More random goodness

On my way out to see The Old Soul as I talked about yesteray but wanted to say a couple of random things.

-Chart Magazine has an interview with The Flaming Lips for their upcoming show in Toronto. I only listened to the new album once but I liked it. Looking forward to getting it this week.
-Spent the last week obsessively watching Sports Night on dvd. Picked it up last weekend and so far I've watched 3 full discs in about 4 sittings. The show is about the behind the scenes of a TV sports show. I watched it when it came out but not religiously. It's so good though highly addictive which is bad.
-Once again The Office has shown why it's such an amazing show. I guess on last night's show they had a bunch of those PSA's but on real life things, like lipstick, what to do if a bear attacks and more. You can check out the videos here. Like those dopey "Now you know..." things they have. I know Conan has made fun of these for years but these are great.

Also the character of Dwight has a blog.
-In honor of great TV shows, from Freaks & Geeks here's Jason Segal (now on How I Met My Wife) with "Lady L". Basically a song to the girl who broke his heart but written by a good hearted psycho. The song is of course on Rapidshare.

Well that's it for today. Back tomorrow with a report on the show and The Anti-Hit List.

More on Pet Sounds tribute/The Old Soul

A couple of things today

-So yesterday I posted that Architecture in Helsinki had recorded a track for a Pet Sounds tribute album. Well today Pitchfork had a full listing for the album in a news story.

Here's a full listing for the album.

01 Oldham Brothers: "Wouldn't It Be Nice"
02 Vic Chesnutt: "You Still Believe in Me"
03 Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory with Farmer Dave: "That's Not Me"
04 Centro-Matic: "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"
05 Micah P. Hinson: "I'm Waiting for the Day"
06 Raygun: "Let's Go Away for a While"
07 Dayna Kurtz: "Sloop John B."
08 Daniel Johnston: "God Only Knows"
09 Mazarin: "I Know There's an Answer"
10 Jody Wildgoose: "Here Today"
11 Patrick Wolf: "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"
12 Architecture in Helsinki: "Pet Sounds"
13 The Wedding Present: "Caroline No"

Funny because recently I pulled out my Pet Sounds to give it a listen for the first time in a long time. I've always liked the record and I know many people feel it's a great record. Reminds me though of an article a friend wrote for Exclaim Magazine back in 2000. In it the writer, Michael Barclay, makes his case for Pet Sounds being overrated.

Read the article here.

The funny thing is that it got a lot of disagreements on the message board at the site. Even years after the article I would still see the odd post come up disagreeing with him. Of course this post might bring more back (hopefully not though since it's been six years and not likely since Sweet Static doesn't get much traffic) but I've always enjoyed the article so I thought I'd throw it up.

-So I finally got around to listening to another friend's campus radio show, this one from CHRW in London, Ont. The All-Syrup Super Squishee Show is on Thursdays from 3:30 to 6pm.

Anyways on today's show she had an interview with The Old Soul. The band features Luca formerly of White Star Line, a band that came to Windsor a lot previously. They're playing here tomorrow night at Phog Lounge and I'm checking out the show.

Definitely check out the band's Myspace page for some weirdly good pop music.

More on the show Saturday.

Architecture in Helsinki and other random notes

So I got the Architecture in Helsinki email today and it had a couple of interesting things in it.

First is that they're on their last major tour in support of In Case We Die, their excellent record from last year.

More interestingly (at least to myself) is that they recorded a cover of "Pet Sounds" for a "...Pet Sounds tribute album to come out on Spanish Label Houston Party in May, the comp also features Daniel Johnston, Will Oldham, Iron and Wine, Patrick Wolf & Vic Chesnutt amongst other winning contributors."

First I've heard of this and his me intrigued being the covers fan I am.

You can read the whole newsletter here.

A couple of other things that caught my eye

-One Louder has a very good column up on mp3 blogs and ethics. Some really good stuff in the article and in the comments.
-I added some links to the side over to your left. Once again not in any order, just as I take them off my bookmarks and put them up. Eventually soon I'll put them in alphabetical order.
-Getting ready for baseball. Just saw the Tigers' schedule and the Blue Jays don't make it down until September which sucks, especially since it is in the middle of the week. Now just gotta hope my fantasy teams hold up like I think they will.

Johnny Cash-Final performance-part 2

Last week I put up the last public performance of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.

Today I bring you part two. From Dime-a-dozen site last year I got a bootleg of the above show, Cash's final show and this, the first show Cash performed after the death of June.

This is from June 21, 2005 at the Carter Family Fold in Hilton, Virginia. Like I said before the sound quality isn't the best but historically I think it's something.

The tracks are

-Spoken Johnny Cash
-Oh Come, Angel Band (With Rosie Carter)
-Far Side banks Of Jordan (With Laura cash)
-Ring Of Fire
-I Walk The Line

I've put it up on rapidshare here in a zip file. Hope you enjoy it.

Later this week I'll post part 3, his last performance.

