Carl “A.C.” Newman has been called the brainchild of Canadian “supergroup” The New Pornographers. A.C. Newman put out a solo record called The Slow Wonder, and it’s full of catchy songs. The song we played, On The Table, which also appeared on an O.C. music compilation.
Apparently there are plenty of people in Calgary who have bad taste in music (and radio for that matter.) So much so that there was an actual petition and effort to convince Justin Timberlake to bring his mediocre brand of music to this city. Well we’ve decided to form a group to ban Timberlake from Calgary, and it looks like it’s been a smashing success, as Justin isn’t coming here on his current tour. Thanks for your support, but make sure you join the facebook group and sign the petition to make sure this monster of mediocrity never comes here.
We’re back to posting Josh’s Big Box O CDs. Eels is pretty much one guy - Mark Oliver Everett - and a cast of revolving musicians. Eels have pretty much flown under the mainstream radar save for the song we heard, Novocaine for the Soul. They’ll have a couple of tracks on the next Shrek movie due out later this year.
We featured The Postal Service on Josh’s Big Box O CDs today. You might recognize the song, as it has secured a place in the pop-culture conciousness. Such Great Heights was heard recently in an ad campaign for UPS - a competitor of the U.S. Postal Service who early on were kind of miffed by the bands’ name. Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie lends vocals to the band. Iron and Wine covered the song for the Garden State soundtrack, and their version has also made some commercial appearances. The album, Give Up, became the most successful one for Sub Pop since Nirvana’s Bleach.
Today on Josh’s Big Box O CDs, a song that had the distinction of charting twice in eight years. And no, it’s not The Proclaimers I’m Gonna Be (5000 miles.) This band put four albums out, and the song first appeared in 1987 on their debut Lovely. They were done by 1991, but in 1995 a new mix of the song appeared on the soundtrack for Dumb and Dumber. The band is The Primitives from Coventry, England, and the song - Crash. We played Crash-the ‘95 Mix.
Thought I’d pull out something warm and sticky out of Josh’s Big Box today. Dirty. I mean warm and fuzzy. Doh! Stop. It’s a crap-tacular day out; the perfect day for some summerish music that hearkens back to an older time. The Mark Kleiner Power Trio are out of Vancouver and Kleiner is the son of a preacher. The trio is no longer together, but the left behind a great power pop album called Love To Night. The song we played is Fell In Love With The Girl. The band and any sort of net presence seems to have pretty much disappeared.
Josh’s Big Box O CDs. It’s another band that had one mainstreamish hit that got quite a bit of play both on radio and MTV, then went back under the radar. It’s all about popularity. The band Nada Surf formed in 1992, and the song Popular came from their 1996 album high/low. The follow-up album met with resistance from their label, which led to it being self-released. After taking a four-year break, the band re-formed and have been producing steadily. The band’s fourth, and most recent album came out in 2005 and was produced by Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie. Nada Surf is back in studio recording a new album for release later this year.
Josh’s Big Box O CDs starts the week with something from Flaming Lips. Lately TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The O.C. and movies like Garden State have been responsible for boosting the visibility of many artists who were previously flying under the radar. The Shins, Snow Patrol, Death Cab For Cutie, Peter Bjorn and John are just a handful. The woman who picked the music for the two television shows recently signed a record deal to find and develop artists. Well, back in the 90s there was a little television show called Beverly Hills 90210, which featured a band playing in local hangout The Peach Pit. It was The Flaming Lips and their song She Don’t Use Jelly. It became a bit of a sensation for the band. They’ve been making consistently interesting music before and after, but this was their mainstream break. If you ever get the chance to see them live - do it. Lead guy Wayne Coyne is a master showman, and being in the audience is a surreal experience. If you can’t see them live, there’s a new live DVD coming soon. Filmed at a zoo in Oklahoma, it’s called UFOs at the Zoo.
OK, OK, I know. Today on Josh’s Big Box O CDs we featured a song from a one-and-a-half hit wonder. I’m not sure if the one we played today is the one or the half. It’s The Bloodhound Gang and the song The Bad Touch from the aptly titled album Hooray for Boobies. My favourite part of the song is the line “gettin’ horny now!” Good times.
Josh’s Big Box O CDs today featured a side project of New Order’s bassist Peter Hook…that sounds exactly like New Order. Monaco put out two albums, though only one is readily available - Music For Pleasure. Hook plays bass on the album, and David Potts (sounding uncannily like N.O. singer Bernard Sumner) was the singer. In the absence of a new New Order album, the similar-sounding Monaco sold over half a million albums. In 2007 there is talk of perhaps some new material and re-mastered and re-released older stuff. Hook and Potts got back on stage in March of this year playing 2 New Order, 2 Monaco, and 2 Joy Division songs. The song we played, and the biggest single from the band was What Do You Want From Me?
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