THALASSIQUE ON WNYU.ORG

Aquatic Entering Fashion

2010-04-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Behold one of Anthropologie's Late Spring/Summer Looks. The outfit category is "aquatic."
& Of course the theme behind Alexander McQueen's (RIP) Spring '10 Collection was Waterworld. Basically. See?

fish eye burroughs mary

2010-03-31T22:13:00.001-07:00

"There was something boneless about her, like a deep sea creature. Her eyes were cold fish eyes that looked at you through a viscous medium she carried about with her. I could see those eyes in a shapeless, protoplasmic mass undulating over the dark sea floor."

JUNKY

I CALLED IT (mgmt hopping on the wave)

2010-02-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

Above is a screen-grab from MGMT's website. If this is not proof of the complete permeation of modern music with beach and aquatic aesthetics, I don't know what is. In starting my now defunct show Thalassique I swore to everyone that I was on to something that music journalists would refer to in retrospect as an aquatic, or if I may leave my mark in any way, a thalassic sonic movement.

According to a recent interview with SPIN.com, a lot of MGMT's forthcoming album was inspired by Andrew Vanwyngarden recently learning how to surf, and that the activity is a resounding "thread throughout the record." These 2 psychedelic, art-spective kids could have lain their sights on anything for their latest compositions' thematic direction. But they chose this one. It's really general, I know, (water, the sun, the sand) and so it's easy to try to pigeonhole people into relying on it aesthetically or having something in common with other musicians who do, but the fact is that this aesthetic is something that exists independently in the world and is not born in anyone's mind. It is something that brushes people by and infects them, or leaves them a little damp, salty, tanned. Curiouser and curiouser people start to come together and make the same kinds of things.

That Vampire Weekend album? Everyone was saying they'd gone from Ivy-League Africa to California, but the addition of bells etc and cooler melodies definitely didn't produce a uniquely California sound--it was more tropical than dry and easy-going. But everyone jumped to call it California because 1) there is a song with the state in the title and 2) that's just what you think of when you hear something that sounds like a warm-climate vacation and you're stuck in a Northern Hemisphere winter. Though 'beach' is synonymous with California for many, whether you want to call Contra 'Californian' or 'tropical' still proves it is riding on this same wave, and like everything 'aquatic' out there, is a product of [the influence of] the independently existing aesthetic that paradoxically is a product of the collective efforts of many, who autonomously dreamed up its features.

I'm just pointing this out because it is something that first rolled in on tape decks and tiny shows on coastal capitals in this country and now it's coloring the work of the most propitious indie rock heavy-weights that have already got their breaks in national music publications.

So it's probably a good idea that I don't do this show anymore, because wnyu is no place for mgmt or vampire weekend.

BACK BETWEEN SOUND

2010-01-29T21:31:00.001-08:00

hear ye hear ye

i am hosting the sound between until further notice. same place, new time:

SATURDAY 2-4PM

all the same sort of stuff i like, but all new

2010-01-16T23:39:00.001-08:00

I have been on winter break and have not been in town during my time slot to host. Will be back soon, classes start this week.

DO YOU EXIST?

2009-12-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays, all. There was no Thalassique last week; I can explain. See, sometime Sunday afternoon I went to the library to write papers, and some time Wednesday afternoon I left. But on that account, I have a question for you:

Does anyone listen to my show?

I only ask because, well, I really don't know. Occasionally I hear from people but there is no way for me to track listenership on the internet. The other reason I ask is that I will probably be switching to the Sound Between next semester, which I used to host until this September. I invite you to follow me over to my new 2 PM slot, on whichever day that ends up being, but I may try to keep doing Thalassique if people are listening. They all say net radio has no future. But does this show?

If you have ever listened to Thalassique, send an email to pier@wnyu.org or stick something in the comments section.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

WUT U BEEN MISSIN

2009-12-13T21:17:00.001-08:00

I have a paper due tomorrow on love triangles in 19th Century Russian literature as related to the tragedy Andromache, but I would like to let you know that if you did not tune into Thalassique this evening, you missed:

-a Suzie Q reference
-storm sound effects played over (under?) all 19 minutes and 35 seconds of "The Diamond Sea"
-several 7+ minute jamz
-an encore of a song from the Beach Fossils set
-the sacrifice of an infant
-7" version of "Barbarism Begins at Home" - - because spitting in the face of people who don't want to be cool begins at home with spitting in the faces of infants.

AND NOW BACK TO ... STARTING TO WRITE MY PAPER
...WHICH I HAVE BEEN PLANNING
IT'S NOT LIKE I'M PROCRASTINATING OR STARTING IT AT THE LAST MINUTE
OKAY?
thalassique sundays 6-8 pm on wnyu.org

OCEANA

2009-12-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

SAVE THE SHARKS!

PLAYLIST 12/6/09

2009-12-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Highlights this week: The Chengdu Children's Palace Choir (whose music is released courtesy of, presumably, the Chinese Government) out-chanted the likes of Karen O and theKkids with their "Boating Song" in shrill, mellifluous refrains that even native Mandarin-speaking confidants of mine couldn't translate for me. ("It's too high pitched to understand them!"); & we went on Girl (/girl-led) Band Overload: Pearl Harbor, Brilliant Colors, Weed Hounds, Pens, X-Ray Spex, Blondie (believe it!), Camera Obscura and Frankie Rose. Phew! Well, before I rattle off the whole playlist...

PLAYLIST 12/06/09

6:02 PM	Surfer Blood "Floating Vibes" Astro Coast (Kanine) CD
6:06 PM	Dash Jacket "San Pedro" High Spirits (Self-Relased) CD
6:10 PM	Light Rays "Surf Song" Demo (Self-Released) CD
6:21 PM	The Present "Love Melody" World I See (Loaf) CD
6:21 PM	Ganglians "VooDoo" Monster Head Room (Woodsist) CD
6:24 PM	Dion and the Belmonts "A Teenager In Love" The Very Best of Dion and the Belmonts (EMI) CD
6:28 PM	Wild Beasts "All The King's Men" Two Dancers (Domino) CD
6:40 PM	Pearl Harbour "California Shakedown" Wish We Were Here CD
6:42 PM	Lilys "Claire Hates Me" In The Presence of Nothing (Slumberland/SpinART) CD 1992 [N]
6:45 PM	Brilliant Colors "You Say What You Want" Introducing (Slumberland) CD [N]
6:49 PM	Weed Hounds "Beach Bummed" Demo (Crooked Direction) CD
7:04 PM	Chengdu Childrens Palace Choir "Boating Song" Strawberry Pie: Chinese and Foreign Childrens Song (China Recording Corporation) CD
7:05 PM	Soft Tags "Secret Shoppers pt. 2" Seafoam Green (Self) CD
7:10 PM	Woods "Echo Lake" Songs of Shame (Woodsist/Shrimper) CD
7:11 PM	Neon Indian "Mind, Drips" Psychic Chasms (Lefse) CD [N]
7:21 PM	Pens "High in the Cinema" hey friend! what you doing (De Stijl) CD
7:23 PM	X-ray Spex "Let's Submerge" The Anthology (Sanctuary) CD
7:25 PM	Xu Xu Fang "Where Is Everybody?" Seven Days Now (Self-Released) CD
7:35 PM	La Shark "Bones" CD
7:43 PM	Reading Rainbow "we are too young" mystical participation CD 2009 [N]
7:46 PM	Surf City "Dickshakers Union" Surf City EP (Morr Music) CD
7:51 PM	Camera Obscura "Baby Don't Go" Live on Fair Game with Faith Sale (PRI) CD
7:57 PM	Frankie Rose "Thee Only One" Thee Only One (Slumberland) CD 2009 [N]

LITERARY ADDENDUM
A partial fable on sea urchins and anemones that would have been more developed had WNYU newscaster Eric Anderson not distracted me with tales of his own tribulations between mic breaks. Curse you, short-man!

