Category: Music

If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably heard of the “30 Day Music Challenge”. Basically, you post a link to a song or YouTube clip every day for a month. Some versions of the challenge have silly guides, like “Day 1 – A song that makes you think of your best friend”. While I have accepted the challenge, I’m not following those rules. I’m just making it up as I go.

Here are the songs for days 1-10; part 2 is here and part 3 is here.

DAY 1: “Making Plans for Nigel” by Headlights

Enjoy this fab cover of XTC:

DAY 2: “Balloon Man” by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians

I chose this just because it reminds me of James Bolton, and our strange trip to Vero Beach, Florida in 1989. The highlight of the trip? We went to a video store to rent a couple of movies, but since this was Florida, I talked him into renting an adult film. We went back to the condo, ate dinner and first watched a “real” movie. I had a fake ID and had bought a ton of beer, so by the time we watched the adult film, we were pretty tanked. As soon as the “action” started, James started saying things like “Oh my God!” and “Ewwwww!” and “he’s putting it THERE???”. I stopped watching the movie and looked at James’ face as it contorted into all kinds of bizarre expressions. Somehow he’d managed 18 years without ever seeing a porn film, and the looks on his face were PRICELESS! He made me turn it off halfway through the film.

DAY 3: “Good Advices” by R.E.M.

I was driving somewhere with my high school friend Jeremy Wilms one day and this song came on. After the first line, in which Michael Stipe says “when you greet a stranger, look at his shoes”, Jeremy turned down the stereo, looked at me and said, as sincere as could be, “you know, that really is good advice”.

Continue reading “The 30 Day Music Challenge (Part 1)”

So the missus and I saw Sun Airway, Asobi Seksu and White Lies at the Variety Playhouse in Little 5 this past Saturday. Sun Airway was good, but their set was really mellow, too mellow to stand up for. So we sat. I, of course, rushed to the stage when Asobi Seksu came out. And, after they were done, I sat back down to check out White Lies.

During White Lies’ set, Lisa pointed out that Yuki Chikudate and James Hanna (the two full-time members of Asobi Sesku) had taken seats five feet away from us to watch White Lies. Being 40, I feel like I’m just too old to be going up to bands and saying “I like you guys! Can I have a picture?”. Lisa had no such problem (maybe it’s different for girls?), so as soon as White Lies were done and the house lights went up, she rushed over and took a picture of the two of them:

Cool!

By the way, that’s me in the background, holding Lisa’s cup of Cheerwine (yes, the Variety Playhouse has Cheerwine on tap!) Here’s one more pic of Yuki Chikudate hanging around the merch table after the show with the part-time members of the band:

More pics (including many of White Lies) are available on my Facebook profile!

I did my radio show on Tuesday night (info and download link here). But after the show was over, I went through my notes and found at least two dozen songs I’d really wanted to play, but had either forgotten about, or got lost when I took the show in a different direction.

I promised to post a special “BONUS TRACKS” podcast with some of those songs, and here it is (albeit much later than I’d wanted – thanks for nothing, Duke Energy!). Here is the download link. It’s a zipped 128kbps mp3 file that’s around 60MB in size.

NOTE: Please wait until after 4:30PM on Saturday, May 14 to download this, as the file is still uploading.

The playlist is available after the jump.

Continue reading “Absolutely Icebox: The BONUS TRACKS!”

Hey everybody! A big THANK YOU to everyone who tuned in to the show last night! It was a big success, and I was surprised that most of you who showed up averaged almost 45 minutes of listening time! Awesome!

As promised, here is a Dropbox link to download the broadcast. It’s a 128kbps mp3 file that’s 222MB in size. The file is zipped, because when I tested the original link, Internet Explorer tried to actually play the mp3 file. Since the file is almost 225MB, it didn’t work that well. You’ll need WinZIP (blech), WinRAR (awesome) or 7-Zip (crappy UI but free) to open. Most flavors of Windows can also open ZIP files; here’s how.

Also as promised, you can find the complete playlist after the jump.

Lastly, there were SO MANY songs I wanted to play but didn’t get a chance to that I’m contemplating doing a short download-only “bonus tracks” podcast. Look for it within the next couple of days!

