Against the Wind

Woohoo! The pledge drive ended Monday morning well before my show started, making my job much easier that night. No pitches, no premiums, no pledging. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped end the pledge drive quicker than the last.

This week's Bad Album Cover wall of shame winner is none other than Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band's "Against the Wind," certainly the most famous entrant to date. Really, Bob? Ethereal painted horses? Far too reminiscient of those groovy painted vans of yesteryear for my tastes.

Again, no mp3 this week. Until the burner is working for me again, I am going back to the format of linking many songs to their individual mp3s. Enjoy the tracks.

Artist / Song

French Kicks / One More Time
Benoit Pioulard / Triggering Back
Tom Thumb / Preach
Nat Baldwin / Lake Erie
DeVotchKa / Transliterator
Rogue Wave / Lake Michigan
Beach House / Wedding Bell
Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos / Children's Crusade on Acid
Bowerbirds / Dark Horse
Beirut / Postcards From Italy
Jacob Golden / On a Saturday
Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin / Modern Mystery
Schneider TM / Reality Check
Modern Lovers / Dignified & Old
Essex Green / Don't Know Why You Stay
Vampire Weekend / I Stand Corrected
Raveonettes / Dead Sound
Die! Die! Die! / Sideways Here We Come
Stephen Malkmus / Gardenia
Pixies / Hey
Built to Spill / Broken Chains
Velvet Underground / Oh! Sweet Nothin'
Man Man / Top Drawer
State Bird / I Saw the Light
Benoit Pioulard / Palimend
Tapes n Tapes / Hang Them All
M.I.A. / Paper Planes (Holy F*ck remix)
Hot Chip / Shake a Fist

Pledge Drive Season

KBUT's biannual pledge drive arrived on Wednesday the 13th with a goal of $35,000. Wanting to highlight just one way how a community radio station serves its listeners, I decided to promote several upcoming shows in the Denver area (my kind of bands don't make it any closer). On top of that, I played a good dose of some brand new tracks circulating the internet. Things went well and it I raised about $225 during my show. Thanks to all my friends and family who pledged, especially Tom and my Pops.

The concerts:
2/26 The Hives @ Ogden (I missed it!)
3/22 Justice @ Ogden
3/27 Jens Lekman @ Gothic
4/1 Vampire Weekend @ Bluebird
4/20 Man Man / Yeasayer @ Bluebird
5/3 Cut Copy / Black Kids @ Larimer Lounge

The only concert you can definitely expect a report on is the Man Man show (its hard to get to Denver with all this snow we've been getting).

The CD Burner and I are still quarreling. Sorry, no mp3 this week.

Artist / Song

Black Lips / Katrina
Vampire Weekend / A-Punk
Hives / Here We Go Again
Matt + Kim / It's a Fact (Printed Stained)
Tapes + Tapes / Hang Them All
The Blakes / Don't Bother Me
Zookeeper / Ballad of My Friends
Man Man / Top Drawer
Yeasayer / 2080
Say Hi / Back Before We Were Brittle *Drew's request
DeVotchKa / Transliterator
State Bird / I Saw the Light
Jens Lekman / Maple Leaves
Antarctica Takes It! / Circuits
Black Kids / I'm Not Gonna Teach Your...
Cut Copy / So Haunted
Fryars / The Ides
M.I.A. / Paper Planes (Holy F*ck remix)
Cassettes Won't Listen / Paper Float
Justice / D.A.N.C.E.
Ghostland Observatory / Sad Sad City
Spoon / The Underdog
TV on the Radio / Wolf Like Me
Bloc Party / Banquet

Musical Pairs

A hectic but incredibly fun couple of weeks of visitors has ended, allowing me a bit more time to delve into the newest music circulating the web. With those tunes in hand, plus several interesting new releases at KBUT's studio, I decided to do a sequel to the "music pairs" show that I did many moons ago. Basically the idea is to play two tracks that have a linking aspect, whether it be the same artist, same band members, same DJ doing the remix, etc. It makes for a thematically tight show and once again it worked well.

This week's entrant into the "Bad Album Covers" wall of shame is Paul Barrere and his 1983 release "On My Own Two Feet". Paul has been a member of the band "Little Feat" since 1972, yet struck out on his own for this album. The cover is certainly a mess of 80s graphic design, but the photo makes things even more inexplicable. Why the half-hearted disco pose? Who are these white-faced women in ballet garb? They can't be helping him stand "On His Own Two Feet" can they? Were drugs involved when this cover was conceived?

In similar news, the "Bad Album Covers" segment seems destined to become an Internet-only aspect of Music is My Girlfriend. Playing a track from the album didn't do the bad cover art justice and it only interrupts the flow of each show. The last two weeks have been done in this manner and it worked great.

I'll get back to you about an mp3 for this week's show...

Artist / Song

Man Man / Top Drawer
Icy Demons / Miami Ice
Crystal Moustache / Mother's Child
Wolf Parade / I'll Believe in Anything
Eels / Can't Help Falling in Love
Eels / I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Bon Iver / Skinny Love
Bon Iver / Re: Stacks
Cat Power / He War
Cat Power / I Believe in You
The Big Sleep / Bad Blood
Tulsa / Mass
MGMT / Time to Pretend
MGMT / Kids
Thermals / Returning to the Fold (Live)
Thermals / Here's Your Future
Cassettes Won't Listen / Paper Float
Midlake / Young Bride (Cassettes Won't Listen remix)
Hot Chip / One Pure Thought
Hot Chip / Boy from School
MIA / Paper Planes (Holy F*ck remix)
Holy F*ck / Lovely Allen
Goodbooks / Leni (Crystal Castles remix)
Liars / It Fit When I Was a Kid (Crystal Castles remix)
Ghosthustler / Busy Busy Busy (Prince Klassen Young Professional remix)
Ghosthustler / Only Me to Trust
Daft Punk / One More Time-Aerodynamic (Alive 2007)

White-boy dreads

Monday's show turned out to be a mix of some new and "old" tracks since I didn't have much time to prepare for this one. Too much excitement over the weekend with my brother in town. It turned out to a be a good and relatively diverse show. I ended things at midnight since I knew I was getting up extra early to hit the powder-filled slopes the next morning.

This week's "Bad Album Cover" is the hideously childlike cover to Thelonious Monster's "Stormy Weather" which was released on an unsuspecting public in 1989. Thelonious Monster is a punk band from LA led by a chap named Bob Forrest. I am guessing that's Bob in the lower right hand corner sporting the awfully ridiculous white-boy dreads. Usually I play a selection from the offending album during the show, but I didn't have the heart to subject my audience to that this time. I think it was Bob's dreads that ruined it for me.

The CD burner and I are having a bit of a spat lately. No mp3 once again. I'll try and get this figured out. Sorry Adam.

Artist / Song

Vampire Weekend / M79
MGMT / Kids
Oh No! Oh My! / Walk in the Park
Art Brut / People in Love
Black Lips / O Katrina
Say Hi / Northwestern Girls
Arcade Fire / Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Mahjongg / Mercury
Holy F*ck / Lovely Allen
The Clash / Janie Jones
Kings of Leon / Happy Alone
Kinks / Animal Farm
Yeasayer / Sunrise
MGMT / Time to Pretend
Zookeeper / Ballad of my Friends
Xiu Xiu / Crank Heart
Spoon / You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
White Stripes / Rag and Bone
Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Maps
Tap Tap / 100,000 Thoughts
Wilco / Jesus, etc.
Hot Chip / Hold On
DJ Shadow / Organ Donor (extended overhaul)