TUNE IN, SUNDAYS 6-8 PM ON WNYU.ORG

THE SEA ANEMONE: "Lonely, Lonely that is me"

2009-12-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, as evident in this 'Anemone Bed," they can touch each other, but like the sea urchin, they can touch little else (save Little Nemo's) without risking total destruction. (Total Destruction!!)

Take a closer look. These tentacles contain minuscule venomous stingers that stun and poison innocent passers-by, each misconstrued as a vicious threat to the anemone's well being and general happiness. Observe the weapons' stealthy flexibility and texture:

Beautiful, yes, but always looming, ever carnivorous, ever ready to attack.

Obviously there is no other animal photographed with these wily cnidarians ('cept that damn clown fish, I know, I know), because it would just be too gruesome. Such is the melancholic, malicious isolation of this emotionally-charged underwater creature.

BEWARE THE ANEMONE LEST YE BE CLOWNES

NEW FAVORITE BAND: GRASS WIDOW

2009-12-03T21:36:00.001-08:00

I've been saying this a lot lately, mainly to myself, but nonetheless it bears repeating: Grass Widow are AWESOME. I meant to detail their greatness on here after I saw them open for Vivian Girls earlier this fall but I have been enslaved to school and various other institutions that own me, but it's not too late!!!

Why should you like them?

Technical Prowess
There's a lot of criticism of lo-fi music today, that the reverb pedal just glosses over a lack of skill, lazy voices/songwriting and no knack for melody outside the simple, upbeat and poppy. Likewise, when there's a girl in the band, or an all-girl band, people start commenting on how they look--Amelia Braekke-Dyer of UK trio Pens has complained of "when people refer to us as, 'Oh people just like them because they’re cute and they’re girls and they’re pretty.' But we’re still so under fire for not being pretty enough and not being cute enough," and Dum Dum Girls sparked a debate on Brooklyn Vegan for wearing cute dresses and tights to a CMJ gig. People get pissed that bands receive attention for looking good rather than playing well or wrongfully accuse musicians who are attractive or put-together of being talentless, and maybe this is a valid debate for some reverb-heavy bands or stylized pop stars, but this should be no question with Grass Widow.
All 3 of these girls can sing and play as the syncopated harmonies on "Celebrate the Mundane" alone can testify. They carry the same doo-wop/girl group nostalgia as other bands mentioned, but with something decidedly more Sleater-Kinney in how the instruments and vocals lock together. (That is my actual favorite band btw*). The hooks are much less stoic than their contemporaries but their choruses are still fit to hypnotize. Lo-fi? yes. Dizzying soprano vocals? Thank You Please. Fun-inspired riffs? I can dance to this. Check out their LP out on Make A Mess.

They're funny, and culturally informed:
At this show, Katy of the VGirlz was wearing the same dress I had just bought and almost wore that very night. When I told Grass Widow's guitarist, she was quick to pick up on the Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston drama that could have ensued had the redheaded bassist and I in fact showed up to an event in the same garment, recalling how Whitney growled, "TRY IT ON MEH!" (Except I am not as important as Kickball Katy, Mariah or Whitney so I'm sure no one would have cared).

All 3 of them can fit on 1 horse:
If you ever need to get out of town and you only have a limited supply of horses--not a problem. Observe:
http://myspace.com/grasswidowmusic
(LISTEN to all 6 songs currently streaming).

*bias

OOPS NO SHOW- TURKEY FISH

2009-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

That there, is a Turkey Fish. No Thalassique last week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope you understand and did not drown in your despair. I know we don't all have as many fins as Turkey Fish to propel us through such treacherous tides as those. Some of us can't even swim.

But I have a GREAT show for y'all coming up this weekend. At the end of your weekend.

TUNE IN SUNDAYS 6-8 PM ON WNYU.ORG

JUST IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT KOOSH BALLS ARE

2009-11-24T21:19:00.001-08:00

I BEEN SEARCHIN' 4 URCHINS

2009-11-24T14:05:00.000-08:00

They look sort of like koosh balls, cross-bred somewhere down the line with sea anemones. Why did Ariel's father disapprove of them so much?? Take a look for yourself:

SEA URCHINS

SEA URCHIN FACTS
King Triton was right in his contempt for Ariel's little street-rat friend Urchin, en fait. Sea Urchins are quite dangerous. These spindly creatures are no koosh balls--they have spikes that can get stuck in your flesh if you step on or threaten them. Not so nice. But on the other hand, it can't be so nice for the sea urchin either, never being able to get close to anyone out of fear of stabbing them. What a melancholy existence these rainbow clad suckers lead on the bottoms of ships and the ocean floor. (Or is it just barnacles that stick onto ships?)

Strangely enough, people eat them. Check out this 'sea urchin sushi boat' on the right. Thus, when a sea urchin injures you, there are more than adequate ways to get revenge. Fish them up with a net and then stab them yourselves with large cutlery instruments, then boil, saute, or roll them raw.

The prickliest members of the echindoderm phylum, sea urchins tend to grow up to 2 to 4 inches in diameter and have teeth, which they can use to bite holes in rocks when they need to places to hide, only one example of the destructive power they posess.

WET DOG, "LOWER LEG" VIDEO

2009-11-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Check out the new video for the first single from Wetdog's forthcoming album, Frauhaus! (Captured Tracks, 11/30). "Lower Leg" was filmed/directed by the band, and edited by Margarita Louca, featuring some dizzying underwater shots of girls goofing off in a swimming pool.