Tupelo Blue Whiskey playlist 3/28

you can listen to tupelo blue whiskey, every tuesday from 8am to 10am on 91.5 fm in windsor/detroit. or on the internet at cjam.ca under the archives section.

as always...

cc-canadian content
*-in rotation
r-request

billy bragg-the saturday boy from 2006 reissue sampler (yep roc-2006) *
jon langford-buy it now from gold brick (reachout international-2006) *
they shoot horses don't they-emptyhead (kill rock stars-2006) cc *
belle and sebastian-white collar day from the life pursuit (matador-2006) *
the essex green-penny & jack from cannibal sea (merge-2006) *
eels-novacaine for the soul from eels with strings: live at town hall (vagrant-2006) *
destroyer-rubies from destroyer's rubies (merge-2006) cc *
drive-by truckers from a blessing and a curse (new west-2006) *
-feb. 14
-gravity's gone
-easy on yourself
-aftermath usa
-goodbye
-daylight
-wednesday
-little bonnie
-space city
-a blessing and a curse
-world of hurt
band of horses-the great salt lake from everything all the time (sub pop-2006) *
loose fur-apostolic from born again in the usa (drag
city-2006) *
detective kalita-fred & ethel from self-titled record (preppy-2000) cc
the old soul-rivers of daughters from http://newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=16549
blood meridian-my last stand from soldiers of christ ep (outside-2006) cc *
the avett brothers-sixteen in july from four thieves gone (ramseur-2006) *
calexico-yours and mine from garden ruin (quarterstick-2006) *
stars-the woods from "heart" (paper bag-2003) cc
wussy-soak it up from funeral dress (shake it-2006) *
detective kalita from the night we ate the cake (kelp)
-the way of the trains
-the only game in town
centro-matic-the fugitives have won from fort recovery (misra-2006) *

Zunior Monday

That's right it is Monday and it is Zunior day. Where I put the Sweet Static spotlight on the free download of the week from their website.

Usually the download is of a Canadian band, since it's a Canadian site with about 99% Canadian bands. This week though it's a bit different. One of the labels that has set up shop at Zunior is Outside Music. This has brought bands like The Sadies, The Hidden Cameras, The Flashing Light and King Cobb Steelie to the site.. Well it's also now brought Billy Bragg to Zunior.

The Billy Bragg song they've put up this week is "The Saturday Boy" from his 1984 record Brewing Up With Billy Bragg.

Hillside Festival

For those of you who don't know, the Hillside Festival is in Guelph, Ontario. It's not a folk festival in the traditional sense. Instead it's a music festival that incorporates anything and everything for two and a half days of beautiful bliss.

The festival means a lot to me personally. Years ago I went there on a whim. I lived a half hour away and wanted to see a couple of bands that were playing. So a friend and myself went and camped. Of course we weren't much of campers and ended up hardly sleeping and instead driving into the city and playing video games at a 24 hour bowling alley...but that's another story.

Anyways I spent two days there and came away from it with a new appreciation, hell a love for music. I've thought about this and I can honestly point to that as one of those watershed moments in my life that pushed me to the direction that I have taken.

My life kept me away from the festival though for a long time. Ten years to be exact. I returned there to see if I had romanticized the festival and the impact I believed it had on me. But I hadn't. It was as magical, if not more so then my first time ten years earlier. Great music, great spirit, great times. Of course the line-up helped. Just some of the bands included Sarah Harmer, Broken Social Scene, Rheostatics, Cuff The Duke, Fembots, The Dears, Kathleen Edwards, The Neutron Stars, The Barmitzvah Brothers, Buck 65 and tons more.

The last two years I've had to stay away for various reasons but this summer I'm planning on making it up. This year's festival runs July 28-30th.

The official list does not come out until May or so but that doesn't stop people from supplying their tourdates to listing websites like Pollstar of CLIVE and people like me with too much time can keep an eye out on who's playing.

So for this year's list looks like this

-The Sadies
-Final Fantasy
-K'Naan
-Torngat
-Cuff The Duke
-Sarah Borges
-Martin Joseph
-The Corb Lund Band

There will be more and I've heard some rumours but no use in putting them out there. However I will say it's looking to be fairly kick ass again this year.

That's it for now. More on this in the weeks to come.

This week's Anti-Hit List

Well in this week's Anti-Hit List, John Sakamoto has a few nifty tunes.

Most importantly is pointing out that Ron Sexsmith has a sneak preview of a track from his new album, Time Being. The song, which was released to radio in Canada last week, "All in Good Time" is called by Sakamoto as "...deceptively jaunty rumination that's so effortlessly melodic, it's downright McCartney-esque." and that it "...deserves a place on any mix CD designed to accompany the first truly summery day of 2006"


The other song to catch my eye was by Justine Electra. She's from Germany, via Australia. You can stream two songs and download "Defiant and Proud". He compares Defiant to Jenny Lewis (which is why it caught my eye since I love her record) saying, "Set to a haunting waltz tempo, it takes the same chilling, matter-of-fact approach to narrating events that Lewis does, and to similarly memorable effect."

My take, I like the song you can download and it definitely will be liked by those who are still digging the Lewis record. Not sure about the other two songs though. I'll have to give them a couple of more listens. They're different then "Defiant and Proud". Still I'd recommend checking her out.

Other then that he points the way to his usual favorite mashups (including one of Kansas and Korn????) and new music including The New Cars (which I'm thinking is just wrong).

Hillside Festival post this afternoon. I've started it just editing it up still.

Happiness is...

Well it's really nice when you look forward to an album and it doesn't disappoint.

With this is mine I got my first listen to the Drive-By Truckers' new album, A Blessing and A Curse and it definitely does not disappoint.

I should give a shout out to the good folks at New West Records. They've always been good to us at the radio station and their promotion of this record so far has been great.

I'll have more to say on the record after I've digested it more but to let anyone reading this know, I'll be playing the entire album on my radio show this week.

