10-27-09 playlist

Howdy Friends... This week has more of the Rotating Tongues:2 participants (see post below) and just a couple of introductions. My pal Gina from Lovey & The Dirt Fishermen shared some great old Boise music with me (well, with the show... so all of you, too) from Red Set. I don't know much other than this was recorded in 1982 or 83 at the Casia Center and Red Set was Tad Doyle's pre-H-Hour and TAD, band. Mr. Doyle played drums, Jon Hale sang, Tom Kennedy played guitar and Scot Smith played bass. I was going to play a track by a Lewiston psychedelic group from the late 60's, but for some reason the awesome track by Stone Garden didn't load... stay tuned.

The Very Most - “Dodged Ev'ry Bullet, Pt 2”
Morningly - “8 am and dave smiles”
Finn Riggins - “Blackrock”
Red Set - “Peaceful Man”
Treepeople - “Web in Front”
The Left Coast - “I Wanna Hurt Someone”
Piso Mojado - “Track 2”
Dirt Fishermen - “Breakdown”
Clock - “What Happens Between Panels”
Central City Music Company - “(My Girlfriend's Got) No Sense of Smell”
Hillfolk Noir - “The Lord Will Come”
Freak in a Jar - “Walk Don't Run”
The Pugs - “Fade Away”
Stone Garden - “Bastard”
Caustic Resin - “Eventhings”
Built to Spill - “Time Trap”
Lovey - “tina & ton”
G. America - “Get Used To It”
The Invasion - “The Great Divorce”
With Child - “Undressing in the Wind”
Bonefish Sam & His Power Orchestra - “Bonefish Lullaby”
Discoma - “For Here”
Le Fleur - “Brother”
Graveltruck - “Carlos”
Kid Corduroy - “Desert”
The Hand - “Mississippi”
Magnetics - “Not That Nice”
Splinter - “Lightbulb”
Fury III - “31 Naught 33”
Septic Death - “Burial”
The Suffocation Keep - “It's You”
Narcissus Isthmus - “Diastole”

January 20th & 23rd playlist

This week's show has some Septic Death courtesy of that band's drummer Paul Birnbaum. Septic Death was were active in Boise in the early 80's and their singer Brian "Pushead" Schroeder is a renowned illustrator who has created artwork for Metallic and The Misfits. Pushead's art was all over the Thrasher magazines I read as a kid in Nebraska long before I moved to Idaho. The Mad Cow Disease track is from the Big Trouble in River City compilation on Coming in Second records... they morphed into Piso Mojado, but not the Piso Mojado featuring Sam and Ed from 25 Wheeler. Some old friends from my days in Lewiston, Id simultaneously requested some "Funnelhead" for the show, so I decided to over deliver with 3 versions of the classic Treepeople song. This gives us a good reason to play one of my favorite North Carolina bands, Archers of Loaf, too.

La Knots - “Surf Solo”
Clock - “Man Gets Jealous; Finds Jesus”
Lovey - “ghost man”
Magnetics - “Big Love”
mad cow disease - “Lo-cool”
Haggis - “Bully”
Septic Death - “Hardware”
State of Confusion - “Decency”
With Child - “We Sing In Praise Of Our Hope In Thee”
mayerforceone - “shadowboxing”
Hillfolk Noir - “The Hypnotist (8-track version)”
The Blue Flames - “Mind Invasion”
Pete Holly and The Looks - “Look Out Below”
The Halo Benders - “Freedom Ride”
Royball - “Cruiser”
The Skulldiggers - “Bodily Harm”
Eightball Break - “Suckerpunch”
Built to Spill - “Joyride”
Geyser - “Apartments”
Netson Family - “Title TBD 7”
Lowbelly - “turn it over”
The Suffocation Keep - “Number Two”
The Very Most - “Spilt, Spilt Milk”
Treepeople - “Funnelhead”
Archers of Loaf - “funnelhead”
Pajama Party and Bonefish Sam - “Funnelhead”
Le Fleur - “Truce”
The Universal - “Supermassive Microbursts”
Gordie Howe Trio Unit - “Damaged Unit”
Stuntman - “One At A Time”
Bock - “After the War”
Kris Doty - “Rain”
Ian Waters - “Man Made Soul”
Low-Fi - “Second Best”
Built to Spill Caustic Resin - “Shit Brown Eyes”
Raspberry - “Pokey”
Splinter - “Michelle Janet Hell”
Flycatcher - “Screwdriver”