Why should you care? Their layered British yelping, loud bass/angular guitar and syncopated rhythms deliver what the new Slits album couldn't. And in Thalassique-land we always like to dive into pools and walk on our hands and stuff. Except I hate swimming because I wear contact lenses. Actually, watching the swimming pool water kind of makes me thirsty. Drink enough water, people. Punk rock can dehydrate you.

www.myspace.com/wetdogthebest

PLAYLIST 11/8/09

2009-11-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Ahoy there. Here is the playlist from last Sunday:

6:08 PM	The Shop Assistants "It's Up to You" All Day Long CD
6:09 PM	Karen O and the Kids "Sailing Home" Where the Wild Things Are CD
6:09 PM	Abe Vigoda "The Garden" Skeleton (Post Present Medium) CD
6:10 PM	Best Coast "Something in the Way" Art Fag 7" (Art Fag) CD
6:18 PM	Grass Widow "Celebrate the Mundane" Demo (Make a Mess) CD
6:19 PM	The Clean "Fish" Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-So Sounds So-So, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten!! (Flying Nun) CD 1982
6:24 PM	Almighty Defenders "Jihad Blues" Almighty Defenders (Vice) CD
6:26 PM	The Beets "The Devil" Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool (Captured Tracks) CD
6:27 PM	Spectrals "Don't Mind" Cassette CD
6:30 PM	Christmas Island "Black Cloud" Blackout Summer (Midheaven) CD [N]
6:40 PM	Beach House "Turtle Island" Devotion (Carpark) CD
6:41 PM	Vivian Girls "I'm Not Asleep" Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red) CD
6:43 PM	Sleater Kinney "Heart Attack" Call the Doctor (Chainsaw) CD 1996
6:51 PM	Girls At Dawn "Every Night" 7" (HoZac) CD
6:54 PM	Wild Nothing "Summer Holiday" 7" (Captured Tracks) CD
6:56 PM	Sleep Whale "Roof Sailing" Houseboat (Western Vinyl) CD [N]
7:00 PM	Julie Ruin "Tania" Julie Ruin (Kill Rock Stars) CD
7:10 PM	German Measles "Eternity" Wild EP (Captured Tracks) CD [N]
7:11 PM	Orange Juice "Falling And Laughing" The Glasgow School (Domino Recordings Co.) CD 2005
7:16 PM	Meth Teeth "A Thousand Regrets" Everything Went Wrong (Woodsist) CD 2009 [N]
7:20 PM	The Bodines "Decide" Decide (Single) (Play Hard Records) CD 1989
7:29 PM	The Bitters "East" East 7" (Captured Tracks) CD
7:35 PM	Black Water "Abyss" MP3
7:36 PM	The Gun Club "Ghost on the Highway" Fire of Love (Slash) CD
7:37 PM	Little Claw "Slow Sticky Tornado" Human Taste CD
7:50 PM	Little Teeth "Oh Drag" Child Bearing Man CD
7:53 PM	Jens Lekman "It Was A Strange Time In My Life" Night Fall Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian) CD

Threw in some (post) riot grrl stuff that flowed with the lo-fi tide (Julie Ruin and gods of rock Sleater-Kinney), and some oldies like the Gun Club, the Bodines and Orange Juice. And as corporate as WTWTA is, I couldn't have a show without Karen O cooing every once in a while, particularly in a song that's supposed to guide images of a drifting boat.

ADDENDA
The ever well-dressed Eric Anderson dropped in to read some news about Mayor Bloomberg and some pipe exploding. And I re-played the excerpt from "The Bronze Horseman" over Black Water because I like it just that much.

TUNE IN SUNDAYS 6-8 PM ON WNYU.ORG

LISTEN TO CAMPFIRES ON THALASSIQUE

2009-11-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

What do you know, last week's show hit the archives like 5 minutes ago. It's in 2 parts. Links here:

PART ONE: http://wnyu.org/2009-11-01_Thalassique
PART TWO: http://wnyu.org/2009-11-01pt2_Thalassique

Image courtesy of Kim Cronin's Flickr stream; it's the remains of the Annie M. Peterson Schooner shipwrecked on the shores of Lake Superior, like those Jeff Walls/Campfires described to me (and you, the listener) last Sunday. Mr. Walls also brandished his ipod to share with the show an Alan Lomax recording of Italian longshoremen singing a capella in strange, merry harmonies, and of course 7 tracks from his burgeoning repertoire of releases. (It wasn't all seafaring nostalgia). Some of the tracks were recorded in a summer vacation hot spot Lake Park with sound samples of Lake Michigan. Listen to hear how Michigan and lo-fi go together like sand and salt and how passive listening (like listening to books on tape) can be a beautiful thing.

About 4/5 of the way through Part 1 is "Underground, in a Cave, in a Shallow Bed of Freezing Water," a collaboration between Campfires and Philadelphia-based writer Ben Segal, who wrote a book in the form of crossword puzzles titled 78 Stories: A Crossword Novella. Full text of Ben Segal's story of the same title "Underground, in a Cave, in a Shallow Bed of Water" can be found here; Jeff reads the narrative about a giant salamander that offers a small town the choice of a certain gruesome euthanasia over his own super fuzzy layers of guitar in blatant homage to the Velvet Underground's "The Gift."

Big thanks to Jeff for coming on the show! Enjoy the streaming mp3s.

PLAYLIST 11/01/09

6:06 PM	Crystal Stilts "The City in the Sea" Alight of Night (Slumberland) CD 2008
6:08 PM	Yo La Tengo "Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador Records) CD
6:24 PM	Thee Oh Sees "Where the People do Drugs" In the Shadow of the Giant CD
6:25 PM	Times New Viking "No Time, No Hope" Born Again Revisited (Matador) CD [N]
6:27 PM	The Hunches "Not Invited" Exit Dreams (In The Red) CD
6:40 PM	Campfires "Stormy Late Fall" Stormy Late Fall 7" (Mexican Summer) CD {coming soon}
6:42 PM	Campfires "Easy Orchard" - (Self-Released) CD {coming out maybe on the Burning Rivers Tape from Leftist Nautical Antiques}
6:43 PM	Campfires "Chicora" - (Self-Relased) CD {Brand new song, maybe out on As Above, So Below purdy soon}
6:57 PM	Campfires "Air Raid" - (Self-Relased) CD
6:59 PM	Campfires "Slip-Shod Paradise" - (Self-Released) CD {probably on the Leftist Nautical Antiques tape}
7:01 PM	Campfires "Royal Orange" Upcoming Split with Benoit Pioulard! (FM Dust) CD
7:12 PM	Campfires and Ben Segal "Underground in a Cave" - (Self-Relased) CD
7:28 PM	Superchunk "Learned To Surf" Leaves In The Gutter EP (Merge Records) CD
7:30 PM	Les Sequelles "Everything's Just Fine Baby" CD
7:31 PM	Soft Tags "Deathstar is Ascendent" Seafoam Green (Self) CD [N]
7:33 PM	Reigning Sound "Stick Up For Me" Love and Curses (In The Red) CD [N]
7:44 PM	The Breeders "Cro-Aloha" Cannonball EP (Elektra) CD
7:47 PM	Genoese Longshoremen "La Partenza" Alan Lomax Collection Sampler CD
7:50 PM	The King Khan & BBQ Show "Third Ave" Invisible Girl (In The Red) CD [N]
7:52 PM	The Mantles "Bad DEsign" Bad Design 7" CD
8:05 PM	Surf City "Autumn" Surf City EP (Morr Music) CD

http://myspace.com/campfiresmusic
http://campfiresmusic.com

Shake it like a salt shaker,
Pier

2009-11-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

http://cakeheadlovesevil.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/nomura-jellyfish/

So it's been a while and I've been a little slack on the marine poetry and such. BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE FINER MARINE POETRY THAN THESE GIANT JELLYFISH?

