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Track List – November 30th

I know I’m late, but voila! Here she is.
My friend Dix made a Spotify playlist to accompany the show, because he’s awesome like that. So in case you miss the stream (though it’ll be up for a week on my CFUV show page), find it here.

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Track List – November 23rd

Today was the Cancon-tastic special! I think all but three of my songs were Canadian this week, which is just proof that Avril Lavigne and Celine Dion can suck it. We have some outrageously talented musicians in this country, and particularly in this province. West Coast represent!

I also spoke for about seven minutes on Green Day and Bush-era politics, which lost me a listener and then gained him back when I explained that I normally just spend time drooling over the sweet, sweet crevices of Boards of Canada albums. I still maintain that I will be going back to re-review American Idiot, likely on this very blog, because I do think it may be a better album than we give it credit for now. But that’s in the future. For now, here is the track list!

Arcade Fire – You Already Know (Reflektor)
White Poppy – Wear Me Away (White Poppy)
Basia Bulat – Wires (Tall Tall Shadow)
Jordan Klassen – Strengthen Me With Raisins (Repentance)
The Zolas – Knot in my Heart (Ancient Mars)
Neko Case – Man (The Worse Things Get, The Harder I fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You)
The Royal Oui – Actual Size (Forecast)
Library Voices – Anthem for a New Canadia (Summer of Lust)
Jets Overhead – Butterflies (Boredom and Joy)
Green Day – 21 Guns (American Idiot: Broadway Soundtrack)
Destroyer – El Rito (Five Spanish Songs)
Janelle Monaé – Dance Apocalyptic (The Electric Lady)
The Polyphonic Spree – You Don’t Know Me (Yes, It’s True)
Georgia Murray – Just a Dream (Just a Dream)
Towers and Trees – Wandering Ivy (Broken Record EP)
Chris Ho – Doesn’t Make Sense (City of Dust)
Teagan Johnston – Three Blind Mice (Winter’s Child EP)
The Dandy Warhols – SETI vs the WOW! Signal (This Machine)

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Track List – November 16th (The Royal Oui Live)

It’s super late, but here’s the track list for this past weekend’s show. I was humbled and intimidated and so, so honoured to be able to have The Royal Oui come perform on my show and hang out for a conversation; Ari Shine and Adrienne Pierce are both just incredible musicians and generally fantastic people.

In a lot of ways, radio is a little like shouting into a void; you don’t get a lot of feedback that anyone is listening, so it’s easy to assume you’re just talking to the wind. But every so often you get to interview some guests who are genuinely thrilled to be on the air, and make you feel like you’re actually accomplishing something each week. Ari and Adrienne made me feel like I was really becoming part of the music community here on the island, and that my dinky little weekly playlist of songs I love may be something people would listen to and perform on. Needless to say I was thrilled at this show; I think it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever done. I hope to do more like this in the future.

You can find more about The Royal Oui at http://theroyaloui.com/, and they’re on Twitter at @the_royal_oui.

Anyhow, here’s the track list:

Janelle Monae – Given’ Em What they Love (The Electric Lady)
Neko Case – Calling Card (The Worse Things Get…)
Basia Bulat – Tall Tall Shadow (Tall Tall Shadow)
The Polyphonic Spree – Carefully Try (Yes It’s True)
The Royal Oui – When You Lose Your Mind
The Royal Oui – Dirty Snow
The Royal Oui – True
The Royal Oui – Give Up the Ghost
The Arcade Fire – You Already Know (Reflektor)
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark – Enola Gay (Left of the Dial)
Flight of the Conchords – The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room (Live)
John Williams – Cantina Band Theme (Star Wars: Episode IV)
Ryan Adams – Answering Bell (Gold)
Kids on TV – We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off (Mixing Business With Pleasure)
Library Voices – If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90’s (Summer of Lust)
Man or Astro-Man? – Baby’s First Spacewalk (45 Single)
John Vanderslice – A Better Whirlpool (Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs)
Lonesome Animals – Soft Light (Soft Light EP)

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Track List – November 9th

It’s a long weekend and I don’t’ have very much more to add, other than the fact that 1) Elliott Smith is awesome, and 2) I got my hair re-dyed yesterday and it is WICKEDLY red.

