Wednesday, August 26, 2009

August 26, 2009 -- Last Show!

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Love Spit Love -- Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Pipettes -- Pull Shapes (We Are The Pipettes)
Coldplay -- Strawberry Swing (Viva La Vida)
Noah and the Whale -- 5 Years Time (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
Delgados -- Coming In From The Cold (Hate)
Streets -- The Irony of it All (Original Pirate Material)
Basement Jaxx -- Cish Cash (Kish Kash)
Ting Tings -- That's Not My Name (We Started Nothing)
Lightning Seeds -- Pure (Cloudcuckooland)
Teenage Fanclub -- It's All In My Mind (Man Made)
Robyn Hitchcock -- Belltown Ramble (Ole Tarantula)
Jens Lekman -- Black Cab (Maple Leaves EP)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Heavy Blinkers -- He HEard His Song (The Night and I Are Still Young)
Hidden Cameras -- Breathe On It (The Smell of Our Own)
God Help The Girl -- Perfection as a Hipster (God Help the Girl)
Camera Obscura -- Number One Son (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
Belle and Sebastian -- Jonathan David (EP)
British Sea Power -- Carrion (The Decline Of...)
Divine Comedy -- Tonight We Fly (Promenade)
Morrissey -- Now My Heart Is Full (Vauxhall And I)
Elbow -- Scattered Black and Whites (Asleep at the Back)
Dire Straits -- Going Home, the Theme from 'Local Hero' (Alchemy Live)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Playlist for August 12, 2009

Ballboy -- Avant Garde (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Menswear -- Daydreamer (Nuisance)
KT Tunstall -- If Only (Drastic Fantastic)
Beatles -- Nowhere Man (Rubber Soul)
Trashcan Sinatras -- It's A Miracle (Weightlifting)
Glasvegas -- Geraldine (Glasvegas)
Robyn Hitchcock -- Up to Our Nex (Goodnight Oslo)
Boy Least Likely To -- Saddle Up (Law of the Playground)
Stereolab -- Ping Pong (Serene Velocity)
God Help The Girl -- Perfection as a Hipster (God Help the Girl)
God Help the Girl -- I'll Have to Dance with Cassie (God Help the Girl)
Loveninjas -- I Wanna Be Like Johnny C (Labrador 100)
KLF -- Last Train to Transcentral (White Room)
Moloko -- Day for Night (Do You Like My Tight Sweater?)
Lemon Jelly -- A Song for Jack (lemonjelly.ky)
Lily Allen -- LDN (Alright, Still...)
Pet Shop Boys -- Rent (Discography)
Glenn Tilbrook -- Melancholy Emotion (Pandemonium Ensues)
Duckworth Lewis Method -- Age of Revolution (Duckworth Lewis Method)
The Streets -- Let's Push Things Forward (Original Pirate Material)
Madness -- Sugar and Spice (The Liberty of Norton Folgate)
Peter Gabriel -- Sledgehammer (Shaking the Tree)
Traveling Wilburys -- Handle With Care (Volume 1)
Frightened Rabbit -- (HEads Roll Off) Midnight Organ Fight
Morrissey -- Something Is Squeezing My Skull (Years of Refusal)
God Help the Girl -- A Down and Dusty Blonde (God Help the Girl)
Chrysler -- When Sarah Came to Town (Failures and Sparks)

Stuart Murdoch NYT Article

Since I'm enjoying "God Help The Girl" so much, I though I would post a link to a longish piece in the NYT magazine that focuses on Murdoch and the recording of the album -- well worth a read!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Playlist from July 29, 2009

