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.

The Mountain Goats "Cry For Judas"

My friend Ross turned me on to this band---how had I never listened to Mountain Goats?  He/They have been making records since the mid-90s and somehow I’ve never crossed paths with them.

Now that November has arrived, this is the time of year that I love discovering records.  New releases grind to a halt, and so it’s an opportunity to either a) go back and relisten to records from earlier in the year that we might have missed or b) go out on a limb and play an artist that might stretch the boundaries of the mvyradio “sound.”

The danger, as a programmer, with taking a header, is that you tend to lean on your personal tastes.  Which, when I’m being objective, is something I try to avoid.

That’s a good time to turn outward and ask for advice.

I love this song.  But does it sound like an mvy song to you?


One of the things I love about this track, is that despite a series of memorable and provocative lyrics (“Mistreat your altar boys long enough, and this is what you get”) I have no idea what the track is about.  The even more provocative video doesn’t clarify anything, just adds to the mystery . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

R.E.M. "So, Central Rain"

My friend Ross posts about music, on this cool Facebook page called "Mythic Radio." On Tuesday, he wrote about R.E.M.'s "So. Central Rain" and asked "Who else remembers EXACTLY where they were when they first heard" the song. And as part of the post, he put up an early R.E.M. appearance on David Letterman, when the song was so new it didn't even have a name yet.

I can't say that I exactly remember where I was when I first heard the song, but I know where I was, the first time I saw that Letterman performance. I was living a few floors below Ross.

UMass, 1988. The beginning of sophomore year in McNamara Hall.

I'd already established a small group of friends on the first floor of the dorm, but we were all intrigued by our new neighbor. Brett was a transfer student from Georgia, and he had a way about him. A bit odd, quietly brilliant, perceptively sensitive, and whole lot of hilarious, when he wanted to be.

He, like several of the others in the group, played guitar. And introduced us to indie bands that hadn't crossed our path yet.

Being from Georgia, he was an R.E.M. fan.

I already owned a copy of "Document," but Brett filled in the backstory of the previous R.E.M. albums. It was he who told me about the famous Letterman appearance. And it was in our common/TV area, that I first saw it, on a warbly videotape. Probably a tape of a tape.

The musicians in the group set about learning several R.E.M. tunes, that were performed and perfected, incessantly.

If the noise got to be a little much, or a little late, a Resident Assistant would stick his or her head in, and tell us to keep it down.

Ross was an R.A. and was known to be tough, but for some reason (simpatico musical tastes?), he never busted us.

On the flip side was Holly the R.A., who was as sweet as could be, and had a soft, maternal spot for our group. But perhaps because she was our friend, she felt, at least on that one particular night, like she couldn't let us slide.

The gang was running through "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" for probably the Four Hundredth time in two hours. Holly had already asked us a couple of times to keep it down, which we probably honored for about 2 seconds, before cranking things back up.

This final time she came in, all her reserve of resolve pooled, and she did what she had to do. She shut us down for the night.

It's no fun being the bad guy, but Holly played the heavy, and then left us to think about the position we'd put her in.

And here's what I think of, when I hear "So. Central Rain."

About 20 minutes later, at Brett's urging, I was sent to the front door of the R.A. office where Holly had retreated. I instructed her to look out her back door.

Positioned there were the rest of the guys, Brett strumming his acoustic guitar, all of them singing, quietly, just the chorus to the song:

"We're sorry. Sorry. Sorry . . . "

It was quietly brilliant, hilarious, sensitive and odd. And very very memorable.