2019 Album Highlights & Shows # 805 & 806

Instead of doing a top twenty or top ten album list year on Revolution Rock, Dave and Adam decided to just play a collection of albums over two episodes and not list any specific number ranking for them. What you will find here are six write-ups from some albums that were released in 2019, three written by Dave and three written by Adam. Following these words are playlists and download links to two episodes featuring music released in 2019.

2019 Album Highlights:
Written by Dave Konstantino

Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel

Dogrel is the debut full-length album by Fontaines D.C. from Dublin, Ireland. The band features Grian Chatten (vocals), Conor Curley (guitar), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass) and Tom Coll on drums. The band members met while at school in Dublin and bonded over their love of poetry. They collectively released two collections of poetry Vroom inspired by Beat poetry (such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg) and Winding, which was inspired by Irish poets Patrick Kavanagh, James Joyce and W.B. Yeats. The music that they create is labeled as post punk, however, it pulls in influences from other areas such as fellow Irish band Girl Band, The Fall, Brit pop, a bit of garage and lyrically, Fontaines D.C. utilize their love of poetry.

“Big” starts off Dogrel with a bass and drum intro before garage and post punk guitars intermingle with Chatten’s vocals. This short opening song builds a picturesque image despite its length. With potent words “Dublin in the rain is mine/A pregnant city with a catholic mind” and a chorus of “My childhood was small/But I’m going to be big” that is weighed down by a history, which also blends with a duality of greed and ambitious overtones. There is a working class outlook throughout this album and it is tied in with Irish class economics and an overlooking worldview.

“Too Real” starts off with an intense guitar part before the bass, drums and vocals swoop in with a wave of emotion. Guitar slides bounce back and forth in the your speakers (apparently played with a beer bottle) as drums and bass add depth to the centre. Chatten’s vocals evoke a disdain and urgency at the same time as lyrics such as “None can revolution lead with selfish needs aside/As I cried, I'm about to make a lot of money” that brings forth images of working class Dublin, amongst the chaos of every day life. The Yeats and Joyce influence characterizes this song with little details as the chorus “Is it to real for ya?” is repeated over and over demanding an openness and honesty that also projects a cutting worldview. “Hurricane Laughter” rumbles and attacks in an ebb and flow. Clocking in at around four minutes and fifty seconds, the stream of consciousness lyrics combine a joycean/Lou Reed aesthetic that twists and bends with intensity, as lyrics such as “Hurricane laughter/Tearing down the plaster”, and “There is no connection available”, show a disconnect in the world of complexities that we get sucked into.

“The Boys In The Better Land” is an anthem of sorts that has been described as a British Invasion styled rave up. Inspired by an encounter with an Anglophobic cab driver in Dublin, “The Boys In The Better Land” draws on political themes, but also celebrates independent thought. “Dublin City Sky” ends Dogrel. This poignant album closer evokes a Shane MacGowan/Pogues aesthetic as lyrically this song reads like a love song, but it is a love song to a city that builds on something bigger. Throughout this album, Fontaines D.C. draw on poetry, embracing their Irish identities, but at the same time build on something from what has come before them. James Joyce once said that if Dublin disappeared his book Ulysses could be used to rebuild the city. While Dogrel isn’t a complex mind bending narrative, it does build on something. It uses the complexities and details of our modern times to search for identity and build meaning. There can also be comparison made to Dogrel with this quote that was once said: “Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”


Fruit Tones - Natural Selection

Natural Selection is the debut album by Manchester band Fruit Tones. The music that Fruit Tones play is no nonsense. There are no gimmicks here. It is just raw, primal and rough around the edges garage rock with pop sensibilities. This album follows a series of releases from Fruit Tones. The trio consists of Tom Walmsley (guitar/vocals), Tom Harrison (drums) and Chris Wood on bass. Dominic Oliver played on bass on the record. Recorded over three freezing cold days in December 2018 with Samuel Stacpool (Holiday Ghosts/The Black Tambourines), Natural Selection was released via Greenway Records in January 2019.

"I Know Where Love Comes From” opens Natural Selection. The song is a rush of grittiness ala the New York Dolls and The Stooges with dashes of 60s pop. As the song reaches the halfway point it attacks with its menacing guitar solo and stop and start build up. Released as the first single for Natural Selection with a video by Chris Wood featuring animations from Dominic Oliver, it isn’t hard to see how this fizzy garage punk track wins over listeners. “Invisible Ink” is a slow surf inflected number that also recalls an early Beatles/beat music influence. It tells the conflicted story a lovesick character that exits a relationship by leaving behind a note written in invisible ink. The song carries with it a certain mysteriousness with the lack of answers it provides. After hearing the song, we are left with a juxtaposition of invisible answers and complicated feelings. “Drunk At The Zoo” builds up with a loose, off kilter groove that gnaws and claws its way throughout the track. The song features rambunctious characters behaving badly while being drunk at various locations at the zoo.

On Natural Selection, Fruit Tones deliver an album that is ripe with multiple meanings about adjusting and surviving in the environments of our modern times despite the negative outliers that are all around us. With “the sass of The Dolls, the fizz of Four Loco, the Stones-esque looseness, juiced into 14 tracks”, on Natural Selection, Fruit Tones evoke a garage punk aesthetic with surf and 60s pop influences that evolves with the uncontrollable urge to have a good time.

Bloodshot Bill - Come Get Your Love Right Now

Released in February 2019, Come Get Your Love Right Now is the latest album by Montreal musician Bloodshot Bill. Although he has had over 35 releases on a variety of labels such as Norton Records, this album marks the first from Bloodshot Bill to be released via Goner Records. Last year saw the release of This Is It! an album featuring Bloodshot Bill and The Hick-Ups. Also in 2019, Bloodshot Bill put out a seven inch entitled My Little Muck Muck with legendary Japanese trio The 5.6.7.8.’s, a new single Temple of Boom by The Tandoori Knights (with King Khan), and a surf EP called Hang Ten with Bloodshot Bill. Come Get Your Love Right Now follows the 2017 release Guitar Boy.

The album’s opening and title track, “Come Get Your Love Right Now” channels an early Sun Records aesthetic. With its acoustic guitar, reverb filled vocals, and guitar slides, this song sets the mood for the rest of the songs to come. “Take Me For A Ride” is a song that is part Trashmen vocals and propelling rockabilly rhythms. The catchy rockabilly riff of “Know Myself” hits the listener on another level. While not all of Bloodshot Bill’s vocals are clearly heard due to his use of reverb, this song, like many of Bloodshot Bill’s songs puts the listener into a certain state to feel the music rather than overthink it. “Hook Me" shuffles with an old fashioned R&B groove, while “Do What You Do” jumps and moves with an unmistakable early rock n’ roll feeling. “Just Because” slows the pace down a bit as it blends early blues, country and rockabilly.