Ballboy -- Where Do The NIghts of Sleep Go To When They Do Not Come To Me? (guide for the Daylight Hours)
The Fall -- Theme From Sparta FC (The Real new Fall LP)
Franz Ferdinand -- Turn It On (Tonight)
Gorillaz -- Feel Good Inc. (Demon Days)
Basement Jaxx -- Lucky Star (Kish Kash)
Echobelly -- Great Things (ON)
Mclusky -- Alan Is A Cowboy Killer (Do Dallas)
James -- Whiteboy (Hey Ma)
Radiohead -- Idioteque (Kid A)
Pipettes -- Pull Shapes (We Are The Pipettes)
The Go Team -- We Just Won't Be Defeated (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
Blur -- You're So Great (Blur)
Elbow -- One Day Like This (Seldom Seen Kid)
Boy LEast Likely to -- Saddle up (Law of the Playground)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Degree of Separation (Born in the UK)
Belle & Sebastian -- Boy With the Arab Strap (Boy With The Arab Strap)
Baxter Dury -- Lucifer's Grain (Len Parrot's Memorial Lift)
Tindertsicks -- Sometimes It Hurts (Waiting for the Moon)
Cake Sale -- Aliens (Cake Sale)
Doves -- House of Mirrors (Kingdom of Rust)
Robyn Hitchcock -- I'm Falling (Goodnight Oslo)
Neil Halstead -- Oh Mighty Engine (Oh Mighty Engine)
Billy Bragg -- She's Leaving Home (Reaching to the Converted)
JAMC -- Happy When It Rains (Darklands)
Camera Obscura -- Let's Get Out Of This Country (Let's Get Out Of This Country)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Noah and the Whale -- 5 Years Time (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
Suede -- Trash (Coming Up)
Magic Numbers -- take a Chance (Those the Brokes)
Hooverphonic -- 2Wicky (single)
Guillemots -- Made up Lovesong #3 (From the Cliffs)
Lightning Seeds -- Pure (Cloudcuckooland)
British Sea Power -- Waving Flags (Do You Like Rock Music?)
Shudder to Think -- Hot One (Velvet Goldmine)
Morrissey -- Now My HEart is Full (Vauxhall & I)
Teenage Fanclub -- Near You (Howdy!)
Franz Ferdinand -- Ulysses (Tonight)
Jesus and Mary Chain -- Rollercoaster (Power of Negative Thinking)
Death in Vegas -- Aisha (Contino Sessions)
Led Zeppelin --Immigrant Song (BBC Sessions)
Komeda -- It's Alright Baby (What Makes It Go?)
Radio Dept. -- Pulling Our Weight (Labrador 100)
Jens Lekman -- Black Cab (Maple Leaves EP)
Robyn Hitchcock -- Up To Our Nex (Goodnight Oslo)
Boy Least Likely To -- I Keep Myself to Myself (Law of the Playground)
Bibio -- Ambivalence Avenue (Ambivalence Avenue)
Neil Halstead -- baby I Grew You A Beard (Oh Mighty Engine)
The Cure -- Plainsong (Disintegration)
Cocteau Twins -- Evangeline (Lullabies to Violaine)
Black Box Recorder -- Goodnight Kiss (Facts of Life)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Playlist from July 1, 2009

Graham Coxon -- Bittersweet Bundle of Misery (Happiness in Magazines)
Madness -- Michael Caine (Divine Madness)
Brian Eno -- Black Frank (Here Come The Warm Jets)
Pipettes -- We Are The Pipettes (We Are the Pipettes)
Duran Duran -- Wild Boys (Singles 1981 - 1985)
Smiths -- There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Singles)
Robyn Hitchcock -- My Wife and My Dead Wife (Fegmania)
Belle & Sebastian -- Take this Carriage Clock and Shove It (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Neil Halstead -- Oh! Mighty Engine (Oh! Mighty Engine)
Lloyd Cole -- No Blue Skies (Lloyd Cole)
The Cure -- Snow in Summer (Join the Dots)
The Cure -- Halo (Join the Dots)
The Cure -- I'm Cold (Join the Dots)
The Cure -- This Twilight Garden (Join the Dots)
Doves -- Kingdom of Rust (Kingdom of Rust)
Boy Least Likely To -- Saddle Up (Law of the PLayground)
Brakes -- Two Shocks (Touchdown)
Kooks -- Mr. Maker (Konk)
Streets -- Don't Mug Yourself (Original Pirate Material)
Art Brut -- Emily Kane (Bang Bang Rock & Roll)
Cocteau Twins -- Bluebeard (Lullabies to Violaine)
Maps -- Lost My Soul (We Can Create)
Glasvegas -- Geraldine (Glasvegas)
Frightened Rabbit -- Heads Roll Off (Midnight Organ Fight)
Suede -- Shipbuilding (HELP)
Blur -- Sweet Song (Think Tank)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Playlist from June 17

