I have been listening to a few bands form both Australia and Scotland lately and thought… if ever there was time to merge a playlist of these two geographically opposite Nations… its today.

Mixcloud: Mixtape >> North Sea // Coral Sea

01) Frightened Rabbit – “Scottish Winds” Selkirk, Scotland
02) Altas Genius – “Trojans” Adelaide, Australia
03) Biffy Clyro – “Many of Horror (live)” Kilmarnock, Scotland
04) Gotye – “Eyes Wide Open” Melbourne, Australia
05) Twin Atlantic – “Free” Glasgow, Scotland
06) Twin Atlantic – “Crash Land” Glasgow, Scotland
07) Angus Stone – “Broken Brights”  Sydney, Australia
08) Angus & Julia Stone – “Big Jet Plane” Sydney, Australia

I hope you enjoy!

Thank you for listening and go with yourself.

I wanted to get a Cardinals hat, but the hat store is chronically out of my size… so today I went, “meh, I’ll get the new Expos’ team hat.”  So Nationals it is.  I looked up their stats on Wikipedia and they are terrible.  Like really dysfunctional.  Maybe this year will be their year?

***

I heard a really amazing song today on the TV show Hart of Dixie (don’t judge me, Coral watches it… sometimes I watch with her). At the end of today’s episode they played a song from Montreal’s Barr Brothers.  For some reason the song resonated with me and I had to look it up after the show.  The song is called “Beggar in the Morning” from their self-titled debut record.  A very perfect folky indie rock song.

The Barr Brothers – “Beggar in the Morning”

So pretty. I like the long intro the best…

***

Went to see Steph Macpherson on Saturday night.  Great show… Steph has just been signed by Cordova Bay Records and the party Saturday night was very jovial.  I saw my man Jason Cook drumming for Steph and it got me thinking about Jason’s old band Black Tie Social.  BTS were active in Victoria years and years ago.  I can’t really remember exactly but it was early-mid-ish 2000s.  Jason with Katie and Aidan Knight and…. hmmmm Chris?  They wrote and performed this great song call “Silver Screens” that I still fire up to this day.  I really love this song.

Black Tie Social – “Silver Screens”

I find the song very soothing and almost hypnotic.  I can always remember being at Lucky Bar, drunk, but a real happy drunk, and they played this song and it sounded so good.  I felt really good that night and hearing this song still makes me feel good.

Go with yourself.

So I wave the chillwave flag hazily and at half mast proudly!

Pitchfork talked about Expensive Looks yesterday.  Had a meh review.. but mostly because I think Pitchfork is meh on the genre right now… not on ONE Expensive Looks song features Azealia Banks soooo…

Trolling the internets and I found a bunch of EL remixes including a remix of one of my favourite Radiohead songs… “High and Dry.”

Radiohead – “High and Dry (Expensive Looks’ Blizzard Fantasy)”

Radiohead’s The Bends was #09 on my list of 20 Special Records. Coral and I have the LP hanging on the wall.  Back when Coral listened to more rock music… or I guess we listened to music together, this was an album she’d put on.

Radiohead generally remixes pretty good, but it tends to be the later career stuff.  Its nice to hear one from my days as a Radiohead fan.

Not sure if I’ll download the whole Expensive Looks album Dark Matters, but I will for sure be seeking select tracks for the playlist at Veneto.

Go with yourself.

I first started music “blogging” many moons ago for a website called Indulged.  back then, there was no word called “blog.”  I think we called it a Zine… an e-Zine?  Or Music Website.  How retro.

Good times.  Being early in the game, I used to get lots of email and free music.  Which was always fun.

Now everyone has a music blog and so no one reads music blogs.  Being in a band… you try to get the hype out there, but where do you even start?  Bands still send me emails, but I get 10,000 more a day than I used to so I don’t always listen to what’s sent.  Any form letter or generic press release…unless I; A) subscribed to B) I already know the band and am excited to hear new music… just gets deleted.

