School Of Fish "3 Strange Days"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Because I'm enough of a nerd that I need BOTH weekend posts to be bands with "fish" in the name . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.  

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

An Emotional Fish "Celebrate"

Here's another Weekend Post:

"Let's celebrate, this party's over, I'm coming home."

I feel like I sang this one a lot in my drunken 20s . . .

Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Bobby McFerrin "Everytime"

"More than the sum of its parts" is certainly a cliche.  But sometimes it's true.

We don't really ever play Jack White.

And we don't really ever play Loretta Lynn.

But when they got together for "Portland Oregon" they created the kind of weird alchemy which deserves a home on the station.

It happens every once and a while.  Two artists, with no particular connection to MVY, do something together and the pairing deserves attention.

That's why we added the new Bobby McFerrin tune.

In the 13 years I've been here, I've never heard Bobby McFerrin on the station.  But his new album "SpiritYouAll" is getting rave reviews.

And on the track "Everytime" he sings with Esperanza Spaulding, and though neither of them on their own have done any recent work that suggested they were a good fit for the station, the thing they are doing together totally merits 3 minutes of your ear time.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Black Eyed Peas "Joints And Jam"

The Black Eyed Peas have for so long been slagged as the creators of hugely popular, vapid earworms, that I'd kind of forgotten that there was a time when they were heralded as some kind of alternative hip hop rebirth.

I mean, I'd even forgotten that I'd seen them in concert, until I was writing yesterday's post about seeing them in their pre-Fergie incarnation.

Can you imagine The Black Eyed Peas, as they are now, as part of the Punk rockest festival of the summer?  It barely makes sense.

But for a second, wipe out your memory of those massive hits like "My Humps" and "I Got A Feeling" and listen to "Joints And Jam" below.  And then put it in context.

This track was released in that period of time when popular, commercial hip hop had been dominated for the several years previous, by Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre and others who were delivering darker lyrics and darker messages.

"Joints And Jam" harked back to some of the more positive, thoughful, inclusive tracks from the late 80s, early 90s, from groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.

Seeing them at Warped made some level of sense, because it seemed like (similar to many of the bands there that day) they had a message and they were outside of the norm.

But in retrospect, here's where it probably turned a corner.

At the time, The Black Eyed Peas were a trio, and they worked the crowd into a fun, noisy mess with their songs and a lot of old school breakdancing stage moves.

But for a few of their songs, they needed a female vocalist.

It's not unusual for a group to employ a backup singer to tour with them, as was the case here.

What struck me, was the crowd's reaction to her.

For her parts, she stepped forward with this level of confidence and bravado, and delivered some walloping, powerful vocals.  She was a professional singer, as opposed to the guys in the group who were rappers, and sang a little.  The difference in talent on that count was apparent, and the crowd responded.

In an unusual move for someone who's essentially a support-player, they let her talk to the crowd between songs.  Whipping them up into a frenzy with some practiced banter, all based on this "I'm a strong female and I don't give a fuck" persona that she needed to project for the songs.

The crowd ate it up.  It became the most memorable part of the act.

At the time The Black Eyed Peas were a trio, but it wasn't lost on me, and I'm sure not on them, that adding a different gender, personality and look into the group created a whole new dynamic.

During the making of the next album, they ended up taking a vocalist they had brought in to cut one duet, and made her part of the group.  The success of adding Fergie no doubt changed the direction of their sound from Old School hip hop saviors, to creator of populist, dumbed-down, sexualized MASSIVE hitmakers.

I suppose if you want a career, that's what you do.

But forget what you know about the group and listen to the track below.  Hear it as a fun, summerish jam, and wonder where they might have gone instead.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Meryn Cadell "Pope"

With the announcement that Francis would be the new leader of the Catholic church, this Meryn Cadell song appeared in my Facebook feed.

I'd never heard it before, but it a) reminded me that I too had a story about once seeing the Pope, and b) that my memories of the story, are actually more about telling the story of seeing the Pope.  (Meta!)


We were hot, sunburned, and very, very tired.  But also adrenalized.

We'd spent the day in the parking lot outside of RFK Stadium in Washington DC at the punk rock festival known as The Warped Tour.  We'd seen literally dozens of acts, including Bad Religion, The Reverend Horton Heat, a pre-Fergie Black Eyed Peas (they were great) and even Eminem.