Continue reading “Absolutely Icebox: The Aftermath!”

A few years back I hosted one daily and two weekly radio shows on the (now defunct) Ars Crew Radio Network and the (also defunct) NoNameRadio.com. I had a lot of fun doing the shows, and have been getting an itch to do it again.

Therefore, I’ve decided to host a special, one-off edition of my flagship show, Absolutely Icebox! Tune in and you’ll hear great new tunes from the best Indie, Lo-Fi, Shoegaze and Dream Pop bands, as well as many New Wave and Classic Rock favorites!

DETAILS:

DATE: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
TIME: 21:00 EDT (9:00 PM) until ????
WHERE: http://radio.jimcofer.com:8080

HOW TO LISTEN:

Unfortunately, a web-based player is not available for this broadcast, so you’ll need to use a media player installed on your computer to listen. Here are instructions for the most popular players:

Windows Media Player

1) Right-click near the top of the WMP window and select File >  Open URL.
2) Cut and paste (or type) the following address into the box that pops-up:

http://radio.jimcofer.com:8080

3) Click “OK”.

WinAMP

1) Right-click anywhere on the main WinAMP window and select Play > URL.
2) Cut and paste (or type) the following address into the box that pops-up:

http://radio.jimcofer.com:8080

3) Click “OK”.

iTunes

1) Click Advanced > Open Stream.
2) Cut and paste (or type) the following address into the box that pops-up:

http://radio.jimcofer.com:8080

3) Click “OK”.

Other players might be supported; please check your player’s help file.

In all cases, be sure to add the “:8080” bit at the end of the address. If you enter the address without this the link won’t work!

Continue reading “Absolutely Icebox… LIVE!”

“My friend Vincenzo Culotta plays my ‘Lady Gaga Fugue’, a piece based on the theme from the song ‘Bad Romance’ by Lady Gaga. This should show how counterpoint can be fun and up to date.”

Why Saint Etienne is the best “best band you’ve never heard of” of all-time.

The home page of English band Saint Etienne’s old website featured a different fan quote each time the page was loaded. Many of the quotes talked about Saint Etienne’s “sweet melodies”, their “lush musical movements over a field of melancholy dew drop daisies” and even “a peaceful cloud of love feelings”. Some spoke of “Sarah’s breezy voice, an open coupe, twilight’s sunny beach” or “summer days, nice people, blue skies turning to cool tingling skin and the moon over the sea”. One compared the band to a “Tiffany’s breakfast”. Another called the band “the definition of loveliness” and still another “comforting – like a big pillow, woolly socks or a stiff drink”. A fan named Roland in New York said that “their songs remind you of every tender memory you had, from childhood to adulthood”. James in London said that Saint Etienne’s sound is “that film moment (usually in slo-mo) when the girl turns her head and opens her eyes”.

What is it about this band that makes people write such gushy metaphors? How is it that a band can make otherwise intelligent adults write like angst-ridden teenage poets??

Continue reading “Our Secret Music”

I spent most of my middle and high school years sorting through stacks of old records at various Atlanta record stores, working the floor at record shows, pouring over Goldmine magazine and burning up transatlantic phone lines with calls to record shops in the UK.

I was what you’d call a record collector, although I wasn’t much of one in the greater scheme of things. There are record collectors out there who have tens of thousands of albums filling their basements and garages, like John Cusack in High Fidelity. But I was never one of them. I kept my collection small, filling it with records I loved as well as records to “flip”. In fact, flipping records is how my love affair with Madonna started. Like most teenage guys in the 80s, I thought that she was super-hot, but I didn’t much care for her music. But I noticed that her records sold quickly and expensively, so I started buying the occasional Madonna picture disc just to flip it into a rare Cure record I wanted.

Although vinyl collecting almost died, it’s going through a renaissance of sorts lately. Many independent record stores are reporting that vinyl is now outselling CDs, although this has as much to do with people who used to buy CDs now using iTunes as it does people buying more vinyl records. Still, vinyl sales are up, and because of this, I thought I’d dust off this old post and spruce it up some.

Continue reading “All About Record Collecting”