KRLX is a student run radio station at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Maned by 200 of Carleton's 2000 students, it's a weird little microcosm of our school's personality and interests.
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Picking My Favorite Concert of 2008 is Kinda Like Shoveling 6-8 Inches of Accumulated Snow Out of My Driveway
It’s just as hard, but a lot more enjoyable. Even if I could avoid the spring and start with the summer, the task would be just as daunting. So many good shows, so many of which were free. Times New Viking played at the Whitney Museum, Sonic Youth and the Feelies, were free at Battery Park, No Age, played a great show at The South Street Seaport and then again later at Death By Audio. The Fiery Furnaces were among the first to christen the new East River Amphitheater in Manhattan and Celebrate! Brooklyn brought the progressive Metropolis Assemble and Deerhoof together for an evening in Prospect Park.
And if we’re talking about quality free music, Siren Festival at Coney Island was terrific this year. Granted it was hot enough that more than a few concertgoers had to be hospitalized for heat stroke, but if you didn’t pass out by high noon you could have seen Helio Sequence, Beach House, and Ra Ra Riot for free. And by the time Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks came on, or Broken Social Scene if you prefer, the weather was perfect, the crowds had thinned, and the musicians were having as good a time as anyone watching. Meanwhile, The McCarren Park Pool concert series went out with a bang as Yo La Tengo played a raucous hour and a half set alongside other New Jersey natives, Titus Andronicus.
But if I had to choose one show to stand out, it would have to be one I actually paid for. Terminal Five on NYC’s upper west side charged me $30 to see Spiritualized, which is a lot by almost any standard. As it turned out, it was a bargain; I would have paid $100 to see that show.
Spiritualized has been touring their most recent album, Songs in A&E, since its release in late May. It is the first album the band has made since front man Jason Pierce cheated death in 2005 when he recovered from a very serious case of pneumonia. In typical Pierce form, he says of the record, “it was made by The Devil…. with a little guidance from me.” Maybe, but the show I saw was pretty heavenly.
I couldn’t hunt down an exact set list, but it was definitely representative of the band’s depth of material-- covering all six full-length releases since 1992. The band, accompanied by two female gospel singers, semi-circled up and played straight through about an hour and a half of music. It felt like 15 minutes. One swirling psych-out would merge noisily into another, with Pierce struggling endearingly to knock out some of the high notes. When Pierce meted out the fuzzy slide intro to “Shine a Light,” I swear to god, the crowd melted. I glanced back at the audience; I could count the number of people with their eyes open on one hand.
When the band left the stage for the last time, Pierce childishly whispered the only two words anyone in the band had said to the audience the entire night, “Thank you,” he murmured. It was sincere and unaffected though, and you can be sure the feeling was mutual.
A Series of Tubes: Web-only Year in Review
We're off the air, but the passion the "Series of Tubes" guys have for tech can't be stopped by our pitiful broadcast hiatus. Listen for the top innovations, biggest flops, and best trends of tech culture in 2008.
A technical breakthrough in its own right, check out this Skyped interstate podcast. It's the first "A Series of Tubes" web exclusive content ever.
Top Five Music Videos of 2008
My parents first met at a New Year's party in 1982 and mention how the party was incredibly innovative for featuring multiple hours of music videos. At that point MTV was in its infancy, and the music video was rapidly transforming the manner in which young people accessed and determined the quality of music. 2008 marked the end of our Zeitgeist-defining program, TRL, and the proliferation of more mindless shows like A Shot at Love with the Ikki Twins , The Hills and Exiled .
Is the music video even relevant anymore? Several of the most renowned art house directors of the past decade got their start in music videos: Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, David Fincher, (and frankly some of them should have remained in the realm of music videos,) and the appeal of a music video can still make or break a single.
The following videos showcase the diverse approaches an artist can undertake in creating a successful and memorable video. Whether it be a hilarious sendoff of censorship, high production costumes and choreography, or low-budget charm through a lack of posturing, music videos still matter.
1. The BPA Toe Jam - Fatboy Slim feat. David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal
2. Santogold - Lights Out
3. No Age - Goat Hurt
4. Rihanna - Disturbia
5. Hercules and Love Affair - You Belong
Bonus, the best music video ever, The Replacements - Bastards of Young
This is the end of the session
And so we've come to the last 24 hours of KRLX in 2008. Where did all the time go? Who knows. KRLX will be going off the air on Wednesday November 19th at 10pm. Listen while you can, and join us next year for nine more weeks of the best radio you ever did hear.