There'd been a rumor floating around that Joey Ramone was going to make an appearance, so we stayed long into the day, hoping that it would be so.

Alas, he did not.

On the Metro headed back to where we were staying, we were crowded amongst a few festival goers.  But it was a weekday, so many of the riders were simply folks who were coming home from a workday.

"Too bad he didn't show up," said one of my friends.  "Seeing Joey Ramone would have been like seeing the Pope."

"I saw the Pope once."

"Oh yeah?"

And I launched into the story of how I saw the Pope once.


In 1979, I was 10 years old.  Grew up in a very Catholic family.  Regular church-goers, Sunday School attenders, etc.

At age 10, I was certainly aware of the concept of a Pope.  And with the death of Pope John Paul I a year earlier, the idea of who a Pope was and what he did was a topic of discussion.  But for the most part, the Pope was as abstract and intangible as The Holy Spirit or Heaven for me.

Then came news that Pope John Paul II would be making his first trip to America.  And that his first stop would be in Boston.  It became clear that this Pope was a real guy, and that I'd actually get to see him.

We traveled into the North End of Boston with my folks and my Uncle and Aunt and cousins and found a place on the sidewalk along what we knew to be John Paul's route from Logan Airport, to a Mass he was going to give on Boston Common.

And we waited.  And waited.  And waited.

And waited.

I was only 10, so I'm sure that even if it were just 2 hours it might have felt like 100.  But it was long.

And the sidewalks were jammed.

I remember that the scene was colorful and loud (I know, hard to believe such a thing from Italians).

My cousins and I kept walking back from the sidewalk to a storefront nearby that had a TV in the window, where we charted the Pope's progress in our direction.  Though honestly, being 10, I don't know that I actually knew where I was in relation to the airport, so I'm not sure what good that did.

At some point a roar went up from the crowd, and I pushed forward to get a glimpse of the Pope.

But no, it was just a very proud dog trotting down the middle of the street, cheerily perplexed at why all these humans had assembled for him and were clapping hysterically for him.

More waiting.

Here's what happened next.

We heard some cheering down the street.

I craned my neck to get a look.

A car with a guy with his head out of the sunroof zoomed by, waving.

And he was gone.

"That's it?" I asked my Mom.

"That was him."

"But that's all we get to see?"

It lasted no more than a few seconds.

We waited hours, and it lasted seconds.

"Did you guys see him?" I asked my cousins.

"We watched it on the TV."

And we went home.


"This was before he got shot, so there was no fancy Pope-mobile," I was telling my friends on the Metro.

"It was just an old balding guy hanging out of a limo."

I suddenly realized two things on the Metro.

I had been at a punk rock show all day, and due to my ringing ears, I was telling this story REALLY LOUDLY.

And because of this, I had the attention of all the other riders on the Metro.

Now, you may not think this would be a strange thing for a guy who talks to an audience (on the radio) every day.  But it was.

Because on the radio, no one is looking at you.

I smiled, kind of proud of myself that I was enough of a raconteur (or a big-mouth) to have drawn the attention of complete strangers.  And a bemused smile crossed my face.

I felt a little like a dog in a parade for the Pope.


See some pictures and read a recounting of the Pope's visit to boston, from The Globe and from Boston.com.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop"

If you are my age or older, and if you are an MVY listener, you're not hearing to much rap music in your life.

So from time to time, I do like to point you to songs that are pretty f*****g awesome.

And to prove my point about just how unhip this blog post is, let me point out that this song is months old.  And the way I heard about it is from my wife.  Who is a teacher and learned about it from her 4th graders.

But I do get a kick out of this track because a) it's hilarious, b) it references the sounds (of rap music) that were touchstones for me (late 80s, early 90s), and c) lyrically, it is the exact opposite of what is so uninteresting about current popular rap music, which seems obsessed with success, wealth and image.


Hear the unedited, NSFW version on Youtube.


Hear the unedited, NSFW version with lyrics on the screen on Youtube.


And the clean version, if you happen to be at work, on Youtube.

Norah Jones "Sunrise"

"Sounds like a siren."

Said by another grade schooler, I might have taken it as a slam on the song.  But he was no ordinary grade schooler.


I was a strangely adult-like small child.

I don't know if it was the product of being the oldest child in my family.  Or growing up in a neighborhood where the only kids to play with were older.  Or if it was because I was hyper-verbal.  Or that my parents stressed some very old-school patterns of etiquette.

