Acts of Volition Radio: Session 23
My last session of Acts of Volition Radio was recorded in the waning days of my bachelorhood. Though this session now features a married host, the music continues to rock (though sometimes gently). I'm as excited about sharing these great songs as I was when recording the first session. This session is the first available in Ogg Vorbis format (info and rational, though the MP3 version is still available if you prefer.
Session Twenty Three Playlist:
- Fountains of Wayne – Mexican Wine
- The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show
- Denison Witmer – Little Flowers
- Starflyer 59 – Good Sons
- Sum 41 – Pieces
- Nada Surf – Always Love
- Without Gravity – Beautiful Son
- Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Follow You Into The Dark
For more, see the previous Acts of Volition Radio sessions or subscribe to the Acts of Volition Radio RSS feed.
Always Love and I Will Follow You Into The Dark (so pretty!) were the only songs I knew before, and I can relate to your feelings towards Death Cab For Cutie. I have three different versions of Ben Gibbard covering Avril Lavigne's Complicated, and he's a prick in all of them. But damn, he writes some damn fine songs. (His cover of Jóga was unnecessary, though.)
And who suggested that one might be ashamed of liking the Counting Crows?
Great show, especially getting to hear the Without Gravity song. I also loved the Denison Witmer track. I didn't know he had collaborated with Sufjan, nor that he wrote about Saint Francis. Once again, listening to the show it's uncanny how similar my tastes are to yours.
I actually saw Death Cab for Cutie in concert in Walla Walla, Washington a month ago and it was probably the best show I've ever been to. The guys in the band are exceptionally gracious in their performances. I was fairly irritated by several of the folks who attended the concert.
One guy I stood behind in line was angrily and telling his girlfriend why he would not let her buy the new Aqualung album, essentially because it wasn't cool.
When I first heard Death Cab years ago in college, they were just a fun band from the other side of the state. And, more recently, I was telling everyone I could to buy Transatlanticism.
It's not like I'm one of those guys that dislikes a band because they get big and I don't mean to feel similarly embarassed about liking them, but I do. I think it's not just their "coolness" but that the *kind* of cool associated with them is this "look at me, I'm hip to something you're not" kind of fake indie cool.
For me, it's all about the music (which is why I feel just fine about calling an incredibly cheesy Roy Orbison song my favorite song ever). But when a band that writes music this great gets associated with the kind of hipster image they've acquired over the past couple of years, it's hard for me to publicly admit I enjoy their stuff.
By the way, the band's name comes from a song title by the Beatles' fake band in their Yellow Submarine film.
Wow. Long comment.
Oh yeah -- Thanks for the mention. Steve and I will have a new show up pretty soon. We were two minutes away from recording a week and a half ago. Then I had to go and poke my eye out with an RCA cable! Luckily, I got to keep my vision but we lost the chance to record the show.
Great that you're back. I thought I would use the occasion to post a comment.
The New Pornographers I heard through the English CBC Radio 3 podcast the other day and in the meanwhile I bought their new album Twin Cinema. What a coincidence :)
Thanks for introducing some new (to me) music, personal background on when and where you first heard it and all. I, for one, greatly enjoy listening to your show and sometimes end up buying some new records (Postal Service, The Innocence Mission) that I greatly enjoy as a result of it. Yay!
Keep it coming, if only every so often.
Regards,
Olivier Oosterbaan
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
On a side note, I think the thing that makes the SF59 song is that cheezy electronic drumroll. I hear that and I'm sold.
Whilst I completely agree with your stance on Ogg vs. MP3, the other - perhaps more irrational - reason for choosing MP3 over Ogg is the massive investment I have in the format in terms of the huge amount of time taken ripping, collecting, tagging, quality controlling and filing the thousands of MP3s in my existing collection. It's going to take more than a comparable file format, even without its licensing disadvantages (which, at the end of the day, don't impact me directly, save for a perhaps a slight price increase), to get me to switch. Yes, this could be a gradual move, but the perfectionist in me would then want to make switch lock-stock & barrel for my whole collection. This is something I'd dread having to re-do. Of course, this is going to happen one day when the quality bar is raised sufficiently high, but I don't think there is a compelling enough reason to do so yet.
That said - keep pushing!
Awesome. Congratulations on marriage. Keep on producing great shows.
