Albums of the Year

After many hours of listening, scribbling notes on pieces of junk mail, re-listening, and scribbling more notes, my top 20 albums of the year list came to fruition. I am rather happy with how it turned out, and it translated to a nice year-end radio show. It was fun being on at 10 am on New Year's Eve, knowing I had many more listeners than I normally would expect. Many thanks to everyone who listened and supported me throughout the year.

My list is posted below as part of the show's playlist. Comparing the year-end list with my half-year list, a couple things pop out. Most notably, the fall of Feist's "The Reminder" from #4 to #16 at year's end. While it contains many great tracks, the slow and wandering second half of the album eventually lead to its downfall. It was perhaps the most front-loaded album of the year. Also of note, both Justice and Simian Mobile Disco failed to land in my Top 20 at the end of the year. They are both enjoyable and innovative albums, but electronic dance albums often don't come together for me (i.e. the single tracks are outstanding, but the album doesn't feel cohesive and they don't yield repeated listens).

An mp3 of the first 80 minutes of the show has been uploaded! Click below. I was hoping to have two mp3s covering the entire show for everyone, but the second CD-R I had decided not to cooperate. Sorry.

Music is My Girlfriend - 12/31/07
* Recording begins with the last minute of "Auld Lang Syne" (the New Year's Song) and ends along with Jens Lekman's "Your Arms Around Me" (which was played AFTER Patrick Wolf's "Bluebells" due to CD skipping problems. Just listen, you'll see).

Playlist
Rank. Artist - Album

20. The Shaky Hands - The Shaky Hands
"Why and How Come"

19. !!! - Myth Takes
"Heart of Hearts"

18. Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor
"Nothing is True"

17. King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
"No Regrets"

16. Feist - The Reminder
"I Feel it All"

15. Datarock - Datarock
"I Used to Dance with my Daddy"

14. Radiohead - In Rainbows
"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"

13. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
"The Underdog"

12. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
"To the East"

11. Menomena - Friend and Foe
"Wet and Rusting"

- Excellent EP Interlude - Ra Ra Riot - self-titled EP - "Each Year"

10. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
"Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"

9. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
"Nantes"

8. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
"Your Arms Around Me"

7. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
"Bluebells"

6. National - The Boxer
"Fake Empire"

5. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
"Keep the Car Running"

4. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
"Gronlandic Edit"

3. M.I.A. - Kala
"Paper Planes"

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
"Skinny Love"

- Excellent EP Interlude - Los Campesinos! - Sticking Fingers into Sockets EP - "You! Me! Dancing!"

1. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
"All My Friends"
"Us v Them"

Thanks for listening. See you next year!

Old Time Dave visits KBUT

Monday night I was treated to a special surprise as I entered the KBUT studios to prepare for my show. I knew that my buddy Josh Bock was filling in for Arvin's show ahead of mine, but I was not aware that he had Old Time Dave, a folk singer/songwriter/comedian from Lyons, CO, in the studio with him. I quickly convinced Dave to stick around and sing a couple tunes to fit in with my theme of "snow". Dave went off into some quiet of corner of KBUT to contemplate his mission and came back about 30 minutes into the show with several winners. If you haven't downloaded any of my shows to date, I would highly recommend downloading this one. As a special treat, I started recording early to catch more of Old Time Dave's live music and antics. After Dave and Josh and everyone else left, a small but amazing dance party erupted in the studio, as evidenced by the last couple tracks on this week's playlist.

No "Bad Album Cover" this week, as there was just too much excitement to dig around and find a qualified recipient. Plus, Herbie Mann deserves more time.

Click below and follow the instructions to download an mp3 of this week's show:
Music is My Girlfriend - 12/10/2007

Artist / Song

Jonathan Richman / Abdominable Snowman in the Supermarket
Be Good Tanyas / Rain and Snow
Elliott Smith / Angel in the Snow
Belle and Sebastian / Winter Wooskie
Mew / Snow Brigade
Motorhead / Ace of Spades (live) *by request
King Khan & BBQ Shrine / Into the Snow
Zookeeper / Snow in Berlin
Bill Monroe / Footprints in the Snow
Old Time Dave / Watching the Snow Fall (live in studio)
Old Time Dave / Just Because (live in studio)
Old Time Dave / Snowbye (live in studio)
Au Revoir Simone / Fallen Snow
Readymade Ft Feist / Snow Lion
Mark Mothersbaugh / Snowflake Music
Grateful Dead / Cold Rain and Snow
E*vax / Snow
House and Parrish / Pristine Fields
Kentucky Nightmare / Caroline and I
Josh Ritter / Wait for Love (You Know You Will)
Hot Chip / Over and Over
Ghostland Observatory / Sad Sad City
Muscles / Ice Cream
Freeform Five / No More Conversations (mylo remix)
Bloc Party / Banquet (Phones remix)
TV on the Radio / Walk Like Me

Bad Album Cover of the Week

After a refreshing Thanksgiving trip back to the Midwest, I returned to Crested Butte with a stellar new idea and a full slate of music to play. Starting this week (Nov. 26, 2007) I will be featuring an album from KBUT's studio that I deem to have an awful cover. Background information on the artist will precede a selected track from the album. As you may have noticed, I have put in a new sidebar item to feature these album covers, and in the future pictures will be uploading prior to each week's show. This fun little diversion will take place each week around 11:50pm.

