The Beat Frequency - May 7, 2010

Last show! Both sad and happy.  We started the show with the playlist from my first ever show at UMD.  Songs 1-15 were from my beginning times on WMUC.  Fond stuff.  "Beat Control" by Tilly and the Wall was the first song I ever played on the radio.

I had also had an outstandingly bad week the week before this show, and to commemorate it with song, the last half of the show was really depressing.

Then we ended it on "Reelin' in the Years," a song I had been trying to get a copy of for ages. 

1	Tilly and the Wall	Beat Control
2	Tally Hall	Greener
3	Weezer	Buddy Holly
4	Foo Fighters	Everlong
5	Arcade Fire	Keep The Car Running
6	The Postal Service	Such Great Heights
7	Mates of State	The Re-arranger
8	The Dandy Warhols	Scientist
9	Coldplay	Amsterdam
10	Alphabeat	10,000 Nights
11	Arctic Monkeys	Fluorescent Adolescent
12	Spoon	They Never Got You
13	Bishop Allen	Rain
14	Devo	Whip It
15	Muse	Starlight
16	The Proclaimers	I'm On My Way
17	Noah and the Whale	5 Years Time
18	Rufus Wainwright	Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)
19	The Magnetic Fields	Epitaph For My Heart
20	Radiohead	Let Down
21	Elliott Smith	Waltz #2 (XO)
22	Bob Dylan	Idiot Wind
23	Donovan	Catch The Wind
24	Cake	Friend is a Four Letter Word
25	Phoenix	If I Ever Feel Better
26	Flight of the Conchords	I'm Not Crying
27	David Bowie	Changes
28	Regina Spektor	On The Radio
29	Steely Dan	Reelin' in the Years

The Beat Frequency - April 30, 2010

This was the day of the Art Attack concert of Ben Folds and Weezer at the University of Maryland.  We sat really far away.   Lots of Ben Folds and Weezer on the show today.

This was also the day where Tevis and I sang "Topologize" (math version of "Apologize" by OneRepublic) on the radio.  Good day.

"Add It Up" was one of my favorite songs of this time of year.  I edited it and played it at the end.  We closed with the theme song to "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" in honor of the "It's Always Sunny" party I was throwing May 1st.  Oh college.

1	The Presets	My People
2	Mates of State	Now
3	Lady Sovereign	Pretty Vacant
4	Wye Oak	I Hope You Die
5	You Say Party! We Say Die!	Laura Palmer's Prom
6	The New Pornographers	Crash Years
7	The Like	Waves That Never Break
8	The Replacements	Alex Chilton
9	Social Distortion	I Was Wrong
10	Annuals	Loxtep
11	The Rolling Stones	Ruby Tuesday
12	Dan Deacon	Snookered
13	UMD Math Club	"Topologize"
14	Those Dancing Days	Space Hero Suits
15	The Silent Years	Madame Shocking
16	Class Actress	Adolescent Heart
17	Regina Spektor	No Surprises (Radiohead cover)
18	Little Beirut	Sniper's Lament
19	The Sound of Arrows	M.A.G.I.C.
20	Broken Social Scene	World Sick
21	Ben Folds	Annie Waits
22	Ben Folds Five	Kate
23	Ben Folds	In Between Days (The Cure cover)
24	Weezer	Buddy Holly
25	Weezer	Island In The Sun
26	Weezer	El Scorcho
27	Weezer	(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
28	Violent Femmes	Add It Up
29	Heinz Kiessling	Temptation Sensation

The Beat Frequency - April 23, 2010

This week: the original of "Laura" (last week had the cover)
"Fascination" by La Roux ("old fascination is feeding my frustration" were sweet lyrics)

Best thing ever "Worst Song Medley" by Garfunkel and Oates, ukulele version of the following put together in the best way possible:
1. "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis
2. "I Don't Want To Wait "by Paula Cole
3. "Too Close" by Next
4. "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer
5. "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd
6. "Barbie Girl" by Aqua
7. "Breakfast At Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something
8. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson
9. "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Rednex
10. "Rush, Rush" by Paula Abdul
11. "I'll Be Missing You" by Diddy
12. "Drops of Jupiter" by Train (last line)

Final Fantasy's cover of "Peach, Plum, Pear" by Joanna Newsom, a suggestion from my friend Carrie.

