Posted in music, radio, tagged Dan Auerbach, The Arcs, The Black Keys on August 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Dan Auerbach called CFOX in Vancouver to talk The Arcs. We chatted about regionalism in the sound of old recordings. Mississippi Delta blues vs Mississippi Hilltop blues. Plus what makes The Arcs special.
Thank you Dan Auerbach for making some time for me today.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, radio, tagged CFOX radio Camp, The Arcs, The Black Keys on July 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »
OK, The Arcs don’t have BRAND NEW music…this song from the Dan Auerbach project came out like a month ago. But let’s reflect.
***
Here’s a little fun radio commercial we made at the radio factory today…. CFOX Radio Camp. If you think it is mildly funny I always appreciate a share.
Producer: Jamie Ellard
Voices: Me, Meredith Geddes and Captain Scotty
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Captured Tracks, Chris Cohen, Dan Auerbach, Kurt Vile, The Arcs, The Black Keys on June 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Woke up today and fired up this Hazy Indie Morning playlist while making my coffee and eating a bagel on my deck.
So many gems, here is one I enjoyed. Chris Cohen‘s “Optimist High” from his 2012 record Overgrown Path. Just hits me as a west coast summer song.
Kurt Vile’s “Walkin on a Pretty Day” also popped up.
And Dan Auerbach has a new band, The Arcs, and their song “Stay IN My Corner” also screams hazy summer.
Go with yourself.
Posted in life or something like it, music, tagged Band of Skulls, Lana Del Rey, Power to Be, The Black Keys on May 27, 2014| 2 Comments »
Zach hugging me after we completed “The Wall” photo: E/A Photography – Victoria
Wrapped an amazing weekend in Victoria. Saturday was the Vikings exhibition at the Royal BC Museum, DeadBeetz Food truck (they’ll be Rock Festivals around Victoria, so hit it…wow) then I DJ’d a wedding. Sunday was the Power To Be: Power to Play Adventure Race.
Team Zone was there… Team #32…and we came in 32nd place. Neat. But we raised a bunch of money for the kids, and we had fun.
Back to the grind at the radio factory and it’s another busy one.
Band of Skulls will be in Victoria on Thursday for a sold out show at Sugar. It’s an early concert, doors at 7 PM.
I saw this great remix of BOS’s latest single “Hoochie Coochie” done by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
Look for that remix on the Hoochie Coochie ep on July 27th.
***
Looking forward to Disney’s Maleficent. According to Buzzfeed Angelina Jolie personally picked Lana Del Rey to cover “Once Upon a Dream.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Dan Auerbach, Ray LaMontagne, The Black Keys on April 2, 2014| 3 Comments »
Ray LaMontagne‘s 5th record is out on May 6th. The album is called Supernova.
Ray travelled down to Nashville to work with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. I also read an article by one industry type who short-listed the song “Supernova” as a potential “Song of The Summer” 2014 edition.
It is a pretty song. Song of the Summer? I don’t feel that yet…but I do feel the warmth of summer in the song. As a sometimes Wedding DJ in Victoria, I hear a very beautiful potential first dance song. Its a bright, bouncy song, with lyrics that I think will resonate with the romantics out there.
Also… I say Supernova all the time, would it be weird if I admitted to hitting play for the first time on this song based strictly on the title?
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Fever, The Black Keys on March 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Black Keys dropped their new single on the world yesterday. The song is called “Fever.” Its a delightful psych slow burner. New record is called Turn Blue and its out on May 13th. Pitchfork has some info.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, radio, tagged Shannon Whitworth, The Black Keys, The Replacements on January 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson recently sat in the same room together to record the first “Replacements” music in years. The extended play they recorded is a collection of 4 covers that will benefit Slim Dunlap (Replacements guitarist ’87-’91) who suffered a severe stroke last winter. The ep also features drummer Chris Mars covering a Slim song and he created the art of the record.
SPIN has all the info on how to buy this limited press to support Slim. Trolling the net, I also found this great 2008 interview Paul Westerberg on Pitchfork. Good times.
***
The other day SPIN featured up a very pretty song by Shannon Whitworth. I heard this track and it got me thinking it would make a pretty good wedding first-dance type of jam.
