J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 15th July 2009

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. I apologize again for the lack of immediate podcast access. I should have room available by Friday, so hopefully the podcast will be up by Saturday, depending on my access to internets while I'm in Chicago for the Pitchfork Festival. Make sure you follow my tweets on Twitter throughout the weekend to get a bit of a taste of what I'm experiencing live.

Extra Mayhem, as a reminder, will not air for the next two weeks. I'll be in Chicago still this coming Monday. It returns on Monday, August 3rd.

Don't forget about the Often Awesome benefit next Wednesday, July 22nd, at the Greene Street Club in downtown Greensboro. Bands playing include The Bronzed Chorus, Decoration Ghost, Citified, Adam Thorn, Filthybird and Snuzz. All proceeds go to benefit former WQFS GM Tim LaFollette and his fight against ALS/Lou Gerigh's disease. I'll be MC'ing the show as well, so make sure you come.

Now, as I sit on the front steps of a house swatting mosquitoes, onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 15th July 2009 Show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show”
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St. Vincent - “Save Me From What I Want” [from actor. one of my favorite records of this year so far. it’s a really engaging slice of eccentric pop and lyricism.]
Aztec Camera - “Good Morning Britain” [from stray. i had made a cassette copy of this album from a vinyl copy years ago and i just pulled it out the other day to listen for the first time in awhile. then, serendipitously, i found a used CD copy this week and, here it is. this song features joe strummer on guest vocals and is, well, great.]
Passion Pit - “Make Light" [from manners. the more i listen to this album, the more the great singles really keep getting better and the more the not-so-great songs continue to languish. that's the nature of music like this, i'd think.]
Kathleen Edwards - "The Cheapest Key" [from asking for flowers. a lovely single and an really funny video. are videos worth making anymore? i ask this as the biggest, most ubiquitous source of videos went away, really. i grew up in the age of video, so they still seem somewhat relevant to me, but i really question it at the same time.]
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Citified - "Dutiful Scout" [from absence. they'll be playing a week from tonight at the greene street club as part of the often awesome benefit for former WQFS general manager tim lafollette who was recently diagnosed with ALS. a really awesome opportunity to help out a very worthy man.]
Buffalo Tom - "You'll Never Catch Him" [from three easy pieces. how much expectation do you put in a band's latter-day work? this is buffalo tom's most recent album and i was honestly surprised at how thoroughly i liked it.]
Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks" [from the very, very good veckatimist. they are one of the bands i am most looking forward to seeing this weekend at pitchfork.]
Vivian Girls - "Where Do You Run To" [from their self-titled album. another band that i'm really looking forward to seeing. woo for great lo-fi pop.]
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Akron/Family - "Everyone Is Guilty" [from set 'em wild, set 'em free. i wish i'd paid more attention to these guys last fall at monolith. i came in on them late and i have a feeling that if i had caught it from the beginning, i would've been more into the groove. as it was, i was kind of lost.]
Built to Spill - "Conventional Wisdom" [by request. from you in reverse. they're one of the bands playing the write the night set at pitchfork where they are playing what ticket buyers voted for them to play. how 'bout perfect from now on in its entirety and we'll call it even?]
Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes" [by email request. from merriweather post pavilion. i've heard conflicting things about their live show. any witnesses?]
the Pogues - "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" [the title track from their third album. it's my favorite pogues album, honesty. i love the way it fits together. and the songwriting is simply amazing. to start an album with this song is a gutsy move, but for the record to only get better after that? even better.]
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Dinosaur Jr. - "Your Weather" [from the new, excellent farm. this is one of lou barlow's songs from the album - he also has a new solo record coming out later this summer. busy guy.]
Birdmonster - "Born to Be Your Man" [from from the mountains to the sea. one of my favorite single songs of last year, but the whole album holds up really well also.]
Megafaun - "The Process" [from gather, form & fly which hits stores next tuesday. it's a really tremendous record, so go get it.]
Vigilantes of Love - "I Can't Remember" [from 1992's killing floor. not the song i meant to play tonight because of the CD mishap, but it'll have to do. we'll get the one i wanted next week.]
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Sunset Rubdown - "Paper Lace" [from dragonslayer. if i remember correctly, this song originally appeared on the swan lake album that sunset rubdown's spencer krug worked on with destroyer's dan bejar. this is a reworking of that version.]
Stephen Malkmus - "Church on White" [from his self-titled debut solo record. i meant to play a different malkmus song here, but some other DJ had mixed up the CDs in the cases. their fault for doing that, or my fault for not looking at the CD? you decide. still a great song.]
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Freeze the Saints" [from face the truth. so here i righted the wrong and played the song i originally wanted. it's been stuck in my head all week so there was no way i wasn't exercising this thing.]
Booker T. - "Get Behind the Mule" [from potato hole, a record featuring booker t. backed by, essentially, the drive-by truckers. they even take an instrumental turn through mike cooley's "space city" on here. we'll be hearing more.]
the Velvet Underground - "Sunday Morning" [from the velvet underground and nico. have you seen beck's record club thing on his website? this is truly musicians having fun being musicians - they're slowly working their way through in-studio reproductions of the entirety of this album. the first four tracks are up now. check it out.]
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Camera Obscura - "French Navy" [from my maudlin career. i really enjoyed this band when i saw them live a few years ago. great pop.]
the Velvet Crush - "Time Wraps Around You" [from the mind-bendingly good teenage symphonies to god. go hunt down a copy now.]
Jeremy Enigk - "April Storm" [from the new OK bear. not long after i did my interview with enigk for aquarium drunkard, it was announced that enigk's former band, sunny day real estate, are doing a full-on reunion. i'm not quite sure what to expect, but we'll see, eh?]
Great Lake Swimmers - "Everything Is Moving So Fast" [from lost channels. great, laid-back and emotive acoustic music. wow that was a really non-descriptive description.]
Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Smile the Day After Today" [from eating us. there are times where this band's songs really run together for me, but it's such a lovely, hedonistic mash of stuff, i can't help but love it.]
The The - "This is the Day" [from 1984's soul mining. i finally picked up a copy of this this week and despite its seeming ubiquitous presence in commercials in recent years (dockers and m&m's especially), i still love it. matt johnson, you big lug.]

That'll do it for this week. Make sure you follow me on Twitter to see what's going on at the Pitchfork Festival this weekend and I'll be back next Wednesday. Until then, take care.