Other stuff

-I've neglected my random thoughts from my show this week. Thanks to Heather at I am fuel, you are friends I had some cools new stuff this week. The solo version of "Born to Run" is pretty sweet. She's also been raving about Brandi Carlisle and after hearing her version of "Hallelujah" I really want to check her out now. Other then that normal show with lots of emphasis on new music (since I'm finding a lot of good stuff the last couple of weeks)
-I'm serious thinking about doing a segment on my new show each week on stuff I get from mp3 blogs. Finding this new stuff is sweet for a music geek such as myself.
-Speaking of finding new stuff I really have to recommend The Hype Machine. The site goes over what's been posted by some of the leading mp3 blogs over the past 3 days. They also have a list of the top songs that are downloaded. Good way to a-find songs and b-find new blogs.

Lastly like I said this week has been a week of great music. I'm loving the new Loose Fur and Calexico. Of course the new Truckers album I think I'm going to love on first impression but I said that above. Add in the Centro-Matic record which keeps growing and growing on me the more I listen.

-Watch the Loose Fur "Hey Chicken" video on You Tube.
-Download Calexico's "Across The Wire" an alternate, acoustic version from their website.
-Download Centro-Matic's "Calling Thermatico" from the Misra website.

Ok so tomorrow is the long promised Hillside Festival update number one. Off to bed now.

Johnny and June Cash's final performance (now fixed)

Being inspired by the great post on An Aquarium Drunkard of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan demos (which I haven't had to chance to check out yet but I'm salivating at the thought of them) I thought I'd go into my own stuff that I've gotten off the net and share.

From the great Dime-a-dozen site I got a great bootleg of Johnny Cash performances. His first performance after the death of June, his last public performance and the one I'm going to put up now, the final performance together of June and Johnny.

The show is from September 28, 2002 at the Carter Family Fold in Hilton, Virginia. The sound quality isn't the best but historically it is priceless. The set list is...

9. Spoken jeanette carter
10. Jackson
11. If I Were A Carpenter
12. The far Side banks Of Jordan
13. Spoken
14. Daddy Sang Bass

I've set it up on rapidshare here as a zip file. I searched for the torrent on the site but couldn't find it.

I'll put the other 2 sets up over the next week.

Hope you enjoy. More later today.

*Note from April 8, I originally posted the wrong info so this post is updated and fixed to reflect the proper information and files.

Zunior Monday (on Tuesday)

Was resting yesterday hence no Zunior Monday but here it is now.

A nice little song by Blood Meridian. Blood Meridian is part of the Black Mountain spin-offs, friends, etc. Not entirely sure how but that's how the Zunior site describes them.

The song this week is "Hey Waitress" from the Soldiers of Christ EP. I played the song on my show this week and really liked it. Nice country-ish song. Can't wait to hear more.

Checking their website I saw they are signed to V2 in the US.

I really got into the Black Mountain record from last year a lot. Was slow to grow on me but really dug it big time. So with that in mind you can download "Heart of Snow" from the Jagjaguwar site.

Other Random Thoughts
-I've heard the first half of the Loose Fur record and it's amazing. Can't wait to hear the rest.
-Anyone who knows me knows I'm slightly obsessed with Kevin Smith. Well his most excellent blog Silent Bob Speaks has been updated. After a lengthy hiatus during the filming of Clerks 2 he's been updating it quite a bit lately. He may not always tell you things you want to know about but he's refreshingly honest and doesn't hold much back.
-Tomorrow morning you tune into the Mich Vish Interracial Morning Show for an inteview with Bettye LaVette. You can hear the show on CFRU in Guelph. Should be a most excellent show.

Ok off to bed. Tomorrow some thoughts on my show from this week and hopefully my first Hillside Festival update.

Tupelo Blue Whiskey playlist 3/21

you can listen to tupelo blue whiskey, every tuesday from 8am to 10am on 91.5 fm in windsor/detroit. or on the internet at cjam.ca under the archives section.

as always...

cc-canadian content
*-in rotation
r-request

the cardigans-in the round from super extra gravity (universal-2006) *
the minus five-bought a rope from their self-titled album (aka the gun album) (yep roc-2006) *
wilco-muzzle of bees from a ghost is born (nonesuch-2004)
calexico-deep down from garden run (quarterstick-2006) *
rhett miller-singular girl from the believer (verve-2006) *
hem-lazy eye from no word from tom (waveland-2006) *
the band-atlantic city from born to run volume one (uncut magazine-2003)
bruce springsteen-born to run from chimes of freedom (columbia-1988)
the elected-would you come with me from sun, sun, sun (sub pop-2006) *
belle & sebastian-we are the sleepyheads from the life pursuit (matador-2006) *
the dears-there goes my outfit (demo) cc
nicolai dunger-someone new from heere's my song... (zoe/rounder-2006) *
loose fur-the ruling class from born in the usa again (drag city-2006) *
eef barzelay-joy to the world from bitter honey (spinart-2006) *
brandi carlisle-hallelujah (live)
destroyer-watercolours into the ocean from destroyer's rubies (merge-2006) cc *
petra haden-god only knows from
neko case from fox confessor brings the flood (mint/anti-2006) *
-that teenage feeling
-fox confessor brings the flood
-john saw that number
-dirty knife
the buttless chaps-caboose from where night holds light (mint-2006) cc *
the staples singers-I'll take you there from the muscle shoals sound (rhino-1993)
centro-matic-covered up in mines from fort recovery (misra-2006) *
the pippettes-your kisses are wasted on me
detective kalita-ordinary love from the night we ate the cake (kelp) cc
blood meridian-hey waitress from soldiers of christ ep (outside-2006) cc *
the barmitzvah brothers-wake up from the century of invention (permafrost-2006) cc *
wussy title dress from funeral dress (shake it -2006) *

No Drive-By Truckers boot

I was about to a post a 4 song radio set of stuff from the new Drive-By Truckers but apparently they band doesn't want anything out before the release of the new album. A bummer but you have to respect them and their wishes since they've always been so good about fans recording shows and stuff. I'll put it up when the ok is given though.

