Category: Music

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”

I was looking through my site stats yesterday, and found that this page is the fourth hit on Google for “birthday playlist”. Why? I dunno. But it’s my birthday party playlist from 2009.

Here’s the playlist from this year’s party:

1. The Cars – Shake It Up (3:30)
2. Blondie – Once I Had a Love (3:14)
3. The Clash – The Guns Of Brixton (3:12)
4. Buzzcocks – What Do I Get? (2:57)
5. Roxy Music – Out Of The Blue (4:46)
6. Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Lovesick (3:12)
7. Return To Mono – Framebreaker (5:06)
8. Duran Duran – Being Followed (3:48)
9. The Fixx – Are We Ourselves? (2:27)
10. The Big Pink – Crystal Visions (5:48)

Continue reading “My NEW Birthday Playlist”

English musician Mick Karn, co-founder of the New Wave band Japan, lost his battle with cancer today. He was 52.

Read more here.

Here’s the most obscure thing you will see (or hear) today!

Chas Jankel, born Charles Jeremy Jankel on April 16 1952 in Stanmore, England, was the keyboard player and guitarist for the 1970s British punk band Ian Dury and the Blockheads. In fact, Jankel co-wrote most of the group’s biggest hits! But Dury was always the center of attention in that group, and the band broke up after Dury (just Dury) signed a contract with Polydor in 1982.

Although the band periodically got back together until Dury’s death in 2000, Jankel also had a short solo career in the early 80s. Here’s his song “Questionnaire” from 1981:

The song’s… okay, I guess. But the main reason I posted the video was because I had such fond memories of watching it on Video Jukebox, a music video show on HBO. The show began as a series of “filler” shows of 1-3 videos that ran between films. In December 1981, however, the show got its own half-hour timeslot on the network. And whoever chose the videos seemed to love “Questionnaire”, which ran, like, a million times!