Who cares about music anyway?
Well hello again, podcast fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #86!
As you can see from the title, this week's show is a special episode. As you've hopefully noticed if you've been listening over the years, I do my best to work in plenty of local music on the show. There really is so much good stuff coming out of Minnesota that it's nearly impossible to keep up.
So, with that in mind, I decided that I was well overdue for a strictly-MN based show. I'm also feeling pretty good about the way last week's show turned out (if you recall, it was just a 45 minute mix with none of my usual speaking parts). With that in mind I thought I'd just go all in and put together an hour long mix of some of Minnesota's finest jams.
Of course, just because I didn't take the time to speak during the show doesn't mean I don't have things to say about these songs. Like last week, if you scroll down you'll find the track list and some random thoughts about each of the jams.
As always, Flatbasset Radio is completely free. I've finally set up a decent downloading site, so if you'd like to download Flatbasset Radio: Episode #86 (with all the appropriate iTunes tagging), just click here.
If you don't have the time or desire to download the show, just click the Mixcloud player below and you're good to go.
Here's how Episode #86 plays out:
01. Color TV - Meat Wagon
Rather than ease into this mix I figured we start it off with a bang. I got turned on to Color TV a couple of weeks ago when one of my co-workers said, "Hey, my buddy's band is going to be opening up for the Descendents. You should check them out." As somebody who's been counting down to that Descendents show for 20 years you better believe I had tix tucked away at Planet New Basset. I figured I should find out what these guys were all about before the show. As you can hear on "Meat Wagon," these guys are definitely... ummm... descended from their headliners. The concert acted as a bit of a release party for this new 7", which you should probably look into.
02. The Social Disaster - Bad Boys With Big Hearts
Duluth's lone representative on this mix. I did a write-up of The Social Disaster's Dark Side Of The Roller Rink earlier this year, so I won't bore you by re-hashing that (because I know you all read those posts religiously). "Bad Boys With Big Hearts" is the lightest moment on the album and it is also the most charming.
03. P.O.S. - Wearing A Bear
P.O.S. has been bringing the fire since fully recovering from his kidney transplant. "Sleepdrone/Superposition" stood as a renewal of his mission statement, "Waves" was a stellar, collaborative one-off, and the crew track "Spill Me Up" sounded like a 'Welcome Home" moment. With "Wearing A Bear" we have P.O.S. & Lazerbeak teaming up to bring the best out of each other just like they've been doing since high school. A bananas Lazerbeak beat, straight throwback P.O.S. flow, in-jokes, Minnesota accents... It's good to have Stef back fully functional.
04. Total Gaze - Pink Line
Checked these guys out strictly because of a Facebook share from my buddy Dr. Bill. I trust his taste in music completely and he did not disappoint with Total Gaze. Their album We Need More Condos just came out and, like "Pink Line," it's an off-kilter affair. It's like the band wrote all these tight, scrappy indie rock songs and ran them through a Sonic Youth filter. I mean that as a compliment. It's a delightful little album.
05. Cruel Love - Kissing In The Corner (w/Botzy, Beasthead, & Godelt)
Mo Bluntz & Bonnie Stitches put their self-titled album out back in October of 2014 and I've been meaning to play something off of it ever since. Sorry about that. "Kissing On The Corner" is a fascinating entry in their catalog because it pulls back just enough layers of fuzz to make this song sound spaced out as fuck.
06. Graveyard Club - Nightcrawler
Graveyard Club seems to have turned up out of nowhere. I'd never heard of them and then, with the release of Cellar Door they were suddenly tearing up my Twitter feed. Turns out they've been active since 2013.How was I to know?!? It's not like a write a blog focused on local music or anything.
Better late than never though. While popular taste implies that they've missed the halcyon days of the 2010's synth-pop boom, they're doing it better than almost anybody I can remember. Their secret? Hooks for days. Even when the lyrics turn dark, the band sells every chorus like it might be their last.
07. Eric Mayson - Flatspin
Another artist I've been meaning to play since before his album came out. If I remember correctly, Detail was my second or third most-played album of last year. In my defense, the album is really meant to be taken as a whole. As you can hear on "Flatspin," most of the songs are between two & three minutes and have little room for fat. While that makes for a delirious listen as an album, it can be difficult to work the songs into this show. Consider that problem resolved though. Even standing alone, "Flatspin" is a gem.
08. Psymun - Banani
Psymun is probably now best known as 1/4th of The Stand4rd, and that's cool, but before their breakthrough he was cranking out beat tapes at a ferocious pace. "Banani" is taken off his Heartsick tape from 2013. I enjoyed that Stand4rd album (and really enjoyed his album with K.Raydio), but there's a special place in my heart for these crazy old EP's. Great bus-riding music.