Instead get ready for the new record, A Blessing and A Curse, out April 18 by downloading "Feb. 14" from the album.

You can also download 3 older songs if you'd like...

"Carl Perkins Cadillac"
"Putting People On The Moon"
"Never Gonna Change"

The official start date of Sweet Static (radio edition)

Ok so first thing first. The official dates of the programming schedule change at CJAM 91.5 FM in Windsor is the week of April 17.

That means the final show of Tupelo Blue Whiskey is Tuesday April 11, from 8-10 am. That show will be a look back at the bands and music that I played the most over the last four years. It will be connected to the original premise of the show as a showcase of alt-coutnry music.

This also means that the first show of Sweet Static will be Friday Aprill 21, from 10:30 am to noon.

Some history. A bit over four years ago I started Tupelo Blue Whiskey. Taking my name from three bands I enjoyed (Uncle Tupelo, Blue Rodeo and Whiskeytown) it started as an alt-country, roots rock, folk music show. After a year though my show moved days and got an extra half hour of time.

It was at that time that I decided to shift formats a bit. I found myself playing a lot of the same bands a lot and also itching to play more and different stuff. I like a lot of different stuff and wanted to show that on air. I still tried to play about 50% of my show's original mandate but felt free to explore other areas of music.

Now with a big shift of philosophies and programming at the station I'm deciding to kill off Tupelo Blue Whiskey and start fresh. At the same time I was really getting into mp3 blogs and wanted to try my own hand at it and 2 birds with one stone. Hence comes Sweet Static.

Once again naming the show after artists that have had a profound impact on me, Matthew Sweet and the Rheostatics, Sweet Static is going to be a mix of anything and everything. Whatever I like and I'm listening to it'll be on the show.

As well I'm planning on playing stuff I've found on various mp3 blogs and also what I've hilighted myself the Sweet Static mp3 blog itself.

So there you go. The lowdown on what's going on with my radio plans.

Yes to Nathan Coles Outfit, No to Fembots.

Well the Fembots show never happened. Their van broke down. It sucks but these things happen. What really pissed me off though was no one from the bar mentioned it, no signs, no nothing.

Turns out on of the guys from the band replacing them told me. We were talking about our shared love of Drive-By Truckers and it came out. I feel bad that I bolted after finishing my beer but I didn't feel like staying downtown.

Last night was the Nathan Coles Outfit and Evan Gordan & The Sad Clowns. Unfortunately I got downtown too late to see Evan Gordan. I'm really digging his stuff from his myspace page (linked above)

He's got four songs up there, I'd recomment "Ouijaboard".

Nathan Coles Outfit was really good though. Glad I got a chance to see them again. On their myspace page they have four songs also you can stream or download. I'm going to recommend you check them all out but here's a direct link to "Needlewood".

Off to do some stuff. More coming later today though.

Constantines

On my way out to watch some basketball and then to see the Fembots. I wanted to get something up though.

My friend Chris White of The Fibonacci Sequence, another fine show on CJAM pointed me out to The The London Free Press, which has a little story on The Constantines.

Puff piece but a couple of interesting things. First off Bry Webb is moving to Montreal. Second is that the band's deal with Sub Pop is questionable saying it's "up in the air".

You can download "Soon Enough" from Tournament of Hearts from the Sub Pop site.

Also

-Villains Always Blink has info and links on new Dears stuff floating around. Plus it's another good looking mp3 blog (which reminds me I have to update my links)
-Berkeleyplace has another of the fine "a-z" this time featuring live Death Cab For Cutie.
-Chart Magazine's website has a nice little article on Elliott Brood coming to Windsor next week.

Ok basketball time. Go Xavier and Michigan State.

I'm not in Texas...

Just thought I'd share that since almost every other mp3 blog in the world is there right now. However I'm in Windsor, working away and getting ready for a long weekend. Going to be a fun weekend of basketball and music.

Thursday night I'm going to The Avalon Front to see the Fembots play. Excited to see them. I saw them at the Hillside Festival when I went three years ago but this will be the first time in a club.

They've put out three albums although I've only heard the last two. Small Town Murder Scene came out in 2002. I was drawn to it when I saw the title track's video on Much More Music a lot.

Download "Small Town Murder Scene" from their website.

Really old good, old time music. It's not everyday you see bands using the saw for their songs.

Anyways last year they came out with a new album, The City. I'll admit it didn't do much for me to begin with but listening to it more the last couple of days it's started to grow on me. Here's two songs from it you can download once again from their site.

"Hell"

"Count Down Out Days"

The album isn't as sparse, got some horns. Really a more full sound. I guess the difference in albums threw me off. I'm curious to see how they pull it off live. Give it a try (although I recommend listening to "Small Town..." one of my personal favorite songs of the decade)

In other notes I didn't update yesterday's post. Nothing really to add except links to the bands and to take out the notes about me updating it later. I looked at the post and realized if I took those notes out then that post wouldn't have much.

Check out Marathonpacks for a college radio session from 1987 of the Pixies.

Also you should head over to Cable and Tweed for the first Silver Jews show from their tour.

Tomorrow the Nathan Coles Outfit.

