Episode 83: There’s Beauty in Life

My wife, clearly at a young age, listening to her dad's records.

I met my wife through the now-defunct email discussion list for Velvet Blue Music.  She was a music journalist and, therefore, a great friend/asset to have, as I tried to make a name for myself in music.

Well, I didn’t exactly get famous, but I did fall in love.  Katy admonishes me when I’m an ass, and she encourages me when I’m about to give up.  And now, she’s having our baby.

We’re broke, so I’m sure we won’t do anything fancy for her birthday tomorrow.  We’ll probably just visit an art museum (for free) and use her coupon for Planet Sub.  But it’ll be the best thing ever.

I did make her a mix CD for her birthday, and I thought I’d play selections from it this week.  Because they’re mostly all mind-blowing pop songs, I figured listeners in Radio Free Raytown Land would also appreciate them.  (Plus, it just gives me a chance to yap about two loves of my life, Katy and records.)   Enjoy.

1. “You Still Love Me” – Cut Off Your Hands (Happy As Can Be | French Kiss | 2008)
2. “Everything With You” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | Slumberland | 2009)
3. “Freetime” – Trashcan Sinatras (Weightlifting | Lo-Five | 2004)
4. “Kisses for the Misses” – Richard Swift (You’re Lying 7″ | Velvet Blue Music | 2002)
5. “Tonight the Streets Are Ours” – Richard Hawley (Lady’s Bridge | Mute | 2007)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1415312/83radiofreeraytown.mp3″

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #83 (7/8/11)

Advertisement

Vinyl, vinyl, vinyl!

Yes, I’m copying and pasting from a Velvet Blue e-mail. I just ordered the Doug Burr and Telegraph Canyon records, so it’s okay. Everything is available at velvetbluemusic.com

THE PRIDS ‘chronosynclastic’  12″

Everyone’s favorite new band now on beautiful vinyl.  Be sure to see them on the road too, www.velvetbluemusic.com/prids has updated tour dates. + Doug from Built to Spill plays guitar magic on a track !

DOUG BURR ‘o ye devastator’ 12″

This is the first time any Burr recordings have been available on vinyl !  O Ye has been getting so much great press and it’s easy to see why.  It’s an instant classic.

STARFLYER 59  ‘old’ 12 “

First time ever on vinyl, and it’s a picture disk too !  It’s at the bottom in the distro section.  Many consider this to be the bands finest work.  Line up for the record was Martin, Cloud, Swift, and Lenz.

TELEGRAPH CANYON – ‘the tide and the current’  12 “

This sounds absolutely perfect on wax !  They have been touring like crazy but we still have some copies left.  The record was produced by W. Johnson of Centro-matic / Monsters of Folk.

THE LANGLEY SISTERS – ‘queen bee’  7″

3 lovely sisters from London make great sing alongs.  Produced by Ed Harcourt. On white vinyl, with download codes.

KISSING COUSINS – ‘pillar of salt’  12″

5 lovely ladies from Los Angeles, who lay on some guitar !  Produced by Richard Swift. On white vinyl, with download codes for the record + bonus tracks.

RICHARD SWIFT – ‘ the novelist / walking without effort’ 2 x 12″

These are almost gone !  A co-release w/ Secretly Canadian, beautiful gatefold, that comes with a cd of 4 unreleased demos inside !

HELLO VINYL – ‘2 cd compilation’

In case you missed it, we have the opposite here :  We took all the out of print Velvet Blue vinyl and put it into a 2 cd set.  Includes tracks from :  Fine China, Pony Express, Richard Swift, Broadway Hush, Fold Zandura, Bon Voyage, etc.

Velvet Blue Monday

I have to copy and paste here.  I just received an e-mail from Jeff Cloud, announcing a sale at Velvet Blue Music, for one day only.  If you know someone who still needs to buy you a Christmas gift, a link to this post would be great to e-mail to him/her.

Now, I can’t simply pass this along without recommendations, however.  Nothing to Do With Foxy Boxing, Don’t Frown and Monk With a Gun are essential.  You simply  cannot claim to enjoy music if they are not in your catalog.  I’ve played Map and Swift here before, so you should know my unbiased and accurate opinion on the matter.

Buy any 2 of the below 7″s and get one more for free !  You must make your purchase online at  www.velvetbluemusic.com by midnight Monday, Dec. 14th.   Just type the title of the 7″ you want for free in the comments section of the order.

• THE LANGLEY SISTERS “queen bee” (on white vinyl)
• RICHARD SWIFT “nothing to do with foxy boxing” (on blue vinyl)
• RICHARD SWIFT “buildings in america” (first swift vinyl)
• ROCKY VOTOLATO / SUFFERING & THE HIDEOUS THIEVES “split” (on blue vinyl)
• FINE CHINA “don’t frown” (on pink vinyl)
• MAP / GARY MURRAY “all my friends who play guitar” (starflyer 59 covers)
• MAP “monk with a gun”
• THE BROADWAY HUSH “moon songs” (on blue vinyl)
• THE BROADWAY HUSH “sun songs” (on clear vinyl)
• PEP SQUAD “angela jones”

Episode 20: Decay

I’ve decided to go with the theme of decay for episode 20 that  Joel Atkinson suggested over two weeks ago.  In only 24 minutes, I’ve attempted to explore the topic through sound and lyric.  I hope the results are not too heavy and philosophical.  Enjoy!

1. “Quartz” – Brian Eno (Music for Films/EG/1978)
2. “Two Statues” – Robert Deeble (Earthside Down/Jackson Rubio/1998)
3. “Losing Touch With Everyone” – Joy Electric (Unelectric/BEC Recordings/2000)
4. “Snowstorm” – Galaxie 500 (On Fire/Rough Trade/1989)
5. “I Fall Apart” – Company (Company/Metro One/2002)

Radio Free Raytown – Episode #20 (12/4/09)

By the way, I have compiled episodes 11-16 into a zip file.  You may download it here.