abell's blog

Tune in this evening for an interview and in-studio performance with Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station in the WXDU studio. The Weather Station will be playing at Hopscotch this Friday (9pm at the Fletcher Opera Theater) in support of last year's All of it Was Mine, an album of modern folk that has garnered praise for its literate storytelling, vivid imagery, and intimate acoustics. We will also have some passes to give away for the Saturday night City Plaza performances at Hopscotch.

The importance of The Modern Lovers to the sound of college radio can't overstated. Their music was an essential bridge over the gap between the sounds of garage rock and the Velvet Underground in the 1960s and the birth of punk in the 1970s. Frontman, Jonathan Richman, exuded a nervous, sentimental nerdiness that would be hugely influential to bands like They Might Be Giants, Art Brut, Titus Andronicus, Weezer, and many other college rock mainstays. Members of the Modern Lovers would go on to join bands like the Talking Heads, The Cars, DMZ, and The Real Kids, which only emphasizes the impact that their sound had on rock music in the 1970s and beyond.

K Records was founded by Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening, Go Team, Dub Narcotic Sound System) in 1982 in Olympia, Washington. Incorporating the anti-corporate stance and DIY ethic of punk rock, K Records grew from a cassette-only label dedicated to releasing compilations of Olympia bands into a reknowned purveyor of independent pop music that transformed the sound of college radio. The K Records sound helped to make the Pacific Northwest into a Mecca for independent musicians and laid the foundations for Sub Pop, Kill Rock Stars, grunge, and modern indie-pop. Tune in to WXDU 88.7FM from 8-10pm tonight to hear the story of K Records: exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982.

At the end of every year, WXDU compiles its Top 100 Albums and Top 20 compilations through the unbiased and highly scientific* process of counting the albums and comps that were played the most by our DJs. We now share with you our lists of WXDU's most-played albums and compilations of 2011. Please enjoy this snapshot of the year that was 2011 at WXDU.

During the mid-to-late 1970s disaffected European psych-rock musicians, inspired by the music of Arnold Schoenberg, Kurt Weill, Sun Ra, Olivier Messiaen, and Soft Machine, as well as by the politics of the radical left, formed a loose collective of bands that came to be known as the Rock in Opposition movement. Spearheaded by bands like the UK's Henry Cow and Belgium's Univers Zero, the movement produced dense, challenging, and at times startlingly beautiful music that used surreal and dadaist lyrics to advance a message of anti-fascim, anti-capitalism, and anti-consumerism. Tune into Polyphonic Perversity tomorrow from noon to 2pm to listen to the music of Rock in Opposition movement and the musicians that continue to uphold the tradition today.

High unemployment, racial tensions, the rise of Margaret Thatcher, and the Falklands war all provided fertile ground for politically inclined British musicians to sow their discontent in the 1980s. The Red Wedge tour, officially sponsored and supported by the Labour party, was one of the most publically visible avenues of political expression by pop musicians. Organized by Billy Bragg and Paul Weller, the tour featured a diverse palette of British artists including Bragg, The Style Council, The Communards, Madness, Junior Giscombe, and Prefab Sprout. Tune in tonight from 8-10pm to hear selections from all of these artists and the musicians who influenced them!

This week's episode of Beyond Good and Evil will feature the epic sounds of power metal, which combined the guitar attack of classic British heavy metal with prog-rock grandeur. Power metal bands have drawn lyrical inspiration from Tolkien, Norse mythology, and the drummer's weekly Dungeons and Dragons game (probably). Tune it to hear Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Iced Earth, and others.

Tonight's College Radio Primer will cover the strange and fascinating world of Outsider Pop. College radio has long been a haven for artists who operate outside of the mainstream, but what about the fringes of the fringes? What about the musicians who are unable or unwilling to conform to mainstream musical, lyrical, or production standards? What about the musicians who are shut out of the mainstream by personal or institutional barriers? Tune in tonight from 8-10pm to hear the pop music that comes from these outsider spaces- The Fugs, The Shaggs, Captain Beefheart, Jandek, and more will all be played for your listening enjoyment.

Call it krautrock, or Kosmische, or something else entirely. The music that came out of West Germany in the late 1960s and 1970s fused psychedelic rock, modern and minimalist classical music, and free jazz into one of the most compelling and influential sounds of its era. Tonight's College Radio Primer will feature the mind-expanding sounds of artists such as Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Neu!, and Tangerine Dream. This music would go on to influence artists such as Afrika Bambataataa, Stereolab, and Radiohead. Tune in!

WXDU Top 88.7

1. 19...Toro Y Moi...Underneath The Pine...Carpark
2. 13...The Jayhawks...Tomorrow The Green Grass-Legacy Edition...American Recordings
3. 13...Various Artists...Funky Frauleins Vol. 2...Grosse Freigeit
4. 12...Telekinesis...12 Desperate Straight Lines...Merge
5. 11...Banjo or Freakout...Banjo or Freakout...Rare Book Room
6. 11...Puro Instinct...Headbangers In Ecstasy...Mexican Summer
7. 11...Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers...Teenage & Torture...Knitting Factory
8. 10...Delicate Steve...Wondervisions...Luaka Bop
9. 10...Evolution Control Committee...All Rights Reserved...Seeland
10. 10...Los Amigos Invisibles...Not So Commercial...Nacional