Blind Jamaican reggae star Frankie Paul took home the first weekly Bad Album Cover honors, with his "Can't Get You Out of My Mind." The cover features a poor cutout of Frankie in an all white getup in front of an obnoxiously pink background. This pink disaster is nicely complimented by the salmon/peach colored background to the album's title (Picture at left). Perhaps even better than the cover, though, is Paul's cover of Technotronic's "Pump it Up" which you can hear if you download the mp3 of the evening's show.

Monday's edition of Music is My Girlfriend went swimmingly. It was nice to be back in the DJ seat after a week away, during which I was exposed to a good deal of music that had been hiding on my iPod.

An mp3 of the show is linked below. It runs from the beginning of the show through most of LCD Soundsystem's "Give it Up."

Music is My Girlfriend - 11/26/07

In other news, see the post below for the results of the "First Annual McFarren Matriarch CD Challenge."

Artist / Song

Handsome Furs / Sing! Captain
Zookeeper / Ballad of My Friends
Okkervil River / You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock n Roll Man (live)
Junip / Chickens
Au Revoir Simone / Sad Song
Frankie Paul / Pump it Up *Bad Album Cover selection
Ghostland Observatory / Midnight Voyage
Fugazi / Arpeggiator (live)
Queens of the Stone Age / 3's & 7's (live)
Decemberists / The Soldiering Life
Nick Drake / Northern Sky
Oslo / No Regrets
King Khan & the Shrines / No Regrets
Black Lips / Not a Problem (live)
White Williams / New Violence
John Maus / My Whole World is Coming Apart
the Go! Team / Patricia's Moving Picture
Bonde Do Role / Office Boy (CSS remix)
LCD Soundsystem / Give it Up
Jens Lekman / I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You
Al Green / Jesus is Waiting
Zookeeper / Snow in Berlin
Camera Obscura / I Need All the Friends I Can Get
Kentucky Nightmare / Caroline and I
Pixies / Dig a Fire
White Rabbits / While We Go Dancing
Stars / The Ghost of Genova Heights
Dan Deacon / Wham City

Back to 2 Hours

After an 8 hour radio show, two hours seemed so easy to fill. Armed with a CD full of new music and several excellent new releases in the studio, the show flew by rather quickly. Thanks to Burke and Josh for stopping by and helping me celebrate as the clock struck midnight and it became October 30th, my Birthday. Also thanks to Tom for calling in and chatting even though the stream wasn't working.

We finally got the Muscles album in the studio, featuring the amazing track "Ice Cream" that you may remember me playing constantly several months ago. Havn't listened to the whole album yet, but hopefully it lives up to that track.

In other news, Burke recently got a regular Sunday night radio slot from 10 till midnight, meaning that Teocalli Tamale employees are the closing DJs Monday, Thursday and Sunday nights. Also, fellow employee Drew has the noon-2pm show on Mondays. We are taking over KBUT.

An mp3 of this show is linked below. It starts in the middle of the first song, "Ice Cream", and goes through part of Hot Chip's "My Piano" -

Music is My Girlfriend - 10/29/07

Artist / Song

Muscles / Ice Cream
LCD Soundsystem / All My Friends (live on KCRW)
Jens Lekman / The Opposite of Hallelujah
TV on the Radio / Me-I
Band of Horses / No One's Gonna Love You
Ra Ra Riot / St. Peter's Day Festival (live)
Ghostland Observatory / Stranger Lover
Muscles / Chocolate Raspberry Lemon and Lime
the Pipettes / Pull Shapes
Walter Meego / Through a Keyhole
Kevin Drew / Safety Bricks
Devendra Banhart / Lover
Pas Chic Chic / Tes Cliches Declenches
Cave Singers / Elephant Clouds
Beirut / Nantes
Sunset Rubdown / The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life
Cansei De Ser Sexy / Music is my Hot Hot Sex
Bonde Do Role / Marina Do Bairro
Muscles / Hey Muscles I Love You
Hot Chip / My Piano
Menomena / Weird (Dekoder remix)
Black Kids / Hurricane Jane
Hold F*ck / Lovely Allen
Peter Bjorn and John / Up Against the Wall
Jesu / Silver (Original Beats)
Cut Copy / So Haunted

woot

I had a great time Monday, October 15th in the studio. No, I didn't get many callers or do a theme show, I just had fun and played a mix of old and new tracks. I think it was one of my better shows of late, so download the mp3 and decide for yourself.

