Instant Dance Party Here to Save the Day
It’s Saturday night and last call isn’t for at least another 3 hours and you need an hour of music to get you through. We are like your 7th or 8th inning pitcher here replacing the starter who reached his pitch count. You can’t go wrong here—at least you’ll find a few obvious gems and some ones you haven’t heard.
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Chiswick Radio “Songs we never (EVER) would turn off” Playlist
We’ve compiled a list (that we will keep current) of songs that we would never ever ever turn off if they came on. This is extremely subjective and doesn’t mean we think they are the best songs ever.
Just saying–we will not hit skip, or change the station if we hear it. As always, it’s a hodge podge of eras and styles, but we hope you find something that you will never turn off, EVER!!!!
Which of course, creates an issue. The longer this playlist grows, the longer you have to listen and keep on. This could be a problem.
Please feel free to follow and suggestions are welcome.
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The Jeckyll and Hyde of “The Damage” by NOISEINK
https://soundcloud.com/noiseink/the-damage?in=noiseink/sets/demo
We’re always looking for new music to listen to and came across NOISEINK, an act from Boston. I know NOISEINK through Twitter, I’m assuming it’s a one man act based on the pictures. Most of the music is on soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/noiseink, with a few songs on Spotify.
I don’t know if it’s because NOISEINK is from Boston (like the writers on this site), or just the talent alone–but we did feel a connection to these tunes. I encourage you to go through and give these songs a listen (Hey NOISEINK, you do any shows?). There are a bunch of gems here.
One of the songs I attached to is “The Damage”, put out there a couple of years ago. We like contrasts in a song, where you’re treated to different sets of sound. The Jeckyll verses takes on a funky little diddy with a nice beat and then the chorus goes Mr. Hyde “WHAAAAAAA”—-like going down on a rollercoaster (yep got my hands up).
Check out the links above, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.
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One of the best albums in the last 15 years (it’s MGMT, and it’s not what you think)
MGMT’s Congratulations – One of the Most Underrated Albums You Will Ever Hear
Many music fans who think of MGMT think of this,
this,
and of course this
In the late 2007 – 2008 timeframe, MGMT’s “Oracular Spectacular” was one of THE albums. I’m not going to bore you with a critique or a timeline, it’s easy enough to find elsewhere. The album had drawn a fairly pop and alternative crowd. It was stuff the cool kids new but so could your wife. Lots of shoutouts to 70’s -80’s R&B and New Wave grooves.
Anyway, it was great stuff. But I don’t think it was their best album.
On to 2010, “Congratulations” is released. I need to say this–“Congratulations” is one of my favorite albums of the millenium if not ever.
And it was a flop, compared to “Oracular”
Why?
“Oracular” had enough modern Top 40ish sounds on it to attract a mainstream fanbase.
“Congratulations”, on the other hand, was a shoutout to 1960’s Wall of Sound era music–think Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, or the Beatles’ Abbey Road. It was well though out, orchestrated and produced—but it wasn’t cool.
I guess I’m not cool.
Here is the album.
I’m not going to wax poetic on the album–maybe I should, I don’t remember enough critics hyping this one. It could be this is musical nerd music. If so, those who love it are guilty as charged (count me in).
I’ve chosen a handful of songs here, I could listen to the album straight through, back to back for a week, but do that on your time, Let’s focus on a subset:
Track 1 – “It’s Working” – Drums kick in with a guitar riff that sounds REM like–but that’s not where this is going, it’s going for 60’s psychedelia with a hard charging beat.
Track 2 – “Song for Dan Tracey “ – zero in at the 25 second park and listen for the next 20 seconds,very retro—as are the background vocals later on with super double echo sounds.
Track 3 – “Someone’s Missing” – the first half of this song feels like I’m deep sea diving, everything is murky in the fish tank. Then……rising action, and then you’re in a Motown groove—where did that come from????
Track 6 – getting to it
Track 7 – “Brian Eno”—they named a friggin song and titled it Brian Eno. It’s consistent with the rest of the songs in style, but that is a five star title
Track 9 – “Congratulations” – this is the closest you’ll find to a song belonging on “Oracular”. It’s a well crafted, slow pop song, It’s also a great song for a wedding with a video montage if you know what I mean. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s ok.