Whatever the reason, I was a strangely adult-like small child.

Through much of my grade school and middle school years, I really felt like many of the friends I had hung out with me more because their parents liked me, than they did.  It wasn't unusual for me to find myself at the kitchen table, having some kind of thoughtful discourse with my friend's parents, while my peers were outside, you know, being kid-like.

Kids would look at me funny, because I used these phrases like "one fell swoop" that no normal kid would ever use.

In middle school we had to do a book report, using a biography.  While the age-appropriate kids read sports biographies, and the savvy kids opted for teacher-bait books about Harriet Tubman and Mark Twain, I read an autobiography of Sid Caesar.

You know, because middle school is when all kids really become interested in the golden age of live television, the roots of Jews in comedy and the recovery stories of alcoholic TV icons.

Eventually, my older-than-I-should-be thing evened out, and I'm a reasonably normal, age-appropriate 40-something.

But for many years back there, I wasn't speaking the same language as the other kids.


When I first started dating my wife, back in 2004, her nephew was a grade schooler in circumstances much like mine at that age.  In some ways, even more pronounced.

Where I was the oldest kid in my family, he was an only child.  Where my friends were older neighborhood kids, he spent a ton of time exclusively with adults.

And where I had an unusual interest in, depth of knowledge about, and amazing recall of TV comedy, he was same about monsters, creatures both real (like bugs) and mythological.

He could talk extensively on the topics, and wasn't shy to do so.


My wife's family was welcoming to me from the start.  And though they were familiar with MVY before even meeting me, when I appeared on the scene in 2004, they became regular listeners.

And that's where my nephew first heard Norah Jones.

His comment?

"Sounds like a siren."

Now, if a kid, listening to a radio station aimed at people 3 or more decades his senior, were to suggest that a singer or a song was "like a siren," you'd probably take that to mean that the music, so age-inappropriate for them, was ear-splittingly horrible.

But that's not what he meant.

He meant that this singer sounded like a Siren, the mythological creature who's beautiful singing voice entranced sailors before luring them and their ships to sail too close to the rocks, ultimately causing shipwreck and death.

That kind of Siren.

And of all the reviews and comments and press-churn over Norah Jones' rise to success, this description was more succinct and more spot-on than anything I'd come across.

No ordinary grade-schooler would have come up with that line.

So here's to being age-inappropriate, but perhaps extra-ordinary.

Hear the song on Youtube.

Jellyfish "That Is Why"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Another 90s Power Pop band featuring Jason Falkner, whose bandmates went on to do session, writing and production work for loads of other folks (including Beck, Cheap Trick, Aimee Mann and Puffy Amiyumi).


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

The Grays "Very Best Years"

Here's another Weekend Post:

These guys only put out one album, and it landed in 1994, when "grunge" had gone mainstream and (almost) no one was doing polished pop songs.  The two main characters, Jon Brion and Jason Falkner have gone on to much acclaim doing session and production work, wherever someone needs a light, lush and/or tuneful touch.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Slim Whitman "Cattle Call"

Is it weird that when Slim Whitman died, and I thought, "Maybe I'll write a blog post about him?" the realized I don't know any Slim Whitman tunes?  That my entire knowledge of him is from his 1980s TV commercials?

Or are you just like me and you've never actually heard a Slim Whitman song on the radio?  Only in "Mars Attacks" (the yodeling kills aliens), and during 1982 commercial breaks from watching "McHale's Navy" reruns on UHF TV?

Is the best tribute to him, not to play a song, but to play his way-more-famous commercial?


See a commercial on Youtube.


See another commercial on Youtube.


Hear "Cattle Call" on Youtube.

Michael Franti "I'm Alive"

The new Michael Franti single and album were hotly anticipated items this Spring, for stations like MVY, and for listeners of those stations.

And it was no surprise that a) most of the radio stations that report to the same Billboard chart at MVY started playing the song immediately, and b) it rocketed up the charts.

In fact, this week, "I'm Alive" sits atop the "Triple A R&R/BDS Indicator Chart," a long way in front of the number two song "Stompa" by Serena Ryder.

A song gets to Number One on this chart, based on airplay spins.  Meaning, they count every spin that every song got that week, from all the radio stations that report to that chart, and rank them by total spins.

This week "I'm Alive" was played more than any other song. Franti wins.

Which is why we're going to stop playing it.

