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Post by halo19 on Aug 12, 2010 13:41:35 GMT -4
As heard shuffled on my music library tonight: The Hives "A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors" Interesting first song on a playlist. Since that album's all over the place, I don't listen to it often, but it can be fun. Hot Anita Ward remake? I've had the album burned for over 5 years, but couldn't tell you most of the songs by name. Nice. Ha, looks like you have quite a bit of interludes in there.
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Post by a Nick O! on Aug 14, 2010 15:00:20 GMT -4
Kirk, I totally responded to you, but I apparently screwed myself over, yet again, by forgetting to "post reply" after previewing. FML
I'll attempt to re-state what I had said.
I haven't made it all the way through The Black and White Album yet. (Still haven't made it through Tyrannosaurus Hives, either, though I know you really like that one.)
"Ring My Bell" I'm not too familiar with, because it was, like, an iTunes bonus track for Hard Candy that I only downloaded earlier this year.
I still haven't made it all the way through Double Nickels on the Dime, even though I believe you uploaded it for me 3 years ago. At 43 songs, or whatever, it shuffles the stray song into my ears pretty often. (And I only know "Corona" by title, since I didn't realize until hearing the song a year or two ago that that's what the Jackass theme song was all along.)
As for "Gordon's Message," I acquired that 4 years ago, when a high school buddy ended up as the station manager for my hometown college radio station for a semester or two. I ripped tons of albums and tons of individual songs. During the "song" process, I'd take what I wanted along with any other tracks whose titles piqued my curiosity. Didn't realize it was just a 30-second answering machine message.
Anyway, I don't notice particularly interesting mixes very often (and I shuffled my mp3s the other night with lackluster results), but here's one from last night that turned out pretty cool. (Lots of little stuff I didn't bother to include along the way, though. In fact, I think the only reason this one kept my attention over time was because I've been keeping my ears perked since posting that first one.)
Wild at Heart dialogue: "What Do You Faggots Want?" (Nicolas Cage mouths off to a Latino street gang and swiftly gets his ass kicked. After a moment of clarity dream sequence I skipped over, he hilariously admits his wrongdoing and runs off to make amends with his girl.) Elvis Costello & the Attractions "Pump It Up" Black Light Burns "Iodine Sky" (I haven't listened to all of A Cruel Melody, but this is the 7-minute chilled out instrumental that closes the album, unlike any other track, that I didn't hear until a few months ago, and is absolutely stellar.) Cracker "Nothing to Believe In" My Chemical Romance "Kill All Your Friends" Family Guy dialogue: "The Name Griffin Will Be as Well Known as Kandinsky" (..."Who?" "Rembrandt?" "Who?" "Da Vinci?" "Who?" "Bazooka Joe?" "There ya go.") Brandy "Sirens" The Chemical Brothers "Song to the Siren" The White Stripes "Honey, We Can't Afford to Look This Cheap" Mustard Plug "The Freshmen" (Yes, hot ska cover of the Verve Pipe.) Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: "Bobby, Isn't Television Safe for the Good Kids?" The Dillinger Escape Plan "82588" Frank Sinatra "Makin' Whoopee" That '70s Show dialogue: "Alice Cooper? Meet Pat Boone" (Hyde demonstrates to Fez how to hide "the Devil's music" from his host-parents by hiding records in different sleeves.) Playaz Circle featuring Rick Ross "Everytime" Nine Inch Nails "Non-Entity" Chappelle's Show dialogue: "The Three Daves: Overall Philosophy in Life" Eamon "F*ck It (I Don't Want You Back)" (This song blows even with the swearing left in tact. Jesus Christ, how did this song even chart to begin with? It's so funny, too, that I'll always remember the pull-quote of an Eamon interview in Blender, while "F*ck It" was still flying high: "I ain't no f***in' one-hit wonder." LOL! It's like, "You do realize your hit is undeniably a novelty song and that you have no charisma or personality of your own that people are drawn to here, right?") A Nightmare on Elm Street score "Laying Out the Traps" The Cool Kids "Black Mags" DJ Drama & Lil Wayne "Nah This Ain't the Remix" Fabolous featuring Junior Reid "Gangsta Don't Play" The Smiths "Bigmouth Strikes Again" t.A.T.u. "Not Gonna Get Us" Smashing Pumpkins "That's the Way (My Love Is)" Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz featuring Ice Cube "Real Nigga Roll Call" AFI "Girl's Not Grey (Acoustic)" Hank Williams "Lovesick Blues" Thursday "Autobiography of a Nation" UGK feat. Slim Thug, Vicious & Middle Fingaz "Take tha Hood Back" Earth Crisis "Morality Dictates" Gavin DeGraw "Chariot"
When the mix went from UGK to Earth Crisis to Gavin DeGraw, I just had to laugh.