09. I Self Devine & Muja Messiah - Midnight On Jupiter (w/Lady Midnight)
Yet another I've been keeping in my back pocket for too long. This may sound like a backhanded compliment, but once you get past the more nationally known hip-hop artist in the Twin Cities, these two guys are two of the kings of the Twin Cities. Both are long-running, well-respected rappers who have found success as solo artists and as collaborators. Both sound completely at ease on 9th House.
10. The Farewell Circuit - Birdless Sky
Moment of truth: This is the only Farewell Circuit song that I know. That's a bit unfair to a band that has been around since 2009 and has a nice following around town. I'm trying to make up for that by making this 3/4-time powerhouse the centerpiece of the show. That seems fair.
11. Tony Peachka - Idle Hands
I was so taken with Tony Peachka's debut EP Hello Tony that I dug into the Radio K In-Studio tracks to download their performance from earlier this year. As you can here from this charmingly smutty little jam, the gals in Tony Peachka have a way of seeing the glass as half full (nevermind that the beer in the glass is likely room temperature).
I just read the other day that Jordan Bleau (of Frankie Teardrop fame) has recorded their new album and plans to release it on No Problem Records, all of which bodes well for the ascendant trajectory of Tony Peachka.
12. Big Quarters & Mux Mool - Dragon Princess
Back in 2008 when I was a younger & more social person my buddy and I went to the EP release show for Big Quarters & Mux Mool's Fall in Love EP. We were there to see BQ and left mostly confused by Mux Mool. I've since come to appreciate both artists and what they do. And this EP is still killer (with one of the great covers of all time).
13. Al Church - You And I
I picked up Next Summer in one of my frequent Cheapo Records "Local" Section scavenger hunts. I had no idea who Al Church was, but it was summer and I was definitely digging that artwork. Turns out the sound on the album matches the cover to a T. Take note of the dual saxophone/G-Funk keyboard about halfway through the song. Classic.
14. Ego Death - Untitled (In The Morning)
I was a huge fan of Ego Death's self-titled LP, so I was pretty pumped when I heard that they were releasing a new EP. While Daze's opening track "Deceiver" left me afraid that the band had abandoned their hooky-roots, "Untitled (In The Morning)" came rolling in second and picked up right where their debut record left off. Can't wait to here what these guys cook up next.
15. The Plastic Constellations - We Are Genius Millionaires
Fresh off their triumphant appearance on Sunday Night Football, the semi-defunct Plastic Constellations return to fill the coveted "late-mix-instrumental-interlude" spot here on Episode #86. Nice week, boys.
16. Tiny Deaths - Ever
I was digging Tiny Death's Night Flowers EP so much back in February that I opened Flatbasset Radio: Episode #74 with their song "Away." Here we are seven months later and I'm still digging the EP. Grant Culter and Claire De Lune certainly bring out the best in each other.
17. Allan Kingdom - Believe
Allan Kingdom started the year on a high after being featured on Kanye West's track "All Day." He followed that up by releasing this excellent Northern Lights album. If there was any justice in the world Northern Lights would have continued pushing him into the national consciousness. I suppose it's possible that it has and I just haven't noticed because I'm not reading the right sites or listening to the right people. Hopefully that's the case because this album is still fantastic.
18. The Karma Kicks - False
Technically The Karma Kicks released the song "False" on their 2014 album It's All Gone Wrong. However, I found out about the song (and the band) on yet another outstanding Ecstattic Studios compilation. This one was lingering near the tail end of ECS 013: Toward A Better Future (Through An Uncertain Past). These St. Paul boys were kicking up a playful jam that stood out from the rest of the more serious work on the album. Part pre-Beatles rock, part GBV, it's good clean fun.
19. Sophia Eris - Dust
I already spoke about Sophia Eris when I played her song "Blue Dream" back on Episode #84, so I won't re-hash everything. Just know that her debut solo EP Sophia Eris definitely stands up. She's deserved her moment in the spotlight for a long time. It's nice to see her getting her due.
20. The Person & The People - Paranoid And Sleepy
To be honest, the chance to close the show with "Paranoid And Sleepy" was the impetus for putting together this episode. The song is the opener on The Person & The People's latest album Dark And Low, but the dual-guitar, "Impossible Germany"-style freakout during the song's second half made the song seem like an ideal closer to me, one last lunge toward the peak before retreating back down the mountain.
There you have it, folks! Enjoy!
For more of my rantings you can give me 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.
