Greetings power pop fans,
I'm pleased to announce that on this week's Palo Alto Pop Overthrow, I'll be joined in studio by producer Kathleen McNamara of Academy Avenue Films, and on the phone by John Wesley Harding, a prolific musician as well as proprietor of the Popover Corps label.
We'll be talking about the film "A Bloody Show - John Wesley Harding & Friends Live at Bumbershoot 2005." Here's a trailer for the film:
Tune in this Monday from 6-7pm on the west coast, and 9-10pm on the east coast. If you're in the wonderous Bay Area, listen at 90.1 on your FM dial, otherwise tune in online at kzsulive.stanford.edu. If you have questions you'd like me to ask Kathleen and John, email me at phil AT palopop DOT org.
Till then!
Phil Andrews
The new quarter schedule at KZSU is up - and the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow has moved to its new time: Mondays from 6-7pm PT, 9-10pm ET. Check out all of the great programming that KZSU has to offer, and listen in online at kzsulive.stanford.edu.
Well folks, I'll be the first to admit that I've been behind on posting each weekly featured album to the blog. So, let's go back and review the previous quarter's worth, so that we're up to date.
Credit: Casey Black for Bloodshot Records Due to recent events, the first week of October we opted to feature an artist, rather than an album. The band in question was the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir from Chicago. They've been featured on the PAPO before, but we felt it was important to bring them back up: they had just debuted a new album, entitled "...and the horse you rode in on," and were out on tour supporting it, when they ended up in a very bad accident involving their touring van. The members of the band spent considerable time in the hospital - and like many fledgling independent bands, some members of the band were without health insurance. Since then, guitarist/vocalist Mary Ralphs has written some reflections on being suddenly disabled. For more information about how you can help the band members recover, please visit their donations page on the web site of Bloodshot Records. Playlist.
Source: 1gl@flickr Once again breaking with our custom of featuring an album, we had our second annual tribute to the late, great singer and performer Kirsty MacColl. Kirsty has been referred to as a "female Elvis Costello", or even as the "Dorothy Parker of pop." Born as the daughter of folk singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl, she had the pleasure of working with David Byrne, Johnny Marr, Shane McGowan, Neil Finn among others. On October 10th she would have celebrated her 50th birthday. We played a wide sampling of her music, and gave a historical overview of her career, her collaborations, and her life. Playlist.
Kathleen McNamara, the director of "Why Isn't Chris von Sneidern Famous?" stopped by the PAPO to chat about her film debut. See the blog post for more information.
Credit: Ivy
For the second time in as many years, our good friends The Corner Laughers stopped by to chat and perform several of their delightful pop tunes. Angela, Charlie, Karla, and Khoi had just released their new album, "Ultraviolet Garden" on John Wesley Harding's Popover Corps label, so we were pleased to hear stories from its inception, along with live renditions of many of their new songs. Playlist.
Dreaming in Stereo is the project of singer and songwriter Fernando Perdomo. His music is equal parts power pop and 70's era art rock, which Perdomo has wistfully self-labelled as "progressive pop." Despite being highly successful in his work for other artists, he has no reservation with taking himself less than seriously, as you'll see in this music video for our favorite track, "Steal This Song." Featured tracks: Steal This Song, Smile, and Decisions, Decisions. Playlist.
October 1st - Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
October 8th - Kirsty MacColl
October 15th - Camera Obscura: "My Maudlin Career"
Three years after the release of their first album, the band Camera Obscura comes back with "My Maudlin Career", produced by Jari Haapalainen, of The Bear Quartet. Featured tracks: French Navy, My Maudlin Career, The Sweetest Thing. Playlist.
October 22nd - "Why Isn't Chris von Sneidern Famous?" with Director Kathleen McNamara
Kathleen McNamara, the director of "Why Isn't Chris von Sneidern Famous?" stopped by the PAPO to chat about her film debut. See the blog post for more information.
October 29th - The Corner Laughers: "Ultraviolet Garden" and live in-studio performance
For the second time in as many years, our good friends The Corner Laughers stopped by to chat and perform several of their delightful pop tunes. Angela, Charlie, Karla, and Khoi had just released their new album, "Ultraviolet Garden" on John Wesley Harding's Popover Corps label, so we were pleased to hear stories from its inception, along with live renditions of many of their new songs. Playlist.
November 5th - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: "Higher Than The Stars"
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are an Indie pop band from NYC. Their short, four song EP, "Higher Than The Stars" was a part of KZSU's new music rotation, having been released two months prior on Slumberland. In case you're curious, the band's name came from a children's story written by a friend of the band, that has never been published. Featured tracks: Falling Over, 103, and Twins. Playlist.
