Flatbasset Radio's 25 Most Played Albums: February '16

Well hello again, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Things I Listened To On The Bus Monthly!

That's right, another month is in the rear view mirror, which means it's time for a dose of instant nostalgia.

Before we get to the list I'd like to throw a big thank you out to all artists & labels that took a moment to like, share, or retweet the show. I literally have no other means of exposure,so each of those shares means a lot to me.

Of course, those shares don't mean much if nobody listens to the show so I'd like to extend a XXL thank you to anybody who gave it a listen. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

Alright, let's get to the list.

(As always, one "play" equals one song. For example, the new Dizzy Fae mixtape has 10 songs on it, so each time I listen to it front to back it counts as ten "plays." As usual, all stats come from my Last.FM page. Give it a follow if you really want to stay up on what's getting the most plays.)

01. Panther Ray - Twilight Drips (103 plays)

02. Dizzy Fae - Free Form (72 plays)

03. Ten Grand - What I Should Have Said Vol. 1 (58 plays)

04. Badly Drawn Boy - One Plus One Is One (56 plays)

05. Straya - Sobereyed (56 plays)

06. The Muffs - Really Really Happy (54 plays)

07. Foxes In Fiction - Swung From The Branches (54 plays)

08. Pearl Jam - Yield (44 plays)

09. A Grave With No Name - Passover (43 plays)

10. V/A - Unpop 157 (40 plays)

11. The Broken Bicycles - Restlessness Of Youth (40 plays)

12. Shannon And The Clams - Sleep Talk (36 plays)

13. Loden - Lit For Exits (Extinct) (36 plays)

14. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (35 plays)

15. V/A - Minnesota Sur Seine (35 plays)

16. Pat Keen - Live On Radio K (35 plays)

17. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis (33 plays)

18. INTL FALLS - INTL Falls (33 plays)

19. Shopping - The Official Body (32 plays)

20. Bob Mould - District Line (31 plays)

21. Andrew Broder - Live On Radio K (31 plays)

22. Gary Louris - Vagabonds (30 plays)

23. Run The Jewels - RTJ 3 (29 plays)

24. Polarnecks - Winter Demos (26 plays)

25. The Riverboat Gamblers - Something To Crow About (24 plays)

There you have it, folks. Thanks for listening!

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

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #76

"Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram..."

Well hello again, podcast fans. Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #76!

Folks, it's a gorgeous day outside, so I'd like to take moment to thank you for passing up enjoying the outdoors to spend some time sitting at a computer listening to me rabble on about music.

In this week's episode I pay tribute to one of hip-hop's most underrated builders, get a head start on some of North Carolina's finest pop-punk, reprimand Radiohead for their "tour," drop an 18:00+ Minnesota music hat trick, take a quick trip across the border to Wisconsin for some guitar-based redemption, check in on those incorrigible upstarts over at Pytch Records, revisit an underrated record from the 2000's "Rock Revival," and go back 50 (!) years to celebrate one of the most important American pop albums of all time. All that plus the Cover Of The Week, Flatbasset Flatclassic, and more banter than anybody could ever want.

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 #76 (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 this week's show plays out:

01. A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhime

02. Museum Mouth - Incubus Tattoo

03. Radiohead - Spectre

04. Jesse Lacey - Bad Day

05. Straya - Personally, For Me/For Me, Personally

06. P.O.S - Sleepdrone/Superposition (w/Allan Kingdom, Astronautalis, Eric Mayson, Kathleen Hanna, Hard_R, Lydia Liza, Lizzo, & Nicholas L. Perez)

07. Poliça - Lose You

08. Tenement - The Block Is Safe Again

09. c.Kostra - Miracle Child

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Turn Into

11. The Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times









There it is, folks! 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.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #72

Party's in here, we don't need to go out...

Well hello again, podcast fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #72!

First things first, a tremendous thank you to everybody who checked out the last couple of episodes. I have a ball putting together those "Best Of..." shows and I hope you had a ball listening to them.

However, now that 2015 is behind us, it's time to look ahead. This week's episode consists of jams, a good Scott Weiland rant, new Kanye, more jams getting the names of songs wrong, indie-prog, an introduction to Pytch records, some advice for getting through the winter, hot jams, gloom-pop, and a little bit of peace-making with my arch nemesis David Bowie. All that plus a batch of local jams, the Cover Of The Week, and the Flatbasset Flatclassic!

As always, Flatbasset Radio is completely free. Just click the Mixcloud player below and you're good to go.

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #72 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

01. Fury Things - Silence Is OK

02. Kanye West (w/Kendrick Lamar) - No More Parties In L.A.

03. Stone Temple Pilots - And So I Know

04. Death Cab For Cutie - All Is Full Of Love

05. Straya - Comma Spaceman

06. Ratking - Flurry

07. Ego Death - Now, Now

08. Garrison Grouse - Working On

09. William Within - Fall Into Her Uniform

10. David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes

There you have it, everybody. 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.

