Hot Bunny Radio April 30

CKLU 96.7Fm

6-8pm

 * denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL PODCAST OF TONIGHT'S SHOW

• Bon Iver -- Re:Stacks -- For Emma, Forever Ago (VINYL)
• Willie Nelson --I Couldn't Believe It Was True    -- Red Headed Stranger
• Mike O'Neill -- They All Like Him -- What Happens Now? *
• Neko Case -- Furnace Room Lullaby -- Live From Austin, TX
• Jenny Whitely -- Dance Till Dawn -- Jenny Whitely *
• Caribou -- She's The One -- Andorra
• The Specials -- Too Much Too Young -- Too Much Too Young
• Pixies -- Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons -- Trompe le Monde
• The Monks -- I Ain't Getting Any -- Bad Habits (VINYL)
• Juliana Hatfield -- OK OK -- Only Everything
• Romi Mayes -- Somethin Goin On -- Achin in yer Bones *
• Paul Simon -- The Coast -- Rhythm of the Saints
• Dan Auerbach -- Trouble Weighs A Ton -- Keep It Hid
• Martina Sorbara -- All in Good Time -- The Cure For Bad Deeds *
• Julie Doiron -- I Woke Myself Up -- Woke Myself Up *
• John Doe & The Sadies -- I Still Miss Someone -- Country Club (VINYL) *
• Kate Maki -- Defend the End -- The Sun Will Find Us *
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Runaway -- It's Blitz!
• Martha Wainwright -- Tower of Song -- I'm Your Man *
• The Riff Randells -- C'Mon -- Riff Randells *
• Frank Black & the Catholics -- The Swimmer -- Dog in the Sand
• The New Pornographers -- Streets of Fire -- Twin Cinema *
• Constantines & Feist -- Islands in the Stream -- 7 inch *
• United Steel Workers of Montreal - Three Hard Knocks -- Three on the Tree *
• David Bowie -- Fill Your Heart -- Hunky Dory
• Lou Reed -- Last Great American Whale -- New York
• Amy Millan -- Pour Me Up Another -- Honey From the Tombs *
• The Dandy Warhols -- Mohammed -- Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
• White Cowbell Oklahoma -- This Cracker -- Bombardero *
• The Weakerthans -- Aside -- Left and Leaving *
• The Clash -- Police and Thieves -- The Clash

Notes this week:

• I'm so happy I got the Bon Iver record on vinyl.  All warm and fuzzy like...
• My Monks vinyl might be one of my favourite to look at -- it's been so loved;
• I have such a soft spot for the Romi Mayes...
• Everytime I listen to R.O.T.S it's my favourite record for the following 3 days;
• The Dan Auerbach should be immediately purchased by all who have not already;
• Some older Martina Sorbara before she got all Dragonette bad-ass trampy;
• Yes I realize they played that Yeah Yeah Yeahs song on Gossip Girl -- that doesn't make it any less of a great song;
• Dear Riff Randells -- what ever happened to you guys?  You were so cute and fun;
• Picked up that Cons/Feist 7 inch on Record Store Day - pretty happy I did;
• The Clash = Happy Birthday Richard!!!

for the mid-century modern baby

Forget E is for elephant, it's clearly for Eames!! Love this alphabet poster of modern design courtesy of Please Be Still. I can think of at least one modernist baby that would appreciate this. They also sell prints of the individual letters...

gansta knitting

Saw this over at Clemantine and loved it - this is my kind of graffiti. Apparently there are groups of rogue knitting graffiti groups and they swoop in and cover public things in knitty goodness! It's not permanent, nothing is ruined and seriously, who doesn't love knit things? If I left my house in the morning and my front tree was knitted I would die of happiness!

for jane...

