Last week NME published their list of the top 100 Britpop songs. I decided to compile as many of them as I could into a Spotify playlist in ascending order. If you’re not familiar with Britpop now, you will be by the time you get to Pulp’s “Common People”, which holds to top spot according to the editors.  You’ve got many hours of listening in front of you. Thankfully, it’s mostly pleasant.

With genre mainstays Pulp, Blur, Oasis, Suede, Supergrass and The Boo Radleys well represented in the list, the editors did their research and included many forgotten (at least by me) gems, as well as tracks I’d never heard before...

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:20:41 — 110.9MB)

It’s a new episode of the Danger Radio Podcast! This may be the best one yet. We’ve got a load of new tracks mixed in with some absolute classics. Give it a listen.

PLAYLIST:
The Laurels – Endeavor
Verbal Kint’s Gone – Doomsday Killer
Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean
Parlour Flames – Manchester Rain
The Mighty Lemon Drops – Out Of Hand
Sulk – If You Wonder
Lilys – Any Several Sundays
Pete Fij & Terry Bickers – Betty Ford
Welcome Pariah – Neither Here Nor There
Johnny Marr – New Town Velocity
The Dandy Warhols – The Last High
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – When Joker’s Attack
Elephant Stone – Setting Sun
Division of Laura Lee – Rudderless
Weepikes – Nothing But A Soar
Throwing Muses – Fish
The Pixies – Alec Eiffel
Joy Division – Wars...

By now most folks know where I stand on the present sensitive folk movement.  Mainly that I’m over it.  So today I thought I would prove I’m capable of more than just bitching and post some bands I actually like.  And no, none of them formed in the 90’s.

In my latest search for bands with balls, I realized a lot of the music I’m hearing and liking. with real heart, is being made by women.  Not that this is a revelation; women have been making substantive rock music for a long time, from Janis Joplin to PJ Harvey to Karen O.  But unlike other women I’ve known, I’ve never been the kind of fan who uses gender to differentiate musicians.  And as a musician myself, many of my own idols and mentors have been men, something which has never been an issue for me one way or the other...

SULK ’s “Graceless” is one of the Albums of the Year. It is going to take a massive effort from anyone out there to keep it from being The Album of the Year. I initially balked at the thought of writing a review for “Graceless”. However, when albums this good come around, I feel obligated to sing their praises.

What would have happened if The Stone Roses hadn’t wet the bed at the most prominent time of asking? Would it have sounded anything like SULK? Maybe. Maybe not. SULK is too much a product of their time to be lumped in as a throwback with the Britpop lot. What SULK really are, are a band that is the perfect storm of all their influences. This is a characteristic shared by all great bands...

It’s not all “Grohl’s a hypocrite” this and “people in clubs are dicks” that here in the underground headquarters of YMIA. Sometimes music puts a smile on our face – lots of times actually. So, here’s where we take some time to stop pissing and moaning about Mumford and all of his many sons to expose you to some of the new songs that we believe will turn your grimace into an honest smile less of a grimace.

Take a few minutes and give these songs your ear. You’ll be better for it.

1.) Wooden Indian Burial Ground – “Helicopter”

Tour Dates:
May 7th – Portland, OR – The Know
May 8th – Seattle, WA – Sunset Tavern
May 9th – Sandpoint, ID – Downtown Crossing
May 10th – Missoula, MT – Ole Beck VFW
May 11th – Bozeman, MT – Filling Station
May 12th – Minneap...

“Since when did it become cool to become part of the establishment?” This question was posed to me by a friend walking across our university alma mater’s campus during the 2004 presidential election. The wash of Bush/Cheney signs from dorm room windows was simply soul crushing. However, by 2004 this wave of late teen/early twenties capitulation and “my dad is my best friend” culture had been firmly entrenched. The time had long passed since the need for a true counterculture in the US would wedge itself into the discourse via the youth.

In the Dave Grohl meme making the rounds on facebook, Dave Grohl rightly romanticizes his garage days in Nirvana...

You know how every club always has that one complete dick?  Well, follow these easy steps, and that dick can be you, my friend.  And ladies, you don’t have to be a dude to be the biggest dick at the club.  This simple guide can be applied to either gender for universal dickishness.

It’s Friday night.  You’ve put up with bullshit at your job all week, and tonight you’re going out and getting hammered.  You’re going to walk into that club like your daddy owns the place, get your dance on, and wake-up next to a poor judgment-call snoring in your bed.

1.) You’ll need to begin by suppressing all basic codes of social conduct. When you were a child, your mother worked hard to teach you manners...

Our friend Phil recently posted this gem while he was prepping himself for his visit to Coachella. I was in the Mercury Cafe when this happened… this fantastic show by Blur. I wasn’t in the room where it was taking place though. A conman had convinced my roommates that he worked for Virgin – and being that my roommates were aspiring musicians it was an easy con – and in exchange for letting him couch surf in our house for a couple of days would ensure our entry into the show. While I can cite several instances as being this man’s lone detractor (that is until he disappeared in the middle of the night with several items belonging to my roommates at which point everyone got on board) I must have believed him enough to not bother securing my own tickets...

 Preface: I DJ for a living, and have probably been guilty at one time or another of most of the things I will talk about in this ongoing series. Whether that gives me more or less right to bitch about them is not something I really give a shit about.

Stuff I Hate About DJs: Episode 1 “Musical Blue Balls”

Most of us have experienced it – you’re on the dance-floor getting down to a song you love, and right when it’s getting to the good part the DJ inexplicably mixes into a new song. You’re left standing there, the next words to the song you were dancing to a moment ago stillborn in your throat and that awesome dance move you were ready to make discarded like a two week old Top 40 hip-hop song...

A Place To Bury Strangers‘ exclusive Record Store Day release “Strange Moon,” is a tribute to Portland punk veterans Dead Moon on 12″ colored vinyl (for those vinyl fetishists out there).  In conjunction with the record, the band released this statement:

“I first saw Dead Moon perform around 1992. Dead Moon was my friends favorite band and soon to become one of mine. It was the first of many shows he booked for them and I was lucky enough to get to know and play along side Fred, Toody and Andrew. They played before a band and proceeded to usurp the room with their straight up, stripped back, raw honesty and unbelievably great songs. Since joining A Place To Bury Strangers, we haven’t recorded a single cover, until now...