Come Get Your Love Right Now ends with three songs. “I Don’t Mind At All” is a song that showcases 50’s rock and roll with its staccato guitar stabs, and more guitar riffs inspired by a rebellious rock n roll spirit, “One At A Time”, is a mid-tempo track that floats with surf inspired guitar riffs while “Honey Dolling” ends the album. With its early R&B rhythms and trademark Bloodshot Bill vocals, it ends the album after 35 minutes with sixteen songs, leaving the listener with a desire for more. With a multitude of releases under his belt, this album may be one of the strongest collections of material released by Bloodshot Bill. With Come Get Your Love Right Now, Bloodshot Bill strikes a chord with a certain immediacy as it mixes a selection of ballads and up-tempo rockabilly inspired tracks. Bloodshot Bill evokes a renegade spirit with a side of sophistication as he once again taps into a primitive rock and roll feeling.

More 2019 Album Highlights:
Written by Adam Peltier

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen

It's odd featuring an album that is so antithetical to the tropes of rock music on a show called Revolution Rock, but there is no denying the pull of the enveloping world Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have crafted with Ghosteen. First, there is a certain audacity about the album that is truly amazing. One can look at the Jehovah's Witness brochure like painting for the album's (misleadingly) utopic cover art, the ambitious length of the album, but the most audacious element is the bareness of the record itself. After the stripped back recordings of Nick Cave's last release, the melancholic Skeleton Tree, it seemed like the Bad Seeds would not be able to reduce their sound to anything more fundamental, with only flowing synths, Warren Ellis's barely present loops and piano keeping the mournful affair afloat. With Ghosteen, the band proved just how much more there was to extract from their sound. The whole affair is an impressionist swath of synths and viola, without hardly any noticeable beats and no guitar (!) throughout the record's near 70 minute run time. Like I said, not much of a rock record at all.

Yet it works. The entirety of the album meshes together in a captivating way, coming across more as a series of musical landscapes and sonic poems than anything else. Indeed, Ghosteen's greatest comparison points are to Eno's ambient recordings, the celestial gothic orchestras of “This Mortal Coil”, and the brooding atmospheres of “Current 93”. Yet even these references are hardly representative of the overall mood and feeling evoked by Ghosteen. The ethereal nature of this sonic world has few concrete predecessors, and the entire affair is elevated by Nick Cave's soaring baritone vocals. It should be stated Cave has never sounded better as a singer than on this record: the ranges his voice crosses, the highs he reaches (just listen to the plaintive “Spinning Song” as an example) is unaccounted for in his preceding discography. Long gone is the vocalist many called a demonic Elvis, screeching and caterwauling post-punk laments of sex and violence. Instead, Cave here is mature and reflective, closer to vocalists like Scott Walker, Stuart Staples, or even Tim Buckley.

While the general misconception of Skeleton Tree was that the album was a response to the death of Cave's 15-year-old son Arthur, the majority of that record was written and recorded prior to this tragic event. Ghosteen is truly the first record fully written and completed after Arthur's passing, and this event seems to haunt every lyric, passage, and note of these compositions. The lyrics deal with death, loss, and the sobering acceptance of the world's indifference to our personal grief. On “Bright Horses,” the titular equines are initially presented as mythic animals, their manes “full of fire” which burn down the cities they run through. By the song's end the “horses are just horses” and the dynamic and dangerous beauty they once imbued to the city is replaced by the harsh realty in which “everyone is hidden, and everyone is cruel.”

Ghosteen is also, surprisingly, the Bad Seeds album most imbued with hope and empathy. Rather than the nihilism of Cave's earlier work, this album posits meaning in connection with other humans, such as a spiralling cascade of spirits in the title track, a torrent of lost souls Cave seeks to commune with. The album's most striking moment is saved for the end, the epic 14 minute closer “Hollywood.” During the final coda of the song, Cave recounts the Buddhist parable of Kisa Gotami who despaired after the illness and death of her child. Evoking the words of Buddha, Cave instructs Kisa to "Go to each house and collect a mustard seed/But only from a house where no one's died." When Kisa is unable to locate any household unaffected by the loss of someone, Cave reflects sagely, “Everybody's losing someone/It's a long way to find peace of mind, peace of mind.” This is an obvious reflection of a man who experienced his own loss of a young child, and may be the most exposed and honest we have heard the singer yet. As the song ends with Cave intoning, “I'm just waiting now for peace to come,” one can only hope he finds the solace and closure he seeks after such a tragic and personal loss.

Ghosteen may not exactly be a rock record, but it doesn't need to be. It is an arresting, powerful, and emotional journey through one man's (and in essence, everybody's) search for peace after facing life's cascade of losses and grief. It is the most potent and important reflection on grief that 21st century music has yet produced, and one of the Bad Seed's greatest records to date.

Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

It seems we are enmeshed in an ever increasing age of cynicism. Detachment and disillusion are presented as social norms, the only available mechanisms to operate within the political and cultural tumult of daily life. Notions of empathy, vulnerability, and honesty are scoffed at in favour of ironic distance. Despite the apparent coldness of the world we inhabit, people still seek connection and understanding. Its our species' greatest paradox: the drive to be unaffected by the world around us, while also wanting human contact, to connect and compassion. Perhaps that is why audiences find themselves in awe when an artist refuses to play into the cold critical paradigm of ironic-detachment, and create work that (for lack of better words) allows us to “feel.”

Throughout his career David Berman has maintained an emotional immediateness in his art, whether it be his poetry or his work with longtime band the Silver Jews. After an extended period away from songwriting, Berman returned in 2019 with a new band, Purple Mountains, and his first collection of songs in over a decade. Prompted by the death of his mother and the separation from his wife of twenty years, it’s easy to see why the resulting album is so emotionally vulnerable.

There are no filters on Purple Mountains. Backed by members of the Ohio folk band Woods, Berman plunged headfirst into subject matter most people actively try to avoid dealing with: battles with depression, suicidal ideation, insecurity, and the pain of a parent's death. The album lays out its tone on the very first track, “That's Just the Way that I Feel.” The misleadingly jaunty instrumentation juxtaposes Berman's musing over the impermanence of security and love, finally intoning: “The end of all wanting is all I've been wanting.” This mood is echoed in the self-explanatory “All My Happiness is Gone” and “Darkness and Cold.” Hearing Berman croon on the latter track that “The light of my life is going out tonight and she don't look too depressed,” becomes a spine-tingling confession of the indifference of others to his (and really, every individual's) personal pain.

