The Beat Frequency's Last Show (for a while) - January 19th

Hello there. Today was sadly The Beat Frequency's last show (for at least 5 months). As sad as this makes me, I'm leaving WMUC to go to Australia, so it can't all be bad. I'm writing a different blog while I'm over there, and it's so cool, Google's search bots haven't even found it yet. It's here in case you're ever interested in seeing what I'm up to while I'm gone.

Anyway, this show was bittersweet, but a ton of fun to do. My roommate even visited and we had a ton of listeners. (Thanks!)

This show had many little themes, including but not limited to: The Inauguration (tomorrow), Going to Australia, Leaving (in general), Australia based artists, etc.

The first song is from Jaren's (the DJ after me) band, The Lampshades. They're pretty good. The station manager put them on while I was waiting to get started, and it was fun to listen to. The "One Month Off" is for my upcoming birthday in approximately a month, which ought to be fun. "The Chinatown Bus" is in memoriam of the trip my roommate and I were supposed to take this weekend to New York City. Then a batch of presidential (ish) songs and a batch of songs about leaving. Next up was a cover of Phantom Planet's "California" done by Mates of State since I will be taking my first ever trip to California on the way to Australia. Oh, and then I guess you know why I played "Australia" by now.

Also in there were "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke and "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers. Both were performed by different artists at the We Are One: Obama Inaugural Celebration at Lincoln Memorial (which I attended). Both are very excellent songs.

Many of the others were Australian related bands, requests, and just general fun. The show is available for your listening pleasure right here until next Sunday, January 25th: http://wmucradio.com/stream_ripper/mon/The_Beat_Frequency_1800_2000.mp3

Playlist is below:

1	The Lampshades	My Boyfriend's Band	The Lampshades Are Alright
2	Bloc Party	One Month Off	Intimacy
3	Bishop Allen	The Chinatown Bus	The Broken String
4	Sam & Dave	Hold On, I'm Coming	Hold On, I'm Comin'
5	Jonathan Coulton	The Presidents	Thing a Week Three
6	Why?	These Few Presidents	Alopecia
7	A Change Is Gonna Come	Sam Cooke	Ain't That Good News
8	David Bowie	Changes	Hunky Dory
9	Chantal Kreviasuk	Leaving On A Jet Plane	(John Denver cover)
10	The Weakerthans	Left and Leaving	Left and Leaving
11	The Beatles	She's Leaving Home	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
12	Regina Spektor	Flyin	11:11
13	Mates of State	California	(Phantom Planet cover)
14	The Shins	Australia	Wincing The Night Away
15	Jet	Are You Gonna Be My Girl?	Get Born
16	Cut Copy	Lights and Music	In Ghost Colours
17	The Vines	Get Free	Highly Evolved
18	Colin Hay	Beautiful World	Man @ Work
19	Ben Lee	Catch My Disease	Awake Is The New Sleep
20	AC/DC	You Shook Me All Night Long	Back in Black
21	Tilly and the Wall	Falling Without Knowing	o
22	Inara George	Duet	An Invitation
23	Port O'Brien	Close The Lid	All We Could Do Was Sing
24	Santogold	Lights Out	(Bud Light Lime Remix)
25	Eric Clapton	Layla	Chronicles
26	Eddy Grant	Electric Avenue	Killer on the Rampage
27	Kings of Leon	Sex on Fire	Only By The Night
28	Creep	Karen Souza	(Radiohead cover)
29	R.E.M.	It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)	Document
30	Ra Ra Riot	Ghost Under Rocks	The Rhumb Line
31	Death Cab for Cutie	Photobooth	Forbidden Love [EP]
32	Sigur Rós	Gobbledigook	Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
33	The Zutons	Pressure Point	Who Killed...... The Zutons?
34	Bill Withers	Lean On Me	Still Bill
35	Youth Group	Skeleton Jar

Thanks for listening and supporting the show. I've had a blast doing it. Hopefully I'll be coming back when I get back to the states in July, but it's hard to say. Thanks WMUC for the great times.