BEST MUSIC '08
As Fall Term '08 comes to a close, KRLX will offer a retrospective treatment of the best music released this year. The show will air tomorrow during the Music Director Hour slot ( 6:00 - 7:00 PM CST ), highlighting sixty minutes of the year's finest. Turn On. Tune In. Just Dance.
How Do You Think It Feels? And When Do You Think It Stops?
In the variegated world of Lou Reed solo albums there are universally touted gems like "Transformer," and absolute duds like "Metal Machine Music." "Berlin," the 1973 follow-up to this aforesaid gem, has always been something of an enigma. The album is incredibly complex and firmly rooted in its time period. It tells the story of two drug-addled lovers set against the backdrop of an oppressive communist Berlin. Reed supposedly sought to make "the saddest album ever," and does so with the help of an expansive, histrionic backing band. "Berlin" lacks any real single and has ultimately been overshadowed by more accessible Lou Reed solo material.
Nonetheless, Reed has always carried a torch for this challenging work and in 2006 he embarked on a tour with an impressive group of friends in which they performed the "Berlin" album in its entirety. The tour also featured vocal assistance from the immensely talented Sharon Jones and Antony. Acclaimed art house director, Julian Schnabel
( Basquiat, Before Night Falls ) filmed two of these concerts and released a documentary on the subject last year. "Berlin: Live at St Ann's Warehouse" is the soundtrack for this film.
So how does the Matador release enhance or diminish the original album? For one, Reed plays electric guitar on this incarnation, which he did not do on the '73 release, and his talents and raw musicianship are nicely showcased. There seems to be a trend recently in live music of well-respected artists performing full-length renditions of their most "classic" albums. (See: the Don't Look Back dimension of Pitchfork Music Festival). I feel that Lou Reed has gained enough perspective and healthy world-weariness to add nuance to something that could easily feel old-hat. Even the zillionith version of "Sweet Jane" that closes the album feels exciting, and affecting.
KRLX News will produce a special evening of up-to-the-minute local and national election coverage on Tuesday, Nov. 4, beginning at 7 p.m., when polling booths close on the east coast. YOUR CHOICE 2008 will be broadcast live on 88.1 FM and online at krlx.org.
YOUR CHOICE 2008 will begin with a special broadcast of “Democracy Now!,” the daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 700 stations, and pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
Throughout the evening, student reporters stationed around Northfield and in the Twin Cities at both party campaign celebrations will provide breaking election coverage. KRLX News’ political analysts Ellen Tighe and Pablo Kenney will join Judy Bao and Brandon Walker in studio for local and national punditry.
For comprehensive local, state, and national election coverage, tune in on the radio at 88.1 FM or online at krlx.org for YOUR CHOICE 2008.
Heaven Is a Place Called School of Seven Bells
School of Seven Bells is a new group formed by ex-members of two well-regarded indie rock bands; Ben Curtis was the creative mind behind Secret Machines, and Alejandra and Claudia Deheza are the twins that anchored the now-defunct, On! Air! Library!. School of Seven Bells provides the best of these engaging sounds on their debut album, "Alpinisms."
Curtis's primarily role in Secret Machines was guitarist, and he brings his adept pedal-laden, neo-psychedelic style to this new group. Songs like "Half Asleep" glisten in lush reverb, and shoegazey cascading walls of sound. The Deheza twins bring an ethereal dimension to the group with their gorgeous, streamlined vocals and zeal for electronica-twinged keyboards. "Alpinisms" sounds most like the latest M83 release, and their musical heritage can be linked to the timeless recordings of Felt, Cocteau Twins, and even earlier My Bloody Valentine recordings. The entrancing power of School of Seven Bells certainly qualifies them as one of the best new groups of 2008.
Mc/Vl is here to remind us that Local Fest is primarily a party. Mc/Vl is named after members Mighty Clyde and Vicious Lee. They are no strangers to the cave or KRLX, having played KRLX's winter rock last year. Mc/Vl model their sound after classic 80s hip-hop and pepper their rhymes with clever pop culture references. One only has to look at their song titles, "Moby Dick" "Ulysses" to understand that they a different kind of hip-hop with samples ranging from rare jazz to AC/DC. They are performing at 9:30.
I might have to borrow one of their lines for next years local fest slogan
Local Fest: "Minnesota, land of the breaks"
