Radio Free David Blog

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Notorious LIZ scours high and she scours low and all along the way she turns up some real gems; today is another great pick from her: Skidmore Fountain. Skidmore Fountain is not your typical “rock” band and their sound is a little difficult to describe, but “very good” goes a long way to that end. Skidmore Fountain is made up of Randy Bergida, Steven Cohen, and Dylan Wissing: being Brooklyn based, they’ve played at some awesome NYC venues (CBGBs, Knitting Factory, the Bitter End and Piano’s). Skidmore Fountain is really coming into their sound with Break, their second album. We’re happy to feature the title cut Break in our rotation.

Next up is a great independent artist: Jefferson Hendricks. Jefferson is a storyteller and his songs show that; some happy, some not quite so, but each one will take you through the story and keep you until it is done. Jefferson is all about the music, and that is something we really dig here at Radio Free David; he has a nice balanced sound which is easy to listen to and hard to stop listening to. From his album I Got Questions, we’re happy to add a couple of tracks into our rotation: the title cut I Got Questions and the quirky and fun Sweet Memories.

And finally, we’re happy to add another independent artist into our rotation: George Ellsworth. From his newest album, American Compost (which was loosely inspired by the events of 9/11), we’ve picked up the title cut American Compost (which we really like and would encourage you to pay special attention to the lyrics), the hook filled She’s So Sweet and Madam Freud (from the moment we heard this cut, our toes started tapping and that meant this one had to go in). But what we really like is the liner note Ellsworth provided in this album, and so we’ll leave you with it:

“The cutting edge is not the whole story. What’s vanished is not lost. What gets passed on is the essence, the heart, the spirit, the compost, from which everything grows.” Well said.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

We have two great bands for you today: Dr. Pants and Foolproof!

Dr. Pants hails from Oklahoma City (featuring David Broyles on guitar, Kenneth Murray on guitar, and Aaron Vasquez on bass), and can be described (in their own words) as a “combination between Weezer and Tom Petty, with a healthy dose of They Might Be Giants and a pinch of Run-DMC. Intelligent, catchy songs rule the day, but quirkiness and the occasional white boy rap are in the mix, too.” We really like their album, Gardening In A Tornado, are a happy to feature several cuts from it, including Sarsaparilla Girl, Catherine, and Hey Abe Lincoln. The entire album is a great listen, and has a wide range of styles… their tunes are indeed catchy, and you will find yourself singing along, loudly, to them in no time. All in all, we’re keen on Dr. Pants and think you will be too! This is indy music at its finest.

Notorious Liz, as usual, has hooked us up with some hot new music: Foolproof. Foolproof comes to us from Orange County, CA and is: Jake Dixon (vocals), Joel Stentz (guitar/vocals), Mark Saverino (guitar), Matt Saverino (bass) and Ben Shaw (drums). We’ve added their single Burning Me Over, and think it makes a nice addition to our playlist.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

We’re adjusting our playlist today, and working with Depeche Mode. We’re making some adjustments to our existing rotation, and adding in some new tunes, both remixes and live versions. We’re really happy with our Depeche Mode selections now and some of these versions you just won’t hear anywhere else.

From their excellent Remixes 81-04 series we’re adding in World In My Eyes. Although the beat of this mix is a lot closer to a dance beat than Radio Free David usually tends towards, we still like this version a lot. We think it has more to offer than the “normal” cut from Violator, and so we’re running it. World In My Eyes is a great song and we’re happy to be running it. We’ve also replaced our studio version of Personal Jesus with the cut from this album as well. The same discussion applies: the beat is a lot closer to a dance beat than we normally run, but we feel this edgy mix compliments our playlist nicely. Overall, the entire Remixes series (there are a couple of different versions of this album; we tend to favor the two or three disc set ourselves) is a wonderful take on their classic songs.

We’re adding in some live Depeche Mode as well from the Touring The Angel set (which includes a couple of DVDs and a bonus audio CD; our license does not allow us to run audio from the DVDs, but the bonus CD is fair game) we’re adding in Precious. We like the intensity Depeche Mode brings to a concert and think this track compliments us well.

From their Songs Of Faith And Devotion album, we’re adding in two cuts: I Feel You and In Your Room. We like this album overall, and it marks the first time Depeche Mode used backing singers, and we think, to very good effect. I Feel You absolutely rocks and if this song doesn’t get your feet moving, well… In Your Room is classic Depeche Mode and blends both spiritual and personal love together very nicely. Also on this album is the popular Rush, but we’ve decided to not run it since we feel it strays too far from what Depeche Mode is all about.

And finally, we’re drawing heavily from the Some Great Reward album, which is loaded with great tunes. We’re adding the classic Somebody (how can we not run it?), People Are People, Master And Servant and the closing Blasphemous Rumours (whose lyrics really won’t put you in a great mood, but it is a good song all the same). We think this album represents a great time in Depeche Mode’s career, and are pleased to offer these four selections from it.

As always,
Enjoy!
david

It’s May, and we’re got another podcast for you. This episode features Shade, a great band from Pittsburgh. For you, just for you, we’ve got an exclusive interview with Brad from Shade, a vinyl track (we converted it to digital for the podcast, just in case you don’t have a record player handy), some of Shade’s early music and some new music… all in all, it is 24 (and a half!) minutes packed full of music and information.

Shade’s music has everything we look for, including a very cool beat, and you’ll want to check out this episode. We’ve made available the m4a file (which has some artwork in it and works great on iPods) as well as the standard mp3 file for you. Or, if you prefer, you can get it through iTunes. However you get it, though, it is well worth the listen.

To celebrate this podcast, we’ve added the tracks Slowfire from their Fedra EP and Forever from their vinyl release into our rotation.

Still reading? Hint: You really do want to check this episode out.

As always,
Enjoy
david