I played a bunch of songs requested from my friend Greg, including the Bob Dylan, Usher, and Prince songs below.

"Warrior" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs may or may not have been requested by my sister, but I will associate that song with her forever.

Playlist:

1	Local Natives	Wild Eyes
2	Ben Folds Five	Battle of Who Could Care Less
3	Girls	Laura
4	La Roux	Fascination
5	Garfunkel and Oates	Worst Song Medley
6	Coldplay	Shiver
7	Spiderbait	Black Betty
8	Final Fantasy	Peach, Plum, Pear
9	Crystal Castles	Baptism
10	Teddybears	Cobrastyle
11	Reverend and the Makers	Heavyweight Champion of the World
12	Architecture in Helsinki	Maybe You Can Owe Me
13	Bob Dylan	I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)
14	Usher	My Way
15	Prince	Purple Rain
16	Shiloh	Operator (Girl Like Me)
17	Modest Mouse	Lives
18	Nick Drake	At The Chime Of A City Clock
19	Wild Beasts	Hooting and Howling
20	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Warrior
21	Depeche Mode	Personal Jesus
22	Joanna Newsom	On A Good Day
23	White Rabbits	While We Go Dancing

The Beat Frequency - April 16, 2010

I'm really bad at updating blogs.  It's kind of thing of mine to have a blog, write all the posts except the last few and just stop.  My new goal is to actually finish this one.

The night before this show I went out to a birthday party for Jenn from Wye Oak at the Golden West Cafe in Baltimore.  It was pretty cool.  Friend of the band Mickey Free performed along with a few other acts for the birthday girl.  The party was pretty fun, there was a giant moose head, beer, a guy with a tattoo of Talking Heads lyrics ("There's a city in my mind" if you were wondering), and decently good times.  I played the Mickey Free remix of "That I Do" by Wye Oak in honor of the event.

Darwin Deez's "Radar Detector" was a solid part of my playlist this time of year.  It's cute and bouncy. 

The Dirty Projectors' "Two Doves" was played with Nico's "These Days" because I had recently found out "Two Doves" contained a few lyrical references to "These Days", a classic Jackson Browne song I've known since I was very little.  (He wrote that song when he was in high school.  Deep stuff.  My mom's a big Jackson Browne fan.  We named our dog after him.)

Mates of State's cover of Girls' "Laura" was a really good one during this time of year too.  I like the cover way better.

Here's the entirety of the playlist.

1	Boston	More Than A Feeling
2	Toto	Africa
3	The National	Start A War
4	Wye Oak	That I Do (Mickey Free Remix)
5	Local Natives	Sun Hands
6	The Clash	Train In Vain
7	Bob Dylan	You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
8	Devo	Girl U Want
9	Wilco	Muzzle of Bees
10	Weezer	El Scorcho
11	Talking Heads	Road to Nowhere
12	Elliott Smith	Memory Lane
13	Magnetic Fields	I'll Dream Alone
14	Owen Pallett	Lewis Takes Action
15	Barenaked Ladies	I'll Be That Girl
16	Surfer Blood	Swim
17	Tokyo Police Club	Breakneck Speed
18	The Wombats	Here Comes The Anxiety
19	The Magic Number	The Pulse
20	Radiohead	No Surprises
21	The Blow	True Affection
22	Darwin Deez	Radar Detector
23	The National	Afraid of Everyone
24	Jens Lekman	If You Ever Need A Stranger
25	Dirty Projectors	Two Doves
26	Nico	These Days
27	Eric Clapton	Got You On My Mind
28	Prince	I Would Die 4 U
29	Mumford & Sons	Cousins (Vampire Weekend cover)
30	Mates of State	Laura (Girls cover)

The Beat Frequency - April 9, 2010

Hello hello! Welcome to my musical musings.

The Blow is awesome, and I think I heard this song "Hey Boy" on my friends and radio neighbors' show Victory Sweater a few month back. Good stuff.