November 12th - The Clientele: "Bonfires on the Heath"
The Clientele originally formed in 1991 in suburban Hampshire, and was originally called 'The Butterfly Collectors'. Who knew?! Their music strongly recalls Archer Prewitt. If you're curious about the inspirations for this album, you should check out a great interview that self-titled did with The Clientele. Featured tracks: Never Anyone But You, Three Month Summers, and Share The Night. Playlist.
November 19th - Wiretree: "Luck"
Wiretree is Kevin Peroni (vocals, guitar, keys), Rachel Peroni (bass), Joshua Kaplan (guitar), and Daniel Blanchard (drums). They're an indie pop band from Austin, TX with equal parts Matthew Sweet and Elliot Smith. Their first album, "Bouldin," is one of the most played albums of all time on the PAPO, so we were very excited to highlight their latest work. Featured tracks: Falling, Satellite Song. Playlist.
November 26th - Dreaming in Stereo: "Dreaming in Stereo"
Dreaming in Stereo is the project of singer and songwriter Fernando Perdomo. His music is equal parts power pop and 70's era art rock, which Perdomo has wistfully self-labelled as "progressive pop." Despite being highly successful in his work for other artists, he has no reservation with taking himself less than seriously, as you'll see in this music video for our favorite track, "Steal This Song." Featured tracks: Steal This Song, Smile, and Decisions, Decisions. Playlist.
December 3rd - Manic Street Preachers: "Journal for Plague Lovers"
Going on for nearly a quarter century now, The Manics are back with another album full of glam hooks and zany lyrics. It seems nothing is off limits for this band; case in point, our favorite track off of the album is called "Me and Stephen Hawking." Featured tracks: Marlon J.D., Me and Stephen Hawking, and This Joke Sport Severed. Playlist.
December 10th - The Raveonettes: "In and Out of Control"
On January 18th, we featured the "Psonic Psunspot" album from a band you know better than you think you do - The Dukes of Stratosphear.
The band lineup is:
Sir John Johns - singing, guitar, brain buds
The Red Curtain - electric bass, song stuff
Lord Cornelius Plum - mellotron, piano, organ, fuzz-tone guitar
E.I.E.I. Owen - drum set
Still not ringing a bell? You might instead know these musicians as:
Andy Partridge
Colin Moulding
David Gregory
..otherwise known as XTC, along with Ian Gregory (David's brother.)
The Dukes of Stratosphear were an interesting diversion in XTC's musical history. Donning psuedonyms, they worked with producer John Leckie on two albums in the mid 1980s, of which "Psunspot" was their second. Under this secret arrangement, the members of XTC were able to dabble in the more psychedic pop influences of the 60s, without having the pressure of delivering "another" XTC record. When The Dukes released their first album, XTC repeatedly denied that they had authored these works, but by the time "Psunspot" was released, they were starting to admit openly that they were living a double musical life.
Favorite tracks: 1. Vanishing Girl, 4. You're a Good Man Albert Brown, 6. You're My Drug, 8. Brainiac's Daughter.
Label: Geffen Records
RIYL: XTC, The Three O'Clock, Todd Rundgren
Three stars.
myspace, XTC fansite writeup, wikipedia, AMG
Amazon: album
Rhapsody
The band lineup is:
Sir John Johns - singing, guitar, brain buds
The Red Curtain - electric bass, song stuff
Lord Cornelius Plum - mellotron, piano, organ, fuzz-tone guitar
E.I.E.I. Owen - drum set
Still not ringing a bell? You might instead know these musicians as:
Andy Partridge
Colin Moulding
David Gregory
..otherwise known as XTC, along with Ian Gregory (David's brother.)
The Dukes of Stratosphear were an interesting diversion in XTC's musical history. Donning psuedonyms, they worked with producer John Leckie on two albums in the mid 1980s, of which "Psunspot" was their second. Under this secret arrangement, the members of XTC were able to dabble in the more psychedic pop influences of the 60s, without having the pressure of delivering "another" XTC record. When The Dukes released their first album, XTC repeatedly denied that they had authored these works, but by the time "Psunspot" was released, they were starting to admit openly that they were living a double musical life.
Favorite tracks: 1. Vanishing Girl, 4. You're a Good Man Albert Brown, 6. You're My Drug, 8. Brainiac's Daughter.
