Flatbasset Radio's Most Played Albums: June '14

The 50 most played albums around Planet New Basset for the month of June, 2014:

(Larger picture indicates more plays)

01. The Starfolk - The Starfolk (85 plays)

02. Rogue Valley - The Bookseller's House (78 plays)

03. Ras Dude - Well Red (41 plays)

04. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots (36 plays)

05. P. Morris - Debut (36 plays)

06. Dichotomy - Subterranean (36 plays)

07. Local H - Pack Up The Cats (32 plays)

08. Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill (31 plays)

09. The Everywheres - Slow Friends (30 plays)

10. Kougar - Cold Room (28 plays)

11. Jets To Brazil - Four Cornered Night (26 plays)

12. F. Stokes - Liquor Sto' Diaries (26 plays)

13. Sebadoh - III (25 plays)

14. De La Soul - Smell The DA.I.S.Y. (25 plays)

15. The Clash - Combat Rock (24 plays)

16. Ruth Ruth - The Little Death (24 plays)

17. The Thrills - Let's Bottle Bohemia (23 plays)

18. The Lemonheads - The Lemonheads (22 plays)

19. Beady Eye - Be (22 plays)

20. Sebadoh - Harmacy (21 plays_

21. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams (21 plays)

22. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (20 plays)

23. Weezer - Weezer (Green) (20 plays)

24. Descendents - Enjoy! (20 plays)

25. The Dust Brothers - Fight Club (18 plays)

26. Hall &  Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette (18 plays)

27. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (18 plays)

28. Atmosphere - Southsiders (18 plays)

29. Auggie The 9th - #GAWS (16 plays)

30. DJ Shadow - The Private Press (15 plays)

31. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga (15 plays)

32. Hive Bent - U NEUTRAL (15 plays)

33. Edison - No Three Men Make A Tiger (15 plays)

34. The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone (14 plays)

35. Big Pauper - Beyond My Means (14 plays)

36. The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray (13 plays)

37. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (13 plays)

38. Cars & Trains - The Roots, The Remix (13 plays)

39. Kool A.D. - Word OK (13 plays)

40. MaLLy - The Colors Of Black (13 plays)

41. Girl Talk & Freeway - Broken Ankles (13 plays)

42. Alpha Consumer - Live On Radio K (13 plays)

43. The Strokes - Room On Fire (12 plays)

44. R.E.M. - Eponymous (12 plays)

45. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (12 plays)

46. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement (12 plays)

47. Lou Reed - Transformer (11 plays)

48. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday (11 plays)

49. Howler - World Of Joy (11 plays)

50. Bad Astronaut - Acrophobe (10 plays)

All info via my Last.fm account. Stop by to keep track of everything we're listening to here at Planet New Basset.

Photo via Don't Drink And Root

Album Of The Week: May 5th-11th, 2014

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 5th-11th, 2014:

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots

01. Everyday Robots
02. Hostiles
03. Lonely Press Play
04. Mr Tembo
05. Parakeet
06. The Selfish Giant
07. You And Me
08. Hollow Ponds
09. Seven High
10. Photographs (You Are Taking Now)
11. The History Of A Cheating Heart
12. Heavy Seas Of Love

If you've been following along with my AOTW posts you probably know that I tend to stick to Minnesota-based artists.  There are, however, a handful of artists whose work excites me to the point that I just can't wait to spend a week exploring.

Have a look at these Last.fm stats:

Blur - 1,075 plays
Gorillaz - 511 plays
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - 222 plays

That's just over 1,800 plays for Mr. Damon Albarn in my library. And that's just since 2007.

Anyway, I bring it up to illustrate just how excited I am for Albarn's first official solo album.  2014 is filled with new releases by some of my favorite artists, but I can say with almost complete certainty that Everyday Robots will be the album that soundtracks my year.  All of the work he's done under those names listed above have managed to be both instantly gratifying and rewarding in the long run.  I'll spend this week with Everyday Robots, but I'd be genuinely surprised if I wasn't still discovering little moments on the album one, two, or three years from now.

I'm not just excited from a long-time-fan standpoint.  I've listened to the album a couple of times now (and spoiled my appetite with the stripped down, BBC2 version of "Lonely Press Play" over the last month or so), and part of what makes the album special is that it's relevant to the world around us.  It's not just a nostalgia trip.

Albarn spends the majority of the album struggling with how technology, people, & the physical world relate to each other.  As somebody who spent the majority of his youth in a pre-internet age, I find myself thinking about these same issues as I get older.  Albarn doesn't offer much in the way of answers.  Quite the opposite.  Considering the way the album is peppered with electronic percussion & synth loops, Albarn is essentially conceding that he's not here to fight the flood of technology.  He clearly realizes how foolish that is because A) technology's march is unstoppable and B) technology isn't inherently bad.  He's not going full Jack-White-Records-An-Album-In-A-Phone-Booth here.  Like most of us, he's trying to sort through the questions of real life and virtual life and, like most of us, he's struggling.

Everyday Robots is a thoughtful album from a thoughtful man.  It's no wonder this is the first one he's recorded under his given name.  No other would be appropriate.

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #33

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

When you're lonely, press play...

Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #33!
 
For those of you who are unaware of the Flatbasset Radio format, here's what you're looking at: TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie. As you've probably noticed in his Songs Of The Week column, he's not always the most positive music fan. In an effort to prove that he is, in fact, a fan of music, we give him an hour each week to play the songs he's digging and talk a little bit about them. Once he's recorded his podcast we put it right here on the website for free to stream and/or download!

In this week's episode TCDroogsma is flying solo from Planet New Basset.  Episode #33 finds Droogsy celebrating some great local hip-hop, playing this generation's iconic British band celebrating THE iconic British band in his Cover Of The Week, suggesting a re-pressing for all the "vinyl nerds," mispronouncing people's names, imploring everybody to go to the Turf Club tomorrow night, finding common ground with a legendary artist via disappointing girlfriends, thanking Miami for "staying flithy," finding a band that sounds like "Ian Curtis somehow coming back & singing for New Order," wondering if he should have stuck with James Mercer, forgetting his own age, and explaining that you should never try to charm women with Morrissey lyrics!

You can download the podcast for free by clicking the episode's title or stream the episode by clicking on the Mixcloud player below.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #33

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #33 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

01. Protomartyr - Come & See
02. Medium Zach - Achoo
03. Cars & Trains - History Of The Night
04. Arctic Monkeys - All My Loving (Live At MSG)
05. The Van Gobots - The Ghost
06. Boots - Dust
07. Damon Albarn - Lonely Press Play (Live On BBC2)
08. Atmosphere - Bitter
09. Twin Graves - Brothers
10. Broken Bells - After The Disco
11. The Underachivers - 6th Sense
12. The Smiths - Reel Around The Fountain

There you have it, music fans!  Enjoy!

For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  Previous episodes of Flatbasset Radio are archived on his Mixcloud page.  Stop by Flatbasset Radio's Facebook Page & give it a "Like" if you have the time.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.