The first official Hillside line-up

Well with me having internet problems and being sick my posting hasn't happened the last couple of days.

Trying to get this post off quickly since I'm in the middle of my show (listen now until noon EST)

However I wanted to get off the first official list of bands for this year's Hillside Festival as revealed in the May issue of Exclaim Magazine.

From an advertisement for the festival, an ad from Six Shooter Records and the listing in the festivals section here is what we know so far.

-Feist
-Sarah Harmer
-Corb Lund
-Kathleen Edwards
-The Hidden Cameras
-Cuff the Duke
-Final Fantasy
-Cadence Weapon
-The Sadies
-Constantines
-Christine Fellows
-Republic of Safety

The official website also says that they will be releasing their preliminary list sometime this week.

Ok back to the show. Hopefully a post coming up somewhere soon if the internet gods allow it.

Canadian notes

A few notes on Canadians (not Neil Young) that have caught my eye the last few days

-It appears Sarah Harmer and her band were in a bit of an accident in the last couple of weeks. I was looking through her "scrawl" section of her website where she usually writes little notes. Well the newest one, dated April 21 struck me as a little weird. It said

"Where’s the scrawl? you ask. How do you cover it all? I reply. Just grateful to be alive, she smiles, and thanks her friends and the angel who passed over at mile 140, Oregon highway 5. The sun is smiling and shining down, the swing is swinging and no one’s around. The days of travel, the nights of shows, the music we made on the spot, documented in our souls. Thoughts of efforts, echoes and effects, something I once sent out came back to tell me to keep sending. This is a scrawl, a grateful one, one to say hi and there’s more to be done. This is resurrection, this is starting now, this is me saying go for it, don’t worry about how.
May good luck be with you.
It has surely been with me."

So I do a little websearch and on silverroad.org, a Harmer fan/news site I find news that the band was involved in an accident with their tour bus. To read the full article from The News-Review can click here.

Long story short though is that they seem fine although keyboardist Julie MacDonald (formerly of Flux A.D. and A Northern Chorus) suffered a sprain ankle.
-Originally my favorite band the Rheostatics were scheduled to go to China. Well it was cut back to just member Dave Bidini who will write about it for his upcoming book, "Around the World in 80 Gigs" for which he's already played shows in Finland and Russia.

Well added to the shows now is personal favorite and all around good guy, Alun Piggins, who also played with him on the Finland and Russia shows.

Anyways Echo Weekly, out of Kitchener/Waterloo/Guelph, recently had a story with him where he talks about the previous tour, the upcoming China shows, his new album and much more. To read it go here.

To hear Alun and his band The Quitters cover Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" download away here.
-Lastly for today Berkeley Place has a post up on Kelp Records' excellent band The Acorn and gives it a great review.

Check out The Acorn for yourself and download

"Evidence" (live version)
"Maplebees" (live version)

Or just check out the Kelp Records download page for tons of good music.

That's it for today. Tomorrow some Bruce Springsteen, since I'm listening to the new album right now and liking it, and whatever else catches my eyes and ears.

Zunior download of the week/Hillside 2006

Well back again with the Zunior free download of the week.

This time it's a band from Vancouver called Windows '78 (imagine what that operating system would be like) with a song from their album The Window Seat. Make sure you check out their kick ass website.

Chart Magazine said of them "Windows '78 are often compared to eclectic bands such as Mogwai and The Flaming Lips, so capturing their sound on disc presents certain challenges. Thankfully, the band do a great job of artfully crafting their peculiar style on the new album."

To get the song "Opportunity" click here.

Also Zunior is having a Spring Sale. Check out their release on it...
~~~~~~~~
Zunior.com Spring Sale - $3.00 off the best Canadian music!

Albums from Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, The
Constantines, Julie Doiron, Great Lake Swimmers, The Weekend, Eric's Trip, Billy Bragg, Elliott Brood, Wintersleep, Raising The Fawn, Jill Barber, Rheostatics, Neko Case and many more! Buy the best independent Canadian music at Zunior.com.

Albums come in DRM-free MP3 format for $8.88 or super high-quality
lossless FLAC for an extra $2.00! Albums comes with digital artwork suitable for printing or pondering.

Buy any three albums and get $3.00 off your order! Simply use the
redeem code 'springsale' upon checkout to get your discount.

Redeem code: springsale
Value: $3.00 off any three records on Zunior.com
Valid until: April 30, 2006
Link: www.zunior.com

Zunior.com is the home of independent digital music in Canada! Home to labels like Mint, Dependent, Three Gut, Endearing, Six Shooter and Sonic Unyon. Zunior.com is 'the little digital music store'!

Go to www.zunior.com and add some great music to your collection today!
~~~~~~~
Definitely a label worth suporting and great music for a great price.

-And since I'm keeping up with the Hillside Festival news, on the official message board is a thread of rumors of bands playing. Some I've named here already, some I've heard myself as rumors and some new names to me. I'm not going to give out the names here since they are just rumors but still worth checking out. So head over to the post and see for yourself.