Or these jelly fish captured in motion on film. Wow:

Last week's show with Campfires should be in the archives soon. Hold tight and if you're in Japan don't go swimming in the bay because I hear big ass jellyfish tend to ride in there on the currents.

THIS SUNDAY: CAMPFIRES

2009-10-29T09:29:00.002-07:00

[pic courtesy of Campfires' Myspace]

As I mentioned before, Chicago-based musician Campfires will stop by the station this Sunday, November 1, 2009 to play some of his recently released tapes and MP3s on THALASSIQUE. He has a 7-Inch coming out on Mexican Summer and tapes expected on Leftist Nautical Antiques and As Above, So Below Tapes. It will be awesome to have some of Campfires' super-fuzzy bedroom tapes in the WNYU library--but it will be even nicer to hear Jeff Walls (Campfires) and I talk about them, and the world of water as a muse, AND to hear a special new track recorded by Jeff for the show, setting a short story by his friend Ben from Philadelphia to his jangly and distorted riffs in the vein of the Velvet Underground's "The Gift."

So make sure you tune in this Sunday, November 1 for the goods. I'm sorry if you tuned in last week and heard only dead air. That was inexpressibly retarded and won't happen....ever....again.

BEACH FOSSILS SET ARCHIVED ON WNYU.ORG

2009-10-29T09:29:00.001-07:00

http://wnyu.org/2009-10-25_Thalassique

BEACH FOSSILS LIVE ON THALASSIQUE

2009-10-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

Shen, Chris, John and Dustin of BEACH FOSSILS at WNYU

Tonight Beach Fossils played a live set of 5 songs off their forthcoming full-length debut from Brooklyn based labels Captured Tracks & Woodsist. During the interview we learned that Beach Fossils creator Dustin Payseur hates the beach, but likes the fossils you can find there, which I have yet to really learn about in my underwater explorations on the Internet. We also learned that the band was assembled after Payseur sent home recordings to a bunch of labels and heard back from Captured Tracks---then sprang to Missed Connections, er, the Internet to find a live band for the dates he booked. Shen, their current drummer, only joined Chris, John and Dustin last week for CMJ to jump in and play the songs off the cuff but it's been going pretty well. They've played shows with Air Waves, the Smith Westerns, Woods, Titus Andronicus and Here We Go Magic (and that's just counting some of the 5 CMJ dates they did last week), and the first ten people to see the following link will get to hear them play on Thalassique before we archive it on WNYU.ORG:

http://rapidshare.com/files/298015214/01_BEACH_FOSSILS_Live_Set_and_Interview.m4a.html

LIVE SET LIST:

7:02 PM	Beach Fossils "Vacation" Live @ WNYU!
7:05 PM	Beach Fossils "Daydream" Live @ WNYU!
7:08 PM	Beach Fossils "Sometimes" Live @ WNYU!
7:15 PM	Beach Fossils "Lazy Day" Live @ WNYU!
7:16 PM	Beach Fossils "Twelve Roses" Live @ WNYU!

- - - -

After the set and during the interview Dustin and Chris brought along some of their favorite tracks including:
"Funeral" - McCarthy
"Horizontal" - 100 Flowers / the Urinals
"What Went Wrong This Time" - Siddleys
"Nice Time" - John and James (from John and Dustin of Beach Fossils.... Dustin's first name is in fact James, but to distinguish him from his dad James Payseur senior, he has gone by Dustin).
"Sorry to Embarrass You" - Razorcuts
"Smashing Time" - Television Personalities
"These Things Happen" - Action Painting!
"Solar" - Blitz
(from Dustin)
&&&& songs from Captain Beefheart and BK garage band PC Worship (from Chris), whose titles I didn't catch but will fill in as soon as i have a minute.

- - -

Before all that fun stuff, I played:

6:03 PM	The Terminals "Black Creek" Little Things (Last Visible Dog) CD [N]
6:08 PM	Beach Fossils "Daydream" Daydream 7" (Woodsist/Captured Tracks) CD {Coming out later this fall}
6:08 PM	Amazing Baby "The Narwhal" Rewild (Shangri la) CD
6:18 PM	Brilliant Colors "Should I Tell You?" Brilliant Colors EP CD 2008 [N]
6:20 PM	The Shangri-las "It's Easier to Cry" The Complete Collection (Goldenlane Records) CD 1992 [N]
6:22 PM	Tamaryn "Return To Surrender" Led Astray, Washed Ashore (Troubleman Unlimited) CD 2009
6:26 PM	M. Ward "Neptune's Net" Post-war (Merge) CD
6:35 PM	Joy Division "Dead Souls" Still (London/Rhino) CD
6:36 PM	Little Girls "Growing" Concepts CD
6:41 PM	A Sunny Day In Glasgow "Hybrid Moment (Misfits Cover)" CD
6:42 PM	Box Elders "Death of Me" Alice and Friends (Goner) CD [N]
6:47 PM	Dum Dum Girls "Jail La La" Jail La La 7" CD
6:50 PM	Strange Boys "Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up" The Strange Boys And Girls Club (In The Red) CD
6:52 PM	Gary War "Please Don't Die" New Raytheonport LP (Shdwply/Disaro) CD
6:54 PM	Coasting "Coasting" (self -released) CD

But sometimes, retarded shit happens to the recording of the first half of your show, and you don't have it available for archiving or download. As the Action Painting song goes, 'these things happen.'

Also after the live set was caUSE co-MOTION's "And You Wonder" from the Because Because Because EP from Slumberland, and at the end of my show I played "Portsmouth Daydream Supper" by Campfires, who will be on my show NEXT WEEK! Doing really cool stuff!

ADIOS JULITAS!
(i get called julita when i go to delis, is that bad? i'm like 'do you have salami?' and they are like 'que?' '...julita julita julita,' and 'wait here julita,' '$tres.50 julita.' But isn't Julita a name?)

PLAYLISTS AND SUCH

2009-10-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

Here is a look at what I have been playing these past weeks!

