Sunday, September 25

Playlist from 9/25 Radio Show

Tah-Dahs - - Alcoholic
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - - She Just Wants to Move
Test - Icicles - - Boa VS Python
The Joggers - - Wicked Light Sleeper
Matt Pond PA - - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)
Ashlee Simpson - - Boyfriend
Her Space Holiday - - A Match Made in Texas
The Noisettes - - Don't Give Up
Arcade Fire & David Bowie - - Wake Up (Live @ Fashion Rocks, Radio City Music Hall)
Wolf Parade - - This Hearts on Fire
Arcade Fire - - No Cars Go (Vitamins for You Remix)
Pussycat Dolls - - Don't Cha
Broadcast - - Goodbye Girls
Wrens - - Rest Your Head
Harvey Danger - - Moral Centralia
Clor - - Magic Touch
Limbeck - - Usually Deluded
Supergrass - - St. Petersburg
Deerhoof -- Chatterboxes
Braid - - A Dozen Roses
Brakes - - Sometimes Always
Rakes - - Open Book
Nightmare of You - - I Want To Be Buried in Your Backyard
Wrens - - Happy

Saturday, September 24

The Parade That is Wolf

Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary (Sub Pop)

Montreal is more than just winter tundra, it’s now become the place to produce great bands. With the successes of Arcade Fire and Stars, Wolf Parade now falls perfectly in line with their predecessors. Wolf Parade was highly expected to be the next big thing from Canada after catching the attention of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. College radio hailed their self-titled EP, which was released in July. Now Wolf Parade’s debut full-length, Apologies to the Queen Mary, lives up to the hype, complete with published reviews in The New York Times and the Times’ Canadian edition. The track “Shine a Light” is a cohesion of a drum assault and earnest vocals that are reminiscent of their friends and neighbors The Arcade Fire. The album ends with the four-minute poppy ride of head-nod-inducing drums in “This Hearts on Fire.” Wolf Parade’s own guitarist/vocalist Dan Boeckner once described the band by saying, “Wolf Parade is like a retarded dog with four heads. At any given time, three of the heads are sleeping.” While Boeckner’s description may be irreverent, this band will definitely not be sleeping once the masses give them a listen. They seem to be on their way too - they’ve already landed on more than a half dozen stations on FMQB’s Specialty panel, including KCRW, WXRT, WWCD, and WTKS. To learn more, visit http://www.subpop.com/ or check them out at www.myspace.com/wolfparade.

(as per review at SubModern Valedictorian, you can see it in its origianl form plus more reviews and all the updates on specialty radio at http://www.fmqb.com/specialty.asp )

Magical Mystery Tour

I'm back from CMJ . I guess I know I had a good time when it takes me almost a week to get myself in enough working order to update.

I saw my favorite favorites! I drank until I was falling down! I went thrift shopping! I ate more pizza than my stomach could possibly handle! OH, and I was also voted the biggest female MD flirt! You can see the nominations here: http://www.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=5547206

Although I was running around meeting up with people, helping contribute to my hearing loss problem by experiencing more shows in a week than most students here at Cabrini witness in their 4 years here, stuffing my face with pizza or being a lush at the nearest club, there were a few very somber things that occurred while I was at CMJ:

First of all, a friend from back home died. This is news absolutely no one likes to hear no matter where they are. I called back home from NYC to see what the deal was and everyone seemed distraught beyond belief. He was the kind of person that you would never forget, whether you had class with him once or he was just an acquaintance.

Secondly, my friend I was supposed to be staying with had disappeared without a trace. Not only were her fiancee and I worried to death, as a result of her leaving I had to wait at the train station for about 3 hours because I couldn't locate her. Everything is fine now and she is safe...that is all that matters.

Here's a list that begins to note who I saw while in good old NYC:
Idlewild
Wolfmother
Living Things
Test-Icicles
The Cribs
Youth Group
Arcade Fire ( secretly ending with David Bowie!!!)
Stretch Armstrong
Sound Team
Thursday
Static Age
Darker My Love
Elephants
Pshychic Hearts
Blue Van
The Witnesses
M.A.S.S.
Matt Pond PA
Against Me!
Motion City Soundtrack
Facing New York


Tonight The Wrens are playing Bryn Mawr college. My sir and I are really excited since we tried once before to go see them and definitely missed them! Since they are only playing like 5 minutes from where we live, I don't think we have any excuse to miss them.

