First of all and most importantly, HALLOWEEN! Panda Panda and I crashed Haverford College's little costume ball/party because Diplo was the guest DJ. I was of course a magnificent pirate!
The semester is more than halfway done and I'm more than ready for some turkey and for Thanksgiving to finally come. I will surprisingly be returning home for Thanksgiving for once this year. And the weekend before that, I will be paying a visit to my favorite favorites from NY as I venture up to the Bronx with my sir to have a pre-Thanksgiving celebration with Dan/Kayla & crew. (Yes, this is the same Dan I stayed with for CMJ.)
As the internship at FMQB grows closer to its end, I have a brand new gig lined up already. I will be joining Cornerstone promotional FARM (Field Activation Research and Marketing) Team. Basically it is completing services like promotional events, listening/release parties, servicing music, college campus promotions, product seeding, local market branding, retail promotions, survey-based research, etc.survey survey AND now onto some important musical subjects I know everyone has been missing from my lack of posts:
As a college student, my diet consists of a lot of random things I find laying around my apartment. For example, yesterday, I ate a slice of pizza, some ramen noodles and a slice of apple pie. Although eating all those things in one sitting would be a little too overpowering, when taken in small doses the combination works brilliantly. The same idea holds true for the Fiery Furnaces' latest album Rehearsing My Choir.
Once again the brother/sister duo has created an album trippy enough to mix up your rotation in all the right ways. As much of a concept album as it is a display of theatrical grandiose, it features Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger's 83-year-old grandmother Olga Sarantos. The track "The Wayward Granddaughter" sparkles amidst the 58 minutes ruled by Sarantos' spoken word tales. Lead by Matthew's driving drum machine and zigs and zags of his synths, it tells the story of a Greek-American teenager whom had two boyfriends named Kevin (or as Sarantos adds in, "You mean two jerks!"). Since forming in 2001, the siblings have been touring almost nonstop with artists such as The
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No matter where I am, I need to be the DJ: in the car, at my apartment, at parties and especially while I’m at the station. As a result of being (as what I like to refer to myself) a “DJ hog” I have developed the ability, just like many of you, to instantly pick out the songs that have instant hit ability. You know which songs I’m talking about. It’s the song you play at a party and four people will come up and ask what you’re playing. It’s the phenomena that occurs when you spin a new song at the station and the phone starts lighting up because listeners want to know exactly who they are hearing. Tom Vek is one of those artists has the ability to get the listener intrigued within ten seconds of hearing it.
The Londoner’s debut album features a whole lot of bass which is definitely a good thing when you’re tired of hearing those catchy guitar lines for the thousandth time from other artists day in and day out. Entitled We Have Sound, Tom Vek claims his debut album “buzzes with a raw garage rock energy, driven a long by subtle electronic touches and a backbone of rigid, angular funk.” In the vein of Talking Heads or Gang of Four, Tom Vek has just the right mix of garage rock, electronic music and dance punk to make you nod your head to the hypnotizing, repetitive beats. His hit-worthtrack “I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes” definitely gets the people moving out in the clubs so think of the potential it will have on your listeners. “Nothing But Green Lights” highlights Vek’s ability to produce a song that is as simplistic as it is complex with its electronic recurring line of notes and its driving bass line. Already getting spins from stations such as KCRW, and WKGB and WAVF show that some have already taken advantage of the potential of Tom Vek to get their listeners up and moving. To get your dance on, check out www.tomvedk.tv or www.startimeintlcom.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When I first became Music Director at my college radio station, I couldn't help myself from getting excited about every artist that originally was from across the big sea. Within a short amount of time, I realized I was addicted to everything British, especially their music and culture. Things haven't changed much since then, so when I first listened to Black Wire, I naturally couldn't help but squeal with excitement.
Their self-titled debut sounds as if you threw Bloc Party, Billy Idol and Iggy and the Stooges into a blender and pushed puree to get a gritty, fresh new sound...plus the tightest pants you'll probably see on any boys. If you were going to get the party started at your station by rocking one of the appearedhat has appearaed in the SubModern Valedictorian thus far, then Black Wire is the obvious choice. Just glance at their song titles, such as "Promote the Happy Hours." The trio, originally hailing from Leeds, England, have already played with the likes of the Kaiser Chiefs, the Libertines, Bloc Party, The Cribs, Ladytron and the Futureheads. Moreover, the Kaiser Chiefs' worte their hit "I Predict A Riot" based on one of Black Wire's gigs. If their impressive resume hasn't convinced you to give them a listen, then what if I told you that if I decided to become a stripper tomorrow, their first single "Hard To Love, Easy To Lay" would be my anthem. The single gives the listener exactly what they want out of a classic rock song, plus delivering exactly the right mixture of driving guitar lines and a hilarious chorus to mix-up your programming. The single and full-length are already on your desk and stations such as WXDX, KDGE and WAQZ are already embracing the single. So go ahead and start spinning Black Wire so you can say you played them before they got huge. For more information on Black Wire, check out http://www.blackwireonline.co.uk/ or www.giantpeckerrecords.com.
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