...who is sad.

dear meg ryan

What on earth happened to your face??? Looking at this picture makes my own face hurt. Like if you smiled any harder those superballs you have implanted in your cheeks would burst out, taking out my own eye through this computer screen. You used to be such a pretty girl - step away from the plastic surgeon.

milo

Welcome to the world wee little Milo!!! We are sending so much love over to Kaili and LB it's almost unbelievable!! We can't wait to meet him and squish his little face and kiss his little cheeks!! He's stunning and looks so much like the both of you it's crazy!! I mean, I guess it's not crazy that he looks like his parents but come on! He's like a perfect little Kaili/LB melt!!

neko case = tara's perfectly broken heart

So Saturday we strolled down to Bloor Street to see Neko Case at Trinity St Paul's Church and I feel like my life is forever changed. Like one of those musical experiences that you just can't shake and makes you all misty-eyed when you recall it. That's what those hours were like for me and below are the reasons why:

• It was in an amazing old glorious church. Every band should be required to play in churches and churches only. Churches and Massey Hall.
• Neko said she's been wanting to play that venue for 15 years. Her joy at finally standing there was evident from every spot in that church;
• She is so cool that she keeps her guitar pics in her bra;
• Even though she's gorgeous and came out in a slinky red dress and great shoes, she still managed to look like a little girl playing dress up in her mother's clothes;
• Oh who's that coming up onto the stage with a big beard, giant hat and an accordion you ask??? Oh it's only Garth F-ing Hudson!!!!!!
• Neko herself got weepy with Garth standing next to her, she was so happy;
• Finally seeing Neko play live with Kelly Hogan - there are no 2 voices in this world better matched than those 2 ladies;
• The sound in that church came right at you, whipped past your ears, bounced off the wall behind you, came up your back, over your head and landed right square in your belly. Every single note of it. When she started singing "I Wish I Was the Moon" and it's just her voice and when she hit that note in "Favourite" (you know the note) - I bet if you went back to that church today those notes would still be reverberating somewhere near the ceiling. I was telling a friend about it today and both my arms went goosebumpy even just by retelling it;
• She had, quite possibly, one of the best visual concert components I've seen in a long while - maybe even better than Wilco's. Seriously check out that owl!;
• Did I mention Garth Hudson? I think Marc's Band loving heart jumped right out of his chest and over the balcony;
• During "People Got a Lot of Nerve" I was so proud of myself for not jumping up on the stage, pushing Kelly Hogan out of the way, grabbing her tambourine and singing the chorus myself - I'm a man, man, man, man, man, man eaterrrrrrr!!!" *tambourine tambourine tambourine*
• I am not a vocalist by any stretch of the imagination but even I can recognize that there are few performers that can work a microphone as well as Neko Case and that most singers could learn a thing or two from her technique;
• As if her Harry Nilsson cover wasn't already pure brilliance - hearing it live and with Garth Hudson might make it the best cover version ever attempted.

I feel like I could go on all night about this show. When it was over, I felt like my heart was breaking. Like I almost couldn't handle any more of anything. Like I needed to sit in a dark room for about an hour just so I could function normally in public. This is what truly great concert experiences do to me, no word of exaggeration. It doesn't happen to that extent very often but when it does, it's a state I never want to leave. She's playing Massey Hall in July and that news is almost enough to send me right back. My favourite female performer in my most favourite venue ever????? I have about 15 different things in July but I don't care about any of them right now and will cancel anything in favour of that show.

Sigh.......that is about all I can think about right now.

*photo courtesy of Chromewaves and we are about a millimetre from being in this shot*

weekend round-up

We spent this weekend in the big bad city of Toronto!  And what a weekend it was!!  Rolled into town about 10pm Friday night, checked into our great hotel (thank you Hotwire) and rolled into Chinatown for midnight dinner at Rol San.  We ate ourselves pretty much silly and thank gosh for our walk back to the hotel cuz otherwise I'm scared to think about what shape my tummy would have been in.

Saturday up and in for a quick bite of breakfast in Yorkville and on to Harry Rosen to spend Marc's money.  And boy did we ever.  Marc, god bless his heart, gave himself a proper conservative budget to stick to, walked into the store and promptly doubled that.  A man after my own heart.  Left yuppy town and headed back down to Queen West for a visit home.  And by home I mean Fluevog where I brought those perfect shoes from last week into my life.  Onwards to finish up a couple of errands and on to Criminal Records to celebrate Record Store Day in style.  We picked up 3 great vinyl records, all of which came with digital copies of the record which is my new favourite thing ever.  Lord knows if I buy the CD, nobody's handing me the vinyl!  This way I'm getting the best of both worlds and I love that it seems more and more bands are working this way.  Post shopping, our Toronto friend was lovely enough to host all 10 of us for dinner before heading to the Neko Case show (separate post about this show entirely deserved so stay tuned).    Spent the next couple hours in musical heaven, bliss, perfection -- whatever you want to call it.  I can barely talk about the show without getting choked up.  Instead let's talk about the 1am burritos we had from the Burrito Banditos at Peter and Queen.  Best late night booze snack I've probably ever had and by the time we got back to the hotel I had most of it on my jacket and pants.  It was entirely worth it.

