Radio Free David Blog

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Notorious Liz continues her reign of musical goodness.

Today’s picks from Liz are Ed Vallance and One Lone Car.

Ed Vallance hails from the U.K. (although he is touring on the west coast. If you can catch his show, it is worth your while) and has a nice sound which fits our playlist nicely: we’re lucky to have his new single Deep End, which we are running as of today.

One Lone Car comes to us from St. Louis, Missouri (and have a couple of shows in that area), and is made up of Dustin Plegge (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Andy Herrin (drums), Neal Klein (lead guitar) and Michael Hickey (bass guitar). We like their new CD, Variety Hour, and the think their tune Modern Day Romeo is more than worth a listen.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

We’re catching up on some artists who put on a good live show and today’s artist is Bruce Springsteen! We’re running cuts from the Live In New York City album (recorded June 29 and July 1, 2001 in, of course, New York City). This is an interesting album because it isn’t a solid run of hits in the usual sense; instead it showcases Bruce’s musical talent as well as the considerable talent of the E-Street Band. This show was part of their reunion and it gets back to what everyone here does best–play music. Overall, we really like this album and think it represents Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band in concert quite well.

We’ve picked a few of our favorites and are running them for you, including Land Of Hopes And Dreams, American Skin (41 Shots), Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (always a favorite in concert) and My Love Will Not Let You Down (which is an especially good number on this album). We’ve replaced our studio version of Born To Run with the live one from this set as well.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

We love our listeners!

Recently, we had an excellent suggestion for our playlist: O.A.R. (Of A Revolution)–and who are we to disagree? Somehow, for some strange reason, we didn’t have any O.A.R. in our rotation, and we need to correct that oversight.

So, we’re running four cuts O.A.R.’s Stories Of A Stranger album: Heard The World, The Stranger, Love And Memories and Wonderful Day. O.A.R. might have started as an Ohio State University sensation, but they’ve moved well beyond that. They’ve climbed the Billboard charts (the album Stories Of A Stranger reached #40 and the song Love And Memories hit #2 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Records chart), and climbed into our hearts. They’ve got a good, tight sound, lyrics that go somewhere, and all in all put together a darn fine album.

We think O.A.R. is a great suggestion for our playlist, and thank you for sending that in! Keep your suggestions coming and as always, thank you for listening to Radio Free David!
As always,
Enjoy!
david

We’re happy to be adding a new artist to our rotation today: Kristy Jackson! We’re running a couple of cuts from her new album The Best Seat In The House, and really, it was hard to pick some because they’re all really quite good.

Kristy does it all: she’s a singer, songwriter, producer and record label owner. I’ve talked with her (via e-mail), and she is a very down to earth, warm and above all sincere and genuine person. She’s certainly a person whom I’m proud to call “friend.” And she puts herself into her music as well, and when you listen to her songs, it shows. Her tunes aren’t the kind that will leave you feeling nothing, not with that kind of heart and soul! And truly, I can’t say enough nice things about her and it is a wonderful day when someone this neat comes along.

We’re running two great tunes, Better Part Of My Heart and Beautiful Rain; both of which are wonderful, poignant and moving. Welcome, Kristy!
As always,
Enjoy!
david

We love our listeners and we listen to you what you say and what you like! We had a really good suggestion to run Out Of The Blue by Roxy Music. So, as of today, we’re happy to have that cut added into our playlist! It’s a really good song and certainly one of Roxy Music’s better ones.

We’ve had some more great suggestions for artist additions; look for those to be added to our playlist in upcoming days.

And if you have more suggestions, please let us know! We appreciate you listening, and we love to hear from you. We like to know your thoughts, comments and your suggestions, because after all, it is you who we are doing this for. Go ahead and write us, and let us know what is on your mind!
As always,
Enjoy!
david

The other day when we added Big Head Todd & The Monsters we reached out to them, just like we with every artist we add. And then they wrote back to us, just like most artists do. But then…

…then we discovered just how cool Big Head Todd & The Monsters, and Hollie who works for them, are! Hollie was pretty awesome and sent along some more material to help round out our offerings… and so today we’re really happy to be able to bring you yet more cool Big Head Todd & The Monsters! We love the fact that they are helping us, and in this day and age, I find it refreshing that big name acts are willing to go the extra mile and to make an awesome experience happen.

They sent us the Live At The Filmore album (recorded March 19 and 20th, 2004 at San Fransisco’s storied Fillmore Auditorium), which is another great live album. We promptly replaced our version of Bittersweet with the one found here; we think this is a very good, as in very good, version. And we’ve added Crazy Mary (as they say in the intro of the song: “this song is going to change your life”), Sister Sweetly, and It’s Alright.

Also included in our care package is the latest album From The Archives, Vol. 1. This dandy album has demo songs and previously unreleased material from Big Head Todd & The Monsters; for us fans, this is a great album as it contains a good look at their early days. I found the entire album a fun and thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, and the song styles range from bluesy to moody to straight ahead rock. All in all this is a nice way to round out your Big Head Todd & The Monsters collection. Selecting songs from it was hard, but we eventually settled in on It’s Over Again and the rather interesting Healing Train.

As a bonus, this CD comes looking like a 45RPM record of days gone by. All in all, we like this one! You can purchase this gem direct from Big Head Todd & The Monsters for only $10 (plus $2 shipping). Talk about a darn good deal!

All in all, we are delighted with the way we were so well taken care of. A huge Thank You to Hollie, and it is no wonder why Big Head Todd & The Monsters remains a fan favorite. And ours.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

Today, we’re happy to introduce three new artists to our playlist: The Sky Project, In Theory and Saturna.

The Sky Project was kind enough to send us their mini-album The Other Side Of Day; we definitely like the sound and think Sky has a great voice, and that Vlad can plays a darn good guitar. The Other Side Of Day is slightly different from what we usually run, but we’re all about the music, and think that the track Love Will Find You There is well worth a listen. Sky’s soaring voice coupled with a captivating melody make for an excellent arrangement and so… in it goes. We know that you appreciate diversity, and this tunes adds a nice dimension to our offerings for you.

We’re also adding In Theory, and their new single A New Medication from their upcoming This Is It album. In Theory comes out of Los Angeles, and is made up of Theo (vocals, guitar), Avromie (lead guitar), Sam (bass guitar), and Aaron (drums). A New Medication is certainly straight ahead rock: it starts fast and doesn’t let up. The song flows nicely, makes our feet tap and is right up our alley. These guys are young, but are up and coming. We’re happy to have them running on our playlist.

And finally today we’re adding Saturna, (Steve Anderson, Ryan Carroll, Eric Block, Matt Badger) from Portland. Saturna has made quite the splash up in Pacific Northwest, and are just beginning to find a national stage. We’re happy to be running two cuts from their new EP …All Night; Pop Rocks and Blanket Of Stars. This EP is really quite interesting: it starts with an instrumental piece, then quickly winds it way through a number of different styles; in a way, Saturna reinvents themselves on every track, and we like that diversity. Their overall style is hard to pin down, but that’s OK. We like it, and naturally, in these tracks go!

As always,
Enjoy!
david

Have we got a treat for you today: live Elton John!

Elton John has a ton of albums out (over 30 studio albums, depending on how you count) and is a consummate performer. Yet he only has a handful of live albums out… which is a shame, really. However, we here at Radio Free David are committed to bringing you the best cuts, period, and today that means we are rearranging our playlist a little bit.

From the album One Night Only (recorded at Madison Square Garden on October 20 and 21, 2000), we’re picking up Rocket Man (often in concert this is a very long song, and we would love to get our hands on one of the extended versions; alas, this is about the closest that we’re getting, so we’ll be happy with what we have) and replacing our studio version with it. We’ve added I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (which features Mary J. Blige) and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (featuring Kiki Dee, who really belts this one out). There are a lot more of his hits on this album, you might note, that we are not included. Don’t worry… we have a plan and will be adding those soon.

On his current tour in North America, Elton has been making the statement that his current album, The Captain And The Kid, will be his last studio album, and that we have his word on this. If this is true, then this is an incredibly sad statement. Throughout the years, Elton (and Bernie Taupin!) have given us an incredible wealth of music; some happy, some sad; some upbeat and some downtempo… but all really great. We will miss discovering the latest tune from them.

To celebrate their career and to provide a bookend to Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, we’re running a couple of cuts from The Captain And The Kid: The Captain And The Kid (a very poignant piece) and Postcards From Richard Nixon (which tells the story of how Elton and Bernie came to America). He plays this in concert and puts some serious energy into it; how can we not run it?)

We’re not quite done with Elton John, but the rest will have to wait a wee bit.

As always,
enjoy!
david

More good new music is hear [sic] for you today!

Notorious Liz has been tirelessly scouring the musical landscape for us, and as usual, she’s turned up some real gems. First up today is Recliner, a band from Auckland, New Zealand, with a very nice sound (and it is a unique sound). They haven’t made a lot of waves outside of New Zealand, but they soon will, that’s for sure. They use a lot of sonic soundscapes and complex layering in their sound, and it is a tight, cohesive result. And they have not one, but two very talented female singers in their arsenal. Their complete line up is: Guy Wishart (guitar),Vernon Rive (bass), Michael Te Young (drums, vocals), Perry Bradley (samples and sounds), Dave White (guitar), Darlene Te Young (vocals) and Belinda Bradley (lead vocals). Recliner deeply crafts their music and the result… well, the result shows.

We’re running Ugly (He Says That He Loves You), a striking tune with poignant lyrics. Don’t forget to check our Now Playing page as this one plays for the lyrics.

