J's Indie/Rock Mayhem - 26th May 2010

[Welcome to another edition of J's Indie/Rock Mayhem. As always, when I skip a week, I come back fiending from being away. I think tonight's show reflects a stockpile of great new music, and I also had a lot of fun with trainee, Shane, who was a DJ with us back in the 90s as well. He'll have his own show coming up in a couple of weeks.

Now, let's go. Onward.]

J's Indie/Rock Podcast: 26th May 2010 show

Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show"
>
Portugal the Man - "The Dead Dog" [from american ghetto. this song is dark and sinewy and has a wonderful beat and i'm not quite sure how to compare it with stuff i've seen of this band live doing acoustic things. still, the album is superb.]
Sixteen Horsepower - "Brimstone Rock" [from low estate. there are so many times where i wish i'd seen this band before they called it a day. something tells me that the live experience was without compare. anyone catch them when they existed?]
the Happy Hollows - "Faces" [the lead track from the excellent spells and at the bare minimum this is bound for my best singles of the year show. great, raucous rock.]
the Lemonheads - "Alison's Starting to Happen" [from it's a shame about ray. this got stuck in my head the other day (as great songs are wont to do) and it needed exercision. 'she's the puzzle piece behind the couch / that makes the sky complete.' that there's poetry.]
>
the New Pornographers - "Moves" [the lead track from together which is holding up to repeat listens quite well, thank you very much. we'll see if i feel the same come december.]
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - "Love Comes in Spurts" [from blank generation. boy, if there was a punk album i bought as a teen that really changed my thoughts about punk - well, it'd be a tossup between this and television's marquee moon. but robert quine's guitar work on this is so acidic - it's amazing.]
Drive-by Truckers - "Birthday Boy" [from the big to-do. i know i only played this a few weeks ago, but man, is it ever good. one of my favorites from their latest.]
Teenage Fanclub - "Don't Look Back" [from grand prix. they're due out with a new album later this year on merge records. i truly hope that means they'll be coming back to carolina on tour again. please, oh, please.]
>
Frightened Rabbit - "Nothing Like You" [from the winter of mixed drinks and perhaps one of my favorite overall songs of this year so far. the chorus just kills me.]
the Stone Roses - "She Bangs the Drums" [from their self-titled record. i don't know that there's much to say about this album at this point. unless you've never heard it. then we'll talk after you go buy it and save your soul.]
Kendal Johansson - "Blue Moon" [from the "blue moon" 7" comes this cover of big star's song from third/sister lovers. pitchfork has this track and it's a pretty interesting take on the original. there's a big star tribute show this friday, may 28th, at the cat's cradle in carborro. lots of big NC artists paying tribute to the late alex chilton. ought to be awesome.]
Tallest Man on Earth - "King of Spain" [from the wild hunt. the first song ever played on my show through our new computer system. we'll be slowly moving our back catalogue over to our new server as part of our tech upgrades. exciting times.]
>
Nada Surf - "Electrocution" [from if i had a hi-fi, their new covers album. the lead single is their cover of this bill fox song and there's a pretty righteous video for it as well. i'm a little disappointed that this isn't a new album of originals - seems like it's been forever since the weight is a gift. still, sounds great.]
Soul Asylum - "Cartoon" [from hang time. picked up a copy of this for a buck the other day and, well, it's awesome. the band was always underrated just because they weren't quite the equals of their minneapolis peers, but they were great in their own right.]
the Black Keys - "She's Long Gone" [from brothers. i haven't always followed the black keys, but my initial listens to their new album is pretty sharp. we'll hear more.]
the Strugglers - "Limerence" [from the latest rights. love this record from the other year - really one of the most solid north carolina records in recent years.]
>
the Love Language - "Brittany's Back" [from their forthcoming album libraries. saw these cats last friday at the blind tiger and wow, what a show. this new album is really fantastic also.]
Grandpaboy - "Lush and Green" [from the self-titled EP. this was paul westerberg's first release under his separate moniker and this song remains among my favorite all-time westerberg songs.]
Josh Ritter - "Rattling Locks" [from so runs the world away. it's still taking me time to get into the new josh ritter - his tendency to shift styles with each record makes it take a minute to readjust, but his songwriting is still strong.]
Toad the Wet Sprocket - "All In All" [from in light syrup. chris jackson of citified and i did a duet of this song last week as part of the latest often awesome benefit show raising money to help former WQFS general manager tim lafollette fight lou gerigh's disease. i had a ball doing that and want to say thanks again to chris for playing along with my idea and adding so much to it.]
>
the Mynabirds - "Numbers Don't Lie" [from what we lost in the fire we gained in the flood, a really fantastic new album from former georgie james member laura burhann. we'll be hearing a lot more.]
the Church - "Russian Autumn Heart" [from gold afternoon fix. one of my favorite marty wilson-piper songs from the church's catalogue.]
the Dum Dum Girls - "I Will Be" [the title track from their newest. lump them in with this fantastic neo-garage movement that takes these dynamic pop songs disguised in fuzz. i'm loving this movement. in fact, one of my favorites of the movement is surfer blood who will be at the cats cradle on tuesday, june 15th.]
Vic Chesnutt - "Giant Sands" [from about to choke, vic's lone major label release from 1996 which is getting a reissue on CD and vinyl in mid-june. you can read my look back at the album over at aquarium drunkard.]
>
Blitzen Trapper - "Laughing Lover" [from destroyer of the void, their forthcoming album. this song has a lot of the classic trappings of a blitzen trapper song from their last few albums. looking forward to the whole thing.]
Whiskeytown - "Everything I Do" [from stranger's almanac, without question my favorite whiskeytown album. this song ranks among my favorite all time ryan adams songs as well.]
Super Deluxe - "She Came On" [from famous, another of the 90s one-hitters i've been covering over at aquarium drunkard. one of my favorite power-pop gems of the decade.]
Sonic Youth - "Drunken Butterfly" [from dirty. the muddled audio before the song is an old cart recording of the band doing a rock the vote promotion. i didn't know it would come out sounding so inaudible. oh, well.]
>
Benji Hughes - "Country Love" [from a new sargeant records single with charlotte, north carolina's benji being backed up by the band willoughby. it's a nice little tune and makes me wonder when benji's follow-up album will finally drop.]
Jay Bennett - "The Engines Are Idle" [from his whatever happened i apologize. jay's final album, kicking the perfumed air, will be released in june on a pay-what-you-want price with all proceeds going to the jay bennett foundation to help support music education. you know it'll be worth hearing, so when it comes out, go pitch some money to a very worthy cause in jay's memory.]

That'll do it for this week. I'll be back next week with more great new music. Until then, take care.