J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 7th January 2009

[The first J's Indie/Rock Mayhem of 2009! We've entered the year that will mark the 10 year anniversary of the show on WQFS Greensboro. This September, in fact, will be the decade mark. I'll need to figure out some sort of special way to do that up right - if you've got any suggestions, lay 'em on me in the comments or email in the coming months.

Lots of great stuff on tonight's show - it's also got a bonus of about 25 minutes as I got on a little early and stayed on a bit longer. A bit of make up time for not having a show last week. In two weeks, live on the show, I'll be doing an interview with the excellent band Katy Mae from Brooklyn, New York who will be in state for a couple of shows. They'll be playing live in studio, so make sure you're tuned in for that. I'm also doing an interview with the Rosebuds tomorrow that should be up on Aquarium Drunkard in the next week and on the radio broadcast at some point in the future. Lots of hot stuff coming in the future, so don't blink.

Now, before the Panthers get riled up to go to town on the Cardinals, onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 7th January 2009 Show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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Crooked Fingers - "Modern Dislocation" [from forfeit / fortune. i found this song stuck in my head earlier today, and though i didn't give this album a ton of play on the show last year, it's still a strong record. if you're a crooked fingers fan, there is lots to be happy about.]
Fretblanket - "Into the Ocean" [from home truths from abroad. i'll probably pull this out every year at least once. a catchy little song from a band who had a couple of records and even a pretty popular video on mtv also at the time. nice guys too. i know from email.]
Bombadil - "Julian of Norwich" [from a buzz, a buzz. first, a history lesson. second, this is a great song and should've been on my singles show for the end of last year. good north carolina music.]
Guadalcanal Diary - "Always Saturday" [from flip-flop. i have a serious soft spot for this song, even with it's slightly sticky lyrics. it's 80s jangle/power pop at its finest.]
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Bon Iver - "Blood Bank" [from the forthcoming blood bank EP. a lovely song that bodes well for whatever LP bon iver will have coming down the pipeline eventually.]
Television - "Friction" [from marquee moon. i go through fits where i listen to this album pretty intensely for awhile, raving about it all over again to any willing ear. i feel like i'm nearing one of those times. god help us all.]
Blitzen Trapper - "Fire + Fast Bullets" [from furr, the # 2 album of 2008 on the j's indie/rock top 25 albums list.]
Jason Isbell - "The Magician" [from sirens of the ditch. jason will be at the lincoln theatre in raleigh on friday, february 20th and he and his band's new self-titled album, jason isbell and the 400 unit, will be out february 17th. you can stream the first single off the new album, "seven mile island," over at his myspace.]
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A.C. Newman - "The Heartbreak Rides" [from the forthcoming get guilty which is out later this month. i'm still figuring out what i think of the album, but this song is definitely choice. the first of at least two solo records from new pornographers members this year! neko case is due later in the spring with her long awaited follow-up to fox confessor brings the flood.]
Superchunk - "Beat My Gueset" [by request. from the cup of sand b-sides and rarities collection. an adam ant cover. i love it.]
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - "New San Antonio Rose" [from legends of country music, a 4 CD boxset that pretty effectively documents the entirety of bob wills' career. i got this for christmas and was completely excited about it. still am, as you hear me enthuse on the air.]
Fugazi - "Reclamation" [by request. from steady diet of nothing. not always my favorite fugazi album - though everything has a hard slog versus in on the kill taker, in my opinion. but this is one of my all time favorite fugazi songs, no doubt.]
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Blair - "Hello Halo" [from her forthcoming album, die young. i'm so excited. here is my promise. blair will be on my radio show sometime this year. i don't know how that's going to happen, but it will. oh, yes. it will. right, blair? ....right?]
the Ups and Downs - "The Living Kind" [from sleepless. a great australian band from the mid-80s that it's a little hard to dig up information on. thankfully, chris jackson of citified turned me onto these guys and now i'm a fan.]
the Nerves - "Hanging on the Telephone" [originally from their self-titled EP but also from the new one way ticket collection that puts together that EP with live tracks and demos. peter case, eventually of the plimsouls, was in the nerves for this recording and it has a more famous incarnation, of course, by blondie on parallel lines, but the original packs a wallop. a great song of new-wave.]