Back later with a post of stuff on The Acorn, Sarah Harmer, Alan Piggins and more...

Tastefest 2006-Detroit

The Tastefest in Detroit is an annual event where a bunch of restaurants serve up food and bands play at the same time for free.

Well last week I got Mint Records email and they had tour dates for the summer including The New Pornagraphers playing the Tastefest this year. Upon doing a bit more research I find this story from the Detroit Free Press listing more bands including Ray Davies, Common, Kings of Leon, Eric Burdon and the Animals and Bravery.

It takes place June 30 to July 4 and like I said it's free. I'd love to check out the Pornagraphers, Davies and Common. Guess I'll have to find a way over there for it.

More Neil Young

Man did I ever fall asleep on the weekend as whole crapload of Neil Young and Living With War updates have come out. So much of this info probably isn't news but I'm going to post it anyways.

This Friday the album will be up for streaming on Neil's website. It will then be available for purchase digitally on May 2. It will be followed into stores quickly although no date has been issued yet other then early May.

He (or maybe they) has also started a blog for Living With War which you can check out here.

For more I recommend...

-Thrasher's Wheat, the Neil Young news blog is the best place to find all the stories.
-To read the Pitchfork story click here.
-For the CBC story click here.

I know my plans for Friday now. Interesting week with the new Springsteen record coming out as well with a similar feel/motive/whatever you want to call it.

Anyways I wasn't even going to post today but wanted to get this up. Coming up tomorrow Zunior free download of the week, Sarah Harmer news, Bruce Springsteen stuff and hopefully a post with some mp3s of one of the moveon.org's protest concerts from 2004 featuring Neil, Bruce, John Fogararty, REM and Bright Eyes that I downloaded back after it happened.

Around the blogs

So my dvd player died and this has left me more time to listen to music and check out other blogs. So this post is going to go over some of the stuff I've found and been into.

-I guess I'm floating did a post on a Sweedish band called I'm From Barcelona. On the post there's links to a couple of songs, both of which I really like. Read the whole post and download the songs here.
-Another band I've never heard of, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir had a write up on My Old Kentucky Blog. A couple of tracks to preview on the post. I really recommend the song "Then And Not A Moment Before"
-Trees Lounge is back with the next state in their series, this time featuring Maryland.

Anti-Hit List review

Back with another installment of John Sakamoto's Anit-Hit List for April 22.

Lots of interesting things in this week that I really like.

-Going to start with Dirty Pretty Things which is former Libertines member Carl Barat's new band. Dirty Pretty Things' "Bang Bang You're Dead" (no mp3, just streaming) is a great, catchy rock song.
-Up next is Midlake with "Roscoe". Up on their Myspace page is 4 songs to download. Add in another 7 songs on their own homepage. I'm really digging this song and plan on checking out a lot more from them.
-Shack with "Shelley Brown" (no mp3 just streaming). First I've heard of these guys but from reading their bio, they've been around awhile. A new album coming out on Noel Galagher's Sour Mash label.
-Imaad Wasif's "Out In The Black" is a touring memeber of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. Originaly from Vancouver he's releasing a solo record on Kill Rock Stars.

Also includes stuff from The Rapture, Paul Simon, the usual mashups and more. To read the whole thing for yourself head here.

Sweet Static Playlist 4/21

You can listen to Sweet Static, every Friday from 10:30am to noon on 91.5 FM in Windsor/Detroit. Or you can tune in on the internet at
-http://cjam.ca, under listen or
-opening a url on whatever player you use and put in http://137.207.3.11:8050/

The show is archived for a month at http://web2.uwindsor.ca/cjam/nvd_mp3.html

as always...

cc-canadian content
*-in rotation
r-request
mp3-from an mp3 blog

matthew sweet title track from girlfriend single (zoo-1991)
the velvet underground-rock and roll from the best of (verve-1989)
drive-by truckers-little bonnie from a blessing and a curse (new west-2006) * r
rock plaza central-stereotrucks from fig 3: the things that bind you (indie-2002) cc
final fantasy-this lamb sells condos from he poos clouds (blocks-2006) cc r
band of horses-the funeral from everything all the time (sub pop-2006) *
neko case-that teenage feeling from fox confessor brings the flood (mint-2006) *
neko case w/martha wainwright-star witness live from So Much Silence mp3
calexico-roka from garden ruin (quarterstick-2006) *
the constantines-cinnamon girl live from Stereogum mp3
centro-matic-triggers and trash heaps from fort recovery (misra-2006)
built to spill-mess with time from you in reverse (warner-2006) *
islands-humans from return to the sea (equator-2006) cc *
gnarls barkley-crazy from promo sampler (downtown-2006) *
rheostatics and bourbon tabernacle choir-everybody knows it's nowhere from borrowed tunes (sony-1994) cc mp3 also available on Sweet Static
feist title track from monarch (indie-2000) cc mp3 also available on Sweet Static
the flaming lips-the w.a.n.d. from at war with the mystics (warner-2006) *
the decemberists-human behaviour live from Berkeley Place mp3
wussy-shunt from funeral dress (shake it-2006) *
the new pornagraphers-streets of fire from twin cinema (mint-2005) cc
the avett brothers-a lover like you from four thieves gone (ramseur-2006) *

Canadian Campus Radio Charts/Sweet Static: the radio show

Here are the Canadian campus radio charts for the week ending April 18 from Earshot, the official charts of the NCRA.

