Radio

Taking the Long Cut – October 18, 2017

| Radio

In the context of a two hour radio show with two programmers competing for time, it becomes hard to allow for the expansive requirements of a song over 5 minutes. This is too bad because longer tracks are every bit as valid as radio-friendly 3:00 ditties. Artists have railed about this for years, although not so much lately now that radio is (for the most part) relatively free of new music, and certainly of new music that takes any chances. It was with this in mind — not to mention a swelling backlog of songs over 5 minutes — that caused the show of long songs to happen.

Cable Built Dreamland – October 11, 2017

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It was our first episode of Bubble Wrap since The Great Refurbishing of the WVEW station equipment over the weekend, giving us our first “clean” broadcast since…ever? Thank you, Refurbishers! It’s nice to have cables that don’t cut out at random intervals or if you breath… To celebrate, we played a lot of new music plus a bunch of older tracks from the likes of Zapp, Cameo, and the Bar Kays.

Fear of Trains – September 27, 2017

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We took a turn toward the oldies on this week’s Bubble Wrap radio show, with Aerosmith (ably assisted by Beavis and Butthead) to start it off.  Perhaps it’s that autumn spurs nostalgia, which in my case enabled me to shake off inertia and actually play some old records.  This led to a respinning of Pavement’s […]

Remember This – September 20, 2017

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By M. PINARCI, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55947173

Here in the southern half of the northern tier of New England, we celebrated the start of autumn with a return to summer. That should surprise no one these days. Aside from the sudden bout of global warming, we aired new and nearly new tunes from Lido Pimienta, Paper Thieves, and Phoebe Bridges, along with mini-showcase of Lazy Salon.

It Goes On – September 13, 2017

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This week on Bubble Wrap, we enjoyed the varied pleasures of Heartscore, Rainer Maria, Colaars, P.SUS, and Norma Jean, among many others. It was a veritable panoply of pop and funk. The Steely Dan tribute continued in cover form with Nik Hunt’s version of “Do It Again” and a radio edit of “Show Biz Kids” […]

Fleeting Moments – September 6, 2017

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All day Labor Day, as we paddled around an idyllic mountain lake admiring nature, I kept saying “This is the last day of summer.” To which my co-paddler said, with some truth, “It is not!” But for me, Labor Day is the end of the summer season — no more white duck shoes, pink rose, or meals al fresco. No, it’s Fall. On Bubble Wrap, we kicked off the new season right with some inspirational funk and a bunch of new music from the likes of Hercules and Love Affair, Odesza, and DieAlps! Yes, that exclamation point is part of their name.

Independent Community Radio and Us – Rewards and Pitfalls

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It’s been a while since we’ve signed in here, in part because a big part of our raison d’etre was offline for almost two weeks back in June.  That provides no excuse for July but we’ve got you covered there too.  At any rate, WVEW in Brattleboro, Vermont, our home station, was knocked offline by […]

Another Life – June 7, 2017

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Wild Bath Japan

Sometimes you just want to lose yourself in the music.  Such was the case this week on Bubble Wrap Radio, moments of levity aside.  It wasn’t the great depth or passion of the music itself, but the inventiveness of its authors that pulled us along.  So yes, to Adriano Celetano who in 1972 released “Prisencolinensinainciusol” […]

Twisting Flippers – May 31, 2017

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As we say good-bye to rainy May and get ready to enter rainy June, Bubble Wrap Radio gets its act together and plays some new music. If you were listening, and we doubt you were, you would have heard some fresh 80s-inspired dance pop from Layla Frankel, the incredible diction of Fagelle, the gritty groove of Makola’s “This Is London,” and a featurette from Montreal’s Fixture Records. You might have danced around, scratched your head, or gazed pensively out a window. We can’t tell you — only you know.

So Wavey – May 24, 2017

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Waves of Clouds

All over the world, new music is happening and it’s up to us to catch(some of) it and bring it to y’all. This week on Bubble Wrap Radio, we played songs from Thailand, Brisbane, Pittsburgh and Croatia, among other places. Believe it or not, you can hear the difference geography makes.

Too Hot – May 17, 2017

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Indeed, it was too hot in the 3rd floor studio of WVEW on Main Street in Brattleboro where this week’s edition of Bubble Wrap beamed forth undaunted. To celebrate the heat wave (93 degrees in May!), CG played “Too Hot” by Kool and the Gang, a band that was never cool but always brought a smile. This emboldened us to follow it up with Steely Dan’s “Black Friday” which dovetailed nicely with the Dow’s 373 point drop earlier in the day.

Arabesque – May 3, 2017

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Arabesque

Bubble Wrap radio launched into May with new music from Charly Bliss, Couleur Dessin, Cory Hanson, Blithe Field (a new favorite) and Waxahatchee, as well as a long list of runners up.  Due to a hard drive failure affecting the musical fortunes of DJ CG, there is less funk on this show than usual. Blithe […]

Insufficient Funds – April 26, 2017

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On Bubble Wrap this week, we showcased two artists new to us who have purchase-worthy albums out right now:  winsome punk rockers The Courtneys and the French-North African dance outfit Acid Arab.  The Courtneys (of Vancouver, Canada) take me straight back to the early days of DIY indie rock and what song could better represent […]

The Rumors Are True – April 19, 2017

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Frog Haiku Memorial By Eckhard Pecher (Self-photographed) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

For the better part of last week, I was haunted by Tom Courtenay — not the actor, who I don’t remember, but the song by Yo La Tengo. It came out on Electr-O-Pura in 1995 and provided melodic counterpoint to what was otherwise one of the band’s noisier, dronier phases. We started Bubble Wrap Radio with it, noting to ourselves that noisy guitar-driven rock is bound to come back one of these days. Oh wait! it already has….at least in places like Slovenia.