January 17th mini show

I should start by saying that I did not intend to do a show today. That's why it was five songs and a PSA long. Regardless, they were five pretty great songs.

I came in to help paint the radio station, which was a ton of fun, and I realized there was no music playing before Dominick's show, so I popped in my iPod and played what came out while I was waiting for the rest of the painting crew. It looks awesome and I had a lot of fun doing it too.

1	Eels	Fresh Feeling	Souljacker
2	Foo Fighters	Everlong	The Colour and the Shape
3	Doves	Sky Starts Falling	Some Cities
4	Spoon	Anything You Want	Girls Can Tell
5	Arcade Fire	Rebellion (Lies)	Funeral

January 12th Show

Greetings!

Here's the playlist from our January 12th show. Good times.

It was pretty much just a "hey, this song is cool. I should play it!" themed show, as many of our shows are. Enjoy.

Note: The song "Haiku" by Tally Hall is awesome because it's verses are all haiku.

1	Goldspot	Float On	(Modest Mouse cover)
2	Billy Joel	We Didn't Start The Fire	Storm Front
3	The National	Start a War	Boxer
4	The Thrills	Big Sur	So Much for the City
5	Athlete	God Only Knows	(Beach Boys cover)
6	The Stills	Oh Shoplifter	Without Feathers
7	Jack Johnson	Banana Pancakes	In Between Dreams
8	Tokyo Police Club	Citizens of Tomorrow	A Lesson In Crime
9	Franz Ferdinand	I'm Your Villain	You Could Have It So Much Better
10	Los Campesinos!	We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (clean edit)	We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
11	Barenaked Ladies	If I Had $1000000	Gordon
12	Elliott Smith	Angeles	Either/Or
13	The Pipettes	Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me	We Are the Pipettes
14	Broken Social Scene	Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl	You Forgot It in People
15	Port O'Brien	Alive for Nothing	All We Could Do Was Sing
16	Say Hi To Your Mom	Let's Talk About Spaceships	Numbers & Mumbles
17	Loney, Dear	I Am John	Loney, Noir
18	The Blues Brothers	Everybody Needs Somebody to Love	The Blues Brothers Soundtrack
19	Spoon	Lines in the Suit	Girls Can Tell
20	Dr. Dog	The Girl	We All Belong
21	Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin	Glue Girls	Pershing
22	David Bowie	Oh! You Pretty Things	Hunky Dory
23	The Cars	Moving in Stereo	The Cars
24	Radiohead	Reckoner	In Rainbows
25	Alphabeat	Go Go	This Is Alphabeat
26	Tally Hall	Haiku	Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum
27	The Postal Service	Brand New Colony	Give Up
28	The Killers	On Top	Hot Fuss
29	Rilo Kiley	Science vs. Romance	Take Offs and Landings
30	Of Montreal	Gronlandic Edit	Hissing Fauna

The Beat Frequency January 5th show

Hey reader(s),

Sorry I haven't been writing this as much as I planned, but here's the playlist from the January 5th show.

This show was our first of the new year and several are "year" and "start" themed. A new Walkmen song, an old Death Cab for Cutie song, and one of my new favorites, "5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale. (It's not quite a "new" year song, but it's a great song.)

Also, my cousins were listening, which accounts for the My Chemical Romance and Sing It Loud songs. I also really liked the "Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks" song from Say Hi To Your Mom.

"Fiery Crash" was on the list because we had a fire alarm that kept incessantly going off for several hours in my apartment complex, so I left in my car and played the only iPod in it (my sister's mini) and it played in alphabetical order and I really liked it. "Grounds For Divorce" has been playing a lot in a Burn After Reading trailer. My dad actually likes it too.

Anyway, the belated playlist is below. Enjoy.