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Post by halo19 on Aug 16, 2010 12:54:29 GMT -4
^Yes, I uploaded DNotD on there in '07. Interesting "observations" that are musical: The other day, I was listening to the rock equivalent of Jack-FM, X106.7 here. I love their gold selection and what they play that's modern as well. One night, I heard "Scar Tissue" by RHCP. I think they went to a commercial, and by then I switched to the Active Rock, waiting for the "Alive" solo to end for another song (couldn't find anything else on the dial I wanted to hear). The next song that came up was "Around the World." It was interesting to nearly hear both songs back-to-back. Then I changed and tried to see if I'd maybe hear "Otherside." Whenever I walk outside, it is cool hearing what is blasting from peoples' cars. A month ago, I remember going to my bus stop and hearing someone playing "Phoenix Ignition" by Thrice, from the fairly underground Identity Crisis. (I was aware of them at the time, but because the first AP issue I ever bought had an ad for that album). Much more recently (maybe even a couple days ago), I heard the Vengaboys' dumb-yet-amusing "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!" from a car stereo.
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Post by Pipa on Aug 16, 2010 17:29:38 GMT -4
It was great hearing "Too Little Too Late" by Barenaked Ladies and "Keep A Lid On Things" by Crash Test Dummies on the radio for the first time in almost ten years. But did it really have to be on an oldies station? I'm 19, they shouldn't be playing songs I remember. Thanks for making me feel old. I can't imagine any "oldies" station playing those songs yet. I bet your living in Canada and both those bands being Canadian has something to do with it somehow. I can safely conclude that our oldies stations have completely gone off the deep end. The CanCon is killing them. How I long for the days when an oldies station would play two hours of The Beatles, and then kick off the following hour with The Beatles.
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Post by a Nick O! on Aug 17, 2010 4:30:37 GMT -4
Whenever I walk outside, it is cool hearing what is blasting from peoples' cars. A month ago, I remember going to my bus stop and hearing someone playing "Phoenix Ignition" by Thrice, from the fairly underground Identity Crisis. (I was aware of them at the time, but because the first AP issue I ever bought had an ad for that album). Much more recently (maybe even a couple days ago), I heard the Vengaboys' dumb-yet-amusing "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!" from a car stereo. That's good stuff. When I drive, I like to pretend there's at least one person on the sidewalks like you who will recognize what's coming out of my car. (Though I doubt I even play my music loud enough for most people to hear too well.)
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Post by mtm4319 on Sept 3, 2010 20:43:56 GMT -4
Onefrayedrepublic has to have the most appalling music taste on Pulse.
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Post by a Nick O! on Sept 4, 2010 4:10:44 GMT -4
Onefrayedrepublic has to have the most appalling music taste on Pulse. Why? What did that little twerp do now? (Is he the one that lists Streets of Gold as his "album of the year"?) What else?