1 Islands Return To The Sea Equator
2 The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics Warner
3 Pink Mountaintops Axis Of Evol JagJaguwar/Scratch
4 Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood Mint
5 Run Chico Run Slow Action Boompa
6 Built To Spill You In Reverse Warner
7 Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers Paper Bag
8 Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies Merge
9 Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones Interscope
10 Calexico Garden Ruin Quarterstick

To see the entire national chart go here.

Here is the CJAM, my home station's chart for the same week.

1 Ten Year Drought Memoranda Independent
2 Cat Power The Greatest Matador
3 Built To Spill You In Reverse Warner
4 Illuminati Cheap Powers Rectangle
5 Morrissey Ringleader Of The Tormentors Attack
6 The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics Warner
7 Danielson Ships Secretly Canadian
8 Band Of Horses Everything All The Time Sub Pop
9 The Black Angels Passover Light In The Attic
10 Flin Flon Dixie Teenbeat

To see the entire CJAM chart go here.

-Also today is the first Sweet Static, the radio show. For those of you new I've been doing a radio show for years and it ended last week. I used it as a springboard to try something new and that starts today from 10:30am to noon EST.

There are going to be growing pains in the beginning as I get used to a new format and less time, but it still should be a good listen. In the beginning I plan to highlight some of the great music you can find in the mp3 blog world and also songs from the most polular lists on the Hype Machine and Elbo.ws.

Other things I plan to do is play songs to promote local shows, play new music and most importantly play stuff that I like.

Two ways to listen.

1-Go to the CJAM website and click on the the "listen" button
2-Some friends have told me they've had troubles with that so try opening a url on whatever player you use and put in http://137.207.3.11:8050/

That's it for now. Back later with my playlist and a couple of links to things from mp3 blogs that I'm digging very much.

Zunior's free download of the week

This week's free download of the week courtesy of the great Zunior Records is from The Museum Pieces. The main guy is originally from Pennsylvania but is now in Halifax. The album is called Philadelphia and the song is "Avalon Sank". It's a nice song and includes guest vocals from Jill Barber.

Download "Avalon Sank" here. I'm really liking the song.

-A couple of cool things to check out. First is The Torture Garden where they have an interview with Owen Pallett from Final Fantasy. Also there is a bunch of sweet tracks from various acts he's contributed to. Follow this handy link to read it.
-When Apes Rule The Earth has a lot of "Hallelujah" covers, from the well known (Buckley) to the lesser known (Dylan). There's six of them in all so check it out here.
-Not sure what else is coming up here at Sweet Static this week. Although I should remind people to check out the first show of Sweet Static, 10:30am to noon EST this Friday.

Drive-By Truckers SXSW session/small addition to Sweet Static

Alright back in March when all the SXSW sessions were flooding the blogs and torrent sites the one I was most interested in was the Drive-By Truckers live on KEXP from Austin. I was able to download this but then found out that the band and label, New West, didn't want anything out on the net until after their new album was out.

Well it is April 18th and A Blessing and A Curse is out. A most excellent album by the way. Anyways the session's tracks, recorded March 17, are as followed

Intro
Feb 14
Gravity's Gone
Interview
Easy On Yourself
World of Hurt
Outro

You can download the entire set and interviews here as a zip on Rapidshare.

Now I haven't listened to them yet (been saving it like they wanted) so we can all enjoy this together.

-New addition to Sweet Static. I've added a list of direct links to the sidebar of some of the more popular posts. The mp3's of Johnny Cash's final performances, the three tracks from Feist's first album and also my first post of covers. Trying to make things easier to find for those new to the site.
-Another post coming up soon. Zunior has put up their free download of the week. I just have to grab it and listen to it.

Anti-Hit List review/Hillside 2006 update

Once again coming back with John Sakamoto's weekly Anti-Hit List, songs you may of missed out on. This week's list has some interesting stuff.

The thing I want to hear most of all is Betty Lavette covering Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". No mp3 of it but a clip of it can be heard here. Sounds really good and is part of an album being released with bonus tracks 34 years after being released by Atco. Looks like there was no North American release.

A Guelph band called The D'Urbervilles is also mentioned although I can't get their New Music Canada page to work (since I refuse to put Real Player on my computer) However I would recommend checking out a live mp3 of "Spin The Bottle/Hunters" from their website.