1	Andrew Bird	Fiery Crash	Armchair Apocrypha
2	Maximo Park	Like I Love You	Justin Timberlake Cover
3	Elbow	Grounds for Divorce	The Seldom Seen Kid
4	The Go! Team	Grip Like A Vice	Proof of Youth
5	Ra Ra Riot	Each Year	The Rhumb Line
6	The Weepies	Not Your Year	Say I Am You
7	Noah and the Whale	5 Years Time	Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
8	The Walkmen	In The New Year	You & Me
9	Death Cab for Cutie	The New Year	Transaltanticism
10	The Eames Era	Year of the Waitress	Double Dutch
11	Sing It Loud	Mpls	Come Around
12	Frank Sinatra	It Was A Very Good Year	The Very Best of Frank Sinatra
13	My Chemical Romance	The Sharpest Lives	The Black Parade
14	Los Campesinos!	My Year In Lists	Hold On Now, Youngster
15	The Postal Service	Sleeping In	Give Up
16	Pixies	Where Is My Mind?	Surfer Rosa
17	The Shins	Gone for Good	Chutes Too Narrow
18	Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin	Dead Right	Pershing
19	Stars	The Night Starts Here	In Our Bedroom After The War
20	Ingrid Michaelson	Starting Now	Girls and Boys
21	Maria Taylor	A Good Start	Lynn Teeter Flower
22	Loney, Dear	The City, The Airport	Sologne
23	Say Hi To Your Mom	Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks	Numbers & Mumbles
24	Gomez	See The World	How We Operate
25	Alphabeat	What is Happening	This is Alphabeat
26	Editors	An End Has A Start	An End Has A Start
27	Cloud Cult	No One Said It Would Be Easy	Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
28	The Rolling Stones	Start Me Up	Tattoo You
29	Sufjan Stevens	Decatur	Illinoise
30	Voxtrot	The Start of Something	Raised by Wolves
31	Shiny Toy Guns	Starts With One	We Are Pilots

Hey kids, Brad Pitt looks ridiculous and likes the Black Keys. [1]

The Beat Frequency: Winter Edition

Hello readers!

The Beat Frequency is taking over a 6-8pm time slot on WMUC over the University of Maryland's winter break.

Which means my last few shows will be today's show, and then January 5, 12, and 19th. Wow, only three more left. :(

Here's the playlist from today's show. I won't lie to you; I was organizing the CD cabinet for most of the show. I have problems...

1	Spoon	Believing Is Art	Girls Can Tell
2	The Shins	Kissing The Lipless	Chutes Too Narrow
3	House of Pain	Jump Around	Switch On
4	Rilo Kiley	The Frug	The Initial Friend EP
5	She & Him	Sentimental Heart	Volume One
6	The Kooks	Sofa Song	Inside In/Inside Out
7	REO Speedwagon	Take It On The Run	Hi Infidelity
8	Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin	Some Constellation	Pershing
9	Wolf Parade	The Grey Estates	At Mount Zoomer
10	Modest Mouse	The World At Large	Good News for People Who Love Bad News
11	Fleet Foxes	White Winter Hymnal	Fleet Foxes
12	Snow Patrol	Lifeboats	A Hundred Million Suns
13	Elbow	Grounds for Divorce	The Seldom Seen Kid
14	Crosby, Stills and Nash	Suite: Judy Blue Eyes	Crosby, Stills and Nash
15	Hum	Stars	You'd Prefer an Astronaut
16	The Killers	Change Your Mind	Hot Fuss
17	The Strokes	Hard to Explain	Is This It
18	Fleetwood Mac	Think About Me	Tusk
19	Sia	Breathe Me	Colour The Small One
20	David Bowie	Space Oddity	Space Oddity
21	The New Pornographers	The Laws Have Changed	Electric Version
22	The Beatles	A Day In The Life	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
23	Rogue Wave	Are You On My Side?	Descended Like Vultures
24	Beulah	A Good Man Is Easy To Kill	The Coast Is Never Clear
25	The White Stripes	We're Going to be Friends	White Blood Cells
26	The Boy Least LIkely To	Hugging My Grudge	The Best Party Ever
27	Vampire Weekend	Exit Music (For A Film)	OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer
28	This Is Ivy League	London Bridges	This Is Ivy League
29	The Rapture	No Sex for Ben	The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV
30	The Beach Boys	Kokomo	The Greatest Hits Volume 1
31	Smashing Pumpkins	That's The Way (My Love Is)	Zeitgeist
32	Muse	Starlight	Black Holes and Revelations
33	Death Cab for Cutie	Cath...	Narrow Stairs
34	Adele	Cold Shoulder	19