Today I got an email from a PR firm out of London. I was about to pull the flamethrower trigger on the email from Dawbell when I noticed that email was actually addressed to me!

OK, that happens lots, they get my name right…. but then it “seemed” like the dude actually took four secords to read one post.  You win Dawbell, I’ll take 4 seconds to read your email.

Echotape – “Came into my Blood”

***

Now… you want to get into my heart (generally)… actually send me some music.

The band is called Roll The Tanks. A few weeks (months?) back a Gleek emailed me as they sometimes do when they discover my treasure trove of Cory Monteith interviews and song.

We chat and it seems she is maybe a music promoter? or street teamer for this Hollywood band.  I notice they pressed their single “Goodnight Jimmy Lee” on 7 inch vinyl.  I ask her to send one, she does!  But then I put the record in a random drawer and forgot about it till today.

Here we go.

Roll The Tanks – “Goodnight Jimmy Lee”

Its fun.  Not changing my life…but its punchy.

***

This is silly.

Go with yourself.

I do remember being surprised.  They were “less” on stage than I expected.  They were three rock & roll shaggy looking fellas.  Not the Arcade Fire-esque band I had dreamt of.

Their sound that night was perfect.  The style was a raucous, joyful, style of rock.  On record, they remind me of a hillbilly version of the Arcade Fire…I guess that’s why I thought they’d look like them too.

Plants and Animals will rumble back to life with a new record called The End of That (Feb 28th, Secret City Records).  The first single will get the 7 inch treatment (so that means I MUST have it). The song is called “Lightshow” and it’ll be backed with a cover of Wolf Parade’s  ”I’ll Believe in Anything.”

Plants and Animals – “Lightshow”

Plants and Animals will be in Victoria for a show on March 20th at Lucky Bar.  Not sure my schedule that day, but I’d like to go.  I am listening to 2008′s Parc Avenue right now… oh, good memories with this record.  So pleasant.

***

 The snow was falling (at times) fiercely in  Victoria today.  I skipped out of the office for a few moments today and asked friends on Quadra Street what they thought of the snow for a segment I am going to call… “Living in the City.”

Have a listen from my new Soundcloud>> Living in the City: Snow

If you are into it… maybe leave a comment or share the link or whatever.  Having a new social media thing is always a slow grind at the beginning.  But I love how slick Soundcloud is… so that will be the new home to short features.  Long features and mix tapes will continue to live on Mixcloud.

Right, so mixcloud AND soundcloud.  Basically the same thing?  neat.

I’ve been hoping to get a new Hockey! segment done, but having a dilly of a time trying to get Jordie Benn nailed down for an interview.  But if that sorts itself out… then coming soon…

***

Lastly, Coral has been all about Pinterest.  Seems like it might be yet another social media type thing to corral into the mini-media empire.  Huzzah! I requested an invite.  How professional.  If they accept me, then maybe I’ll try it.

Go with yourself.

It never really jelled on the Zone, song went away to be replaced by the next “it” thing in modern rock and I didn’t think too much about it.  Till about a week ago.

Talking with my sister-in-law Alyx… she was telling me that she LOVES the Horrible Crowes Elsie.  ”OK, I’ll give it another listen,” I says to her.

A day or two after that… outta the blue!  Homeboy Tyson sends me a text saying… check out the Horrible Crowes.  Great sad bastard music.

He was right.  Great sad bastard music… and the launch point for today’s mixtape.

Mixcloud: Mixtape >> Sad Bastard Music

Using the Horrible Crowes’ dark sad sack tale of woe as a jumping point… I went on Facebook and twitter to ask best friends for their sad bastard songs to add.  here we go.  Strap in, its about to get sad.

