WSND DJ set list – Deep Dive of Christmas music – December 24, 2023

Thanks to all who listened to my Christmas Eve show on WSND. Here’s the playlist!

  1. CAN – Silent Night
  2. Disco Noel – Silver Bells
  3. Esquivel – Jingle Bells
  4. Wesley Willis – Merry Christmas
  5. Devo – Merry Something to You
  6. Johnny Cash – I Heard the Christmas Bells
  7. Freddie King – Christmas Tears (requested)
  8. Foghat – Run Run Rudolph
  9. Clarence Carter – Back Door Santa
  10. Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis
  11. Stevie Wonder – Someday at Christmas
  12. James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
  13. Luther Vandross – The Christmas Song
  14. Nat King Cole – O Holy Night
  15. Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
  16. Chris Isaak – Mele Kalikimaka (requested)
  17. The Vince Guaraldi Trio – What Child Is This?
  18. Judy Garland – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
  19. Bing Crosby – White Christmas
  20. Marvin Gaye – I Want to Come Home for Christmas
  21. Pat Benatar – Please Come Home for Christmas
  22. Reel Big Fish – Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (requested)
  23. The Andrews Sisters – Winter Wonderland
  24. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra – A Marshmallow World (live)
  25. The Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick
  26. Bobby Helms – Jingle Bell Rock
  27. Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
  28. The Ventures – Sleigh Ride
  29. The Sportsmen – Reindeer Rock
  30. Oscar McLollie and His Honey Jumpers – Dig That Crazy Santa Claus
  31. Ramsey Lewis Trio – Here Comes Santa Claus
  32. Burl Ives – Have a Holly Jolly Christmas
  33. The Raveonettes – The Christmas Song
  34. Low – Little Drummer Boy
  35. Elephant Stone – Christmas Time
  36. The Cosmonauts – It’s Christmas Day
  37. Dido – Christmas Day
  38. Enya – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

I’m next on air December 28th at 7pm Eastern for “Throwback Thursday” and “3-for-Thursday” Nocturne.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Keep your mind open.

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Caroline Rose announces 2024 North American tour dates.

Photo Credit: CJ Harvey

Caroline Rose’s live show “explodes in color. Angry reds, deep blues, vibrant yellows, and every shade in-between flex and melt onstage in a dazzling light show dance that only grows in intensity as the set goes on” (NYLON). Today, Rose announces a 2024 North American tour in support of “their strongest and most resonant record yet” (Under The Radar), The Art of Forgetting, out now on New West Records. The Art of Forgetting was released earlier this year to a wealth of praise from the likes of The New York Times, NPR, and Document Journal, who hailed it as “a confessional, layered with personal anecdotes, Southern storytelling sensibilities, and unreserved exploration of the ever-evolving self.”

Rose’s 2024 tour includes stops in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Boulder, plus two-night stints in Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco. Metropolis Ensemble, founded by Grammy award nominated conductor Andrew Cyr, will join Rose in Brooklyn and Northampton for a special set-up featuring eight auxiliary players. Fans will also have the opportunity to attend VIP screenings of Rose’s The Art of Forgetting short film, taking place in many of the venues following soundcheck. The film has earned many accolades, including the title of Best Music Video at Hollywood Shorts Fest, New York Indie Shorts Awards, and ARFF Amsterdam, in addition to being a semifinalist at Indie Shorts Awards Cannes and an official selection at Hollyshorts Film Festival. A full list of tour dates are below, and tickets are on sale to the general public now.

Stream/Purchase The Art of Forgetting
Watch the “Miami” Video
Watch “Tell Me What You Want” Video
Watch the “The Doldrums” Visualizer

Caroline Rose 2024 Tour Dates
Sun. March 31 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
Tue. April 2 – Northampton, MA@ Bombyx
Wed. April 3 – Northampton, MA @ Bombyx
Fri. April 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Sat. April 6 – Fairfield, CT @ The Warehouse
Sun. April 7 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Tue. April 9 – Montreal, QC @ Studio TD
Wed. April 10 – Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall
Fri. April 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sat. April 13 – Washington, DC @ 930 Club
Sun. April 14 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Tue. April 16 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Fri. April 19 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Sat. April 20 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
Tue. April 23 – Iowa City, IA @ Englert Theatre
Wed. April 24 – Kansas City, MO @ RecordBar
Fri. April 26 – Fort Collins, CO @  Aggie Theatre
Sat. April 27 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
Sun. April 28 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Fri. May 3 – Tucson, AZ @ Congress Plaza
Sat. May 4 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
Mon. May 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Tue. May 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Fri. May 10 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre
Sat. May 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Sun. May 12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Tue. May 14 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Barn
Thu. May 16 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Fri. May 17 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Sat. May 18 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Sun. May 19 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Ben at Pitch Perfect PR.]