Your Holiday Music Bath

The Holiday Music show was a blast! I had so much fun. 3 hours of holiday music is a lot. Playlist is below. The Beat Frequency should be back on the air starting this Monday, December 28th at 6pm. If you're not in the College Park, MD area, tune in on wmucradio.com (WMUC not WMUC2), otherwise hear us on 88.1 FM.

Note the David Hasselhoff German Silent Night. Classic.

My favorites:
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Zooey Deschanel (of Elf) and Leon Redbone.
All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey
All That I Want by The Weepies
Come on! Let's Boogie to the elf dance! by Sufjan Stevens
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland

Oh, and the SNL Christmas song.

1	Aberdeen City	Just Like Christmas
2	Coldplay	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3	Christmas Time is Here	Vince Guaraldi Trio
4	Jason Mraz	Winter Wonderland
5	Rilo Kiley	Xmas Cake
6	The Waitresses	Christmas Wrapping
7	Hanson	Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
8	The Wombats	Is This Christmas
9	Eels	Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas
10	Barenaked Ladies	God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
11	Wham!	Last Christmas
12	Trans-Siberian Orchestra	Carol of the Bells
13	The Smashing Pumpkins	Christmastime
14	Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone	Baby, It's Cold Outside
15	Scrubs	Twelve Days of Christmas Parody
16	The City of New Orleans	O Holy Night	Studio 60
17	Sufjan Stevens	Come On! Let's Boogie to the Elf Dance!
18	Barbra Streisand	Jingle Bells
19	Joni Mitchell	River
20	Joshua Radin	Winter
21	Colin Clary	Meow Meow
22	The Kinks	Father Christmas
23	The Walkmen feat. Nicole Sheahan	Christmas Party
24	Saturday Night Live	Christmas Song (I wish it was Christmas today...)
25	Trans-Siberian Orchestra	Wizards in Winter
26	Voices of the Conservative Movement	Hanukkah Hip-Hop
27	Rosie Thomas	Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year?
28	Mariah Carey	All I Want For Christmas Is You
29	Linda Cassady	Is Santa Claus A Hippy?
30	The Ramones	Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)
31	Frightened Rabbit	It's Christmas So We'll Stop
32	The Bird and the Bee	Carol of the Bells
33	She Wants Revenge	Hazy Shade of Winter
34	Bruce Springsteen	Santa Claus is Coming to Town
35	The Flaming Lips	Christmas at the Zoo
36	Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello	There Are Much Worse Things To Believe In
37	Richard Cheese	Jingle Bells
38	The Chipmunks	The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)
39	Death Cab for Cutie	I Was A Kaleidoscope
40	Vince Guaraldi Trio	O Tannebaum
41	Ben Folds	Lonely Christmas Eve
42	The Royal Guardsmen	Snoopy's Christmas
43	Damien Rice	Happy Christmas (War is Over)
44	David Hasselhoff	Stille Nacht
45	Elliott Smith	Angel in the Snow
46	Smashing Pumpkins	Once Upon A Time
47	Matt Costa	Cold December
48	1990s	See You At The Lights
49	The Weepies	All That I Want
50	Dan Fogelberg	Same Old Lang Syne
51	The Beach Boys	Little Saint Nick
52	The Ronettes	Sleigh Ride
53	Judy Garland	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Top 10 Albums of 2008

Top 10 Albums of 2008. Good stuff. The following are my opinion, feel free to try to influence them as you wish.


1. We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery

I know the first time I heard of We Are Scientists, it was through The Lonely Island. Yes, those lovely goofballs responsible for great things like "Lazy Sunday," and "Just 2 Guyz." If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it.

