J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 21st April 2010

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. A fantastic load of new music this week, so tons of great stuff, as well as a look back at Peter Steele and Guru, of Type O Negative and Gang Starr, respectively, who both passed away this past week.

The WQFeSt is this weekend - both Friday and Saturday night - with a whole load of great bands playing for free both nights. Friday night is a hip-hop show starting at 8 PM with Superteam, Kristmas, G-Mane, Jackie Chain and G-Side. Saturday starts at 5 PM with Mixed Signals, Acidosis, Savant, The Bronzed Chorus, Lake Inferior, Casual Curious, Future Islands, Nurses and the Tallest Man on Earth. It's Free and open to the public and I'll be MC'ing Saturday's shows, so be there and help us celebrate 40 years of being your only alternative!

Now, onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 21st April 2010 show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
>
the Hold Steady - "Hurricane J" [from heaven is whenever. i heard the first twenty seconds of this song at some point and kind of shrugged. i figured i'd pay attention to it later. well, if only i'd held on for the chorus. wow. another great one from one of america's great living rock and roll bands.]
the Stooges - "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" [from the new expanded, remastered and reissued version of raw power. a hilarious letter written about the bonus-disc live show almost 40 years ago came with our station's copy. it was from someone at CBS records looking over the recordings and deciding that due to the massive profanity that the recordings should be locked away and never seen for at least 40 years. welp, there you go. got your wish.]
the Morning Benders - "All Day Daylight" [from big echo. great song from a fantastic album from these guys. probably top 25 of 2010 bound.]
Blur - "For Tomorrow" [the lead track from their second album, modern life is rubbish. the new blur documentary no distance left to run looks really great, by the way. as does the live in hyde park concert video.]
>
Roky Erickson and Okkervil River - "John Lawman" [from the new true love cast out all evil. if you know who erickson is, you know why this is such a special record. and okkervil river turn out to be an ace backing partner for him. this is seriously good.]
Paul Westerberg - "Men Without Ties" [from besterberg but also available originally on the "world class fad" single as a b-side. a great little throw-away tune from westerberg that has always had a warm place in my heart.]
Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets - "Heat Lightnin' Heat" [from snake river canyon. caleb and bandmate phillip played a slowed down version of this on the show last week and the ramped up album version is a great compliment to it. great music.]
Bow Wow Wow - "C30 C60 C90 Go!" [from the best of bow wow wow, this was one of their earliest singles, an ode to home taping that drove some industry folks crazy as it promoted abandoning buying records and simply taping songs off the radio.]
>
the Tallest Man on Earth - "The Wild Hunt" [the title track from his new album. he'll be here at guilford college live this saturday, april 24th, playing as part of the WQFeSt. show starts at 5 PM and is FREE! so come out to founder's lawn in the main part of guilford campus for a slew of great bands.]
Sleater-Kinney - "The Size of Our Love" [from the hot rock. one of my all time favorite sleater-kinney songs. this week came the news that sk's corin tucker will be releasing her first solo record later this year (hopefully) on kill rock stars. oh, my. get excited.]
Frightened Rabbit - "Swim Until You Can't See Land" [from the winter of mixed drinks. they'll be at the cat's cradle in carborro this sunday night, april 25th, as far as i know. they were prevented from playing coachella because of the volcano, so hopefully this won't delay the rest of their US tour.]
Del Amitri - "Tell Her This" [from twisted. probably my all time favorite del amitri song. this set was a lot more low key than i planned, but still turned out pretty lovely. i dedicate the scottish half of this set to lis because, well, i can.]
>
Josh Ritter - "Rattling Locks" [from the forthcoming so runs the world away. i haven't had a chance to really absorb the album yet, but i'm digging this song. don't worry. we'll hear tons more. he'll be at the carolina theatre in durham on tuesday, may 11th.]
the Jayhawks - "Nothing Left to Borrow" [from tomorrow the green grass. i was just re-listening to the lovely sound of lies the other week and remembering why i think it's the jayhawks' best album. love this song though.]
Titus Andronicus - "Theme from 'Cheers'" [from the monitor. okay. another shot at my massive screw up from the other week. did a much better editing job this time. great, great album. summer time, late night, rock.]
the Flaming Lips - "Turn It On" [from transmissions from the satellite heart. the first song i ever really heard by the flaming lips and it's always been one of my favorites.]
>
Jews and Catholics - "Trouble One Trouble Two" [from the excellent who are? we think we are! eddie and alanna (the catholic and jew themselves) will be up on the show next week. going to make for a great show.]
Ride - "Vapour Trail" [from the album nowhere, often called the second best album of the shoegaze movement. one guess what the first one is. it's a pretty stellar album, indeed.]
Dum Dum Girls - "Bhang, Bhang, I'm a Burnout" [from i will be. another entry in the wavves/vivian girls/times new viking clutch of bands that, honestly, i'm really loving. great, great stuff.]
John Prine - "She Is My Everything" (live) [from the forthcoming in person & on stage live album. i got into john prine via his performance on the sadly defunct sessions at west 54th show on PBS. that performance of "lake marie" forever changed me. seriously.]
>
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "Better Things" [from the excellent new i learned the hard way. you can check out my review of it at aquarium drunkard. they're playing at the cat's cradle in carborro on tuesday, may 11th.]
Juliana Hatfield - "What a Life" [from only everything. tom, of tom's diner here on WQFS, insists that hatfield's last few records have actually been pretty solid. any commenters? i tuned out on her a long time ago.]
Drive-by Truckers - "Birthday Boy" [from the big to-do. one of my favorite tracks on the record and that seems to be a consensus. now i'm hearing rumors that the author of this song, mike cooly, might indeed be releasing a solo record later this year. here's hoping.]
>
Gang Starr - "Full Clip" [from full clip: a decade of gang starr. as i said on the podcast, i probably have almost never played gang starr or guru on my show over the years, but as an appreciator of his music and what he gave to hip-hop, i had to throw some on, even if it didn't manage to trickle into my playlists. my own personal loves, music wise, are much more broad than the confines i give to this show. the show would be an absolute mess if i didn't cull some of that stuff, but guru is worth mentioning. rest in peace, man.]
Type O Negative - "Love You to Death" [from october rust. i talked about peter steele's death last week on the blog post. this was the first type o negative album i owned and it's still the one i come to most often when i'm in the mood to listen to them. they aren't something i reached for a lot, but at the right moment, there was nothing quite like them. rest in peace, peter.]

That'll do it for this week. Make sure you are at WQFeSt either Friday, starting at 8 PM, or Saturday starting at 5 PM for two nights of free shows and fantastic music. I'll be MC'ing the Saturday affair, so make double sure you come out for that stuff. Until then, take care.