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.”

The World Churns – September 2, 2020

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The World - P Boel Martwa

Lots of great music from around the world to kick off the fall season including Postcards (dreampop from Beirut), Mexican Institute of Sound (mid tempo pop from Mexico City), Nearfield (electronica from Lisbon), and Seva Kavalenka (subway sounds from Minsk).  There was also a bit of American music such as post rocking Old Canes from Lawrence, Kansas and some awesome punk pop courtesy of Syntax Valley (“a happy nihilist”) from Cape May.  

Any Way You Look At It You Lose – August 12, 2020

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Woman in Hammock 1899 - American Lithographic Co. / Public domain

The heat wave continues inspiring a spate of “hot” songs on Bubble Wrap this week. Also, new songs by Chemtrails, the wryly cheery “Slag Heap Deity 1” (“we do our best we are unsuccessful!) as well as Fontaines D.C. with another slab of moody prose called “Televised Mind.” They remain a band to watch… Meanwhile, […]

Road Rise – August 5, 2020

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Ridge Route, CA circa 1920

As summer winds to a close and students across the country prepare with degrees of trepidation to return to school and work, writing and releasing new music doesn’t seem to have been a top priority. From the very few new tunes to choose from, we had a few faves this week on Bubble Wrap. Among […]

Summer Waves – July 29, 2020

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Postcard Dunedin Guy 1910 - National Library NZ on The Commons / No restrictions

Code Red! that’s where we’re at right now. It’s summer and pandemic or no, the heat is getting to us and we want a vacation! Alas, we cannot. So we staged a trip to the beach right here on Bubble Wrap, and despite the absence of actual sun, surf, or for that matter, beach, it almost felt like being there…. All it takes is the magic of recording technology and a lot of imagination. Of course we brought some tunes with us, because what’s the beach without a soundtrack?

And what a soundtrack it was. Highlights: revolutionary fervor from Bristol UK’s IDLES (“Grounds”), fervent gospel-backed joy from Kendall Morgan (“Rescue Me”), and more delightful hippy rock from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (“Honey”).

Stories In Song – July 22, 2020

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There is something about the dog days of summer, that time of lassitude, torpor, and ennui, that brings to mind that briefest of musical episodes, the story song.  We featured a bunch of them on Bubble Wrap this week, dated as hell but still entertaining.  “Ode to Billie Joe” was especially poignant, but there’s still […]

Create The World – July 15, 2020

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Eden Project - Suicasmo / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

What can we say? It’s July, it’s still hot, it’s humid and sticky and dare we say? a bit depressing. But that does not stop us, no! Bubble Wrap continues to cheer itself up, along with our small company of supportive fans, to whom we say Thank You! for hanging out with us every Wednesday night from 7 to 9.

This week, we explored the inner recesses of Bandcamp’s lesser known luminaries among the NYP set. We found many worthy and intriguing artists including Louie Zong (“Photosynaestesia”), U-Turn Collective (“The Last Dime”), Public Practice (“Compromise”) and Wingtip Sloat (“Sabaretro”). The beauty of this kind of music is that it’s both diverse and utterly original.

High and Dry – July 8, 2020

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Back Yard Kiddie Pool Fun

Midsummer is either behind us or just ahead, depending on your method of calculation.  Beached in greater Brattleboro, we at Bubble Wrap are doing what we do best — carrying on.  Fortunately, the music has been good lately.  High points of this week’s show are so numerous, it would be easier to list the low points (were there any?).  Perhaps but here are the top 5:

March On It – July 1, 2020

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Stained Glass Windows

Once a year we do a July 4 show on Bubble Wrap, despite how corny that is and the fact that we have grave misgivings about the direction our country is going.  But be that as it may, and it certainly is this year, we nevertheless trotted out the patriotic tunes from turn-of-last-century marches and […]