Based on the albums Annie Clark released under the name St. Vincent, I thought she was an incredibly impressive and intricately inventive musician. Then I saw her play live — during the tour to support the utterly magnificent St. Vincent … Continue reading One for Friday: NirVincent, “Lithium”

When the self-titled debut album from Jack Frost was released, in 1991, the pitch to college radio kids was simple and obvious. The group teamed Steve Kilbey from the Church — still delivering sturdy left of the dial hits at … Continue reading One for Friday — Jack Frost, “Thought That I Was Over You”

When I was on the radio, I used to get overly enthused about about those instances in which I could make a tangential connection between a song I played and some current event stirring chatter outside of the confines of … Continue reading One for Friday — Eva and the Heartmaker, “Superhero”

I suspect every person who’s sat behind a music-based radio station broadcast board — at least at a spot on the dial that confers the authority of music selection to the announcers — has a small cache of special occasion … Continue reading One for Friday — House of Freaks, “Sun Gone Down”

I remember when the first full-length release from the Tragically Hip arrived at my college radio station. It was at the beginning of my second year, when my footing was a little sounder and I finally had an inkling of … Continue reading One for Friday: The Tragically Hip, “Blow at High Dough”

I need to acknowledge the walls of the college station where I made my home from 1988 to 1993 (and beyond, truthfully). Not the college issued white blandness, but the scrappy, unkempt cover-up provided by student programmers over the years. … Continue reading One for Friday — Big Pig, “I Can’t Break Away”

It’s very possible Wildflowers was the last album I purchased while living in my college town. I stuck around for roughly a year and a half following my graduation, working a thankless movie theater management job and soothing my post-collegiate … Continue reading One for Friday: Tom Petty, “Wildflowers”

This is it, friends. This is exactly what 1980 sounded like. The single “Girls Are Always Right,” from the U.K. new wave band Any Trouble, has some Joe Jackson to it. And Elvis Costello, and Graham Parker, and Marshall Crenshaw. … Continue reading One for Friday — Any Trouble, “Girls Are Always Right”

When I spent time in the broadcast booth at various college radio stations, one of the finest gifts that came with it was the chance to flip through the ever-changing batch of new music that sat on the shelf. It … Continue reading One for Friday — The Magic Numbers, “This Love”

During my first academic year at my college radio station, from the fall of 1988 through the spring of 1989, there was one song I was desperate to hear, even as it remained agonizingly elusive. Before I showed up at … Continue reading One for Friday — Grant Hart, “2541”