j's indie/rock mayhem - 11th january 2006

[welcome and huzzah! we're finally getting to the meaty part of the new year as we kick off one of the big new features on j's indie/rock mayhem for 2006. i mentioned that we'll be starting up the review of great record lables every month. but tonight we start the bi-monthly treatment of great rock and roll cities. major metropolises that are important to the history of college rock and indie-rock in general. and we start with the twin cities of minneapolis and st. paul, minnesota. in order to hear any of the bands you heard in the minnesota set, click over to aquarium drunkard for my guest post over there and some free downloads. but first, to the new music. onward.]

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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Drive-by Truckers - "Feb. 14" [off their forthcoming album a blessing and a curse, due out in april. they have graciously made this track available for download and free file sharing. because that's what artists who care about their fans do, damnit. they played this both nights back in november in chapel hill, so it's good to see it released.]
Spacehog - "Mungo City" [a track i don't play much from an excellent album, the chinese album. spacehog is a pretty underrated band. good, glammy stuff.]
Dirty Three - "Doris" [i was in a rocking mood and this song is back again. from the excellent and largely low-key cinder album, this song sticks out with its amazing rhythm.]
Girls Against Boys - "Super-fire" [the first GVSB song i ever heard and it's never left me hanging. from the excellent house of gvsb. this was also their last album for touch and go records. great, unique 90s indie-rock.]
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Belle and Sebastian - "Another Sunny Day" [off the forthcoming album the life pursuit which is due out on feburary 7th. i've always like belle and sebastian but never been huge on them. but this song, my friends, is a glorious piece of pop. i like their thicker sound. their wispyness has turned me off in the past.]
Son Volt - "Drown" [from that stellar debut trace. i hadn't played old son volt in awhile and i thought, well, why not?]
Kulah Shaker - "Hey Dude" [one of the also-rans of the britpop explosion. at least the lead singer has the fact that he's hayley mills' kid going for him. K is actually a pretty stellar record. very psychadelically influenced and tasty big hooks. i like it.]
Blackalicious - "The Fabulous Ones" [from their first full-length LP, nia. this song has hooks for miles, so i throw it on when i need a hot filler song.]
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Toad the Wet Sprocket - "All I'll Ever Need" (live) [a really curious song that showed up via former-toad member todd nichols' band lapdog's website recently. todd dug up this live recording of a song that was written, practiced, played for the first and only time, and luckily, recorded. so he decided to share it. not bad at all.]
Beck - "Hotwax" [from the still impressive odelay. although honestly, i balked when it was originally released. it turned me off of beck for quite some time. now..i love it. who knew. that's growing up and expanding taste for you.]
Afghan Whigs - "John the Baptist" [the name of this song alone ought to give you a clue. and with lines like "i got the devil in me, girl" you know you're on the right track. from the whigs' swan song, 1965.]
the Meat Puppets - "Plateau" [from the oft-lauded II which is one trippy listen to be sure. acid-fried punk that wandered all over the peyote landscape.]
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[so here we go with the brand new segment on the show: the j's indie/rock mayhem cityscape. every other month i will feature a city that has given birth to an important scene or bevy of bands at one time or another. bands that have been important to indie and college rock over the past 30 or so years. we kick this series off tonight with none other than the twin cities of minneapolis/st. paul, minnesota. home to many a wonderful band. hope you enjoy.

this section of my show is being cross-featured at the aquarium drunkard blog, so you can check out that blog for downloads of most or all of these bands you're about to hear. thanks to satisfied '75 for giving me the chance to talk to his readers. his blog is wonderful and if you're a music lover, you should check it on a daily basis.]