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Post by mtm4319 on Sept 4, 2010 17:03:52 GMT -4
Onefrayedrepublic has to have the most appalling music taste on Pulse. Why? What did that little twerp do now? (Is he the one that lists Streets of Gold as his "album of the year"?) What else? His latest is that he hates "F uck You" and thinks it proves Pop radio has the maturity of a 14-year-old. Yeah I kind of thought it sounded old too. Im not really sure what to think, Not really digging the song at all. Even lyrics aside, I'm not digging it. lol I also feel like im the odd person out, where everyone is professing their love for the song, and i'm like DNW. Yep. This song is old, cliché, and utterly irrelevant on the radio of 2010. The only thing that makes it interesting, the incessant unneeded profanity, is neutered by the FCC. What this song does prove, however, is that a lot of pop listeners, while they may be older than 14, still have a mental age of 14. I don't like Bedrock, either. And I'm certainly no moral stickler (I've stanned way too much for 3OH!3 and K$ to get away with that ... plus, my favorite artist at the moment is Daddy Yankee, so no moralizing out of me.) The problem with this song is that it sounds dated and it is only going to be a novelty hit because it is pushing the envelope on offensive lyrics much like If You Seek Amy did. I gave If You Seek Amy a pass as it was catchy, but this isn't catchy, and thus I don't like it.
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Post by crash46 on Sept 4, 2010 17:56:31 GMT -4
People like that make me like songs more.
Like that gateofseattles kid talkin' about Blender and their review and rating of 2.4 (assumingly /10) for the Rise Against Siren Song record awhile ago. While that was admittedly an entertaining read, I'll be damned if the first temptation on my mind wasn't to sit down and play some f***ing Siren Song of the Counter Culture, when on a typical day, they're one of the last bands you'd like to listen to self-inflictedly.
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Post by crash46 on Sept 13, 2010 18:36:34 GMT -4
So for the first time in my life, I can admit I have an appreciation for Beyoncé's "Halo". Now, I hear inexplicable remakes of smash urban songs by faceless contemporary artists all the time ("Umbrella" and "Crazy" are the most common ones by far), so when I'm at the store and they start playing one of a presumably faceless female singer on "Halo", I could only think "[facepalm] Here we go again...". Except it was only the chorus, after which it proceeded to skip to the popular refrain of "Walking On Sunshine", and have that being the next "verse"!
Even though I'm surely picking on smallfry here, I just can't articulate just how much this song's existence enrages me. So she's just cherry-picking verses out of popular songs while intentionally avoiding all forms of substance for no conceivable reason other than they make a an easily accessibly hook together? It was easily one of the most painfully difficult listens I have ever encountered, just based upon the excessive accumulation of abhorrent ideas for song construction. It made me want to scream at babies.
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Post by Pipa on Sept 13, 2010 18:57:31 GMT -4
LOL!
I have the opposite opinion of "Halo". I think it's one of her most heartfelt songs, because Ryan Tedder knows how to add more soul to a song than the artist is actually capable of. That being said, I prefer its second-rate knockoff, "Already Gone".
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Post by Mega248 on Sept 13, 2010 19:09:24 GMT -4
So for the first time in my life, I can admit I have an appreciation for Beyoncé's "Halo". Now, I hear inexplicable remakes of smash urban songs by faceless contemporary artists all the time ("Umbrella" and "Crazy" are the most common ones by far), so when I'm at the store and they start playing one of a presumably faceless female singer on "Halo", I could only think "[facepalm] Here we go again...". Except it was only the chorus, after which it proceeded to skip to the popular refrain of "Walking On Sunshine", and have that being the next "verse"! Even though I'm surely picking on smallfry here, I just can't articulate just how much this song's existence enrages me. So she's just cherry-picking verses out of popular songs while intentionally avoiding all forms of substance for no conceivable reason other than they make a an easily accessibly hook together? It was easily one of the most painfully difficult listens I have ever encountered, just based upon the excessive accumulation of abhorrent ideas for song construction. It made me want to scream at babies. Heh, I wouldn't exactly call the people behind that song 'faceless'. In fact, I know you've heard at least one other song by them, as it was the inspiration for one of your recent Facebook statuses. Even though I like some of their songs, "Halo"/"Walking on Sunshine" really is awful. In fact, most of their random song mashups are.
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Post by blahblahblah on Sept 13, 2010 22:04:48 GMT -4
Okay, I guess I won't mention that said mashup is currently in my Top 30 most played songs of the year (so far) according to iTunes then. :X
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Post by radical347 on Sept 13, 2010 23:54:29 GMT -4
Speaking of, I still have the good fortune of having never heard "Halo."