Sunday up and out for a quick crepe breakfast and on the road to Orillia where the Saltcoats had their audition for the Mariposa Folk Festival.  Then we pretty much rushed home to rescue my parents from the task of babysitting Sadie.  Apparently she behaved like a donkey all weekend so once again, Sadie has embarrassed us with her poor social etiquette.  Sigh.....oh puppyhood, please end soon!!

All in all, a brilliant trip and one that I had nothing to do with the planning of, which could have easily been stressful for me.  I'm usually the one who buys the concert tickets, finds hotels, picks places for dinner but this trip was entirely planned by other people and I gotta say, it was a pretty awesome feeling to be moreorless completely clueless about most things.  Talk about stress-free!  All I had to do was follow around and take my wallet out every once in awhile.  

And here's a note about Hotwire -- it was brilliant.  Now, I wouldn't use it for a city I'd never been to nor would I use it on a really killer important trip like a honeymoon or anniversary or something like that - something where it really did matter what neighbourhood you stayed in or what the rooms looked like and you weren't super concerned with staying as cheap as you can.  But for a concert trip like this or for a work trip, where it really doesn't matter where you stay and in a city you're totally familiar with, I will 100% use it again.  We got a $200 hotel room for $54 U.S smack downtown.   Excellent stuff.

Yay for weekend trips out of town!!!!

record store day

Happy Happiest Day of the Year!!!  It's Record Store Day and we must not let it pass unnoticed!  I'm in the big bad city of Toronto today and am pretty friggin happy that my trip coincides with RSD as I can finally make my way over to Criminal Records to stock up on supplies in honour of the day.  Please do the same by stepping out of Future Shop and into your local record shop and spend some money.  Back in Sudbury, make a point to swing by Cosmic Dave's Vinyl Emporium for some must-have's.  I know he's got stuff that I must have.  Like the new Sadies/John Doe record......

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist April 16th

CKLU 96.7 FM
6-8pm
* denotes Canadian talent
italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR A PODCAST OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!

• Timber Timbre -- Magic Arrow -- Timber Timbre *
• David Bowie -- Sweet Thing -- Diamond Dogs
• The Beach Boys -- In My Room - Endless Summer (VINYL)
• Ruth Minnikin -- Old Faithful -- Marooned and Blue *
• The Shins -- Plenty Is Never Enough -- Score!
• Emmylou Harris -- Can You Hear Me Now -- Stumble Into Grace
• St.Germain -- Sure Thing -- Tourist
• Rheostatics -- Saskatchewan -- Double Live *
• Eric's Trip -- I Often Dream of Trains -- Long Days Ride Till Tomorrow *
• Nathan Lawr -- It Had To Be You -- The Heart Beats A Waltz *
• Heavy Trash -- Under The Waves -- Heavy Trash
• Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas -- Satisfied Mind -- Songs to No One (VINYL)
• The New Pornographers -- All the Old Showstoppers -- Challengers *
• The New Amsterdams -- Lay on the Rails -- At the Foot of my Rival
• Plumtree -- Racing Gloves -- Predicts the Future *
  
• Daniel Lanois -- Falling at Your Feet -- Shine *
  
• Townes van Zandt -- No Deal -- High, Low and in Between
• Leonard Cohen -- Diamonds in the Mine -- Songs of Love and Hate *
• Sleepy Sun -- Lord -- Embrace
• Peter Elkas -- Darling See -- Wall of Fire *
• Neko Case -- Magpie to the Morning -- Middle Cyclone
• Yoko Casionos -- Loose Cannon -- These are the New Old Times *
• Pretty Girls Make Graves -- Selling the Wind -- Elan Vital
• Metric -- Twilight Galaxy -- Fantasies *

Notes this week:

• Dear Timber Timbre: I still love your record after all these weeks;
• Beach Boys "In My Room" = Tara sway, sway, sway, sway....
• That Shins song is a cover of a Tenement Halls song...
• Dear Heavy Trash: Please come back to town and rock this little girl's heart out;
• That Sleepy Sun song is great -- thanks Kellita!
• Yoko Casionos --- toe tap, toe tap, toe tapping fun!
• Dear PGMG: Did you really and truly write a record that good? Yes you sure did!

peace of mind

I love Jane for Twittering this earlier today - I feel as though we must find the money for this at my office!! Jackson Wang's Peace of Mind Vending Machines. In a nutshell, vending machines filled with items "needed" for comfort and security. Items include emergency chocolate, demarcation tape for those Les Nessman types out there, comfort teddy bears, whisper amplifiers, security blanket and even emergency cigarettes.

Funny. Both the vending machine and the fact that his name is Jackson Wang. I said wang...

dear john...

So I'm headed to Toronto next weekend and in all honesty, I was not planning on going by Fluevog. Really, I wasn't at all. Then my friend asked me to visit a pair of shoes there for her and try them on to see how close they are to true size (which as any Fluevog fan will tell you, they are not at all) so she can order a pair online.

Then the inevitable happened. I went to the website just to see what was going on over at John's place. Then I saw these Blind Faith low Alyssa's. And now I feel like I must get them.  And although I think the black ones are adorable, it's hard to pass up the blue/white ones.  What to do???

weekend round up

For the love of all that is holy, I've managed to finally wrestle the computer away from Marc long enough to do my weekend round-up!  And only 3 days late!!  Seriously, my husband is the busiest guy in the town lately but that's a story for another time.

I don't have much to report actually, after all that hullabaloo.  4 day weekend here in Canadaland and I soaked up every last millisecond of it.  Here's how it went down for me and I suspect most other people:  Friday - wake up, eat, eat, go to bed.  Saturday - grocery shop, eat, eat, eat, visit with friends, drink, go to bed.  Sunday - eat, eat, bubble bath, family nap (my fave thing ever!!), veg, go to bed.  Monday - soak up sun, eat, eat, puppy school, bed.   

That's honestly about it.  As I mentioned last week in secret code talk, I thought I was coming down with something so this weekend I took zero chances and was vitamined and early to bed every night.  Next weekend is our huge conference at work so I cannot afford even a sniffle!

Hope all Cowgirl readers had an equally lovely Zombie Jesus weekend!!!

bedroom discoveries

So curiosity got the better of us this weekend -- we had a hunch this stupid jut-out in our bedroom was, in fact, the chimney and all the original exposed brick.  Seeing as how we wanted to re-do that drywall anyway, we decided to pull a bit away to see if our hunch was right.  It was.

Now the question is:  Do we do it or do we not???  I kinda wanna do it...

oh billy bob...

For any of my American readers who may have missed this, you have to see this painfully awful interview given by already confusing Billy Bob Thornton on the CBC show "Q." . It's all the fuss here in the Great White North this week. I'm not a fan of the interviewer normally but I gotta give Jian Ghomeshi props for not reaching across the table and strangling him at some point. Things start getting really fun around the 7 minute mark! And whooda thunk it that the fact that we Canucks don't throw things at rock concerts would be held against us?

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist April 9th

CKLU.96.7fm

6-8pm

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST OF THE FULL SHOW!!

Today is my lovely friend Liana's birthday.  Tonight's show is inspired by her.

• Amy Millan -- Blue in Yr Eye -- Honey From the Tombs *
• Bon Iver -- Skinny Love -- For Emma, Forever Ago
• Melissa McClelland -- A Girl Can Dream -- Victoria Day *
• Joan Jett & the Blackhearts -- Crimson & Clover -- I Love Rock and Roll (VINYL)
• The Bird & The Bee -- Birthday -- Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
• Cat Power -- Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again -- I'm Not There OSR
  
