The Blogger Hour is officially now known as Friends Of The Futurist, and this was our first episode under the new name. I was fortunate enough to have another great music blogger on the other end of this line, this time Torr Leonard, out of Los Angeles. Have a look at Torr’s playlist and listen to the show on demand below…..

Tune in next Tuesday night for another new episode of Friends Of The Futurist, as we welcome our first female contributor, Tiffany of Waywardpanties. Don’t miss out on this one!

Ghosts - “Stay The Night”
The Red Romance - “Don’t Cry”
Castledoor - “Magnetic Forces”
The Republic Tigers - “Golden Sand”
Dead Confederate - “The Rat”
Alberta Cross - “Hard Breaks”
Elbow - “Grounds For Divorce”
Air Traffic - “Shooting Star”
The Last Shadow Puppets - “The Age Of The Understatement”
The Twang - “Either Way”
Delays - “Love Made Visible”

We’re very pleased to be involved with the MusicNow Festival again this year. Bryce Dessner (from The National and Clogs) is in his third year of bringing this special event to his hometown. He literally got off a plane from Mexico City (where The National had just played) and came straight to our studios on Tuesday afternoon to discuss what we can expect over at Memorial Hall for the next few nights.

While Saturday’s performance with Andrew Bird & Grizzly Bear is sold out, there are still tickets available for the other evenings (as of now) and a lot of interesting collaborative performances are going to hit the stage.

During our interview, Bryce let it slip that none other than Sufjan Stevens (who performed during last year’s fest) was coming to town and would be participating in Wednesday’s opening night festivities. Several pieces are going to be premiered on Wednesday and the show was moved from the CAC to Memorial Hall as a result. Bryce, his brother Aaron, Padma Newsome, Nico Muhly, and Richard Reed Perry (Arcade Fire/Bell Orchestre) are among the artists who will be performing alongside vintage experimental films from the New York Filmmaker¹s Cooperative.

If you want the full scoop on how this year’s event came together and to learn more about what is going to be performed each night, you can stream this on-demand archive of our chat! Also, be sure to join us on Friday afternoon as our MusicNow coverage includes a live Lounge Act session from Glenn Kotche (of Wilco) around Noon eastern. Glenn is returning to the festival this year and will be performing at Memorial Hall on Friday night.

MusicNow 2008 Curator’s Chat playlist:
My Brightest Diamond “The Beautiful Ones (Lounge Act - 2007)”
interview
Bryce Dessner “Chorale”
interview
Bang On A Can “I Buried Paul” (excerpt)
Andrew Bird “Fake Palindromes”
interview
Nico Muhly “Skip Town”
Grizzly Bear “Blackcurrant Jam”
interview
Bryce & Aaron Dessner “Jumeaux”
interview
Clogs “Lantern (Lounge Act - 2006)”

Earlier this week we kicked off a new program here at WOXY.com that we are still tentatively calling The Blogger Hour. Matt Jordan of You Ain’t No Picasso joined me live in studio for our first episode and we had alot of fun talking music, blogging, festival and even photography. Here is the playlist Matt chose from our episode.

The Magnetic Fields - The Nuns Litany
Islands - Joy
Grizzly Bear - Blackcurrant Jam
De Novo Dahl - Be Your Man
Tullycraft - Fangs On Bats
Bishop Allen - Rain
Vampire Weekend - Bryn
Death Cab For Cutie - World Shut Your Mouth
XTC - Generals And Majors
Deerhoof - Milking
Peelander Z - Panda Punk
The Flaming Lips - The W.A.N.D.
Harry Nilsson - The Beehive

Join us again in a couple weeks on February 5th at 8pm as Memphis blogger E.J. Friedman from Loudersoft joins us for another hour of music and conversation.

Shiv serves up 2 hours of modern dance remixes and new electronic music every Friday night at 8:00 PM ET on Xtrabeats. Catch an encore airing on Saturdays at 10:00 PM ET. Check out this recap of last weekends episode and stream the entire show below as well.

Hour 1:
Thom Yorke “And It Rained All Night” (Burial Remix)” (XL)
Burial “Raver” (Hyperdub)
Ghislain Poirier “Hit + Red” (Ninja Tune)
Goldfrapp “A&E (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)” (Mute)
Kylie Minogue “2 Hearts (Alan Braxe Remix)” (Parlophone)
Michael Jackson “Thriller (Woodhead Ghetto Re-edit)” (white label)
Air “Cherry Blossom Girl (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)” (Astralwerks)
Robyn “Be Mine (Jori Hulkkonen Vocal Mix)” (Universal/Island UK)
Hot Chip “Hold On” (Astralwerks)
New Young Pony Club “The Bomb (Dirty Disco Youth’s Maxima)” (Modular)
The Touch “Le Night Dominator (Zombie Disco Mix)” (Trunkfunk)
Hour 2:
Steve Bug DJ Mix (30 mins) – fabric37:
Manoo “Joparish” (Deeply Rooted House)
Dennis Ferrer “Touched The Sky (Joe’s Dub Beats)” (King Street Sounds)
White Label “C’Mon Dance” (Wasnotwas)
Einzelkind “Spam Bot” (Playhouse)
Perre Inspirescu “De Bou!” (Arpiar)
Argy “Unreliable Virgin” (Cocoon)
Martin Buttrich “Hunter” (Cocoon)

Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Chew Fu Refix)” (palmsoutsounds.com)
Miss Kittin “Kittin Is High (JoJo De Freqs Beauty is Terror Remix)”
(Nobody’s Bizzness)
Hercules & Love Affair “Blind (Hercules Club Mix)” (DFA)
UNKLE “Burn My Shadow (Junkie XL Remix)” (Surrender All)

Tune in Friday night for another new episode of Xtrabeats!

We had alot of fun putting together our Year In Review show last month. So much that I think we are gonna make it an annual tradition at the end of each year. This show has Mike, Shiv and Joe talking about the year in music that was, 2007. We unveil our top 20 lists of the year, talk about the surprises and disappointment’s of 2007, and much more. And oh yeah, loads of good music throughout as well.

So enjoy this streaming version of the show, which won’t be available forever, right now here on The Futurist.