Radio thoughts

Good show today, although I was really tired. Good mix of new music (Neko Case, Centromatic), music to plug shows in town this week (Fembots, Buttless Chaps, Nathan Coles Outfit) and music I just like to play (Ben Folds, Farm Fresh)

I'll repost this tomorrow with the proper links in (and this sentence out) but I just wanted to get this up now.

Wow this is lame tonight. Just tired and don't have much to say or what I do have to say I want to save for later with it's own post.

Coming later this week for the record, post on the Fembots, Nathan Coles Outfit, Hillside Festival and more.

This will be fixed tomorrow morning after work.

Tupelo Blue Whiskey playlist 3/14

Here is this week's playlist. Some thoughts later.

you can listen to tupelo blue whiskey, every tuesday from 8am to 10am on 91.5 fm in windsor/detroit. or on the internet at cjam.ca under the archives section.

as always...

cc-canadian content
*-in rotation
r-request

the avett brothers-famous flower of manhattan from four thieves gone (ramseur-2006) *
craig cardiff-albion hotel from happy cc
-nicolai dunger-white wild horses from you can have it...I don't want it anymore/yours 4-ever (zoe/rounder-2006) *
bobby bare-shine on harvest moon from the moon was blue (dualtone-2005) *
pink mountaintops-lord, let us shine from axis of evol (jajjaguwar-2006) cc *
destroyer-sick priest learns to last forever from destroyers' rubies (merge-2006) cc *
the dears-summer of protest from protest ep (ace fu-2004) cc
fembots-the transit song from small town murder scene (indie-2002) cc
josh rouse-jersey clowns from subtitulo (bedroom classics-2006) *
centro-matic-calling thermatico from fort recovery (misra-2006) *
drive-by truckers-uncle frank from pizza deliverance reissue (new west-2005)
nathan coles outfit-where we're from from twelve upheavals that brought the redwoods to flight (indie-2005) cc
neko case from fox confessor brings the flood
-margaret vs. pauline
-star witness
-hold on, hold on
-a widow's toast
jenny lewis w-the watson twins title track from rabbit fur coat (team love-2006) *
the buttless chaps-the poacher from where night holds light (mint-2006) cc *
feist-mushaboom (postal service remix) cc
fembots from the city (paper bag-2005) cc
-up from the ditches
-the city
ben folds title track from rockin' the subburbs (epic-2001)
farm fresh-30 in the club from time is running out (peanuts & corn-2005) cc
the rentals-friend of p live from friend of p promo single (maverick-1995)
isobel campbell and mark lanegan-ramblinman from balld of the broken seas (v2-2006) *
nathan coles outfit-I watch from twelve upheavals that brought the redwoods to flight (indie-2005) cc
the barmitzvah brothers-hollow time of night from the century of invention (permafrost-2006) cc *
cadence weapon-lisa's spider from breaking kayfabe (upper class-2005) cc *

Zunior Monday-this week featuring Barzin

Welcome to the second edition of Zunior Monday. Going over the week's freedownload from the great Zunior website.

This week's free download is from Barzin's new record, My Life In Rooms, on Weewerk Records.

The song this week for download is "Leaving Time".

I've played this album a bit on my radio show and like what I've heard. Really nice and mellow. I know Tony Decker from Great Lake Swimmers helped on the album a lot. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of the Swimmers.

The Anti-Hit List Saturday

Back again with another installment of The Anti-Hit List Saturday. For those of you just joining us, the Anti-Hit List is John Sakamoto's weekly round up of music that people might normally miss.

My favorite song he brings up this week is S.L.H. (Sri Lanka High) a mash up of M.I.A. and The Ramones. Goes to together really well, surprisingly well actually. You can find more mash ups on their site djjayr.com.

He also hilights stuff from Broken Social Scene, Beck and Portishead among others, so check it out.

I've been thinking about my final show as Tupelo Blue Whiskey. Not sure when it's going to be but I think it's going to be like a mixed cd. The songs that I've played the most over the years. So probably will include Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, Whisketown, Wilco, Unclue Tupelo, Blue Rodeo, Skydiggers, Rheostatics, etc. I'll probably put a lot of thought into it.

Some new links on the side to your left. They are not in any order. Just as I find new mp3 blogs that I'm enjoying I add them at the bottom. Just don't want anyone to think that I'm dissing them or anything. That and it makes life easier for me, I can just come to my blog and go from there to the links list and check everything out at once and not forget any site.

That's it for now. More later I'm sure...

Hmmmmmmmm, I wonder...

Being new to this mp3 blog thing, I wonder if I have committed a sin. For you see Friday March 10th will go down as the first day that I did not post since I have started Sweet Static. Of course it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm posting now but still...

Anyways just a couple of things that have caught my fancy

-On Stereogum they have this link to a funny You Tube thing on the Arctic Monkeys. It's part of something called the Best Week Ever. Of course with me being in Canada and not having cable I have no idea what this is from but it's funny. I did recognize one of the guys from Stella though.
-Couple of dvd announcements that have me excited. First off Zap is reporting that that the My Name Is Earl dvd will be out in the late summer/early fall and will include a crossover with Family Guy

"'We're actually doing 15-minute mini-episode [that asks] what if Earl [Jason Lee] passed by Carson Daly and landed on Stewie from 'Family Guy,'' Garcia says. Garcia is a former producer on "Family Guy," and both it and "Earl" are produced by 20th Century Fox TV."

And finally Arrested Development (rumors of it being back for 2 more seasons on Showtime but nothing confirmed yet) will be out on dvd June 13 as a 2 disc set according to tvshowondvd.com.

Well that's it for today.

Rainy day, blah.

