis

(the amusing but sfx-laden official video is here)

your resolution? or top 10 you've yet to share?

2008-12-24T19:12:00.002-06:00

Top Hip Hop Albums of 2008 (according to Nolan)

1) Nas – Untitled
Although many felt that Nasir Jones did not deliver on this, this turned out to be lyrically the best album of the year. 14 years after Illmatic, Nas still brings brute passion in his rhymes. The wide array of smooth beats ("Queens Get the Money", "You Can't Stop Us Now") to bangers ("Hero") doesn't hurt either.

2) Elzhi – The Preface
Elzhi is quickly becoming one of the most respected MCs in hip hop. This album came out of nowhere, but impressed many, even reaching some more mainstream clientele. Elzhi has an amazing flow and incredible original rhyme schemes (check out "Guessing Game"). "Motown 25", which features Elzhi's Detroit buddy Royce da 5'9, is an absolute gem. The two MCs trade fantastic verses over another fantastic Black Milk beat. Definitely one of the best tracks of the year. Elzhi, Royce, and Black Milk will appear later in this list too.

3) Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that S*** Gold
The album was finished at the end of 2006, but Atmosphere couldn't get a release date until April '08. While there are a few weak tracks (I cannot stand "Dreamer"), Atmosphere delivers another superb album. Producer Ant lays down some incredible non-sampled instrumental beats, a first for him. There are some AMAZING songs on this album. Don't sleep on the last track "In Her Music Box".

4) Jake One – White Van Music
While this album also has some losers ("Dead Wrong" with Young Buck is awful). The winners more than make up for this. The MF Doom tracks are unreal, enough said. Brother Ali lays down one of his best on "The Truth" with Freeway. "Oh Really" is a fantastic short song with Posdonous AND Slug. Both deliver quality verses. "Soil Raps" with Keak da Sneak proves why he is not just a hyphy MC, his lyrics and swagger are fantastic. The gem of the album to me is "Glow" with our friends Elzhi and Royce da 5'9. Another incredible track with two of the most exciting MCs out.

5) Common Market – Tobacco Road
MC RA Scion and DJ/Producer Sabzi (Blue Scholars) turn out another incredible album with a whole new sound. Smooth beats and intense rhymes make catch new listeners attention and please old ones. There are fast songs and slow songs, something for everyone. The one problem with the album is that at times it gets boring and you lose track of what's going on.

6) Black Milk – Tronic
Black Milk is a superb producer from Detroit, mainstream or underground. He's gonna blow soon. The underground already loves him. He's Fatbeats' prodigy. While there are some so-so tracks, the bangers are incredible. "Losing Out" with Royce Da 5'9 is a SICK, SICK track. "The Matrix" is also incredible.

7) Q-Tip – The Renaissance
ATCQ frontman Q-Tip does not dissapoint with his new album. It's damn good. Quality the whole way through. Make sure you check out the Dilla produced "Move", the beat is sick nastay!

8) Murs – Murs For President
Underground warrior Murs makes is major label debut. While I was somewhat dissapointed, it's definitely a quality album (fortunately "Dreadlocks" didn't make it on the album). "Everything" is an amazing introspective song and their are a bunch of other excellent tracks.

9) 9th Wonder & Buckshot – The Formula
While definitely not a great complete album, there are some sweet tracks on this. Buckshot's rhyming skills have vastly improved since the Enta da Stage days.

10) PaceWon & Mr. Green – The Only Color That Matters Is Green
I literally discovered this album two days ago, but there are some AMAZING tracks. PaceWon was featured on the Fugees "The Score" and delivers a nice flow on some great beats. "Four Quarters" and "Children Sing" are tracks worth purchasing.

