The Current Music Blog: April 18, 2008 Archive

The Stream 04/18/08

Posted at 9:00 AM on April 18, 2008 by Barb Abney

Joy Division documentary and Joy Division inspired Zune to hit shelves in June.

MySpace to premier new music from Atmosphere, Flight Of The Conchords and more.

Snoop Dogg next soap opera star?

Today In Music History:
1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was born.
1946 - Skip Spence (Moby Grape) was born.
1958 - Lee Pattinson (bassist Echo and Bunnymen) was born.
1964 - Jim Ellison (Material Issue) was born.
1975 - John Lennon released "Stand By Me."

Do The Shuffle

Posted at 1:45 PM on April 18, 2008 by Mac Wilson (2 Comments)

Hey there. Tony Lopez has passed the "Do the Shuffle" baton on to me, so I'll be posting a different random 5-song set from my "mp3" player every Friday. Feel free to post your own set in the comments section.

Eels - "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor"
A haunting little sketch that kicks off what is arguably Eels' magnum opus, Electro-Shock Blues. It perfectly captures the woozy dread of waking up in front of the toilet. E is a fascinating character, and for some more insights into his head, be sure to check out his in-studio performance and interview with Mary Lucia from a few weeks ago.

The Smiths - "Still Ill"
Tony was not the biggest Smiths fan, so I look forward to bringing you plenty of the lads from Manchester. I probably enjoy the pure sounds of their debut more than any of their other albums.

The Fiery Furnaces - "My Egyptian Grammar"
Mildly cute song from their newest, underwhelming effort, Widow City. Unless their next album really does turn out to be the great lost ABBA record, I'm on the verge of giving up on the Friedbergers.

Michael Penn - "Walter Reed"
Oddly, this track from Penn's Mr. Hollywood 1947 concept album was written long before the recent scandals broke.

The Mountain Goats - "Tianchi Lake"
Mark Wheat really loved this number when he discussed the new album Heretic Pride on Musicheads. It's an actual lake on the border between China and North Korea (not the border between Greece and Albania -- a cookie to anyone who gets the reference) that is reportedly haunted by a Nessie-esque sea creature.

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Live Blogging 04/18/08

Posted at 9:08 AM on April 18, 2008 by Barb Abney

Tunes On The Telly Tonight/This Weekend:
Liam Finn on Craig Ferguson
Lyrics Born on Jimmy
The Kooks on Conan
Tomorrow Night
Vampire Weekend on SNL

11:45 a.m. The Breeders
They're playing First Avenue on May 30th.
More...

11:30 a.m. Death Cab For Cutie
Narrow Stairs will be released May 13th.
They're playing The Orpheum on June 2nd.
They will be playing both Bonnaroo and Coachella this summer.
More...

11:20 a.m. Aimee Mann
Her new release, Smilers will be in stores June 3rd.
She's playing The Minnesota Zoo on June 12th.
More...

11:00 a.m. Public Enemy
Tomorrow nights fakebook has SOLD OUT!

10:50 a.m. Andrew Bird
The Plug Independent Music Award winner has recently been blogging for The New York Times.
He will be playing Rock The Garden along with Cloud Cult, The New Pornographers and Bon Iver.
More...

10:40 a.m. Devotchka
They're playing First Avenue with Basia Bulat on May 7th.
More...

10:35 a.m. Local Music - The Plastic Constellations
Their CD release party for We Appreciate You is tomorrow night at First Avenue.
More...

10:15 a.m. Jamie Lidell
His new record Jim hits the shelves on April 29th.
More...

Song Of The Day Info - Local Music - The Deaths
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring The Deaths with the tune "It Takes Time" from their album Centralia which will be released Tuesday.
Hear from them again this Sunday night on The Local Show with Chris Roberts.
On Wednesday night (April 23rd) Transmission will host a listening party where you can preview the new record and win a copy.
The CD release show is next Saturday April 26th at the Turf Club.
More here and or here.

