Saturday, May 30, 2015

Lou Reed Charley's Girl & Show # 562


In January 1976, Lou Reed released his sixth album Coney Island Baby. Produced by Godfrey Diamond, this album featured a more stripped back approach musically. Several songs featured acoustic guitars, strong melodies, slide guitar licks in some spots in a collection of songs that has drawn comparisons to The Velvet Underground’s Loaded by some fans. A single from the album was also released in 1976, Charley’s Girl/Nowhere At All. The A-side to this single also appeared on Coney Island Baby, but on the single it differs than the album version. The single version of “Charley’s Girl” is more upbeat than the album version featuring more apparent electric guitar slides and maracas, while the album version is comes off with a more laidback feeling and lush arrangement.

The single’s B-side is the fuzzed up song “Nowhere At All”. This track did not appear on the album and is noticeably different in terms of song dynamics. It is definitely heavier, coming off as a cross between something on Transformer and one of the more ramped up tracks on White Light/White Heat. The song also foreshadows the sounds that would emerge on the 1978 album Street Hassle. Lyrically, the song seems to tap into a feeling of helpless nothingness. With lines such as “Somebody’s got to help me/She makes me feel like/I’m nowhere at all” and “Cause some they likes it hot/And some they likes it cold/And some they don’t like it at/Don’t like it at all”, the song centres around what sounds like a confusing relationship, but it could also be a reflection of Lou’s solo career during that time period. Much of Coney Island Baby (where this single’s A-side comes from) deals with an outsider looking for a sense of integrity. Prior to the release of Coney Island Baby, Lou Reed released the noise collage that was Metal Machine Music. It has been suggested that Coney Island Baby was an attempt at commercial success on 70s FM radio, but many things have been said of Lou Reed and what he was trying to do by press and in reviews. It all goes back to the music, like the song “Charley’s Girl”. Lyrically the song builds on the character sketches that once painted pictures in between the notes of songs such as “Sweet Jane” and “Walk On The Wild Side” that keep us returning for more, much like the words found in between the pages of a classic novel.





Saturday Night Playlist:

1. Fat White Family - Cream Of The Young
2. Cosmonauts - Emerald Green
3. La Lenguas - Love You All The Time
4. Mick Jones - Easy Going Man
5. Black Vincent - Stacy Main
6. Surfer Blood - Island
7. Crocodiles - Do The Void
8. Poughboy - Carl Flipped One In This Market
9. Grounders - Secret Friend
10. Nap Eyes - Dark Creedence
11. James O-L & The Villains - Kissed At The Loop
12. Motivations - Birds
13. The Teen Kings - St. Louis Blues
14. The Mighty Swells - Lone Rhino
15. Luau Or Die - Cold War Cowboy
16. Lonesome Lefty - Stack O’Lee
17. Daniel Romano - Helen’s Restaurant
18. Jay Sad - Stacey
19. Deerhunter - Pensacola
20. The Night And Days - Split
21. The Go - It Might Be Bad
22. Alex Chilton - She Might Look My Way (Live)
23. DMZ - Boy From Nowhere
24. Foo Fighters - Wattershed
25. Carbon/Silicon - I Loved You
26. Lou Reed - Nowhere At All
27. Rock ’N’ Roll Monkey And The Robots - Static
28. Jared Brown - Amongst The Daisy
29. Teenanger - Rats
30. The Dark - Einstein's Brain
31. 999 - No Pity
32. The Adverts - No Time To Be 21

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 30. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Aron D'Alesio Run & Show # 561


A video for the song “Run” by Aron D’Alesio was recently released online in part to promote his upcoming four-track cassette release. D'Alesio is perhaps known for being a member of the Hamilton garage rock band Young Rival, but this song is part of his a new solo release. The video for “Run” was made entirely of clips from the archive.org website and is the second in a series of videos that will be made for each of the songs on this four-track release. The vintage clips that compose this song’s video are made up of archive clips from the 1968 sci-fi film Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Cavewomen. Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Peter Bogdanovich (under the name Derek Thomas), the film tells the tale of astronauts that encounter prehistoric monsters and beautiful women when their spaceship crashes on Venus. The music seeps into the oversaturated retro images with its hazy psychedelic sounds, featuring surf rock influenced guitar stabs and extremely catchy melodies. Mixed in amongst primal drums and bass, “Run” fits in perfectly with the video’s atmosphere, as it’s beautiful melodies fight against the psychedelic haze on this three and a half minute music journey.