Forgot to set my alarm and ended up sleeping all day. Had planned to get up and listen to my friend Sookie's radio show on CHRW in London. Her show, The All-Syrup Super Squishee Show is on Thursdays from 3:30-6pm. So check it out next week.

Just a couple of random notes tonight

-You Ain't No Picasso is in the middle of putting up the annual Yo La Tengo covers night fundraiser for WFMU in New York city. Really great mix of songs. Can't wait to hear it all.
-Funny checking out the WFMU page and their pledge drive. Their goal is $850,000. At CJAM we made like $12,000 for our pledge drive and I thought it was successful. Weird how things can be different.

Lastly I'm just going to recommend a band to check out. Greenfield Main is from Ottawa and is on Kelp Records.

The band has released two albums, Hunting Tips for Everyone and Barnburners and Heartchurners. Hunting Tips was a fun album but a bit of a novelty. All the song titles were taken from chapters in a hunting book (hence "Woodchucks Can Fool You") Still the songs were great.

However Barnburners was a more straight ahead record with man beautiful and great songs. The album is a couple of years old now but I've been listening to it a lot the last couple of weeks. It's one of those records I find myself going back to a lot.

Download "Fireworks Display" off of Barnburners and Heartchurners from the Kelp website directly.

In fact just check out all the free downloads here from the label's site, including 3 more from Greenfield Main (I just recommended one above), Rhume, The Acorn and more.

For more on the label, Exclaim Magazine has a feature on Kelp in the latest issue.

WOW!!!!!!!

Forgive the brief moment away from music but...

CANADA BEAT THE U.S. IN THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No this isn't anti-American, I'm just very pro-Canadian. I wear the maple leaf on my sleeve. Totally stunned we won. So sweet.

Anyways on to the stuff people reading this care about, music.

Spent the morning listening to a great radio show from CFRU FM in Guelph. Another campus radio show, the Mich Vish Interracial Morning show. I met Vish when he was in the late, great Neutron Stars (band is so late that their website is gone, hehe). Now he plays in the Nathan Coles Outfit.

Check out the Nathan Coles Outfit's "Found Out"

Anyways he's been doing a show for about a year (I'm guessing) with his cohost Michelle. It's on Wednesday mornings from 7-9am.

Today on the show they had a couple of interviews. First with Cadence Weapon, currently the buzz hip hop guy from Canada. Really good interview and I've heard good things about his live show.

They also interviewed Jeff Peters formerly of Cuff the Duke and now in Anagram. I guess recently he got the boot from Cuff the Duke and he discussed it a little bit. Very diplomatic but still interesting.

So check out the show. It streams live and also is archived at the CFRU website. Next week they have Rick White of the the Unintended but also of course Eric's Trip and Elevator.

Cuff the Duke is playing Windsor this Friday at Phog. I'm skipping the show. I didn't really like the last album. Really didn't compare to the first one which I really liked. Plus I'm hoping to hit the Fembots show the week after (fingers crossed that I get the night off work) along with the Nathan Coles Outfit (which I'm not working that night).

Ok time to relax a bit and get ready for work while rocking out to Drive-By Truckers Southern Rock Opera, one of the greatest albums of all time.

Kevin Smith rules

Yeah I love Kevin Smith. This has nothing to do with music (and I was supposed to be in bed an hour ago but anyways) but on the website based on his news of anything to do with him, his movies or anyone he knows, News Askew, they posted his introduction from the Spirit Awards. Funny as hell and you have to check it out.

With Clerks 2 having a release date of August 18th, now would be a good time to head over to the official website for behind the scene shorts which are really good (and the unofficial trailer as well)

Finally just because I found this online and think it's funny, it's the Mooby The Cow theme

Radio review and random thoughts

So when I'm tired I do crazy stuff like hit enter after just typing in my title, so hopefully you didn't click on this when I'm actually writing this out.

So I did my radio show today. Went pretty well. Played a lot of new stuff.

-My favorite song title of the show-"Acoustic Guitar Phase" by Barzin
-My favorite repeat song (that I tend to play often)-The Hidden Cameras' "Ban Marriage"
-My favorite new song-Drive-By Truckers' cover of "Hey Ya!"

Other stuff that pleased me
-Playing The Flaming Lips' "Thank You Jack White For the Fibre-Optic Jesus that you Gave Me". Goofy song that I really like.
-Th' Legendary Shack Shakers didn't really do much for me. I'll probably give them another chance in the next couple of weeks.
-Someone called to ask about the Nathan Coles Outfit, from Guelph, when I played them. That made me happy. A friend of mine drums for them and was able to tell the guy that they're playing a show here in a couple of weeks. I really want them to do well.
-I also really liked the Destroyer song I played, "Your Blood" I really like his songs with the New Pornographers but my all time favorite Dan Bejar song is from 2000's Thief "Destroyer's The Temple" Which you can check out here for yourself.

Just a couple of other random music thoughts
-I heard Sonic Youth and Flaming Lips are touring together this summer. That would be sweet.
-Canadian Music Week just finished up in Toronto. Chart Magazine has chimed in with their annual report cards of the bands their writers saw. Always an interesting read even if it always isn't fair since part of the "grades" are based on fashion.
-Berkeleyplace has a most excellent tribute to one of the best, "Drive-By Truckers, A-Z" with tons of downloads, all live including some sweet covers.
-Muzzle of Bees has a contest to win an autographed vinyl copy of Rogue Wave's latest album. Just come up with your favorite Arrested Development quote. Damn hard to pick just one...