Other stuff includes the usual new mash-ups (Yes and Black-Eyed Peas as well as Duran Duran and Ne-Yo), Boards of Canada, Final Fantasy, and a couple of bands I've never heard of but plan on checking out later, The Radio Dept. and David Ford. So head on over for the full listing and links.

-Not to be misleading but there are no more listings for Hillside up. The organizers have done a good job of keeping a lot of names hidden from online sleuths like me. May not be anything major until the new issue of Exclaim comes out, the annual summer festival preview that always provides the first official look at the festival.

To see my first list of bands for the festival go here. I did another post last week but only Mia Dyson was added to to the list.
-No Zunior download up yet so I guess I'll get to that tomorrow. That's it for today. Time for bed.

quick Neil Young update

For a good collection of info on the upcoming Neil Young album, Living With War, I'd check out Thrasher's Wheat, a blog of Neil Young news. Seems like there are three groups of people...

1-Those who think it's great
2-Those who think it's horrible (like when Springsteen was stumping for Kerry)
3-Those who think it's a hoax (but of course it isn't)

Check out the article here.

Also check out this article with comments from former Reprise Records head Howie Klein.

Also the official Neil Young website has a ticker going with info including lyrics to one of the songs and details of the album, calling it "Metal Folk Protest" whatever that means.

They are saying six to eight weeks. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Now go and download the cover of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" by the Rheostatics and Bourbon Tabernacle Choir that I posted yesterday.

Anti-Hit List and Zunior's free download of the week coming later today.

Dave Wall and other random found stuff

Pushing off my Anti-Hit list review for a bit. Just found some other stuff that caught my attention starting with Dave Wall.

Dave was a member of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir who I was fortunate to see play once way back in my second year of university down here in Windsor. Amazing live band. Anyways they've been broken up for a few years now and according to their site are on hiatus until the summer of 2045 which I found funny.

So I was reading an article on Dave Wall from Thursday's Toronto Star plugging his new record The Spell I Was Under. Just got around to it today and was a really interesting story talkin about him being Jewish and singing black American music. You can read the article here.

His new album is out on Black Hen Records and there are some tracks to download.

-"Fortify Me"
-"Wonder"
-"Have No Fear"
-"So Tired"

-On a semi-related note this is as good a time as any to pull out the Rheostatics and Bourbon Tabernacle Choir covering Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" on Rapidshare of course. It's from the album Borrowed Tunes, a two cd collection of Neil Young covers by Canadian Artists. I'm sure I'll be posting some stuff from it in the future but this is my absolute favorite song from the record from two amazing bands.
-In other fun stuff, The Kelowna Daily Courier has a wire piece up on music blogs and other music related web sites including a couple of ones I haven't checked out before. Thanks to largehearted boy for pointing that out.
-Cable and Tweed has another set of Belle and Sebastian covers up. Is it just me or do all mp3 blog type (including yours truly) people like covers?
-Lastly not sure if I'll get to the Anti-Hit List review today but thought I'd throw the link up for anyone wanting to check it out. Just want to work a bit on my template today and since I have to work tonight I'll be heading to bed early this afternoon.

Canadian Radio chart/Neil Young

Back with my look at the weekly Canadian Music charts. I've decided to just use the Earshot charts since they are the official ones of the NCRA and there is timing differences between the Chart Magazine one and Earshot.

The full chart for the week ending April 11th can be seen here.

The top ten is

1 Islands Return To The Sea Equator
2 Pink Mountaintops Axis Of Evol JagJaguwar/Scratch
3 Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood Mint
4 Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones Interscope
5 They Shoot Horses Don't They? Boo Hoo Hoo Boo Kill Rock Stars
6 Calexico Garden Ruin Quarterstick
7 Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers Paper Bag
8 Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies Merge
9 Run Chico Run Slow Action Boompa
10 Mogwai Mr Beast Matador

and of coure the top ten from my home station, CJAM is

1 Ten Year Drought Memoranda Independent
2 Beth Orton Comfort Of Strangers EMI
3 Calexico Garden Ruin Quarterstick
4 Illuminati Cheap Powers Rectangle
5 Built To Spill You In Reverse Warner
6 Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers Paper Bag
7 NOFX Never Trust A Hippy Fat Wreck Chords
8 Trespassers Williams Having Nettwerk
9 The Next Big Thing Working Machine Transform
10 Lambchop The Decline Of Country...Part 2 Merge

To view the whole chart from CJAM go here.

-in other news the Winnipeg Sun has an article on the upcoming Neil Young album.

It includes a song called "Impeach the President". Details of it come from the Last Left Turn Before Hooterville blog where singer Alicia Morgan describes the session. Check out the entire post here.

The album according to the post may be out in six to eight weeks. Should be interesting.

Probably one more post today with the Anti-Hit List recap and anything else I can find.