10/18/09

6:04 PM	Dash Jacket "Coastal Sang" MP3
6:04 PM	The Babies "Meet Me In The City" Meet Me In The City (Self-Released) CD [N]
6:06 PM	Mogwai "Travel Is Dangerous" Mr. Beast (Matador) CD
6:14 PM	Girls "Hellhole Ratrace" Album (True Panther Sounds) CD [N]
6:19 PM	Sunnybrook "Waving Hands" Water Me Glow (self -released) CD
6:24 PM	Portishead "Deep Water" Third (Island) CD
6:25 PM	Monsterism Island "Magic Morning" The Psychedelic Guide to Monsterism Island (Self-Released) CD
6:30 PM	Department Of Eagles "Floating on the Lehigh" In Ear Park (4AD) CD 2008
6:34 PM	The Walkmen "On the Water" You & Me (Gigantic) CD
6:38 PM	The Horrors "Sea Within a Sea" Primary Colours (Beggars XL) CD
6:54 PM	Beach Fossils "Vacation" forthcoming 7" (Woodsist/Captured Tracks) MP3 [N]
6:56 PM	Sea Ray "Revelry" Stars At Noon (The Self-starter Foundation) CD 2003
7:01 PM	William Shakespeare "The Tempest [Excerpt]" The Tempest (Unabridged) Audiobook (Audio Holdings, LLC) CD
7:04 PM	Mum "Oh, How the Boat Drifts" Summer Make Good (Fat Cat) CD
7:08 PM	Elfin Saddle "The Ocean" Ringing For The Begin Again (Constellation) CD
7:19 PM	Sonic Youth "Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)" The Eternal (Matador) CD
7:25 PM	Beachniks "Coney Island" Slumberland/Cake Shop SXSW Mix (Slumberland) CD
7:26 PM	Billy J Kramer "Do You Want to Know A Secret?" Wonderful World of the 60s (K-tel) CD 2008
7:27 PM	Frightened Rabbit "Swim Until You Can't See Land" forthcoming single (Fat Cat) MP3 {single out 11/16 with B-side "Fun Stuff"}
7:32 PM	The Fresh & Onlys "Fog Machine" The Fresh & Onlys (Castle Face) CD
7:35 PM	Cocorosie "Tahiti Rain Song" La Maison De Mon Reve (Touch And Go) CD
7:42 PM	Pens "Networking/I Sing Just For You" hey friend! what you doing (De Stijl) CD [N]
7:43 PM	Surfer Blood "Swim (To Reach the End)" (Kanine) MP3
7:49 PM	Takka Takka "Lion in the Waves" Migration (Ernest Jenning) CD
7:52 PM	The Thermals "At the Bottom of the Sea" Now We Can See (Kill Rock Stars) CD

LITERARY ADDENDUM

An excerpt from the Audiobook of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, played over Múm's "Oh, How the Boat Drifts." As well as me going on about penguins, if I remember correctly. Not quite literary. But literal, which is half as good.

- - - - - - - - -

10/11/09

6:08 PM	Best Coast "Sun Was High (So Was I)" Sun Was High (So Was I) b/w That's The Way Boys Are 7" (Art Fag) CD [N]
6:08 PM	Black Tambourine "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge" Complete Recordings (Slumberland) CD
6:10 PM	Ten Kens "Y'all Come Back Now" Ten Kens (Fat Cat) CD 2008
6:18 PM	The King Khan & BBQ Show "Truth or Dare" Invisible Girl (In The Red) CD 2009 [N]
6:20 PM	Duane Eddy "Because They're Young" Twang Thang: Anthology (Rhino) CD 1993
6:22 PM	The Pastels "Crawl Babies" Truckload of Trouble (Seed) CD
6:25 PM	The Cure "Jumping Someone Else's Train" Boys Don't Cry (Elektra/WEA) CD 1980
6:36 PM	The Love Language "Lalita" S/T (Bladen County) CD
6:37 PM	Male Bonding "Pumpkin" Male Bonding/Old Blood/Grafitti Islands/Rapid Youth split 7" (Paradise Vending) CD
6:40 PM	The Mummies "Test Drive" Death By Unga Bunga!! (Estrus) CD
6:42 PM	Continental Divide "Golden Throat" Golden Throat EP CD
6:44 PM	The Sticks "On The Sea" Split w/Hands On Head (Upset The Rhythm) CD {will appear on their upcoming full-length in November 2009}
6:48 PM	Beta Band "Liquid Bird" Heroes To Zeros (Astralwerks) CD 2004
6:50 PM	Ganglians "Blood on the Sand" Captured Tracks 7" (Captured Tracks) CD {features Jarvis from Woods}
7:01 PM	Christmas Island "Bed Island" Blackout Summer (Midheaven) CD {http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/water-scarcity-index}
7:06 PM	Ratatat "Tropicana" Classics (XL) CD
7:08 PM	The Troggs "With A Girl Like You" Wild Thing (Atco) CD 1966
7:10 PM	Brown Recluse "Contour and Context" Soft Skin EP (Slumberland) CD
7:20 PM	Campfires "Daytime TV" (self -released) CD
7:21 PM	TV Ghost "The Recluse" Cold Fish (In The Red) CD 2009 [N]
7:23 PM	Jesus & Mary Chain "Kill Surf City" Barbed Wire Kisses (Blanco y Negro Records) CD 1988
7:26 PM	Obits "Lillies In The Street" I Blame You (Sub Pop) CD
7:31 PM	The Hunches "Fall Drive" Exit Dreams (In The Red) CD
7:44 PM	Suckers "Out on the Water" Make Mine 7" (Make Mine Music) CD
7:45 PM	Husker Du "Pink Turns To Blue" Zen Arcade (SST) CD
7:48 PM	Wendy James "You Tell Me" I Came Here To Blow Minds CD
7:50 PM	Spectrals "Leave Me Be" Leave Me Be 7" (Captured Tracks) CD
7:58 PM	Thee Fair-Ohs "I'm A Woman I'm Your Wife" CD
7:59 PM	Graffiti Island "Demonic Cat" Split Cassette w/Pens, Male Bonding CD
8:00 PM	The Soft Hands "Harbor" Hours Pass By CD

ADDENDUMS

This week we talked about water scarcity and, fitting with the horror theme ("Demonic Cat" by Graffiti Island, "Truth or Dare" by KK&BBQ, TV Ghost and the Mummies), a brief tale about a sick penguin attacked by zombie seals who found revenge on his fiercely critical penguin community via spread of the disease.

UPCOMING GUESTS ON THALASSIQUE

2009-10-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

Check out these upcoming live performances, interviews and Thalassique exclusives from guests on the show in the next two weeks.
THIS SUNDAY OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beach Fossils aka Dustin Payseur and friends are set to release a 7-Inch from awesome Brooklyn label(s) and Thalassique cornerstone(s) Woodsist/Captured Tracks this year, and I am pleased to announce that after they finish up their remaining shows in the CMJ Music Marathon in NY, they will perform on THALASSIQUE this Sunday, October 25, 2009. Tune in for a live set and interview around 7 PM in the middle of the show. Check out "Vacation" and "Daydream" on http://myspace.com/beachfossils.

NEXT SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009
Campfires is the project of one Jeff Walls, a sound-collagist/multi-instrumentalist and museum employee from Chicago whose creative endeavors have been heavily influenced by the Great Lakes. He has a 7-Inch coming out on Mexican Summer and a tape on Leftist Nautical Antiques to follow. Campfires has agreed to do a special interdisciplinary/literary sound collage for Thalassique which we hope to debut on the show during his visit. Check out interviews and stuff on www.campfiresmusic.com.

