Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Album Releases: October 18th

As y'all may have noticed, I've been really busy getting on the job search (just submitted my Teach for America application so Yay!) and helping out with family stuff.  As much as I like to listen through all the albums Spinner puts up, every week I go through and pick a few and then I can't find the time to give full attention/review that they deserve.  A majority of the time, I will have a free hour the next week and a whole crop of new albums will have replaced albums I wanted to review, so I have to change my plans.  I will still try to do this, but I think better idea is that, addition to my own thoughts on albums, I'll list the albums that are released every week -- and there are a bunch, believe me -- and you guys can decided for yourselves which ones you're interested in, especially if the option I choose to review isn't your scene.  Sound good?  Okily-dokily....is it weird that I have no clue if I spelt that correctly? Whatever....

Albums Released on October 18th, 2011
  • One Pig by Matthew Herbert
  • Staring at the X by Forest Fire -- Note:  I downloaded a free sample song--"Future Shadows"-- off this album, and it's definitely worth a listen. 
  • The Drummer by Niki and the Dove
  • Virginity EP by The Bleeding Knees Club
  • Social Studies by Body Language*
  • Salt for Salt by Brown Bird
  • The Gift Horse by Brown Shoe
  • Rapprocher by Class Actress*
  • Sing in My Meadow by Cowboy Junkies
  • Everybody Breaks by Garrett Pierce
  • Gauntlet Hair by Gauntlet Hair
  • Lily & the Parlour Tricks by Lily & the Parlour Tricks* -- Note: Rockabilly!!!
  • Minefield EP by My Glorious
  • Wild One by North Highlands
  • Folly by Pree*
  • He Thinks He's People by Rob Crow
  • An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings by Sahy Uhns
  • Room to Run by States
  • The Place I Left Behind by The Deep Dark Woods
  • Years of Living Dangerously by Turf War
The ones with asterisks are ones I'm interested in reviewing if I have time.  Some of are really short (the EPs, for example) so those might also be plausible for me to do as well. 

To have a free listen and decide whether to buy, you can check these all at Spinner.  They're usually up for a week although sometimes the site facilitators put up the new albums on Monday.  Happy Listening!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Mainstream Radio, This is Why You're Failing

I haven't been listening to the radio at all recently because -- basically -- I got a huge "Fuck you" when I suggested a change in the line-up. Not in so many words....they sugarcoated it by pandering to my ego and telling me exactly what I wanted to hear but, yeah, the message I got was that they couldn't give a flying f*ck about what their listeners think or want. 

Just a little background -- I felt like a hypocrit for writing off my local radio station without actually trying contribute and make it better.  So, instead of just continually bitching, I wrote a very pleasant e-mail making a few suggestions about adding local artists and not playing "Moves like Jagger" every other minute.  (Just for the record---I effin' hate that song.  It is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the music industry right now.)  This is the reply I recieved:
Hey! Thanks for the email and thanks for listening to ****. It's nice to get an email from someone who knows music. I can tell because you feel **** is getting stale. At the end of the summer, the charts start to slow, making the playlist seem to be in a slump. You picked up on this, therefore you are "music aware". I wish there were more like you.
    I listened to the songs and will give a few spins next week to see how it is received. Thanks for the tip.
    The local artist show has been kicked around the station for about a year now, they are looking for a sponsor for the show and discussing the platform (On line or on air) for a local spotlight. For example, if we did it online we would make it a weekly contest where the winner would get a spotlight play on the air.
 I listened to that radio station nonstop for two weeks straight and I didn't hear any deviation from the norm.  Lying bastard.  You can't decry your audience for not having taste when you simultaneously control the content they hear.  They didn't even give people a chance to say whether or not they liked the change of sound.

Oh.  And he straight up lied about the change of new music slowing down at the end of summer.  I know for a fact that more albums came out during one week of September than the entire month of July.  And more awesome stuff is coming out soon (Hello Vanaprasta!)  I'm tired of this sh*t.  Internet radio all the way, baby.