Covering the Spaces – February 17, 2021

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Spaces Dallol - A.Savin Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace

It was a quiet week on Bubble Wrap this week, with no theme to guide us and all the freedom from that.  Consequently, we were extra entertaining.  For example, the very first set was killer, leading off with The Lounge Society and their moody manifesto “Burn The Heather.”  If you like Fontaines DC, you’ll like The Lounge Society.  Then there was “Weekends” by Classixx & the Local Natives, a guilty pleasure for sure, but so hooky.  Finishing off that set was “The Duke” by Menahan Street Band of Brooklyn, NY, doing their own brand of retro smooth jazz.  It’s a groove, and the horns are nothing short of mellifluous.

Love, Baby – February 10, 2021

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My Valentine postcard

The annual Bubble Wrap Valentine’s Day show featured love songs galore. We got sweet love, modern love, lacquered love, and of course our love. Old love, new love, young love, and not so love. What more can we say? It’s all about the love.

If Wishes Were Horses – February 3, 2021

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As we enter 2021 for real and for good, new music has begun to emerge that wasn’t recorded in 2020, that misbegotten year that we’re all trying to forget. Leading the pack for the Bubble Wrap crew are Arlo Parks and the new compilation from La Souterraine.

“Caroline” is a brand new track from Britain’s Arlo Parks, whose R&B nouveau has been percolating on the Internet for the last couple years. Parks’ new song is flawless contemporary pop with perfect vocals and a lyrical maturity that belies her years. We liked her funkier “Green Eyes” last year. Despite her self-assessment as a hopeless misfit, her music adds up to a very accessible package.

And then there’s La Souterraine, the busiest little microlabel in, well, La Souterraine, to be vague. The new installment in their compilation series is a volume 2 of their highly enjoyable Allopop of a couple years ago.

Agree To Disagree – November 26, 2020

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The latest episode of Bubble Wrap fell on Thanksgiving Eve this year, so there was some thanking to be done and some turkey songs to be played.  New music resumed with more new favorites including Elvis Costello’s latest track, “Hetty O’Hara Confidential,” who is still biting and nipping at our heels.  For some reason, I enjoy the bitter edge.

The New Golden Age – November 18, 2020

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The Golden Age - Pietro da Cortona

The goal of this week’s Bubble Wrap show was relaxation and joy. The new music was thin so we went with old stuff, for the most part. Excepting Bootsy, who is old and new at the same time — his new record just came out and, friends, he’s still got it. You will see.  The new single is “Funktropolis.” Find it under Funk at your favorite record emporium.

Party Rapture – November 11, 2020

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Party Rapture

Riding the times like ocean waves, hoping not to get swamped, taking the good with the bad — these are all themes of life here on Bubble Wrap. Helping us do that was our artist of the week, Mori, whose new ep seekseek is chock full with playful keybs and wildly processed vocals including our […]

Past Lives – Repairs

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Past Lives - Repairs

Past Lives, a guy with “a couple guitars” living somewhere in New Hampshire, has quietly released a gem with his new ep, Repairs. 

Waiting Game – November 4, 2020

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Burlington Waiting Room

Although the elections were yesterday, we still don’t know who won although we have a pretty good idea…. So we distracted ourselves with music.  Kiwi Jr. got their second play in as many weeks with “Undecided Voters.”  We dragged Pavement and the Mountain Goats out of semi-retirement.  We basked in the gentle pop stylings of Miloe, a new artist out of Minneapolis who has a thing for Winona Ryder.  Adam Levy’s “Cadiz” recalled a kinder, gentler Kid Creole.  Arlo Parks’ “Green Eyes” was mesmerizing.  And the bonus tracks on the Prince Sign of the Times megaset are unusually good bonus tracks — we played 2 Nu 1’s 4 U.

Darkness Falls – October 28, 2020

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This week was our last week before the election, a scary time, and never mind Halloween. We chose to ignore all that and just play music. 😉 Faves of the week: A Tribe Called Red’s new track “Land Back” which uses traditional native American singers in an unusual hiphop context. Kiwi Jr, just signed by a minor major, gave us another winner with “Undecided Voters.” And The Creachies, who are neither British nor a girl group, supplied seasonal flavor with “One of the Vampire Girls.”

Introducing Signalwave — Ho Chi Minh City by Yingvarz

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Yingvarz - Ho Chi Minh City

When I first heard Yingvarz’ new album Ho Chi Minh City, I had never heard of Signalwave, the genre that presently defines Yingvarz’ musical efforts. Yingvarz, formerly SaigonSO, is from Vietnam where he composes Signalwave in his spare time. In that, he is a big fish in a small pond, being possibly the only Signalwave practitioner in his country.

How Bad Could It Be? – October 14, 2020

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Boston Molasses Disaster

What can you really say these days?  Not much so play more music.  Lately Bubble Wrap Radio has been more off than on due to remote broadcasting difficulties, but we haven’t given up yet.  This week, we managed to get a show in which means listeners got a chance to hear a few new tunes for a change.  Favorite new pop band:  The Creachies, from Baltimore, who have a new EP out called (appropriately enough) 3 for Free.  We liked “Bad People” especially.

Aquarium Drunkard released some live Velvet Underground recently, giving us a chance to listen to “White Light White Heat” in all its gritty glory.  Would indie rock have been possible without them?

The No Longer Untold Stories of Bloom.exe

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Bloom.exe Untold Stories

We are discussing here the new album, Untold Stories by Bloom.exe, a person residing in Toronto but coming from “elsewhere.” His music incorporates pop/rock/punk/noise/spoken word elements but builds it out of a wide variety of inputs from written texts (by the artist), spoken, sung, and shouted as well as sounds, found, created, and manipulated, layers and layers of sound interacting with words and ideas, themes raised and then left behind like scenes out the window of a car. He may or may not be an executable, but his work is so theatrical, emotional, and individual that you can’t find a category to hold it.

Step Outside – September 23, 2020

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Franz Mark - Fairy Animal

Still catching up on tunes from prior weeks here on Bubble Wrap Radio as well as some new releases. Past artists with new tracks included Bob Mould’s new single “Forecast Rain” from his upcoming Merge release, as well as some typically grinding rock from Throwing Muses called “Dark Blue” from her recent record Sun Racket. We also enjoyed a couple more tracks from the new compilation Allopop from La Souterraine in Paris, which we believe to be their best comp yet. And, to cap off the evening, the new track “Hit The Floor” by Go-Go legends Rare Essence with Snoop Dog, no less — definitely check it out.

Take A Chance – September 10, 2020

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Music from Rennes, Trondheim, Mali, and more this week on Bubble Wrap, along with a big handful of American artists. “Worry” by Songhoy Blues topped the list of singles with a slap of funky rock power about keeping up the fight. Sharada Shashidhar does the weird jazz, Rïga constructs thrumming industrial rhythms and calls it “Mikrofilm.”

On the pop side, Eep’s “Hogar,” The Audio Particle’s “All There Is…”, and Syntax Valley’s “Are You Happy” (yes!) are all winners. “Are You Happy” even throws in a key change.  We also liked the latest album from Philly artist Shelf Life (FLAWLESS) and led off our exploration of that record with “Worth.”