Alcohol and memories, and the relationship between the two

If there is a relationship, I've conveniently forgotten about it.

Track list:

1. The Cuds - the taste of crow - drinkin your mem'ry away

Comments: This is beautiful and contains deep longing. I don't think it's particularly smart to drink until you have general amnesia, but hey, sometimes the pain gets pretty intense, am I right? At that point, what does smart have to do with it?

2. Hot Springs - volcano - fantome dinosaure

Comments: Oh, I love it so much. It's super catchy and great, and gently massages my french bone. Uh, yeah.

3. Jale - closed ep - nine years now

Comments: Beautifully 1995. Why didn't I listen to this when I was 14, instead of the white album? Maybe I could have alternated, it wouldn't have hurt.

4. The Sadies - new seasons - yours to discover

Comments: Mike Belitsky, drummer for the Sadies, briefly drummed/sang for Jale. Also for:

5. The Vees - v ep - denied

Comments: Mike, with the singing! And the chorus girls? This is not what I would have expected.

6. The Paperbacks - an illusion against death - rattled by failure

Comments: You're not rattled by it? How did that happen? I'd love to know how you achieved that. You seem very pleasantly boppy about it, at any rate.

7. Sunset Rubdown - random spirit lover - the mending of the gown

Comments: I love the tinkly guitar, followed by bells, followed by plinky piano. They're drawing clever musical parallels, and I'm liking it. Clearly my generation, all of whom were forced to learn Royal Conservatory piano, are finally poised to dominate the music industry.

8. Better Friends than Lovers - great loves - sailor

Comments: I'm just going to get the obligatory bad joke out of the way: hellooooooo sailor! This is more of a goodbye sailor, you cad. I'm miserable! Don't get scurvy! If you decide to come back I'll totally be here! Oh, shoot.

9. Bella - no one will know - give it a night

Comments: Two ambiguously persuasive phrases back to back, very nicely done. We will speak more about this form of speech at a later date. This is what I would call a driving song, in that it would sound good on the freeway.

Not feelin' it

I've been told before, by professionals (!!!) that it is not professional (!!!) to let your listener know that you're all messed up, or having a bad day, or whatever. But this isn't professional radio, dammit. I'm pretty sure whoever tunes in is super disappointed if they don't hear an incompetent whinging self-indulgently. It's campus radio, for crying out loud.

Track list:

1. Cone Five - ants in the sugar - personal spacecraft

Comments: This is so great, it should jog me out of my ennui. If this song can't do it, nothing can. So obviously it's hopeless. Thanks for trying though Cone Five, I felt my interest stir briefly but it was like kicking a dead raccoon, hoping for a nice rabid chomp on your boot. It will only make your boot smell dead.

2. Sports - sports - vampire blues

Comments: boppy and nice. Not so much with the blues, or even the vampires, but still eminently enjoyable. I'm over Buffy anyway (not that I was ever under her. what?).

3. Catriona Sturton - wanna be your friend: a tribute to the inbreds - north window

Comments: Why yes, I AM attempting to beat this record to death, why do you ask? Well?

4. Feu Therese - ca va cogner - la nuit est une femme

Comments: yes, and she's a cold, miserable old broad too. Why aren't there more songs about things being dudes? Everything's a 'bitch' and I think that's unfair. I'm going to start changing that right now. Radio, for example. Radio is an exacting, uncommunicative old bastard with a Napoleon complex. I mean, I love it and everything, but really.

5. I See Rowboats - hide & seek behind the throne - ci ci

Comments: I'm liking this gentle misery music so much I wish I could play it twice. I would, except I bet I'd get in trouble. Programming guidelines, and so forth. It's so nice though. It's getting a little embarrassing, how much I'm starting to enjoy all this new-wave accordion music.

6. First Aid Kit - rocket summer - sleepwalk

Comments: I don't... I just don't know. I sort of blacked out there for a second.

7. Tim Gilbertson - tim gilbertson - long walk

Comments: Speaking of self-indulgence. I love this, I think it's really nice. This song is dedicated to ME.

8. Peter Green - kolors - liquor and you/gotta do it with me

Comments: My mum says that if Peter Green had managed to keep it together, then maybe the Buckingham-Nicks disaster would never have happened. Not his fault though, it would have taken someone amazing. Maybe Batman could have held off the insanity, but even he might have had a hard time.

9. Shotgun Jimmie - the onlys - onomatopoeia

Comments: The last song of the show is usually a throwaway, but I can honestly say that this is not the case today. I like this, despite the questionable album art. It charms me.

Noir, baby.

Songs about the dark. Well, it's not much to look at, but it has inspired some beautiful melancholy. And films!

Track list:

1. Black Mountain - s/t - heart of snow

2. Jonathan Richman - not so much to be loved as to love - les etoiles

3. Neko Case - boyfriends - porchlight

4. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - sport fishin' - spy school graduation

5. The Sadies - new seasons - sunset to dawn

6. The Stolen Minks - family boycott - batman (you're the sex)

7. The Rheostatics - the blue hysteria - a mid winter nights dream

8. Local Rabbits - this is it here we go - the lights turn on

I hate you too Johnny. I hate you so much I think I'm going to die from it. Grr.