–Tim Butler (bassist, The Psychedelic Furs) on the band’s 1982 album, Forever Now

The Psychedelic Furs, c.1988

I remember the day I got hip to The Psychedelic Furs. Members of the Velvet Blue Music email discussion list had jokingly thrown around the idea of the label releasing a Furs tribute album (an idea not so far-fledged, when considering Fine China’s Rob Withem would later record “Love My Way” on his Foxglove Hunt album). This was early college, and I had no idea who the Furs were and why everyone seemed so jazzed about them. To find out, I picked up a copy of the band’s 1988 singles collection, All of This and Nothing, from Streetside Records. I fell head-over-heels in love with “All that Money Wants,” and that album became the soundtrack for many shifts of pizza delivery.

I don’t know what gets me back on a kick, but this week, I’ve been on a serious Furs kick. I’ve picked up where I left off halfway into the band’s biography, Beautiful Chaos: Psychedelic Furs. I know, I’m a nerd. But you probably already knew that. Enjoy.

1. “The Time” – 2562 (Aerial | Tectonic | 2008)
2. “Fog” – Nosaj Thing (Drift | Alpha Pup | 2009)
3. “All That Money Wants” – The Psychedelic Furs (All of This and Nothing | Columbia | 1988)
4. “Love My Way” – The Psychedelic Furs (All of This and Nothing | Columbia | 1988)
5. “Moonage Daydream” – Fluffy (Sugar Pistol | Flying Tart | 1995)

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #96 (1/13/12)

Motel Beds' most recent album, Tango Boys

The thing I hate (and that some of my friends love) about best-of lists is the sheer act of making a definitive statement. No matter how much time I sink into them, I inevitably return to my lists and realize an omission. This was again the case with my Fifteen Favorites of 2011 list that I posted only two days ago. Only a few hours after posting it, I realized I had left Real Estate’s new album off the list. So take my lists (and especially the albums’ rankings) with a grain of salt.

At any rate, a friend suggested I take some episodes to play a song from each album in that list. I don’t know I can remain focused enough for more than one show, but I’ll give him at least this one. I tried to pick songs you may not have a chance to hear (like with the Robert Deeble and Motel Beds tracks) and deep album cuts I don’t want you to miss (as in the case of Wire, The Decemberists and The Joy Formidable).

Enjoy.

1. “Hopeless” – Motel Beds (Tango Boys | No More Fake Labels | 2011)
2. “Nightcrawlers” – Widowspeak (Widowspeak | Captured Tracks | 2011)
3. “A Flat Ten” – Wire (Red Barked Tree | PinkFlag | 2011)
4. “Heart Like Feathers” – Robert Deeble (Heart Like Feathers | independent | 2011)
5. “Chapter 2” – The Joy Formidable (The Big Roar | Atlantic | 2011)
6. “This is Why We Fight” – The Decemberists (The King is Dead | Capitol | 2011)

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #95 (1/6/12)

My favorite album of 2011 was The Decemberists’ return to straight-ahead pop, The King is Dead. I know I’ve annoyed some folks with proclaiming “The Calamity Song” and “This is Why We Fight” as two of Colin Meloy’s most insanely catchy songs since “The Sporting Life.” I know the band is an easy choice for readers of the slightly-informed-but-oh-so-boring, Paste Magazine, but there’s nothing to apologize for here, folks! It feels like this is probably the stellar album R.E.M. intended to make in 1992 but got sidetracked with rappers and shiny, happy people. No amount of skinny jeans-clad fans can change the fact that the songs deliver strong hooks.

This year I went nutso over the new albums by The War on Drugs, Real Estate and Girls. Sure, Pitchfork and the bloggers also loved them, but they really struck a chord with me. Dreamy, a little slacker-ish and drenched in reverb, these bands provided solid albums that kept me company many mornings while I fed our baby, Ian (born on November 1).

I guess the biggest surprise for me last year was The Joy Formidable. Methinks this band is the second coming of Swervedriver. I love huge guitars and pop hooks, and The Big Roar delivers them in jaw-dropping fashion. I’m impressed its getting airplay, and the band’s new album should be at home in the collection of any Silversun Pickups fan.

I don’t pretend to have compiled a list of the best albums from 2011. Like I’ve already noted, I didn’t listen to nearly enough albums to make such a statement. (One glance at this list should reveal that I’m not going for objectivity. The new R.E.M. album was not that great, as a whole. But the middle chunk of about five songs is some of its best work since the 80s, resulting in the album’s near-constant spot in my rotation for much of the year.) These are my favorite albums of 2011.

1 – The King is Dead – The Decemberists (Capitol)
2 – The Big Roar – The Joy Formidable (Atlantic)
3 – Strange Mercy – St. Vincent (4AD)
4 – Slave Ambient – The War on Drugs (Secretly Canadian)
5 – Father, Son, Holy Ghost – Girls (True Panther)
6 – It’s All True – Junior Boys (Domino)
7 – Heart Like Feathers – Robert Deeble (self-released)
8 – Nine Types of Light – TV on the Radio (Interscope)
9 – Tango Boys – Motel Beds (No More Fake Labels)
10 – Dawn of Light – Tineke Postma (Challenge)
11 – Red Barked Tree – Wire (Pink Flag)
12 – The King of Limbs – Radiohead (Ticker Tape)
13 – Widowspeak – Widowspeak (Captured Tracks)
14 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – M83 (Mute)
15 – Collapse Into Now – R.E.M. (Warner Bros.)

Ian and me, photograph by Tim Mahurin

Adjusting to my son’s birth has been rather difficult. My wife returned to work only three weeks after he was born, and he didn’t take well to a sleep schedule. (I know, I know, these are common.)