Feist's Monarch and more Feist

Well yes finally my computer was able to find my cd drives so I am finally able to bring you some selections from Feist's Monarch album. Released in 1999 on Toronto indie Bobby Dazzler and also independently I believe. My copy of the album has no reference to Bobby Dazzler and also a different title for the song "Family"

Anyways I've always loved this record. It's different from Let It Die, some more guitar on it. Really good collection of songs though and I'v picked three to share here. The files are up on Rapidshare as usual, individually and also as one zip file of all three.

-"Family" also known as "It's Cool to Love You're Family"
-"La Sirena"
-"Monarch"

The zip of all three can be downloaded here.

Well don't forget to check out Rbally for an excellent live show by Feist in Chicago

Also Chart Magazine's website has a story on Feist's plans for her next records. I thought I had posted this but I guess not. She's been working on it in France for about a month and expects it to be out early next year. From the article...

"There's definitely a lot more guitar," she said quickly before pausing, "I guess. I don't know yet. That's the fun. I'm still unwrapping it. Like, 'What's in there?'"

Ok a couple of more older Feist tunes coming this week. Also this weekend should see my review of this weeks Anti-Hit List, the Canadian college radio charts and updates on trying to clean some stuff up here on Sweet Static (already started by getting the links in alphabetical order).

Post #50

Well should there be banners? Or a parade? Or something to mark this occasion?

Probably not but I shall instead whore myself out once again and post the official Clerks 2 trailer. Be warned it has slight spoilers but I couldn't resist watching.



Oh and my computer reads my cd drives so hopefully some Feist coming up.

Technical Difficulties

For those of you just joining me here at Sweet Static must know two things.

1-My computer sucks. Limited hard drive space, was a freebie hand me down from work, etc.
2-I'm computer stupid. I'm good on the internet, but horrible with technical computer stuff.

So with this in mind right now my computer is going through one of its phases where it decides that my cd drives don't really exist. So I'm not able to rip any songs to put up here on the blog. Sucks big time. Hence the Feist post isn't going to happen until my computer finds my cd drives. Not sure when it'll happen but hopefully soon.

Until then may I recommend you check out Cable and Tweed. Right now there are a ton of Belle and Sebastian covers in the latest post including ones of Bowie, Costello, Michael Jackson, The Smtihs and more. Fun stuff indeed.

-Also the Jammies were last night aka the CJAM volunteer appreciation night. Tupelo Blue Whiskey was soundly defeated in it's last nomination for an award but a fun night was had by all. Congrats to those who did win. Don't feel sad for me though. Even though I did not win an award I did get first pick at the prize table through the raffle and was able to get a $20 gift certificate for the local indie store Dr. Disc. Also got to see Portia for the first time in a long time and was reminded why they are one of my favorite local bands.

Well off to bed. It's Easter and I have to work the death day of Jesus. That's ok though since I'm by myself and get to listen to music I want to hear all night. More coming up tomorrow.

Zunior Monday (on Tuesday) and other stuff...

This week's download from Zunior Records is The Diableros with the song "Olympic Island". Don't know much about the band but it's a pretty catchy song. I guess they're opening up for The Stills across Canada (Jason Collett is opening the Detroit show but that's another story).

You can download "Olympic Island" here.

Other stuff
-So the last show of Tupelo Blue Whiskey was today. Went well even though I didn't get to play half the songs I wanted to. The last 45 minutes was semi-hectic deciding on what can stay and what could go. Even then I was playing songs I didn't really want to play due to time constraints.

Was lots of fun though and in the next week hopefully I'll be putting up farewell mixes from the last show as well as songs I wanted to get on but couldn't.
-Also this week (hopefully tomorrow) some early Feist stuff.
-I'd recommend checking out Rbally for a sweet Wilco bootleg from 1997. Also recommended heading over to So Much Silence for a Neko Case from NPR. Both shows are being put up in multiple posts so no direct link but it'll be easy to find.
-Lastly tomorrow night is the CJAM annual awards aka The Jammies. So if you're in Windsor head over to The Avalon Front for some good fun, good food and good music. Portia and Sledgehammer will be playing after the awards.

That's it for today. Bed time now. Until tomorrow...