TUNE IN, SUNDAYS 6-8 PM ON WNYU.ORG

CMJCMJCMJCMJ

2009-10-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Sooo on Sunday I said I would be posting my CMJ picks...we're one day in but here we go:

10/20 Subba Cultcha at Cake Shop (was awesome)
Best Coast/Surf City/Male Bonding= highlights; also caught Small Black from the Poptarts Suck Toasted showcase, very good. (Review here).

Tonight
10/21 Oh My Rockness Showcase @ Santos Party House
Real Estate, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Beach Fossils and moooore

And don't forget
10/22 WNYU Party @ Market Hotel (Obviously)
Fluffy Lumbers, Gary War, Expo 70, Eric Copeland

ON AIR

2009-10-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

Holler if you are visiting this blog by some haphazard result of surfing the internet, you should know that i am on air RIGHT NOW: wnyu.org . Playing Sunnybrook currently.

WHALE-WATCHING: Field Guides to the latest trend in band names/&& SLEEP WHALE MP3s

2009-10-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

While I didn't play each and every one of these multitudinous new bands with 'whale' in the title, I sort of called this trend a couple weeks back on my second show.

[via Stereogum] Here is an alphabetized field guide to the ocean of new 'whale' bands: Letters A-O here, and the rest here.

Of these bands I'd like to introduce you to:

SLEEP WHALE

I played Sleep Whale on Thalassique on 10/4. Their whole album Houseboat is quintessential thalassic music so I feel obligated to direct your attention to it. From rain samples and slower, ambient tracks to upbeat pop songs where melodies make their way through hazy layered sounds, it's a good listen and I'll be playing them again in a month's time.

In the meantime check out these Sleep Whale Mp3s floating around the internet:

"Josh Likes Me" MP3
"Cotton Curls" MP3
"We Were Dripping" MP3 (as heard on Thalassique)

Bon week-end!
See you Sunday on WNYU.ORG.

IROQUOIS CREATION MYTH

2009-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

"The world was formed on the back of a giant turtle. First Woman fell from the sky and lived with the help of the animals. She had one good grandson and one bad grandson from which stemmed the conflict of good and evil among humans."
Iroquois Creation Myth [mukto-mona]

2009-10-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

PLAYLIST 10/11/09

2009-10-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Fish

Tonight's Thalassic Adventures were frightening and autumn-twinged to say the least. Too bad there's no fall leaves out at sea.

I played Best Coast's "Sun Was High (So Was I)" for the millionth time (third?) in my WNYU career... I love that song; then in rolled a whole roster of recent surf-twang garage/punk releases and some quality throwbacks like Hüsker Dü and Jesus & Mary Chain. Yay!

Jesus & Mary Chain

PLAYLIST

6:08 PM	Best Coast "Sun Was High (So Was I)" Sun Was High (So Was I) b/w That's The Way Boys Are 7" (Art Fag) CD [N]
6:08 PM	Black Tambourine "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge" Complete Recordings (Slumberland) CD
6:10 PM	Ten Kens "Y'all Come Back Now" Ten Kens (Fat Cat) CD 2008
6:18 PM	The King Khan & BBQ Show "Truth or Dare" Invisible Girl (In The Red) CD 2009 [N]
6:20 PM	Duane Eddy "Because They're Young" Twang Thang: Anthology (Rhino) CD 1993
6:22 PM	The Pastels "Crawl Babies" Truckload of Trouble (Seed) CD
6:25 PM	The Cure "Jumping Someone Else's Train" Boys Don't Cry (Elektra/WEA) CD 1980
6:36 PM	The Love Language "Lalita" S/T (Bladen County) CD
6:37 PM	Male Bonding "Pumpkin" Male Bonding/Old Blood/Grafitti Islands/Rapid Youth split 7" (Paradise Vending) CD
6:40 PM	The Mummies "Test Drive" Death By Unga Bunga!! (Estrus) CD
6:42 PM	Continental Divide "Golden Throat" Golden Throat EP CD
6:44 PM	The Sticks "On The Sea" Split w/Hands On Head (Upset The Rhythm) CD {will appear on their upcoming full-length in November 2009}
6:48 PM	Beta Band "Liquid Bird" Heroes To Zeros (Astralwerks) CD 2004
6:50 PM	Ganglians "Blood on the Sand" Captured Tracks 7" (Captured Tracks) CD {features Jarvis from BK darlings Woods}
7:01 PM	Christmas Island "Bed Island" Blackout Summer (Midheaven) CD {http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/water-scarcity-index}
7:06 PM	Ratatat "Tropicana" Classics (XL) CD
7:08 PM	The Troggs "With A Girl Like You" Wild Thing (Atco) CD 1966
7:10 PM	Brown Recluse "Contour and Context" Soft Skin EP (Slumberland) CD
7:20 PM	Campfires "Daytime TV" (self -released) CD
7:21 PM	TV Ghost "The Recluse" Cold Fish (In The Red) CD 2009 [N]
7:23 PM	Jesus & Mary Chain "Kill Surf City" Barbed Wire Kisses (Blanco y Negro Records) CD 1988
7:26 PM	Obits "Lillies In The Street" I Blame You (Sub Pop) CD
7:31 PM	The Hunches "Fall Drive" Exit Dreams (In The Red) CD
7:44 PM	Suckers "Out on the Water" Make Mine 7" (Make Mine Music) CD
7:45 PM	Husker Du "Pink Turns To Blue" Zen Arcade (SST) CD
7:48 PM	Wendy James "You Tell Me" I Came Here To Blow Minds CD
7:50 PM	Spectrals "Leave Me Be" Leave Me Be 7" (Captured Tracks) CD
7:58 PM	Thee Fair-Ohs "I'm A Woman I'm Your Wife" CD
7:59 PM	Graffiti Island "Demonic Cat" Split Cassette w/Pens, Male Bonding CD
8:00 PM	The Soft Hands "Harbor" Hours Pass By CD

I keep discovering new bands (new to existence, and new to me) that fit for Thalassique. If you think your band fits in and you want to send me your music go ahead! It's pier@wnyu.org.

Lookout: for next week I've got The Tempest in audio-book form.

[Pumpkin Fish photo courtesy of http://www.scottandjamie.com]

Grrl Groups

2009-10-01T20:55:00.001-07:00

[above: the Shangri-Las]

This evening's Thalassique will pay tribute to the girl groups responsible for some of sound and shit that you hear from new lo fi bands each week. Sorry for the inarticulate phrasing... I kind of have the flu. Anyway, it will be a tribute SORT OF, because I will be playing other cool stuff too.

