J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 13th January 2010

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. We're getting back into the swing of things as new releases start dropping again after the holiday break, so a lot of great new music this week.

Really sad news with the passing of Jay Reatard, rather unexpectedly, in his sleep at the age of 29. So much potential great music now lost. It's been a hard month or two for lovers of independent and original music - losing both Vic Chesnutt and Jay Reatard (45 and 29, respectively) at way too young an age for both. Let's hope this trend doesn't continue.

Now, while Alison's starting to happen, onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 13th January 2010 show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
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Spoon - "Who Makes Your Money" [from the forthcoming transference. this record was getting lots of talk this week since the advance copies went out. initial verdict? pretty rad.]
the B-52's - "6060-842" [from their self-titled debut. could a finer, more hip and more unique record have been released in 1979? maybe, but i haven't heard it.]
Califone - "Funeral Singers" [from all my friends are funeral singers. still one of my favorite albums of last year - a truly gorgeous listen.]
the Ramones - "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do" [from road to ruin. i don't play the ramones enough on the show - they're just one of those ubiquitous bands that don't need a ton of airplay. but this song...is just tough.]
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Jay Reatard - "There Is No Sun" [from watch me fall. the surprising and extremely sad news of reatard's death really shook up this afternoon in indie music. this record was a really great slice of noisy power-pop and this song, especially, showed a really awesome future for reatard's work. sadly, no more.]
Simple Minds - "Speed Your Love to Me" [from sparkle in the rain. i first heard this song some time ago, i think thanks to a write-up on the AV club, one of my favorite daily pop culture reads. if i remember correctly, steve lillywhite produced this album and he's had his thumb in more than one excellent pie over the years.]

Lake Inferior - "Addressing Parents" [from pegasaur. one of my favorite NC bands, both studio and live. this new EP is an excellent progression on their sound as well.]

the Jayhawks - "Tailspin" [from rainy day music. while probably my least favorite of the post-mark olson jayhawks oeuvre, it's still a fantastic album - this song always stuck out to me in a serious way, too.]

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Blair - "Kamikaze" [finally! die young is getting a release in two weeks on the autumn tone record label. blair is an artist i've been pushing for quite some time - a really great songwriter and we'll be hearing a lot more now that the release is finally here.]

Kent - "If You Were Here" [from isola. when i first went on the air over ten years ago, i played kent quite a bit. admittedly, this is the only kent record i own, but it really did a number on me back in the late 90s. anyone out there a fan or have recommendations of other albums?]

Susu - "M.B.T." [from r and r and r. raucous, new york rock and roll. what else can be said other than that it's good? quite good.]

Benji Hughes - "Baby, It's Your Life!" [from a love extreme. got the pleasure of finally seeing benji live over christmas and he put on a great show. i hear that he's not on new west anymore which is a bummer. kudos to them for having the guts to put out a double album debut, even if it didn't go through the roof.]

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Vampire Weekend - "Cousins" [from the new contra. these guys played this on letterman earlier this week and apparently tore it up. sigh. am i going to have to rethink my thoughts on this band? changing your mind is hard and stuff.]

Morrissey - "The Boy Racer" [by twitter request. from southpaw grammar. i'll be taking requests via twitter each week (just message @jneas81) and this was one that came in. while i've always enjoyed the smiths and morrissey, i'm no more than a casual listener. so it's good to hear some things i haven't heard before. and find that they're just as good as i'd expected.]

Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Living North" [from why there are mountains. these guys will be playing at local 506 in chapel hill on sunday, march 7th along with..]

Bear in Heaven - "Wholehearted Mess" [from beast rest forth mouth. yeah. bear in heaven and cymbals eat guitars together? holy moly, what a rock show. i will be there. there's a reason bear in heaven was my #2 album of 2009.]

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Dave Rawlings Machine - "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad Is To Be High)" [from a friend of a friend. yes, this is THE dave rawlings doing a knock down version of the song he co-wrote with ryan adams for the latter's heartbreaker. pretty good version, too.]

Lou Reed - "Waves of Fear" [from the blue mask. the head drunkard and i had a conversation about lou reed records we hadn't listened to back during the summer and this one, specifically, came up on his end. it's one of my favorite reed albums, mostly because of robert quine's presence on guitar, and this song is a great example of just how good it gets.]

the Mountain Goats - "Genesis 30:3" [from the excellent the life of the world to come. while it'll be forever hard to remember just what these songs' titles are thanks to darnielle's biblical passage names, it's still a great record.]

Sisters of Mercy - "Lucretia, My Reflection" [by request. from floodlands. i've never listened to a lot of sisters of mercy because, well, goth is a prickly genre. but damn this is a great song and i'm going to have to hear more.]

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Built to Spill - "Hindsight" [from last year's excellent there is no enemy. kicking myself for not going to see them at the cradle, but, well, you know. life.]

the Posies - "Solar Sister" [from frosting on the beater. one of the high water marks of power pop as a genre. need i remind you what i think of this record? well, i just did.]

the Roadside Graves - "Ruby" [by request. from my son's home. they'll be at nightlight in chapel hill on saturday, january 30th. get excited for an awesome live show.]

the Replacements - "If Only You Were Lonely" [originally the b-side to the "i'm in trouble" single, but also available on the out-of-print, european import EP boink! oh, and the re-issue of sorry ma forgot to take out the trash that came out in 2008 also. a great, early westerberg gem.]

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Jill Andrews - "Sweetest in the Morning" [from her self-titled EP. formerly one-half of the songwriting pair in the everybodyfields, this is a promising debut from a talented writer.]

the Lemonheads - "Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye" [from varshons, the tidy little covers record released last year. the female voice on this is liv tyler - go figure. evan dando will be at tremont music hall in charlotte on tuesday, february 9th. i plan on being there as well.]

the Decemberists - "O, Valencia!" [by request. from the crane wife. sadly all of our CDs, except for this single, seem to have walked. c'mon, DJs. go steal from the internet, not the station.]

Vic Chesnutt - "Isadora Duncan" [from little, the first track from his debut. we'll probably be hearing something by vic every week for a while. there's such a rich body of work to be mined - i can't help but want to work a lot of it in.]

That'll do it for this week. I'll be back next week with lots of great new stuff and more classic music, as always. Until then, take care.