KWVA Playlist for Thursday, Dec 15, 2005
We hosted a very special show this morning! Guest DJ Ben came in to wrap up the end of year with a Best of 2005 extravaganza! Ben added some great music to the set that would have otherwise been neglected. In addition we highlighted our top 5 albums of the year, indicated below. Here's the set!
Dengue Fever – Sui Bong
New Pornographers – Use it
The Subways – With You (Ben’s #5)
Danger Doom – Old School feat. Talib Kweli (Aaron’s #5)
Sage Francis – Sea Lion
White Stripes – Denial Twist
Animal Collective – Grass
Ladytron – Destroy everything you touch
The Cops – working the wall
Induce – Coltrane’s Brain
Iron and Wine – In the being (Aaron’s #4)
Harvey Danger – Moral Centralia (Ben’s #4)
Common – The Corner
Clap Your Hans and Say Yeah – Over and Over again
AFX – Reunion 2 (Ben’s #3)
Blackalicious – Powers
MIA – Pull up the People (Aaron’s #3)
Petra Haden – Mary Ann With The Shaky Hands
Sleater-Kinney – Jumpers
Sufjan Stevens – The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
Architecture In Helsinki – In Case We Die
Kind Robot – I Waited (Ben’s #2)
Antony and the Johnsons – Fistful of Love (Aaron’s #2)
Ayinde Howell – Remember
Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (Aaron’s #1)
Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Ben’s #1)
Ok Go – Here We Go Again (Bonus!!!)
The Highlights: All of them man... all of them. But below let's list our top fives albums for 2005
Ben's Top 5
1) Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
2) Kind Robot - Fragapella EP
3) AFX - Analord
4) Harvery Danger - Little By Little
5) The Subways - Young for Eternity
Aaron's Top 5
1) Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs (what a SHOCKER!)
2) Antony and the Johnsons - Now I Am A Bird
3) MIA - Arular
4) Iron & Wine and Calexico - In The Reins
5) Dangerdoom - The Mouse and the Mask
The Duds: The unnamed DJ's that come in after me frustrate the mind. It put me in a bad mood, and they ramble on the air aimlessly. "Which button should we push... it's around here somewhere." These guys are the kind of people that give college radio a bad name. They also received a request for Brian Eno, and on the air said they'd never heard of them. I have no disrespect for people who haven't heard of Brian Eno, but anyone who runs an electronic music show really should know who he is. Extra neck bites to those dudes. I can sum up these guys in 5 words: Dead air, um, dead air."
Requests: I decided not to take any this time. I didn't get any either, but that's all good. We had too much music to play, and the list of music that we didn't play is almost as long as the list of music we did play.
Next Show: My goodness where has the year gone! My next show is in January! I'm heading up to Seattle for some much deserved R & R. And after that, I've got some more R on the schedule. My next show will be on January 6th. I'm planning another One Hour / One Band with my friend Matt featuring nothing but the folky wonders of Iron and Wine. It's not yet scheduled, but I'll let you know when it comes up.
posted by Aaron Burkhalter @ 6:28 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Aaron! Did you know that The Postal Service did 'Such Great Heights'?! I think I understand how people could not be big fans of 'Tiny Cities' now, and then I thought it just isn't right to hear Iron & Wine reimagined that way. But it was the other way around! The Postal Service came first!
I am scandalized. I am loving Gibbard's vocals the more I listen to DCFC and TPS, but Iron & Wine's version is teh cool.
I was aware of the Postal Service factoid, but it didn't bother me, because I'm such a freaking huge fan of Iron and Wine. Iron and Wine also did a version of the Flaming Lips' "Waiting For Superman" which in itself doesn't quite live up to the original.
I think with "Tiny Cities" it was that they dedicated an entire album to Modest Mouse, which I find a little pretentious. Robyn Hitchcock did an entire Bob Dylan tribute album, and it's stuff like that where I just lose interest. But Sun Kil Moon is still merely on probation in my mind with a little skepticism, because I liked a number of the tracks I heard. So my mind may be opened up just a little bit.
But that said, for the die hard Sun Kil Moon fans, I have to wonder if their feelings were "what the heck?" when the album came out. I just wonder why they would go to such efforts for a tribute album. If I was a big Sun Kil Moon fan, I'd rather hear something new from them, rather than 50 minutes of someone else's work.
Now, THAT said... Cat Power's Covers Record is freaking amazing in every way. What makes it work though is that she has a lot of variety, and really makes the songs very much her own. Take "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Stones. Play that song by itself with no introduction, and you wouldn't know it was a Stones song. She brilliantly cuts the familiar chorus, and turns the song into a smokey coffee house piece. (although All Music disagrees with me. They ranked Cat Powers You Are Free higher than The Covers Record which to me is blasphemous.)
I'm all for covers, but in moderation, and treated very well. I prefer a variety too, like Cat Power. It keeps the fact that the music is not their own and makes it more varietive. It also gives the fan a look into their influences. Cat Power covered the Velvet Underground, Smog, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. That really works for me.
I was listening to Postal Service's version tonight, and it clicked for me, which is not to say that I really love it, but I realized that the lyrics make alot of sense when considered in the context of the two guys behind the music. Iron & Wine's version is easier for me to interpret as being romantic or sentimental in the best way, but I always thought the lyrics were a little odd. I suspect I will be able to come to terms now.
It's funny... I was just listening to cat power last night and thinking 'did fiona apple have a side project?' but they are two entirely different people I learned, and although their voices are similar, I suppose their personalities come through uniquely in their music.
A pox on Bob Boilen. They'd had the full two-hour countdown of the top ten records on the NPR website, but when they went to promote it to a broader audience, they took the first hour down, and earned my bitterness, because now I'll have to wait until the second hour is reposted. Bitterness, I say!
Speaking of which, is it as frigid in Seattle as in Tokyo? Because it is pretty frigid here.
Courtney,
Oh yes, Cat Power and Fiona Apple have VERY different personalities. Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) is painfully shy, though she's starting to come out of her shell. The last time I saw her live she played the entire set with her hair pulled over her face, and the piano faced away from the stage, so the half of the songs in which she actually faced the audience didn't do a ton of good... but someone must have done something to bring her out, because she's got a lot more presence. Check out The Covers Record I love it.
It is not frigid any longer. Both Oregon and Washington were quite cold for a while there, but the rain has come through, and with it cloud cover, and then warmth.
I've only listened to the first 30 minutes of the show, but when I downloaded it to listen it looked like there were almost 2 hours worth, at least that's what real player said, even though when I clicked on it it said 1 hour.
They merged it into two hours not long after I bitched about it. Coincidence? Damn straight!
Damn PS track is getting under my skin. Bastards!
Will look for Cat Power, nice that she is de-shelling. I think I owe both you and Megan emails, don't I? They shall be coming in my soon to be copious amounts of free time.
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