After everything.

Personalities of its members aside, The Church is my ideal band. In the past 35 or so years, it has matured from jangly post-punk to a mix of psychedelia, ambient and dreampop. To me, the romantic ideal of a two-guitar band is embodied in The Church, as the guitarists refused to adopt the usual lead/rhythm guitarist roles. Both Peter Koppes and Marty Wilson-Piper interwove lead riffs and panned them hard-right and left. (Sadly, Wilson-Piper is no longer a member of the band.)

Last weekend, I fell back into After Everything Now This, my favorite album by The Church. The band had started falling into the usual trap of recording covers and endless jams, and After Everything Now This marked a return to songwriting. While it’s not necessarily the band’s best or most historically important record, it was the first album by The Church that I bought on its release day. The riffs (especially on this almost-title cut) bring back that warm feeling of basking in the summer sun in my Ford Aspire and impatiently waiting for the air conditioning to finally get cool.

Guess I could say more, but why don’t you just listen to the song for yourself?

 

 

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Episode 110: On Route to Somewhere

Come see this show, bring lots of friends and buy Robert’s music!

I usually despise the term singer/songwriter. But then again, I have to check myself, as some of the most life-changing music has come from dudes pouring out their hearts in stories and arpeggios on acoustic guitar. I believe Robert Deeble is one such guy. When I hear his music, I imagine he has spent (un)healthy amounts of time in his bedroom listening to Songs from a Room or The Times They Are a’Changin’ and perfecting his own songs. As you might guess, I’m no casual fan. Gallons of virtual ink could easily be spilled on the importance of Deeble’s music in my life over the past 15 years. My wife is also a huge fan of his music, and counts him among her favorite interviews from her days in music journalism.

A while back, Deeble began talking with us about the possibility of hosting a small concert. As long-time fans, we greeted this discussion with enthusiasm and are happy to announce that he will play at Morton Hall in Westport on October 4, 2013. To help promote the show–and his music in general–this week’s show is dedicated to his songs. Hopefully you can attend the $5 show, but at the very least, I hope this show piques your interest to check out his catalog on Bandcamp.

Enjoy.

1. “Heart Like Feathers” (Heart Like Feathers/Dead Letter Records/2013)
2. “Peter and the Lion” (Thirteen Stories/Pete Records/2004)
3. “Two Statues” (Earthside Down/Jackson Rubio/1998)
4. “The Colors of Dying” (Heart Like Feathers/Dead Letter Records/2013)
5. “Lovers on Route” (Earthside Down/Jackson Rubio/1998)

[audio https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1415312/110radiofreeraytown.mp3 ]

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #110 (9/15/13)

Rotation (1/21/13)

Long before last.fm, Instagram and Facebook sharing, an important tool in musical discovery on the internet was through the sharing of rotations on message boards and email discussion lists. Inspired by radio stations that would post the singles currently in rotation, people would share lists of recently played albums.

While they could be perceived as exercises in elitism or narcissism, these lists also served as recommendations (for albums that required years of scouring local record stores). Hopefully this list is helpful, as not everything I listen to can be scrobbled.

Just a list, in no particular order, of what I’ve been listening to over the past two weeks or so.

10. The Bears for Lunch – Guided by Voices (Guided by Voices / 2012)
9. Coltrane – John Coltrane (Impulse! / 1962)
8. Opus de Jazz – Milt Jackson (Savoy / 1956)
7. Third Stream Music – The Modern Jazz Quartet + Guests (Atlantic / 1960)
6. Out of the Woods – Tracey Thorn (Astralwerks / 2007)
5. It’s a Jungle in Here – Medeski, Martin and Wood (Ryko / 1993)
4. Car Alarm – The Sea and Cake (Thrill Jockey / 2008)
3. A Smattering of Outtakes and Rarities – Yo La Tengo (Matador / 2005)
2. Low – David Bowie (RCA / 1977)
1. Stage – David Bowie (RCA / 1978)

What presence?!

Yesterday Ian and I watched Orange Juice on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Raytown stuff.

There are a couple events you should know about.

The city of Raytown is holding its annual clean up day on May 5 from 8:00am-3:00pm at Super Splash. Not only is this a great opportunity to get rid of your junk, but it’s also a great chance volunteer for a worthwhile cause. (As always, if you have unwanted psychedelic rock or jazz fusion records, do not take them to this clean-up day. Please set them on my patio.) The city has posted a flyer with the details here.

Also, Mid-Continent Public Library and Cintas are holding a shred event on April 27 from 1:00-5:00pm. I broke my friend’s shredder, so a box in my garage has been filling up with papers to shred. Oh yeah, this service is free. And yes, I’m going to post a link where you can find more information for this event, as well.

Psychedelicness.

“Forever Now is my favourite album out of all of them. I think it was the peak of our psychedelicness. Some of our biggest influences were psychedelic and, finally, on that album we got psychedelic.”

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

Juxtaposition.

Episode 95: Like a Wrecking Ball

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)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1415312/95radiofreeraytown.mp3″

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

No new episode this week.

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

Fall bands (not to be confused with the band, The Fall)

I didn’t have time for a show this week (and I imagine that, upon Ian’s arrival, it’s unreasonable to expect them to arrive weekly).  My friend runs an excellent coffeeshop here in Raytown and, recently, Low’s music has been in heavy rotation at his store.  That, and the leaves cluttering my yard, have got me thinking a lot about fall music.

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