A recording of this week's sterling show is linked below. This runs from the beginning through most of Modest Mouse's "Spitting Venom".

Music is My Girlfriend, 10/15/07

Artist / Song

Observatory Ghostland / Sad Sad City
Radiohead / Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Los Campesinos! / You! Me! Dancing!
Black Kids / I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
Electrelane / Cut and Run
Cave Singers / Seeds of Night
Iron and Wine / White Tooth Man
Jose Gonzalez / Cycling Trivialities
Devendra Banhart / Seahorse
Lou Reed / Vicious
The Strokes / Between Love and Hate
Modern Lovers / 96 Tears (live)
Black Lips / Not a Problem (live)
Richard Hell and the Voidoids / Blank Generation
The Jam / That's Entertainment (demo)
Modest Mouse / Spitting Venom
the Notwist / Pilot
Beirut / Nantes (live on KEXP)
M. Ward / Magic Trick
Ra Ra Riot / Dying is Fine
The Archivist / Jeremiah
Citay / First Fantasy
Beirut / La Bonlieu
A Mountain of One / Brown Piano (remake by Studio)

"Oldies"

In the mood for yet another theme show, I decided to go back in time a bit and play only tracks that were pre-1980. This lead to alot of 60s garage rock and plenty of 70s punk, with a healthy dose of Jonathan Richman included. It was a good time, but a few technical glitches marred the show.

You can listen to this show by clicking below. The recording runs from the beginning through The 13th Floor Elevators' "You're Gonna Miss Me" (which some of you may remember from the movie High Fidelity). The link is now a hotlink, meaning you don't have to go to megaupload and type in the password. Much easier.

Music is My Girlfriend - 10/8/07

Artist / Song

Television / See No Evil
Talking Heads / Stay Hungry
Buzzcocks / Ever Fallen in Love
Velvet Underground / Waiting for the Man
Count Five / Psychotic Reaction
The Outsiders / Time Won't Let Me
Rare Breed / Beg, Borrow and Steal
Modern Lovers / Roadrunner (Once)
Modern Lovers / She Cracked
Jonathan Richman / New England
Jonathan Richman & Modern Lovers / Ride on Down the Highway (live)
Modern Lovers / Hospital
Nick Drake / Pink Moon
Nick Drake / Blues Run the Game
Cat Stevens / Wild World
Van Morrison / Everyone
The Standells / Dirty Water
Sonics / Strychnine
Monks / Oh, How to Do Now
Love / 7 & 7 Is
13th Floor Elevators / You're Gonna Miss Me
Clash / Janie Jones
Jam / In the City
Damned / New Rose
Sex Pistols / Holidays in the Sun
Clash / Garageland
Kinks / This Time Tomorrow
Kinks / The Village Green Preservation Society
Talking Heads / Don't Worry About the Government (live 77)
Velvet Underground / Some Kinda Love (live)
Velvet Underground / Over You (live)
Television / Marquee Moon

A-Z, Round II

Following the relative success of my first A-Z show back in June, I knew I would be doing another at some point. With a wealth of alphabetically-diverse new music in my hands, I decided to resurrect the theme for Monday, October 1st. If you missed it last time, A-Z is where I play one song from one artist of each letter of the alphabet. Look at the playlist and you'll figure it out. As per my brother's comment in June, I did follow proper alphabetizing procedure (ex. last names are counted, not first names). It was a fun show and the timing was perfect. Thanks to Burke for stopping by and recommending some Quicksilver Messenger Service and Frank Zappa. Q and Z are always tough spots to fill. Part of my mission was to play some somewhat bizarre and interesting new music, so when my friend Katie told me the next day that my show was "weird," I took it as a compliment.

I recorded this show, so if you weren't able to tune in you can click below and download the first 80 minutes (just type the three letter code near the top of the page). The recording runs from A (Akron/Family) through most of R (Ra Ra Riot).