Back to Track 6
Track 6 – “Siberian Breaks”—this song is epic. I’m a little compromised on this one because I’ve got a musical fetish for songs that are actually songs within a song. Think McCartney’s “Band on the Run”, which is really three songs, or the last 9 songs of the Beatles “Abbey
Road”, which is really one song. MGMT’s “Siberian Breaks” is a 12 minute song, but there isn’t any fat in it. You could argue it is really a song with 7 or 8 different songs within it and it’s amazing. At one point, at the 6 minute mark, it looks like it’s going to drift and float away—and then it hits you at the 8:20 mark.
If we need to be specific here–first, you need to listen to this whole song and 1) count how many songs or parts you think are in it and 2) zero in on that 6 minute mark and focus
on the next 140 seconds. I hope this doesn’t spoil it for you, but music wins.
OK, I’m glad that’s out of my system, feels like a confessional.
To wrap up, I’m in a small minority here, but I think overall, this is MGMT’s best album and one of the best albums we’ve heard in the last 15 years. Just don’t look for a big dance hit here and you’ll be ok.
I leave you with this:
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Love and a 38 (and a Jack and Coke)
I was just listening to “Rock N’ Lola” by Love and a 38 and I immediately needed a drink in a bar, maybe some old school rock club. What I like about these guys is that they just want to rock in a driving way—not in some heavy angst ridden way, or in a Brooklyn artsy hipster way—–but back to the days of driving, groove- filled rock. We here listen to everything but there are times we just want to rock for whatever reason and not think too much about it. . These guys bring it. Above is their video “Oh My God” from their website http://www.loveanda38music.com/ and we really like Rock N’ Lola (below).
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Chiswick Radio Playlist 5/30/2016
For those of you in the US, we hope you had a great holiday weekend. Where Chiswick Radio broadcasts, the heat has been turned up and hopefully the attached keeps you cool.
Some bands you should definitely be checking out are Faded Paper Pictures, Death Team, Noiseink and Hospitality.
Some for all, all for us.
5/31/2016
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Chiswick Radio Playlist 5/19/2016
Chiswick Radio Playlist 5/19/2016
Happy Thursday from the U.S!!! Tonight we have a one hour set of music so open the list up and enjoy. But also be on the lookout. Over the next couple of weeks we wlll be doing a set of music from our Twitter followers. It will be great listening in on some of the music from youtube, spotify, bandcamp and anything else we can get our hands on.
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Chiswick Radio Playlist 5/16/2016
For Monday, Chiswick Radio’s usual mix, hopefully will boost the day. One piece of advice, if you’re walking and listening to “Born To Shine” by Big Grams with Run the Jewels, walk a little slower. You’ll see what we mean.
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The new 007 film – Kasabian’s Days Are Forgotten
Yes, we are going into movie making.
Step 1—Push play and then hit pause to the first video above, James Bond Quantum of Solace intro. Then turn the volume down.
Step 2 – Push play on Kasabian’s song “Days Are Forgotten” below, and turn volume up.
Step 3 – Push play on the James Bond intro above
Step 4 – Watch the James Bond intro
Days are Forgotten is a 2011 song by the popular British rock group Kasabian. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasabian). Isn’t this the prototypical song for the opening of a Bond movie? Of course it is, it’s perfect. I don’t even if have a production budget and look how easy it was to splice together.
You can take any recent Bond movie, think of the slow motion, the shadowy figures of nude women and the bullets flying, and apply this song. Why has this not happened????? Normally I’d leave it at that but…….
THE TITLE
THE TITLE!!!!!!!!
DAYS ARE FORGOTTEN
Kasabian unwittingly created a title for a new Bond movie. Think about it, a global weapon of mass destruction that erases people’s memories. The world would sink into chaos if everyone was walking around if they had their brains wiped clean like a hard drive. James Bond is the only one who can stop it and it will be the engine of Kasabian’s song that drives it.
This needs to be made. Shaken, not stirred.
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SMUCKERS – A Beautiful Mess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAO-73B54o
Yes, this song is over a year old but I can’t stop listening to it.
Tyler, the Creator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler,_The_Creator), did SMUCKERS with Kanye West and Lil Wayne. It’s six minutes long, but it feels longer in a Led Zeppelin Kashmir way. You don’t anticipate the ending; it just drifts away before you know it.
Great piano and horns throughout. It starts off with Tyler, and then comes Kanye, who seriously drives the song forward. By the time Lil’ Wayne shows up it sounds like they’re just throwing out lines and not doing a song. The last two minutes sound like the end of the evening, and all of it is good.
It goes from song to hangout to closing time and just sounds different in a great way.
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