Album Of The Week: "Healthy Steps" by Straya

Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of May 25th-31st:

Straya - Healthy Steps

01. 2.0
02. Treat Me Like Prince
03. Richard Baggins
04. Sports Song
05. Set Me Up
06. Hazel
07. Killer Mike Saved My Life
08. Sauceman's
09. Comma Spaceman
10. Brotherman
11. You Can't Put Me On The Spot Like That, Man

Straya's been bubbling under the surface of the Twin Cities guitar scene for a couple of years now.  Their indie-prog sound perhaps a bit at odds with the loud-fast-scrappy guitar sound that's been the scene's calling card for years now, they seem to have been biding their time until they were able to present their music to the standards they require. While Healthy Steps is technically their debut album, if you've been following along since 2013. you'll notice that the album is the culmination of a lot of time and attention to detail.

When Straya first turned up on my radar, the only thing on their Bandcamp page were records titled Demos & EP One.  On those early albums the band's sound was similar to local legends The Plastic Constellations.  The guitar work was intricate, the lyrics were mostly yelling, and the band staked their post-punk claim with chops & charisma more than anything else.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed them enough to play "Chronologies" way back on Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35.

While neither of those albums appears to be available any longer, the fact that I was able to spend time with them gave me a deeper appreciation for where they're trying to go on Healthy Steps. The first half of the album opens with an instrumental titled "2.0," which, considering how the first half of the album gives us definitive versions of previously released songs, is an appropriate jumping off point.  "Chronologies" grew and morphed into "Treat Me Like Prince," previous stand-alone single "Richard Baggins" has been given an atmospheric scrubbing, while early classic "Set Me Up, Hazel" has been broken up into a two-part, high-octane centerpiece.  The lone new song on the records first half, "Sports Song" is a keyboard-inflected 5:00 epic that features Rush-esque time signature changes and vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a These Arms Are Snakes album.

With the instrumental "Killer Mike Saved My Life" acting as a mid-album palette cleanser (and most of Straya's older songs having been given their "definitive version" treatment) the second half of the album is where Straya 2.0 shines.  The four song "Man Suite" (as I've taken to calling the second half) is easily the band's most ambitious statement yet.  Over the course of 18:35 the band indulges in keyboard plunks, time changes, stops, starts, screamed vocals, shoegaze, clarity & fuzz.  "Sauceman's" opens with some keyboard/drums/bass work that would make both Donald Fagen & Geddy Lee proud before going full Minus The Bear.

A reworked and expanded "Comma Spaceman" follows and stands as the band's most fully realized track to date.  For the first three minutes the keyboards soothe, the rhythm section stretches out and breathes, and lovely vocal melody floats to the forefront.  However, at the 3:00 mark, the band eschews their prog-rock leanings and launch into a full-fledged, thirty second My Morning Jacket-esque guitar solo before returning the songs to its roots.  Of course, they break it down & build it up one more time just for good measure because hell, "definitive version" should mean "definitive version."



Penultimate track "Brotherman" is the hyperactive brother of the multi-part monster that was "Comma Spaceman," still packed with ideas, but delivered in rapid succession.  Straya almost seems to be testing their own limits by seeing how many ideas they can pull off in 4:00.  Turns out: quite a few.

After the speed workout of "Brotherman," all of the pieces of Healthy Steps are assembled on "You Can't Put Me On The Spot Like That, Man."  As much as I've compared the band to Rush so far, this is the point where the comparison becomes clear and valid.  The speed of "Brotherman" is gone.  The well-known & well-rehearsed pieces of "Comma Spaceman" are also gone.  What we have with "YCPMOTSLTM" is a brand new mission statement from Straya.  Combining their prog-rock cues with a Zeppelin-esque flair for the dramatic, it's an epic album closer that seems to double as the opening salvo for where the band hopes to head next.

Healthy Steps is an expansive, rewarding listen, but if the band makes one thing clear with this album it's that the decks are now clear.  All of those older songs have been set in stone while the new tracks seem to be just scratching the surface of what the band is capable of.  Whether Healthy Steps ends up being the beginning of a long-proggy journey or and as an end point for a band pushing as many ideas as possible onto one record, it's bound to stand as one of the most unique albums to come out of Minnesota this year.

If you'd like to check out Healthy Steps for yourself, head over the Straya's Bandcamp page to download the album or order one of the limited-to-100 CD's that I'm assuming are still available since they're still on the Bandcamp page.