Aztec Camera -- Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
British Sea Power -- Fear of Drowning (The Decline of...)
Trashcan Sinatras -- Hayfever (I've Seen Everything)
Pet Shop Boys -- Did You See Me Coming? (Yes)
New Order -- Regret (Singles)
Golfrapp -- A&E (Seventh Tree)
Morrissey -- Something is Squeezing My Skull (Years of Refusal)
Nouvelle Vague -- The Killing Moon
Neil Halsted -- A Gentle Heart (Oh Mighty Engine)
Gomez -- See the World (How We Operate)
The Cure -- Just Like Heaven (Single)
Black Box Recorder -- French Rock & Roll (Facts of Life)
Alison Moyet -- It's Not The Thing (The Turn)
Brakes -- Heard About Your Band (Give Blood)
Rolling Stones -- Shine a Light (Exile on Main Street)
David Bowie -- Always Crashing In The Same Car (Low)
Brian Eno -- This (Another Day On Earth)
Del Amitri -- Move Away Jimmy Blue (Waking Hours)
Jesus & Mary Chain -- Terminal Beach (The Power of Negative Thinking)
Belle & Sebastian -- Act of the Apostle (The Life Pursuit)
The Pipettes -- Pull Shapes (We Are The Pipettes)
The Boy Least Likely To -- When Life Gives Me Lemons (Law of the Playground)
Robyn Hitchcock -- America (Gotta Let This Hen Out)
Ed Harcourt -- Something In My Eye (Here Be Monsters)
Turin Brakes -- State of Things (Optimist LP)
Stone Roses -- Love Spreads (Second Coming)
Elbow -- Scattered Black & Whites (Asleep at the Back)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Playlist from June 3, 2009

Death in Vegas -- Dirge (Contino Sessions)
My Bloody Valentine -- When You Sleep (Loveless)
Pulp -- Pink Glove (His & Hers)
T-Rex -- Telegram Sam (the Slider)
Belle and Sebastian -- Blues are Still Blue (The Life Pursuit)
Futureheads -- First Day (Futureheads)
David Bowie -- Ashes to Ashes (Changes)
Nick Cave -- Dig Lazarus Dig (Dig Lazarus Dig)
Rumble Strips -- Girls and Boys in Love (Girls and Weather)
The Boy Least Likely To -- Every Goliath has Its David (Law of the Playground)
Morrissey -- First of the Gang to Die (You Are the Quarry)
Kate Bush -- How to be Invisible (Aerial)
Magic Numbers -- Love is a Game (Magic Numbers)
Aerospace -- The Great Divide (Labrador 100)
Sambassadeur -- Between the Lines (Labrador 100)
Radio Department -- Pulling Our Weight (Labrador 100)
Glasvegas -- It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry (Glasvegas)
James -- Tomorrow (Best)
Rolling Stones -- Tumbling Dice (Exile on Main Street)
Neil Halstead -- Oh Mighty Engine (Oh Mighty Engine)
Kate Walsh -- Your Song (Tim's House)
Stina Nordenstam -- Little Star (And She Closed Her Eyes)
Flotation Toy Warning -- Popstar Researching Oblivion (Bluffers Guide to the Flight Deck)
Turin Brakes -- Feeling Oblivion (Optimist LP)
Divine Comedy -- Everybody Knows Except You (A Short Album About Love)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Playlist from May 6, 2009

