Radio Free David Blog

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We’re lining up the hot ones!

And in today’s case, that means we’re treating you to a concert! A couple of them, in fact! We’ve been releasing a lot of new music lately; it’s time to get back to the concert scene… and today’s selections we’re particularly happy with with.

First up is Sister Hazel and their Live Live album. Formed in 1993 in Gainesville, Florida, Sister Hazel has a unique blend of music…but importantly for today, they really tear up a concert venue. We’re think their Live Live release captures the essence of their concert: you can feel the energy and you’ll catch yourself singing along with the audience as well. If you happen to pull out a lighter to wave it in the air, well, don’t say we didn’t warn you. These songs were recorded in September 2003 at The House of Blues in Orlando, Florida and The Masquerade club in Tampa, Florida.

We’re adding Change Your Mind, Your Mistake and Your Winter (featured on the soundtrack of the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”). And, we’ve replaced our studio version of Happy with the live version… when you listen to this one, you’ll understand completely, and this is what live discs are all about. Sister Hazel just takes off in the middle of the song and extends it… we’re not big fans of artists that play the studio version live, and this track exemplifies what we get into on a live album. The song is… simply great! Although their hit, All For You, appears on this album, we’ve opted to stay with the acoustic version that we’re already running, since we’re quite partial to that one. The entire 2 CD set, Live Live, is a darn good release and one of our favorites.

Next up is Blue October’s Argue With A Tree… live album, recorded at the Lakewood Theatre in Dallas Friday June 4, 2004. This is type of release is what we really enjoy here. Someone pressed “Record” at the beginning of the concert and then pressed “Stop” at the end of it… and everything in between ended up on this nice two disc collection, just as it happened. The experience is just wonderful and as you close your eyes you truly get the feeling of being there. Truly, this too is what live releases are all about and we can’t say thank you enough to Blue October for this wonderful release. In the concert, the raw emotion clearly comes through, and Justin bares his soul, and a part of his personal life, right there for everyone.

We’re adding the songs Calling You (which was featured on the “American Wedding” soundtrack) and Inner Glow. However, the entire album is well worth a listen.

As always,
enjoy!
david

Thanks to Tim at the Adrenaline Music Group, we’ve got three more exciting artists for you today. And this is new music, too, not yet available in the stores (but it will be soon)! We’ve been chatting with Tim, and he’s hooked us up… we think you’re going to like these guys!

The Appearance is a new band and is being promoted through underground radio. Although we’re actually above ground (*ahem*), we’re still delighted to play their single Lost In Aurora, for their upcoming album Lost In Aurora. It’s catchy, it’s got a hook and you’ll find yourself sorry that the song ended–but that’s OK, because the best thing to do in this case is simply play it again. The Appearance describes themselves as veterans of the “fertile California music scene” and their music bears that out, for sure. The Appearance is: Alan Oakes (Lead vocals,lyricist, guitars),
Chad Kulengosky (Vocals, lead guitars), Jason Nelwon (Bass) and Justin McCarthy (Drums).

Next up is Point One and their single Monochrome Mistress. Monochrome Mistress is a little bit on the edgy side of our playlist, to be sure, but yet we still like it. Even though it is not a typical song for us, we figure that variety is the spice of life, and a change is sometimes good. Anyway, we’re all about diversity…

And finally we present The Bastard Fairies. I’ve thought long and hard about how to properly introduce you to them, yet words completely elude me. They are…unique (and unique in a good way, mind you!). We’re running the song Guns And Dolls, which is an extremely haunting number. The more I listen to it, the more subtlety I find within it… The Bastard Faires are Yellow Thunder Woman and Robin Davey… and definitely worth a listen.

They have a unique sound, to say the least. What is very cool about them (in addition to their music) is that they are encouraging you to download their entire album Memmento Mori, for free (yes, free). All they ask is that you do one simple thing: spread it around. We love this approach to music! We adore this approach! You can find their album here, and what have you got to lose?

Thank you, Tim, for passing these guys along to us.