2008-12-22T12:24:00.005-06:00

aaron’s favorites, 2008

[1] spiritualized—“songs in a&e”
not the first spiritualized record with laser guided melodies, but the first one with a laser beam to the heart

[2] nick cave & the bad seeds—“dig, lazarus, dig!!!”
furious, vulgar, masterfully composed and arranged—thirty years later, cave and his crew still shame your band and everyone else’s

[3] deerhunter—“microcaste/weird era cont.”
an almost-perfect cocktail of shoegazer, krautrock, eno and 60’s pop

[4] beach house—“devotion”
like a half-remembered dream over a meal of tea, biscuits and heroin

[5] the hold steady—“stay positive”
craig and the boys do it again, so well we forget that they’ve done it all before

[6] flight of the conchords—“s/t”
a parody album of almost rutles-esque brilliance, and the most awkwardly funky record you’ll ever hear.

[7] destroyer—“trouble in dreams”
another slice of lush, woozy pop from indie’s crankiest weirdo

[8] dungen—“4”
virtuoso psychedelia from frigid sweeden, more melancholy than ever but all the more beautiful for it

[9] stephen malkmus & the jicks “real emotional trash”
ten labyrinthine jams transmitted from malkmus’ perpetually stoned skull

[10] retribution gospel choir—“s/t”
alan sparhawk being crazy, but this time with a drum set and a stack of marshalls in his sandbox

2008-12-20T16:46:00.005-06:00

T O P
T E N
2 0 0 8

I could’ve pulled an Ebert this year, but that just wouldn’t be very satisfying, so here’s another somewhat arbitrary ranking of ten great albums from the past 12 months:

[1] M83 – Saturdays = Youth
The best thing since the “Time After Time” dance sequence in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.

[2] Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Virtue rewarded.

[3] Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Pleasuredome II.

[4] Sun Kil Moon – April
Not as transcendent as 2003’s Ghosts of the Great Highway (one of the best albums of the decade), and doesn’t contain any stone-kold Kozelek klassikz like “Katy Song” or “Carry Me Ohio,” but April is still very much like a tree, in the summer, under whose languid boughs a sun-dappled dreamer can while away the precious hours (kidding).

[5] Secret Shine – All of the Stars
2008 was a great year for the 80s, and an even better year for the 90s. Case in point: authentic shoegazing masterpiece circa 1991 from Secret Shine, today!

[6] R.E.M. – Accelerate
Words, with the possible exception of “better Stipe-ocalypse,” can’t describe my reverence for R.E.M. This could have been total crap and I’d still love it. How can I convince you now that it’s actually really good?

[7] The Magnetic Fields – Distortion
This could also have been crap, so on and so forth, but Stephin Merritt’s songwriting formula (a wicker basket of wit + a measure of melody) has not failed him yet, not even when he gives it the Phil Spector treatment.

[8] Wye Oak – If Children
More vintage 90s in this horrible age of abuse and decay. If this band has a personality, I haven’t figured out what it is yet, but no matter, because they make totally irreproachable music.

[9] The Rosebuds – Life Like
2007’s “Get Up Get Out” was lovely; here’s a whole album of dark (yet sweet) pop songs, with a little bit of North Carolina grotesquerie (the type I’ve read about in Southern Gothic novels) creeping in at the edges.

[10] The Wedding Present – El Rey
The best Los Angeles album since Possum Dixon’s Star Maps (sorry, Celebrity Skin)—but setting aside, this is just another delightful dish of Gedge, best served Albini.

For the record, there were another 19 albums this year that I liked “a lot” and 11 that I liked “quite a bit” (not to mention all the stuff taking up space on my computer that I haven’t even played yet). I’ve never heard so much good new music in the span of a calendar year. Most of it has been supplied by WMCN, and I’m starting to wonder how I’ll survive when I leave this place… Onward to 2009!

(Have a top ten of your own? Post it here, or send it to wmcn@macalester.edu. Maybe we'll compile them or something.)