9:50 a.m. Local Music - Cloud Cult
Listen to their SxSW performance in our archives.
They're playing First Avenue April 26th.
They will also be playing Rock The Garden along with The New Pornographers, Andrew Bird and Bon Iver
More...

9:30 a.m. M83
Their latest, Saturdays = Youth is in stores now.
They're playing The Triple Rock on May 28th.
More...

9:15 a.m. Foals
You can still grab the tune "Balloons" on our Song Of The Day Podcast page.
They will be playing The Entry on April 28th.
More..

9:05 a.m. Sun Kil Moon
The new album, April is out now.
There's also a hard covered lyrics book & limited edition CD available here.
They are playing The Varsity on June 6th along with Retribution Gospel Choir.
More...

"My 3 Songs" for Friday

Posted at 2:40 PM on April 18, 2008 by Steve Seel

Hoo boy, some Friday fun today. Trisha Harms of Mpls submits: "Who doesn't love the Hanks? I love them so much I even named my car 'Ol' Hank'."

1) Hank Williams, "Hey Good Lookin'"
2) Hank Williams Jr., "Family Tradition"
3) Hank WIlliam III, "Thrown Out of the Bar"

I remarked that I thought this might be the first time that Bocephus had made an appearance on our airwaves, but a couple of listeners straigtened me out.

Record Store Day!

Posted at 7:47 PM on April 18, 2008 by Mark Wheat (1 Comments)

Saturday is being celebrated by indie record stores all over the nation and in the UK, we should make it an annual event! Thanks to Keri Miller for putting together the Midmorning show with myself and Bob Fuchs from Electric Fetus. We talked about what makes people want to still go to a store and still buy vinyl! They'll be celebrating, with giveaways and sales tomorrow, as will the other indie record stores in town;
Treehouse Records (2557 Lyndale Ave South)
Roadrunner Records (4304 Nicollet Ave South).
All the Down in the Valley and Cheapo locations, and for all you dance music fans;Vital Vinyl, just off Nicollet on 15th Street.

Coincidentally another record store success story, Fifth Element on Hennepin Avenue at 23rd, is celebrating another big event on Tuesday night at Midnight, the release of the new Atmosphere! Slug and Ant will be there signing stuff, take plenty of lemons!

Some of my fave out of town stores are available to enjoy on the web too;
Rough Trade in London.
Other Music in NYC.
Amoeba in L.A. and San Francisco.

You can catch up on the discussion we started ealier in the week here, and for Alison who asked about a turntable, we are lucky enough to have one of the finest dealers in town, Jerry Raskin's.
Thanks for all the great stories, the Josiah Xmas Day jaunt reminded me of being at Northern Lights on the corner of Hennepin Ave and 7th Street just before Xmas one year (85 86?) when the Flaming Lips played an in-store and did a version of "Little Drummer Boy". Good times!!

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Guest DJ Set 4-18

Posted at 9:01 PM on April 18, 2008 by Mark Wheat

Another local lad this week! Jake Rudh is the maestro behind ;
TRANSMISSION @ Clubhouse Jager every Wednesday night from 10pm - 2am.
923 Washington Ave and 10th St. North

He does play new stuff, in fact he has release parties for a lot of the stuff we play, but I asked him for a set of mostly older, short and sweet faves from his deep collection;

1. 'Time of the Season' - The Zombies
2. 'Father's Name Was Dad' - Fire
3. 'Hi-Ya' - Headlights
4. 'Three Girl Rhumba' - Wire
5. 'Annie' - Elastica
6. 'Eddies Gun' - The Kooks
7. 'Another Pill' - Ciao Bella
8. 'So You Say' - The Bird & The Bee
9. 'Tainted Love' - Gloria Jones
10. 'I Can't Explain' - The Who
11. '(I'm Not Your) Steppin Stone' - The Monkees
12. Syd Barrett on psychedelics
13. 'The Big Hurt' - Miss Toni Fisher
14. 'Don't You Know' - Devo
15. 'Alchimie' - Plasticines
16.' Man In The Grey Flannel Suit' - The Deaths