Divine Comedy -- Lucy (Liberation)
The Coral -- Dreaming of You (The Coral)
Reindeer Section -- You Are My Joy (Son of Evil Reindeer)
Graham Coxon -- Bittersweet Bundle of Misery (Happiness in Magazines)
Glasvegas -- Geraldine (Glasvegas)
Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Primatives -- Crash (Lovely)
Jens Lekman -- Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo (Night Falls Over Kortedala)
Acid House Kings -- This and That (Labrador 100)
Sambassadeur -- Between the Lines (Labrador 100)
Pet Shop Boys -- Love, etc. (Yes)
Boy Least Likely To -- A Balloon on a Broken String (Law of the Playground)
Paul Weller -- All I Want to Do Is Be With You (22 Dreams)
Radiohead -- Wolf at the Door (Hail to the Thief)
Aereogramme -- Black Path (Sleep & Release)
Coldplay -- Strawberry Swing (Viva La Vida)
Morrissey -- Something is Squeezing My Skull (Years of Refusal)
Cribs -- Men's Needs (Men's Needs Women's Needs Whatever)
Libertines -- Time for Heroes (Up The Bracket)
Beth Orton -- Concrete Sky (Daybreaker)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Faraway Eyes (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Heavy Blinkers -- He Heard his Song (The Night and I Are Still So Young)
Love Spit Love -- Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Stranglers -- No More Heroes (UK Punk I)
Ned's Atomic Dustbin -- Grey Cells Green (God Fodder)
Cast -- Alright (All Change)

Skinner, you swine!

Mike Skinner of The Streets has been quick to respond to the H1N1 influenza-A situation. Has he bought a load of face-masks and made a Tamiflu stockpile in his basement?

No, he's recorded a song about it.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Playlist -- April 22, 2009

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Suede -- The Drowners (Suede)
Pulp -- This is Hardcore (This is Hardcore)
Glasvegas -- Geraldine (Glasvegas)
Frightened Rabbit -- Heads Roll Off (Midnight Organ Fight)
Jesus & Mary Chain -- April Skies (Darklands)
Pet Shop Boys -- Love, etc. (Yes)
Madness -- It Must Be Love (Divine Madness)
Depeche Mode -- Personal Jesus (Violator)
Camera Obscura -- French Navy (My Maudlin Career)
St. Etienne -- You're In a Bad Way (Singles)
The Boy Least Likely To -- Saddle Up (Law of the Playground)
Radio Department -- Pulling Our Weight (Labrador 100)
Neil Halstead -- A Gentle HEart (Oh Mighty Engine)
Leisure Society -- Last of the Melting Snow (The Sleeper)
Superstar -- Barfly (Greatest Hits Vol. 1)
Stereolab -- Wow & Flutter (Mars Audiac Quintet)
Gene -- Sleep Well Tonight (Olympian)
Guillemots -- Trains to Brazil (From the Cliffs)
James -- Waterfall (Hey Ma)
Wonder Stuff -- Maybe (Never LOved Elvis)
The Fall -- Hey Luciani! (50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong)
Editors -- Smokers OUtside the Hospital Doors (An End Has A Start)
Flight of the Conchords -- Bowie (Flight of the Conchords)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Playlist for April 8, 2009

The Jam -- Going Underground (Sound of...)
Ikara Colt -- At The Lodge (Chat & Business)
The Fall -- Fiery jack (50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Degrees of Separation (Born in the UK)
Camera Obscura -- Shine Like a New Pin (Biggest Bluest Hi fi)
Sean Lennon -- Headlights (Friendly Fire)
Robyn Hitchcok -- Belltown Ramble (Ole, Tarantula)
Lloyd Cole -- Music in a Foreign Language (Music in a Foreign Language)
Neil Halstead -- A Gentle Heart (Oh Mighty Engine!)
Echo & The Bunnymen -- Ocean Rain (Ocean Rain)
British Sea Power -- Waving Flags (Do You Like Rock Music?)
Divine Comedy -- I'm All You Need (A Short Album About Love)
Eurythmics -- When Tommorrow Comes (Revenge)
Black Box Recorder -- Girl Singing in the Wreckage (Child Psychology)
Cocteau Twins -- Rilkean Heart (Milk & Kisses)
Prefab Sprout -- Appetite (Steve McQueen)
Aztec Camera -- Walk Out To Winter (Retrospect)
Kinks -- Where Have All The Good Times Gone? (BBC Sessions)
Brian Eno -- The True Wheel (Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy)
Nick Cave -- Midnight Man (Dig Lazarus Dig!!!)
Jilted John -- Jilted John (UK Pop I)
Strawberry Switchblade -- Since Yesterday (Living In Oblivion)
Ride -- Twisterella (Going Blank Again)