I found this video (http://old.thelonelyisland.com/afterhours.html), then immediately downloaded all of the album I could find, and fell in love. Luckily, working at the radio station got me the rest of their 2008 CD and it was phenomenal. Oh, and I saw them in concert. That was a riot. Anyway, here's to Brain Thrust Mastery and general We Are Scientists ridiculousness. http://www.wearescientists.com/

2. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us

I love my sister. And she loves Mates of State. And so do I.

After playing this album and it's almost title track "The Re-Arranger" a billion times, I am hooked on Mates of State. This album brightens my days. My sister got me into Mates of State (I actually bought her this CD before I had ever listened to it) and I'm very glad she did.

Oh, and quote of the countdown:
"Love loud, don't lose loud."

Also, and just to show how awesome Mates of State are, they went on Yo Gabba Gabba.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQDie3wu3_8&feature=related

3. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line

I heard "Ghost Under Rocks" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9SKprgjH5k) a few times and liked it before I was heavily recommended by Jon Hood to give them more of a listen. I was incredibly impressed. My favorite on the album is probably "Can You Tell," which you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBryCQWEdFI

4. Tilly and the Wall - o

What got me into Tilly and the Wall was not a song from the album I'm about to give a number 4 slot to, but instead the wacky "Beat Control" which I found on the lovely internet. (See incredibly wacky video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNycEoGtnQ)

Favorite track: "Pot Kettle Black" which makes my FCC monitored brain freak out, but is fantastic. Also, they put on a hell of a live show. Much dancing and balloons! And if you haven't figured this out after listening to a few of their songs, they have a tap dancer as a primary source of percussion.

Oh, and folks, it's so good you can get into car accidents listening/dancing to it! They should put that on the label.

5. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

I will admit, I have not heard all of this album. But I could not even care.

"The Twist" and "Keep Yourself Warm" are both poignant, real and incredibly skeezy, not to mention two of my new favorite songs. Don't listen to the latter if you have a problem with f words. All the rest of the tracks I've heard are also fantastic.

6. The Coast - Expatriate

My favorite Canadian indie band that no one has heard of comes in at number 6. I found these lovely gentlemen on the internet, reviewed their CD for WMUC, and saw them live at beginning of school with Tokyo Police Club.

Not only are they swell guys, but they make great music too.

Favorite song: Tightrope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNy1A2XGkrY)

7. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night

I knew Kings of Leon before this CD, and I had liked "Manhattan" which was the first song off this album that I heard. But thanks to a certain Erika Kallio, I listened to "Use Somebody" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCZfJ5ai07U) which quickly became one of my favorite songs of the year. And that song made me go review/steal the CD from WMUC. (I'll give it back, I promise). Oh, and "Sex on Fire" is also amazing.

8. Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat

"We are Alphabeat and we play pop music" is the biggest understatement of the year.

My favorite Danish pop band, possibly my favorite pop band, is Alphabeat. I have never seen a group of people make such undeniably catchy pop songs. The first song I heard of theirs was "Fascination" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8UxX5STKL4) and then after "10,000 Nights of Thunder" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySHHdO-YTK4) I was sold. I bought this on Amazon I wanted it so bad. Other favorites include "Into the Jungle," "Boyfriend," and "Fantastic 6." This would probably be higher on my list if I didn't consider it such a guilty pleasure.

9. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This barely made it into the 2008 list, since it was released in January of 2008. Remember Vampire Weekend?

I believe "Oxford Comma" was the first song of theirs that I heard, and I also like "A-Punk," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," "Walcott," and several others. Oh, and I bought this CD too. Yes, I sometimes still buy CDs.

10. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

I can't not put this on here. Yes, I was on the mailing list that got "Violet Hill" for free on their website. Yes, I listened to "Viva la Vida" before I knew it was on iPod commercials. And yes, I bought the CD the day it came out at Borders. So shoot me.

I still think "Strawberry Swing" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMDa0JqW9bc) is my favorite, although I incredibly enjoyed pretty much the entire album.

Here is another less detailed list of very close contenders:
Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
The Submarines - Honeysuckle Weeks
Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
Beck - Modern Guilt
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
This is Ivy League - This is Ivy League
Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns