If you follow your favorite band’s history, there’s usually a height it reaches artistically before a decline or plateau. In some cases, the music that is produced after their peak is unbearable to listen to. I’m not a hater so won’t name names, I’d rather just walk away from it (or run) and not speak ill. But you can probably find a few bands you used to love who fall under this category.
Another flavor is the band that will be remembered for a certain height, like what I mentioned above. After that height, though, they continue to produce music that, while it won’t be on the short list of your all time faves, create that distinct sound and artistry that you crave and welcome when you hear it.
Which brings me to Dear World, by Nine Inch Nails. I’m by no means a hardcore fan of NIN, but I’ve listened enough of them over the last oh god, I don’t know how many years, oh let’s stop there.
Dear World sounds like a distinct Nine Inch Nails song with the instrumentation and Trent Reznor vocals. We are not breaking new ground here, neither will it be in the retrospective video when they gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (shouldn’t NIN be in already)?
I’ll keep it brief, listen to it below, and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Enjoy.
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: Chiswick Radio, dear world, Music, nine inch nails
This all got started on seeing that Foxygen, a band I was vaguely familiar with, is playing the Paradise Rock Club in Boston in late March. Having kids, you need to pick your spots on which concerts to see.
What’s written and pasted below is one guys broad shallow sweep through Foxygen’s discography. No reviews have been read so no apologies if it sounds like something someone else has written.
Spoiler alert: will probably go to the show, more on that later……
My introduction to Foxygen was through Diane Coffee (via Spotify), and is an act tangentially related, and you can wikipedia it all.
Foxygen has a huge affinity for the 60’s and 70’s—hitting doo-wop/oldies, psychedelia, and 70’s pop tunes.
I’m going to get this off my chest, the lead singer reminds me of the lead singer of Cymbals Eat Guitars with a whole lot more range. He can go Mick Jagger and at that point it becomes scary good.
There is definitely a 1960’s vibe on the first three albums, (2012’s Take the Kids off Broadway, 2013’s We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, and 2014’s And Star Power). “Take the Kids” is more early 60’s (think wall of sound with dramatic highs and lows) , while “21st century” embraces more of the psychedelic. “Star Power” builds on “Peace & Magic” with more rock.
By the way, the last song of “Star Power” is “Hang”, which is the name of their new album (came out January 20th, 2017). That’s a 3 year commitment right there.
Start with this…
It’s all over the place. And we love changeups and curveballs.
“No Destruction” is a gem, it’s a cross between a legitimate classic rock song with a little bit of 90’s alternative mixed in. I love the line “There’s no need to be an asshole, you’re not in Brooklyn anymore…..”
“On Blue Mountain” …
“How Can You Really” is the song everyone knows, and rightfully so. 70’s pop rock (with horns!) These guys love horns, I really hope they bring some brass on tour.
Here is stuff from the new album:
“Follow the Leader”—-I’m loving this, it sounds mid – 70’s and I say that in the best way possible.
“Avalon” (in the name of Boz Scaggs!)
“America” – I tweeted out this might be the best show tune I’ve heard all year. I stand by that comment. The song writes the play.
“On Lankeshim” – this ties the showtunes and rock together. I could see a Springsteen cover band doing this.
So, these guys feel all over the place, but it does come together very nicely. It’s a music geek’s adventure which is why it would be a total trip to see them live if done right. I’ve got high hopes and expectations. The various musical styles and instrumentation Foxygen uses will make for quite an interesting experience. Especially so since it’s in the Paradise, which is mostly standing room and fits about 600 if it’s jam packed. If you like shaking hands with the band members, this place is ideal.
This has to be taken in, I don’t know where Foxygen is going, but I hope they keep going.
Posted in The Vault
Tonight’s Top 5, in no particular order or reason. Some new, some older and some old Be warned, the median age of these songs is 10 years old.
1 Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles
Everyone in a while, I’ll listen to a Beatles album. I’m more about The White Album or Abbey Road. I know Revolver but it’s been a while since I played it straight through. This song Lennon wrote is forward thinking. Yes it’s psychedelic, but not in a 1960’s hippy / baby boomer kind of way. I joked that this sounds like a Chemical Brothers song. And of course it’s underrated – the only reference I’ve caught to it was at the end of a TV show (Mad Men?). This song should be much higher on any list of great Beatles songs.
2. Surgery – Two Door Cinema Club
This could have easily been five other songs from “Gameshow” which TDCC (is that used?) released this fall. Before this album, I knew a couple of their songs, but I couldn’t say I was a big fan. This album front to back is a great listen straight through if you like the dance/ pop / rock genre. I’m keeping an eye on tour dates, this must be one fun concert.
3. Dance – Danny Brown
No idea how I came across this song which came out 2 years ago, but it reminds me of “Southern Hospitality” by Ludacris. A solid, turn it-up-loud-in-your-ride head bopper. I’ve always liked Danny Brown, but wasn’t ready for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTKYAhTUTVM
4 Black and White Town – Doves
I can’t believe this song is pretty much 10 years old. This song is wire to wire good and I’m wondering if I need to do a deep dive on Doves. I think I do. This song kind of reminds me of Tears for Fears (in a good way).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjU_9D2q-rM
5 Jumpers – Sleater-Kinney
Again another 10 year old song (I know, I know). Sleater-Kinney is every rock journalists wet dream and I never listened to them. I saw their new album “No Cities to Love” came out and gave it a listen, and I liked it. Enter another deep dive and came across this. Great use of guitars, and change ups throughout the song. I can see how someone can get into these guys.