Ahhhh, England....

At the risk of reducing my week in England to a single cliched image, here I am in the Truf Tavern pub in Oxford, pint in hand, fish & chips on the table in front of me.

NB: It's not raining. Or snowing.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Playlist for March 25, 2009

Badly Drawn Boy -- You Were Right (Have You Fed the Fish?)
Delgados -- Coming in from the Cold (Hate)
Blur -- End of a Century (Best of)
James -- Whiteboy (Hey Ma)
Lightning Seeds -- Sense (Sense)
Belle & Sebastian -- Another Sunny Day (Life Pursuit)
Stereo Total -- Dactylo Rock (Stereo Total)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Cocteau Twins -- Seekers Who Are Lovers (BBC Sessions)
St. Etienne -- Like a Motorway (Travel Edition)
Black Box Recorder -- The English Motorway (Facts of Life)
Bjork -- Play Dead (Greatest Hits)
Nick Drake -- Hazey jane II (Bryter Layter)
Neil Halstead -- A Gentle Heart (Oh Mighty Engine!)
Sondre Lerche -- You Know So Well (Faces Down)
Ballboy -- A Day in Space (Club Anthems)
Acid House Kings -- This & That (Labrador 100)
Club 8 -- Missing You (Labrador 100)
Lasse Lindh -- C'Mon Through (Labrador 100)
Leslies -- Dear Friend (Labrador 100)
Maps -- Elouise (We Can Create)
My Bloody Valentine -- Blown a Wish (Loveless)
Slowdive -- When the Sun Hits (Souvlaki)
Hidden Cameras -- Builds the Bone (Mississauga Goddam)
Dire Straits -- Going Home, theme from Local Hero (Alchemy -- Live)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Playlist from March 11, 2009

Longpigs -- She Said (The Sun is Often Out)
Suede -- So Young (Suede)
Radiohead -- Climbing the Walls (OK Computer)
The Fall -- Sparta FC (The Real New Fall LP)
The Jam -- In The City (The Sound of the Jam)
Ballboy -- You Can't Spend Your Whole Life Hanging Round With Arseholes (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Supergrass -- Richard III (In It For The Money)
Teenage Fanclub -- Personality Crisis (Velvet Goldmine)
The Futureheads -- A to B (The Futureheads)
Looper -- Impossible Things #2 (Up a Tree)
Pipettes -- Pull Shapes (We Are The Pipettes)
Trashcan Sinatras -- Hayfever (I've Seen Everything)
Frightened Rabbit -- Fast Blood (Midnight Organ Fight)
Brian Eno & John Cale -- Empty Frame (Wrong Way Up)
Travis -- Battleships (The Boy With No Name)
Elbow -- Scattered Black & Whites (Asleep at the Back)
Neil Halstead -- A Gentle Heart (Oh Mighty Engine)
Divine Comedy -- Frog Princess (Casanova)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Let Those Blue Skies (How I Long to Feel That Summer In My Heart)
Lloyd Cole -- Margo's Waltz (Don't Get Weird on Me Babe)
The Cure -- Pictures of You (Disintegration)
Clinic -- Harvest (Visitations)
Camera Obscura -- Let's Get Out of This Country (Let's Get Out of This Country)
British Sea Power -- It Ended on an Oily Stage (Open Season)