Music is My Girlfriend, 10/1/07 - MP3

Artist / Song

Akron/Family / Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music for Moms
Black Kids / I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
Citay / First Fantasy
Deerhoof / Kidz are so Small
Eels / Trouble with Dreams
the Field / Paw in my Face
Jose Gonzalez / The Nest
Glen Hansard / Say It to Me Now
Iron and Wine / Innocent Bones
Jonquil / Lions
Kig Khan and BBQ Shrine / Blow My Top
Limes / Beyond Blue
Monks / Oh, How to Do Now
New Pornographers / My Rights Versus Yours
Okkervil River / Unless Its Kicks
Pitter Pat / Emergency
Quicksilver Messenger Service / I Found Love
Ra Ra Riot / Dying is Fine
Sunset Rubdown / Winger-Wicked Things
Tokyo Police Club / Citizens of Tomorrow
Unicorns / Innoculate the Innocuous
Vampire Weekend / Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Wrens / 13 Months in 6 Minutes
XTC / Making Plans for NIgel
Yeasayer / Sunrise
Frank Zappa / Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

I Had a Headache

Ideally, I would have been more excited and prepared to come back to my show after missing last week. Instead, I had a headache and didn't really know what to play after a long day of work and errands. I was lucky enough to see an intimate performance of a couple local bands that night in Gunnison, but even that was not enough to erase my headache and tiredness. I ended the show with at least half an hour of long electronic songs, mainly because I ran out of other stuff to play. I was not totally impressed with any of the new albums in the studio (Iron and Wine, Gravenhurst, Figurines, Two Gallants, etc.) that I had been excited about. Perhaps it was my mood going into them, so I will give them another chance. I did play some music from bands I saw while I was away, notably several Ra Ra Riot songs and one from the National and LCD Soundsystem.

While I was away seeing great concerts, the always great Josh Bock filled in for me. He tells me he played music that I turned him onto, so it must have been like listening to my show anyway. Josh had a regular slot now, Thursday nights at 10:30 Mountain Time. If you can, check it out.

I do have an mp3 of most of this show available. Follow this link and type in the letter code to access the download. It wasn't my best show, and the mp3 seems to skip a bit for unknown reasons. The recording goes from the beginning of the show through part of the Working for a Nuclear Free City track. Here's the playlist:

Artist / Song

Ra Ra Riot / Dying is Fine
Man Man / Van Helsing Boombox
Iron & Wine / Wolves (the Shepard's Dog)
Two Gallants / Miss Meri
Black Francis / Lolita
Throw Me the Statue / Lolita
Akron Family / Ed is a Portal
Ra Ra Riot / Ghost Under Rocks
Figurines / Let's Head Out
Belle & Sebastian / The State I Am In
Glen Hansard / Fallen From the Sky
frYars / The Ides
Jose Gonzalez / Down the Line
The Twilight Sad / And She Would Darken the Memory
Gravenhurst / Hollow Man
The National / Mistaken for Strangers
Ra Ra Riot / Each Year
Working for a Nuclear Free City / Asleep at the Wheel
The Rapture / Sister Savior (DFA Dub)
LCD Soundsystem / Us v Them
Nine Inch Nails / The Hand That Feeds (DFA remix)
Le Tigre / Deceptacon (DFA remix)
One-Two / O-Hot Brain (Pedro + Panama remix)
Matt + Kim / Yea Yeah (Bobby Evans ft. Jimmy Jamz final)
Ra Ra Riot / Can You Tell

Finally

After a long process of downloading, loading, and uploading (combined with a busy schedule and laziness), I can finally present to you the first-ever downloadable mp3 of the Music is My Girlfriend Show.

The mp3 covers the first 1 hour and 13 minutes of my May 7th show. As you probably don't recall, this show largely consisted of electronic, techno and dance music. Even if said music is not exactly your bag, you should still listen for the witty banter between Josh Bock and myself. Topics include: Spiderman 3 and its absent soundtrack, Pirates 3 and Johnny Depp, Crested Butte's altitude, and many other fascinating oddities.

Here's the link to the download page:
MegaUpload Link
Hidden near the top is a text box where you must type the three letter code shown and then click the download button.

Here's the portion of the show that is part of this mp3:
Artist / Song / Album

LCD Soundsystem / Someone Great / Sound of Silver
Junior Boys / In the Morning (Hot Chip remix) / Dead Horse EP
Mylo / In My Arms / Destroy Rock & Roll
Bassnectar / Verbing the Noun / Underground Communication
Cut Chemist / What's the Altitude? / The Audience is Listening
Timo Maas / Shifter / Loud
Daft Punk / Aerodynamic / Discovery
Joakim / Rocket Pearl / Monsters and Silly Songs
Joakim / Drumtrax / Monsters and Silly Songs
Spank Rock / Girlfriend is Better / Fabriclive 33
Thivery Corp / The Heart's A Lonely Hunter (ft. David Byrne) / Cosmic Game
Weezer / Tired of Sex / Pinkerton *request by Katie
Walkmen / Red River / Spiderman 3 Soundtrack
Justice / Phantom / Ed Rec V2
Nortec Collective / Casino Soul / Tijuana Sessions V 1

Enjoy! Hopefully more mp3s are to come, but I have no other recorded shows to date so it may be awhile.