Saturday Night Playlist:

1. The Bats - I Go Wild
2. Thee Rum Coves - Time & Time Again
3. The Pixies - Caribou
4. The Mountain Goats - Werewolf Gimmick
5. Warm Soda - Symbolic Dream
6. Gateway Drugs - Anu
7. Dicky Treadway And The Salados - One To Ten
8. Aron D’Alesio - Run
9. Destroyer - English Music
10. Morrissey - Glamorous Glue
12. Cousins - River
13. Metz - Landfill
14. Catl - Lampflight The Way
15. Indian Wars - Already Home
16. BBQ - Agitated
17. Neil Young - From Hank To Hendrix
18. The Germs - Let's Pretend
19. Colleen Green - TV
20. Public Image Limited - Careering
21. Little Girls - Nights Out
22. By Divine Right - Highway Alien Paranoia
23. Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs - We Da Best
24. The Reverb Syndicate - A Typical Beginning
25. Superchunk - I'll Be Your Sister
26. Thee Oh Sees - Web
27. Devo - Planet Earth

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 23. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

The Ex-Girlfriends Club My Laria & Show # 560

Channeling the spirits of The Stooges, The Cramps and a bit of 90s psychedellia, Portland, Oregon’s The Ex-Girlfriends Club released a video for their song “My Laria” in early 2015. The song, which is a play on words also features a strong pop element that is mixed in amongst fuzzy, hazy garage and psychedelic dynamics. The video for the song features, like the band’s current sound, multiple layers and trippy effects that hover around in your mind like a mosquito. In addition to the moving images provided by the music video and the oscillating guitar fuzz in the actual song, the band also had an interesting line-up change recently. The band’s drummer known as Action Lord switched from drums to guitar. This has been said to add a percussive guitar element to the band’s sound. The band recruited drummer Scotty Sounds from the band Pink Snowflakes to take over the role of drummer, while the rest of the band’s line-up remained the same. “My Laria” will be featured on The Ex-Girlfriends Club new album Sun Heart Razor Burn. It will be released on May 19th.

 More info at www.theexgirlfriendsclub.com



Saturday Night Playlist:

1. The Parrots - I’m Not Alone
2. The Reign - Zippered Up Heart
3. King Khan & BBQ Show - We Are The Champion
4. Gang Of Four - It’s Her Factory
5 Built To Spill - Never Be The Same
6. Mikal Cronin - Ready
7. Courtney Barnett - Debbie Downer
8. The Ex-Girlfriends Club - My Laria
9. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
10. The Verlaines - Crisis After Crisis
11. The Sneaky Feelings - There’s A Chance
12. Carl Barat & The Jackals - Glory Days
13. Tranzmitors - Invisible Girl
14. Shitty Neighbours - City Girl
15. The Phones - I'm So Neat
16. Buzzcocks - Sixteen Again
17. Joy Division - Digital
18. Magazine - The Light Pours Out Of Me (Definitive Daze Demo 1977)
19. Safe Word - Underwater
20. Tire Swing Co. - Red Dress
21. Dead Ghosts - Getting Older
22. The Pharaohs - Unknown Planet
23. C & C Surf Factory - Dirty Skirty
24. Huevos Rancheros - Gutbomb
25. The Replacements - Buck Hill
26. The Replacements - I Don’t Know
27. Zex - Wild Blood
28. Deja Voodoo - Cheese & Crackers (Live)
29. Ramones - Too Tough To Die
30. Ty Segall - The Floor

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for May 16. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Selections From 2014 and Basement Tapes Show # 559 & 558

For the first two weeks of May, Revolution Rock aired repeats of previous episodes.

For Saturday May 8th, a best of 2014 episode aired. This episode originally aired on December 27th, 2014 as episode # 540 and featured a selection of some of mine and some of my occasional co-host Adam Peltier's favourite releases from 2014. To see my original blog post featuring a run down of my top ten releases of 2014, visit this link.