As always, enjoy!
david

Deerhoof is an experimental band from San Francisco, but experimental or not, they’ve certainly hit the big time with their new album, Friend Opportunity. Deerhoof is not exactly noted for their, ah, conventional, song structures, but they offer a compelling sound. This album was recorded in John Dieterich’s bedroom, of all places (with a little later overdubbing), but you would never know that. It is full of quirks and surprises and well worth a listen.

There are some nice cuts from this album, and we’re running The Perfect Me, +81, Believe E.S.P. and Matchbook Seeks Maniac. We like the sound and the style, and hope you do as well!

Notorious LIZ has been at it again… and this time, it’s The Strange she has passed our way. The Strange has a really great sound, insprired by the Pink Floyd, Jeff Buckley, Robert Plant, Freddy Mercury, and John Lennon. But they also feel a connection to music from the jazz masters from the 50s and 60s, and realize that a lot of today’s music has strayed from these roots. Not The Strange! In fact, their CD, The Strange, is full of wonderful harmonics and presents an awesome sonic soundscape. We had a hard time putting the CD down long enough to get it on the air, in fact. But, we knew that you’ll like these guys, too, and so here we all are.

We’re running several cuts from this CD. Texas, of course, is their single and a good one at that. We also like Hero In Me and Shadows is right up our alley. In fact, Shadows is a wonderfully haunting tune that will you find yourself humming to yourself later. It’s just that infectious.

I’ve been talking with The Strange today, too. What a GREAT group of guys and you really need to check them out. They passed a link on to their video of Texas, too, and what better way to check them out than with their video? Enjoy! (And thanks, Eric, for getting us lyrics and everything. We really appreciate your support!)

By the way, these guys are totally independent and, in my mind, what music is all about. Let’s be sure and support the independents, shall we? After all, it’s all about the music and how else can we show our love and support without listening to them?

We like new artists… in fact, we do our best to get new and exciting music on the air for you. So, with that, in we welcome The Boogie Hustlers to our playlist today. We had their CD, 122 Ellsworth, literally put into our hot little hands. As we were looking at the cover, the CD was placed into our player. Before we could even wonder what was going on, the “play” button was pushed, the volume was cranked up and we were happily listening. The Boogies Hustlers hail from Pittsburgh, PA, and in their own words are “rooted in heavy pocket grooves of funky soul and jazz artists of past and present”. They have a nice tight sound and we really like them. They are, for the most part, a slightly different feel from what we usually run, but one song we just had to play for you: Hit It Runnin’.

One other thing, too. These guys are sneaky… there, way out past a long silence at the end of the CD hangs one extra track. This track doesn’t have any words, but boy oh boy does it sound great! So great, in fact, that we’re running it. We typically don’t do instrumental only pieces, but this one… this one is laid back, yet very nice. In it goes, labeled as Train after their last official track on the CD.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

We pride ourselves on having a wide variety and selection of music here at Radio Free David. Sometimes that means brand new music from brand new artists. But that is definitely not the case today…

In fact, we’re jumping in the Way Back Machine and heading back to 1970 at the Fillmore East. And who is playing there? Why Neil Young and Crazy Horse! In late 2006 Neil Young opened up his archives and released Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Live At The Fillmore East, which represents a small section of a typical concert (the acoustic portion that he usually played before Crazy Horse came onstage is missing, sadly, but we will take what we can get). The sound quality is absolutely great and this provides a wonderful glimpse into some great rocking shows. This album suits us really well… it is rock at its best with some awesome musicianship, its live, and the versions are long. Talk about something we have to run!

So, we’ve added Cowgirl In The Sand, Down By The River and Winterlong. We think you will enjoy this trip down memory lane.

And, as long as we’re in a way back mood, let’s add in some early Peter Gabriel, too.

We’re adding selections from his Plays Live album, recorded in the early 80s during a midwest United States tour. Peter Gabriel is a very good live performer, and his shows are entertaining, to say the least. But this particular album took some serious heat–before he released it, he “cleaned up” the tracks in his studio, which upset some folks. After all, what good is buying a live album if it isn’t exactly the way the concert happened? We can see both points of view… but there is just one way to find out, and that is to let you be the judge.

We like this album because it covers his first four albums nicely and is a good guide to his early material. In particular, we think he has some energy and punch and we think that comes through, so we’re not being shy about adding cuts from it. And hey, it’s live, and you know how we feel about live material.