And with that I am off to bed (and to watch some Arrested Development to get my quote)

Tupelo Blue Whiskey Playlist 3/7

This is my playlist from my radio show today. This will appear every week. Later some thoughts on the show and other stuff.

you can listen to tupelo blue whiskey, every tuesday from 8am to 10am on 91.5 fm in windsor/detroit. or on the internet at cjam.ca live and under the archives section.

as always...

cc-canadian content
*-in rotation
r-request

the gourds-pick & roll from heavy ornamentals (eleven thirty-2006) *
califone-trout silk from roomsound re-issue (thrill jockey-2006) *
the mendoza line-catch a collapsing star from full of light and full of fire (misra-2005) *
barzin-acoustic guitar phase from my life in rooms (weewerk-2006) cc *
brian wilson-cabin essence from smile (nonesuch-2004)
dorothy gish-we never start cc
robert pollard-other dogs remain from from a compound eye (merge-2006) *
young and sexy-the curious organ from panic when you find it (mint-2006) cc *
cuff the duke-hobo night stalker from life stories for minimum wage (three gut- ) cc
the avett brothers-dancing daze from four thieves gone (ramseur-2006) *
sarah harmer-how deep in the valley from I'm a mountain (cold snap/universal-2005) cc *
drive-by truckers-hey ya! (live)
jim guthrie-evil thoughts from mews too: an asthmatic kitty compilation (asthmatic kitty-2006) cc *
the hidden cameras-ban marriage from the smell of our own (evil evil-2003) cc
stars-hungry heart (live) cc
the high dials-soul in lust from war of the wakening phantoms (rainbow quartz-2005) cc
destroyer-your blood from destroyer's rubies (merge-2006) cc *
the barmitzvah brothers-car #7 from the century of invention (permafrost-2006) cc *
the flaming lips-thank you jack white for the fibre-optic jesus that you gave me from the fight test ep (warner-2003)
eef barzelay-ballad of bitter honey from bitter honey (spinart-2006) *
fembots title track from small town murder scene (indie-2002) cc
cadence weapon-30 seconds from breaking kayfabe (upper class-2005) cc *
th' legendary shack shakers-monkey on the dog house from pandelirium (yep roc-2006) *
jenny lewis w/the watson twins-the charging sky from rabbit fur coat (team love-2006) *
east river pipe-I'll walk my robot home from what are you on? (merge-2006) *
greenfield main-jump shooting for ducks from hunting tips for everyone (kelp-2001) cc
matthew sweet and susanna hoffs-everybody knows this is nowhere from the forthcoming sid 'n' susie (shout-2006)
nathan coles outfit-ordinary from twelve upheavals that brought the redwoods to flight (indie-2005) cc
the elected title track fom sun, sun, sun (sub pop-2006) *

American Girl/Radio news

First off the music. Heather of the most excellent I Am Fuel, You Are Friends asked if I had the Matthew Sweet cover from American Laundromats's new compilation High School Reunion, where band cover songs from your favorite teen comedies of the '80s. Well I was able to get a copy of it so here is Matthew Sweet covering Tom Petty's American Girl, available on yousendit so it won't be up there forever. However if it does somehow go down before the week is up leave a comment and I can put it up again.

As for the song, I like it. But then again I'm biased since he is one of my favorite artists of all time (Girlfriend is on my desert island discs) In the meanwhile you can stream some tracks from his forthcoming album with Susanna Hoffs aka Sid 'n' Susie, of covers from the '60s.

Next up is news about my radio show. For the last four years I've hosted Tupelo Blue Whiskey on CJAM 91.5 FM in Windsor. Well a station reshuffling has left me with a new time slot. I'm moving from Tuesday mornings from 8-10am to Friday morning 10:30-noon. With it will come a new name and formal (the old show was primarily alt-country, now will be anything)

So good and bad. Good part is a better time slot, later in the day, easier to do interviews which I hope to do. Also Friday has some really good shows. Also the change is a good excuse to give the show a rebirth which I've been thinking about for a while. Bad because if I have plans on Friday could make for a long day (with me working midnights) but that's ok. Also I don't like losing a half hour of time, but what can you do.

So no date when it will take effect, but in the meantime you can tune in to CJAM 91.5 FM tomorrow and listen or take advantage of the log that keeps shows for a month on the site.

Tomorrow a recap of my show with playlist and other fun stuff that I think about or find.

Zunior Monday

So today is what I will call Zunior Monday. Why you ask? Well probably you don't but that's ok, I'll tell you anyways.

For those of you who don't know, Zunior is an online/digital label. Think of it of I-Tunes but Canadian and indie. Cheap downloads with most of the money going to the artists. This is from their "Zunior Philosophy" page...

"zunior.com allows musicians to have more control over how their music is released. zunior.com provides a way for independent artists to distribute their music directly. No middleman means more freedom...lower prices for you...with more money for the artist. Everyone wins."

Anyways, they have a radio station for you to check out the bands, a page of videos and also a free download each week of an artist on the site. Every week I'll be passing along what the download is.

This week the free download is Castle Project's "In Frustration"

So I was wrong about it being from Mint Records. Never heard of this band but...upon hearing the song it's a mellow, electronic tinged song. Not bad but not really my thing. Still free music is good and always worth checking out. You can go here to check out more on Castle Project.

So make sure you check it out and check out the site. From great labels (Mint, Kelp, Weewerk, Endearing, Three Gut) to great bands on Zunior itself (Clark the Band, Rheostatics, The Inbreds, Alun Piggins)

Lazy Sunday

By the way the title for this post isn't in tribute to the SNL skit, which I did enjoy and recommend you watch along with the Natalie Portman rap from last night's episode, but because today is truly a lazy sunday for myself.

