Hello again, free music fans!
Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #28! For those of you who are unaware of
the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at:
TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in
his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music
fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we
give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a
little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it
right here on the website for free to stream and/or download!
This week is a special episode for those of you who are fans of countdowns and not fans of TCDroogsma babbling to himself. To celebrate the end of the year (and thus another year of Songs Of The Week posts), Droogsy packed up the radio show and headed over to St. Paul to sit down with MinneSarah. After spending the past year reviewing all of the Song Of The Day tracks they decided to take an hour to countdown their 10 favorites. Here we've put together their discussion as well as the 10 best songs of The Current Songs Of The Day: 2013 Edition!
Along the way they drink brandy, discuss 60's garage rock revival, concede that there is no greater goal than trying to get money, consider ways to improve The Beatles, make a bold prediction as to what will be the big indie trend of 2014, discuss Depeche Mode's influence, discuss Har Mar Superstar's newfound maturity, reminisce about a club-filling dance band soundtracking loneliness, give King Krule some tips on his live set, discuss the value of old pop-punk records, and discuss a live performance of their number one song of 2013!
You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title
or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.
10. Bad Cop - My Dying Days 09. Painted Palms - Spinning Signs 08. The Growlers - One Million Lovers 07. Holy Ghost! - Okay 06. Polvo - Total Immersion 05. Har Mar Superstar - Lady, You Shot Me 04. Cut Copy - We Are Explorers 03. Veronica Falls - Teenage 02. King Krule - Border Line 01. Sebadoh - I Will
There you have it, music fans! Another year of SOTD ranked & filed away! Please be sure to stop back to Newest Industry each & every week for TCDroogsma & MinneSarah's song reviews.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are
archived on his Mixcloud page. Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.
For more MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter (@MinneSarah). She can also be found right here on Newest Industry filing reports out of St. Paul for our Big Day Out column
For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.
Well hello again, free music fans!
Welcome to Episode #15 of Flatbasset Radio!
For those of you unfamiliar with the
podcast, here's the story: TCDroogsma is a music junkie. So much so
that just writing our Songs Of The Week column is not enough for him.
So, in addition to reviewing songs each week, he records this
podcast and we give it away as a free download or streaming right
here on Newest Industry.
Episode #15 represents the
triumphant return of the podcast after a month off. In this episode
TCDroogsma calls for The Smiths to stay broken up, tries to explain
why indie rappers are so quick to defend Lil' Wayne, stumps for his
favorite spring album, gives The Strokes career advice, and deems one
of the most over-the-top acts of the last decade “classic.”
Click that player above to stream
the podcast or click the download button to have a copy for your very
own. Always free, sometimes good.
Flatbasset Radio: Episode #15
01.
Sonic Youth – 100%
02.
Tree – Nino
03.
Har Mar Superstar – Lady, You Shot Me
04.
Johnny Marr – European Me
05.
Veronica Falls – Everybody's Changing
06.
Abstract Rude – Rejuvenation
07.
Low – Clarence White
08.
Kanye West (w/Lil' Wayne) – Barry Bonds
09.
The Strokes – Welcome To Japan
10.
Kwame – The Rhythm
11.
Bomba de Luz – Howl At That Moon
12.
My Chemical Romance – Welcome To The Black Parade
For
more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter
(@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry
reviewing songs for our Songs Of The Week column.
For
more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter
(@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all our
contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.
Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a “Like” is a free
& legitimate way to support the blog.
Veronica Falls, The Spinto Band, John
Grant, Big Harp, & Van Stee...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies!
Welcome to Songs Of The Week #30!
That's right, folks, it's the big
3-0 for Songs Of The Week. For those of you who have missed the
previous 29 installments, here's what you're looking at:
Each week we ask two of our regular
contributors to download the songs given away via The Current's Song
Of The Day podcast. After spending a few days with them we ask that
they send us a review of the tracks. Each track also receives a
score of 1-5.
As always, we strongly urge you to
subscribe to the podcast yourself by clicking here. It's free music
and it's fun for the whole family! Plus, it will give you added time
to properly digest the songs and vote for your favorite song of the
week in our poll to the right of the page. At the end of the week
the winner of the poll receives... well... the validation of
strangers on the internet. It's a pretty big deal.
As has been the case for the last
couple of months, only one of our contributors has undertaken the
Songs Of The Week task. So, for better or worse, you're stuck with
TCDroogsma flying solo again.
So, Droogsy, thoughts?
01. Veronica
Falls – Teenage (from the album Waiting For
Something To Happen)
TCDroogsma:
As James Murphy once said, “sound of silver, talk to me, makes
me want to feel like a teenager...” From the title of this song to
the title of their album to the name of the band (at least to me
“Veronica” will always call to mind Archie's perpetually-teenage
counterpart), Veronica falls makes no secret of their desire to
inhabit those rose-tinted memories of confusion and excitement that
come with adolescence.