Tupelo Blue Whiskey, the final playlist 4/11

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

gram parsons-ohh las vegas from gp/grievous angel reissue (reprise-1990)
the flying burito brothers-dark end of the street from the best of (a&m-2001)
the band w/the staples-the weight from the last waltz (warner-1978) cc
sarah harmer-basement apartment from you were here (cold snap/universal-2000) cc
gordon downie-canada geese from coke machine glow (wiener art/universal-2001) cc
the cash brothers-nerve from raceway (indie-1999) cc
rheostatics-saskatchewan from melville (intrepid-1991) cc
the silver jews-tennessee from bright flight (drag city-2001)
alejandro escovedo-castanets from a man under the influence (bloodshot-2001)
the avett brothers-a gift for melody anne from live vol. 2 (ramseur-2005)
loretta lynn w/jack white-portland, oregon from van lear rose (interscope-2004)
white cowbell oklahoma-southern grace from cencero blanco (slick monkey-2005) cc
drive-by truckers-aftermath usa from a blessing and a curse (new west-2006) *
drive-by truckers-let there be rock from southern rock opera (lost highway-2002)
ass ponys-last night it snowed from lohio (checkered past-2001)
greenfield main-how to shoot straight from hunting tips for everyone (kelp-2000) cc
ryan adams-answering bell from gold (lost highway-2001)
the two-minute miracles-slow down (porch mix) from volume II (teenage usa-2001) cc
jenny lewis with the watson twins-rise up with fists!! from rabbit fur coat (team love-2006) *
black cabbage-wallflower from self-titled album (drog-1994) cc
the neutron stars-lonesome harbour (bonus track version) from home's not where the heart is (indie-2003) cc
the corn sisters-not a doll from the other woman (mint-2000) cc
neko case-soulful shade of blue from the tigers have spoken (mint-2004)
johnny cash/bob dylan-I walk the line (unreleased)
johnny cash-hurt from the man comes around (american-2002)
redstripes-light switch from e.p. (modern soul-2002) cc
the low tones-rocky harbour from tiger verses (modern soul-2004) cc
alun piggins-heading out west from balladesque (moldy floor-2000) cc
uncle tupelo-no depression from 89/93: an anthology (columbia legacy-2003)
whiskeytown-houses on the hill from strangers almanac (outpost-1997)
wilco-someday soon from being there (reprise-1996)
luther wright & the wrongs-goodbye cruel world from another brick in the wall (universal-2001) cc

The Anti-Hit List/Hillside Festival 2006

-Once again my recap of The Anti-Hit List for this week from the Toronto Star's John Sakamoto.

Nothing out of the ordinary in there this week. A two minute mash up of 10 songs (including Corey Hart and Bobby McFerrin), videos of Franz Ferdinand and The Guillemots and mp3 blog favorites right now The Raconteurs and Gnarles Barkley.

Nothing here really caught my eye so nothing really more on this from me. But it's always a good read and even though nothing interested me doesn't mean you shouldn't check it out.

-Last week I did my first lead up to the Hillside Festival of Guelph, putting out the names I've been able to find online so far. You can check the post out here.

Nothing much to add this week.

-Only one new name showed up on Pollstar and that is Mia Dyson.
-A show at the Guelph Lake Conservation area (home of Hillside) co-promoted by the Hillside folks featuring The Tragically Hip and The Weakerthan in June sold out. No big surprise there.

Ok that's all for now. Coming this week the Zunior free download of the week, a post on Leslie Feist with tracks from her excellent first album Monarch and stuff on the last show of Tupelo Blue Whiskey.

Listen to the new Drive-By Truckers

The new Drive-By Truckers album is amazing. I've been listening to it non-stop for a couple of weeks and now you can share in the goodness of A Blessing and A Curse out April 18. Enjoy.

(Between this and the Clerks II post maybe I am being a bit of a whore, but I'm an unpaid whore, shilling for stuff I love)

Johnny Cash-The Final Performances part 3

Well here it is, at long last the final part of my posts of the final performances of Johnny Cash. Well it was supposed to be the final series but I did mess up the files and got them confused. I never ended up posting Johnny and June's final public performance but more on that in a minute.

This, like the other two sets was performed at the Carter Family Fold in Hilton, Virginia. This show is the last live performance by Cash and is from July 5, 2003. The set list is...

1. Spoken intro Jeanette carter
2. Folsom Prison Blues
3. I Walk The Line
4. Sunday Morning Coming Down
5. Ring Of Fire
6. Oh Come, Angel band
7. Big River
8. Understand Your Man

As per usual I found this on the Dime-A-Dozen torrent site and the show is up on rapidshare as a zip file. Same as before the quality isn't the best.

You can download the file here.

To get the first public performance of Johnny after June's death you can go to this post, previously in Sweet Static.

Also now the original post is updated with a link to the correct file of the last show of June and Johnny which you can find here.

Thanks to Tomas for pointing out the error.

Not to be a whore...

But I love Kevin Smith and have to support my man. Clerks 2 is coming. Get ready for the motion picture event of all time. Forget Titanic (proud to say I've never seen it). Forget Lord of the Rings. Forget Spice World.



Enjoy...

Canadian College Radio Charts

Since I am a college radio DJ the charts are something that interests me. Basically up here there are two different charts. One is compiled by Chart Magazine. The other is compiled by the the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) and is part of their effort called Earshot, which has it's own website (an excellent web zine really) and also is in the print edition of Exclaim Magazine.

The charts vary a bit and are timed differently but interesting to see the differences. By the way sorry for the formatting differences but I'm just cutting and pasting here.

