Blog Director

Greetings, music fans everywhere! Today is College Radio Day. What, you might ask, is that (if you didn’t just click on the link)? Well, it’s a day to appreciate and celebrate everything good about college radio–the new music everyone gets to hear, the DJs learning skills and spinning sweet tracks for an audience outside just their circle of friends, and the connections between stations and people that form through our shared love of music.

I have this friend who, whenever I play her a new album, immediately rattles off a list of all the bands it reminds her of. Although most of the time I can completely see how the gruff edge of a singer’s voice could reminds her of The National, or how a frenzy of synthesized beats could evoke Discovery, for some reason this drives me crazy. As soon as the list becomes a weird four-part hybrid (“It’s totally like…Miike Snow meets Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear, with a little Animal Collective…”) I wonder why it can’t just be a fabulous experience of new music.

Larry the Fox's interview of Jazz Vocalist/Bassist & Educator Kristin Korb on Larry's show "Claremont Straight Ahead", on April 18, 2011, has been posted to the KSPC website (https://kspc.org/interviews.asp). Check it out!

This week at KSPC tUnE-yArDs have the top album of the week! Yeah tUnE-yArDs! w h o k i l l is the sophomore album of Merrill Garbus’s project and we have a full review of the album here for you guys to read! Tune in to KSPC 88.7FM to hear more and check out after the jump to read the rest of the charts from this week.

Well, the new Tune-Yards album rules.

On her new album w h o k i l l, Merrill Garbus spends 40 minutes doing what I like best: looping shit. Throughout the album, layers upon layers of noises are piled up to create endless soundscapes, at first seemingly random and rather abrasive. However, these collections of sounds twist and turn into some sort of melody that, God knows how, can for real get stuck in your head. I keep finding myself trying to hum along to heavily-distorted and hard-to-listen-to vocals over blaring saxophone, as is the general feel of “Gangsta”, as if that is even possible. (I fail, of course.) Also note the (French?) police siren that opens the song. I think that acknowledgement alone captures the general essence of Tune-Yards sound on w h o k i l l.

Congratulations to The Babies for having the top played album on KSPC last week! Their self titled album was put out by Shrimper and is the collaborative product of Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone and Woods’ bassist Kevin Morby. Oh, and it rules. Tune into KSPC 88.7FM or listen online to hear more from them, and check out the rest of the Top 30 after the jump!

Virtuoso Jazz Vocalist & Bassist Kristin Korb will be a guest on Larry The Fox's show, "Claremont Straight Ahead", at about 1:00 pm on Monday, April 18, 2011, prior to her gig at the Hip Kitty Jazz & Fondue in…

The Mountain Goats inspire intense reactions—usually positive ones, but even the most rabid of fans might qualify their fandom. Starting with 2002’s Tallahassee, the Mountain Goats transitioned from lo-fi, homemade recordings featuring only singer-songwriter John Darnielle to professional studio recordings with a full band. This drastic alteration in style—previously the Mountain Goats had even been known to record on a boom box—inspired the aforementioned split in the fan base. Since 2002 the band—still only Darnielle, really, but featuring a rotating lineup of other musicians—has produced seven albums, the latest of which is called All Eternals Deck and which was our most-played album here at KSPC last week. It’s their most obviously produced yet, and sounds increasingly like straight-up indie rock a la the Hold Steady, with more focus on the instrumental musicians that decreases the customary spotlight on Darnielle. Otherwise, All Eternals Deck sounds, well, like a Mountain Goats release. This means that you can expect a lot of acoustic guitar, one or two surprisingly jagged-edged tunes mixed in among the wistful melancholy, and plenty of spiky, literate lyrics that unfurl their poetic meaning gradually, rewarding repeated listens.

Peter Pants

On Saturday, April 9, with the help of numerous other 5C organizations, CCLA Live Arts hosted Vajammin’, a festival showcasing female achievements in the music industry. The one day event took place throughout the afternoon and evening at Pomona College on the South Lawn (and was later moved indoors to Doms Lounge due to temporarily inclement weather). With several hundred students and community members in attendance, Vajammin’ was a huge success! Check out the set list, links, and more pictures after the jump.