The Current Music Blog: April 16, 2009 Archive

Flashback to yesterday.. a freebie and a "threebie"?

Posted at 11:10 AM on April 16, 2009 by Barb Abney

Song Of The Day (A.K.A. the "freebie")
Yesterday we featured the Obits tune "Pine On" that you can get for free on our Song Of The Day podcast page. Obits are an "indie-rock-supergroup" consisting of former members of Hot Snakes, Edsel and Shortstack. They've been getting a great deal of buzz lately and they released their debut, I Blame You late last month. They will also be releasing another single on Saturday in honor of Record Store Day.
More Obits info..

My 3 Songs (A.K.A. the "threebie")
Katelyn and Carl Thompson from Maplewood picked yesterday's My 3 Songs set because..

"...they are all about laundry and cleaning!"

Chuck Prophet - "Soap and Water"
Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up To Dry"
Belle and Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blue"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Today In Music History: Listen My Friends!

Posted at 6:52 AM on April 16, 2009 by Steve Seel

1939 - Dusty Springfield was born.
1947 - Gerry Rafferty was born.
1956 - Paul Buchanan (The Blue Nile) was born.
1964 - Dave Pirner was born.
1964 - The Rolling Stones first album was released in the UK. It went to No.1 two weeks later and stayed on the chart for 40 weeks, with 11 weeks at No.1.
1972 - The Electric Light Orchestra made their debut at The Fox and Greyhound in Croydon, London.
1994 - On his 37th single release, Prince had his first UK No.1 with 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.'

Ten years ago today, Skip Spence, an original member of Jefferson Airplane and founding member of Moby Grape, died of lung cancer in a San Francisco hospital aged 52. He had battled schizophrenia and alcoholism. Moby Grape is the band that might have set the template for "critical darlings who just couldn't get a commercial break"; beset by a string of marketing missteps, horrible business decisions, and Spence's mental collapse following a period of heavy LSD useage, Moby Grape's star faded about as quickly as it ascended on the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene of the late 60s. However, they remain a cult band to this day, with no fewer than five fan-initiated tribute albums to their credit.

I honored Skip Spence today with what's perhaps the band's biggest hit, "Omaha."

Röyksopp are "Happy Up Here" and you can be, as well.. for free!

Posted at 11:26 AM on April 16, 2009 by Barb Abney

Röyksopp recently released their third record, Junior. You can grab the tune "Happy Up Here" for free today on our Song Of The Day podcast as well as new songs from Kill The Vultures, Bob Mould, Coconut Records and Obits. Tomorrow you'll hear and new local music from Man Is Doomed.
More Röyksopp..

Three songs to help a homesick listener..

Posted at 11:54 AM on April 16, 2009 by Barb Abney

Tracy Young from Las Vegas picked today's My 3 Songs set because..

" I live in Vegas now, but grew up in Minnesota and have been feeling very homesick lately. A plane ticket is too expensive, so these songs will have to do! "

Kid Dakota - "Ten Thousand Lakes"
Semisonic - "Sculpture Garden"
Atmosphere - "Shhh"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Theft Of The Dial: Dave Wakeling

Posted at 11:59 AM on April 16, 2009 by Barb Abney
Filed under: Theft of the Dial

When I think about Dave Wakeling. I honestly get a little giddy. I mean, this guy has been a professional musician since I was in grade school! I remember hearing "Mirror In The Bathroom" years ago and loving that sound because I had honestly never heard anything like it before. Fast forward to just a few days ago... English Beat were in town and they stopped by for an in-studio interview/performance with Mark Wheat. Imagine how giddy I was when Dave Wakeling agreed to do a Theft Of The Dial session with/for me!

Dave wanted to trace the roots of ska a bit and told us some great stories about not only English Beat's history, like how another one of my heroes, John Peel, gave them their big break! Dave also taught me a thing or two about the history of ska. Dave and I thought it would be fun to call this session The Ska Stimulus Package.

We kicked off the fun with the classic English Beat track "Ranking Full Stop." And then Dave played...
The Wailers - "Simmer Down"
Desmond Dekker - "It Mek"
Lord Tanamo and The Skatelites - "I'm In The Mood for Ska"
Toots & The Maytals (often called 'The Vikings' in the UK) - "6th and 7th Books"
Justin Hinds and the Dominoes - "Carry Go Bring Come"
Derek Morgan - "Forward March"

Once Dave returned the mic to me, we talked about the next step for English Beat. The band intends to release a 7-song single/EP later this year. We played one of the new tunes you'll find on the album that the band had recorded earlier during their an in-studio interview/performance... "The Love You Give Lasts Forever."

Thanks again to Dave for being such an incredible dude and for making great radio! If you missed it, or simply want to experience it again...

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Arms Reaching, Smiling Sweetly

Posted at 9:10 AM on April 16, 2009 by Steve Seel

With the arrival of the crew of the pirate-drama ship Maersk Alabama back on American soil today, there is no doubt a great sense of "glad to be home" all around. Homecoming songs, therefore, was our topic today for the 9:30 Coffee Break. Shoot, it was hard to choose amongst the offerings ... so I went some of the more offbeat suggestions.

1) U2, "A Sort of Homecoming"
2) Tom Jones, "Green Green Grass of Home"
3) Wilco, "Via Chicago"

Welcome home, sailors!

Blazin' B Side

Posted at 8:24 PM on April 16, 2009 by Mark Wheat (1 Comments)

Another thing that I always loved about vinyl 7" singles was...the B-Side! It was a space where a band could try something that didn't fit anywhere else in their discography, a cover, a demo take of one of their hits or a freaky one off song.

Dead Weather (Jack White's new band) keep this tradition alive on the flip side of the 7" version of their first single. It's a cover of Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric". In '79 I bought this single when the band name Tubeway Army meant nothing to me, but in the early days of electro pop the title intrigued me. Now filtered through Jack's love of gritty blues and Alison's guttural slurs, it turns your intestines inside out, in a good way!

This is one of the singles that has been specially released to stores to be sold ONLY on Saturday. Pitchfork did a great job of detailing the vinyl being issued for this new annual holiday! International Record Store Day!! Enjoy.

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