Anyways here is the top ten from Chart Magazine for this week, ending March 31. To view the whole chart you can go here.

1. NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Mint/Outside)
2. PINK MOUNTAINTOPS Axis Of Evol (Jagjaguwar/Scratch)
3. BELLE AND SEBASTIAN The Life Pursuit (Matador/Beggars)
4. MAGNETA LANE Dancing With Daggers (Paper Bag/Universal)
5. CAT POWER The Greatest (Matador/Beggars)
6. DESTROYER Destroyer's Rubies (Merge/FAB)
7. ARCTIC MONKEYS Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino/Outside)
8. MOGWAI Mr. Beast (Matador/Beggars)
9. CALEXICO Garden Ruin (Quarterstick/FAB)
10. DIABLEROS You Can't Break The Strings In Our Olympic Hearts (Baudelaire/Outside)

Here is the Earshot charts for the week ending April 4th. To see the entire chart head here.

1 Pink Mountaintops Axis Of Evol JagJaguwar/Scratch
2 Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood Mint
3 Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers Paper Bag
4 They Shoot Horses Don't They? Boo Hoo Hoo Boo Kill Rock Stars
5 Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies Merge
6 Belle And Sebastian The Life Pursuit Matador
7 Calexico Garden Ruin Quarterstick
8 Mogwai Mr Beast Matador
9 Various See You On The Moon Paper Bag
10 Stereolab Fab Four Suture Too Pure

Here is the CJAM charts (my home station for those of you just joining me). This is from the week of March 31.

1 Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Mint
2 NOFX Never Trust A Hippy FatWreckChords
3 Robert Pollard From A Compound Eye Merge
4 Destroyer * Destroyer's Rubies Merge
5 Pink Mountaintops * Axis Of Evol Jagjaguwar
6 Deadboy And Elephant We Are Night Sky Fat Possum
7 Mogwai Mr. Beast Matador
8 Sutekh Born Again: Collected Rem The Leaf Label
9 Belle And Sebastian The Life Pursuit Matador
10 Califone Roomsound Thrill Jockey

This from the week of April 4.

1 Drive-By Truckers A Blessing And A Curse New West
2 Glen Kotche Mobile Nonesuch
3 Calexico Garden Ruin Quarterstick
4 Mclusky Mcluskyism Too Pure
5 Mogwai Mr Beast Matador
6 Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra Strings And things Ubiquity
7 Belle And Sebastian The Life Pursuit Matador
8 Band Of Horses Everything All The Time Sub Pop
9 Delta 5 Singles And Sessions 1979-1981 Kill Rock Stars
10 Lanterna Desert Ocean Jimez Mountain

couple of random notes before bed

-Well hopefully as I mentioned in my last post, sometime in the next week I'll be able to post a couple of "mix cd" zip files up of songs for my last radio show. However my stupid computer is acting up it seems, not wanting to find my cd drive since I was trying to rip a song off for someone. It does this sometimes so hopefully won't be too major of a piss off.
-Also going to start putting up the Canadian college radio charts soon since Sweet Static is related to that and the charts don't get much play that I know of.
-The CBC's arts section of their website has an article on the best Canadian blogs out there. Scary stat of 70,000 new blogs starting every day.
-If you head over to the excellent Trees Lounge blog, they've posted the next in their series covering the 50 states (ala Sufjan Stevens) with a whole boatload of songs, this time dealing with Lousiana.
-Interesting to see the Broken Social Scene comments on Canadian Idol get so much play in the media. Hell even the crappy Windsor Star picked up the story.

That's all for now. One nice nap, a night of work and then the weekend thankfully.

Wussy

One of the best things about being involved in campus radio is when an album just hits you out of nowhere.

Back a few years ok I spent a lot of time at the station, hanging out, listening to the new stuff that got in, etc. as well as doing my show. One of those albums that hit me was Lohio by Ass Ponys way back in 2001. I even named it my album of the year. Now over time the album hasn't stuck with me so much but I at the time I was slightly obsessed over it.

Anyways Chuck Cleaver from Ass Ponys has a new band out called Wussy. I guess the record just came out last year although I just saw it recently (thanks to a sticker put on by the promo company that mentioned the connection). I've played a couple of songs on my show and really enjoyed it. It's out on Shake It Records.

You can check out three songs streaming on their Myspace page.

You can also download "Airborne" from the I See Sound blog.

You can also check out a whole load of Ass Ponys songs at their site here with tons of free downloads.

I'm going to put up a song from Lohio next week when I put up a mix of songs for my last show of Tupelo Blue Whiskey. More later today.

Zunior Monday (on Tuesday)

Well back again with the free download from Zunior Records. This week former member of The Super Friendz, Charles Austin, releases his first solo record under the name of Lost Wax Guild.

You can download "Sleep Will Come For You" here.

With word of a new record coming the year from The Super Friendz this is a great way to get ready for it. The song is a really nice, mellow number.

