For your especial delectation: love songs from new artists including “Puddles” by UNA, “New Chain” by Two Bad Bricks, and “dirty little lovers” by Dead Oak. Dead Oak’s album waking comatose seems pretty remarkable on first listen — we’ll be playing more from that in coming weeks. We also enjoyed the single from Reds, Pinks & Purples, a cover of a Japanese band called Pervenche, as well as the entire new album Spider Dreamer Sweet Tooth by Friends of Cesar Romero. The wincingly appropriate “Royalty Loyalty” by XOXO Xopher is a real toe-tapper too…
So Free – November 1, 2017
| Radio
It was a week of tragedy and violence, on the heels of earlier tragedy and violence, not to mention the destruction of various natural disasters. In between, there was Hallowe’en, and to get in the spirit, so to speak, we’ve been watching cheery Netflix shows like Stranger Things and House of Cards… We don’t know what to think anymore, so we play music, trying to make sense of it all, one song at a time…. And then, in the midst of our happy escapist dream set, what should pop into our consciousness but — Poppy.
Poppy? Who’s Poppy?
| Music
We haven’t run across a musical act this weird since The KLF mystified audiences back in the early 90s. Thanks to FluxBlog for introducing us. Usually Flux is my source for mainstream, but Poppy is not mainstream, and while the Poppy persona seems to imply that fame and fortune are already hers, it’s hard to […]
(Don’t) Fear The Future – October 25, 2017
| Radio
On the show before Hallowe’en, we always like to play some seasonal music, which in our case consists mostly of songs with scary words in their titles or band names. But even on that flimsy basis, I was able to ascertain a theme to this year’s selection, which was, in a word, fear, and its permutations, bravery and paranoia. So before I go on, I want to say, boldly and with all good cheer, “Don’t be frightened, boys and girls!” The future may look sucky but we won’t know until we get there, so why waste time worrying now? That is our Hallowe’en message to you…
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
| Radio
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
| Radio
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
| Radio
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
| Radio
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
| Radio
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
| Radio
Another Life – June 7, 2017
| Radio
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
| Radio
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.
The Courtneys – Courtneys II
| Records
On their new CD Courtneys II, The Courtneys play to my weakness for punky girl power pop by people who aren’t afraid to be vulnerable. Hailing from the Vancouver area, they share a certain guitar-driven northern mindset with other frustrated rockers from the snow belt — think Replacements and Husker Du — but with the kind of shouty girl vocals you might associate with 90s bands like Blake Babies and Kenickie. Yes, the 90s are back and it’s about time. Courtney Love is only a touchstone here — The Courtneys are no tribute band.
So Wavey – May 24, 2017
| Radio
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.