Rotating Tongues:2 - Feb. 20th & 21st @ VAC

When I moved from Montana to Boise in 1994, I knew a little bit about the Boise music scene, but just a little. In high school I had seen The Dirt Fishermen play with Portland's Dharma Bums at the University of Idaho and thought they were cool. One of the two women in the band, KT, came out and talked with me and my friends (we "snuck" into the college show after driving from nearby Lewiston). Later, I was attending community college in Montana and a high school pal sent me some tracks from Built to Spill's Ultimate Alternative Wavers - I immediately sought out the full record and it became an instant favorite. When it came time to transfer to a proper four year college, BSU ended up on the short-list and I decided that Boise must be a cool place based on the music I had heard... and I didn't have any friends or family there so it seemed like an interesting adventure. That summer, my brother I listened to Built to Spill 45's, the first Halo Benders record and Treepeople albums (my brother was already a big fan of theirs).

When I finally got to Boise, I discovered the Record Exchange downtown. One of my first purchases was a compilation of local bands called Rotating Tongues, which I picked up for a short, but sweet Built to Spill track appropriately titled Shortcut. There was a great track by The Dirt Fishermen and bands that shared members with Built to Spill and Treepeople, like Caustic Resin, Butterfly Train, Splinter and Hive. Rotating Tongues also introduced me to the likes of el Dopamine, Graveltruck and Boneflower, bands who I'd get to know better through shows at The Crazy Horse and, later, Neurolux. Rotating Tongues has 20 bands in all, including 2C hip-hop artists M.C. Shake and Boise reigning metal band, Midline. I didn't like ALL of it, but I appreciated the breadth and diversity of the compilation and was thankful that "Executive Producer" Anneliessa Balk had put together such a great snapshot of the scene as it existed then. Over the years, other Boise compilations have come out, but for me, none of them hit the high-water mark set by Rotating Tongues.

Fast-forward to 2008. In the years since I first spun the Rotating Tongues disc, I've worked with some of the folks on the compilation, interviewed some of the bands for the college paper, wrote about others in my old zine, drank some beers with them, did some videos for a few of them and said goodbye to couple of friends who played in bands on the CD (R.I.P. Pat Brown and Andy Capps). A couple of the bands are still around and most of the musicians from the compilation have remained active members of the local music community. Anneliessa, now Anneliessa Balk Stimpert, runs the gallery/venue, Visual Arts Collective, with her husband Sam and this fall I gave her a call to see if I might help with any design projects. When she told me that they were doing a sequel to Rotating Tongues and asked if I'd be interested in doing design for the CD and some event posters, I jumped at the chance.

So here we are in 2009 and this February (the 20th and 21st, to be exact) 25 bands will descend upon VaC to unleash brand new songs, which will be recorded live and later will comprise Rotating Tongues:2. Much credit goes to Elijah Jensen, a local musician who brought the idea of doing a live compilation at VaC to Anneliessa and Sam. The new compilation will be a veritable who's who of southern Idaho music with some alumni from the original compilation performing with new bands as well as plenty of fresh blood. This time around, the line-up is a little more cohesive, but no less diverse. I'm honored to be involved and excited for the shows. I hope you all can come out and be a part of this special event. The event will benefit The Idaho Food bank and cover is only $7 or $5 with a prepackaged food item (if you pay the $7, $2 will go to the Idaho Food Bank).  Oh yeah...the bands:

ATTN, Bonefish Sam, Central City Music Company, Craters of the Moon, Discoma, El Dopamine, Finn Riggins, Hillfolk Noir, How's Your Family?, Ian Waters, Juntura, Kris Doty, La Knots, Le Fleur, Low-fi, Magnetics, Mayerforceone, Netson Family, Nollifur, Pussy Gutt, Revolt Revolt, Tim Andreae, The Universal, The Very Most & With Child.

1-13-09 playlist

Keepin' on truckin' in 2009...