I am a longtime fan and supporter of Michael Franti.  I love what he stands for, I love his positivity, I love his passion.

One of the nicest gifts I ever got from an artist/label, hangs in my office.  It's a signed Franti poster, with the words written in Sharpie, "PJ, Maximum Respect," and his signature below.

But truthfully, "I'm Alive" isn't a very good fit for MVY.

Franti's music has always been on the fringe of our sound.  It's more programmed-beat-driven, more hip-hop leaning lyric and delivery, and generally more poppy than anything we play.

At times, his songs have been close enough to exist on the outskirts of what we do.  But some of the singles he's put out have pushed the envelope a little to far, and we've not added the song at all.

"I'm Alive" was so hotly anticipated, that we added it right away.

But in the following days and weeks, I'd hear the song on MVY and often cringe, as it felt so stylistically out of place.

So now it's hit Number One, and I can feel good about dropping it.

Previously, the number of times MVY played the song per week, was added to every time our contemporaries played it on their stations.  For us to pull our support would have meant a (small) loss in momentum for a guy I am sincerely pulling for.  And it could even have effected his ranking on the charts.  This week only 1 spin separates the Number 4 song (Vampire Weekend) from the Number 3 song (JJ Grey).

Franti's at Number One, and with nowhere else to go but back down, so having MVY stop supporting the song makes no difference.

Franti's "Alive."  He reached the top.  And now it's time to let it drop.


Hear the song on Youtube.

David Lee Roth "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody"

It's probably been a long time since you've seen the video for David Lee Roth's "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody."  You might as well watch it first, since it's certainly going to be the most entertaining part of this otherwise shaggy dog post:


See the video on Youtube.

If you remember the video, you probably remember the busty girls or the celebrity impersonators or Dave's particular, peculiar dance moves.

But I wanted to focus on the preamble scene.  The one that takes place on the set of the Cable Channel that "Dave" is the host of.

As Dave is approached by a collection of very, very surreal character actors, one of them (at the :45 mark) says, "You've got charaassma!"

He doesn't pronounce it correctly.

CharISma.

He makes it rhyme with the respiratory condition, asthma.

CharASma.

This song and video came out in 1985, which means I was 16 at the time.  Basically, I was the target audience of this video.

And I loved it.  All of it.

But for some reason, I really thought "CharASma" was hilarious.  So much so, that I started saying it myself.

At first, I'd just use it the way you'd use any movie quote.  The video was ubiquitous enough at the time, that peers would know the reference.

Then I started saying it any time the word "charisma" would happen into a sentence.  I'd just substitute "charASma" in, but I'd say it in a BIG way.  You know, to be ironic.

Then I just started pronoucing the word "charASma."  I mean, even when I wasn't trying to be funny or weird or pop-culturally clever.

To the point where I kinda forgot that the word was actually pronouced "charISma."

This transformation took place over the course of a couple of years, so it had reached the point where mispronouncing "charisma" was a habit I had to break.

I finally did get a handle on it, and after a few months of consciously thinking about it, I no longer had to pause and try to remember, "What's the correct way to say it?  CharISma or CharASma?"

And thus concludes the longest, lamest and least boob-related story about how a David Lee Roth video warped a teenagers brain.

Joseph Arthur "Saint Of Impossible Causes"

One of those behind the scenes things that you may or may not realize about MVY, or really, pretty much any radio station you listen to, is that most of the music that you hear on the air, is being played as an MP3.

I know, I know, you probably picture us playing song after song from CD.  Or even from vinyl.

And yes, that does happen.  But for so many reasons, anything we play regularly, we convert to MP3.  That way, it doesn't get lost, cds don't end up in the wrong jacket or filed out of alphabetical order, and nothing skips or gets scratched.

One side effect of this system, is that it controls/limits some information.

If I had the CD in front of me when I played a certain track, I might go through the liner notes and tell the listeners something I've read in there.

We do keep all the CDs and their liner notes in the library, but unless the DJ is looking for some specific info, they don't usually pull it out.

So the information the DJs have about a certain song, is laid out in front of them, as part of the MP3 library.

The DJs can easily see the basics in the digital information:

Artist Name
Song Title
Album Title
Year Of Release
Song Length

If there's a pronunciation question, there's a place to post that information, too.

So here's a Program Director dilemma/ethical question that I face from time to time.

Should I leave a certain field blank?

For instance, a few years ago, Blues Traveler put out an album called "Bastardos!"