the Rosebuds - "Life Like" [the title track from their latest. i'll be interviewing the band tomorrow. stay tuned for details on that.]
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the Stooges - "I Wanna Be Your Dog" [from their self-titled debut album. founding member and otherworldly guitarist ron asheton was found dead yesterday morning in his home. he was 60 years old. it's really hard to overestimate the impact that asheton's guitar work had on music at large - especially on the stooges' first two albums. when they reformed for raw power, he was shifted to bass, but his dynamic work on guitar is unquestionably at the forefront of so much that made the band amazing. this set features alternating tracks from their 1969 debut and 1970's fun house.]
the Stooges - "Loose" [from fun house. this was the first stooges record i bought and it's still my favorite. there's something just brilliantly chaotic about this album - focused chaos. the world crumbling all around them and yet it's the most fiery, laser-beam stuff you've ever heard. there really is nothing like this album.]
the Stooges - "No Fun" [from their self-titled album. i always thought that john cale added some awfully weird things to this album - the piano of "..dog" and the handclaps on "no fun," but really it makes the whole thing that much more sinister. fun house did a better job of capturing the band, but this record wasn't too bad itself.]
the Stooges - "Fun House" [from, you guessed it, fun house. the title track of this record is like an armageddon dance party. all nearly eight minutes of it. rest in peace, ron.]
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Olson and Louris - "Saturday Morning on Sunday Street" [from ready for the flood. yes, that's mark olson and gary louris, aka the founding members of the jayhawks, playing together on an album for the first time since the jayhawks' tomorrow the green grass. i'll be doing a review of the record soon, but this song itself is quite stellar. it's great to hear their voices together again.]
Silversun Pickups - "Melatonin" [from carnavas. the band is working on the follow-up to their debut, but i loved them out at the monolith festival this fall. i was completely won over by just how good they were and how much they made me not miss the smashing pumpkins.]
Young Marble Giants - "Credit in the Straight World" [from colossal youth. i'll eventually be doing a cover comparison piece about this song and hole's cover of it from live through this. this song, however, is fantastic. nervous post-punk at its finest.]
Bob Dylan - "Dreamin' of You" [from tell tale signs: the bootleg series vol. 8. the new bootleg volume pulls, more or less, from oh, mercy through modern times in the dylan oeuvre and who knew he had this much amazing material tucked away from his recent slate of dynamite albums? if you're a dylan fan, this collection is a must. serious. this specific song is an unreleased track from the time out of mind sessions.]
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Greg Dulli - "Bonnie Brae" (live) [from the live at triple door live set. dulli lighting it up on some awesome twilight singers songs and a few covers. dulli fan? go get it.]
Laika and the Cosmonauts - "Metropolis Theme" [from cosmopolis 1988 - 2008, a best-of of this finnish band that can be best compared to, probably, shadowy men from a shadowy planet. instrumental surf rock-ish type music. and it's finnish. hey!]
the Replacements - "If Only You Were Lonely" [from last year's re-issue of sorry ma, forgot to take out the trash. this was, of course, originally the b-side to their first single, "i'm in trouble." an acoustic ode by westerberg to drunkenly falling in love.]
the Flaming Lips - "Chewin' the Apple of Your Eye" [from transmissions from the satellite heart. i love this album. shouldn't you?]
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Warren Zevon - "Carmelita" (1974 demo) [from the reissue of his self-titled album. the other week a friend was telling me about a moment in the g.g. allin documentary where he's sitting on a railroad track playing this song and that's it's actually a pretty devastating moment. any confirmations?]
Kathleen Edwards - "Mercury" [from failer. and as long as we're talking about drug addicts. the song, not the artist. kathleen will be in charlotte on monday, february 23rd and in chapel hill on wednesday, march 11th, at the mcglohan theatre and carrboro arts center, respectively.]
Plants and Animals - "New Kind of Love" [from parc avenue. marty, one of my cohorts over at aquarium drunkard, had this album as one of his best of the year. it got past me and i haven't given it much listen, but what i have, i've really enjoyed. so, we'll explore it together, what'cha say?]

That'll do it for this week. I'll be back next week with more new music and possibly a trainee or two. That may not be for another week, actually, but in the meantime - Go Panthers! - and take care.