I'm From Barcelona's "Treehouse" is adorable. Nada Surf covering "If You Leave" and You Say Party! We Say Die! covering R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming," which is one of my favorite R.E.M. tunes.

"There Goes My Love" was probably an iPod commercial song and "Bye Bye Bye" was on Chuck. I love television and music. Pavement's "Gold Soundz" was for my sister, who loves that song and is always surprised when I like it too.

Oh snap, Janis Joplin. When I was way little (it came out when I was 6), I used to love the Faith Hill version of this song. Now that I'm older and know the Janis Joplin version, I like it a lot. I didn't actually know that Janis Joplin's version was a cover as well. Thanks Wikipedia.

The next three were all requests from my friend Lilly. My favorite of these tracks was Ha Ha Tonka's "Close Every Valve To Your Bleeding Heart" which is fantastic for times when you are down. It has incredible lyrics too. Here are some of my favorites:

Thick skinned, hard headed, better off
you're closing every valve to your bleeding heart
Does it hurt too much?
Are you just fed up?
Or is it something else entirely?

When I ask you why
you reply the death of hope hit you hard too

Only Dostoevsky could kill off a pair like us.

Holy cow. Just listen to the song.

Kate Nash's "Do Wah Doo" uses the word "bitch" in such an adorable way.

Next a mini science themed set of We Are Scientists, Dandy Warhols, and Guided by Voices.

I had the opportunity to attend the Florence + The Machine concert with The Temper Trap the Tuesday before this show. Florence Welch, the lead singer with Florence + The Machine, drunkenly sang the Etta James song "Something's Got A Hold On Me" to her now manager in a bathroom. I love Etta James, so that was a cool piece of trivia. Then we played "I'm Not Calling You A Liar" a song that appears to be about taking someone for who they are without considering their baggage or their past.

1		The Blow	Hey Boy
2		I'm From Barcelona	Treehouse
3		Nada Surf	If You Leave (OMD cover)
4		You Say Party! We Say Die!	Nightswimming (REM cover)
5		The Blue Van	There Goes My Love
6		Plants and Animals	Bye Bye Bye
7		Pavement	Gold Soundz
8		Think About Life	Sweet Sixteen
9		Janis Joplin	Piece of My Heart
10		Ha Ha Tonka	Close Every Valve of Your Bleeding Heart
11		Neko Case	This Tornado Loves You
12		Lhasa	My Name
13		Kate Nash	Do Wah Doo
14		We Are Scientists	After Hours
15		The Dandy Warhols	Scientist
16		Guided by Voices	I Am A Scientist
17		Etta James	Something's Got A Hold On Me
18		Florence + The Machine	I'm Not Calling You A Liar
19		Matt Pond PA	Ruins
20		Boston	More Than A Feeling
21		Devo	Fresh
22		Joanna Newsom	Easy
23		The Presidents of the United States of America	Video Killed The Radio Star
24		Phantom Planet	Dropped
25		Weezer	My Name Is Jonas
26		The Beatles	The Fool On The Hill

The Beat Frequency - April 2, 2010

Greetings! Welcome back to another installment of me rambling on about the music I like.

I found out that Regina Spektor had done a John Lennon cover and I had to hear it. And of course it was amazing.

We played some Tally Hall who I had seen a week before, and then some new Frightened Rabbit "Skip The Youth", which is very good, and has an intriguing intro. I was seeing Florence + The Machine the next Tuesday and played some "Hurricane Drunk," which I didn't like initially but now really enjoy. Daniel Zott's "Living A Lie" was on Chuck in early March.

Right about this time of early April, I was obsessed with Joanna Newsom's "Good Intentions Paving Company." It's an elegantly and intricately constructed song.

"How I said to you, 'honey, just open your heart', when I've got trouble even opening a honey jar"

That's just a half stanza. The whole song is full of excellence. Lyrics here.

Also Joanna Newsom is dating Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live fame. So we played some music by The Lonely Island right afterward.

Fun fact: The song I played by Washington is called "Teenage Fury." For some reason, my computer switched the titles of that song and her song "Halloween."