We are also pleased to begin running Garrison Frost (from the Seattle, Washington area) and their tune You Said (thanks again Liz!). Garrison Frost is straight ahead rock, that’s for sure… if their songs don’t get you up and moving, well, frankly, I don’t know what will. You really just can’t sit still when their tunes are playing, and don’t say that we didn’t warn you. Made up of Devin Anderson (drums), Justin Bruce (bass) and Trevor Larkin (vox, guitar) these guys bring, well, energy to the room. These guys are up and coming… and we’re happy to be running them!

And we’re going to switch gears slightly and add another artist we ran across: The Four Degrees. These guys have a very clean sound; their songwriting and lyrics say it all, really, and their music makes you think. We’re running the cut The Loneliest Road In America from their Red On Red On Red album: we really like this song. They don’t rely on anything except their songwriting and playing to pull it off, and really, they do a darn good job. Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, they sing songs from the Heartland of America and, well, we’re really happy to have them in our main rotation. The Four Degrees are John Canno, Tim Streff, Stan Galli, and Tim Hasenpflug. We didn’t list their instruments because they all play a ton of them each.

As always,
enjoy!
david

Today, it’s time to go to a concert (well, two, actually) and add Collective Soul and Big Head Todd & The Monsters. Live. In concert!

But first, we need to rant a little bit. Thanks to the new rate structure from the Copyright Royalty Board, internet radio stations, including Radio Free David, are at risk of going off the air. Because we are licensed and legal, we pay our royalty obligations, as is right and proper. However, the new rates are simply out of this world, make no sense, and will shut us down. As in… off the air. Right along with most every other legal internet radio station. This means that you will not hear us, you will not hear our music and you will not hear the music by the artists you love. Period. Gone. Silence.

In a nutshell, the new rate structure will require us to pay more in royalties than any station can hope to make in income. For stations such as Radio Free David that do not run commercials, this means that we simply cannot afford to bring you the music that you enjoy today… because we can’t afford the royalties. If that wasn’t enough, they made these rates retroactive. To January. January 2006.

The Copyright Royalty Board specifically addressed small webcasters like Radio Free David in their ruling, and decided that we do not matter.

How did this happen? An organization called Sound Exchange recommended these new rates, and declared them to be “fair” and “what the market will bear”. In fact, they presented analysis of how these rates are good for everyone. The Copyright Royalty Board accepted this argument and rates.

Who is SoundExchange? Why, oddly, they are organization who the royalties are paid to, and who are supposed to distribute the money. Isn’t that convenient? And, get this, SoundExchange was established by the RIAA. If you look at their page, they purport to be all about the artist, but when it comes right down to it, they are all about the big four (or five) record labels. They do not look out for the artists, really, at all.

What will happen now? If sanity does not prevail, we will either be forced off the air (along with most, if not all, internet radio stations) or we will end up running music that is not RIAA controlled (and a staggering amount of music is RIAA controlled. In fact, most mainstream artists are, so you will not hear their music any longer on the internet).

What can you do about it? PLENTY. And we need your help. Please visit savenetradio.org; there is complete instructions there. We all need your help!

The bottom line: if sanity does not prevail, you will lose your listening choices, not just on Radio Free David, but across the internet. Let’s save our music!

And now… speaking of the music… (remember, if you do not help these great artists and songs will no longer be available to you…)

We really like the Georgia quintet, Collective Soul. Their songs flow nicely, have a good hook and are darn easy to listen to: we’ve run some of their songs for a long while now here on Radio Free David. But, they also did something we adore: set up at a concert, hit the “record” button, and then at the end of the concert, hit the “stop” button (much like we mentioned with Blue October previously). Collective Soul released two concerts in this manner–the night our concert happened was November 15, 2005, in Columbus, Ohio…

From their album Instant Live: Promowest/LC Pavilion - Columbus, OH, 11/15/05, we’re adding the cuts Shine and Why, Pt. 2. We’re also replacing our studio versions of The World I Know (and this song exemplifies why we go to concerts…), December and Gel (another song that works well live) with live cuts. We think you’ll really enjoy the experience!

Big Head Todd & The Monsters is making their first appearance in our playlist with their live album Live Monsters. These guys are a good live band, and built their appeal via constant touring; but, for some reason, their albums just didn’t have the appeal of their shows. Luckily, we have a solution for that, and we’re running some of their concerts. Recorded at several places along the way during their 1995-1998 tour schedule, Live Monsters showcases several of their best songs, and naturally, we’re running those.

We’ve added Bittersweet (how could we not?), Boom Boom (composed by John Lee Hooker; yes–John Lee Hooker), If You Can’t Slow Down, and their hit Resignation Superman.

As always,
Enjoy!
david
(Please don’t forget to save our music!)