Open Water

it’s hot cuz the AC is out, but while the flesh is weak, the mind soldiers on, as we trip thru a Japanese garden boasting the formidable titans Bodega & Flasher, plus irreverent noise from f**k & Viagra boys, a Portland twofer, and more. and fear not — the Bees aren’t doomed, they’re just back in new form. Friday the 13th — Open Water Lives!!

did you know a group of rhino poachers got eaten by a lion today? just as fitting is this mix o’ goodness, featuring all-new jangle from some longtimers new on inspiration (The RockATeens, The Chills, The Essex Green) and some other new stuff to keep summer hot & exciting. like I like my men. I mean my wife.

sure, I ended it with NIN. consider yourself spared — coulda just as easily been Death Grips.

Catalan band Mourn take us on in w/ vitriol, before we get all soft n’ cuddly w/ Culture Abuse’s advice for grads. Protomartyr are back w/ more acid, and we do the generational baton-toss — Aussie style — btw The Go-Betweens & RBCF. and the only real Darkness is live Darkness.

Jonathan from Deep Cuts saves the day with the fussy turntable. (in the immortal words of Julia Sweeney, “if it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.”) we get back on the proverbial track with newness from Flasher, The Lovebirds, The Sea and Cake, and Vital Idles — and dig back into the heyday for post-Bauhaus bleakness. and top it off with essential Oils. agahhhh….

2 solid hours of greatness tonight, that takes us from Chicago to the Emerald Isle to Australia to South Korea, and fittingly ends up in the fertile ground of Manchester, England. there’s some wandering vibes in hour one, and some early post-punk in hour 2. in-between, we get more from Deeper, Lithics & JJUUJJUU, Rat Scabies finds his post-Damned voice, and The Stone Roses give us 13 minutes of wah-wahhhhhh. you’ve been served.

The Americans is over. what’s one to do now? try new angular post-punk from Lithics, Bodega & Fontaines D.C., plus a twofer from Illuminati Hotties, and some head trips courtesy of JJUUJJUU and Church of sun (thanks, Dave!). Kim K got to go to the White House, and all I got was this stinking’ administration.

The Posies — acoustic session & interview w/ Jon & Ken (+ 30 mins. of new indie on the back end)

two (in)glorious hours tonight, as we make up for last week’s detour, with newness from The Goon Sax, The Sea and Cake, Lume, BNLX, Hit Bargain, Dude York, Wild Pink and more — and a birthday nod to Eno (70 years of oblique strategies writ large…)

a career-to-date chat with the singular Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. -- Jellyfish co-founder, Beck touring & session musician, solo artist, and all-around gentleman

pre-taped tonight, so’s I can go see the LCDs in Santa Barbara. you understand. more cuts from great albums featured on last week’s show, plus a double shot of Sloan (that’s what 27 years gets you. better than a fountain pen.)

Wreckless Eric is back — and in good form. Omni gives us a new jangle, Pill get their early stuff reissued on wax, and we spend 10 infectious minutes with a Scottish charity album. all in a day’s.

show 100 is a please-give-us-your-money affair, but who doesn’t love a pledge drive? we pay it back in advance, with newness from Sloan (27 years & going strong), A Place to Bury Strangers, Bush Tetras, Hinds, and more of that amazing Amazing. pay the fare and get onboard.

I coulda stopped with the balls-out rock-a-rolla of BAMBARA & The Sueves. I coulda pulled back after I laid some of The Amazing on you. I coulda left you to slip into the deep haze of Holy Wave. but I upped the ante with new RBCF, Bodega and more. oh, and the MC5 are back when we need them most. are you ready to testify?!

the only thing reliable in a world of uncertainty is a new GBV album. and so it is. we celebrate Failure new & old, bask in the madness of The Garden, enjoy 3 minutes of Italian rock, and lend 10 minutes to the man Neil Young. time well spent.

two sweet hours tonight for you to bask in the warm, iridescent glow of the open water. we kick off with as infectious an ode to depression as one could ask for, courtesy of the restless guys in Preoccupations. add in some classic Wire, and new stuff from the Bees, Spirit Night, Dusk and more. oh, and San Clemente H.S. musician Logan Robert Dunnwald stops in to discuss his music and working with the Laguna Tots. keep it local!

they asked if I wanted to see the Bowie exhibit in Brooklyn, so I went. wouldn’t you? show is a priority, but the Thin White Duke is a bigger one. so all the dialogue sounds like, say, someone was sitting in a crappy business center in a downtown hotel, huddled over an iPhone, before being kicked out by German businessmen. like that. new INVSN, Oneida, Hot Snakes, and something homegrown from LRD. go see Laguna Tots!

some things go on for two hours. this show is one of them. all the better to fit in some anniversary records from the likes of Britpoppers Supergrass, The House of Love & Gomez. and noisy new stuff from Lithics, FRIGS, Moaning, The Lovely Eggs and more. rest in peace and lockstep time, Chalo.

once again, there is a ghost in the machine — tracks that won’t load, and the human error that prompted a re-record on some of the vocal breaks. but you didn’t come for the disclaimers; you came for the Parquet Courts 2-in-1, the Scott Kannberg reissues, the evocative stirrings of Kronos Quartet & Laurie Anderson, and the new double-bass incarnation of Melvins. you chose wisely.

FRIGS have my heart, but Mean Jeans bring the commercial jingles. how can one choose?