WSND DJ set list: 3-for-Thursday Nocturne – December 21, 2023

The first 3-for-Thursday Nocturne show on WSND was a blast. Thanks to all who listened. Here’s the set list, and how each song relates to the number 3.

  1. Tinariwen – Atahoura Techragh D’Azaka Nin (3rd song on the Kel Tinariwen album)
  2. Khruangbin – A Hymn (trio)
  3. Elephant Stone – Cast the First Stone (3rd song on the Ship of Fools album)
  4. GOAT – Goatfuzz (from their 3rd album Requiem)
  5. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Open Water (3rd song on the Flying Microtonal Banana album)
  6. All Them Witches – Dirt Preachers (3-word band name, part-time trio, 3rd song on the Dying Surfer Meets His Maker album)
  7. Conception – Babylon (3 minutes long)
  8. The Sword – Arcane Montane (3rd song on the Apocryphon album)
  9. Primus – Greet the Sacred Cow (trio)
  10. The Police – Hole in My Life (live) (trio)
  11. The Clash – I’m Not Down (3-word song title and from their 3rd album London Calling)
  12. House of Large Sizes – I’m My Own Grandpa pt. 2 (trio)
  13. ZZ Top – Jesus Just Left Chicago (trio, song from the album Tres Hombres) (requested)
  14. Screaming Females – Crow’s Nest (trio)
  15. The Joy Formidable – Chapter 2 (trio)
  16. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Little Thing Gone Wild (trio)
  17. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Greyhound (trio)
  18. Earl Greyhound – Back and Forth (3-word song title and a trio)
  19. Screaming Blue Messiahs – Mega City 1 (3-word song title and band name, a trio, and from their third album Totally Religious)
  20. The White Stripes – The Big Three Killed My Baby (“Three” in the song title)
  21. Ladytron – Until the Fire (1st of a “three-peat” of the same artist)
  22. Ladytron – Black Cat (live) (2nd of a “three-peat” of the same artist)
  23. Ladytron – High Rise (3rd of a “three-peat” of the same artist)
  24. The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys (“Three” in the song title) (requested)
  25. Dum Dum Girls – Are You OK? ((3-word song title and band name, and from their third album Too True)
  26. Morphine – Sexy Christmas Baby Mine (trio)

The next 3-for-Thursday show will be December 28th at 10pm Eastern. Don’t miss it!

Keep your mind open.

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WSND DJ set list: Throwback Thursday – December 21, 2023.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in for my first “Throwback Thursday” show (70s at 7, 80s at 8, 90s at 9) on WSND. Here’s the set list, and the years for each:

  1. Bitter Creek – Plastic Thunder (1970)
  2. Black Sabbath – Fairies Wear Boots (1970) (requested)
  3. Cat O’Nine Tails radio ad (1971)
  4. Steely Dan – Only a Fool Would Say That (1972)
  5. The Who – Join Together (1972)
  6. Asylum radio ad (1972)
  7. The Rolling Stones – Tumbling Dice (1972)
  8. Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein radio ad (1973)
  9. Queen – Seven Seas of Rhye (1973)
  10. Betty Davis – Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him (1974)
  11. Horror of the Zombies radio ad (1974)
  12. Bug radio ad (1975)
  13. The Staples Jr. Singers – I Got a New Home (1975)
  14. Blondie – X Offender (1976)
  15. Robin Trower – Roads to Freedom (1980) (requested)
  16. Adam and The Ants – Deutscher Girls (1977)
  17. Bauhaus – God in an Alcove (1980)
  18. The Last Four Digits – Leave Me Alone (1980)
  19. Oingo Boingo – Ain’t This the Life (1981)
  20. Wall of Voodoo – Mexican Radio (1982)
  21. Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me with Science (1982)
  22. The Cramps – Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love (1983) (live)
  23. R.E.M. – Orange Crush (1988) (requested)
  24. Depeche Mode – Lie to Me (1984)
  25. Public Image Ltd. – The Order of Death (1984)
  26. Big Audio Dynamite – Medicine Show (1985)
  27. Radio ad for Delco vehicle batteries (1987)
  28. The Smithereens – Blood and Roses (demo version) (1986)
  29. Radio ad for Bubbilicious “Paradise Punch” gum (1989)
  30. Devo – Some Things Never Change (1988)
  31. Fountains of Wayne – The Valley of Malls (1999)
  32. Radio ad for My Buddy and Kid Sister (1985)
  33. Alison Krauss – Stay (1999)
  34. Sonic Youth – Kool Thing (1990)
  35. Thunder – She’s So Fine (1990) (requested)
  36. Eric B. and Rakim – What’s On Your Mind (1991)
  37. Lisa Loeb – Waiting for Wednesday (1995) (requested)
  38. Two Little Boys – Stylophonia (1991)
  39. Channel X – A Million Colors (1992)
  40. The Flaming Lips – Turn It On (1993)
  41. Buzzcocks – Your Love (1996)
  42. Alice In Chains – Rotten Apple (1994)
  43. The The – Dogs of Lust (1993)
  44. Bad Religion – Silent Night (1993)

The next Throwback Thursday show will be December 28th starting at 7pm Eastern! I hope you give me a listen.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – The Silver Cord

One of the best things about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is that you never know what you’re going to get from album to album with them. It could be alt-folk, a psychedelic freakout, microtonal shredding, thrash metal, or, in the case of The Silver Cord – an album of synth music.

The album has the band diving headlong into their not-so-secret love of synthwave, EDM, rap, and krautrock, starting with the uplifting “Theia” – a song about how we are drifting on silver cords that attach us to ethereal planes we can’t describe but sometimes catch glimpses of now and then. It’s instantly catchy and uplifting, with all the synths and electronic beats rising us up to the natural follow-up of the title track – a beautiful track about birth, death, and rebirth. “Set” is about the wicked Egyptian god (and Egyptology and mythology is all over this record, which delights me to no end) and has a cool rave beat throughout it.

“Chang’e” has the band singing about a goddess of dreams and builds from almost an ambient track into a full-blown dance cut in perhaps the loveliest moment on the record. “Gilgamesh” brings techno-Viking beats to the classic tale of the eternal hero. “Swan Song” uses industrial beats to encourage us to cut the cords that bind us to our attachments and egos and “Go explore. Be untethered. Be unequalled. Grab the sword. Be emperor. Be yourself. Be an orb. Be your spirit. Don’t fear it.”

The closing track, “Extinction,” tackles one of KGATLW’s favorite topics – the destruction of the Earth by mankind’s idiocy and greed. There are hints of “Crumbling Castle” in the beats and lyrics (“Castles crumble with a groan.”) as well. The album ends on an encouraging note, however, as they sing, “I can see everything. I can be in the music.”

So can all of us.

As if The Silver Cord isn’t good enough, and a cool enough project from KGATLW, the band also released an extended version of the record in which they explore long-form synth-jams and add further lyrics to delve further into the album’s themes of death, reincarnation, the afterlife, and enlightenment. The shortest track on the extended version is the ten-minute and eighteen-second-long version of “Set.” The longest is the extended mix of “Theia,” which is just over twenty minutes. All the extended mixes are excellent, and some could be dropped into a DJ set without trouble.

This makes the second excellent album KGATLW have released this year, the first being the epic thrash metal album PetroDragonic Apocalypse: or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. To go from that to The Silver Cord is a stunning accomplishment that few other bands could pull off and make look easy.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Big Miz – Where I Belong EP

Hailing from Glasgow, Big Miz put in the work behind the decks at at local clubs to build not only his skills but a thriving EDM community there. His first EP for the HOMAGE label, Where I Belong, is a good introduction to his music.