May 8th, 2015 Playlist (Episode #559):

1. Parquet Courts - Instant Disassembly (Sunbathing Animal - What's Your Rupture? 2014)
2. Parkay Quarts - Content Nausea (Content Nausea - What's Your Rupture? 2014)
3. Guided By Voices - Planet Score (Motivational Jumpsuit - Guided By Voices Inc. 2014)
4. Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs - Hold Me Close (Gates Of Hell - South Paw Records 2014)
5. Paul Jacobs - Waking Up (Do It Again - Self Released 2014)
6. James O-L & The Villains - Late Night Drive (On The Banks Of The Detroit River - Famous Last Records 2014)
7. Ought - Weather Song (More Than Any Other Day - Constellation Records 2014)
8. White Lung - Just For You (Deep Fantasy - Domino 2014)
9. Ty Segall - Connection Man (Manipulator - Drag City 2014)
10. Mac DeMarco - Blue Boy (Salad Days - Captured Tracks 2014)
11. Ariel Pink - Nude Beach A Go-Go (Pom Pom - 4AD 2014)
12. King Tuff - Magic Mirror (Black Moon Spell - Sub Pop 2014)
13. OFF! - I Won't Be A Casualty (Wasted Years - Vice 2014)
14. Chad Vangaalen - Leaning On Bells (Shrink Dust - Sub Pop 2014)
15. The Black Angels - The Flop (Clear Lake Forest EP - Blue Horizon Records 2014)
16. Kestrels - Wide Eyes (The Moon Is Shining Our Way EP - Noyes/Sonic Unyon 2014)
17. Ty Segall - Manipulator (Manipulator - Drag City 2014)
18. St. Vincent - Birth In Reverse (St. Vincent - Loma Vista/Republic Records 2014)
19. Iceage - Forever (Plowing Through The Field Of Love - Matador 2014)
20. Perfume Genius - Longpig (Too Bright - Matador 2014)
21. The Black Lips - Dorner Party (Underneath The Rainbow - Vice 2014)
22. White Fence - Anger! Who Keeps You Under (For The Recently Found Innocent - Drag City Records 2014)
23. Swans - A Little God in My Hands (To Be Kind - Young God/Mute Records 2014)
24. Sun Kil Moon - Pray for Newtown (Benji - Caldo Verde Records 2014)
25. Teenanger - Sky Saxon (E P L P - Telephone Explosion 2014)
26. Thee Oh Sees - Drop (Drop - Castle Face 2014)

Download it here!



For Saturday May 2nd, an episode aired featuring music from The Basement Tapes Complete release by Bob Dylan & The Band. For this episode, originally airing on February 21st, 2015 as episode # 548, I was joined once again by my occasional co-host Adam Peltier as we analyzed and played selections from the much talked about and widely bootlegged Basement Tapes that were released in their most complete form as The Bootleg Series Volume 11: The Complete Basement Tapes. To see my original post about The Basement Tapes Complete, you can visit this link.

May 2nd, 2015 Playlist (Episode # 558):

1. 900 Miles From My Home (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
2. One Too Many Mornings (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
3. Bells Of Rhymney (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
4. Under Control (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
5. This Wheels On Fire (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
6. Open The Door Homer (Take 1) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
7. Tears Of Rage (Take 1) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
8. Tupelo (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
9. Kickin' My Dog Around (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
10. See You Later Allan Ginsberg (Take 1) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
11. See You Later Allan Ginsberg (Take 2) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
12. I'm Your Teenager Prayer (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
13. Song For Canada (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
14. Don't Ya Tell Henry (The Basement Tapes - 1975)
15. Don't Ya Tell Henry (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
16. Apple Suckling Tree (Take 2) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
17. Lo And Behold! (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
18. Sign On The Cross (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
19. Belshazzar (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete – 2014)
20. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Take 2) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
21. Bonnie Ship The Diamond (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
22. Million Dollar Bash (Take 2) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
23. Odds & Ends (Take 2) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
24. Instrumental Jam (Even A Tomato) (A Tree With Roots - The Genuine Basement Tapes – 2001)
25. I'm Not There (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)
26. I Shall Be Released (Take 1) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 - The Basement Tapes Complete - 2014)

Download it here!