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…
Pre-Election Encouragement – November 2, 2016
| Radio
Since the election was all anyone was thinking about anyway, we decided to provide some musical encouragement on Bubble Wrap this week. But we threw in someunrelated new stuff too, just to keep it interesting. First off, apologies in advance to purists who think Bruno Mars is too pop for an indie show. I agree. […]
Stronger Than Witchcraft – The Bubble Wrap 2016 Hallowe’en Show
| Radio
Doing a Hallowe’en show on the radio is always fun — it brings out your inner ham and suddenly you’re playing sound effects records of haunted mansions and wishing you had Monster Mash on your iPad… This year’s Bubble Wrap Halloween playlist consisted of two types of Halloween song. There are the songs that are […]
Indie Music In The Time Of Patrons
| Music
One hundred years ago, musicians didn’t have record labels — they had patrons. A patron was a single wealthy individual who made a hobby of supporting the artistic efforts of composers or other artists they liked who seemed promising to them. Such a one was the Princesse de Polignac, which sounds quite grand until you […]
All Over Town: October 19, 2016
| Radio
There are weeks when we’re less inspired by the Bubble Wrap playlist options than others, but we always try to put together a good mix of old and new, warped and accessible, or at least entertaining… This week, we dug back in the archives for forgotten gems like “Man in the House” by Greenskeeper and […]
Winterpills – Love Songs
| Records
Northampton’s Winterpills have been around for over a decade now and in that time, they’ve laid down an impressive body of work, stretching the boundaries of pop with their enigmatic lyrics and the harmonic convergence of their vocals. Their latest release, Love Stories, cements their growing reputation as masters of their craft, again stretching convention […]
Moonlight People: Playlist for October 12, 2016
| Radio
It’s hard to do a radio show in a vacuum, which is why this autumn’s media mayhem is great for sparking interesting musical choices. The interesting new artist of this week’s Bubble Wrap show was Chicago Farmer, aka Cody Dickoff (pronounced Dee-cough! — you can see why he calls himself Chicago Farmer.) The record, Midwest […]
Wild Nothings: Playlist for October 5, 2016
| Radio
This week on Bubble Wrap we focused on new music again with no particular theme in mind. There were a few chestnuts in there — accordion virtuoso Brent Buswell’s Pennsylvania Polka provided a rousing opening. In honor of hurricane Matthew, we tossed in Hurricane by Crooked Fingers, a perennial favorite of mine. We enjoyed a […]
From the Archives: Mountain Goats Interview
In March of 2003, shortly after Mountain Goats released “Tallahassee,” we had a chance to interview John Darnielle about music, Florida, cannibalism, and more. John Darnielle – Mountain Goats 2003-03-21 IndieDisco was lucky to catch up with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, who obligingly fit us in while on tour in Europe. John filled […]
The Way We Play – September 28, 2016
| Radio
No theme, no thought, just raw, unravelled rock and pop, also hip hop, spoken word, and a show tune, Bubble Wrap is past redemption, and we don’t care! Playlist below. September 28, 2016 The Way We Play Grandmaster Flash – The Adventures of GMF on the Wheels of Steel * Dirty Projectors with Bjork – […]
Summer of Black Lives Ending – September 21, 2016
There were more police killings of black men this week, including Keith Scott and Terence Crutcher, bringing a sense of frustration and grief that can’t go away because they don’t stop happening… This week’s Bubble Wrap show featured lots of funk, r&b, hip hop, and even some disco (imagine that), mostly addressing the black experience, […]
From the Archives: Interview with Bernie Worrell
In 2002, we emailed Bernie Worrell and asked if we could interview him. Somewhat to our surprise, he agreed, and we ended up talking with him for quite a while on the phone one spring day. Here’s that interview again. Bernie Worrell If you have listened to music sometime in the last 30 years, you’ve […]
Adventures in Radio – September 14, 2016
| Radio
Our discovery this week was The 1975. We’re sorry we didn’t bother to listen to them sooner. Despite occasionally sounding like a boy band, there’s an undercurrent of coolness to their ultra-pop. “Love Me,” the track we played, is killer dance pop. Hard not to like. Ditto for Angel Olsen whose My Woman album seems […]
The Pitfalls of an Unintegrated Set List – September 7, 2016
| Radio
On Bubble Wrap this week, we realized once again why sets of one person’s musical selections alternating with another person’s selections leads to chaos, both aurally and emotionally. Just when you’re ready to get out the bourbon, a comedy number comes on. Next we’re making you get your dancing shoes on, then we’re telling you […]
Twentieth Century Sound Survey – with Guest Host Bill LePage
| Radio
Composer, musician, and brother Bill LePage joined us on June 22 for a different sort of Bubble Wrap show, taking the concept of independent music far from the bounds to which the term is usually applied. Playing everything from Pogo to Ravel, Bill approached the sounds of the 20th century in a genre-agnostic way, mixing […]