The title track gets it off to a great start with shining beats and bass hits that make you move whether you want to or not. “Everything’s Fine” uses vocal samples to neat effects, and “The Feeling” is a song about getting back to the dance floors and the clubs after we all had to dance in our living rooms during the pandemic (“We gotta bring back that feeling. Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about. That feeling that’s been gone…for way too long.”). Its slick beats will make you want to rush out to the nearest club.

The EP ends with a nice remix of the title track by LUXE that brings up the lush but doesn’t skim on the thumps.

It’s a sharp EP, and every track is solid. Don’t skip it.

Keep your mind open.

[Your e-mail address belongs in the subscription box.]

[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

WSND DJ set list for December 17, 2023

Thanks to all who listened to my first Nocturne show of the WSND 2023 Christmas break. Here’s the set list!

  1. Azzido Da Bass – Dooms Night (Timo Maas remix)
  2. Duran Duran – All She Wants Is
  3. Robin Trower Band – Twice Removed from Yesterday (live) (requested)
  4. The Wants – Fear My Society
  5. Radiohead – House of Cards
  6. Green Velvet – La La Land
  7. Vintage Jack-in-the-Box restaurant ad
  8. MIEN – Black Habit
  9. The Raconteurs – Pull This Blanket Off
  10. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Down Low
  11. Hüsker Dü – What’s Going On? (live)
  12. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra – Take the ‘a’ Train
  13. Billie Holiday – What a Little Moonlight Can Do
  14. MGMT – All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
  15. Diana Krall – Let’s Face the Music and Dance
  16. Twitch of the Death Nerve radio ad
  17. Bad Religion – Grains of Wrath
  18. L7 – Murky Water
  19. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – 662 (requested)
  20. Vanessa Williams – What Child Is This?
  21. Hum – In the Den
  22. Denims – Adler Socks promo (part 1)
  23. The Beatles – I’m Looking Through You
  24. The Rolling Stones – Who’s Driving Your Plane? (mono) (requested)
  25. Liam Kazar – On a Spanish Dune
  26. The Exotics – Bill McKay Chevrolet radio ad
  27. Opus Est – Bed
  28. The Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping

The next Nocturne show is scheduled for December 18th at 10pm Eastern – weather permitting!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

Deep Dive of The Temptations

Thanks to all who listened to my first Deep Dive of the WSND 2023 Christmas break. It was all about The Temptations. Here’s the set list

  1. The Temptations – My Girl
  2. The Distants – Come On
  3. The Cadillacs – Speedoo
  4. The Primes – Who Do I Turn To?
  5. The Temptations – Oh, Mother of Mine
  6. The Temptations – Dream Come True (live)
  7. The Pirates – Mind Over Matter
  8. The Temptations – The Way You Do the Things You Do
  9. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tracks of My Tears
  10. The Contours – Do You Love Me
  11. The Temptations – Don’t Look Back
  12. Rare Earth – Get Ready (live)
  13. The Temptations – Silver Bells (requested)
  14. The Temptations – Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
  15. The Faces – (I Know) I’m Losing You
  16. The Temptations – With These Hands (live)
  17. The Supremes and The Temptations – I’m Gonna Make You Love Me
  18. The Temptations – Cloud Nine
  19. Al Green – I Can’t Get Next to You
  20. Love and Rockets – Ball of Confusion
  21. The Temptations – War
  22. Boyz II Men – Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
  23. The Temptations – Smiling Faces Sometimes
  24. The Temptations – Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)
  25. Rick James – Super Freak
  26. The Temptations – Papa Was a Rolling Stone (DJ Jazzy Jeff and Pete Kuzma remix)

Tune in next Sunday, Christmas Eve, for a Deep Dive of some Christmas music!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Review – Augustus Muller – Cellulosed Bodies

Diving further into his love / obsession with 1980s horror / thriller synthwave music, Boy Harsher‘s Augustus Muller teamed up with artist / kinky movie maker Vex Ashley of Four Chambers to create two films scores – one to a film that already existed and another to one that is new, and both of which explore the sexual relationship between humans and technology on the album Cellulosed Bodies.