We’re adding I Have The Touch, Shock The Monkey (how can we NOT run this one?), Biko and Intruder (from his third album, a very fine album indeed), As long as we were at it, we replaced the previous version of Solsbury Hill (from his Secret World Live album) with this one. We just feel this is a stronger version.

As always,
enjoy!
david

It’s kind of a downtempo day…

We’re adding two more Barenaked Ladies tracks (from their compilation CD Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991-2001)): What A Good Boy and Thanks That Was Fun. Both of these are classic Barenaked Ladies, and Thanks That Was Fun certainly is an emotional track and well worth the listen. We think these two tracks are a good addition for us.

As we were putting back our Barenaked Ladies CD we noticed Sting’s Nothing Like The Sun CD sitting there (yes, we know. “S” is not close to “B”. We’re not very good at the alphabet some days…) and started looking at it. And what do you know? There are two more good tracks on there that we need to play for you! We’ve added Fragile and Be Still My Beating Heart. Sure, they’re not exactly uptempo, but they are also good listening, and that’s what counts.

And then that led us to look at Ten Summoner’s Tales. Now that we are in a Sting mood, we decided to go ahead and add It’s Probably Me, which certainly belongs in our main rotation.

And then that led us to take a quick peek at Brand New Day, where we promptly ended up adding Brand New Day and Desert Rose.

And… that lead us back to The Dream Of The Blue Turtles with the cut Shadows In The Rain. (We actually prefer this version to the one The Police did on Zenyatta Mondatta.)

We think that’s enough for now. We have more Sting, but we’ll save those albums for another day.
Enjoy!
david

We’ve always been committed to bringing you the best possible versions of the songs we all love. Sometimes, that means that have to make adjustments in our playlist. Today is one of those days. We’re making some adjustments in our Pink Floyd lineup by adding two new albums: the absolutely classic Dark Side Of The Moon and Pulse.

We’ve long run, almost from the beginning in fact, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here from the Delicate Sound Of Thunder album. However, we’ve made the decision to replace that version with the one from Pulse. Pulse was slammed by some critics when it came out. They didn’t find a lot of nice things to say about it, and the album was even called “dull”. Like we’re buying that… because we’re not. Even though the music is tightly synchronized to their laser light show (we sure do wish we could bring you laser lights in your media player. Our engineers are working mightily on that, but so far, they haven’t had a lot of luck. Soon, perhaps…) there are some great cuts here. And, they even play the entire Dark Side Of The Moon album during the concert. What’s not to like? But, we digress. We are particularly captivated by this version of Wish You Were Here, so as of today, we’re running the one from Pulse.

We’re replaced the standard studio version of Run Like Hell (from The Wall) with live version from Pulse as well. We just feel this version has a lot of energy to it and it needs to go into our rotation.

We’ve also added Time from Pulse as well. (Like how we just tossed that in?)

Then, since we were messing with The Wall, we decided we really needed Young Lust in rotation. In that went, too.

And from the Dark Side Of The Moon album, we’ve added Money. Call us crazy, but in this case, we prefer the studio version.

Finally a note that we thought we would address. We run Shine On You Crazy Diamond from Roger Waters and not Pink Floyd as you might expect. And every now and then we catch some comments out this seemingly odd choice. We do this for a very simple reason, basically. Roger Waters wrote this as a tribute for Sid Barrett and the song is wonderfully poignant. However, when performed by Pink Floyd, it is David Gilmour singing, and not Roger. We’re running the version from In The Flesh because Roger finally sings the song he wrote and we like that sentimentality. A lot, in fact. So, even though the Pink Floyd version may indeed be “better”, we really appreciate Roger singing the song he wrote. Besides, he does a very good job and Snowy White does an excellently on the guitars so we’re going to leave this version just where it stands.

As always,
enjoy
david

We continue adding new and exciting artists to our radio playlist this week, and extend a warm welcome to Aura and Umeed.