• Danny Michel -- Tennessee Tobacco -- Valhalla *
• George Harrison -- Beautiful Girl -- Thirty Three & 1/3 (VINYL)
• The Decemberists -- O Valencia! -- The Crane Wife
• Dressy Bessy -- There's A Girl -- Sound Go Round
• The Von Bondies -- 21st Birthday -- Love, Hate, and Then There's You
• Social Distortion --  Under My Thumb -- Live Heat (VINYL)
• Fleet Foxes -- White Winter Hymnal -- Fleet Foxes
• Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs -- Getting High for Jesus -- Dirt Don't Hurt
• Immaculate Machine -- Jarhand - Fables *
• Neko Case -- Pretty Girls -- Blacklisted (VINYL)
• Jenny Lewis -- Acid Tongue -- Acid Tongue
• Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson -- Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys -- Waylon & Willie
• Jenny Whiteley -- Banjo Girl -- Dear *
• Dan Auerbach -- When I Left the Room -- Keep It Hid
• The Kinks -- Denmark Street -- Lola vs. Powerman & the Moneygoround Pt.1
• Yeah Yeah Yeah's -- Zero -- It's Blitz!!
• Maow -- How Does That Grab You -- The Unforgiving Sounds of... *
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds -- Babe, You Turn Me On -- The Lyre of Orpheus
• Ray Lamontagne -- You Are The Best Thing -- Gossip in the Grain
• Julie Doiron -- Blue -- I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day *
• Sunparlour Players -- If the Creeks Don't Rise -- Hymns for the Happy *
• Malajube -- Luna -- Labyrinthes *
• United Steel Workers of Montreal -- Imaginary Bars -- (weewerk) is 6! *
• The Zombies -- I Love You -- The Best of (VINYL)
• Ryan Adams -- Like A Fool -- Score! 20 Years of Merge Records - The Covers *

Notes this week:

• Seriously, I cannot stop listening to this Bon Iver song.  It makes me want to cry;
• If you don't love that Joan Jett song you are made of wood;
• If you don't wiggle to that Danny Michel song, see above wood comment;
• I don't know what it is about "O Valencia" but every time I hear it it's still the best song ever written.  It's like West Side Story in 3 minutes and 48 seconds.  Which for me is much preferable to sitting through the actual W.S.S,;
• OK, so maybe the Social D doesn't exactly fit into my theme, sorry Liana, that one was for me...
• Thanks Holly Golightly, you can't have an Easter without a good Jesus song;
• Fun = that Immaculate Machine song;
• Dear Yeah Yeah Yeah's:  heeheeheeheeheehee...that song makes me want to be in a dance club I'm much too old to actually be in;
• that Ryan Adams song is a cover of a Superchunk song

sun giant

Amazon had the new Fleet Foxes "Sun Giant" EP for sale for $0.99.  Sweetness!  One of my fave bands of last year, I will happily devour this new batch of songs.  Unfortunately, Amazon is being a dirty bitch so instead I just happily handed over my $5 to iTunes.  Cuz I'm made of money.

don't say it out loud, don't say it out loud....

I do not have time for you.  Now of all times especially.

I'm persistently chilled.  I'm headachy.  I'm excessively sleepy. 

 I refuse to say the words out loud.

days with my father

tissuetissuetissue!!!!!

This is the saddest/most touching website I've seen in awhile.  Joanna posted this story today about Phillip Toledano and the project he's created to document his attempt to make his father's last days as happy as possible.  As a daddy's girl, this breaks my heart and I would probably do the same thing if it meant he'd be happy.  Below is the story of the website Days With My Father.

felting

So last night I took a felting workshop.  I know, I should give you all a minute to recover from the shock of that statement.  Yes.  I did something crafty.  On purpose.  And I must say -- it was really, really super fun and I'm likely going to do more of it. It's easy, imperfect and takes really no skill at all.  Like a monkey could do this.  Likely why I liked it so much. Offered at a great little shop downtown called Mimi & Lulu's, I couldn't resist the adorable little project they were advertising.  Now this picture is NOT what I made - my skills are about 72 miles from that.  But I did make something adorable and intend to give it to my soon-to-be new family member Milo.  I also intend to keep it a surprise for them but I will post a picture once Milo has been properly gifted.  

I just wanted to admit that my name is Tara.  I did something crafty.  And I loved it.

Felted giraffe courtesy of Birds and the Bees.

weekend round-up

Seriously, it's Wednesday and I'm writing my weekend round-up???  Yup - it's been one of those weeks.

Friday seems to be our day to decompress lately so we kinda went with that theme again this Friday.

