Radio Recap - 8 September 2009

08:00PM Fergus & Geronimo “Powerful Lovin” from Fergus & Geronimo
08:02PM Destroyer “Dark Leaves From a Thread” from Trouble in Dreams
08:05PM Polvo “The Pedlar” from In Prism (read more)
08:17PM Vivian Girls “The End” from Everythin Goes Wrong
08:20PM Palomar “The Planeiac” from Palomar 3
08:24PM Wavves “Cool Jumper” from Wavves
08:34PM Cotton Jones “Where You Stop for a Minute” from Rio Ranger EP (read more)
08:37PM Free Energy “Dream City” from Free Energy
08:41PM Bottle Up and Go “Wayward Son” from These Bones
08:44PM Jonna Lee “My High” from This is Jonna Lee
08:47PM Why? “Into the Shadows of My Embrace” from Eskimo Snow
08:56PM The Big Pink “Dominos” from Dominos
09:00PM The Decemberists “Tangerine” from Bridging the Distance- Portland, OR
09:02PM Treepeople “Liquid Boy” from Something Vicious for Tomorrow
09:06PM The Dandy Warhols “Godless” from Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
09:12PM The American Analog Set “Promice of Love” from Promice of Love
09:21PM Ambulance LTD “Yoga Means Union” from LP
09:26PM Blonde Redhead “23” from 23
09:27PM Cymbals Eat Guitars “Wind Phoenix (Proper Name)” from Why There Are Mountains
09:32PM Grandaddy “Gentle Spike Resort” from Broken Down Comforter Collection
09:36PM Neutral Milk Hotel “Ghost” from In an Aeroplane Over The Sea
09:40PM The Decemberists “Thank About Me” from Bridging the Distance- Portland, OR
09:42PM The Joggers “Long Distance Run Around” from Bridging the Distance- Portland, OR
09:56PM Elliot Smith “Southern Bell” from Elliot Smith

New Album: Polvo - In Prisms

One of the 90s greatest experimental bands has reunited to give us a new album, out last Tuesday. Polvo has always had a unique take on harmony and a superb use of dissonance, but In Prisms shows a great deal of the maturity and sophistication they gained during their nearly 12 year hiatus. As such, this album is less weird than anything the band's done before, especially in relation to Today's Active Lifestyles (1993; my favorate of theirs). Yet they haven't abandoned those completely out-of-tune notes that are the hallmark of their sound. To me, this dissonance sounds something akin to the "blue notes" oft mentioned in jazz, but for Polvo they are more than blue. Perhaps "dirty notes" would better describe the utter degree of misplacement that these effect. On Tuesday, I played "The Pedlar" and previously "Beggar's Bowl" (available free here) which are definitely the stand out tracks.

Buy In Prisms from Merge Records, here.

Free mp3 from a new EP by Cotton Jones

After a nearly two week hiatus from posting, I return to you with goodies. Not only has Cotton Jones, perhaps more famously known as Michael Nau from the band Page France, released the new Rio Rangers EP today, but one of the five tracks on the album is free for download from Quite Scientific Records. If you haven't checked out this side project (I hadn't), it's a bit more folky than Page France, but it retains the psychadelic aspects of the full bands. Listen for the free track "Where You Stop for a Minute" on Parallel University Radio tonight, and buy the EP here.

Cotton Jones - "Where You Stop for a Minute" .mp3

Jay Reatard Free EP for joining mailing list

I found this free EP by Jay Reatard about a week ago, but I haven’t had time to write about it what with other releases and the sudden influx of concerts in SB. Jay is giving away four songs on his aptly titled Jay Reatard Free EP. Two of these are on other releases, “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” is on his newly released Watch Me Fall LP and “See/Saw” is the A-side of a recent single. But “My Shadow” and “Hammer I Miss You” are new tracks as far as I can tell. The EP isn’t as good as Watch Me Fall, but I don’t turn my nose up at free stuff. Plus the download is more than worth the cost of joining his e-mailing list, which you must do to get the EP. To get it, go to his website and enter your email address in the form near the top right of the page.

Track List
1. “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me”
2. “See/Saw”
3. “My Shadow”
4. “Hammer I Miss You”

Dueling Concerts tonight: Six Organs of Admittance vs. Devandra Banhart

Both Six Organs of Admittance and Devandra Banhart are playing concerts in Santa Barbara tonight. Could it be a throw down over gets you to come to their concert? Well, no. The Six Organs concert is an early, all-ages show, 6pm at Muddy Waters and only $10 to get in, while Banhart isn't until 9pm and sold out (a few tickets may be available at the door). So if you already have tickets to Banhart, you can pull of both, and you should. For everyone else, go enjoy the sounds of Six Organs. You can get tickets at the door or here.

Radio Recap - 25 August 2009

Finally, I've figured out the best format for radio recaps. Below you'll find last night's playlist. Tracks available for free download contain a hyperlink to the .mp3 and those about which I've blogged have a link after them.

08:01 Gutsies “Surfer Body” from Gutsies
08:04 Boogie Boarder “Bio Hassle” from Pizza Hero
08:07 Modest Mouse “Perpetual Motion Machine” from No One's First and You're Next
08:17 Shonen Knife “Super Group” from Super Group
08:21 The Beets “The Devil” from Spit On the Face of People Who Don't Want to be Cool
08:23 Holiday Shores “Days Drag” from Columbus'd the Whim
08:27 Suckers “Afterthoughts & TV” from Suckers EP
08:31 My Teenage Stride “To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge” from Ears Like Golden Bats (read about)
08:43 Cale Parks “One At a Time” from To Swift Mars
08:47 Javelin “Vibrationz” from Jamz N Jems
08:49 Deastro “Shield Whip” from Orange Swimmer Red Summer (read about)
08:52 Girls “Hellhole Ratrace” from Hellhole Ratrace 10" (read about)
09:03 Six Organs of Admittance “Words for Two” from School of the Flower
09:05 Dinosaur Jr. “Friends” from Farm
09:10 Phoenix “1901” from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
09:14 Japandroids “Rockers East Vancouver” from Post-Nothing
09:18 Portland Cello Project “Beat (Health, Life and Fire)” from The Thao & Justin Power Sessions
09:25 Cymbals Eat Guitars “Wind Phoenix (Proper Name)” from Why There Are Mountains
09:30 Death Vessel “Mandan Dink” from Stay Close
09:34 The Decemberists “Apology Song” from 5 Songs
09:37 Devendra Banhart “I Feel Just Like a Child” from Cripple Crow
09:42 Wye Oak “Siamese” from The Knot
09:46 Brian Jonestown Massacre “(David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six” from Take it from the Man!
09:55 Elliott Smith “Coast to Coast” from From a Basement on the Hill

My Teenage Stride - Free Back Catalog .mp3s

Last Tuesday, I played a track from Brooklyn's My Teenage Stride. I really dug the tune and this week I've been digging into their back catalog a bit. Long story short, over the years, the band has offered random tracks from different releases. Tomorrow night I'll be playing one of these tracks, "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" from 2007's Ears Like Golden Bats. You can snag it below, but it's worth your time to peruse the others they've posted.

My Teenage Stride - "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" .mp3
Get the others here.