Monday, June 26, 2006

Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes, Part Four

What I played on Saturday, June 24, 2006

Hour One

You're No Good - Dennis Brown
Neva New - Kardinal Offishall
Try Love - Coco Tea & Freddie MacGregor
Soul Shakedown Party - By Divine Right
Happy Hour - Jazze Pha & Cee-Lo
Crucial - K-os
It's A Pity - Tonya Stephens
Ooh Child/Redemption Song - Molly Johnson
Old School - Danger Doom feat. Talib Kweli
You Are Never Too Old - Jimmy Cliff
Everybody Works - Peter Elkas
Mr. Dino Koosh Rock - Lee "Scratch" Perry
Freedom - Jurassic 5
There For You - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley

Hour Two

Bang Bang - Kardinal Offishall
B-Boys - Pocket Dwellers
Everyday (Rudebwoy) - Kardinal Offishall
Or Way - Capleton
The Boogie Monster - Gnarls Barkley
Gorilla - Lupe Fiasco
Old Skool Love - Divine Brown
Come On Home Baby Lee - Eddie Hinton
Hot Stepper - Gregory Isaacs
One Shot - Rascalz
She's Hot - T.O.K.
5x Love - Jully Black
2 Cent - Kobayashi
Who Stole the Show - Brassy
Ecoutez Bien - Eux Autres

And that concludes my Saturday afternoons in June. O.G. the Godfather will be back behind the mic next Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. on 91.3 FM CJTR, Regina's Community Radio.
As for me?
Beginning Thursday, July 6, I'm taking over Any Way the Wind Blows for two months while Dave Kuzenko takes a much-deserved rest over the summer.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

What I Played, Saturday, June 17, 2006

Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes #3 Hour 1

Jiin Ma Jiin Ma - Orchestra Baobab
Murder On the Midnight Wire - Bedouin Soundclash
Where It's At - Beck
About A Girl - Cibo Matto
Elementary Particles - Hylozoists
Pepita - Calexico
Black History Month - Death From Above 1979
Human Shield - Anti Pop Consortium
Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Living in a Danger Zone - Tricky Woo
Jeepster - T.Rex
Fake Headlines - New Pornographers
Everybody Knows this is Nowhere - Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs

Hour Two
Million Dollars - Joel Plaskett Emergency
Part of the Queue - Oasis
Darling, The Wolves - Parkas
Rodeo Town - the Kills
Salut Les Copains - Eux Autres
Laissez-Faire System - Novillero
Steady, As She Goes - Raconteurs
Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
Try A Little Longer - Falconhawk
Brother Down - Sam Roberts
Glorious - A. Graham & the Moment Band
Bankrobber - Greg MacPherson
Shakey Dog - Ghostface Killah
Feel Alright - Kardinal Offishall
Who's Who - Weird War

In other news, during July and August, Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes will transmogrify into Any Way The Spo-Dee O'Dee Blows, and be heard Thursday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. on 91.3 FM CJTR

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Man Cannot Live On 70s Rock Alone

Seriously. It's in the bible. Look it up.

I don't know how to define my relationship with Regina. Love/hate? Hate/hate? Love/hate/hate/hate/love/hate? CONFLICTED at best.
Last Saturday, during Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes, while I was playing that awesome and gnarly live cover of Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" by the Magic Numbers, some dude called in and told me that I was playing "weird music". Um, okay. He wanted to know if I was going to play any 70s rock.
This would be where I might totally make fun of 70s rock, but I'm not going to. I like a lot of 70s rock. I like a lot of current rock that SOUNDS like 70s rock (possibly even more than I like ACTUAL 70s rock). And, throughout my 4.5-year broadcasting career I have played a lot of 70s and 70s-sounding rock. So there. I'm not a hater.
But what is going through a dude's mind when he calls a radio station to complain that there's not enough 70s rock on the Regina airwaves? Last I checked, the major difference between Regina's two or three commercial rock stations is that one of them plays "Freebird" three times a day, and the others only play it twice.

Lucky for Caller #9, the Rolling Stones are coming to town. Maybe. I don't care, really. I don't think I could justify shelling out the kind of bux it would take to put my butt in their vicinity, and let's be realistic, I won't be covering it. But for dudes everywhere, it will be a very special day.

What sorta bothers me about it is the timing. The Stones show is supposed to be taking place over the Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm 85% sure that's right before the civic election. Hizzoner has already stepped up his photo-ops (photo-ops = campaign platform in this town), and nobody else has even entered the mayoral contest yet. So we can expect a flurry of Stones-y photo-ops from Fiacco in the months to come. Perhaps even an "I (Stones Tongue) Regina" t-shirt. Basically, it'll end up being an implicit endorsement of Fiacco by Mick Jagger.

So instead of an actual debate over the merits of city services and the future of Regina as a city vs. Regina as a strip mall, expect little more than fist-pumping Fiacco to the tune of "Start Me Up" or possibly "Angie".

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes, Part Two

What I played on Saturday, June 10, 2006:

Hour One
"The Art of Noise" - Cee-Lo
"Jeb Rand" - Bedouin Soundclash
"Same Ol' Thang" - Melanie Durrant
"Twist & Shout" - David Lindley
"And Your Bird Can Sing" - Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs
"Putting It Off" - Bottleneck
"Are You Ready?" - Delta 72
"Sunflight" - Soft Canyon
"My White Bicycle" - Tomorrow
"Apache Energy Plan" - Howling Hex
"Dance 4" - Kiss Me Deadly
"Crazy In Love" - Magic Numbers
"So Cynical" - Immaculate Machine
"Ecoutez Bien" - Eux Autres

Hour Two
"Return of the Mack" - Mark Morrison
"One Time" - Moka Only
"Move!" - Damien Jr. Gong Marley
"Kill the Dance" - Kardinal Offishall
"U Shook Me (All Night Long)" - Divine Brown
"Keep The One You Got" - Joe Tex
"An Orange Grove in California" - Steve Dawson
"Anabis" - Chucho Valdez
"Man Who Almost Was" - Hylozoists
"Jumbo" - Zoobombs
"Cutting Razor" - Junior Byles & the Versatiles
"Bad Reputation" - Joan Jett

Monday, June 05, 2006

I've Been Putting It Off/I'd rather be golfing

"Twenty-nine, all I've learned
is how to fall when the tables turn"

When did my life turn into Bottleneck's Late Nights, Early Mornings album? I love that album, but if I was going to pick an album for my life to mirror, I'd rather it be, I dunno, Prince's Batman soundtrack or the Andrew Vincent & the Pirates' I Love the Modern Way or something. Something a little more PARTY-FRIENDLY, something a little more, I don't know--something a little less LIKE MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.
SIGH.
I hate June. I used to love June, because, y'know, SUMMER, Mayfair Pool all day everyday, long evenings on my bike going deeper and longer into the city and the riverbank. Now, it's just another month that goes by too fast. Though, last June, there was the High Dials show, followed by Batman Begins like the very next night. So that was cool. But in general, June is just a reminder that I've let another May slip by.
So, I was walking home the other night, and I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said, "I'd rather be golfing." And that got me thinking.
That's kind of a shitty bumper sticker to have, because, y'know, what if, like, you're at the hospital watching your child be born (I should maybe note here that I imagine only a man would have a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be golfing"--not that women don't love the golf, but y'know, ahhhh, men: we're shitty), and like, here's your child being born, meanwhile, your car is telling the whole world that you'd rather be golfing. Poor kid.
Or what about when you ARE in fact golfing?
As I walked past this car, which was parked near the YMCA on 13th Ave, I thought about what I would do in the unlikely situation that I would find myself at a golf course parking lot, surrounded by cars bearing such a bumper sticker. I imagined myself losing my branez, screaming at the top of my lungs, "You ARE golfing, you whiny brat!"

Sunday, June 04, 2006

What I Played, June 3, 2006

I know you're all dying to find out what I played Saturday on the first installment of "Spo-Dee O'Dee Vibes" on 91.3 FM, CJTR. So, for those of you who missed out, or those of you who didn't miss out, but really want to know exactly what it was you heard, VOILA.

Hour One:
"Salam" - Gigi - Some groovy Ethiopian triphoppy stuff, produced by Bill Laswell
"Sweat of Your Brow" - Jully Black - Jully Black is a great singer with a fun personality, plus, this song has a call back to "I Like To Move It, Move It"
"Sunshine & Grease" - Royal Trux - Nearly reggae from the Trux
"Keep It To Yourself" - the Flashing Lights - I don't think the FLs are around anymore, I think they've gone back to being the Superfriendz, and the frontguy stars as Guy Terrifico in the movie of the same name, which just came out on DVD, but I haven't seen it yet.
"Soul-Limbo" - Booker T & the MGs - I heard this song playing in antique shop a few months ago, and I wanted to buy everything in the store. But I didn't.
"No More" - Julie Doiron - Discofolk, YEAH!
"Burning Down the House" - Tiga - The kids like it.
"Midnight Ambulances" - Kobayashi - see previous blog entry
"Archie Wah Wah" - Desmond Dekker - RIP
"Dirty Harry" - Gorillaz - ALL WE DO IS DANCE!
"Fifty Minute Hour" - Hylozoists - see previous blog entry
"The Food (Live)" - Common - I like the rough mix on this, "Live" from the Dave Chappelle show

Hour Two:
"The Master Has Come Back" - Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley - I'll probably play some Jr. Gong every week this month. That okay with you?
"Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley - The last time I'll play this song, promise.
"The Anthem" - k-os - the sickest, squelchiest Canadian hip hop track. "Getting mad props, like on a movie set"
"No Sense" - Paper Moon - Here's where the show took a distinctly POP detour. This song is sort of hopeful and not hopeful at the same time.
"Nowhere With You" - Joel Plaskett Emergency - OH JOEL, MAKE A NEW RECORD SOON, THANKS.
"The Kids Are All Right" - Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Maybe the LEAST obvious of all the songs on that album, and also one of the best.
"Sweet Amputations" - Parkas - God, I love the Parkas. Did you see what I did there, from Matthew Sweet to "Sweet Amputations"? I'm dead clever, amn't I?
"Sure Is Good" - Joe Tex - If you'd asked me two weeks ago to choose between Joe Tex and Don Covay, it woulda been Don Covay, no prob. This week, it's a more interesting question to ponder.
"Mess of Love" - Bocephus King - "How like a prison is this town" I've basically held on to this CD for as long as I have (5 yrs?) for that line, and I play it every now and then to remind myself of something.
"Better Days Are Coming" - Jimmy Cliff - You've gotta follow up pessism with hope or else y're SUNK.
"Wicked Bad" - Dub Narcotic Sound System - I used to L-U-V Dub Narcotic, but then again, I used L-U-V mayonnaise.
"Jonathan Livington Seagull" - the Neins Circa - This is one of my favourite songs off a really, really good album by a really interesting songwriter. TRUE STORY: Cam Dilworth, the singer/songwriter from the Neins Circa, sounds like he's six-foot-three on the album, but in REALITY he's shorter than me. That has no bearing on his worth as a musician or a human being, but just, y'know, something I noticed.
"Yes" - Morphine - YES

And that was the show. Tune in next week to find out what else I'm gonna play. 2 p.m. MDT on 91.3 FM CJTR