Le Fleur - “Silver Hair”
Dirt Fishermen - “Herpes of the Mouth”
Low-Fi - “Rabbit Hole”
Piso Mojado - “Track 4”
Black Happy - “Two Hands and a Hat”
Geyser - “Microwave”
Built to Spill - “Conventional Wisdom”
Gusto - “Worst Hunting Dog Ever, Pt 1”
The Hand - “The Rocker”
Bovalexia - “Bop”
Bonefish Sam & His Power Orchestra - “Every Toy I Ever Owned”
Kris Doty - “Baby”
eL Dopamine - “Monday Morning”
Pete Holly - “Hyde Park Square”
A Man Called Sun - “Battered Boat”
G. America - “My New Story”
Butterfly Train - “Standstill”

Finn Riggins - “The Plumest”

Splinter - “Super Loser”

One Fantastic Bind - “Life Left Dear”

Size of Alaska - “Yes Man”
Central Boise Library - “Still Payin Rent”
Ian Waters - “Eighteen”
Caustic Resin - “Kill You If You Want Me To”
Magnetics - “Angel”
Treepeople - “Fishbasket”
Lowbelly - “awake our sleeping sword”
Narcissus Isthmus - “Cerulean”
The Invasion - “Halfway to Infinity”
The Very Most - “Smiling Surprise”
Discoma - “Robogoat”
Dirtboy - “Flying Fortress”

1-06-09 playlist

Thanks for checking out the Hard Math Radio playlist. If you are new: bands are linked to their sites or sites of subsequent bands by some of the same folks. If you are trying to track down info, you can also email me. Earlier blog entries have a bit more info about the bands as they are introduced to the show... so you can search a particular band, too. This week we have a couple of new bands on the show. We start the show with a artifact from 1980 by Pete Holly and The Looks... I don't know much about Pete Holly, but this single was on SF's legendary Bomp Records. When I first moved here I used to see flyers for Holly's "Wizard of the Garage" CD all over telephone poles in the Northend and downtown... I finally picked it up and will include selections in future shows. The Magnetics are a hard-edged band that has been around for several years... they are led by Boise scene vet Troy Wright on vocals and guitar along with Ryan "Skully" Davis (H is for Hector, Gusto) on guitar, Dave Wall (Kid Corduroy) on bass and Glenn Newkirk (Dirt Fisherman, Geyser, Gordie Howe, etc.) on drums. Also making their first appearance is Eightball Break, a band active in the mid-to-late 1990's. Line-up for this album features singer guitarist Nick Millward, bassist Andy Agenbroad (Haggis, Demoni) and Joe Hensley (el Dopamine, Suffocation Keep, etc.). The Blue Flames also make their debut, but I know very little about this band other than the fact that their cd came out in 1996 and I believe they are from Sun Valley (please comment if you have any info!). Thanks to Brad Angell, Glenn Newkirk and Todd Sloan for contributions and to all who have suggested bands (old and new) to include in future shows.

Pete Holly and The Looks - “Baby Please Believe Me”
Gordie Howe Trio Unit - “I Like Robots Unit”
Bock - “Farewell Address”
The Yukon and You - “Marshmellows”
Lowbelly - “Mick Mars always wears a hat”
Brett Nelson - “Through the Ceiling Into The Clouds”
Falldowns - “Solitary Vowels”
Magnetics - “In the Absence”
The Treatment - “Duke of Oly”
Kid Corduroy - “Freeway”
The Blue Flames - “Pocket Knife”
Shamus - “Beating”
Built to Spill - “Revolution”
Clock - “Plan D”
Fury III - “Eeyore's Detangler”
Eightball Break - “Kicking Myself”
Central City Music Company - “Lorie”
The Pugs - “Land of Make Believe”
Dirt Fishermen - “Carcul”
Treepeople - “(I'm Gonna) Miss You (When You're Dead)”
Finn Riggins - “Carbonate”
Brett Netson/Reversion - “Title TBD”
Boise Cover Band - “Ashes to Ashes”
Hillfolk Noir - “Broken Like A Music Box”
Haggis - “Want it All”
Caustic Resin - “Station Wagon (live)”
Flycatcher - “Light as a Feather”
Grant Avenue - “400=Love”
Morningly - “Celeste”
Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive - “Silver State”
Lovey - “Every”
Godzounds - “Hateness”