TUNE IN 6-8PM KTHX.
<3 Pier

LITERARY ADDENDUMS 9/27

2009-10-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

The following were read on the 9/27 emission de Thalassique:

A selection from Moby Dick by Herman Melville:
"Like noiseless nautilus shells, their light prows sped through the sea; but only slowly they neared the foe. As they neared him, the ocean grew still more smooth; seemed drawing a carpet over its waves; seemed a noon-meadow, so serenely it spread. At length the breathless hunter came so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey, that his entire dazzling hump was distinctly visible, sliding along the sea as if an isolated thing, and continually set in a revolving ring of finest, fleecy, greenish foam. He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turkish-rugged waters, went the glistening white shadow from his broad, milky forehead, a musical rippling playfully accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake; and on either hand bright bubbles arose and danced by his side. But these were broken again by the light toes of hundreds of gay fowl softly feathering the sea, alternate with their fitful flight; and like to some flag-staff rising from the painted hull of an argosy, the tall but shattered pole of a recent lance projected from the white whale's back; and at intervals one of the cloud of soft-toed fowls hovering, and to and fro skimming like a canopy over the fish, silently perched and rocked on this pole, the long tail feathers streaming like pennons...."

"Lobsters and crabs once lived together in harmony, and even interbred, in a remote crustacean colony off the coast of Labrador. Then, a horrible plague of displaced orca whales beset their waters, blocking out the sun with their ominous, circling presence. The crustaceans began to quarrel over food and mates, which led to a mass genocide of the Labrador crabs by the lobster clans. Thus the species is no more, but as fate would have it, the Northwestern Atlantic region is the prime hunting grounds for lobster fishermen to this day."
A Thalassique original fable

"A whale once decided to live among mammals so he swam into the harbor and climbed ashore. He was received cordially and began to walk around on his tail fins. So well-received was he that the mayor invited him to walk in the annual parade. So down 5th Avenue he strut, waving graciously with his flipper at the smiling crowds. The Washington Square arch was barely in sight before a harpoon flew suddenly through the air, through his skin, through his blubber and muscle tissue and pierced his heart. The sound of his massive flesh against the ground was drowned by the roar of the crowd, who descended upon him. Weeks later his remains were returned to the Atlantic, and the dissembling island of Manhattan had new oils, perfumes and scented candles for their one bedroom apartments in the sky."
A Thalassique original fable

spotlight on: MOLLUSKS

2009-09-29T13:49:00.001-07:00

Cute, right? MOLLUSK (definition): "Any of numerous chiefly marine invertebrates of the phylum Mollusca, typically having a soft unsegmented body, a mantle, and a protective calcareous shell and including the edible shellfish and the snails." [free dictionary]

This means that the phylum Mollusca contains cephalopods like octopi and squids, AND clams and shellfish. Check out a comprehensive guide to mollusks here compliments of some ocean-side inn.

Choice pics

oyster!

giant clam!

The giant cupacabras snail! (a deep sea lurker)

PRETTY GROSS.

PLAYLIST 9/27/09

2009-09-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Crashed in with the Pixies, showed you cool new seashells and shrimps, floated downstream, got tropical, brought back the garage pop beach party, and kept it whalin' the whole way through.

6:04 PM	The Pixies "Blown Away" Bossanova (4AD) CD 1990
6:05 PM	Free Kitten "Seasick" Inherit (Ecstatic Peace) CD
6:06 PM	Intelligence "Warm Transfers" Fake Surfers (In The Red) CD
6:14 PM	Hush Arbors "Water II" Hush Arbors (Ecstatic Peace!) CD
6:14 PM	Precious Fathers "Prairie Train" s/t (White Whale) CD
6:22 PM	Ilsebill "In The Office" Ilsebill (Fetkakao) CD
6:25 PM	PJ Harvey "Seagulls" Uh Huh Her CD
6:28 PM	Whales "The Ballad of Hardly Ever" S/T (Log Jam) CD
6:30 PM	The Pains of Being Pure At Heart "Contender" S/T (Slumberland) CD
6:37 PM	Tyvek "Air Conditioner" Fast Metabolism (What's Your Rupture) CD 2007
6:40 PM	Hole "Pretty On The Inside (Excerpt)" Pretty On The Inside (Caroline) CD 1991
6:42 PM	Love Is All "Turn The TV Off" Nine Times That Same Song (What's Your Rupture) CD
6:47 PM	Mirah "Archipelago" You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This (K Records) CD
6:54 PM	Ducktails "Wishes" Landscapes (Olde English Spelling Bee) CD [N]
6:57 PM	Taken By Trees "Sweetness of Air France" Sweetness (single) (Chico Records) CD {Air France remix of Sweetness}
7:00 PM	The Very Best ft. M.I.A. "Rain Dance" Warm Heart of Africa (Green Owl) CD [N] {WAY DEVIATING FROM THE SHOW DESCRIPTION... surprise! Think of it as a fun surprise!!}
7:04 PM	Islands "Switched On" Vapours (Anti-) CD 2009 [N]
7:06 PM	Beach House "All the Years" Devotion (Carpark) CD
7:15 PM	Crystal Stilts "Bright Night" Alight of Night (Slumberland) CD 2008
7:17 PM	The Beets "Happy But On My Way" Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool (Captured Tracks) CD
7:19 PM	The War on Drugs "Taking the Farm" Wagonwheel Blues (Secretly Canadian) CD 2008
7:27 PM	The Sea And Cake "Bird and Flag" The Fawn (Thrill Jockey) CD 1997
7:30 PM	Yo La Tengo "More Stars Than There Are In Heaven" Popular Songs (Matador) CD 2009
7:39 PM	Deleted Scenes "Fake IDs" Birdseed Shirt (What Delicate) CD
7:42 PM	Woods "Gypsy Hand" Songs of Shame (Woodsist/Shrimper) CD
7:49 PM	Blank Dogs "No Compass" Under and Under (In The Red) CD
7:53 PM	The Clean "Tensile" Mister Pop (Merge) CD [N]
7:56 PM	The Cramps "I can't Hardly Stand It" Off the Bone (Illegal) CD 1998
8:00 PM	Cat Power "Sea of Love" The Covers Record CD

Today's show featured many whales, whale facts and other whale related data such as:

WHALES: Introducing a band that sent their debut CD EP to WNYU, but which I cannot find on the Internet! Maybe it's because they named themselves after a generic term for a common marine animal! Still, they are really good (especially for whale-related content), even if one of their songs says "fart" and I can't play it on air. Find some further disambiguation at Last.fm.
NARWHAL WHALES (see below).
I played a long ass track by Instrumental post-rock Vancouverers Precious Fathers from their self-titled LP released by WHITE WHALE RECORDS. They've put out records by other lesser known Canadian acts of "blue collar indie soul," and their website is pretty cute.
PLUS a whale-centric story and PSA, which you can read in the LIT post in the near future.

LOOK AT WHITE WHALE'S LOGO WITH THE WHITE WHALE

That's all for now, mes petits! A toute!

Narwhal Whales, don't you know?

