Bishop Allen - The Broken String

Robbers On High Street - Grand Animals ( $9.19 on lala.com )

Tegan & Sara - The Con

UNKLE - War Stories

John Vanderslice - Emerald City ( $9.19 on lala.com )

Mike Taylor - Boris with Michio Kurihara - “Rainbow”, from the CD, Rainbow

I’m reaching back a few weeks here - it’s still the dead of summer and not many tunes on the short list of new releases are rocking my world at the moment. Boris (or, at times, BORIS depending on the type of release. It’s a long story…) is a long-running Japanese trio best known for loud, occasionally ear-splitting variations of heavy metal, or so I’ve read. Normally, not my thing. So, it was with no small amount of reservation that I popped their new disc into the player.

Song 1 rolled by - ears still intact, no problem. Then I got to song 2, the title cut “Rainbow”. This…this I dug. More like a lost track from the early 90’s shoegazing era, “Rainbow” plods along with hushed vocals over a vaguely psychedelic backing guitar leading up to a searing lead guitar lick from Kurihara, presumably a well known guitar whiz in Japan. Works for me!

So while I may not be ready to rush out and add the whole Boris catalogue to my collection, here’s proof that you can still dip your toes into uncertain waters and not have to jump right out.

Matt Shiv - The Budos Band- “Chicago Falcon” from the CD The Budos Band II

I’m a sucker for old soul, funk, and R&B music. Back in the 60’s, you had an in-house crew of musicians who created most of the amazing sounds we heard on all those classic Motown singles. In the 70’s, you had guys like the
J.B.’s backing up the legendary James Brown. Today, that kind of musicianship almost seems to be forgotten…but not at Daptone Records. This is a label that specializes in keeping the funk alive!

The Budos Band are an 11-piece collective from Staten Island, New York who are releasing their 2nd album on Daptone next month. The musicianship on display in this band is nothing short of mind-blowing. These guys come are more than just authentically recreating what has come before them — they seem to truly be living and breathing this music. The record hosts 10 original instrumental tracks and this is the song that begins the new album. If you aren’t yet acquainted with The Budos Band, I can’t think of a better introduction.

The Budos Band - Chicago Falcon

Joe Long - Fionn Regan - “Be Good Or Be Gone”, from the CD End Of History.

I had heard my fair share of buzz about Fionn Regan in the past month or so, and had been meaning to check him out, but didn’t. Then this week Shiv had a few songs from the album put into our playlist and he mentioned that it was right up my alley. Only a couple days later I totally agree. Regan’s album, End Of History has been out and about overseas for almost a year now, but just got a stateside release this week via Lost Highway Records. I know the phrase, “very Nick Drake” is tossed around these days almost as much as Paris Hilton jokes, but I actually feel it applies as much to Regan as anyone I have heard. And it certainly does not hurt that his album was just announced as a finalist for the Mercury Music Prize.

This song, “Be Good Or Be Gone” is a great example. It is simple and quiet, with Regan on acoustic guitar and not a whole lot more, just what I need to ease into the weekend.

Fionn Regan - Be Good Or Be Gone

WOXY.com is proud to announce our involvement with a great show in the great city of Chicago! The show is tomorrow night, July 20th @ Schubas and features BOAT, who are fresh off of the release of their new album, Let’s Drag Our Feet. The new album is getting solid airplay on WOXY.com, and Pitchfork recently lobbed a great review their way as well.

So, if you are in the Chicago area, head on out tomorrow night for what should be a great show, here are the rest of the show details, including a free MP3 download from BOAT.

UR Chicago, WOXY.com, Music Nation, and Schubas present
The Amplify New Music Series

BOAT, Adam Fitz, Balun & Walter Kong
Friday July 20th @ Schubas 21+, 9pm

BOAT - (I’m A) Donkey for Your Love

Easily one of the best interviews of the Bonnaroo trip was with the legendary Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips. Check it out below……

New Music focuses on something just added to the WOXY.com playlist. Today the spotlight is on the new album from Ulrich Schnauss, Goodbye.