Anyway, I’ve returned to recording episodes. I can’t guarantee they’ll come weekly, but they will most assuredly blow minds. I hope you enjoy this week’s show and have a great Christmas.

1. “I Just Don’t Understand” – Les Paul and Mary Ford (Swingin’ South | Columbia | 1963)
2. “Don’t Like Goodbyes” – Frank Sinatra (Close to You | Capitol | 1957)
3. “Travelers” – Aaron Parks (Invisible Cinema | Blue Note | 2008)
4. “Cynthia Lewis” – M83 (Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming | Mute | 2011)

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #94 (12/22/11)

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
4AD – 1986

We were newlyweds, and my wife asked my friend, Joel, what Cocteau Twins album I needed the most (that I didn’t already have).  He suggested Victorialand because “the first song is nothing but major sevenths and reverb.”  She bought the album, and it quickly became one of my favorite in the band’s catalog.

It is certainly a strange album, even for the band already known for its creativity and unique sound.  First, the band recorded without one of its guitarists, Simon Raymonde, who was working with This Mortal Coil (on its beautiful Filigree & Shadow album).  It seems that the band’s other guitarist, Robin Guthrie, saw Raymonde’s absence as an opportunity to experiment.  The album features more acoustic guitars than usual, all drenched in reverb and delay.  Second, on all but two songs, there are no rhythm tracks.  Not even the band’s signature, harsh drum machines.

Glancing at the song titles reveals this is a concept album about ice and snow.  (And knowing that Victorialand is an Antarctic region certainly helps.)  Matched with equally icy and shimmery guitars, it’s one of the better executed concept albums I’ve ever heard.  Every time I listen, my head swirls in the whirlpool of chorused guitar strums and eighth note delay.  It really is euphoric.

All that said, I know that getting into a band like the Cocteau Twins can take a lot of work, even for fans of 80s British alternative.  While folks who dig Cocteau Twins usually enjoy bands like The Cure and New Order, I’m not sure the reverse could be said.  Sure, the bed of chorused guitars would be familiar to fans of “A Forest,” but Elizabeth Frasier’s vocals can be bone-chilling and even downright weird.

She clearly uses her voice like an instrument. (Bjork fans would be accustomed to this.)  Frasier sings in English, but she clearly obscures the words so many verses resemble elvish.  Only occasionally can the listener perceives a few words.  Sure that description sounds so weird, but listening to Victorialand, it makes so much sense.

I’m sure the album is on Spotify, or perhaps you could piece it together with YouTube videos.  In any case, please take the time.  The band is so important to the development of dream pop that you have to, at the very least, investigate it.  (So fans of The Sundays and The Dream Academy take note!)  Victorialand is an especially fitting album on these cool, autumn evenings.

I haven’t had the time to record another episode this week, as I got one of these on Tuesday.

Thinking about The Lassie Foundation, I reflect equally on its mind-blowing output during my formable college listening years as well as all the bands it referenced in its playing (that I would, in turn, get hip to).

The band’s first EP and first two full-length albums still stand up well alongside the best work of bands like Medicine or The Boo Radleys, so it’s easy to revisit them and not just defensively snap to your friends, “Well, you just had to be there.”

Wayne Everett and Eric Campuzano (the primary forces in The Lassie Foundation) were responsible for much of my musical discoveries in college.  When I read them name-drop Ride, The Boo Radleys, Loop, The Beach Boys and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in interviews, I immediately sought out any of those bands’ records I could find.  (Remember, this was still before Napster…it took me a year to find even one CD by The Boo Radleys!)

In retrospect, I was bound to be smitten by The Lassie Foundation’s work.  The band was a collective of guys from Starflyer 59, Fold Zandura and The Violet Burning…three of my favorite bands at the time.  But The Lassie Foundation was totally different than those bands; it had a cool, surfy, California vibe.  Enjoy, and remember, enlightenment is its own reward.

You’re welcome.

1. “I’m Stealin’ to Be Your One in a Million” – The Lassie Foundation (California | Velvet Blue Music | 1996)
2. “I’ve Got the Rock and Roll for You” – The Lassie Foundation (Pacifico | Shogun Sounds | 1999)
3. “She’s the Coming Sun–She’s Long Gone” – The Lassie Foundation (Pacifico | Shogun Sounds | 1999)
4. “Conquer Me” – The Lassie Foundation (El Rey | Shogun Sounds | 1999)
5. “Look All Ways” – The Lassie Foundation (I Duel Sioux and the Ale of Saturn | Grand Theft Autumn | 2001)
6. “Face Your Fun” – The Lassie Foundation (Face Your Fun | Northern | 2004)

So I decided to compile a list of artists that almost excusively release make plangent, autumnal music.  For this discussion, I’m intentionally avoiding one-off fall albums.  Someone like Beck has released a couple great fall albums, Sea Change and One Foot in the Grave, but I wouldn’t consider him a fall musician.  I wanted to make a list of artists’ who always make fall music.  You know, guys like Nick Drake, whose catalog is to this season what the second chapter of Luke is to Christmastime.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it includes artists who usually appear on my annual fall mixes.  As a courtesy, I have posted a link to a song by each artist.  The songs may not be the artists’ best, but they are surely indicative of their work.  (My choices are also limited by what’s available on YouTube.)

Enjoy.

1. Nick Drake
2. Bela Bartok
3. Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon)
4. Grant McLennan (The Go-Betweens and Jack Frost)
5. Simon and Garfunkel
6. Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500 and Luna)
7. The Innocence Mission
8. Low
9. Robert Deeble
10. Junior Boys