Sunday, September 11

Playlist of 09/11/05 Show

Noisettes - - Don't Give Up
Cribs - - Mirror Kisses
CYHSY - - Gimme Some Salt
The 88 - - Hide Another Mistake
DFA 1979 - - Romantic Rights
Nightmare of You - - I Want To Be Buried In Your Backyard
The Kills - - No Wow
Her Space Holiday - - Missed Medicine
Minus the Bear - - Pachuca Sunrise
Happy Bullets - - The Vice and Virtue Ministry
Acid House Kings - - Tonight is Forever
Iron & Wine / Calexico - - Dead Man's Will
Old 97's - - 19
Magic Numbers - - Love's a Game
Nada Surf - - What Is Your Secret
Harvey Danger - - Wine, Women and Song
Sons & Daughters - - Medicine
Shapes - - Dreaming of an M16
Lake Trout - - Shiny Wrapper
Richard Hawley - - Cole's Corner
I Am Kloot - - Over My Shoulder
Ninja High School - - By Purpose Not By Plan
Javelins - - Love Poems, Vol. 2
Idlewild - - The Space Between All Things
Noisettes - - Monte Cristo

I bet you don't know how to sell conviction

Idlewild at the TLA on Friday night was not really as big of a letdown as I made it out to be. I believe I was only disappointed as I was walking back to the car only because the show had ended. Roddy made me extremely happy. At most points you could find me standing with my hands on my cheeks wondering how one band that couldn't even sell-out the TLA had made me so happy for so long.

WRFT Matt and I drove to the show and got there early just to make sure the guest list was all in working order. We were on the list for the opener, Inara George, so we had to get there in order to see her and crew. Midway through the opener, Amanda and WLVR Mike showed up.

I'm glad that Mike came to the show since he is the reason I was introduced to Idlewild a few years ago. And like the kind gentleman he is, he picked up my ex-roomie to bring her along since he had an extra spot on the list he needed filled.

Last night was the Noisettes at the Electric Factory. WRFT Matt, Amanda and Laura and I showed up mad early to do what I thought was going to be an interview. Unfortunately the Noisettes got there a little late, so we met up with them and got some station ID's for our troubles of jetting down to the city so fucking early.

I was extremely impressed with the Noisettes set. They have this live energy that is unreal. The singer had kicked off her purple thigh highs and was jumping around the stage barefoot kicking her legs up in the air while she aggresively strummed her guitar and sang in a voice that reminded me of a modern day Billie Holiday mixed with YYY's Karen O.

After their set was the Kills which was filled with such sensuality I thought I was going to break down and have to make out with the stranger standing next to me. If a band was sex, then it would be the Kills. Seriously.

Finally was Bloc Party which, by the sound of the 17-year-olds when they came on stage, was the obvious reason why mostly everyone was there. By this point, Matt, Amanda and Laura and I were standing near the back because I couldn't take being jam-packed in like tuna for effin' Bloc Party.

They did put on an okay show. They were trying for a light show that screamed Secret Machines, but it ended up just blinding me instead of the 'ooohs and ahhhs' I think it was trying to achieve. So I ended up eyeing the man standing behind me because I thought it was my riend Bryan who lives so far away in Wisconsin. He was wearing an Athlete shirt, and I was going to go start a conversation about the latest Athlete album but I didn't. I did however call Bryan after the show to let him know he has a twin walking around Philadelphia that goes to shows and stands around trying to be uber-pretentious.

Today will prove to be a busy day: radio show, radio meeting. In between that, I need to do laundry so I have something to wear for CMJ and finally piece together my schedule so I'll know what parties/ showcases I'll be able to attend.

If you are coming to CMJ and want to see me, please drop me a line before I leave so we can arrange to meet-up accordingly.

Thursday, September 8

The Past Presents the Future

Below is the review I wrote for FMQB on Her Space Holiday. Has anyone else checked out the newest HSH mash-up? It has loads of M.I.A., Prefuse and even a little Mates of State thrown in there. It's off the hook.

