We are right in the middle of summer, the days feel long, but that doesn’t mean the music stops! Thanks to lots of hours from tireless volunteers, KSPC has a ton of new music being played and replayed by our Summer DJs. Check out thee albums and artists that round out the Top 30 this week.

Leading the pack is Jaill with his newest album, Traps.

Listen to a track off oft his fantastic summer release:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9yg5w922yI

KSPC TOP 30

1          Jaill       Traps   Sub Pop Records

2          Dent May         Do Things         Paw Tracks

3          Treasure Mammal         Checkognize     Kingdom Mammalia

4          Ty Segall  Band            Slaughterhouse In the Red

5          Caught a Ghost Caught A Ghost            Self-Released

6          Dirty Ghosts     Metal Moon     Last Gang Records Inc.

7          Dirty Projectors            Swing Lo Magellan       Domino

8          Electric Guest   Mondo Downtown

9          Happy Hands Club       Parking Lot      Luxury

10        Prinzhorn Dance School            Clay Class        DFA

11        S.C.U.M.         Again Into Eyes            Mute

12        Saint Motel       Voyeur On the Records

13        Sleigh Bells       Reign of Terror Mom & Pop

14        Thee Oh Sees   Carrion Crawler/The Dream     In the Red

15        Alabama Shakes           Boys & Girls    ATO Records

16        The Intelligence Everybody’s Got It Easy But Me           In the Red

17        American Gospel          Tall Tales Vol. 1           American Gospel

18        Connor Youngblood     GOLD Self Released

19        Fenster Bones   Morr Music

20        Imagine Dragons           Continued Silence EP   Kid Ina Korner/Interscope

21        Japandroids      Celebration Rock         Polyvinyl Records

22        Mondo Ray      Hypnotized 7    Windian

23        Pins of Light     II          Alternative Tentacles

24        Squarepusher   Ufabulum          WARP

25        The Magnetic Fields     Love at the Bottom of the Sea   Merge

26        Ponytail            Do Whatever You Want All the Time    We Are Free

27        Lower Dens     Nootropics       Ribbon Music

28        Herzog Cartoon Violence         Exit Stencil

29        Hank Haint       blackout           Voodoo Rhythm

30        Tender Trap     Dansette Dansette         Slumberland

On Monday, July 2^nd, tune in to “Flowerhours” with Lilly to hear an in-studio by Claire Cronin! Claire Cronin is an artist who makes songs, performances, poems, and visual work. She has done collaborative performances, experimental theatre pieces, and workshops at The Hammer Museum, LACE, the Experimental Meditation Center, Telic’s Public School, Public Fiction, and many other alternative art spaces across Los Angeles. Cronin also performs regularly as a singer-songwriter.  Her most recent EP, “Proof of Names,” was recorded and self-released with Neil Holyoak of the Montreal band Holy Oak in summer 2011.

Photo Courtesy of clairecronin.com

“Flowerhours” is every Monday from 4-6pm. Cronin’s set will be broadcast live just after 4pm on the 2^nd. For more information on Cronin’s music and art, please visit her website at www.clairecronin.com.

Larry will interview Bob Sullivan, leader/drummer of the group, and Gustavo Ramirez, its Cuban piano virtuoso, to learn what the group is all about prior to its performance at the Hip Kitty Jazz & Fondue in Claremont on Sunday, July 8. Be sure to tune in to this interview and hear some great tracks from The Happiness Band’s new CD.

Walk the Line by Winona Bechtle

As your trusty and humble summer music director here at KSPC, I am the only person responsible for approving (or in most cases, remaining skeptical of) the constant stream of music that comes into KSPC. While I do try to keep an open mind, program new things into each and every genre, and read up on all of our listener’s favorite labels and releases, it’s impossible to keep my taste out of it. And I’ll be the first to admit, my taste is, well, quite forgiving.

I listen to a bit of everything, and I generally like it. Without hesitation I will tell you of my affinity for ABBA, or the way I dance madly to the B-52s every time they come on the radio. Hey, I’ll give everything a try.

I gushed to Joseph just yesterday about how wonderful Dan Fogelberg was, I mean, the man’s album covers look like this:

That’s not to say I don’t listen to awesome music. I love everything we play at KSPC and have a genuine appreciation for talented, indie bands. But I don’t limit myself to it. And in the same vein of my permitting taste, I bring you to something at which music snobs turn the other cheek, I bring something that can remake and bedazzle a song, or just as easily destroy it forever in your mind, tainting and dismembering beloved classics. My friends, I present to you the COVER SONG.

Cover songs are something that I admit can go terribly wrong. But. I. Can’t. Stop. Listening. To. Them.

It’s not that I don’t think Prince is brilliant, but Dump’s cover of “The Beautiful Ones” brings the song to life in such a way that I can’t believe they’re from the same block of musical marble. So imagine when I saw the compilation album in the library called “‘Til Things Are Brighter…” and noticed it was an eclectic bunch of Johnny Cash covers from various UK, self-described “postmodernists.” This was a trainwreck I just had to hear.