Soul Asylum - "Sometime to Return" [from their wonderful 1988 album hang time which also features the single "cartoon." sadly, bassist karl mueller died in the summer of last year from cancer. soul asylum still records and tours but hasn't had a really big song since some of the singles off of let your dim light shine. grave dancer's union of course featured the mega-hit "runaway train," the video for which featured pictures of missing children. powerful stuff and a great band.]
Babes in Toyland - "Blood" [from their 1992 album fontanelle which was produced by lee renaldo of sonic youth. harsh, abrasive post-hardcore/metal music that really didn't fit into anything else being played tonight, but hey, they're from minneapolis and they're quite a band. the album has the sound of something produced by a member of sonic youth in the early 90s. if that makes sense. i thought it did.]
Trip Shakespeare - "Bachlorette" [one of the lesser known twin cities bands is this group featuring dan wilson and john munson who would go on to form semisonic, another wonderful minneapolis band. if it's related to semisonic, you know that pop majesty is involved and indeed, this song, from their 1991 final album lulu is one of many pop gems the band created. overlooked in its day and now.]
the Suicide Commandos - "Burn It Down" [from make a record, these guys were the godfathers of the minneapolis punk/indie scene. forming in 1974, this 1978 record is a great slice of the off-kilter punk going on in places not-new york and not-los angeles. "stuck right in the middle," as paul westerberg put it. the band shot a cheap video for this song and you can see it by clicking there. rather fun. apparently the house burning down is the band's practice space.]
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the Suburbs - "Baby Heartbeat" [from this point on i played two of a band's songs in order to flesh them out a bit. the suburbs were a class outfit from minneapolis whose style still is hard to peg down. giddy and reckless. from their 1980 debut album in combo. it's also available on just about the only studio material album still available on cd, ladies and gentlemen, the suburbs have left the building.]
the Suburbs - "Rattle My Bones" (live) [this is from the 1995 live album viva! suburbs live at first avenue. this is well past their prime recording days, but the band still puts on a hell of a show and this version of this song is especially incendiary.]
Prince - "When You Were Mine" [from 1980's dirty mind. an amazingly minimalist record of dancey funk rock numbers. prince is just a genius and even on this, just his third album, he was plowing across territory never dreamed of by anyone else, not even in minneapolis.]
Prince - "U Got the Look" [and then in 1987 he unleashed sign o' the times, a double album shot across the bow of mainstream music. prince was re-defining what it meant to record great, successful music and doing it in severe style. this song is especially hot.]
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Run Westy Run - "Curled Ending" [from their 1988 self-titled album, run westy run came onto the minneapolis scene a bit later, but found its own solid place. trending a bit towards the more alt-country side of things, their music was certainly softer than any of the thrashier music out of the city. but no less amazing.]
Run Westy Run - "Cardinal Drive" [from their 1990 peter buck produced album green cat island. i like this song a lot and where i haven't heard a lot of thier music before, i'm going to have to check them out.]
the Jayhawks - "Let the Critics Wonder" [from their self-titled debut. an album only available on vinyl as it's never made the jump to cd. luckily QFS has a copy back in our vast vinyl libraries. there are flashes of brilliance (such as this song) on this debut, but nothing close to the immaculate work they would do later on. another of the more country driven bands that began to erupt in the scene.]
the Jayhawks - "Settled Down Like Rain" [one of the many songs off their first true masterpiece, 1992's hollywood town hall. some would argue it's their finest hour, and i can see the argument, but i think it's just the beginning of a line of great albums.]
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Hüsker Dü - "All Tensed Up" [from their break-neck 1981 debut land speed record. appropriately named as it's recorded live and is balls-to-the-wall hardcore. as much as i like the huskers, even i find it hard to listen to this album sometimes. but man when it's right, it's the only thing.]
Hüsker Dü - "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" [from their 1985 album new day rising, one of three albums they put out that year (in addition to zen arcade and flip your wig). there's no telling the husker's true influence on indie-rock given the aggressive and immediately poppy nature of their work. there really is no artist like them in the canon.]
the Replacements - "Color Me Impressed" [and speaking of nobody being like someone, here we are. for my money, the best american rock band of the past 25 years, but you know. i'm biased. extremely. from their 1983 album hootenanny. put the party on the mirror, boys.]
the Replacements - "Sixteen Blue" [from their landmark 1984 album let it be. chan poling of the suburbs plays piano on this track and it's an amazing one. one of the 5 or so songs that people say make this album worth listening to, it's one of the ballads and truly one of the most tender songs westerberg ever wrote.]
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the Replacements - "Gimme Noise" [i closed with one more 'mats song. from 1982's stink EP. this song has always blown me away for the pure speed and invigorating shout of "hey, brotha, get a fuckin' load of this!" that prefaces the blistering bob stinson solo.]

That's it for tonight's show. I hope you enjoyed the tour through Minneapolis and St. Paul. We'll be on training temp schedule for the next two weeks, so I might be joined by some training dj's, but I should be in the normal spots. Until then, take care.