Eyebrow Dance

When I try to tell people that ads in the UK are far more creative and funny than ads in the US, this is the kind of thing I am thinking of.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Playlist from February 25, 2009

Inspiral Carpets, feat. Meak E. Smith -- I Want You (Saturn 5)
KT Tunstall -- If Only (Drastic Fantastic)
British Sea Power -- Carrion (The Decline Of...)
My Bloody Valentine -- When You Sleep (Loveless)
Elbow -- The Bones of You (The Seldom Seen Kid)
Ed Harcourt -- The Birds Will Sing For Us (From Every Sphere)
Belle & Sebastian -- I'm Waking Up to Us (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Strawberry Switchblade -- Since Yesterday (Living in Oblivion, 1980s collection)
Stereo Total -- I am Naked (Do The Bambi)
Kate Bush -- Hounds of Love (Whole Story)
George Harrison -- When We Was Fab (Cloud Nine)
The Cure -- Catch (Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me)
Madness -- Michael Caine (Divine Madness)
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset -- Sea Song (The Bairns)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Where Does Yer Go Now? (How I Long to Feel That Summer In My Heart)
Stina Nordenstam -- Hopefully Yours (And She Closed Her Eyes)
Jens Lekman -- You Put Your Arms Around Me (Night Falls Over Kortdala)
Flight of the Conchords -- Bowie (Flight of the Conchords)
Neil Halstead -- Sometimes the Wheels (Oh! Mighty Engine)
Nick Cave -- Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! (Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!)
Frightened Rabbit - Heads Roll Off (Midnight Organ Fight)
James -- Tomorrow (Best Of)
Turin Brakes -- Hidden Track (Ether Song)

Radio person!


Jan2009 063
Originally uploaded by BenACS
Just a quick pic of your illustrious host, with his tiny little earbuds in. Possibly the first time in history a gloomy expression has been in the same room as a Lemon Jelly CD.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Playlist from Feb 11, 2009

Ride -- Taste (Nowhere)
David Bowie -- Suffragette City (Changes)
Dexy's Midnight Runners -- Let's Make This Precious (Too Rye Ay)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Looper -- On the Flipside (The Geometrid)
Camera Obscura -- Suspended from Class (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
Passengers -- Miss Sarajevo (Original Soundtracks)
Trashcan Sinatras -- Leave Me Alone (Weightlifting)
Neil Halstead -- Paint a Face (Oh! Mighty Engine)
Snow Patrol -- Engines (A Hundred Million Suns)
Elvis Costello -- American Gangster Time (Momofuku)
Kaiser Chiefs -- Never Miss a Beat (Off With Their Heads)
John Martyn -- Solid Air (No Little Boy)
Robyn Hitchcock -- Television (Spooked)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Once Around the Block (Hour of the Bewilderbeast)
Dizzee Rascal -- Wanna Be (Maths + English)
Life Without Buildings -- The LEanover (Any Other City)
Libertines -- The Boy Looked at Johnny (Up the Bracket)
Flotation Toy Warning -- Popstar Researching Oblivion (Bluffers Guide to the Flight Deck)
Slowdive -- Alison (Souvlaki)
Blur -- You're So Great (Blur)
The Chrysler -- What I Must Keep With Mine (Failures and Sparks)
Cocteau Twins -- Calfskin Smack (Milk and Kisses)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Playlist from January 28, 2009

Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Superfurry Animals -- At Least It's Not The End of the World (Ringz Around the World)
David Bowie -- New Killer Star (Reality)
Pulp -- Pink Glove (His & Hers)
Teenage Fanclub -- Sparky's Dream (Grand Prix)
Heavy Blinkers -- He Heard His Song (The Night and I Are Still So Young)
Black Box Recorder -- Facts of Life (Facts of Life)
Badly Drawn Boy -- 40 Days, 40 Fights (Have You Fed The Fish?)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Spanish Dance Troupe (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Divine Comedy -- PErfect Lovesong (Regeneration)
Lilac Time -- The Girl Who Waves at Trains (Compendium)
Noah & The Whale -- Shape of My Heart (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
Kaiser Chiefs -- Never Miss a Beat (Off With Their Heads)
Graham Coxon -- Bittersweet Bundle of Misery (Happiness in Magazines)
Teitur-- Catherine The Midwatch (The Singer)
Ballboy -- A Europewide Search for Love (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Brian Ferry -- More Than This (Street Life)
Belle & Sebastian -- Sleep the Clock Around (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
The Streets -- Everything is Borrowed (Everything is Borrowed)
Slowdive -- Alison (Souvlaki)
Kings of Convenience -- Homesick (Riot on an Empty Street)
Bloc Party -- The Pinoeers, M83 Remix (Silent Alarm Remixed)
The Chrysler -- WOunded Night (Failures and Sparks)
The CUre -- Plainsong (Disintegration)

BBC 1! BBC2! BBC3! BBC4! BBC5! BBC6! BBC7! BBC heaven!

So I got to talk to my all-time radio idol live on-air last night!

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie have a nightly show on BBC Radio 2, a station known for being pretty staid and safe and inoffensive. Radcliffe and Maconie are hadly hellraising wild men, but they are probably the only DJs on R2 to play Iggy Pop, The Fall, Buzzcocks, etc. Anyway, they have both been huge godlike geniuses to me for years (Radcliffe especially, whose shows I have listened to ever since I was a callow teenager.)

So they have an ongoing feature on their show called The Chain, whose concept is simple enough: each record (or 'link') in The Chain has to be somehow connected to the previous one. The connection can be as tenuous or obvious as the submitter likes. Each night at a couple of points in the show they speak to the listener whose suggestion has been accepted as the next link.

And last night it was me! My suggestion of a Divine Comedy song to follow a Madness song (on the grounds that both bands had written songs about Michael Caine) was triumphant! For the next week you can hear, courtesy of BBC.co.uk's 'Listen Again' feature, my three minutes of starstruck babbling...

So...click here and then select Tuesday's episode ('Graham Nash speaks') from the Listen Again list on the right hand side. Although you would do well to listen to the whole show, you can skip ahead to my bit if you like -- I'm on at around the 1hr 42 minute mark.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Last Week's Show -- Audio File

If you missed the last show, and feel like hearing it (see playlist below), then feel free to email me at transatlanticaradio@yahoo.com, and I'll send you a link to an online location where I have uploaded the WAV file.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Playlist From January 14, 2009

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Heavenly -- 'C' Is The HEavenly Option (Le Jardin De Heavenly)
Steve Harley -- Come up And See Me (Velvet Goldmine)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Silent Sigh (About a Boy)
Brian Eno -- Dead Finks Don't Talk (Here Come The Warm Jets)
Hidden Cameras -- Breathe On It (The Smell of Our Own)
Kaiser Chiefs -- Never Miss A Beat (Off With Their Heads)
Trashcan Sinatras -- I've Seen Everything (I've Seen Everything)
Blur -- Chemical World (Modern Life Is Rubbish)
U2 -- In A Little While (All That You Can't LEave Behind)
The Smiths -- What Difference Does it Make? (Singles)
Hot Chip -- The Warning (The Warning)
Aztec Camera -- Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
Streets -- Everything Is Borrowed (Everything is Borrowed)
Lemon Jelly -- Space Walk (Lost Horizons)
Turin Brakes -- Future Boy (Optimist LP)
Belle & Sebastian -- Another Sunny Day (The Life Pursuit)
Teenage Fanclub -- It's All In My Mind (Man Made)
Manic Street Preachers -- Raindrops Keep Falling On My HEad (HELP: Warchild)
Teitur -- Catherine the Waitress (The Singer)
The The -- Lonely Planet (Dusk)
James -- I Wanna Go Home (Hey Ma)
The Chrysler -- When Sara Came to Town (Failures and Sparks)
Elbow -- Scattered Black and Whites (Asleep at the BAck)