Coming up next in Sweet Static, thoughts on my radio show, the rest of the last Johnny Cash shows and whatever else I can find that I think will interest people.

Tupelo Blue Whiskey playlist 4/4

second last show.

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

josh rouse-his majestry rides from subtitulo (bedroom classics-2006) *
the two-minute miracles-another quicksand voice from volume III: the silence of animals (teenage usa-2003) cc
teenage fanclub-the ballad of john and yoko from instant karma: a tribute to john lennon (uncut magazine-2002)
the barmitzvah brothers-somewhat conceivable's evil twin from the century of invention (permafrost-2006) cc *
petra haden-tattoo from petra haden sings: the who sell out (bar/none-2005)
van morrison title track from pay the devil (lost highway-2006) *
neil young-mr. soul from unplugged (reprise-1993) cc
jon-rae and the river-two hands from old songs for the new town (permafrost-2005) cc
townes van zandt-for the sake of the song from a far cry from dead (arista-1999)
margot & the nuclear so & so's-quiet as a mouse from a self-titled sampler (artemis-2005) *
broken social scene-late nineties bedroom rock for the missionaries (arts & crafts-2002) cc
the replacements-unsatisfied from let it be (twin tone-1984)
drive-by truckers title track from a blessing and a curse (new west-2006) *
neko case from fox confessor brings the flood (mint-2006) *
-lions jaw
-maybe sparrow
-at last
-the needle has landed
wussy-bought it again from funeral dress (shake it-2006) *
clark the band-prayers for shelter from the woods (zunior-2005) cc
stephen merritt-auntie toothache from showtunes (nonesuch-2006) *
they might be giants-my evil twin from apollo 18 (elektra-1992)
islands-where there's a will, there's a whalebone from return to the sea (equator-2006) cc *
willie nelson-the warm red wine from you don't know me: the songs of cindy walker (lost highway-2006) *
johnny cash-I see a darkness from american III: solitary man (american-2000)
matt murphy-worth a song from the life and hard times of guy terrifico: bring it back home (outside-2006) cc *
the old soul-river of daughters from self-titled album (universal-2006) cc
calyx-crucible from city of music (barking swan-2002) cc
band of horses-wicked gil from everything all the time (sub pop-2006) *
delta 5-delta 5 from singles and sessions 1979-81 (kill rock stars-2006) *
centro-matic-for new starts from fort recovery (misra-2006) *
thrush hermit-songs for the gang from clayton park (sonic unyon-1998) cc
the glass-smog vs stars from hibernation (makeshift-2006) *

Not another covers post...

Yes another covers post. Why you ask? Why not I say. I love covers, always have, always will. Good or bad I'm always searching for them. So I'll reach into my collection every so often to spread some around.

1-Rheostatics-"My Generation" The Rheostatics are my favorite band ever. No question about it. Anybody who knows me can tell you this. Anyways they've been at it for over twenty years and this is from their first ever release. A 45 in which they covered The Who's "My Generation" but as a new wave song. Not a good representation of what they're about but still an interesting listen.
2-Otis Redding-"A Hard Day's Night" live in Birmingham, Alabama from 1967. Another one of those great bootlegs I got off of Dime-a-Dozen. A collection of live and television appearance by Otis Redding includes him covering this Beatles song.
3-The Band-"Atlantic City" Heather of I Am Fuel, You Are Friends originally did a post of Bruce Springsteen covers and I offered to send her an album of Bruce covers from Uncut Magazine back in 2003. Well she put up all the tracks (plus more) in an excellent post but I'm putting up one of my own (that I sent her). For whatever reason The Band's version of "Atlantic City" has really gotten to me the last couple of weeks. It's not the real Band but they still do a nice job with this song.

The Anti-Hit List/The Old Soul

As usual here is my rundown of John Sakamoto's Anti-Hit List. A weekly top ten of songs you may not normally know about.

In this week's Anti-Hit List is pretty low key. He points the way to new stuff from The Wreckers (Michelle Branch's new country group, didn't do much for me), new Dixie Chicks (produced by Rick Rubin and not actually sounding half bad. Never thought I'd say that but it's a good song) and of course a mash-up of Boston, Skynyrd and Warren Zevon.

Not that I check everything out but my favorite this week is "Bonne Brae" by Twilight Singers.

Also very cool is a link new Billy Bragg, recorded less then two weeks ago, called "Bush War Blues". Not sure if it's me but the song seems to be a bit political (yeah I'm being a smartass or a dumbass depending on your perspective).

In other stuff

-The Old Soul was really, really good. No horn section which kinda bummed me out at the start but when they started playing there was no disappointment.
-Tomas left a comment saying that my Johnny Cash zip files are the same. I'm gonna check that out today but it's gonna take time since Rapidshare only lets me download once an hour. Thanks and I'll get it fixed up.
-That's it for now. Later today a covers post (since that seems to be what the kids like these days)