Other tracks point to more specific instances of heartbreak and ennui. There is the poignant “I Miss Being My Mother's Son,” Berman's heartbreaking declaration of sorrow over the loss of his mother. “She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger” reflects on the separation from his wife, the singer lamenting his insecurities and seeming inability to connect with others, stating: “I want to be a warm and friendly person, but I don't know how to do it.” Then there is “Margaritas at the Mall,” the closest the album concedes to offering a pop song, but one which explores society's obsession with commerce. By the song's end people are seen as no more than reflections of the products they purchase, their individuality sapped by their obsession with material goods.

Purple Mountains is not a light listen. Its honest exploration of pain and anxiety, made all the more heartrending by Berman's suicide weeks after the album's release. Lyrics like “The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind,” offer few comforts to those seeking solace from this record. Purple Mountains is one of the most profound and heartbreaking albums of the artist's career, and a clear indication that the greatest of art is not that which is suffused by irony and detachment, but that which engages with honesty and emotion.

Big Thief - UFOF and Two Hands

Like winter and summer, day and night, earth and sky, this pair of albums provides a mirrored offering of Big Thief's sound, both complimentary and distinct from one another. The ethereal UFOF contrasts to the grounded earthiness of Two Hands. The summery plucked strings of “Cattails” and late-afternoon haze of “Jenni” contrasts to the electric feedback of “Not” and the rocky buildup of “Shoulders.” It's fitting that both albums were released this year, as the records offer a surprising unity despite their opposing sounds, like opposite sides of the same coin.

Propelled by Adrianne Lenker's distinct high register croon and Buck Meek's shimmering guitar work, what both albums offer is a sense of longing, like the drive to recapture a barely recalled memory. In fact, the most recurring lyrical theme between UFOF and Two Hands is the recollection of long ago love. The confessional “Orange” ends with the recounting of a long passed partner: “Crying little rivers in her forearm/Fragile is that I mourn her death/As our limbs are twisting in her bedroom.” On “Forgotten Eyes” Lenker recalls being “Hollow-eyed on Eddie Street, no sirens to hear/Just trash and soiled needles clawing the veneer,” ending the song with the mantra that the “forgotten tongue is the language of love.” Both albums are beautiful, boldly elliptical, and eerily moving. Rooted in grandstanding powerful folk rock, much in the vein of Bill Callahan or Wilco, Big Thief offer a twin-set of incredible records that not so much stay with the listener, but carry them away into another world.


Show 806 (Originally Aired ON December 21st, 2019)(Albums of 2019 Part Two):

1. Shotgun Jimmie - Ablutions (Transistor Sister 2 - You've Changed Records - 2019)
2. Shotgun Jimmie - Fountain (Transistor Sister 2 - You've Changed Records - 2019)
3. Orville Peck - Dead of Night (Pony - Sub Pop - 2019)
4. Bloodshot Bill - Only Girl (Come Get Your Love Right Now - Goner Records - 2019)
5. (Sandy) Alex G – In My Arms (House of Sugar - Domino Recording Co Ltd. - 2019)
6. Big Thief – UFOF (UFOF - 4AD - 2019)
7. Big Thief – Forgotten Eyes (Two Hands - 4AD - 2019)
8. Feet – Outer Rim (What's Inside is More than Just Ham - Clapped Records - 2019)
9. Dumb - Club Nites (Club Nites - Mint Records - 2019)
10. Julia Jacklin – Pressure to Party (Crushing - Polyvinyl Record Co - 2019)
11. Angel Olsen – What It Is (All Mirrors - Jagjaguwar - 2019)
12. Sharon Van Etten – Seventeen (Remind Me Tomorrow - Jagjaguwar - 2019)
13. Brittany Howard – He Loves Me (Jaime - ATO Records - 2019)
14. Fontaines DC - Hurricane Laughter (Dogrel - Partisan Records - 2019)
15. Fruit Tones - Igloo (Natural Selection - Greenway Records - 2019)
16. Pottery - Spell (No.1 - Partisan Records - 2019)
17. Psychic Void - Alley Dweller (Skeleton Paradise - Vanilla Box Records - 2019)
18. Otaboki Beaver – Datsu.Hikage no onna (Itekoma Hits - Damnably - 2019)
19. Shana Cleveland - Night of the Worm Moon (Night of the Worm Moon - Hardly Art - 2019)
20. Bill Callahan – Angela (Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest - Drag City - 2019)
21. Leonard Cohen – Torn (Thanks for the Dance - Columbia Legacy - 2019)
22. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Fireflies (Ghosteen - Bad Seed Ltd - 2019)
23. Mount Eerie & Julie Dorian – Real Lost Wisdom (Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 - P.W. Elverum & Sun - 2019)
24. Priests - Control Freak (The Seduction of Kansas - Sister Polygon - 2019)
25. Light Bulb Alley - Problems (Lights And Shades - Self Released - 2019)
26. Necking - Spare Me (Cut Your Teeth - Mint Records - 2019)
27. Mannequin Pussy – Cream (Patience - Epitaph Records - 2019)
28. LTD - Spicy Chicken (Stop Und Fick Dich - In The Red Recordings - 2019)
29. Cellos - Head to Stone (Cellos/Not of Split EP - No List Records/Harbour House - 2019)
30. Purple Mountains – Margaritas At The Mall (Purple Mountains - Drag City - 2019)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 21.

Show 805 (Originally Aired On December 14th, 2019)(Albums of 2019 Part One):

1. Iggy Pop - Loves Missing (Free - Caroline International/Loma Vista Recordings - 2019)
2. BA Johnston - Discount Bacon (The Skid is Hot Tonight - Transistor 66 - 2019)
3. Foggy Tapes - Fly In My Head (Cogito Ergo Fog - Howlin' Banana Records - 2019)
4. The Jackets - Be Myself (Queen of the Pill - Voodoo Rhythm Records - 2019)
5. Electric Cows – Stampede! (Wheatfield Fuzz - Dub Ditch Panic - 2019)
6. Vivian Girls – Something to Do (Memory - Polyvinyl Record Co. - 2019)
7. Jose Contreras - At 45 (At The Slaughterhouse - Headless Owl Records - 2019)
8. Bonnie Prince Billy – Squid Eye (I Made a Place - Domino Recording Company - 2019)
9. Cass McCombs – Estrella (Tip of the Sphere - ANTI- 2019)
10. Smokey & The Feeelings - Fields of Bored (Smokey & The Feeelings - Mangled Tapes - 2019)
11. Middle Sister - Ballad For A Broken Engine (The Hot And Hungry Reaches of the Sun - Self Released - 2019)
12. Sprinters - Missing (Struck Gold - Meritorio Records - 2019)
13. Deerhunter – What Happens to People? (Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? - 4AD - 2019)
14. Cate le Bon – Mother's Mother's Magazines (Reward - Mexican Summer - 2019)
15. Black Midi – Reggae (Schagenheim - Rough Trade - 2019)
16. Old Time Relijun – I Know I'm Alive (See Now and Know - K Records - 2019)
17. 3ft – Evening Song (21st Century Drone - Naive Sound - 2019)
18. White Fence - Neighbourhood Light (I Have To Feed Larry’s Hawk  - Drag City - 2019)
19. Ty Segall - Taste (First Taste - Drag City - 2019)
20. Mike Krol - Nothing To Yell About (Power Chords - Merge Records - 2019)
21. Wolfmanhattan Project - Smells Like You (Blue Gene Stew - In The Red Recordings - 2019)
22. Feels – Car (Post Earth - Wichita Recordings - 2019)
23. Skye Wallace – Coal in Your Window (Skye Wallace - Kingfisher Bluez - 2019)
24. Kiwi Jr – Salary Man (Football Money - Mint Records - 2019)
25. Guided by Voices – Street Party (Sweating The Plague - GBV Inc. - 2019)
26. Pixies – St. Nazaire (Beneath the Eyrie - BMG/Infectious - 2019)
27. Les Robots - The Remote Control Stomp (The Fascinating World of - Spazz Records - 2019)
28. Kim Gray - Handful Of Problems (Plastic Memory - Buzz Records - 2019)