More awesome Fanfarlo. Cyndi Lauper retro jam. Yello's "Oh Yeah" from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, better known as "Day Bow Bow". The video is so trippy.

Then some old favorites with "The Frug" and "Karma Police." :)

1	Regina Spektor	Real Love (John Lennon cover)
2	Tally Hall	Taken For A Ride
3	Frightened Rabbit	Skip The Youth
4	Florence + The Machine	Hurricane Drunk
5	Daniel Zott	Living A Lie
6	Joanna Newsom	Good Intentions Paving Company
7	Lonely Island	On A Boat
8	Angus and Julia Stone	Big Jet Plane
9	Washington	Teenage Fury
10	The Antlers	Kettering
11	Fanfarlo	Drowning Men
12	The Shins	Pressed In A Book
13	Cyndi Lauper	She Bop
14	Yello	Oh Yeah
15	Cloud Cult	Chain Reaction
16	Paramore	The Only Exception
17	Rogue Wave	Permalight
18	Muse	Micro Cuts
19	Rilo Kiley	The Frug
20	Radiohead	Karma Police
21	Black Diamond Boy	Brothers In Exile

The Beat Frequency - March 26, 2010

Hello again! Here's a recap of the songs of my life for this week.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros' "40 Day Dream" is an incredible song. There's something about "bye bye, to the 'too good to be true' kind of love" being sung so jubilantly that makes my day.

A lot of these songs, well at least a couple, were nods to my road trip to Kenosha, WI with my dad over spring break. The Strokes' "Hard To Explain" and Cold War Kids' "Audience" were two that I had the pleasure of listening to on the radio. "Hard To Explain" was one I heard from http://www.rock889.com/ in Ohio and I wish I could give a shout out to that station in Ohio who played "Audience." I hadn't heard it before and it is a really good tune.

Oh, and my dad loves Bob Dylan. So when I needed to sleep and he needed some tunes, I basically put my Bob Dylan collection on my iPod on shuffle. I had no idea before, but my dad's favorite is "Subterranean Homesick Blues" so that was for him. I love roadtrips.

"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" is a duet by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, two of my favorite singers of all-time, which I had recently rediscovered. "Baby you could never look me in the eye...."

Fanfarlo is quite good, and "Finish Line" is one of my favorite songs of theirs. I'm just going to link you to their lyrics page. It's that good.

Also, this was the evening where I was still trying to decide whether or not to attend the Jukebox The Ghost/Tally Hall concert at Sonar in Baltimore, after I missed the one the night before in DC. (I ended up going. It was a great decision.) Tally Hall closed the show and made the audience sit on the floor and turn to the back where they performed their encore with the light of living room lamps, closing with a cover of Biz Markie's "Just A Friend." Jukebox The Ghost played before them, and their song "Hold It In" was my favorite. Also, they did a cover of New Order's "Temptation" which was stellar. I love that song.

Also, I played "Soft As Chalk," which is my sister's favorite Joanna Newsom song off of Have One On Me.

Over spring break, SXSW was going on, and those torrents were stellar. Also over spring break, Alex Chilton died, and in his memory we played some Big Star, Box Tops, and "Alex Chilton" by The Replacements.

1	Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros	40 Day Dream
2	Stars	Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
3	The Strokes	Hard To Explain
4	Cold War Kids	Audience
5	Bob Dylan	Subterranean Homesick Blues
6	Dirty Projectors	Dark Eyes (Bob Dylan cover)
7	Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty	Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
8	She & Him	In The Sun
9	Fanfarlo	Finish Line
10	Yeasayer	O.N.E.
11	Neon Trees	Animal
12	Laura Veirs	July Flame
13	Jukebox The Ghost	Hold It In
14	The Magnetic Fields	No One Will Ever Love You
15	Fang Island	Daisy
16	Biz Markie	Just A Friend
17	Joanna Newsom	Soft As Chalk
18	Jonna Lee	My High
19	Antennas Up	Don't Wait Up
20	Timothy Nelson and the Infidels	Speak The Truth In Love
21	The Paint Movement	Faults
22	Big Star	September Gurls
23	Box Tops	The Letter
24	The Replacements	Alex Chilton