Posted in The Vault
Tonight’s Top 5, in no particular order or reason:
1. Cuba Quiero Bailar La Salsa – by ??????????
Why you ask? Because I’m drinking vodka and in the mood for a pile of cocaine! OK, not sure how I got this, but I found a 90 minute cassette of “Disco Classics” and this was on it. BTW – I don’t have a cassette player but have a cassette “converter” which takes cassettes and converts the audio to MP3’s and such. (And it looks like a cassette player). I don’t know who did this song and had to google cuba quiere baila la salsa to get this, and it lines up so I’m happy.
2. Silouhettes by Preoccupations
I’m trying to figure out whether Preoccupations (the band formerly known as Viet Cong), are paying tribute to New Order, Interpol or both. And I’ll never get that answer and someone will call me an idiot. But when people tell you that rock is dead, look no further. And yes, they have a new album called “Preoccupations” which came out in September and it’s delightful. This song isn’t on it though (it’s from 2015).
3. Put Me Thru by Anderson Paak
If I were a sports talk radio host, I’d be sitting here teasing an over/under on the number of Grammys that Anderson Paak should win in the next 5 years. In my imaginary world of delusion and idolmaking, the line is at 16.5 Grammys, with 8 Grammies collected in 2017. He’s a five tool superstar–hip hop, soul, funk, vocals, attitude—-those don’t add up perfectly and I’ll stop with the sports analogies. I actually fucked up and DIDN’T buy tickets when he performed at The Paradise in Boston this past summer. The Paradise is great since it’s small and you’re always in high five distance of the stage. The point is, I blew this one.
4. White Crosses by Against Me!
This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time something by Against Me! shows up on one of these lists This isn’t my favorite, which doesn’t mean it isn’t great –hope that makes sense. But when this song came on today, I had to turn this up real loud. I WANNA SMASH THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!
5. These Walls by Kendrick Lamar
This might be my favorite song on “To Pimp A Butterfly”. Yes, I’m shallow, and this video on YouTube gets a fraction of the views that other songs on the album get. But this is the song I want to have on in a convertible on the 101 in LA at 7pm in August. OK, that’s specific, and haven’t been to LA in 10 years, but when I go back……….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECFnJ5u2kiY
Posted in The Vault
Once or twice a year, we release an extended mixtape, or a “jukebox” as we call it. The jukebox usually consists of 200 songs, usually clocking in at around 12-14 hours.
We call it a jukebox since it has a variety of styles from retro to new, well-known and up and coming, and rock, hip-hop/R&B and other.
This is the fifth jukebox we’ve done, and it’s so new we haven’t given it a proper name yet so stayed tuned…….
Chiswick Radio
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: against me!, ariel pink, beach baby, cherry glazerr, Chiswick Radio, colleen green, diane coffee, ex hex, faded paper figures, foals, foxygen, fuzz, jukebox, kero kero bonito, modern baseball, Music, preoccupations, tacocat, umo, unknown mortal orchestra, volbeat, white lung, yacht
First off, apologies. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, so there was no weekend edition last Friday.
So, looking at what we’ve been playing recently, we’ve been doing more retro with yacht and classic rock , and older hip hop. Hey, with the autumn comes nostalgia.
Back for the attack next week, enjoy the weekend.
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: Chiswick Radio, faded paper figures, james supercave, robots with rayguns, shit robot, tacocat, umo
We kind of went off-roading this week on various tracks. Our love for hockey (Fluxland), new stuff, (Empire of the Sun, Beach Slang, Against Me!) classic stuff (Elton John, AC/DC, Run-DMC), a mini-deep dive on Urge Overkill, sampled music and other stuff. Enjoy and remember we keep all the playlists here:(http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4d) which are at 150 songs and counting. You can also follow us on Spotify (chiswickradio) and access all our playllsts.
Enjoy the weekend!
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: beach slang, Chiswick Radio, colleen green, elton john, empire of the sun, frank ocean, french montana, kaiser chiefs, kendrick lamar, Music, playlist, run-dmc, Spotify, stone roses, swedish house mafia, tv on the radio, urge overkill, vacationer
Hello Friday! We’ve got another 30 great songs for ya- some known, not so known, and totally unknown.
You can see all of our playlists at this link: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4d
We call it the archive, in case you need some musical ideas. Let’s say you have a party that lasts 8 hours–you can combine our 4 lists and you’re 80% of the way there (as confident as we are, we do realize there are some songs you won’t want, and other songs you will).
Chiswick Radio–some for all, all for us. Enjoy!
Posted in The Vault
Happy Friday! Below is our Spotify playlist for the week. We’re always happy when we have artists we’re not familiar with great tunes, and some fo them are below (including Bass Drum of Death, Preoccupations, Fantastic Negrito, K Check, Oberhofer, Ex Cops and Spencer Ludwig)
The Spencer Ludwig song “Diggy” we caught while watching the NFL on Thursday night, as it was featured in a Target commercial. I hardly shop at Target, but appreciate the good tunes.
You can access our playlists by following our Spotify account (chiswickradio) or clicking on the archive link (http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4d) which takes you to a list of all the playlists.
Enjoy!
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: Chiswick Radio, Spotify
Here are links to all of our playlists. Will keep these updated (or at least try!). These are all on Spotify as well at the account chiswickradio. Follow us!
Jukebox 5 release (Oct 20th 2016: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4y
Oct 14th: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4u
Oct 7th: Siesta
Sept 30th: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4o
Sept 23rd: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4l
Sept 16th: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-4e
Sept 9th: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-49
Sept 2nd: http://wp.me/p7oYBz-43
Posted in The Vault Tagged with: archive, Chiswick Radio, Music, playlists