2008-12-13T16:08:00.004-06:00

2008 in blog

a roundup of 2008 in indie, with links to some vids/mp3s the blog has gifted the world in the past 12 months (along with inscrutable two-word reviews!):
jaundiced australiana: nick cave & the bad seeds--"dig, lazarus, dig!!!"
electronic elasticity: david byrne and brian eno--"strange overtones"
saccharine hardcore?: fucked up--"black albino bones"
dancable ghostedelia: cut copy--"feel the love"
reissues count*: the replacements--"can't hardly wait [echo chamber demo]"
in-studio awesomeness: jeremy messersmith--"love you to pieces"
better stipe-ocalypse: r.e.m.--"accelerate"
lovelorn, still: the wedding present--"spiderman on hollywood"
narcoleptic haze: beach house--"wedding bell"
sparse regret: edgar cayce--"let go"
pop attack: the baseball project--"jackie's lament"
folkgazer 2:02: wye oak--"please concrete"
*mental illness: sebadoh--"telecosmic alchemy"
no mimi: retribution gospel choir--"kids"
fucking majestic: spiritualized--"soul on fire"

2008-12-08T18:20:00.002-06:00

Kill some time with The House of Love. As it turns out, the three best songs from their ultra-classic 1990 self-titled album (not to be confused with their supposedly classic 1988 self-titled debut) have videos, all of which can be found on a certain video sharing interweb database. If you prefer to experience the band's music without the sight of singer Guy Chadwick's odd face, then I suggest you forgo viewing the following.

Here's the best of the lot, called "Shine On." So huge!

Ah, no sound more comforting than the maelstrom of a big British post-punk melancholic jam. Next, a song in the Brit-pop rave-up vein, "I Don't Know Why I Love You" (...your face is a hammer in my head--nice!).

There's also a video for "Beatles and the Stones," for which embedding has been disabled (I'm assuming because images of the title bands abound). The vid is a bit too literal, and the song edit lacks the crucial intro, but if you can't relate to the words, then you have no business reading this blog (I need to stop saying things like that).

Happy finals week, everyone. Year-end roundups coming soon...

2008-12-04T12:27:00.003-06:00

Grammy '09 Nominations

Record of the Year
Adele - Chasing Pavements
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
MIA - Paper Planes
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Please Read the Letter

Album of the Year
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Ne-Yo - Year of the Gentleman
Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - Raising San
Radiohead - In Rainbows

As far as the hip hop side goes, Lil Wayne got way too many nominations (9). Even his fans did not consider this his best work. Once again, quality hip hop work was left out of the rap considerations and regular considerations (If Ne-Yo wins album of the year, that would be the most ridiculous thing ever).

Click Here to see all of the nominations

2008-11-30T12:32:00.002-06:00

DOOMTREE BLOWOUT this Saturday 12/6!

Here's a video to get you pumped!

For those that don't know, Doomtree is a sweet local hip hop collective/record label based in Uptown, Minneapolis. Artists include P.O.S., Sims, Mike Mictlan, Cecil Otter, Dessa, Paper Tiger, Lazerbeak, MK Larada, and Turbo Nemesis. www.doomtree.net

The concert is always a blast and will sell out!
It is at First Avenue (www.first-avenue.com) this Saturday, Dec 6th, from 6-10pm

2008-11-30T12:25:00.003-06:00

Hey Hip Hoppers,

so I just figured out how to start blogging on here. With a strong Hip Hop community in the Twin Cities, WMCN will start to provide an outlet for local hip hop artists to get their music on air (and the web). Check out the Hip Hop Providers on Fridays from 8pm-10pm and Sunday Special Family Rap Hour Sundays from 2-4pm. Our last shows will be this coming week!

We will continue to have tons of local artists on. Past guests have included: Toki Wright, Big Quarters, Prof + Rahzwell, Background Noise Crew, Orikal, The Watchmen, Kritical Kontact, Just Some Cat, Ill Chemistry (Carnage + Desdamona), M.anifest, The Usual Suspects, JSL (301 Studios), Green Sketch, and many more!