• While not a farewell for Schnauss, Goodbye does mark the last in a trilogy of albums which also include Far Away Trains Passing By and A Strangely Isolated Place.
• Rob McVey, the singer from Longview, appears on the song, “Shine.”
• Schnauss may be better known for his more electronic works, but Goodbye sounds like more of a shoegazy effort than previous albums.

Here are a few reviewers quotes about the new album.

• “throughout, Schnauss effectively creates his own little futuristic universe” - Village Voice
  
• “Goodbye contains both the best and the worst of Schnauss’ output until now.” - Stylus
• “Ulrich Schnauss returns with more lush, ambient music fitting for any chill-out session or long summer drive with the windows down.” - Billboard

Blog Buzz

• Built On A Weak Spot
• The Line Of Best Fit
• Headphone Sex

That’s right, folks. We’ve been working on this for some time now, but it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag. Through a unique partnership with Cincinnati Public Radio and 91.7 WVXU, you’ll soon be able to pick up WOXY.com on the second multicast channel of WVXU once it transitions to HD Radio in August!

Once you have an HD Radio receiver, you’ll be able to pick up our live broadcast 24/7 on WVXU HD2 anywhere within WVXU’s coverage area. Yup, WOXY.com will rock your car once again.

We’re all incredibly excited about being back on-the-air in the Tri-State and will be posting more info soon on what to expect and the best places to pick up an HD Radio receiver.

A great photo to share today on Wear Your WOXY Wednesday, this one was sent in by a WOXY couple! Hemal and his bride Parikha were on their honeymoon in Europe earlier this year, and had this WOXY photo moment. If you would like to be featured on a future WYWW, just send me a pic of yourself in WOXY gear, my address is joe at woxy dot com….

In what quite possibly is the best interview from our time at Bonnaroo, John Roderick of The Long Winters and I sat down and talked. It is also one of the longer interviews but it is not without its really funny moments. John and I cover, among other things, Tool, his MSNBC blog, the next Long Winters album, and other various items.

Check it out below……

New Music focuses on something just added to the WOXY.com playlist. Today the spotlight is on the new album from Editors, An End Has A Start, which is in stores today in the US.

• This is the second full length album from the band Birmingham, England and follows up their debut album, The Back Room.
• The band met studying Music Technology at Staffordshire University and officially formed and began playing together in 2004.
• Lead singer Tom Smith on the new album “We’ve definitely moved on, it’s definitely not the same record again. It’s much more ambitious. We never felt like we were going through any kind of difficult second album nonsense. We never hit any wall of ‘we don’t have enough singles’ or ‘that sounds shit’. It was all very natural and easy-going.“

Here are a few reviewers quotes about the new album.

• “An End Has A Start actually sounds like it was crafted as ten quite individual chapters of a long-running saga; surprisingly, though, it ultimately works better than its predecessor as a cohesive, flowing album. ” - Drowned In Sound
• “they concoct a gentler, dreamier atmosphere with less apparent anxiety, and create a shadowy veil of sadness, shot through with hopeful transcendence.” - Uncut
• “The songs get puffed and fluffed up but lose the wiry edge of “Munich,” burying Chris Urbanowicz’s guitar until it all sounds like Coldplay. Nice tunes, but louder, please.” - Rolling Stone

Blog Buzz

• Open Your Eyes
  
• Stereogum
• Naive Zebra

Watch the video for “Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors”…..

As Bonnaroo was winding down and we had done all of our interviews for the weekend, I headed off to take some more photos, which we shared with you here. Earlier in the weekend I had seen the guys from Sam Champion hanging around after a performance and told them to stop by our area at some point during the weekend.

Well, when the guys stopped by I was gone, and our stuff was mostly packed up, but Bryan J set a few things back up and let the guys from Sam Champion interview themselves, the results are really funny, view it below…….

Sam Champion - Like A Secret