Nothing much to say today. Actually on my way to bed (not that I'm lazy but I work midnights) but wanted to post a quick something to keep in the habit.

My big accomplishment for yesterday was figuring out how to add links to this blog template. You can see them over there to the left. Just a preliminary list, more to come. Besides my radio home of CJAM, you will find links to the mp3 blogs that I've enjoyed and got me wanting to do this myself.

I'm going to recommend checking out this post on An Aquarium Drunkard of Beach Boy rehearsals from 1967. I must admit I haven't listened to them yet but I'm downloading them now to check out. Really can't wait to listen to them.

Ok that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll be back with a link to Zunior Records download of the week (something from Mint Records I'm guessing) and I'm going to start mentioning some of the cool shows coming to Windsor this month.

The Anti-Hit List

Forgot about this with my earlier post. For years John Sakamoto has been putting together a weekly top ten of songs people may not hear, called The Anti-Hit List. It started in the Toronto Sun, moved to Eye Magazine and now resides at the Toronto Star.

Always some fun stuff to find in there from new bands to mash ups, from free mp3s to those songs that some don't want us to hear. This week's list includes Sufjan Stevens, Centro-Matic, Sid 'n Susie (the Matthew Sweet-Susannah Hoffs cover album) and 7 more.

The link above is for all of Sakamoto's columns, and they keep the list for about 3 months back. There's also a podcast of the list which I've never listened to since I don't have Windows 2000 on my computer. You also may have register on the site. I think I did but that was over a year ago.

Windsor music of old and new (plus some Cowbell)

It's always nice seeing friends play music. Didn't stay too long seeing Ron Leary last night with Kenneth MacLeod. Quiet bar, no cover, reasonable beer price. Makes for a good night.

Picked up the new Exclaim Magazine last night. Not sure if it's sad but it is one of the highlights of my month. Haven't read it yet, just breezed through it but looks interesting with Destroyer on the cover. Also had an ad for White Cowbell Oklahoma saying that their new album is out this spring. Always a guilty pleasure of mine. Great rock. Funny thing is that I've never seen them live, just heard stories and pictures. I definitely want to see them live sometime in the near future.

Check out this live version of Southern Grace from their website.

Only other thing to say is that I've tried to stay away from Myspace but the more I poke around the more interesting stuff I find. While checking out Ron Leary's site I came across a guy I used to know, Devin Hughes on there. He used to be in Tthe Redstripes, local band and now looks like he's in Toronto and still putting out music.

Check out the old Redstripes New Music Canada page for some sweet pop/rock stuff. I'm going to have to dig up some of the older stuff.

Also check out Devin's new stuff on Myspace. Sounds good on first listen but I downloaded them to have a better listen in the future.

New Drive-By Truckers song

Quick update

Drive-By Truckers have released another song from their forthcoming A Blessing a Curse. You can check out "Easy on Yourself" here.

The album is coming April 18. Get ready to rock. Probably the album I'm most looking forward to this year.

Off to go see Windsor's own Ron Leary right now. Check out songs from his forthcoming album.

Sweet Static: an introduction...

Well here we go. Another mp3 blog. The world wonders why...why another mp3 blog. The answer is simple my friends.

Because I wanted to.

Lately I've been really enjoying exploring the world of mp3 blogs. Finding rare bootlegs, radio sessions, leaked albums. It is this music geek's dream come true.

Yet I want to add my two cents in. I want to put up tracks that I think are amazing. I want to plug shows that I've seen or wish I could see. Talk about the albums that are making me happy. So there you go. Now you know.

Hopefully I'll be able to open up some ears to some great music.

Now some things to point out before you get into the wonderful world of me and music...

-I'm computer stupid. I can find my way around the internet fine and dandy but anything technical I'm in trouble. So in the beginning don't expect anything too fancy. I doubt there will be many pictures or flashing lights. It'll mostly be words, links and mp3's. Which brings me too...
-I have never done an mp3 blog before. I'm coming into this new and I'm learning as I go. In the beginning things will be messy I'm sure. Most of my links to mp3s will be through yousendit that I'll set up myself and refresh if need be.
-Lots of tracks are going to be from the web. However sometimes I'll put up something of my own. If you are an artist that I put put up and it isn't cool, please let me know and I'll take it down ASAP.
-I have no problem being biased. If a friend or someone I know puts something out that is great I will push it to no end. You have been warned.
-This will also be tied into my radio show I do. For the past four years I've hosted a show on CJAM 91.5 FM in Windsor, Ont. It's been called Tupelo Blue Whiskey. They're talking about major changes in the near future at the station and I'd like to retire Tupelo Blue Whiskey and start fresh as Sweet Static.

So there you go. Hopefully you enjoy the ride and hopefully I enjoy bringing this to you. If you want please say hi. And if you happen to have any suggestions feel free to make them. I have thick skin and welcome any advice to make this as good as possible.

Anyways to end this off I thought I'd put up a link of an mp3 (original thought, huh?)

Alun Piggins is out of Toronto (and formerly Guelph and London I believe) He used to head the Morganfields. Now he's leading his band Alun Piggins and the Quitters featuring Jay Santiago on drums and a number of bassists. He's about to release a new album over the summer.

Anyways on his website they've put up a live version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" from the Townhouse in Sudbury from spring of 2005.

He's got some dates upcoming around Ontario including one May 6 at Phog Lounge here in Windsor.

Anyways that's it for now. Sweet Static has officially started.