Label: Geffen Records
RIYL: XTC, The Three O'Clock, Todd Rundgren
Three stars.
myspace, XTC fansite writeup, wikipedia, AMG
Amazon: album
Rhapsody
Today we spoke with Kathleen McNamara about her new film, "Why Isn't Chris von Sneidern Famous?" Chris is a prolific power pop musician from the Bay Area, who has played with everyone from John Wesley Harding to Neko Case. Kathleen discussed Chris's career, the making of the film, and some of the powerful questions raised by the piece, such as "What is the meaning of 'success' as an artist?"
For more information about the film, visit Academy Avenue Films. Tickets for a local screening of the movie can be purchased at the San Francisco Film Society, for a 6:30pm showing at Landmark's Clay Theater in SF.
Here's what was played on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow for October 22, 2009:
** Featured Album
+ Former Feature
@ Request/Dedication
Palo Alto Pop Overthrow with Phil Andrews
Thursdays from 7-9AM PST/10-Noon EST
KZSU Stanford, 90.1FM / http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/
Blog at http://www.palopop.org/
| Artist | Track | Album/Label |
|---|---|---|
| Pernice Brothers, The | There Goes the Sun | Discover a Lovelier You Ashmont Records |
| Posies, the | Solar Sister | Frosting On The Beater Geffen Records |
| Yacht | Psychic City | See Mystery Lights Dfa Records |
| +Squeeze | The Day I Get Home | Play Reprise Records (Modern) |
| +Belles, the | Never Said Anything | Omerta' Lakeshore Records |
| +Kirsty Maccoll | Children of the Revolution | Electric Landlady Charisma (Modern) |
| +Light FM | Black Magic Marker | Black Magic Marker Devil in the Woods |
| Sloan | Will You Ever Love Me Again? | Action Pact Koch Records |
| +Newman, A.C. | The Palace at 4AM | Get Guilty Matador Records |
| Assistants, The | Stop Dead | Fiction Self |
| Finn, Liam & Eliza Jane | Won't Change My Mind | Champagne In Seashells Yep Roc Records |
| Fruit Bats | The Hobo Girl | Ruminant Band, The Sub Pop Records |
| Apples In Stereo, The | Energy | New Magnetic Wonder Yep Roc Records |
| McNamara, Kathleen | Introduction | Interview on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow http://www.academyavenuefilms.com |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | Big White Lies | Big White Lies Heyday Records |
| McNamara, Kathleen | Meeting Chris, deciding to make a film | Interview on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow http://www.academyavenuefilms.com |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | Doctor | Big White Lies Heyday Records |
| Harding, John Wesley | Kiss Me, Miss Liberty | New Deal Rhino Records |
| McNamara, Kathleen | Naming the film, Chris's Mother | Interview on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow http://www.academyavenuefilms.com |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | Life Start Living | Sight & Sound Heyday Records |
| Matt Pond PA | Snow Day | Winter Songs Polyvinyl |
| McNamara, Kathleen | Ticket Giveaway | Interview on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow http://www.academyavenuefilms.com |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | Mindreader | Big White Lies Heyday Records |
| Beach Boys, the | Wouldn't It Be Nice | Pet Sounds Capitol Records (Jazz) |
| McNamara, Kathleen | Goodbye! | Interview on the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow http://www.academyavenuefilms.com |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | London Pain | Searching the Muse self |
| Von Sneidern, Chris | Symphony of Love | California Redemption Value Mastromonia Records |
| Islands | Disarming The Car Bomb | Vapours Anti- / Epitaph |
+ Former Feature
@ Request/Dedication
Palo Alto Pop Overthrow with Phil Andrews
Thursdays from 7-9AM PST/10-Noon EST
KZSU Stanford, 90.1FM / http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/
Blog at http://www.palopop.org/
Friends, music geeks, and loyal power pop enthusiasts, we are back.
Tune in tomorrow for the next season of the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow, at the same time you've come to know at love: Thursdays from 7-9AM on the west coast (that's 10 to noon on the east coast.)
As always, Bay Area listeners you can tune over the airwaves at 90.1FM, and listeners around the world can check out the streams at KZSU live.
p.s. Special thanks are in order to Gabe McClelland for taking the Thursday morning shift while I was on vacation this summer.
Tune in tomorrow for the next season of the Palo Alto Pop Overthrow, at the same time you've come to know at love: Thursdays from 7-9AM on the west coast (that's 10 to noon on the east coast.)
As always, Bay Area listeners you can tune over the airwaves at 90.1FM, and listeners around the world can check out the streams at KZSU live.
p.s. Special thanks are in order to Gabe McClelland for taking the Thursday morning shift while I was on vacation this summer.
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