Over a some beautifully fuzzed-out guitar work (the type that
recalls the discovery of rock n roll as a teen while retaining the
hooks that appeal to the pre-teen), singer Roxanne does a tremendous
job romanticizing those moments when everything is being done for the
first time. From the sexual potential of “driving late at night”
to the ultimate teen sacrifice of giving up control of the dial, it
seems that the characters in the song won't be waiting for something
to happen much longer.
To paraphrase another cultural icon, Jacques from the Simpsons,
it's not the deed, not the memory, but rather, the moment of anticipation.
In the excitement of the shared harmonies of the boy/girl combo (Clifford and, I'm assuming, guitarist James Hoare),
“Teenage” reminds us of those times when every emotion was
heightened, every passing glance was a sign, and every hand held felt
like it would never let go. It may not happen that way in real life,
but I'll be damned if it doesn't feel good to remember it this way.
Final Score: 4/5
02. The Spinto Band
– Shake It Off (from the album Cool Cocoon)
TCDroogsma:
The Spinto Band occupies a peculiar space in my head in the
sense that (including “Shake It Off”) I only know three of their
songs and all three of those songs have come via this Song Of The Day
podcast.
The first song I heard by them was “Summer Grof” from
November of 2008. It was an upbeat number that hung on some great
vocal hooks (which masked the bitterness of the lyrics). In July I
was treated to the track “The Living Things,” which slowed things
down considerably, sounding both more professional but less urgent.
Which brings us to “Shake It Off.” The band sounds more
polished in this one than either of the other two and that's probably
not for the best. Where “Summer Grof” was a bundle of
mean-spirited energy and “The Living Things” was a plea for
recognition, “Shake It Off” is the sound of the excited, angry young man of "Summer Grof" settling into the expected
disappointment that comes with the end of one's 20's. Nick Krill does his best to sound like he cares when he sings, “Shake
it off, I'm leaving...” but it's clear that he's not feeling much.
Shake it off, tomorrow's going to be 95% the same as today, he just
won't be there.
Final Score: 3.5/5
03. John Grant –
Black Belt (from the album Pale Green Ghosts)
TCDroogsma:
To finish a thought from earlier... “Until you remember the
feelings of a real, live, emotional teenager...”
John Grant is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore!
On “Black Belt” he's lashing at, um... Preppie girls? Misguided
English majors? Reblogging Tumblr girls? Gold diggers? It's never
really established, but he's going to try his damndest to put them in
their place.
Unfortunately, his scattered targets leave for scattered shots.
Ending the first couplet of each verse with, “Would you not say
that you agree?” brings to mind another Simpsons character, the
preacher leading the tent revival (“People, the answer I'm looking
for is 'yes.'”). I'm as big a fan of a good kiss off as anybody,
but a chorus of, “What you've got is a black belt in b.s., but you
can't hock your pretty wears up in here anymore / hit your head on
the playground at recess, Etch-A-Sketch out of this one reject”
leaves nothing but questions. What 'pretty wears?' Up in where? A
playground? How would someone Etch-A-Sketch there way out of
something?
Final Score: 2/5
04. Big Harp – You
Can't Save 'Em All (from the album Chain Letters)
TCDroogsma:
Ever
wonder what the Silver Jews would sound like if David Berman drank
some codeine and tried to write a sea-shanty? Turns out its pretty
average.
Final Score: 2.5/5
05. Van Stee –
Color In The Paper Planes (from the album We Are)
TCDroogsma:
It
was exactly a year ago that Van Stee made their first appearance as a
Song Of The Day with the song “We Are.” That song was a synth-y,
groove-based heavy track that sounded like Halloween, Alaska without the
nuance.
Fortunately,
they've come a long way with “Color In The Paper Planes.” This
song moves Van Stee away from the precise-sounding keyboard scene
that threatened to ruin the Twin Cities indie rock scene and aligns
them with a new breed of bands that focus on hooks, energy,
poppy-profesionalism, and electric guitars. This track snuggles up
nicely against band like Carroll, BNLX, Nallo (though
less scruffy) and Gloss (though less music-nerdy). All in all, I say
this progress. “We Are” was a track that I was bored with by the
end of the week. “Color In The Paper Planes” is a sugar rush
that's not wearing off.
Final Score: 3.5/5
There you have
it everybody! Another week's worth of songs listened to, reviewed,
and filed away!
As always,
please remember that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors is
in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or
Minnesota Public Radio. We're just music fans with laptops and a
little too much time on our hands.
For more
TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He
can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our weekly
podcast Flatbasset Radio.
For more Newest
Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to
stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More
importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Stopping by and giving us
a “Like” is a free and legitimate way to support the blog.
