Lake Street Dive "Faith"

Friends have been telling me about Lake Street Dive for a while now.

Ross has mentioned them.

Laurel raved about them.

And Garrison Keillor had nice things to say about them.  (Okay, GK is not actually my friend, but it feels like it)

So when I got their "Fun Machine" EP (which came out in the Spring but was just reserviced to the station), I got excited.

Then I looked at the track list, and I got bummed.

Ugh.  A covers EP?  Kind of a waste of my time, right?  Who needs another dang covers album?

Wrong.

WRONG!!!

This is awesome, just plain awesome.

Enjoy!


The album version:


A live version:

Hear the song on Youtube.

Delta Rae "Bottom Of The River"

My office is directly below the studio (trolls and Program Directors live in basements), and there's nothing more entertaining than when the DJ above is really rocking out to a song.

I can hear if they are tapping their feet, or hand-drumming on the console, or if they are jumping up and down to the rocking beat.  And if their singing or whooping is loud enough, I can hear that too.

I'm especially curious to hear these sounds, when I know that the DJ is experiencing the song for the first time.

I'm usually in my office during Barbara's "What's New For Lunch" segment.  And though she invariably previews the track, we know that you don't really experience the track until it's on the air, going out to the world, and you have the speakers up to listen.

So many times, I've checked out a song, not because I was listening to the radio.  Heck, I might have even had the radio off.  Sometimes I'm moved to go hear a band, because I heard the sound of someone first reacted to the song.

A week or so back, I needed some last minute coverage for Barbara who was not feeling well, so Laurel stepped in.  It's not common for Laurel to fill in for Barbara, but it happens once in a blue moon.

Barbara had already picked out the songs she was planning to play that day, so Laurel was able to jump right in.

I could hear some wild yelps of "YEAH!!! WOOOO!!!" coming from the studio, and at the end of the shift, Laurel emerged from the studio to tell me that she'd been moved by the spirit of Delta Rae's "Bottom Of The River."

I can see why she was moved.  I'm surprised she didn't stomp through the floor on this one . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Cheech & Chong "Santa Claus And His Old Lady"

For the next couple of days, I thought it would be fun to write about a few tunes for a game I'd like to call:

"This is what it means if you hear that song on mvyradio."

There are a handful of songs, that, if I hear them on the station, I can tell you exactly what is going on behind the scenes . . .

If you hear this song, you know it's about 10:30am on a weekday in December, and Laurel is smiling.

This Cheech & Chong track was a staple of our Christmas programming for years and years. It would go into regular rotation at the beginning of December, and get played every few days, through Christmas.

But like any novelty song, or joke, repeating it ad nauseum just makes it lose it's effect.

So a few Christmas seasons ago, I pulled it from the automatic rotation of our Christmas programming.

But I know this song is right in Laurel's wheelhouse. A vinyl-era, pro-pot, deeply silly, shaggy and loveable riff on the holiday.

So, once a year, I program it in to her show. I try to put it in the last hour of her shift, so the heft of the morning is behind her, she's not preparing for a Newscast or Live Acoustic And Covers or Musical Notes, and she has a few minutes to listen and laugh.


Hear the song on Youtube.