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 14.

Ty Segall & Shows # 671, 672, 673

Following Ty Segall’s 2016 noisy concept album Emotional Mugger, Ty Segall released a self-titled full-length album in 2017. This album, is not as noisy as its predecessor, however, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t noisy moments found on this album, there are plenty. This album is also the second full-length album released by Ty Segall that is also a self-titled release. His first was in 2008, at the beginning of his recording and musical garage adventures as a solo artist, with Segall playing the majority of the instrumentation. 2017’s Ty Segall release seems like a new beginning of sorts for Segall. This is the first full-length album where it was recorded with a live band in a room since 2012’s Slaughterhouse, which was recorded with the Ty Segall Band. For the most part all of Segall’s solo albums did not have a steady standard lineup. His live band has switched around several times, but usually featured Mikal Cronin in the lineup. The current band featured on this record consists of Mikal Cronin (bass), Charles Moothart (drums), Emmett Kelly (guitar), Ben Boye (piano), along with Ty Segall (on guitar/vocals). This also seems to be the current live band lineup for Segall, which he is dubbing The Freedom Band.

Ty Segall begins with the song “Break A Guitar”. This fuzz-driven, noisy garage number with a dash of Marc Bolan influence, tells the story of a character who was given a guitar amongst all the other obstacles and represents a shattering of expectations. In the context of this album, Ty Segall shatters the expectations of previous Segall releases. It combines a mixture of all of his styles, noisy, hard rock, glam, garage, punk, psychedelic, acoustic-pop and picks up the pieces to create a warm sounding mix of Segall’s musical abilities and styles. “Freedom” is a striped down acoustic dominated track with fuzzy choruses that builds as the song progresses. With lyrics such as “Taking my freedom/Now I can feel it/I’m getting closer to breathing/I can repeat it over and over/In my head”, this song showcases a determination to a finding of a certain kind of freedom and being comfortable within it. It also serves as a prelude to the album’s third track “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)”. Clocking in at almost 10 and a half minutes, this song encompasses a collection of Ty Segall’s musical styles into one lengthy song, that doesn’t seem so long. It is definitely a strong point and centrepoint on this album, “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” tells the story of jealously, fame, shame and the conquering over those things as it switches styles drawing comparisons to Black Sabbath, The Doors, Cream and a variety of others. Overall, it may seem to have these styles to some, but it is a unique Ty Segall original that has its own things to say musically and lyrically.

“Talkin’” takes the listener into a more folky, twangy, country dynamic. Drawing comparisons to Harry Nilsson with a dose of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, this track is a catchy example of the range of the songwriting abilities of Ty Segall. “The Only One” is a heavier dirge of a song with sludgy guitars, along with “Thank You Mr. K” which is a faster paced song drawing on more punk, Ramones-like influences. Around the 1:20 mark of this song the music stops as something heavy is heard sliding, which is then followed by a series of smashing noises. It appears that these sounds originate from a video that was posted online in November 2016 as an announcement about this album prior to its release. Titled “A Flush Down The Tylet”, the video features Ty Segall waiting with a sledgehammer as recordist/producer Steve Albini pushes a toilet off a ledge. “Orange Color Queen” takes down the pace and tempo next. Written about Ty’s girlfriend who also has orange coloured hair, this song is reminiscent of songs from 2013’s Sleeper, but overall has psych pop elements to it. Segall has stated in interviews for this release that he “rarely write songs like this, because it is so easy to sound disingenuous, but I think this one is pretty good”. The song is more than just a love song, it provides something different from what Segall has been doing lyrically and is a new avenue in which he has ventured down.

“Papers” is a piano and acoustic dominated track. The piano parts on this track played by Ben Boye really sets it apart from other songs on this album. While lyrically it may seem to be a simple statement, the piano parts it is coupled with, provides a complex look at keeping things together. The track as many do on the album contain a Beatles influence, among other influences such as Marc Bolan, Syd Barrett, The Stooges and Dinosaur Jr. “Take Care (To Comb Your Hair)” is a playful song that is one part acoustic, two parts garage rock. The song has a simple message, make the most of what you have and appreciate them now before they “disappear” as it is stated in the chorus of this song.

This album was recorded/engineered by Steve Albini. While coming off with a warm 70s sound and feel, Ty Segall lends itself to a different area of production. Ty has for the most part produced and recorded all of his own material. Despite being produced (or recorded by) Albini, this does not get in the way of the album. It has its own feel. This album isn’t a concept album as was the noisy horror punk of Emotional Mugger and it’s not as glossy sounding as 2014’s Manipulator, but despite what his previous albums have to say, this one has its own thing to say. There is no overarching concept here and the last twelve seconds of this album provide us with a glimpse of an answer to the points I’m bringing up here. The eleventh track on Ty Segall is a twelve second song titled “Untitled”. It is clearly a false start of one of the other songs found on this album, followed by laughter. This ending may seem odd to some, but it also provides a simple sonic example, that Ty Segall may be trying new things and has released multiple albums throughout his career, but, he’s still Ty Segall. He hasn’t forgotten his beginnings and we don’t know where he’ll go next musically.