Now I'd like to think that the air staff could restrain themselves from wanting to shout "Bastardos!" into an open mic.  But c'mon, let's face it---that's an opportunity that few of us could resist.

Unfortunately, part of my job as the PD, is to be the On-Air Cop, meting out citations to the DJs when necessary.

I think the staff knows that you can't say "Bastards!" on the air.  Or even come close to it.  But why tempt fate by putting it right in front of their eyes in bold letters?

A case of a thornier sort presented itself last week when we decided to add the Joseph Arthur song "Saint Of Impossible Causes."

The name of Arthur's album is "The Ballad Of Boogie Christ."

Am I offended by this name?  No.  Not particularly.

But can I see how another reasonable person might be?  Yes, I suppose.

Can I see how, by just delivering with a glib, or flippant, or sarcastic inflection, an MVY DJ could take the simple act of reading an album title and turn it into a situation where the Program Director has to dig deep into the Mea Culpa bag and write a letter of apology to someone who's miffed at the inappropriate use of the Son Of God's name?

Uh, yeah.  I could see how that could happen.

So, if you are an MVY DJ, and you play the Joseph Arthur track in your show, under Album Title it will only read "The Ballad."  And most likely, the DJs will refer to it as just that.  If at all.

Of course, any staff members who read this blog will know the truth, and may be tempted to say the whole name on the air.  In which case I'll have to instruct them to use the information gently and appropriately, while secretly being pleased that they actually read this far into this post.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Fleetwood Mac "Without You"

Which would you consider to have "more," something that was "long" or something that's "extended."

To me, extended suggests some kind of superlative.   Like it would be "longer" than "long."

So I've always found LPs and EPs confusing.

LP stands for Long Play.  EP stands for Extended Play.

To my mind, the EP should be have more music on it, because it's "extended" beyond the usual length.

But that's not the way it is.  An LP is a record with two full side, with maybe 2 minutes of content on each side.  An EP is usually only 4 songs or so.

I'd complain about it being confusing, except that here in the digital age there are fewer and fewer albums, there are no "a sides" and "b sides" and most kids today wouldn't know how to drop a needle onto a vinyl album.

So I'll just make this post Extended, as opposed to Long.

(It still doesn't make sense to me)


Hear the whole EP on Youtube.

The Ass Ponys "Little Bastard"

Here's another Weekend Post:

After yesterday's post filled with inappropriate language, I figured I'd go for two in a row.  This, with the added benefit of not only have inappropriate language in the song, but also in the name of the band.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

The Murmurs "You Suck"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I always thought this song would last and last as an ever useful novelty.  But it appears to be too much of its era to have lived on to insult future deadbeat exes.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Morphine "Bought Myself A Steak"

For the last month or so, my Mother-In-Law has been ever-so-kind enough to pick up my two kids from their pre-school/daycare on Thursdays, and keep them for an overnight.

It's hugely fun for the kids, as they are often joined by other cousins, uncles and members of our extended/modern family.

And it's been lovely for my wife and I, because it has provided a little bit of space.  For one night a week, we're not rushing home to get dinner on the table.  Or fighting the long set of skirmishes that must be waged in the battle of "It's Time For Bed."  Or plowing through all that to remember there is still housework or work-work to get through before bed.

Last night, I reealllly got a taste of space, when my wife spent the night visiting her cousin.

I was home alone.

So what did I do?  I bought myself a steak.

My wife loves steak.  And over the course of our marriage (with some key instruction from Alton Brown), she has learned how to make a steak better than any restaurant I've ever been in.

But she hates London Broil.

Too tough, she says.

But the flavor, I say.

I never win that argument.

But last night, I didn't have to argue.  Not with my son about why he can't wear his Monkey pajamas, since they are inside the washing machine.  Not with my daughter about how the cat will not eat corn, so please stop trying to take it off your plate and throw it under the table.  And not with my wife about the pros and cons of London Broil.  (Not even with Mark Sandman---I don't like mushrooms on my steak)

I bought myself a steak and ate it in silence.

And that's as good as it gets sometimes.

The Civil Wars "The One That Got Away"

I was going to write a bit about how the new Civil Wars track was an "automatic add," meaning we'd play it (almost) no matter what, not unlike the Fleetwood Mac song I wrote about a few weeks back.

Something kinda shocking crossed my mind.