The first half is a tribute to David Cronenberg‘s 1996 film Crash – in which the main characters are turned on by car crashes. Muller’s six-song “score” to the film (originally done by Howard Shore). “Fur and Metal” slowly takes us into this new, weird world of strange pleasures and soon we’re “Sharing a Smoke,” but how much of it is from a cigarette and how much is from burned wreckage along a dark road? Muller’s use of synths throughout the six tracks are at times haunting and other times throbbing like the pulse in your neck after something stressful and / or sensual. “Perverse Technology” is a perfect example of this, as somewhat creepy synths rise and fall like a lover’s chest taking deep breaths to maintain control while the beats mimic the twitchy brain impulses to seize pleasure now instead of making it last as long as possible. “Body as Machine” sums up the theme of the album’s first half (and Cronenberg’s film) in the title and in the grinding, pulsating synth-beats, and “Shattered Glass” ends the first half with something that isn’t quite afterglow, but more “after-shadow.”

The second half is Muller’s score to Ashley’s film Automaton – which, according to the liner notes, “…features a severe computer entity and trapped prey, succumbing to pleasure…” Reading that, and then hearing the ten tracks that follow, you think, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” The tracks featuring fewer beats, but more experimentation – again the theme of exploring new pleasures that at first might seem frightening – such as “Initialize,” “Next Subject,” and “Endoscopy.” “Examination” uses some subtle industrial clangs for beats, but they never overwhelm the track. “Acceptance” has the “trapped prey” accepting its pleasurable fate (or is the computer accepting it?). I’m guessing it’s the former, because the next track is “You Belong to the Machine” – which builds with a slow menace like a snake that’s been released into a dark room.

“Observation” sounds and feels like the evil / sexy computer is watching its prey / lover from a drone that rises and falls like a hawk drifting on warm wind. “Stretching / Invading” is about…well, I think you can guess. “Who Is in Control” can be taken in multiple ways. It’s the question in a BDSM relationship. On the surface, the computer in Ashley’s tale is in control, but what would it be without its lover? The computer needs the lover to achieve some kind of feeling. The second half of Cellulosed Bodies ends with “Subdue Yourself” – the only track with vocals (from dominatrix Miss Marilyn) – on a whispering aftercare note.

It’s a strange, lovely, sexy record, and one of the more intriguing releases of the year.

Keep your mind open.

NSFW!

[Embrace technology by subscribing today!]

[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Ki Oni – A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life

Well, this is beautiful.

Ki Oni (Chuck Soo-Hoo) set out to create an ambient album about spirits transitioning from life to death, perhaps wandering the world for a while, and eventually floating into something we here on this side of the veil can’t quite yet fathom. He not only succeeded in doing it, he excelled at it with A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life.

It’s difficult to describe how gorgeous this album is. It’s at times lush and other times as subtle as a whisper. Nothing is rushed across its five tracks. The shortest one, opening track “An Infinite Dive,” is fifteen minutes and twelve seconds long. “Floating in a Stream of Consciousness” is perfectly titled, as it’s a collection of the sounds your brain is trying get you to hear as you remain in the eternal present, but you’re always too busy or worried to pause and observe all this amazing creation coexisting with you.

According to the press release I got for this album, “Reincarnation at the End of the World” has Soo-Hoo wondering, “With everything going on in the world –– and if reincarnation is real, where would a spirit go if the world ended suddenly? What would that sound like? Would it continue to float on this deteriorated earth until new life begins or would it float forever into the abyss?”

It’s an intriguing question, and my answer is that we’ll be free from worry wherever we are. Soo-Hoo’s synths, field recordings, and loops emulate a blissful ghost drifting here and there, no cares, no stress, no extraneous thoughts…just calm bliss.

“My Grandmother’s Garden” is a lovely tribute to Soo-Hoo’s late grandmother and the days he used to spend as a child swimming in her pool and eating food she’d grown. “To Wander Beyond the Aquatic Center” ends the record with a song perfect for the cover image of a true infinity pool stretching out into a misty pink sky as birds soar overhead. We should all hope to hear something this lovely as we go into sleep, whether for a night or forever.

This album, this leisurely swim, is something we all need from time to time. We need to immerse ourselves in the present and reconnect with the beauty that is right there calling to us and being enjoyed by those who have gone before and will greet us after we come up from our dive in the pool.

Keep your mind open.

[Dive into the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Mark at Clandestine Label Services.]