Playlist for Show 673 (Originally Aired On June 24th, 2017):

1. Pixies - Gouge Away
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - There She Goes, My Beautiful World
3. Teenanger - Pay It Forward
4. Chad VanGaalen - Old Heads
5. Big Thief - Capacity
6. Algiers - The Underside of Power
7. The Saints - (I'm) Stranded
8. Betrayers - The Devil Doesn't Want You
9. Rolling Blackouts C.F. - French Press
10. Alvvays - Adult Diversion
11. (Sandy) Alex G - Proud Rocket
12. Chuck Berry - Lady B. Goode
13. Juliana Hatfield - Touch You Again
14. Damaged Bug - Bog Dash
15. Priests - Nicki Nothing
16. Hooded Fang - Paramaribo Prince
17. Kim Gray - P.I.G.
18. The Clean - Big Soft Punch
19. The Bats - Antlers
20. Needles/Pins - Sleep
21. Walrus - In Timely Fashion
22. Dion Lunadon - Hanging by a Thread
23. Oblivians - Mad Lover
24. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Altered Beast III
25. Teenager - It Works With My Body
26. Paul Jacobs - How Did You Find Out

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for June 24.

Playlist for Show 672 June 17 2017 (Repeat of Episode 613: Kid Congo Powers, Allen Vega and Leonard Cohen)

1. Mission Of Burma - Tremelo
2. Sonic Youth - Wolf
3. Vallens - Karen
4. Hot Hot Heat - Sad Sad Situation
5. Heaven For Real - Kill Your Memory
6. Suicide - Ghost Rider
7. Suicide - Mr. Ray
8. Allen Vega - Kung Foo Cowboy
10. Suicide - Jukebox Baby 96
11. Allen Vega - Ghost Rider
12. Nickel Eye - Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
13. Beck - Suzanne
14. Nick Cave - I’m Your Man
15. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Avalanche
16. Leonard Cohen - Jazz Police
17. Leonard Cohen - Bird On A Wire
18. Weird Lines - There Are Never Too Many Matches
19. The Replacements - 20th Century Boy
20. Luau Or Die - Mojave Chaser
21. Atomic 7 - That Leftover Savior Faire
22. The Black Lips - Leroy Faster
23. The Cramps - Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk
24. The Gun Club - Eternity Is Here
25. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Chicano Studies
26. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - La Arana

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for June 17.

Playlist for Show 671 (Originally Aired On June 10 2017):

1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Nature Boy
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Midnight Man
3. Daniel Romano - Roya
4. Nap Eyes - Don't Be Right
5. The Jam - Batman Theme
6. Tape Wolves - Mysterio
7. The Flamethrowers- Suzette
8. No Museums - Surfers Leave
9. Kevin Morby - Tin Can
10. Walrus - Tell Me
11. Planet Creature - Get Along
12. Courtneys - 25
13. 13 Engines - Clean (Brave New Waves Session)
14. The Pursuit of Happiness I'm An Adult Now (Brave New Waves Session)
15. Ty Segall - Warm hands (Freedom Returned)
16. Ty Segall - Pan
17. Iggy Pop - Fortune Teller (79 Rehearsal)
18. Johnny Thunders - Alone In A Crowd
19. Cartoon Lizard - Punk Not Raw
20. Father John Misty - Total Entertainment Forever
21. Flin Flon - Swift Current
22. Hooded Fang - Sister and Suns
23. Thurston Moore - Cusp
24. Black Lips - Rebel Intuition

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for June 10.

2016 Highlights & Shows # 647, # 648, # 649, # 651

For my best of 2016, things were done a little differently this year. Both me and my co-host picked 20 albums that we liked from 2016 and played our selections across two episodes. You can download these episodes under the playlists below. I’ve included each of our top 20 lists in this post, followed by a little write-up from each of our top five albums that we liked from 2016.

Dave’s Top 20 of 2016:

1. Parquet Courts – Human Performance
2. David Bowie – Black Star
3. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
4. Thee Oh Sees – A Weird Exits/An Odd Entrances
5. Preoccupations – Preoccupations
6. Ty Segall – Emotional Mugger
7. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
8. Shotgun Jimmie – Field Of Trampolines
9. Danny & The Darleans – Bug Out
10. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
11. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds – La Arana Es La Vida
12. Paul Jacobs – Movies, Pictures & Apartments/I’m Into What You’re Into
13. Young Rival – Strange Light EP
14. Duotang – New Occupation
15. Monomyth – Happy Pop People
16. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
17. Daniel Romano – King Of Mosey
18. Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale
19. Kim Gray – Perfume
20. Snake River – Sun Will Rise

Adam’s Top 20 of 2016:

1. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
2. David Bowie – Blackstar
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
4. Angel Olsen – My Woman
5. Parquet Courts – Human Performance
6. Car Seat Headrest – Destroyed by Hippie Powers
7. White Lung – Paradise
8. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam – I Had a Dream That You Were Mine
9. Swans – The Glowing Man
10. Jeff Rosenstock – WORRY.
11. Preoccupations - Preoccupations
12. Case/Lang/Veirs - Atomic Number
13. Mitski – Puberty 2
14. Cass McCombs – Mangy Love
15. G.L.O.S.S. - Trans Day of Revenge
16. Kevin Morby – Destoyer
17. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
18. PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
19. Frankie Cosmos – Next Thing
20. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

A few write-ups on a selection of our top 20’s of 2016:

Dave’s Top Five:

1. Parquet Courts – Human Performance

Throughout Human Performance, Parquet Courts draw their lyrical inspirations from urban decay, human emotion and critical thoughts of self-doubt. It is here where the band achieves what people love about them the most. Their highly critical and intellectual lyrics are on par with bands such as Wire, Swells Maps, Pere Ubu, The Modern Lovers, and The Fall, among others. The music found on Human Performance also makes connections to the songs and sounds found on 2013’s Light Up Gold. It is also the complete opposite of 2015’s Monastic Living. This noisy/experimental release featured only one song with lyrics. As Parquet Courts gaze away from their thoughts that reflect a look out in New York City, they make broader strokes, finding a larger scope within their lyrical and musical grasp. With Human Performance, Parquet Courts achieve their most realized effort to date.

2. David Bowie – Blackstar

On January 8th, 2016, Blackstar, Bowie’s 25th full-length album was released. For this album he experimented with elements of jazz and hip hop, among other influences. Blackstar was produced by long time producer Tony Visconti in secret, as was his previous album The Next Day. Many of the themes on Blackstar deal with a man battling his own mortality and fittingly the two music videos released for this album, “Blackstar” and “Lazarus” also reflect these themes. Two days following the release of Blackstar David Bowie passed away after a battle with cancer. Lyrics from “Blackstar”, “Lazarus” and different parts of the album took on different meanings. However, as stated more eloquently in Adam’s post below, “Blackstar is a powerful record and stands, regardless of its connection with the artist’s passing”. Musically, the album is just as fresh and innovative as any of his peak creative periods. With Blackstar, Bowie delivers a compelling album that sucks the listener into the black hole of the musical universe that Bowie has created throughout the 25 albums that he has created. It leaves just as much mystery to his recorded output as anything he has ever released.


3. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

Iggy Pop has recently stated that this may very well be his last album. And at 17 albums in and being now 68 years old that is understandable. As the music of the album’s last song “Paraguay” picks up pace with its ending rant, Post Pop-Depression ends with a middle finger, similarly to the way he started with The Stooges. Post-Pop Depression weaves in and out with lyrical content loaded with metaphors, double meanings and musical landscapes that drift between 1877’s The Idiot, Lust For Life and his early solo output. Post-Pop Depression was recorded in the desert in Joshua Tree, California. Perhaps Pop has entered the very same “burning sands” once described in The Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” or maybe it’s just a mirage. With Post-Pop Depression, Iggy Pop engages the listener and redefines what it means to be a musician and an artist on his own terms.

4. Thee Oh Sees – A Weird Exits

A Weird Exits arrives as a double LP with longer songs that showcase a new range in dynamics for the band. This is the first album to capture Thee Oh Sees new line-up which features two drummers, Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon, along with bassist Tim Hellman, who joined Thee Oh Sees in 2014, A Weird Exits produces a new type of groove. Still led by the ever prolific and frontman John Dwyer, Thee Oh Sees vicious and manic live sound is captured here in top form. If 2015’s Mutilator Defeated At Last explored more medieval and folk-like imagery in the songs, A Weird Exits blasts off into outer space, lyrically and musically taking on a cosmic context. While many may say that the sound hasn’t changed that much, Thee Oh Sees music is both undeniably Thee Oh Sees and fresh sounding. With A Weird Exits, Thee Oh Sees focus on a new entry and exit point musically in a way that only they can.

5. Preoccupations – Preoccupations

Preoccupations is the first proper release by the band that previously went by the name Viet Cong. This Canadian band originally from Calgary, Alberta changed their name due to the criticism they received. Following a festival concert that was cancelled in Australia in 2015 and a cancelled date/protest in Oberlin due to their name, it began to affect their ability to play music as a band. The name they chose was a fitting one, Preoccupations. Described as labyrinthine post-punk, Preoccupations was made differently than its predecessor, Viet Cong. This album was made while the band was in a state of transition, changing their name, each of the band members moving to different cities. The songs were put together with no central theme in mind, but several themes did emerge. While the song titles are simple such as “Anxiety”, “Degraded”, “Stimulation” and “Memory”, the music on Preoccupations is an encompassing, complex layer of musical textures that is both unnerving and visceral. Lyrically, the album, as stated on their website, “bears the visceral, personal sound of holding onto some steadiness in the midst of changing everything.” The album art of Preoccupations is simple and basic, made up of lines, repetitive fonts and a simple colour scheme. However, between the lines of this simplicity lies a focused complexity.


Adam’s Top Five:

1. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead’s ninth studio record could have ended up a simple clearinghouse for the band’s backlog of unrecorded songs, a slapped together collection of unrealized ideas dating back to their Kid A days. Instead, A Moon Shaped Pool proved itself to be one of the band’s best releases and an album all too reflective of the anxiety, heartbreak, and political uncertainty so many of us faced in 2016. The album evokes a mood of dread and skepticism, tackling issues of state surveillance, environment damage, and the dangers of political apathy. It is perhaps Radiohead’s darkest statement yet, the mournful feel of the record emphasized by its simple piano lines and Johnny Greenwood’s dominant string and choral arrangements. Listening to the percussive string motif on “Burn the Witch” or the moody somnambulist sounds of “Daydreaming,” it’s clear that this is the most baroque Radiohead has ever sounded. Beyond its sociopolitical concerns, the album’s other most recurring themes are love and heartbreak. While not new subjects to the diaspora of pop music, Thom Yorke lends a legitimacy and weight to these songs, no doubt inspired by the separation from his partner of 25 years, Rachel Owen. The sense of loss expressed in “Glass Eyes” and “True Love Waits” is beyond heartbreaking: its tectonic. Yet for all the album's heartbreak and skepticism, the album also offers a degree of hope. In the track “The Numbers,” a song inspired by Rachel Carson’s classic environmental book Silent Spring, Yorke sings that “the future is inside us/Its not somewhere else.” In a year racked with tragedy and the uncertainly for what the next few years will bring our world, Yorke offers a sobering reminder that it is us, individual people, who our the instigators of change. Rather than the labyrinthine rabbit holes and technocratic paranoia the band's efforts were heading towards (into particularly discomforting territory on 2011’s The King of Limbs) A Moon Shaped Pool is the sound of a band waking up and opening to the world around them. More so than being the best record of 2016, this is perhaps the most representative album of the year, and shows why Radiohead are still one of the most important bands out there today.

2. David Bowie – Blackstar

Blackstar is a difficult record in many ways. Its mutant fusion of avant-jazz, experimental rock, and arty electronic music is a clear challenge to fans who still associate Bowie as the guitar wielding androgynous “Ziggy Stardust.” Record producer Tony Viconti confirmed that he and Bowie attempted to avoid rock music’s influence while composing the album, citing a diverse range of electronic and hip-hop artists as principle influences, including Death Grips, Boards of Canada, and Kendrick Lamar. However, the hardest element to reconcile was Blackstar acting as the artist’s swan song, a rumination on his own impending death. It’s been widely publicized that Bowie wrote and recorded Blackstar after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, lending the songs on this record the certain gravity of a man grappling with his own mortality. The shadow of Bowie’s death looms over the entire record, with its seven songs containing imagery of sickbeds, hospital visits, and public executions, while the record’s centrepiece acts as a post-modern retelling of the Lazarus story. This is not to say the album is a complete gloom-and-doom affair: in the face of death, Bowie managed to craft an album that feels utterly alive. Bowie’s voice is strong and confident, the sound of an artist reaffirming their place as an art-rock legend. Donny McCaslin’s saxophone doesn’t bounce so much as ricochet throughout the record, creating alien abstract textures on tracks like “Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” and “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)”. The record is vibrant and hypnotic, the songs resounding with an urgency that hasn’t been heard from Bowie in years. While it’s impossible to listen to Blackstar while forgetting the singer’s death, Bowie’s passing shouldn’t dominate the listener’s thoughts. Rather than a resigned acceptance, this album is the sound of an artist fighting to create and live his life to the very last, proof that the man indeed did not “go gentle into that good night.” Blackstar is a powerful record and stands, regardless of its connection with the artist’s passing, as one of the greatest album’s of Bowie’s career.

