J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 21st May 2008

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. We're in the midsts of training for summer semester and I was joined in the studio by Cy who ought to be picking up a show here pretty soon. The show is a bit hectic and ill planned - lots of good music, but a lot of things conspired to make it rather random. Hope you enjoy anyway.

Congratulations to Eric who answered the trivia question about the Patterson Hood interview correctly. He won himself a $15 gift certificate to BB's New and Used CDs and DVDs over in the Quaker Village shopping center. I give that away every week at the beginning of the third set, so tune in for your chance to win.

Now, I don't have anything pithy to say, so onward!]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 21st May 2008 Show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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the Black Angels - "Doves" [from their new album, directions to see a ghost, which, thanks to my leaving my list at home, i misnamed a couple of times in the podcast. sorry. although my referring to it as "how to see a ghost" isn't totally ridiculous. catch my review of it next week.]
Black Grape - "In the Name of the Father" [from it's great when you're straight...yeah. since we played the happy mondays last week, i thought i'd go with shaun ryder's post-mondays project. or at least something off their phenomenal debut.]
Kathleen Edwards - "The Cheapest Key" [from asking for flowers. catchy and fun. period. and it has a fun little video.]
Cracker - "Get Off This" [from kerosene hat. which i think i called "get on this." i was all messed up tonight. my copy of kerosene hat went missing a number of years ago and i had counted it lost. lo and behold, while visiting my folks the other week, i found it and a couple of other CDs i'd counted lost as well. (hello, silverchair's frogstomp!) anyway, the video for this song was in pretty good rotation on MTV the summer i discovered rock music, so needless to say, it's a favorite. enjoy the fact that that video was its 120 minutes/MTV world premiere.]
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Jim White - "Fruit of the Vine" [from transnormal skiperoo. jim and touring band member pat hargon sat down with me on monday for an interview that you'll be hearing on the show next week. pat played on this song from jim's latest as well. the interview was an awesome, rather lengthy discussion of writing and what goes into the process for jim and pat respectively. it's a great listen.]
Placebo - "Slave to the Wage" [from black market music. a discussion of pavement earlier this week prompted me to pull out this song which samples pavement's "texas never whispers." this is my least favorite placebo album - after the caustic majesty of without you i'm nothing it was a bit of a let down. but they've recovered nicely since.]
Bon Iver - "Lump Sum" [by request. from for emma, forever ago. one of the best albums of this year, i must say.]

[Here is my interview with Patterson Hood of the Drive-by Truckers. If you'd like to read the transcript, head on over to Aquarium Drunkard. We talked about the new album, Brighter than Creation's Dark, his long-time collaboration with bandmate, Mike Cooley, why vinyl still matters and out-of-print live albums and what to do about them.]

Interview - Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers) : Click here to listen.

Drive-by Truckers - "That Man I Shot," "The Purgatory Line" and "A Ghost to Most" [these are the three songs from brighter than creation's dark played during the interview. one for each of the band's songwriters - written by hood, shonna tucker and mike cooley, respectively.]
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the Replacements - "If Only You Were Lonely" [from the re-issue of sorry ma, forgot to take out the trash. i decided to devote a set to the bonus material from the new re-issues. this is pretty much a re-hash of my review this week of the re-issues. this song was originally the b-side to "i'm in trouble" from the same album and is a personal favorite of mine. glad to see it on CD finally.]
the Replacements - "Hey, Good Lookin'" [from stink. the band did a couple of versions of this song over the years, but this one is done in the style of the EP - loud, raucous and fast. it's highly enjoyable.]
the Replacements - "Johnny Fast" [from hootenanny. a re-recording of a song from their debut, here done at a much faster speed.]
the Replacements - "Temptation Eyes" [from let it be, a cover of the grass roots' classic. i've had a lot of these songs on bootleg cassette for years, so it's so exciting to finally have good, quality digital copies.]
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the Last Shadowpuppets - "The Age of the Understatement" [the title track from their EP. this is the side project of alex turner of the arctic monkeys and a guy from the rascals. i'm completely unfamiliar with the rascals, but i enjoyed this song. we'll hear more.]
Let's Active - "Every Word Means No" [from afoot. classic north carolina indie-rock.]
Langhorne Slim - "Rebel Side of Heaven" [from his new self-titled album. i haven't had a chance to hear much of slim's recorded material, but when i saw him open for the avett brothers a couple of years ago, he was very enjoyable.]
the Ass Ponys - "Not Since Superman Died" [from grim. cy hails from cincinatti and he pulled out this hometown favorite of his. they're a band i've known by name for years, but haven't listened to at all. i enjoyed this so maybe i should take a hint from cy and get on board.]
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Lyrics Born - "The World is Calling" [from everything at once. lyrics born is a pretty unique rapper and his live performances are a funky good time for all people. and so far it has carried over well to his new album.]
El Perro Del Mar - "Somebody's Baby" [from from the valley to the stars - i like what i've heard, but nothing has grabbed me by the collar the way "god knows" did the other year. maybe i'm missing something so far.]
the Breeders - "Istanbul" [from mountain battles. i found a fellow breeders fan in cy, who said that he thinks this is the year's best record so far. bold statement. i like that in a trainee.]
Saccharine Trust - "We Became Snakes" [the title track from their 1986 album. improvisational and really inventive and forward thinking - one of the more unique bands ever signed to SST records and that's saying a lot.]
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Hayden - "Lonely Security Guard" [from in field & town. i love the unexpected ending to the story in this song. and the idea of a security guard who spends all day doing origami is rather amusing.]
the Minutemen - "Take Our Test" [from project mersh. great, great post-punk.]
That dog. - "Silently" [from totally crushed out. this song, to me, epitomizes indie-rock for so many reasons. it's just a flat out amazing song, for one thing, and the muscular, fuzzy guitars and disjointed female harmonies are just evidence of everything that was right in underground music in the 1990s.]

That'll do it for the show this week. I'll be back on Friday with Notes From Underground and don't forget that the transcript of my Jim White interview should be going up on Aquarium Drunkard later this week. I'll see you back here next week and until then, take care.