Saturday Morning from 6-8am EST, the Morning Flipside.



Another fantastic show coming your way with new music from Yuck, New Times Viking, Drive By Truckers and much much more. The Decemberists, Neil Young and Owen doing songs made famous by other people. Click on the link to the right to hear me and all the other wickedly good djs on WQFS.....

Anti Music Missiles

I was debating whether for my first official review justify my top album pick for the past year, Deerhunter's "Halcyon Digest" or look back at an album that had not only impact on the way I listen to music or, I guess, my life in general. That's simple, I'm choosing the latter. Spin magazine used to run a segment called 10 albums that changed my life where they would interview a musician about those albums that influenced them personally. I could focus on only one album.

As a junior at a small liberal arts college in Ohio in 1986, I still had this unshakable faith that somehow popular music was going to be a relevant force in pop culture again. At that time, the landscape was dominated by mega-heavy weight pop stars (Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, etc...) and sprinkled with half-assed wannabes, too numerous to mention. It was an age where material volume and image where vogue. Polished digital recording was becoming the new standard, the dawn of the compact disc and MTV was still showing music videos. Very corporate, indeed.

In January 1986, I was perusing the record store next to the Laundromat where I always seem to spend my Saturday mornings when I found what thought was the source of a song that I heard over the previous summer from a band called the Replacements. The album didn't have the song I was looking for but I bought it anyway out of shear boredom. The album was TIM. I was the first major label release for the band which is the likely the reason it ended up in that particular store in the first place.

When I got back to my room, I broke out an adult malted beverage, yes it was still morning, and hit the cassette to side one. The one-two punch of "Hold My Life" followed by "I'll Buy" I comparable to Exile on Main Street's "Rocks Off" and "Rip this Joint" to start an album. Not only did it have a guitar driven attack driven by Bob Stinson's lead but Paul Westerberg's desperate vocals sounded as if it could have been a confessional outburst. Whether belting out "Tell em' what do we really care" on "I'll Buy" or the childlike banter of "Kiss Me On the Bus" "OK, don't say 'Hi' then" all the way to "Swingin Party" with "If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever" , the theme was not being one step away from the "brink" all the time but fear. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of what comes next, other people's fear, who knows.

I figured that I had five adult beverages while listening to side one of the new cassette over and over again. Six times, I believe, rewinding each time, all this before I even pressed play on side two. Finally, I got sick of rewinding the tape over and over again and played the second side of the cassette.

Whoa, one of the best anthem songs ever to start side two, "Bastards of Young" was a shot of adrenalin. It was all over, I was hooked. There was no going back. I didn't do anything drastic like "quittin' school" but I would never listen to pop radio the same way again. For the first time, I realized that music didn't have to be on the radio to be good. It would be easy to draw comparisons between personal upheaval and those happening within the band. Bob Stinson's guitar work was apparently recorded in one session with producer Tommy Erdelyi and spliced in later the engineer Steven Fjelstad after Bob disappeared not to return during the remainder of the recording sessions for Tim. Leave that to lore.

The album was not polished, many will say it was under produced but, hey, critics said the same thing about the Rolling Stone's "Exile on Main Street" when it was released. Even the subsequent Lo-Fi sounds of 1994s Guided By Voices "Bee Thousand". After listening to the 2008 rerelease of Tim I get the impression that polish would destroy this record. The power of the record was not in the perfected digital sound that would leave a lasting image but the emotional attachment to whatever fear that serve Paul Westerberg on a given day. 25 years later, Tim still remains a link to my past that I will cherish, always.

Thanks for sharing it Paul.

Wow! I'm posting the playlist on the same day as the show. Today's show had it all, well all that can fit into a two hour time slot, new music from unexpected sources and birthday wishes to someone very special to me. Let's get started shall we?:

February 12, 2011 6-8am

Breeders "Flipside"
PJ Harvey "Written on the Forehead"
Pomegrantes "Anywhere You Go"
My Bloody Valentine "Only Shallow"
The Replacements "Valentine" (Because Monday February 14 is Valentine's Day, of course)
The Kills "Satellite"
White Denim "I Start to Run"
The Booze "Kick Me Where it Hurts"
Adam Thorn and the Top Buttons " Throwing it all Away"
The Joy Formidable "I Don't Want to See You this Way"
Transmission Fields "Did It Wrong"
Elvis Costello "The Spell that You Cast"
UV Race "Low"
The Strokes "Under Cover of Darkness"
Kurt Ville "In My Time"
J Mascis "Is It Done?"
The Dirtbombs "Sherevari"

