Each year I shun Christmas music like it’s the plague. It begins too early, is far too repetitive, and, quite frankly, is a bit boring. That is, until this year. It began with “The Week Between”, a new track off One Christmas at a Time, an LP that finds Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick (The Long Winters) collaborating for a full album of original Christmas music. (more…)

A new Teen Daze song is like a wrapped gift. You almost never know what you’re going to get. “Union”, off the band’s forthcoming LP The Inner Mansions is a perfect example. The song features Frankie Rose and mixes fuzzy pop sensibilities with the part beach, part chill, part dream pop Teen Daze has flirted with over the past few years. The song begins strong with hazy guitars and joint vocals from Rose and Teen Daze’s Jamison. Then “Union” morphs into something a bit calmer. (more…)

It’s fund drive time at KSVR and KSVU, and that means spending a little extra time in the studio. I arrived early and accompanied Stuarto during his show then he accompanied me during mine. I snapped the above shot of Stuarto before I took over the mic. He had an oldies theme going, playing tunes by the Rolling Stones, The Supremes, Willie Nelson and many, many more. My show, par the usual, was filled with the new. (more…)

It is happening again. After two dormant weeks of doing virtually nothing (OK, very little is more like it), evenings this week were spent spinning vinyl by The Smiths and painting Andi’s sewing room in preparation for putting in the bamboo flooring this weekend. (more…)

I wasn’t originally planning on doing a show this evening, but decided to take my normal spot behind the microphone anyway. So the playlist didn’t begin coming together until the evening of. There was no theme, it was all variety; folk to electronic to noise rock. (more…)

This show began like any other, but without the transition difficulties. All was smooth. The music, on the other hand, was not. After a long, satisfying week, I was in need of some loud, abrasive rock music. But it wasn’t all like that. Due to the cold weather, I mixed in some beach pop, fuzzy dream pop and good old garage rock and pop. (more…)

My did I love that Beach Dreams EP by Teen Daze. It perfectly encapsulated those late winter days, when we all longed for sunnier weather. Now that things are warming up, Teen Daze is back with a new EP and this time they’ve got Waaga Records behind them. The first track is “Surface” and it’s filled with mesmerizing loops and echoing instrumentation. (more…)

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 I’ve started, but may take a while to publish) is dubbed, paraphrase: the best albums I didn’t check out in 2011 for some reason or another. (more…)

Oh this chill, lo-fi style of pop never seems to get old. It’s good in the summertime, when days are hot and nothing seems better than to sit in the shade with a cold beer or hide in a dark room with the air conditioning full blast. And it’s good in the winter, when you long for those summer moments while cozily wrapped in warm blankets. Beach Dreams by Teen Daze captures these feelings and puts them to song with an overall fuzzy haze of goodness. (more…)