Aura is an LA based band that is absolutely chock full of energy. Made up of Maura Murphy (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting), Nick Johnson (guitar), Nick Freeling (bass), and Warren Johnson (drums) their sound is bright, crisp and tight. And… it rocks right along, too. And we’re not the only one who thinks that. Aura won the award for Best Female Indie Vocalist of the Year (2006), and All Access Magazine’s Best Female Rock Vocalist of the Year (2006). Maura, in other words, can seriously sing and her voice is lovely, powerful and very captivating. She does a wonderful job on the songwriting, and you’ll find yourself listening to her songs quite a few times (we did!).

We’re running two great tracks from Aura: Lead Me On and Love Is A Drug from their album Between Reality And A Dream. You can purchase this CD at CD Baby, and we encourage you to spend just $6.00 to support artists such as Aura. At $6.00, it is an absolute bargain!

Umeed is a Portuguese band that reached out to us about their music. We took a listen and figured that we just had to share their music with you. Made up of Pedro Peles (vocals, guitars), Silverio Ferreira (drums), Hugo Sarmento (guitars, keyboard), and Marco Almeida (bass, violin) they have a pretty unique sound. In their own words, they “want to make a new reading of rock in its entire dimension, using strong melodic guitars and a voice that conveys all the emotions present in this text”. That, and they can rock, too, and we found our toes tapping right along.

We’re running two tracks from the album Hustle And Bustle: Dazzling Flag and Thousand Colour Ad.

As always, enjoy the tunes and don’t forget to rate the songs!
Enjoy,
david

We’re really happy when we get to run great new music for you… and today is another good day for us all!

First up is SuperGiant, out of Albuquerque, New Mexico (and since we broadcast out of New Mexico, these guys are local to us). They tag themselves with “FUZZ is the REVOLUTION!” and that caught our eye. They have a good heavy groove which is putting it mildly. But they tie their sound together with, as they put it eloquently, “mix of passionate vocals, lyrics, and atmospheric sonic journeys laced with creamy heavy groove-oriented power rock n’ roll.” We completely agree and once we heard them, just knew that we had to put them on!

So, we’ve added two songs from their self-titled EP “SuperGiant”: Luna and Love Away. They will certainly get your feet tapping and you’ll want to listen to these guys again and again. If you’re down in the southwest, SuperGiant is certainly worth checking out at one of their shows. In any event, you can pick up their EP through CD Baby for just $8.88. Let’s continue to support independent musicians!

Next up are another couple of Notorious Liz picks! She sent along two good bands: Locksley and Shade.

Locksley is from Brooklyn, New York and has a nice sound… so nice, in fact, that you can hear their new single Don’t Make Me Wait in the new Cingular/AT&T commercial! As if that’s not enough, they are also one of Rolling Stone’s top 25 picks of MySpace. Now that’s impressive, considering that there were over 1,700 entries. It goes without saying that we’re happy to be running their single and we think you’re really going to dig it.

And finally we’re running Shade’s Wide Eyed and Little Cougar. Their liner notes state that the CD should be listened to out loud levels… who are we to disagree? When they come on, don’t forget to turn up your volume! Spin Magazine has called Shade “awesome” and “moody rock from the Steel City”. They are an excellent addition to our playlist and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Thanks, Liz, for getting these guys to us.

Listening to the radio has never been so much fun!
Enjoy,
david

What a wonderful, wonderful day for a ton of new music. You’re in for a great treat today!

SigCell

We lead off our musical odyssey with Sigcell. Sigcell sent along a CD to us a while ago, but thanks to our backlog, we’re just able to put it into rotation now. We’re really liking Sigcell…as in, really liking them. Their website asks “What ever happened to progressive rock”? and really, that’s a darn good question. Luckily, they’ve come along and answered it, and answered it big time with their album “the Poet” (and hey, they have interesting ideas about capitalization, just like we do, so we liked it right off the bat!). Hailing from Minneapolis, SigCell absolutely knows how to craft a killer album. Really, the entire CD is worth a listen to (and you can, too, at their website). Featuring Matthew Dick (guitars), Peter Wannemacher (vocals and a ton of other things), and Jesse Stahl (bass and guitars), craft excellent moodscapes and haunting melodies that are sure to be stuck in your head.

We’re running Purpose And The Mystery, The Poet and Left To Rhyme (which we think is a very cool tune indeed). Be sure to check them out!