Of course, heritage artists with a major history on MVY are automatic adds.  But it was only 2 1/2 years ago that this unknown band was cycling through my iTunes playlist and I thought they were compelling enough to give them a shot.

But with the story that has unfolded over the last 30 months (success; Grammys; collaborations with Taylor Swift, Emmylou Harris and The Chieftains; an abrupt break up; a surprise 2nd album) has made their new song a Must Listen.

So yes, expect to hear this on MVY.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Schtum "Skydiver"

I was at an event last night and got to chat with Les Sampou, the real rock n roller next door to my wife's cousin.

Even with today's super-interconnected society, social media, Googling abilities and such, you sometimes never know who's right in your midst.

Tonight, for the mvyradio Album Of The Week, we're playing Christian McNeill & The Seamonsters' record, "Everything's Up For Grabs."

I had seen McNeill a bunch of years ago at Johnny D's, opening for Sarah Borges.  And last year, I was happy to hear that he had relocated to The Vineyard and was playing regular gigs around the Island.  He even joined us for our "Thank You For Saving mvyradio" Party.

Earlier this week, I was scheduling some posts on the mvyradio Bloggers page, including one about the Album Of The Week.  I was trolling Youtube for interesting McNeill items when I came across a video of Christian being interviewed while standing outside of Johnny D's.  Cool!

I took notice of the suggested videos that appear on the right side of the screen on Youtube.

Hey! Schtum!

Schtum is this band that had crossed my brain a number of times, to use as a weekend post.  On the weekends, instead of writing a full blog entry, I like to just post some great, obscure tune that I would have been playing during my 90s Alternative show when I lived in Virginia.

Schtum, an Irish, hard-rocking outfit, fit into that category really well, because they had a minor Alternative hit with "Skydiver."  But it wasn't a tune that seemed to survive beyond the era.  I can't say that I've heard the song since the 90s, but I have good memories of absolutely cranking this song in the WABN studios.

I went back to watching the McNeill interview.

Then I noticed that there were actually several Schtum videos.  And I scrolled down to see even more.

Wait a minute.  Why did so many Schtum videos come up when I had searched for Christian McNeill?

Well, it turns out that McNeill was the lead singer of Schtum.  He relocated to Boston and started a solo career, and is now part of the Vineyard music community.

How cool is that?  Another real rock n roller next door?!?





Hear "Skydiver" on Grooveshark.

Hear Christian McNeill on Youtube.

KT Tunstall "Feel It All"

We've played KT Tunstall's records from the beginning.  It was hard to deny a hit like "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree."  Hard to deny her talent.

But as she has progressed through her first three albums I was becoming less and less excited about her.

Increasingly, the records were relying on production for their strength.  The singles were slicker and decidedly more commercial, but felt less and less appropriate for the general sound of our station.  Tunes like "Hold On" and  particularly "Fade Like A Shadow" were surprisingly hard to place within an hour, too often sounding like they belonged on some Hot AC Hits station, not ours.

I got deeply disappointed, and at the same time increasingly hopeful, the day I came across some pretty amazing Youtube videos.

There are a ton of live-concert-setting videos of Tunstall performing as she must have when she was an unknown, busking on the streets.  It's her and her guitar and sometimes a sample/tape loop track.

Stripped of all the production, her natural charisma and deep well of talent rises straight to the front.

"Can she please make an album that strips away the bullshit?"

It sounds like she has.

We've been sent only a couple of tracks from "Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon," but this record seems to be a clear departure.  Hell, it practically sounds like a different artist.

Even the folks promoting the record to me, are expressing a bit of surprise at the leap forward in maturity Tunstall has made with her songwriting and presentation.  None of the four tracks find her presence overwhelmed by their setting, and on the whole, it seems like she's created something that puts the onus squarely on herself.

Which, in her case, is a very good thing.


Hear "Feel It All" on Youtube.


Hear "Fade Like A Shadow" on Youtube.


Hear an acoustic version of the song on Youtube.

Tracy Chapman "Give Me One Reason"

This is for any of you who've said, "That radio station plays too much (insert artist name)."

Somewhere very early in my tenure with MVY, I took a call on the request line from someone who said:

"I hate to complain.  But I'm calling with a complaint."

"Okay."

"You guys play too much Tracy Chapman."

"You think so?"

"Definitely.  I feel like she's on every other hour.  You gotta start playing her less."