And now to the songs:

Janelle Monae – Q.U.E.E.N. (The Electric Lady)
Aroara – 14 (In the Pines)
Neko Case – Night Still Comes (The Worse Things Get…)
Ed Sheeran – Kiss Me (+)
Basia Bulat – Wires (Tall Tall Shadow)
Megan Bonnell – Stars (Hunt & Chase)
Bastille – Sleepsong (Overjoyed EP)
Darren Korb – Build That Wall (Bastion soundtrack)
Polyphonic Spree – Raise Your Head (Yes It’s True)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – Any Weather (Unvarnished)
Janis Joplin – Down on Me (Greatest Hits)
Jets Overhead – It’s Not Up to Me (Bystander EP)
Tegan and Sara – The Con (The Con)
Kate Rogers Band – Contender (Repeat Repeat)
Elliott Smith – King’s Crossing (From a Basement on a Hill)
The Dandy Warhols – We Used to Be Friends (Welcome to the Monkey House)
Melodysheep – Onward to the Edge (Symphony of Science)
The Pettit Project – 99 Lives (CheeROCKracy)
The Dirty Projectors – About to Die (About to Die)

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November 2013: The Zolas – “Ancient Mars”

In which your hostess makes a complete fool of herself by applying her critical writing skills to gushing like a teenager.

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Track List – November 2nd

This week I was thrilled to have the lovely, talented, and totally intimidating Teagan Johnston in studio with me (along with her awesome guitar player Pete) to briefly conduct an interview and perform some live songs during the first half hour of the show! She released her EP that night and I have no doubt that we will hear from her again. True story: having live artists in studio is the perfect CanCon-requirement filler.

Stars – Do You Want to Die Together? (The North)
Teagan Johnston – Stripping Me Bare (Live in Studio)
Teagan Johnston – Three Blind Mice (Live in Studio)
Teagan Johnston – Monsters (Live in Studio)
Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside (Broken Bells)
Janelle Monae – Sally Ride (The Electric Lady)
Polyphonic Spree – You Don’t Know Me (Yes It’s True)
Man…Or Astro Man? – Disintegrate (Analog Series Singles)
Neko Case – Near Midnight, Honolulu (The Worse Things Get…)
Angel Haze – Same Love (Same Love Mixtape)
John Vanderslice – Diamanthunde (Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs)
Library Voices – If Raymond Carver Were Born In the 90’s (Summer of Lust)
Jen Titus – O Death (Supernatural OST)
The Zolas – Invisible (Invisible – Single)
Oneohtrix Point Never – Boring Angel (R Plus Seven)

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Radio is a Learning Process

In which your marvelous hostess shoots herself in the foot by admitting that she’s not quite perfect yet.

So I’m three shows into Particles and Waves, and am currently listening to the stream of Saturday’s show. It might seem self-possessed, but I like to think it’s also to help me hone my craft now that this is a regular gig for me. And also because I really do learn things from listening to a piece of work that 1) could be rehearsed, but usually isn’t, 2) is never going to be editable no matter how much I want it to be, and 3) therefore requires the development of certain oratory and improvisational skills which haven’t been worked on since I was a drama nerd in high school.

I tried to look for an image to fit a “Cunning Linguist” joke but the result was exactly as you’d expect.

I really liked this past show. The song selection was a lot of fun and I got to play some really neat vinyl. That said, I wouldn’t be a creative type if I wasn’t self-critical, so there are two things I’m noticing: first, that I can do a lot better in reducing my filler words; and second, that the sound board is a filthy goddamn liar about quality levels. There are one or two spots where things kinda got blown out into muddyville this week, for which I apologize. The BoC song sounds fucking gorgeous, though. Because BoC is magic.

On the subject of filler words: I am loathe to realize that I do use them, and it’s a conscious work in progress to eliminate them. Just as I had to train myself off of using scripts while in studio in my first year of hosting, I am also re-training myself to just shut the fuck up when I run into a mental roadblock. I think I’m a lot better than I used to be (there are some Big Broad Casts that I’m very glad are gone to the sands of time), but as I spend more and more time in front of the microphone I aim to end up sounding like I know exactly what I’m doing. Someday.

So that’s my takeaway. This is the sort of post that would completely bewilder my mother, because why on earth would you point all this out to your audience, bubbeleh? But better I call myself out on these things and aim to improve them as time goes on, rather than have some people think it but silently judge. So next week will kick even more ass than this week did, and will continue until we reach the asymptotic limit of asskickery.