Monsters Are Waiting

Notorious LIZ has totally hooked us up with the next set of albums. She can really pick ‘em! First up from Liz is Monsters Are Waiting. They’ve got a new album, Fascination, which we are completely fascinated with. We like it so much that it was hard to give it up long enough to load it into our playlist for you, and as soon as it was loaded, we put it right back on, loud again. Oh yeah, it’s a great CD and some of freshest sounds we’ve heard in a long time. The members are Annalee (oh what a very good voice!), Andrew, Jonathan and Eric.

We’re running Last Goodbye (a very nice cut and definitely worth checking out), Ha Ha, and Fascination. All in all, these are good solid tunes that will get your toes tapping.

Van Gunn

Liz wasn’t done with us yet, either. As if Monsters Are Waiting wasn’t enough, she made sure we had Van Gunn. And let us tell you: these guys rock. Armed with their self-titled album, they’re about ready to tour the US for the second time. Nominally, we’d call these guys hard rock, and in any event they really rock hard! With Martin on vocals, High on guitar, Bert on drums (and he knows his way around a drum set, for sure), Boy on bass, and Ward on the keyboards, this Dutch group puts up a very tight sound. You simply won’t stop as long as they’re playing, that’s for sure!

We’re running Pull The Trigger, Here To Break The Rules, Looking Through Me and I Know A Little. You’re going to like these guys.

The Born Again Floozies

Of course, Liz also has a seriously playful side, too, as you’re going to find out with The Born Again Floozies. We really don’t have a clue how to describe these guys, to be honest. Where else are you going to find tap dancers (yes, we said “tap dancers”), tuba (yes, we said “tuba”), guitars (whew!) and vocals all rolled into one sound? If we were putting together a band, this is not a combination we would try first. Luckily for us, The Born Again Floozies did… and the results are well… gosh darn wild. The sound, as you can well imagine, is incredibly unique and that means that we of course just had to have them in our rotation! And you know what? We couldn’t be more tickled! Radio Free David is all about diversity and bringing you interesting and cool music… these guys just totally tickle our fancy and we just smiled and smiled and then smiled when we heard ‘em. We think you will too!

We’re running Floozy Revival/Live It Up Now! (see if you can figure out who might have said the words, and if there is any hypocrisy) and Gimme Back My Mullet from the EP Novelties, Addenda and Ephemera. This CD sure sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, but it is a fun compelling sound, too. Wow!

Pig Farmer

We’ll end the day with another interesting group that found us: Pig Farmer. Now, we don’t know how, exactly, we would classify Pig Farmer, and luckily we don’t have to. They also have a fun and interesting sound that we just couldn’t pass up. They’re from Savannah, MO and have taken a seriously country twang and fused it with some good old southern rock. Or something like that. Well, at any rate… they’ve got a new CD out called Mountain Oysters, and, well… you just need to listen.

We’re running the cut Lonely, which, when it is all said and done, is not a bad song at all.

See? We’re on a total roll today with tons a good music! As always, we hope you enjoy these selections, and don’t forget to rate the songs!
Enjoy!
david
(You were checking out our new page, too, right?)

We’re back to filling out albums today (one of our favorite things to do, it seems!)

First up is the wonderful album Bringing Down The Horse by the Wallflowers. The second album from them is certainly a great overall album! Jakob Dylan penned a good number of hits from this collection, and we’ve been running a couple for a while now (an acoustic version of 6th Avenue Heartache which we’re particularly fond of and One Headlight), but it’s time to add some more.

So, we’ve added the ballad Three Marlenas, The Difference (we love the big sound of this tune, and it is often overlooked. Still it is a hit and there is no doubt about this) and Invisible City (which is a very well-composed song indeed). We’re happy to be running these tunes for you!

And, we’re also looking back to Boston’s Don’t Look Back for a couple more songs for you. We’ve been running Don’t Look Back. Now it’s time to add It’s Easy, which is absolutely album oriented rock at its best. And, we’ll go ahead and put on A Man I’ll Never Be as well. Sure, it’s a reflective song, but it’s also a very good one, too.

Don’t forget to check out our new page which displays a lot more information, including lyrics and song history. You can log in, too, and we will keep track of your own personal ratings! What a deal!

As always,
Enjoy
david