Shannon Whitworth – “You Are In Love”
***
The Black Keys… pretty good band.
Their record El Camino came out December 6th, 2011 and became a modern rock legend. The album is huge. We were sitting around here at the radio factory yesterday talking about what music to have in our “heavy rotation” and what new music to add in when Bossman Johnny said, “where are we at with “Little Black Submarine?”
We were poking around and were surprised to find the song is one of the most played modern rock songs on some pretty groovy Modern Rock FM stations. Got us thinking (and me in particular) about the speed of sound…I like finding out new music and listening to all sorts of stuff, but the average music fan…happy to jam the forth single on a record that is over a year old. And is a year old record…. old? Does the Zone churn on the songs too quickly? How about The Black Keys? Seems they are ready to march forward, they have some new music in the pipe…but to a Radio Programmer….the forth single is hot. huh…
addition:
I wanted to add something from this article about music sales this week that is related to the above discussion about The Black Keys.
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s the slow, honest rise of the Lumineers who scoot up from No. 9 to No. 8 as their “Ho Hey” picks up radio adds and on-demand plays since their Grammy nomination and despite their album (The Lumineers, 51K) having come out all the way back in April.
To illustrate the “speed” in which the world turns their attention to music…. this song has 2,000 on The End in Seattle…but its brand new to so many people.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Broken Bells, Four Tet, Frightened Rabbit, Jimmy Eat World, Middle Class Rut, The Black Keys, The National, Top 10, Vampire Weekend on December 8, 2010| 8 Comments »
10) Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
The third studio record from Band of Horses didn’t get the mad crush of love that their previous two records received but I ended up playing at home and during my lounge sets. I will always love the song “Laredo” and so much of what I perceive to be a Old Western?Mexico/Desert vibe.
Band of Horses – “Laredo”
09) Vampire Weekend – Contra
We’ll need to stretch our memory back to one of the first big hyped releases of the year for this LP. Vampire Weekend’s anticipated follow-up Contra is number nine on my list.
VW never had huge traction on the radio with their quirky blend of world beats filtered through privileged Brooklyn/Hipster/Ivy Leaguers. I loved Vampire Weekends first album but I enjoyed this one so much more.
Now I know what horchata is. Nice.
Vampire Weekend – “Taxi Cab”
08) Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
A monster number 1 record and grammy nominated album from the Arcade Fire. When this disc came out, we had it on pretty steady at the Veneto and the single “Ready to Start” enjoyed a residency at number one on The Zone’s Modern Rock Countdown. There was a lot I loved about this record. Mostly the nostalgic story lines of growing up in the suburbs, because hey, I grew up in the suburbs. For a feature song, I will chose one of Simon’s faves off the record.
Arcade Fire – “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
06) Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Another record that didn’t receive wide-spread praise or seem to do a whole lot onto further push FR onto the mainstream conciseness.
Being a heavy user of their previous music, I was hungry for a new disc. I was downloading anything that leaked or squeeked out leading up to this record so maybe I was little too primed, but they are one of my fave bands period, this disc got jammed out. It might not have changed my world like the first time I heard Frightened Rabbit, but it is still a great record of melodramatic rock and roll.
My favourite cut was the first single and it remains so today.
Frightened Rabbit – “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”
06) Broken Bells – Broken Bells
The dude from the Shins, that dude named Danger Mouse… joined forces like the Dinobots to create one sexy masterpiece. I don’t even want to speculate how many babies were conceived this because of this record.
Lots doesn’t seem like an adequate word.
Listening to a randomized playlist on my iTunes one time, this song came up and it has become on my favourites off the record. maybe sounds a little more Shins and little less Danger Mouse, but that’s cool. I believe this song made it on Coral and my one year anniversary mixtape.
Broken Bells – “October”
05) Jimmy Eat World – Invented
Another band that does no wrong by me. Since I’ve been with Coral, JEW has held a special place in my heart and they earn that chance to make a record and I immediately go out and buy it.
I like their 7th studio record because I found it enjoyable outta the box much sooner than it too me to get into their previous Chase This Light.
Chase would grow on me but I liked how there were more than a couple song son this disc that I liked right away one listen in. And others that I would grow to love with repeated listens.
My feature cut is a romantic song (but hey, aren’t all JEW songs sappy?) that I believe also made it on the 1 Year Anniversary mixtape.
