Stuarto Glasser, host of the All Around the World Music Show, called me up a little after 5pm Friday and asked if I could fill in for him. Thinking it would be a great way to attract a few more listeners I agreed. I headed home and put together a playlist of some of my favorite indie artists from around the world.

Friday evening was a mad house. Getting into the station wasn’t the issue, as I expect it will be in the coming weeks now that winter is upon us; it was the transition. Transitioning from one on-air personality to another is a bit nerve-wracking. The quarters are cramped, the mic is hot, and you have to do your best not to step on their toes as they wrap their show and you begin yours. And when it’s time to fly, you have to remember which buttons should …

The problem with so-called best-of lists, is that they are really just a collection of items organized based on experience and time, in that there will be plenty of albums heard the following year and beyond that will hold just as much weight as these we dub as “Best.” So, as of right now, at this particular time in the tail end of 2010 and the first moments of 2011, these albums are the best. There’s no question about it; it will change. My next list (which …

Creating a music video, in my opinion, should be about creating art. There are so many intricate elements that should go into a video that are so often left forgotten or, at least, unattended. First and foremost is the song itself — a video must compliment the art to which it is expanding from audio to video. Connecting the two is extremely important. Second is theme. The best videos have some storyline, vague or distinct. Or at least something visually interesting.

I am at a loss for words. The People’s Record, the latest by Swedish pop group Club 8, defies explanation. The band has always fit the pop mold, often flirting between dreamy electro-pop and indie pop sensibilities, but this new stuff has islands-ish percussion, playful guitars, and obscure keys. It’s as if their traditional Swedish pop took a tropical vacation. We heard it on the album’s first single “Western Hospitality” and it’s written all over their latest single, “Closer Now”. These new sounds are …

OK, I love this. True to recent videos by The Legends, a band fronted by Johan Angergård who also appears in Club 8, the video for “Western Hospitality” features dancing in a manner you wouldn’t typically expect. First, the mystic and masterful electro tune “Lucky Star” off Public Radio, then again briefly on “Always The Same” off the recent Over And Over. “Western Hospitality” is the latest hit by Club 8 and once again Angergård and counterpart Karolina Komstedt incorporate dancing into a video, this time by a …

Tonight I hit the kitchen to compile the second FensePost podcast, or FenseCast, while cooking up one of my signature dishes: spicy steak enchiladas with homemade sauce. For desert, a delicious slice of gluten free cake courtesy Andi (the girlfriend), whose cake photo you can see in this post. Unlike the first podcast, this one had a range of bands that stemmed into several genres rather than focusing on garage rock and pop. Within I reminisce on one of my favorite bands of all time, occasionally hover …

The Sweet Serenades are, well, just that; a sweet compilation of all things happy or sad, in mourning or bliss. This Swedish duo look as though they could be pounding lagers amongst muscly, flanneled woodsmen, but damned if they wouldn’t hesitate to break into a beautiful ballad at any moment. “Die Young”, from their amazing album Balcony Cigarettes, is a beautiful track serenading (pun, intended) one of the greatest yet most heartbreaking mistakes human beings can make: the one night stand. With guest vocals from Club 8’s …

It’s long been my opinion that anything Johan Angergård touches magically turns to gold. This belief has stood strong with all his projects, from The Legends to Acid House Kings. Club 8 has consistently come third on that list, but with “Western Hospitality” from the forthcoming The People’s Record, everything is about to change. It’s not that The Boy Who Wouldn’t Stop Dreaming didn’t have merit — it most certainly did. It just wasn’t as powerful as more recent albums by the other two, Over And Over …

The third installment of A Retrospective, this time the focus is on 2002. The year of rebuilding, so to speak. It was the year I discovered Cider Jack (and did so plentifully) at the local Pullman bar Rico’s, and we all would rehearse Bill Brasky skits (from the SNL spots, and made up on the spot) as twenty feet away the university jazz combo performed excellent renditions of Van Morrison’s “Moondance” and various Motown favorites. As we see every year, 2002 saw several real great releases. …