Now, I know the statistical reality of just how much we play Tracy Chapman.  It's not every few hours.  But (at the time of this call, probably a decade ago) we played a couple of songs by her each day.  So I had to ask:

"Do you like Tracy Chapman?"

"Ugh.  No."

"Not at all?"

"No, she's terrible."

"Well, then how much Tracy Chapman is too much Tracy Chapman."

He laughed, seeing what I was getting at.

"One song by Tracy Chapman is one song too many."

We laughed together and I thanked him for his input, but noted that there were listeners who liked Tracy Chapman, so we probably had to continue to play her some, even if we started to play her less.

Occasionally, we do get calls from folks who say "You play this band too much.  I love them, but please stop playing them so much."

But most of the time, when someone tells us we're playing it too much, what they really mean is that they don't want to hear it at all.  Ever.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Verve "Slide Away"

Here's another Weekend Post:

It's a shame that these guys didn't make more records.  Before their smash "Bittersweet Symphony," they were making great sounding, very British-sounding, atmospheric tunes.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Stone Roses "Love Spreads"

Here's another Weekend Post:

It's a shame these guys didn't make many records.  Some seriously great riffs and ideas in this band.  It only takes a few seconds to be hooked on this one.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

They Might Be Giants "Istanbul Not Constantinople"

A couple of months ago, I did a series of posts about songs that inadvertently (or perhaps intentionally) taught me something.

With the country Turkey in the news this song came to mind, as it formed my understanding that places like Istanbul, New York and even Aquinnah might have previously been called something different.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Foxygen "No Destruction"

Several years ago, while doing a periodic look at the gaps in some of our "library" stuff, we decided to put a couple of Velvet Underground songs into rotation at MVY.

Of course, we'd had a number of Lou Reed songs in rotation for years, including his more contemporary work.  (His visit to the station in the 90s is a great slice of MVY lore).  But adding Velvet Underground served the dual purpose of beefing up our representation of the late 60s and 70s without resorting to any worn-out classic rock, and it was an important nod to some of the roots of what MVY is.

We've always prided ourselves on playing bands that no one else plays, or songs that no one else plays.  And in particular, we want to show the blueprint.

There's a reason we play a lot of Bob Dylan.  It's because his stamp is directly on many, many of the artists and songs that followed, and that we play today.

And that was part of the reason I felt strongly that we should include some Velvet Underground tracks.

Last week, I heard "Pale Blues Eyes" on the station, and I had this thought:  Where are the Velvet Underground influenced bands?

I mean, there are guys out there who are cribbing straight from Dylan (Jake Bugg, Tallest Man On Earth).  There are bands who are direct descendents of R.E.M. and Talking Heads (Decemberists and Bell X1).  And folks drawing influence straight from The Grateful Dead ("Queen Of California" and The Chris Robinson Brotherhood's "Rosalee").

To be sure, The Velvet Underground's influence is within many, many current bands.  But its an influence that's two or three steps removed.

Not long after having this thought, I heard Foxygen's "No Destruction."  And there it is.

Straight out of the Lou Reed school of vocal delivery, complete with New York City images, here's a band that directly references The Velvet Underground, instead doing it of by way of R.E.M. or Talking Heads or any other Lou Reed/VU acolytes.

What do you think?  Does this track have a place on MVY?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Gillian Welch "The Way It Goes"

"Things have gone really downhill for them since my brother-in-law bought the farm."

I was listening to a co-worker chit-chat with a client about his wife's family.  He was cheerily talking about the family's mishaps.

I could tell by the look on the client's face that I should intervene.

"He means it literally."

"Oh," said the client, visibly relieved that no one had actually died.  And more so relieved that my co-worker wouldn't so glibly, flippantly mention a family member's death.

This was when I was living in Virginia, where I actually met quite a few people who had made a purchase of land on which they intended to raise crops.  But no, they were not dead.  They had actually bought a farm.

So I do laugh every time I hear the beginning of this Gillian Welch song:

Becky Johnson bought the farm
Put a needle in her arm
That's the way that it goes
That's the way

I laugh, thinking about my co-worker, cheerily saying something so morbid.  And then I feel bad, because Gillian isn't being literal.  Poor Becky Johnson.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes "Better Days"

I always laugh to myself when I see this---and I'll try not to pick on any one group here, as this scene exists across many, many demographic groups.