Saturday was a day of errand running x 1000 it seemed.  Like one of those errand trips that feel like you have to go everywhere and then you do, in fact, go everywhere.  Home in time for dinner and out again to the Violet Archers show at Cosmic Dave's Vinyl Emporium.  My first in-store concert at our new vinyl place and I gotta say, it's my new fave place to see shows.  It's small and therefore free of that drunk guy that's either 1) blocking my whole view of the show and passing gas the entire time or 2) playing foozball with a fever that would rival the gods themselves.  It was glorious.  We brought a great bottle of wine, I drank 3/4 of it cuz that's apparently what I do now.  I also have to say how much better the Violet Archers are live than on their disc.  Even better than the headliner, at least for me, was my great discovery of Great Aunt Ida.  Love it, love it, love it.  A squeaky voiced girl singer = Tara's favourite thing.  I am now on a mission to devour anything she's ever done.  Post show, we opted for a "quick cocktail" as we were all pumped about being home at a respectable hour (the show was early).  Yah......we got home at like 2am or something stupid like that.  I am blaming our friends who I'm also saying kidnapped us and paid for our drinks.

Sunday we had a haircut with Paula and her new shiny baby Beth who is the most well-behaved infant I've ever been around.  2 solid hours of visiting and not one peep of discontentment.  She made my uterus hurt and then some.  Home in time for lunch and out to a rally in the perfect sunshine to save our local CBC Radio outlet from going more or less to craptown.  It was great fun and had none of that negative "let's protest cuz look how mad we are" vibe that those kinds of things often have.  Who knows what will happen but it was inspiring to be around such a diverse group of people.  Cuz, after all, a geographical area bigger than France surely doesn't need radio created specifically for it's own needs right?  I'm sure the folks up in James Bay really give a crap about the road conditions on the 401.....

Post-rally, home to Marc's genius last minute supper of tagliatelle with a homemade vodka cream sauce.  Pretty damn good considering we were minutes away from a dinner of PB&J sammiches.  

national cleavage day

Taking a moment to wish everyone Happy National Cleavage Day!! Apparently it's designed to "solemnize women's independence and power in all facets of life, from their careers to their relationships to their own destiny."

To further honour the occasion why not take a trip over to Celebrity Sideboob and see Peter Griffin's fantasy come to life?

Although I couldn't imagine 2 things created for such different reasons entirely...

panko

After a few months of constant searching and looking, I'm either missing the stock of Panko breadcrumbs entirely or nobody in my town carries them. I suspect the latter. Sometimes I hate living in a town that deprives me of proper breadcrumbs.

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist April 2nd

CKLU 96.7FM
* denotes Canadian talent
italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST

• Jenny Omnichord - Charlotte or Otis -- Charlotte or Otis *
• Tangiers -- Kiss My Lips -- Hot New Spirits *
• The White Stripes -- There's No Home For You Here -- Elephant
• The Corb Lund Band -- She Won't Come To Me -- Five Dollar Bill *
• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion -- Son of Sam -- Jukebox Explosion (vinyl)
• Neko Case -- Middle Cyclone -- Middle Cyclone *
• Robyn Hitchcock -- City of Women -- Wig In A Box: Songs From & Inspired by Hedwig & the Angry Inch
• Liz Phair -- Supernova -- Supernova
• Deep Dark Woods -- Farewell -- Winter Hours *
• Neil Young -- Tell Me Why (LP Version) -- After the Goldrush *
• Black Mountain -- Stormy High -- In The Future
• Hot Panda -- Gold Star Swimmer -- Volcano...Bloody Volcano *
• Metric -- Stadium Love -- Fantasies *
• Jenny Lewis -- Carpetbaggers -- Acid Tongue (VINYL)
• Rheostatics -- Here to There to You -- Night of the Shooting Stars *
• Kyp Harness -- The Rock -- The Floating World *
• The Decemberists -- The Hazards of Love 1(The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone) -- The Hazards of Love
• The Be Good Tanyas -- Rowdy Blues -- Chinatown *
• Joel Plaskett -- Deny, Deny, Deny -- Three *
• Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros -- Ramshackle Day Parade -- Streetcore
  