Jimmy Eat World – “Littlething”
04) Four Tet – There is Love In You
No record had a bigger influence on me from outside my normal perspective than this electronic disc from the UK’s Kieran Hebden… aka Four Tet.
Around this time last year I bought my DJ rig and by January I was experimenting with DJing simple beats. Right around the time this record came out.
A very modern, simple, and relaxing record to put on to soundtrack my days events. Coral bought this record on vinyl and when I do fire up the record player, The is Love In You is a go to.
Its four sides so I almost go right to side D track one so I can hear the most wonderful song on the record.
Four Tet – “She Just Likes to Fight”
I could listen to that song forever on repeat and never go fully insane. Shit, I might get smarter.
03) The Black Keys – Brothers
I was late to The Black Keys party, but when I finally got the invite, I dived in hard.
The whole swampy bluesy core styled rock music happening right now seems to originating from Akron, Ohio.
To pick a single feature is impossible. Pol likes “Howling For You” and Allie likes “Everlasting Light”
I’m gunna go with the more blue-collar dirge.
The Black Keys – “Too Afraid to Love You”
02) Middle Class Rut – No Name No Color
Rock and Roll has returned. For me, the Renaissance was felt with Japandroids. But there are only so many fuzzy retro rocker songs to hear. The Black Keys kept me marching to the beat locked in. Then Dave Sawchuk lighted up Sacramento’s Middle Class Rut during our weekly music meeting… and became evangelical.
Rarely do I hear a song that captures my imagination so completely and immediately. I felt like a little kid with excitement to hear “New Low.” Downloaded it and then the record. And since then, it has become such a huge record in my life.
It is a bit of a grinder and lyrically it can be depressing. but I do find something uplifting to their tales of the working man’s lows. My ultimate fave is the lead off cut from their record. Sometimes I go for drives in the Cruze just so I can play this song at maximum volume.
Middle Class Rut – “Busy Being Born”
01) The National – High Violet
We all have favourite bands and The National is my favourite.
The day this record came out and they had a vinyl copy down at Ditch I went to get it. I remember that day. I rode my bike and it was really nice out. Then I went to Canoe Club to meet with Don about some music stuff. While waiting for him I was chatting with the waitress… she had never heard of The National. WTF?
So I cracked open the record and gave her the free download MP3 card so she could check it out. I hope she did.
The first single “Bloodbuzz Ohio” to me is masterpiece song. But after repeated plays of this album I do have a few key cuts. A song that always stuck out for me has a weird military theme.
The National – “Lemonworld”
Thank you for reading my Top 10 and checking out some new music.
Some old lists:
Top 10 Zone Shows of the 2000s
My favourite records of the 2000s
Top 10 Records of 2009
Top 10 Records of 2008
Go with yourself.
Posted in history 101, music, tagged Grunge, Have Love, Have Love Will Travel, punk, Seattle, The Black Keys, The Sonics, Will Travel on November 6, 2010| 2 Comments »
Seattle is known by many of us as the place where grunge music comes from. But long before the Seattle scene of the late 80s and early 90s, there was another rock and roll scene going on.
In the late 50s and early 60s, Seattle was home to a bunch of garage rock bands. One of my favourites is a group that some people consider one of the first punk rock bands, The Sonics.
The Sonics were known for the fast and hard playing. Simple chord progressions and darker themed song lyrics. They also covered many of the garage rock staples of the time, including one of the more famous versions of “Have Love, Will Travel.”
I was flipping through the 45s bin at Ditch Records today with Madelyn when I spotted a couple Norton Record‘s re-issues of The Sonics.
I picked up their hits “Witch” and “Psycho.” And look at that, the b-side to “Psycho” is “Have Love, Will Travel.”
I continue to flip and find an old Black Keys’ 7-inch that features “The Moan”… b-side, “Have Love, Will Travel.”
$20 later, I have a collection of Sonics 45s, a Black Keys… and what the heck, The Kingsmen doing “Louie Louie” for good measure.
The Black Keys are one of the biggest bands in Modern Rock right now… formally topping The Modern Rock Countdown here in Victoria; and currently Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.
The Black Keys – “Have Love, Will Travel”
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 