Flatbasset Radio's 50 Most Played Albums: April '15

Well hello again, everybody.  Welcome to the always compelling monthly recap of Flatbasset Radio's 50 Most Played Albums of the previous month!

April has come and gone. The last of the snow melted, the rain washed away what was left, the boys of summer began yet another campaign, the boys of winter began their Quest For The Cup, and I finally got back to posting podcasts.  As per usual, I listened to a ton of music while all of that was happening.  Good times, April.

Let's have a look at what was getting the most spins around Planet New Basset.  As always, one "play" = one song.  So an album with ten songs on it would be registered as ten "plays."  Larger pictures indicate more plays.

(Quick Note: As you can see, the largest box in the picture is a blank grey album.  That's supposed to be a picture of What Tyrants' new album No Luck.  I have no clue why the Album Cover Collage Generator is refusing to accept its right to life.  As a consolation, go back and read my AOTW column about No Luck.  It's a gem of an album.)

01. What Tyrants - No Luck (78 plays)

02. Straya - Healthy Steps (77 plays)

03. The Cribs - For All My Sisters (70 plays)

04. Plums - Jen (56  plays)

05. Murder Shoes - Murder Shoes (40 plays)

06. Various Artists - Expansion Sound Vol. 1 (34 plays)

07. Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late (34 plays)

08. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model (26 plays)

09. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll (24 plays)

10. Millencolin - Same Old Tunes (25 plays)

11. Various Artists - Limited Fanfare Records Spring/Summer Sampler 2015 (24 plays)

12. Bad Religion - Generator (22 plays)

13. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams (22 plays)

14. Dfalt - Greyscale (22 plays)

15. Pink Floyd - Animals (20 plays)

16. The Jam - Greatest Hits (19 plays)

17. Wretch Like Me - New Ways To Fall (19 plays)

18. The Cure - Greatest Hits (18 plays)

19. The Durutti Column - The Return Of The Durutti Column (18 plays)

20. Killer Mike - Sunday Morning Massacres (18 plays)

21. Ratking - 700 Fill (18 plays)

22. Human Kindness - Live On Radio K (2015) (17 plays)

23. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (16 plays)

24. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die (16 plays)

25. Baishe Kings - Eyes Of Mark Mixtape (16 plays)

26. Cruel Love - Cruel Love (16 plays)

27. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (16 plays)

28. Various Artists - Trainspotting (14 plays)

29. Dfalt - Dfalt (14 plays)

30. Douga - [] / Dancing In The Garden (14 plays)

31. The Jayhawks - Tomorrow The Green Grass (13 plays)

32. The Stone Roses - Second Coming (13 plays)

33. The Future Sound Of London - Dead Cities (13 plays)

34. Jay-Z - MTV Unplugged (13 plays)

35. Division Of Laura Lee - Black City (13 plays)

36. She & Him - Volume One (13 plays)

37. Death Grips - The Money Store (13 plays)

38. Human Kindness - Not Apathetic (13 plays)

39. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (12 plays)

40. Ivy - In The Clear (12 plays)

41. Big Star - #1 Record (12 plays)

42. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Graces (12 plays)

43. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (12 plays)

44. Radiohead - Airbag/How Am I Driving? (12 plays)

45. Sean Na Na - Family Trees Or: Cope We Must (12 plays)

46. Oasis - Definitely Maybe (11 plays)

47. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (11 plays)

48. Kool A.D. - Word O.K. (11 plays)

49. Jarvis Cocker (11 plays)

50. Son Volt - Trace (11 plays)

Information via my Last.fm account
Photo via Don't Drink And Root 

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35

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

Yeah, I called you fat, look at me I'm skinny...

Hello again, free music fans! Welcome to Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35!
 
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 yet again.  In the process of trying to get his podcast game "back on track" he's feeling extra "saucy" because of the warm weather, celebrating the anniversary of one of independent hip-hop's great albums, buying CD's on Amazon for a penny, lamenting the 20 year anniversary of a generational icon, celebrating Rex Manning Day, anticipates a summer of Rhymesayers, finds himself coming around on a couple artists he didn't care for, (yet again) mispronounces a band's name, explains why St. Vincent is one of his "desert island" artists, vows to get MinneSarah back into the fold for next week's show, and discusses the song that best embodies old Modest Mouse & new Modest Mouse!

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 #35

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #35 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

01. Superchunk - Precision Auto
02. Madvillain - Money Folder
03. Nirvana - Lithium (Solo Demo)
04. Chance The Rapper - Acid Rain
05. Evan Dando - The Ballad Of El Goodo
06. Blueprint - Respect The Architect
07. CFCF - Lorraine
08. No - Leave The Door Wide Open
09. Straya - Chronologies
10. The Hood Internet - Digital Humpty
11. The Church - Under The Milky Way
12. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty

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.