• Jason Bajada -- Home's Still Your Bones - Loveshit *
• The Replacements -- Till We're Nude -- Nothing For All
• The Weakerthans -- Plea From a Cat Named Virtue -- Reconstruction Site (VINYL)*
• M Ward -- To Save Me -- Hold Time
• Emiliana Torrini -- Next Time Around -- Fisherman's Woman
• Jonathan Richman -- Cappucino Bar -- Action Packed
• Andrew Vincent -- Under Your Thumb -- Rotten Pear *
• Guided By Voices -- Picture Me Big Time -- Do The Collapse
  
• The Kinks -- A Well Respected Man -- Greatest Hits (VINYL)
• Two Hours Traffic -- New Love -- Isolator *
• Jenn Grant -- Heartbreaker -- Echoes

• NOTES THIS WEEK
• I played the Liz Phair based solely on a teenage music conversation I had with Kaili earlier this week;
  
• That Deep Dark Woods record makes me want to put the Fleet Foxes record on right after;
• That Black Mountain song makes me want to stand on tables, do high kicks and swing my non-existent long hair around;
  
• Oh Metric....sweet sweet Metric....
• Dear Decemberists: I don't even understand what that song title is supposed to mean let alone be able to say it without mistake on-air;
• As I Twittered earlier this week: the new Joel Plaskett triple disc could EASILY be made into a galactically great double record.  Man, "Deny, Deny, Deny" is a great song;
• Jason Bajada -- I think I may have fallen in love with someone new;
• There's something truly special about hearing that Weakerthans song live and singing along with the whole rest of the venue all at once.  And everyone ALWAYS knows ALL the words.  It's goosebumpy and has a whole other unexplainable energy..
• This M Ward song makes me play desktop keyboard;
• Yup new Andrew Vincent - still good!
• This Guided By Voices played to promote the fact that we're trying to resurrect the phrase "like 10."  This song kinda goes with that...
• I listened to nothing but The Kinks for the better part of the afternoon, had to play it;

banjo-saurus

I saw this on a folk music mailing group I belong to at work and thought it was funny and worth sharing given that I married me a banjo player.

" Please note the "folk" results of the Juno Awards. Jayme Stone in the World Music category and Old Man Luedecke in the solo Folk Routes category both armed with banjos winning 2\3 of the available Juno awards for folk music should be taken as a harbinger of things to come and as advice for guitar players to switch. The banjo being the finest instrument on earth is something that a minority of the folk community has recognized for generations and its only now that the rest of society, as illustrated by the Juno results, is catching on to this obvious truth. Banjo players are the best cooks, the best community leaders and are the worlds best lovers. Its that syncopated finger movement that really counts whether frying a pork chop, giving a politician the finger or exciting a lover.

Linus talking to Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame put it quite succinctly when he said
"The way I see it, as soon as a baby is born, he should be issued a banjo."

now green day, meet the theatre

Ticketnews.com is reporting that "Green Day's iconic 2004 album "American Idiot" is in pre-production to become a theatrical event. The trio is collaborating with Michael Mayer, renowned director of "Spring Awakening," which garnered eight Tony Awards, including Best Director and Best Musical in 2007.

The musical is expected to premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre in Berkeley, CA, on September 4 with a run through October 11. Tickets are on sale now for preview performances on September 4-5, 9-10 and 13 with tickets priced at $32 to $54 for these five dates only.

"We are really excited to be working with Michael Mayer on 'American Idiot' to the stage. We'd been thinking of bringing 'American Idiot' to the stage, but knew we needed to find the right partners," said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong in a statement. "After meeting with Michael to discuss the possibility, he invited us to see 'Spring Awakening.' We were so impressed with that production, as well as his vision for 'American Idiot,' that we knew we'd found the perfect collaborator."

Armstrong continued, "Plus, doing it in our hometown at Berkeley Rep was an obvious bonus. They're an amazing theatre group, very adventurous, and their willingness to take chances is in keeping with the spirit of the album. The end result will be terrific, and we're really proud."The theatrical version of "American Idiot" includes every song from the album as well as several new songs from "21st Century Breakdown." The musical follows 19 working-class characters from the suburbs to the city to the Middle East, as they seek redemption in world filled with frustration.

"When I first heard 'American Idiot,' I was struck by its innate theatricality," explained Mayer in a statement. "Here was a new musical drama begging to be staged. Who would have thought that one of the most brutally honest, eloquent, passionate, funny, and poetic theatrical responses to the post 9-11 world would be a Green Day record?"

What's with all the musical moves to the theatre lately?