Now take a trip up I-77 for our very own Morning Flipside solute to bands from Ohio, the Heart of it All....
The National "Bloodbuzz Ohio"-Cincinnati
Lifeguards "Paradise is not so Bad"-Cleveland via Dayton
Guided By Voices "Things That I Will Keep"- Dayton
Prisoners "Fix Yer Head"-Cleveland
The Black Keys "Howlin for You"-Akron
Two Cow Garage "My Great Gatsby"-Columbus
Twilight Singers "Blackbird and the Fox"-New Orleans via Cincinnati
The Afghan Whigs "Debonair"-Cincinnati

A special birthday wish to Kelsey B

The Beatles "Happy Birthday"
Apex Manor "Under the Gun"
Lullwater "One More Time "
Lake Isle "Steel Rails"

That's it for February 12. Stayed tuned for updates on the podcast, my first non playlist related post, and what's going to be on the next show, February 19, 6-8am EST on 90.9FM WQFS Greensboro NC!

Last Saturday's show bursting with juicey musical goodness. Let's get started shall we?:

February 5, 2011 6-8am

Breeders "Flipside"
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Belong"
The Veils "Bloom"
Beady Eye "The Roller"
Broadcaster "Passerby"
Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"
Lake Isle "Anodyne"
The Dirtbombs "Sherevari"
The Builders and the Butchers "Lullaby"
The White Stripes "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"
Bright Eyes "Hallie Selassie"
REM "Oh My Heart"
Wild Nothing "My Angel Lonely"
The Decemberist "Don't Carry It All"
Sean Carey "In the Dirt"
Lifeguards "Paradise is not so Bad"
Prisoners "Fix Yer Head"
Drive By Truckers "Everybody Needs Love"
Adam Thorn and the Top Buttons "Life's a Bummer"
Avett Brothers "Head Full of Doubt Road Full of Promise"
The Rolling Stones "Let It Loose"
Wye Oak "Civilian"
David Lowery "The Palace Guards"
Weekend "Age Class"
Abe Vigoda Throwing Shade"
Apex Manor "Under the Gun"
The White Stripes "There's No Home for You Here"

Yes I did manage to sneek in two White Stripe songs in one show. They will be missed.

That's it for February 5th's show, hopefully it won't take another six days to put out a play list. The next show is tomorrow morning, February 12, 6-8am EST on 90.9FM WQFS Greensboro NC! New Strokes and PJ Harvey and solute to the music of......Ohio! Only on the Flipside!

Big show, my first "Focus" Show we'll be playing new music from The Drive By Truckers, The Decemberists, David Lowery, The Dirtbombs, The Builders and the Butchers, plus more tomfoolery....and a salute to the White Stripes all on the Morning Flipside 6-8am on February 5. Live feed on the web cast!

Last Saturday's show filled with lots of sweet musical goodness. Let's get started shall we?:

January 29, 2011 6-8am

Breeders "Flipside"
Lifeguard "Paradise is not so Bad"
Corin Tucker Band "Pulling Pieces"
Adam Thorn and the Top Buttons "Life's a Bummer"
Grinderman "Worm Tamer"
Fergus and Geronimo "Baby Don't You Cry"
Crystal Stits "Shake Your Shackles"
Elvis Costello "The Spell that You Cast"
Nathan Oliver "Playground Lies"
Beady Eye "The Roller"
The National "Mistaken For Strangers"
Tape N Tapes "Freak Out"
Obits "You Gotta Lose"
The Builders and the Butchers "We All Know the Way"
Wye Oak "Civilian"
The Morning Benders "Waiting for A War"
Papercranes "Synapses"
Lake Isle "Steel Rails"
Darker My Love "Trail the Line"
Fresh and Onlys "Peacock and a Wing"
Jews and Catholics "Bandits"
The Decemberists "Rox In a Box"
Belle and Sebastian "Write about Love"
Deerhunter "Memory Boy"
The Feelies "Should Be Gone"
Abe Vigoda"November"
Apex Manor "Under the Gun"
Disappears "Halo "
The Smithereens "Behind the Wall of Sleep"
Middle Brother "Me Me Me"
Kurt Vile "Jesus Fever"
Smith Westerns "All Die Young"
That's it for January 29. The next show is tomorrow morning, February 5, 6-8am EST on 90.9FM WQFS Greensboro NC!