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Post by crash46 on Sept 22, 2010 0:55:38 GMT -4
Unusual songs I've heard at the grocery store lately (and by "unusual", I mean songs played unexpectedly among standard fare contemporary shopping music):
Simple Plan - "I'd Do Anything" (I knew something was up when this song followed up Billy Joel.) Sick Puppies - "All The Same" 10 Years - "Wasteland" Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up To Dry" (I couldn't believe what I was hearing here.) Taking Back Sunday - "A Decade Under The Influence" (Completely forgotten all about this.) Poe - "Hey Pretty" (WTF? Where do they get these songs?) I7 - "Distracted" (Why??? Forget for a minute how much the song blows. Is TRL even on anymore? Is having a mobile phone independent from a land line significant enough to just call it a "cell" anymore? Is anyone in this song's target audience doing grocery shopping at 8am?) Evan & Jevon - "From My Head To My Heart" (I couldn't even remember without looking it up if this song was either these guys or B. B. M. A. K.) The Killers - "Smile Like You Mean It" All Saints - "I Know Where It's At" Jessica Riddle - "Symphony" (And what the hell was this? Seriously, who even remembers this besides people like us?)
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Post by a Nick O! on Sept 22, 2010 4:49:45 GMT -4
I7 - "Distracted" (Why??? Forget for a minute how much the song blows. Is TRL even on anymore? Is having a mobile phone independent from a land line significant enough to just call it a "cell" anymore? Is anyone in this song's target audience doing grocery shopping at 8am?)It's I5 (like it matters), and LOL at every single point you made. Evan & Jevon - "From My Head To My Heart" (I couldn't even remember without looking it up if this song was either these guys or B. B. M. A. K.)It's Evan & Jaron. (And BBMak.) Along with I5, are you butchering these names on purpose because their careers are so irrelevant now, or could you honestly not remember them and didn't care enough to look them up? I think BBMak's song was called "Out of My Heart (Into Your Head)," or something close to that. (Interestingly, though I glance at the Country chart each week, it was only earlier in the summer that I finally noticed a song in the Top 20 by "Jaron & (whatever)." Sure enough it was the same guy. Jessica Riddle - "Symphony" (And what the hell was this? Seriously, who even remembers this besides people like us?)The name sounds vaguely familiar, but even I don't think I'm familiar with that song.
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Post by crash46 on Sept 22, 2010 19:45:32 GMT -4
It's Evan & Jaron. (And BBMak.) Along with I5, are you butchering these names on purpose because their careers are so irrelevant now, or could you honestly not remember them and didn't care enough to look them up? I think BBMak's song was called "Out of My Heart (Into Your Head)," or something close to that. (Interestingly, though I glance at the Country chart each week, it was only earlier in the summer that I finally noticed a song in the Top 20 by "Jaron & (whatever)." Sure enough it was the same guy. Hah. My understanding on I5 was that the 'I' was short for 'international' and that the 5 was the number of continents represented in the act, in which case (technically) it could have been 7. Wouldn't that be some s***? Never knew there was a definitive spelling of BBMak. I think I'd adapted the variation used by my pop station when they posted its playlist on their website. But I guess when the name of the act is an acronym, you don't know for sure unless you know (ie: T.L.C., *NSYNC, M/A/R/R/S), and you can't use Mediabase/AllAccess to determine what's capitalized. Evan & Jaron, yeah, I think their irrelevancy knocked me off track with their name; I'd been calling him Jevon for quite some time now (in the handful of times they've even been brought up) and nobody ever told me I was off until now. Crazy that he's still out there trying, though. Jessica Riddle - "Symphony" (And what the hell was this? Seriously, who even remembers this besides people like us?)The name sounds vaguely familiar, but even I don't think I'm familiar with that song. I thought for sure "Symphony" hit the top 40, but after checking Hunt's archive, the song isn't there! Instead, her song "Even Angels Fall" is listed as peaking at #39, which I didn't even remember. I don't have the Shywaoub Compendium at the moment to find out how "Symphonies" did (gotta be between #41-50), but I remember that one because it tried to sample Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff". Sure enough, Jessica is still out there ten years later on YouTube posting videos (off a home digital camera) of her giving guitar lessons for songs like "Naturally" and "See You Again" (they're both all about the same power chords, aren't they?) Good for her, though.
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Post by a Nick O! on Sept 23, 2010 2:54:35 GMT -4
I thought for sure "Symphony" hit the top 40, but after checking Hunt's archive, the song isn't there! Instead, her song "Even Angels Fall" is listed as peaking at #39, which I didn't even remember. I don't have the Shywaoub Compendium at the moment to find out how "Symphonies" did (gotta be between #41-50), but I remember that one because it tried to sample Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff". Shywaoub shows it peaking at #60, actually.
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Post by mtm4319 on Oct 18, 2010 0:28:34 GMT -4
Sweet-ass!
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Post by crash46 on Oct 18, 2010 2:28:43 GMT -4
Sweet-ass! Yep...pretty tight! Five years, and we're still here!
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Post by radical347 on Oct 18, 2010 16:15:23 GMT -4
Poe - "Hey Pretty" (WTF? Where do they get these songs?)This would be my reaction too if I heard this at a grocery store. Ha. I'm actually cool with this song as I heard it and then it just as soon disappeared, before I started caring too much. It is ridiculous for all the wrong reasons, though. I thought 5 was the # of countries they're from, although if it was continents it would obviously make it 5 countries as well unless two of them were from the border of Russia or whatever, which they weren't. I know 3 of them are from the US, Japan, Israel and I think the other two were from Great Britain and Australia. So regardless of whether Israel counts as Europe or Asia, that's 4, unless you want to count the Middle East as North Africa. Although, mainland Eurasia is a separate landmass from the UK or Japan. Anyway, I just tried wikipediaing it and found out they don't have a wiki page - LOL. Ugh. I had forgotten that this (and she) existed, thanks for reminding me...not. "Even Angels Fall" was made to be forgettable, but this one otoh is a geniune bonafide disaster if one ever existed. A new artist singing over "Mr. Big Stuff" about how she wishes she had a sexy stomach and hears symphonies. No thanks. And not to mention at the exact same time Everclear was sampling it too.
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Post by Pipa on Oct 18, 2010 21:27:47 GMT -4
Sweet-ass! 5 years....and still as many new signups as ever!
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Post by a Nick O! on Nov 2, 2010 1:11:39 GMT -4
Making a new report card for demonstrative purposes is too tedious at this point, but with the exception of the shift back toward actual "Alternative" music on the nationwide chart (which to my endless chagrin, my local station plays very little of), is it just me, or has mainstream music really taken a nosedive in general quality over the past few months?
It could be just me, for three reasons:
1) The girl I'm involved with has little tolerance for mainstream music, which has inevitably rubbed off on me. Not that I care much for most of the indie stuff she plays in her car (a lot of which I've never even heard of! Me!), but I do find myself tolerating Top 40 music and the radio rock on my Alternative station less. But she might not necessarily deserve all the credit (blame?). Maybe just as much, if not more, falls on the fact that...
2) My second job (often at odds with the other one, as far as a healthy sleep schedule goes) leaves me precious little to no time to listen to my favorite DJ's midday shift on my Alternative station or AT40 on Sundays (unless I buy myself an mp3 player with an FM tuner and not rely exclusively on the girl's old iPod, which, and I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, may as well be mine at this point.) So I'm hardly hearing any current or new music lately at all. But even still, most of the stuff I do hear I've been hearing for awhile, and it all just seems mediocre, generally.
3) Just the other night, actually, I was reading part 2 of 3 in Alternative Press's oral history that they've been running this year and while I've always been peeved by their embarrassment of having covered new-metal a decade ago for lack of anything else relevant happening in alternative rock music at the time, I see where they're coming from now. Once Korn blew up into superstars, the atmosphere of their scene seemed to be more about obtaining and perpetuating a "rock star" lifestyle and less about the more artistic and honest expression their music originated in.
Maybe all of this is just a natural coincidence with me pushing 30, but this past month I've suddenly found myself giving much more importance to honest artistic expression in new music. I'm not interested, however, in compromising my love for melody and compelling sounds/instrumentation that haven't been done to death.
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Post by halo19 on Nov 9, 2010 5:41:53 GMT -4
So glad to have gotten a lap top last night (or two nights if you are literal).
Got these downloads for free on Amazon: Disco Ensemble - "Back on the MF Street" (I heard another song by them on the radio (I think they're from like Sweden or something?), was aware of the name once I googled lyrics. They have an album that's on their download page, and this song was free. Despite their name, they're more post-hardcore/punk-ish than some dance-punk indie artist.) Corin Tucker Band - "Riley" [albeit, before later finding a used copy of the album!] Spoon - "Got Nuffin'" (Though I might check out the album.) The Thermals - "I Don't Believe You"
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Post by crash46 on Nov 12, 2010 18:42:15 GMT -4
Making a new report card for demonstrative purposes is too tedious at this point, but with the exception of the shift back toward actual "Alternative" music on the nationwide chart (which to my endless chagrin, my local station plays very little of), is it just me, or has mainstream music really taken a nosedive in general quality over the past few months? I've had a little time to think about this, and it just seems to me that mainstream music is now more focused on demographics than it has ever been before. And it might just be me here, or maybe just my advanced age, but it is seriously making me feel more than ever before like there's a certain type of music that I'm supposed to be listening to. I first thought about this during a failed attempt at making the report card and I was playing all the pop songs first, and while there wasn't a whole lot that I didn't like, there wasn't anything that I could really stand up for, either. It does seem like there has been a decrease in quality of popular music lately (I wouldn't say 'nosedive', though). I guess that was inevitable, because every time there is a change in trends, it isn't long before all the Mr. Me Too's show up and water those trends down. It cracks me up when those Mr. Me Too's already have previous Mr. Me Too experience from prior waves of music trends (Yes I'm looking at you, Enrique, and Jesse...). On the other hand, I have been listening to my modern rock station lately more than I have in over five years. Waking up to it every morning, and in the shower, and tuning into the Out of Order show every Saturday morning. They still play way too much Pearl Jam, but it feels like they've gotten rid of enough of what I'm not interested in for me to be able to enjoy it again.
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Post by radical347 on Nov 21, 2010 16:58:16 GMT -4
Channel 92.3 is about to bite the dust. :-\ KSJO was just sold to the Principle Broadcasting Network, which operates (exclusively) foreign-language stations. We're expecting them to flip it to Spanish on 12/1. Channel used to be a great alternative station. Their playlist over the past few years included the likes of Glasvegas, Miike Snow, White Lies, Big Pink, Against Me!, We Are Scientists, Passion Pit, Temper Trap ( before that song even hit the chart...just like most other songs they added), Street Sweeper Social Club, and more. And they didn't just stop at one song; we didn't just get "Feel Good Drag" but "Breaking"; not just "Zero" but "Heads Will Roll"; they didn't stop at "Sometime Around Midnight" but we also got "Wishing Well" and "Does This Mean You're Moving On?," we got both "Animal" and "Burial" from Miike Snow, and "To Lose My Life," "Death," and "Farewell to the Fairground" from White Lies. Then all of "'59 Sound," "Old White Lincoln," "Great Expectations," "American Slang" and "Boxer." And AFI's remake of "Ziggy Stardust"! They hosted concerts for up and coming bands, and it didn't matter how obscure they were, they got played in regular rotation anyway (i.e. A Place to Bury Strangers, Big Pink.) Their recurrents were just as good. We got all three White Lies songs up until a few months ago, when they played bands like Coldplay it was their lesser-known hits (i.e. "Shiver," "Violet Hill") They threw in totally random songs like "Steal My Sunshine" by Len or "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls. And their golds were equally gold; we also got many classic bands' "other" songs; e.g. for Echo & the Bunnymen there was "Lips Like Sugar" but also "Bring on the Dancing Horses"; They didn't only play "Rebel Yell" or Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol, but also "Flesh For Fantasy" and we didn't just get "Friday I'm In Love"/"Love Song"/"Just Like Heaven" BUT "Fascination Street," "Purple Haze" (!!!) and many other cuts from the Cure. In 2009 they moved the frequency from 104.9 to 92.3, which was supposedly a better signal, although not by much. They're both San Jose transmitters, but 92.3 can be heard in San Francisco *slightly* better, although it's still fuzzy. We also got word they'd have to sell; It's listed as in the San Jose market, but by definition it's also in the San Francisco market. (It's a market within a market.) ClearChannel had owned the maximum number of stations in San Francisco but got away with owning three in San Jose because they were "grandfathered" in before the cap took place; now that they'd gone private, they had to get rid of three. But Channel kept on, good as ever. But halfway through 2010, something changed. The new MGMT song (yes, from the album that nobody ever plays) disappeared...and was replaced by "Kids" and "Time to Pretend." We started hearing songs we've never heard on that station like "It's Been Awhile" and "Outside." They stopped practicing and started preaching. We got sweepers telling us how much this station is "something out of the ordinary" and "your music alternative," while songs by RedHotStoneTemplePearlFooSoundJamGardenAgainsttheSublimeNirvanaMachineFighterPilots went from about 2-3x per hour to most of the hour and you heard most of those bands almost every hour. They still sponsored concerts by obscure bands...but never played them. Most everything else...gone. Even the 80s tracks disappeared and were replaced by...U2's Greatest Hits, every hour. But they did hang onto the Goo Goo Dolls, Lifehouse, and the Fray. Funny thing is...these changes actually sent the ratings into the toilet! ;D That's because it was in a good position for what it was worth; San Jose alternative listeners didn't know any better that alternative stations aren't really supposed to be alternative, and die-hard San Francisco radio fans would happily tune into a fuzzy signal (as I did, when I lived up there) to hear what you can't hear on Live 105. Over the past few months, they've been picking up the pieces, but the damage had mostly been cemented by the time "Boxer," the last song of the old Channel which had survived (albeit with barely a few spins per week) post-sellout, had finally been laid to rest. Now you might hear "Bizarre Love Triangle" or "Enjoy the Silence" in addition to U2. They don't know how to add new songs worth $hit. They used to be the frontrunners to everything; now Live 105's beaten them to Mumford & the Black Keys, and even the latest song by San Jose's own Limousines. (Which, up until now, Channel had been a HUGE supporter of.) When they add something unusual it's more of a WTF than anything else now; it's just too little, too late. For example: they added "Cinnamon" when it was on its way out and "Giving Up the Gun" about 15 weeks after it got purged. They did something right last week, for the first time post-sellout. They added "Come Back Home" by Two Door Cinema Club & "Not in Love" by Crystal Castles featuring Robert Smith. Oh well. A nice gesture, but I can listen to those both on my iPod or iTunes and not have to endure four hours of "Otherside" or "Interstate Love Song" or "Monkey Wrench" or "About a Girl." Maybe that was their last hurrah. Or maybe they still have something up their sleeves in the coming 10 days. They might as well; it's not like they've got anything to lose. I guess considering what they've turned into I'm not too sad they're going away, but I'm bummed that they're going out like this.
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Post by Pipa on Nov 21, 2010 23:07:57 GMT -4
That's a sad read. But Alternative stations that actually know what Alternative music is are a dying breed, I'm afraid.
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Post by crash46 on Nov 22, 2010 12:24:36 GMT -4
Yeah, looks like the old "Glad they got what they deserved, but in the end, we all still lose anyway so it doesn't really feel better" story there. That really sucks to watch everything deteriorate right before your eyes.
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Post by a Nick O! on Nov 23, 2010 1:57:46 GMT -4
So dead on about the usurping "Alternative" gold bands (RHCP, STP, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, RATM, Sublime, Nirvana) and songs ("It's Been Awhile," "Outside," "Otherside," "Interstate Love Song," "Monkey Wrench," "About a Girl") that it's eerie. That's the lion's share of my active-leaning Alternative station's playlist filler right there.
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Post by a Nick O! on Dec 6, 2010 2:40:16 GMT -4
Very festive!
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