You see a person.  And they really stand out in the crowd.  Something about the way they dress screams "I'm an individual!"  Maybe it's a particular, unusual haircut or jewelry.  Or a hat.  Or just a way of wearing their pants.

They are making a bold, individualistic statement.

And then you see them join a group of friends, and the friends are all dressed the same.

Like, you saw the first guy and he was wearing a vest and you thought, hmm, you don't see to many dudes wearing vests these days. and then you look at his friends and they're ALL wearing vests.

That's what trends in music can be like.  At first, you hear a band that is doing something different.  Then suddenly, 10 bands who are doing the same thing show up.

I've already written a bit about the Mumford And Sons burnout that many listeners are crabbing about.

And they are a part of this larger trend we're caught in the middle of right now.

Some friends have referred to it as "the group singing thing" but I'm otherwise not sure if it has a name.

But aren't there suddenly a dozen bands that give off a quasi-messianic vibe, thunderously strum their acoustic instruments and have the whole band join in to sing the chorus?

The Head And The Heart are a great example of this sound.

And let me say, It's a really great sound.  On the one hand, I totally love this trend.  Because I appreciate the sincerity of the singing, the democratic feel of the group-ness, the uplifting nature of it all.

But as a programming . . . yeesh, there's a lot of it.  Just to name a few:

The Lumineers
The Lone Bellow
The Kopecky Family
The David Wax Museum
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes
The Low Anthem
Hey Marseilles
Fleet Foxes

I have to say, there isn't a stinker in the bunch.  I think these are all solid, respectable bands.  Real musicians with real passion.

But, as a programmer, you just can't play them all.

There are many parts to what we do.  MVY has some classic rock.  We play some jazz-influenced artists.  Harder rock.  Folkies.  Some Blues.  And R&B/Soul stuff.  But the recipe calls for a little of each.

When the new music pile skews heavily to one side, unfortunately, some good bands don't make the cut in deference to the overall sound.

The Edward Sharpe track (in the video below) was the most added song to radio stations across the country, when the numbers came out Monday.  But MVY probably won't add it.  Why?  We've got a lot of stuff on the air that is similar.

And following the Jack White corollary, there's no sense hopping in bed with a band unless we think we're going to follow them for years and albums to come.

So while "Better Days" is likely to go on to do well across the country, it won't be in the MVY mix.

Because seriously, we can't all wear vests to the party.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Suicide Machines "Hey!"

I was unshowered, unshaved and generally unkempt looking as I hurried into the restaurant to pick up some take-out on Saturday.  Looking the way I was, I certainly wasn't expecting a compliment.

"Dude, love the shirt."

I had to look down to remember what I was wearing.  I don't suppose I should have had to even look, since this was the shirt I put on Friday morning, wore to bed that night, and kept on, all day Saturday.

And really, there is but one shirt in my collection that elicits such a regular response, particularly from guys who'll call you "Dude."


Let's go waaay back to the year I met my wife.

It was a pretty whirlwind year.  We met at the mvyradio Big Chili Contest.  Progressed very quickly to serious.  She moved to The Vineyard to live with me within 6 months.  And before our first full year together had passed, we were shopping for engagement rings.

For our first Christmas together, she made me a little book.  It was the 2nd one she'd done.  Some very simple pictures, depicting various milestone scenes of our first (less than) year together.

Here's the picture she drew, to represent moving to the Island.



It's reasonably accurate (though I must admit, the cat was actually deeply unhappy about the move).

The one kind of funny detail is my shirt.  It says "Some Punk Rock Band."

We had a good laugh about this.  She admitted that when she was drawing the picture, she couldn't remember the actual names she'd seen on any of the handful of band shirts I owned.

I think she probably had in mind my Suicide Machines t-shirt.



But "Some Punk Rock Band" really struck me.

"We should make shirts that say that!" I joked.

Guess what she gave me, on the next present-giving occasion?
 


I love to wear this shirt around, and I love to get compliments on it.

Because I love telling people that my wife made it for me.

"Dude, your wife kicks ass."

Hell yeah, she does.


Hear the song on Youtube.

King Missile "Detachable P****"

Here's another Weekend Post:

An entertaining video, from the 90s, when having an entertaining video (and saying the "P" word) meant you might be seen on the tee-vee.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

The Bogmen "Suddenly"

Here's another Weekend Post:

An entertaining video, from the 90s, when having an entertaining video meant you might be seen on the tee-vee.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.