3. Nick Cave & The Badseeds – Skeleton Tree

One of the misconceptions about Skeleton Tree is that it was written after the tragic death of Cave's teenage son, Arthur, in 2015. However, despite the album's recurring themes of loss and death, the majority of the record was written before the young man's passing. Certainly this loss did play an important role in the production of the Skeleton Tree, with the Bad Seed's tendency for sleazy alt rock and feral blues completely eschewed for a cascade of sound loops, minimalist electronics, and sparse piano. The album is imbued with the sound of mourning, a musical tone poem of loss. With that said, the melancholy permeating this record wouldn't be enough to make it as resounding as it was if not for truly great songwriting, and the eight songs of Skeleton Tree are among the best of Cave's career. Describing Cave's words as lyrics hardly do them justice; they are poetry. “Girl in Amber” explores memory and anxiety over its fleeting nature. The reference to W.G. Sebald on “Rings of Saturn” is justified with the song's evocation of the author's picturesque style and descriptive prose. “Anthrocene,” with Joycean wit, rebukes the theory of mankind's evolution, faced with the ecological destruction humans have caused to the planet. And then there is “I Need You,” arguably the album's crowning achievement, a prayer to discovering meaning in a world where “nothing really matters.” It would be hard to define Skeleton Tree as a rock record (it is far too sombre and pensive for that), but it instead transcends the idea of a simple collection of rock n roll songs. Skeleton Tree belongs among the likes of the Velvet Underground, Astral Weeks, and Horses, not as a great collection of rock songs, but as one of the most profound works of art committed to disc.

4. Angel Olsen – My Woman

My Woman is more than just a breakthrough record, it is the sound of an artist defining their self. Angel Olsen's fourth release defied critics wishing to pigeon-hole her as a tormented acoustic folk singer, instead showing her chops as a powerful indie rocker. The first half of the record sees Olsen unleashing her venom: after the atmospheric synths of the opener “Intern,” Olsen proceeds to take command with a series of vicious rockers. “Shut Up Kiss Me,” “Give It Up,” and “Never Be Mine” don't ask for, but demand the listener's attention, resounding with the fierceness of early PJ Harvey and the confidence of Courtney Barnett. The second half of the record returns to Olsen's more familiar folk style (a format that nods towards Bob Dylan's own snub at the music press with Bringing It All Back Home), but with newfound confidence and ambition. A pair of seven minute tracks are definitely the highlights of this side, with “Sister” and the haunting “Woman” among the best songs yet penned by the young artist. A powerful statement and an even more powerful record, with My Woman, Olsen proves she is one of the most promising and versatile talents in indie rock today.

5. Parquet Courts – Human Performance

For a band whose breakthrough album riffed through a track about being “Stoned and Starving,” its hard to believe Parquet Courts were able to make an record as focused as Human Performance. While the crackling guitars and hazy lo-fi sounds of the band's previous records remain, Human Performance sees the band reaching the peak of their abilities. The sound is powerful; the clashing guitars cut through with newfound energy and intensity. The performances are tight and the arrangements catchier than ever. As for the lyrics, they are the best yet to come from the group. While never coming across as dullards, the songs on this record demonstrate how critical and intelligent a band Parquet Courts are: “Berlin Got Blurry” examines self-realization and isolation, “I Was Just Here” uses the search for a Chinese Restaurant as a metaphor for the inevitability of change and aging, while “Dust” offers one of the jauntiest slices of existential dread I've ever heard. Then there is the title track, a sombre rumination about an individual dealing with depression and the affects it has on their ability to connect with others. This song is easily the most powerful, personal, and greatest track produced by the band. Human Performance is more than a great album, its a display of a band at their creative peak.


Playlist for Show # 651 (Best of 2016 Part Two):

1. Radiohead - Burn The Witch (A Moon Shaped Pool - XL Recordings - 2016)
2. Jeff Rosenstock - Perfect Sound Whatever (Worry. - SideOneDummy Records - 2016)
3. Danny & The Darleans - Girl (Bug Out - In The Red Records - 2016)
4. Swans - When Will I Return (The Glowing Man - Young God Records - 2016)
5. Art Bergmann - A Town Called Mean (The Apostate - Weewerk Records - 2016)
6. Shotgun Jimmie - Walkman Battery Bleed (Field of Trampolines - You've Changed Records - 2016)
7. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - The Morning Stars (I Had A Dream That You Were Mine - Glassnote Records - 2016)
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Rings Of Saturn (Skeleton Tree - Bad Seed Ltd. - 2016)
9. White Lung - Demented (Paradise - Domino - 2016)
10. Ty Segall - Mandy Cream (Manipulator - Drag City - 2016)
11. Car Seat Head Rest - Teens of Denial (Destroyed By Hippie Powers - Matador - 2016)
12. Preoccupations - Anxiety (Preoccupations - Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar - 2016)
13. Parquet Courts - Human Performance (Human Performance - Rough Trade - 2016)
14. Thee Oh Sees - Gelatinous Cube (A Weird Exits - Castle Face Records - 2016)
15. Angel Olsen - Give It Up (My Woman - Jagjaguwar - 2016)
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Anthrocene (Skeleton Tree - Bad Seed Ltd. 2016)
17. Iggy Pop - Gardenia (Post Pop Depression - Loma Vista Recordings - 2016)
18. David Bowie -Lazarus (Blackstar - Columbia Records - 2016)
19. Radiohead - Identikit (A Moon Shaped Pool - XL Recordings - 2016)
20. Parquet Courts - Berlin Got Blurry (Human Performance - Rough Trade - 2016)

Download this episode here.

Playlist for Show # 649 (Best of 2016 Part One):

1. Lesbo Vrouven - LL (Griff Piff - P572 - 2016)
2. James O-L - Trouble At Nightmare Alley (Cancer In Treble City - Famous Last Records - 2016)
3. Trout - Burning Fire, The House (Lesser EP - Psychic Readings - 2016)
4. Tim Presley - Solitude Cola (The Wink - Drag City Records - 2016)
5. Snake River - I Was Very Drunk Jeanie (Sun Will Rise - Pigeon Row - 2016)
6. Kim Gray - Tropical Low Life (Perfume - Resurrection Records - 2016)
7. Nap Eyes - Trust (Thought Rock Fish Scale - You've Changed Records - 2016)
8. Daniel Romano - Toulouse (Mosey - New West Records - 2016)
9. Leonard Cohen - Steer Your Way (You Want It Darker - Columbia Records - 2016)
10. Iggy Pop - German Days (Post Pop Depression - Loma Vista Recordings - 2016)
11. Frankie Cosmos - What If (Next Thing - Bayonet Records - 2016)
12. PJ Harvey - A Line In The Sand (The Hope Six Demolition Project - Vagrant Records - 2016)
13. Leonard Cohen - It Seemed A Better Way (You Want It Darker - Columbia Records - 2016)
14. Kevin Morby - I Have Been To The Mountain (Singing Saw - Dead Oceans - 2016)
15. G.L.O.S.S - Trans Day Of Revenge (Trans Day of Revenge - Sabotage Records - 2016)
16. Monomyth - Go Somewhere (Happy Pop Family - Mint Records - 2016)
17. Cass McCombs - Bum Bum Bum (Mangy Love - Anti- Records - 2016)
18. Duotang - Karma Needs To Come Around (New Occupation - Stomp Records - 2016)
19. Mitski - Fireworks (Puberty 2 - Dead Oceans - 2016)
20. Young Rival - Heard It All Before (Strange Light EP - Paper Bag Records - 2016)
21. Case/Lang/Veirs - Atomic Number (Case/Lang/Veirs - Anti- Records - 2016)
22. Paul Jacobs Stages For You (I'm Into What You're Into - Danger Collective Records - 2016)
23. Paul Jacobs - Pics, Movs & Apts (Pictures, Movies & Apartments - 2016)
24. Preoccupations - Stimulation (Preoccupations - Jagjaguwar - 2016)
25. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Coyote Conundrum (La Arana Es La Vida - In The Red Records - 2016)

Download this episode here.