01) The Horrible Crowes – Lady Killer (me)
02) Nada Surf – “Inside of Love” (Adrienne)
03) Farside – “I Hope You’re Unhappy” (Jared)
04) The Low Anthem – “To Ohio” (Simon)
05) The Helio Sequence – “Lately” (Simon)
06) Hayden – “Bad as they Seem” (me)
07) Hayden – “Stem” (Alix)
08) Frightened Rabbit – “Backwards Walk” (Me)
09) Jeff Buckley – “Hallelujah” (Carrie)
10) CKY – “To All Of You (Acoustic)” (Conner)
11) Pete Yorn – “Lose You” (Chelsea)
12) Damien Rice – “The Blower’s Daughter” (Geoff)
13) Radiohead – “Creep” (Krysta)
14) Morphine – “I’m Free Now” (Sean)
15) The Horrible Crowes – “Teenage Dream” (Me)

So many great songs.  Many of these new to me and I hope you’ll hear a few new ones to you.

Reading about the Horrible Crowes I was excited to discover they will be releasing “Lady Killer” as a 7 inch single in February.  B-Side…. their cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”  Wow.

Download MP3 >> 02TeenageDream

OK, happy listening?  Sure.

Go with yourself.

The chorus is a pretty rousing repetition affirming city living.  And that’s what sticks with me.

Fear – “I Love Livin’ in the City”

Fear is a band I don’t know a ton about other than they were there at the beginning of punk rock and Southern California hardcore.  Flea of the Chili Peppers played for Fear for a bit….

The song’s basic premise of loving living in the city is why I find the song interesting.  This morning I woke up bright and early to wander downtown in the dusting of snow we had overnight.  I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone and this song jumped in my head.  I love living in the city.

I think I’ll use the song as a theme song to a radio segment I’ve always batted around in my brain.  This week looks like the first week in a long time where I’ll get some-what normal hours and time to create.

Alright… I think I wanna source a “sad bastard music” playlist… so this blog has to wrap.

Go with yourself.

At the same time… its kinda fun to play DJ, and sit there and listen to music.  I love them during all vinyl DJ sets.  Man, two record players going at the same time is heaven with 45s.  Those stupid spindle/spider 45 adapter things in the middle are a pain.  God bless Simon for giving me that yellow one pictured above.  I had like three of them at one time, but during a DJ set at Smiths I lost a bunch.  If not for this one that Simon gave me, I’d be begging for more.  Finding a puck is impossible in 2012.  I wish I had a bead on how to make my own.  I think that would be a good cottage industry. Selling record pucks online.  The Morning After Show needs a commemorative puck! Or the Zone!

On Saturday I went record shopping with Mads and we bought three new 45s for the collection.

I saw the 4 Seasons and bought that one for Coral.  She saw the Jersey Boys play in London with Alix and has always had a spot in her heart for the music.  I saw the record and thought we needed that one in the collection.

I love the Zombies.  I have another Zombies 45, but not “She’s Not There.”

And the final one is a weird record.  I remember Alan Cross blogging about it back when he stilled worked at Explore Music.  Penny and the Quarters were a discovered R&B group that cut a demo in the early 70s.  but the record never saw the light of day… says the legend.  The man with the studio that recorded it had the original demos stuffed away on a box till he passed away.  Upon his passing, all of the tapes were sold whole-sale to some company that buys such things, I guess mining for forgotten musical treasure.  They “released” this song on a compilation of forgotten soul and R&B.

Actor Ryan Gosling heard the song and brought it to the attention of the music supervisor or director of the film Blue Valentine.  And here we are.

Neat story.  AC had a hunch that it could be a cooked up stunt from a Hollywood publicist.  But I mean… it could be real? and I hope it is.  The song is adorable.

Penny and the Quarters – “You and Me“

There I am at Ditch records… see this title and go… “where do I remember this band from?” The legend floods back to me and I go, “huh…” then bought it.

“You and Me” is such a pretty and romantic song.  If the legend surrounding the song is true, it just adds so much more to the drama.  I’ll take this one on faith and chose to believe till I read otherwise.

Go with yourself.

New Shins song started bouncing around the intertron today.  Click play on the reel-to-reel machine.  How vintage.