You can get it on podcast or download the mp3 here (which I suggest you do ASAP because it won't last long suckas):
http://www.takemoneymakemoney.com/

Marc Bianchi
, a.k.a. Her Space Holiday, has once again crossed the lines of the electronic bleeps and scrapes to end up with a record that gently screams a dreamy pop that will make fans of the Postal Service and My Bloody Valentine turn heads alike. With his sixth album, The Past Presents the Future, Bianchi uses an orchestration consisting of hypnotic synth lines and percussion of handclaps and soft pitter-patters that make the listener wonder how one man can create such a brilliant sound mostly by himself. After hitting #2 on the CMJ top 200 for his 2003 breakthrough album The Young Machines, it is no doubt The Past Presents the Future will do well in college radio. The standout track “A Match Made In Texas” almost turns Bianchi into a social commentator as he sings about “the magic of America’ and the gender definitions that exist therein. The track has a driving, underlying beat with an almost dance-y feel that hides the fact that the song could be considered one of Bianchi’s intimate metaphors of a relationship. You can find more information about Her Space Holiday at www.herspaceholiday.com or www.worlds-fair.net.



Tonight I went to dinner with my sir and had IHOP. Which for all you kids not up-to-date on all the Xtine/Mikey love story was the very first place we went to together....(ahhh, actually the first being the used record store...but you know how us kids roll...cd's + vinyl = more important than eating at times.)

Anyhow, the reason I mention my sir is because we went back to his Alma Mater, Villanova, and I saw the moooooooooost ridiculous thing EVER. There was a girl wearing a grey t-shirt with her collar popped. And across the back of the popped collar was the words "preppy" written in pink. NOTE: the words could not be seen if the collar was not popped.

What the fuck has the world come to? Seriously.

Sunday, September 4

Playlist of 09/04/05 Show

Brakes - - All Night Disco Party
Sons and Daughters - - Dance Me In
Her Space Holiday - - Match Made in Texas
Free Design - - 2002- a Hit Song (featuring Chris of Belle & Sebastian!)
Franz Ferdinand - - Do You Want To
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - - The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth
TahDahs - - Mix Tape = Love
Nightmare of You -- I Want to Be Buried in Your Backyard
New Pornographers - - Use It
Death Cab For Cutie - - Soul Meets Body
Cribs - - Martell
The Spectacular Fantastic - - Darkest Hours
Minus the Bear - - The Fix
Acid House Kings - - Do What You Wanna Do
Wilco - - I'm Always in Love
Nada Surf - - Do It Again
Apollo Sunshine - - Flip!
All-Time Quarterback - - Send Packing
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - - She Just Wants to Move
John Vanderslice - - Plymouth Rock
Orenda Fink - - Les Invisibles
Benji Cossa - Love is Like Lightening
Pattern is Movement - - Maple
Sufjan Stevens - - John Wayne Gacy, Jr
Chad Van Gallen - - Clinically Dead

Saturday, September 3

stay down on yourself if you feel a glimpse of hope

What it feels like to be me in list form:

- I am only awake because I am on duty.

- I am on duty because my friend and fellow RA has been called to military duty down in LA. I hope he returns in one piece and with good spirits.

- If I was feeling any worse, then I would be most likely dead.

- The only person that can make me feel better decided to go to sleep before I could come back to say goodnight while I stepped out.

- I need to wake up at 8AM to make a road trip to dirty Jersey.

- I really need to stop complaining.

- Even though I feel like shit, I really did feel extremely happy a few hours ago while still at my internship.

- CMJ is right around the corner. I need to get out of this place. Seeing everyone in NYC over the course of the convention will hopefully make me feel better.

- I am going to set up an appointment with my doctor back home to get some meds...as Marc Bianchi once said "I figured out the key to short term success...just tell everyone that you're clinically depressed."

- Speaking of Mr. Bianchi, one of the biggest opportunities thus far at college as happened for me: FMQB wants me to write a weekly column about my prediction of what will do well in college radio and then do well in commercial radio. This is a breakthrough for both forms of radio and of course me. Her Space Holiday will be my very first piece to write on.

- It has been decided that Cabrini is no doubt the cause of my depression and anxiety. I think this means that I will go on being miserable for the next year and a half.

- Note: the only way to cover up how I feel is of course to smile. Smile as I talk to students who don't give a shit what I'm talking about. Smile as I tell kids about music they don't care about. Smile as I argue with my parents as they prove once again to not care about me.

- I'm thinking about starting smoking again. I know it's bad for me. I know it's a waste of money. But seriously with all the aggravation right now, I think it's the best form of relief.

- My friends want to meet my significant other during CMJ. Although I've told him on repeat times to come up for the weekend of CMJ, he won't come even though I've tried to stress how important it is to me.

- I get to eat Surf Taco with Panda tomorrow which is the biggest reason why I'm getting up at the crack ass of dawn to drive to the state I hate the most.

- It better be fucking sunny tomorrow because my ass is going to be tanning by Panda's poolside.