VIVA RADIO-CHECKOUT TIME

All Posts,Radio — Dan on September 14, 2009 at 4:20 pm

New Viva-Radio Pyjamarama show Checkout Time goes up tuesday at 1pm, perfect for post-lunch pre-mid-afternoon drag perk-up. Just tune into Viva-Radio at 1pm eastern or check the archives of Pyjamarama at various times after. This show is just a bunch of stuff that has been making me happy these last few weeks.

1. Jet-Song For Hymn
Loved “Nothing to Do With Us” from the Glitterbest compilation, finally heard the whole LP c/o Jim Allen (not John Allen). Great Sparks-esque arty glitter/glam with this pleasant Phil Spector-esque intro.

2. Mittagspause-Herrenreiter
Strangely, I’ve never been a huge fan of the whole NDW/german new wave scene except for a few of the hits, I find a lot of it a bit too stern and humorless…imagine that. But I have been gravitating to some of the earlier more punk stuff, like the totally catchy Male and Mittagspause, who have member connections to DAF, Fehlfarben and SYPH. Also check out Testbild on youtube. Sounds like if Neu! 2 was released 5 years later.

3. The Nightingales-Blood for Dirt
What can I say that I haven’t already?

4. Age of Chance-Bible of the Beast
For some reason everyone keeps talking about C86 as if it was all about jangly twee pop bands and not noisy, angry and chaotic bands drawing more from The Fall and the Nightingales.

5. Bob Seger-Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
Always loved this surprising track, “oh hey, I knew Bob could rock, but not like this!”. DJing my friend Nate’s wedding with my old friend Rebecca brought this song back into my life, and it’s amazing video which I’ve included below. You won’t be able to think of Bob the same way again.

6. Sandy Bull-Gotta Be Juicy (Or Aint Love)
Lots of talk in certain quarters of I Love Music about artsy folk guitarists and I just checked this one out for the first time recently. Lots of multi-tracked overdubbing of weirdness. File this between Amon Duul and Haphash and the Coloured Coat and Fred Neil’s and John Fahey’s raga-folk jams.

7. The Beatles-The Night Before
I just discovered The Beatles. No, that’s not true, I’ve always liked them and have gone through periods of listening to this record or that, but all the recent fuss has made me give a serious study. As usual I’m most attracted to that golden 65/66 period and particularly find upbeat and happy or melancholic pop ragers like this my faves. But checking out all the reissues and listening to the entire catalog in chronological order for the first time has certainly made some things pop out. Like how many times have I heard Eight Days a Week on the radio, in movies, in the air, etc, and NEVER until just now did I ever hear the beautiful intro/outro chords. I plan on editing them together and repeating them for hours.

8. Fuxa-100 White Envelopes
Ah Oberlin. Talk of Bright online reminded me of this band and this CD that I loved while in college, when it was new and exciting to mix krautrock and shoegaze aesthetics into low-fi indie-rock. I have to dig up that Fuxa/Bright plastic pink 7″ to see if I still love it like I used to.

9. Dion & the Belmonts-My Girl the Month of May
Mentioned this in a prior post. Goddamn is this a good song. For fans of Del Shannon, Everly Brothers, Frankie Valli, circa 66-68.

10. De Artsen-She’s in Love
Thanks to Mike Wolf for this one via Facebook. The band that evolved into Bettie Serveert playing loopy repetitious minimal and moody indie-rock of the highest order.

11. V3-Checkout Time, Mr. White
Jim Shepard. It doesn’t get any better then this. And stories don’t get more tragic. I’ll write a long post about him at some point. In a prolific period with many releases on many labels in many styles, it was hard to filter through it all at times, but on the Launchpad Explosion double 7″ you can find this gem. Shoulda been huge.

12. Din A Testbild-Die Siebziger
More german weirdness I never really noticed until lately. A bit of a PIL/Joy Division vibe to this.

13. Section 25-Sweet Forgiveness
I had most of Section 25’s records for years but for some reason never picked up Love and Hate, which opens with this song that’s just perfect. Big and catchy, some similarities to big New Wave sounds, some to more experimental/minimal synth type sounds.

14. Shaun Harris-Today’s a Day
When discussing Dion on Facebook a friend sent a “break-up” mix he had made for a girl. Great stuff but this one really caught my ear.

15. McDonald & Giles-Flight of the Ibis
Was Viva leader Matt discussing this? Can’t remember what brought it up, Fripp’s pre-King Crimson collaborators with some wonderful flighty pop music.

16. Bob Bannister-Eight Day Clock
Guitar experimenters like Sandy Bull and 90s low-fi atmosphere creators like Fuxa and unheralded noise rock guitar gods like Jim Shepard got me thinking of this. Just a slice of Bob.

17. The Dictators-Stay With Me
The final song played at my friend Nate’s aforementioned wedding last week. I never knew the Dictators beyond Cars and Girls and having to go to Manitoba’s once or twice, but seeing the happy couple and friends and family rock out to this put some good feelings in me for real.

and before I go…here’s Bob (Seger, not Bannister):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2aBOTNGWMY[/youtube]

3 Comments »

  1. I always approve repping the N’gales…their “Give ‘Em Time” is just about my favorite thing ever. Eggcellent, all of this. Now, off to plumb these here archives….

    Comment by pranger prangerson — September 14, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
  2. Dan

    The whole of Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man is amazing! 2 + 2 = ? is one of the most potent anti war songs ever to come out of the Sixties. See if you can find the Noah (the rarest of his entire catalogue besides) and Mongrel records. Hard to find but worth it! As is Brand New Morning.

    Comment by Bryan Swirsky — September 15, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
  3. excellent set! Jim Shepard/V3 is an unsung hero of rock for sure. Nice hearing him back-to-back with De Artsen, too! And always great hearing Seger. Ty Segall opened his set up with “2 + 2 = ?” last week …

    Comment by Greg — September 22, 2009 @ 1:46 pm

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