And for those keeping track of the episode numbers on this site. Here is all you need to know:

To find out why episode # 650 is in the middle of the best of 2016 episodes, all is explained here.

Episode # 648 was a repeat of a previous episode (my Leonard Cohen radio special) that originally aired in October 2016. You can download that episode here and view the playlist here.

Episode # 647 was a repeat of a previous episode that aired in October 2016. You can download that episode here and view the playlist here.

Today's Lesson...The Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Story ... Show # 254

Coming from Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia, Nick Cave's first band was originally known as The Boy's Next Door. Consisting of Mick Harvey (guitar), Phil Calvert (drums), Tracey Bew (bass) and Nick Cave on vocals the group began playing Punk and Proto-Punk cover songs as well as originals. The band would play songs by bands like Lou Reed, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Ramones, and Alice Cooper. Rowland S. Howard joined as an additional guitarist in 1978, which would result in the band changing their sound. With Howard in the band, they began incorporating Punk, Free Jazz, Blues, Rockabilly and other genres into their music. The Boys Next Door released a full length album in 1979 entitled Door, Door. Following this release, in 1980 the band relocated to London, England. It was at this time that the band changed their name to The Birthday Party. The band brought a new aggressive element to their music. Nick Cave's vocal style was often expressionistic and called demented, scary Gothic and powerful.

The Birthday Party Album was released in 1980. Originally credited to The Boys Next Door, the album was late,r re-released crediting The Birthday Party as the band name (it can now be found on CD as part of a compilation titled Hee Haw). Several singles were released and two full length albums (Prayers On Fire 1981, Junkyard 1982). In 1982, Cave formed a spin off group with Lydia Lunch, the band also moved to Berlin, Germany at this time. With The Birthday Party/Nick Cave backing her, she recorded an album entitled Honeymoon In Red, although it would not be released until 1987. In 1983, The Birthday Party split up. In the later part of 1983, Cave and Mick Harvey put together a new band that would eventually call themselves Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. The groups band members would be consistently change throughout their long career. In 2009, Mick Harvey left the group. Ed Keupper (from Australian band The Saints) currently fills in on guitar.

The Bad Seeds also featured a shift in the song writing styling of Nick Cave. His lyrics would often reflect a more literate and lyrical prose structure. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds released their first full length album entitled From Her To Eternity in 1984. The album featured a cover of a Leonard Cohen song "Avalanche" and an Elvis Presley cover "In The Ghetto". In 1985, The Firstborn Is Dead was released. This album lyrically referenced the American South, Elvis Presley and several Blues musicians. Kicking Against The Pricks came next in 1986. The album was a collection of cover songs. The single "The Singer" was a number one hit in the UK. Another album came after this titled Your Funeral...My Trial. This album was more melancholic than previous Bad Seeds albums, partially due to Nick Cave's addiction to Heroin at the time. Following this album, the band went on hiatus for two years. Cave would appear in the film Wings of Desire. In 1988, Tender Prey would be released The album features the well known and signature song of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, "The Mercy Seat". The album also featured songs such as "Deanna", "City of Refuge", and "Up Jumped The Devil".

In the 90's the band kicked drugs and released an album in 1990 titled The Good Son. They also relocated to Brazil at this time. The album is often seen as a quieter album and initially disappointed fans of the band. Now they are more responsive to songs such as "The Weeping Song" and "The Ship Song", which are now standards. Henry's Dream came next in 1992, and Let Love In, in 1994. The Band was also featured at the 1994 Lollapalooza festival to promote this album. Murder Ballads was released in 1996. The album which featured songs about murder, was very successful for Cave (# 8 on the UK album charts). It also contained duets with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue. 1997's The Boatman's Call featured a lyrical shift. Instead of chaotic and violent lyrics, Cave instead focused on biographical lyrics and lyrics about relationships. Nick Cave then took a break from the band. During this time he got married, went to rehab and released a spoken word album, Secret Life of Love Songs in 1999.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds returned in 2001 with the album No More Shall We Part. In 2003, Nocturama was released. A double album was released in 2004 titled Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, and a 3 CD collection of B-Sides and rarities, called B-Sides & Rarities. In 2006, Nick Cave formed a Garage Rock inspired band called Grinderman. They released a self titled album the same year and are said to release a follow up. In 2008 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds released Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, it was the bands 14th studio album. Lyrically the album referenced the Biblical story of Lazarus of Bethany. The album featured excellent songs, such as "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!", "Today's lesson", and "Lie Down Here (and Be My Girl)". The album was another high charter on the album charts across Europe.

This Week's Play List:

1. The Saints - Memories Are Made of This
2. Pretty Vanilla - Paper Tiger
3. The Ugly - Stranded In The Laneway
4. The Action - Waiting For The Man
5. Beck - Sunday Morning
6. The Evaporators - Oh Non
7. Sebastien Grainger - It's A living
8. Death From Above 1979 - Too Much Love
9. The Zeros (UK) - Radio Fun
10. The Survivors - Baby Come Back
11. The Kids - Do You Wanna Know?
12. Blue Peter - Radio Silence
13. The Associates - A
14. The Visitors - Euro Girls
15. Crocodiles - Refuse Angels
16. The Boys Next Door - Somebody's Watching
17. The Birthday Party - Release The Bats
18. Grinderman - Honey Bee (Let's Fly To Mars)
18. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)
19. Sonic Youth - Sacred Trickster
20. Blam Blam Blam - There Is No Depression In New Zealand
21. Brian James - Where Did I Find A Girl Like You?
22. Iggy Pop - Loco Mosquito
23. The Cigarettes - I've Forgot Your Number (Now I'm Telling You My Name)
24. Radio Birdman - What Gives?

To download this week's show visit the CJAM archives and select the files 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM on June, 23rd 2009.