art is the new religion

Brazilian Girls on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

Brazilian Girls is one of those bands which I've heard of over the years, listened to once or twice, but never really formed a positive or negative opinion about.  Yesterday I happened to click to watch this live performance from KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, and I was charmed:

Brazilian Girls from http://kcrwmusicnews.vox.com/

The song didn't really grab me in the beginning - her whistling is quite impressive, but I let the song run in the background while I read some other blogs.  But when she began the chorus, I stopped in my tracks. There's a sensory shift from the jaunty, plonky verse as the chorus quiets (ethereal, melancholy) then opens up (arching, angelic).  "Do you like my accent..." she asks, singing foreign words, playing with pronunciations.  Even her body language shifts; she closes her eyes in the denouement, reaches her hands skyward, calls out in that language, words I imagine are endearments, entreaties. I've listened to this song over and over, just for the reward of the chorus.

Then the spell is broken each time with those la-la's.

 

• You can see this performance and more over on the KCRW Music News blog.

Fightin' fire with fire

When it comes to listening to the radio and discovering music, for my money I'm choosing subscription, on demand and online.  This is not just because I've had two stereos stolen out of my sad little car.  It's because it's the only way to hear music that's programmed by people who love music, and not essentially by advertisers who need to sell Axe Body Spray to 16 year old dudes.  Or whatever they advertise on commercial radio these days, I wouldn't actually know.

Live from the archives

Anyone who has read this blog before knows that, while I love discovering new music, lately I'm as much or more interested in discovering older stuff.  Music blogging and online radio stations are generally associated with breaking new bands and starting trends, but I'm glad to see there are some sources to rediscover older music online as well.

For instance, Sippey clued me in to another good thing happening in the world of internet radio:  New York's legendary WNEW is broadcasting on HD2 at 102.7 and streaming online.

This station isn't going to help you discover new music, but you can hear pretty amazing interviews and live performances from their decades of archives.  I just heard The Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed" (yay!) sandwiched between two of the more annoying songs by good bands - "The Weight" by The Band and "Elevation" by U2 (a mole in a hole, really?). But then I heard a snippet of an interview with Billy Joel from over 20 years ago, followed by a live performance.  Since I've been listening they've run a clip of Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull talking about smoked salmon and also a fantastic live performance of "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads from '83.  See, I find that interesting.  They're also doing a good job of updating their blog, talking about new and older bands from Billy Bragg to Tokyo Police Club.

Hot off the presses

Looking for a fun way to discover new music?  Add new_music on Twitter.  It's a feed of Pitchfork and Metacritic reviews rated 7 or higher, courtesy of Michael Young.  He was inspired by an old New York Magazine article that talked about people who only “Listen To Anything rated over 8.0 on Pitchforkmedia.com.”  Michael Young, I like the way you think.

"480 Minutes": Every Friday on BAGeL Radio

Hands up if you're in the market to discover some new music!

Lucky for you, every Friday you can tune in for eight hours of new indie rock and noise pop courtesy of DJ Ted at BAGeL Radio.  He listens to hundreds of CDs each week and hand-picks the very best to play on his internet radio station BAGeL Radio, and on Fridays he presents a live broadcast curated with the freshest stuff he's got to offer.  All of this is free of charge!  Can you even believe it?  Here's what he's got in store for you today:

"Today's '480 Minutes' show will feature new songs from The Breeders (Dayton, OH), The Wombats (1st US release, Liverpool, UK), Tapes 'n Tapes (Minneapolis, MN), The Black Keys (Akron, OH), The Black Box Rebellion (Brussels, Belgium), R.E.M. (Athens, GA), Finest Dearest (San Francisco, CA), Doctors & DealersFoals (Oxford, UK), Mono Taxi (London, UK), Cut Copy (Melbourne, Australia), Eric Avery (of Jane's Addiction, Los Angeles, CA), Moby (New York, NY), Neva Dinova (Omaha, NE), The Parlor Mob (NJ), plus Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (UK) and The Raconteurs (Detroit, MI)."

Here's Ted recording a station ID with one of my favorite humans of all time, before the X show at SXSW (more X, Ted, John & SXSW on my Flickr):

No idea what he's pointing at.  Caption, anyone?

"480 Minutes" runs live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, and is rebroadcast on Saturday if you missed it.

• Tune in to "480 Minutes"
• Visit the BAGeL blog
• Read why SF Weekly calls Ted "the John Peel of internet radio"

CBC Radio 3: A Trip to the Great White North

With the snowballing success of artists like Feist, Arcade Fire and Tegan & Sara, it's no secret that tons of great music comes from Canada.

A friend just turned me on to a Canadian indie rock radio station CBC Radio 3.  They describe themselves thusly:

CBC Radio 3 is available 24/7 on satellite radio. Beamed across North America on channel 94 of the Sirius Satellite Radio network, the station features artists from across the country in multiple genres, including rock, pop, hip-hop, electronica, and alt-country.

Radio 3's podcast is truly unique: it's full of amazing, 100% Canadian music from new and emerging artists. This is great news for music fans, and it's even better news for independent Canadian musicians. We are extremely excited about the potential for exposing Canadian artists to a wider international audience and are proud to be one of the top podcasts worldwide.

Listening over the past two days, I've heard a ton of new music and have been fully entertained by the DJs' banter.  The fact that they're also blogging, podcasting and broadcasting on satellite radio shows they're embracing all the new technology at their fingertips, which surely helps spread their music and message a lot further.

Why doesn't Austin have a forward-thinking radio station that embraces new technology like this?  Do we?  Austin, of all cities, really should.  We claim to be the "live music capital of the world" and we have amazing talent here, but even our best musical outlets - "Austin City Limits", SXSW, the ACL Fest, we even have our own local access music channel - haven't mastered the technology to become accessible and relevant year-round and worldwide.  I've seen a few stations who understand the importance of a good web presence and adventurous programming but I don't see a clear winner yet.  Who or what will step up to be the outlet that gives the world access to Austin or Texas music?  I'll keep investigating and let you know when I find one.

If you need a soundtrack for your day...

Tune into KCRW (I'm listening online) as they celebrate 30 years of Morning Becomes Eclectic all day today.

Hosts: Chris Douridas, Nic Harcourt, Tom Schnabel

All three Morning Becomes Eclectic hosts from the last three decades will produce three-hour specials of live performances and choice master recordings that define their musical journey. The hosts will feature the artists whose lives they changed and the artists whose music changed them including; David Bowie, Little Richard, Willie Nelson, Dido, Burt Bacharach, Fela Kuti, Gillian Welch, and the Flaming Lips.

Those of you not already familiar with KCRW can read more about the station here. Morning Becomes Eclectic, curated by Nic Harcourt, is one of the few remaining radio programs that discovers and supports great music. Check out MBE's archives for streaming audio and video of live performances by some amazing bands.  Just in the last six weeks they've hosted several artists I love including Bat For Lashes, Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova (aka The Swell Season), Spoon, Crowded House and more.