The reel-to-reel machine is kinda fun for us radio nerds of a certain age.  I started my radio broadcasting career using reel-to-reel to create any radio production for my first radio show.  If you order the new album, The Port of Morrow, off the Shins website it comes with a limited edition reel-to-reel tape version.  Impractical but neat.  There is a reel-to-reel machine at the Zone, so technically I could fire it up.

The first single is “Simple Song.”

The internet is all in a lather about this song.  Personally… I prefer the new Nada Surf, if liking music were an either/or game.  Luckily its not!  So I can enjoy both.

The Shins will be bigger, Nada Surf is better.  Both make adorable indie pop.

Oh, “Phantom Limb” came on my iTunes now.  I like that song.  And how about Chutes Too Narrow?  I think I got that record collecting dust on a CD shelf or in a milk crate somewhere…. I should track that record down!

Go with yourself.

He asked me to talk a bit about what goes on at the Zone to make it go.

To start, you can find the Cole’s notes on the history of the station from our wikipedia page.

The operation of the Zone is generally less exotic than many people think.

We have five DJs, a news person, a sports person (WHL Royals play-by-play), a music director/program director, a boss person,  a Promotions street team person… and then most all the other jobs are shared with the Q! (promotions, creative, production, traffic, sales, engineering, internet) and/or the Pattison Broadcasting chain as a whole (more engineering and administration). Check it >> Zone Staff

Its a pretty chill place to work as far as work environments go.  Bossman Johnny basically expects you to show up… engage in some form of regular office hours and demonstrate a superior radio show ever time you’re in-charge of pushing the buttons.  The rest is pretty much a chose-your-own adventure from there.  We meet weekly to discuss the direction of the radio station. John will discuss any challenges, complaints or praise we’ve received from the community then Bryan Capistrano (Programming) and Tindy Bassi (Promotions) let us know what is happening and what’s going to happen… then discussion and feedback…

I wouldn’t say The Zone is a democracy, but it also doesn’t feel like a corporate dictatorship.

We also meet to discuss which music to add to rotation.  Our music department is led by Bryan with myself as assistant and Jade Nixon and Pol Plastino’s help, hard work and insight.  Basically we listen to music, debate on which songs we think will excite Zoners the most and add them. From my understanding, a fairly standard practice with our contemporary modern rock stations in Canada.

Our promotions team dreams up the promotions that you’ll hear on all the other radio stations next year.  Tindy Bassi is the director and she is responsible for both The Q! and the Zone.  She is assisted by Allie Bowman (who focuses more on the Zone) and Chris Loran (who maybe leans more Q!). And we have a street team person named Clorisa.

Online and social media is Webmeister Bud.  His office is covered in bubble wrap and is a highlight of tours when schools come through the station.  He handles the website, direction for social media (which is executed by pretty much any Zone staff member), edits video and shoots concert footage and takes photos.  We also have lots of friends that help with concert pictures and videos too (and comics, and stuffed DJ dolls).

Production is the domain or Sheldon Hovde with Cassie Price and Caleb Kirby. Sheldon has 800 kids, Cassie reads books and Caleb talks puck with me ever since Dave Sawchuk moved to Edmonton to work for EMI.

Mark Adams is the Q’s PD but he also helps Bryan and I with music and programming direction and also handles a lot of the airchecks and WHL broadcasts… plus any other special projects that require insight.

As for Victoria Royals games… Marlon Martins was brought in from Lethbridge to do play-by-play.  I went to BCIT with Marlon back in like… 2000?  Something like that.  Small world.

Our DJs are Dylan Willows with Jason Lamb doing news… Pol Plastino is mid days, I do Afternoon Drive and Jon Williams and Jade Nixon handle evenings and weekends. *** oh and Trevor on Sunday mornings!

AND then there is… the Sales Team which includes our resident Calgary Flames fan and traffic, and administration, and engineering and also all the charity and community work above and beyond promotional events administered through the TLC Fund and…. hmmm that’s a radio station!

Thank you for listening.