But! Alas! It was…. good. And I don’t think that’s the Fogelberg side of me speaking. The songs are catchy, fun, downright punchy. Thoughtful, even. I wouldn’t say they come anywhere near to surpassing the original Man in Black, but Stephen Mallinder’s cover of I Walk the Line is well done and somber.

I’m not saying to go crazy and listen to every cover ever produced. I admit, there are some stinkers. But they can be fun. Camp can be fun, and occasionally, not all that campy. So c’mon… give it a chance. Find this album, and sing along, I know you know the words.

Unusual Animals by Jojo

If you read last week’s post, you know I am a fragile human and that the arduous vinyl hunt required for these posts brings me to the brink of insanity. Many of our vinyl compilations are stained with my tears.

This week, however, the hunt was not so self-destructive. To be completely honest, I phoned it in a bit hunting-wise. I briefly perused our split records and pulled the first interesting vinyl I saw. This does NOT mean, however, that the music is worse in any way. The release I’m droppin’ on y’all is a split 7″ from Asthmatic Kitty. Asthmatic Kitty is probably most notable for being indie/regular-darling Sufjan Stevens’s label. Hilariously and self-parodically in tune with Sufjan’s image, his official title is “Minister of Aesthetics,”* which probably means he lounges on a bamboo chaise-lounge popping grapes and sending out memos via carrier finch.

I may be caricaturing the man a bit, but I’m fairly certain ol’ Soofy had a delicate, banjo-pickin’ hand in the 7″ series in which this record belongs. Called Unusual Animals, each 7″ features a picture of an “unusual” animal on the front and includes some facts about the animal in the liner notes. I was blessed enough to stumble upon Vol. 4 of the series, the one for the West Indian Manatee (aka Trichechus Manatus), an animal of which Native Americans apparently the bones to treat “earaches and asthma.”

The b-side to this split is a cover of the Steely Dan song “Peg” by the band Cryptacize. Cryptacize is Nedelle Torrisi and ex-Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen. Steely Dan, of course, are the smoothest MFers around. If you haven’t heard the original, it sounds like the beginning of every ’80s sitcom. I highly recommend watching this fantastic fan-made video:

Cryptacize tone down Charles-In-Charge vibe of the original, opting for some light guitar and keyboard work, a minimal groove and Nedelle’s pretty vocals. For an optimal listening experience, I recommend closing your eyes and imagining Sufjan Stevens floating in his private meditation pool with his West Indian Manatee, Sebastian.

realCryptacize – Peg

* http://asthmatickitty.com/info.php

– Jojo

Hello KSPC listeners!

As you may know, KSPC has been using Spinitron’s playlist service for almost a year now, and it has been great! We recently discovered that Spinitron also hosts a live chatroom connected to the on-air DJ’s playlist.

You can access KSPC’s Spinitron account by going to www.spinitron.com and clicking on KSPC’s name in the list of radio stations on the left side of the page.  On our playlist will be a window that gives you the option to join the chat with the DJ.

What this means is that we are immediately eliminating all the kspcrequest accounts (kspcrequest@yahoo.com, kspcrequest@hotmail.com, kspcrequest@gmail.com) to work toward a full transition to Spinitron. Until everyone gets familiar with Spinitron, we are keeping the trusty ol’ kspcdj AIM screenname active. However, we will be doing a full transition before summer is over.

To review:

1. All kspcrequest clients will be immediately eliminated.
2. The AIM account kspcdj will be available alongside Spinitron chat for the time being.
3. We will eventually shift completely to Spinitron chat.

Thanks for bearing with us during this change, we believe it will be a better way to connect with our listeners and much easier for you!

For now, head over to the Interviews page to listen to an interview of the legendary Ian Mackaye, led by resident DJs Special K and Nino!

Ninja Tune Records gives you 49 of its best releases from the past two years, pulling from all genres (hip hop, electronica, indie/underground, loud rock). Everyone’s sure to find something they like on the compilation, no matter what musical taste you’re into, which is why it’s no surprise that this week’s #1 album is also the #1 hip hop album for the week and the #1 electronic album for the week. Ninja Tune RULES!

This is KSPC’s #1 album for the week of November 24, 2008.
Click here to see the full KSPC charts for that week.
Click here to see the full KSPC charts for the current week.

!IMPORTANT: THIS EVENT IS FOR STUDENTS OF THE 5-Cs ONLY !

*sponsored by KSPC 88.7 FM and CCLA Live Arts

Last week, Brooklyn’s So-So Glos made it to Claremont for a KSPC-sponsored show on Pitzer College campus. With little surprise then do we announce that this week’s #1 album is their second full-length release, “Tourism/Terrorism.” Identifying themselves as Punk / Rock / Tropical, the band rocks out pretty hard in a strangely “Spanish Bombs” sort of way.

This is KSPC’s #1 album for the week of November 17, 2008.
Click here to see the full KSPC charts for that week.
Click here to see the full KSPC charts for the current week.