2009-09-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

From NarwhalWhales.com:

"Even though the narwhal may look like a mythical creature or one from a fairytale, it is not. It is a real mammal that lives in the Arctic seas (more on the narwhal habitat). It is a cetacean with an appearance similar to a Beluga whale, and Irrawaddy dolphin.
The name narwhal is a derivation from an Old Norse word that means "corpse man" (nahvalr). This description is generally attributed to the fact that the narwhal whale has a white and gray coloring when fully grown. The name is further supported by the fact that the narwhal whale can lie belly-up for several minutes without much motion.

Narwhal whales are, however, known more for their almost unicorn-like tusk that springs from their forehead (in the male of the species), or so it seems. The tusk is actually a tooth which grows from the left side of the upper jaw and is twisted into a left handed helix. The narwhal tusk can but up to three meters long.

Narwhals are active mammals, just like most of the cetaceans, and feed primarily on cod. But, they have also been known to eat squid, shrimp as well as fish (i.e. halibut, redfish)."

Byyye, Buddyyy!

NAME CHANGE: THALASSIQUE

2009-09-27T15:21:00.001-07:00

this just in: the life aquatic is now called THALASSIQUE.

Hence the URL has just changed to http://radiothalassique.blogspot.com .

Tune in NOW on WNYU.ORG to hear whale tales, thalassic grooves and layered guitars with seafoamy feedback.

FIRST EDITION (like a book!)

2009-09-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

The first edition of the Life Aquatic aired tonight 6-8. You missed it? Aw, I'm sorry. Here's what I played:

6:04 PM	Sleater Kinney "The Swimmer" All Hands On the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars) CD 2000
6:06 PM	Real Estate "Fake Blues" Fake Blues (Half Machine Records) CD [N]
6:09 PM	Box Elders "Atlantis" Alice and Friends (Goner) CD [N]
6:15 PM	Tamaryn "Ashore" Led Astray, Washed Ashore (Troubleman Unlimited) CD 2009
6:18 PM	Holiday Shores "Experiencer" Columbus'd The Whim (Two Syllable Records) CD 2009 [N]
6:21 PM	Soft Tags "Catherine Sings" Seafoam Green (Self-Released) CD 2009 [N]
6:24 PM	Little Claw "Human Taste (Below the Tide)" Human Taste (Ecstatic Peace!) CD 2009 [N]
6:27 PM	Vivian Girls "When I'm Gone" Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red) CD [N]
6:32 PM	The Smiths "This Charming Man" The Sounds of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths (Rhino) CD 2008
6:42 PM	Emma Watson?? "Sea Turtle & Greed" Life Aquatic Fables (Self-Released) CD
6:44 PM	Shark Quest "Blake Carrington" Battle of The Loons (Merge) CD 1998
6:46 PM	Patti Smith "Ain't It Strange" Radio Ethiopia (Arista) CD 1976
6:51 PM	X-ray Spex "Germ Free Adolescents" The Anthology (Sanctuary) CD
6:58 PM	Broadcast "Still Feels Like Tears" The Future Crayon (Warp) CD 2006
7:06 PM	Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Diamond Sea (Sonic Youth Cover)" B-Sides, Rarities and Remixes CD
7:09 PM	Desolation Wilderness "Turquoise and Gold" White Light Strobing (K Records) CD
7:11 PM	Grouper "Traveling Through a Sea" Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (type records) CD
7:15 PM	Asobi Seksu "Blind Little Rain" Hush (Polyvinyl) CD
7:21 PM	Little Joy "No One's Better Sake" Little Joy (Rough Trade Records) CD 2008
7:23 PM	Alexander Pushkin "Excerpt from "The Bronze Horseman"" CD
7:26 PM	Black Water "Abyss" (Self-Released) CD
7:28 PM	Pavement "Unfair" Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Matador) CD 1994
7:35 PM	Thee Oh Sees "Enemy Destruct" Help (In The Red) CD 2009
7:36 PM	The Breeders "Roi" Last Splash (4ad/Elektra) CD 1993
7:43 PM	The Séquelles "Un Train" Et Tant Pis Si Cela Vous Déplaît CD
7:46 PM	Meth Teeth "Unemployment Forever" Everything Went Wrong (Woodsist) CD 2009 [N]
7:48 PM	Cymbals Eat Guitars "And the Hazy Sea" Why There Are Mountains (+1) CD 2009
7:57 PM	Bikini Kill "For Tammy Rae" Pussy Whipped (Kill Rock Stars) CD 1993

If you caught it, I'm sure that you will agree that it was absolutely wonderful. If you didn't catch it, I'm sure that you still agree after perusing the above list of songs.

Literary Addendums
The following were read:

"A sea turtle pawned diamond rings, and kept his clients in debt to their graves. This was in hopes of owning libraries full of bookshelves, but he never had time to read, so instead he was stuck with others' riches for which he had no use. The shelves he built for books sagged under the weight of gold treasure chests in his house, his giant shell. Finally they collapsed on his sinewy, tender body, crushing him without breaking his skin."
-A Life Aquatic original penned by yours truly.

And an excerpt from Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman," which I can't find verbatim on the internet to copy and paste and which I do not have time to type out.

The wnyu archiver is still not fixed/replaced, so dozens of awesome live performances as well as this episode of the life aquatic will probably never make it to internet immortality for your eternal listening pleasures. Sorry! I recorded the second half, give or take, of my show though. Will it make it to the archives? who knows!

Until next time, old chaps!

INTRODUCING: The Life Aquatic on WNYU.ORG

2009-09-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hi,

My name is Pier and I will be hosting a new net radio show at WNYU, broadcasting from NYC and streaming live on the internet on WNYU.org every Sunday evening from 6 to 8 PM. It is going to be super awesome. Here's the description:

In recent years, fleets of doo-wop-wistful garage pop bands with punk sensibilities have emerged from the musical wharves of LA, NY and beyond, bathed in lo-fi production and hazy effects pedals. From the gentle and ambient to the downright tempestuous, The Life Aquatic scoops them up with shovel and pail and skips them back out to join the surf licks and crooners of rock's past, complete with tales of marine adventure among the sound waves.

I am bad with the whole genre thing (or just apathetic), so don't be surprised if what you hear couldn't necessarily be classified as 'garage.' Everything will flow smoothly with similar musical conventions and nautical themes, though, rest assured. Still I think it's safe to say that this will be the weirdest show WNYU has ever had, and certainly the only concept-driven one united by an abstract theme.

I'll play new surf-redolent punk stuff like Vivian Girls, Meth Teeth, the Intelligence, King Khan & BBQ Show, and Box Elders, as well as more kicked-back, floaty drifters by the likes of Grouper, Desolation Wilderness, Real Estate, and Yo La Tengo. Obvious throw-backs to the Pixies will be a must, plus other favorites of mine that may seem out of place but totally and completely fit in like Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Patti Smith and the Smiths (I will refer to Morrissey as 'the Sea Otter').

There will ALSO be this cool literary aspect to the show, as songs will be inter-spliced with readings of fables, mythology and masterpieces of literature where thalassic themes reign.

I used to host a show called The Sound Between, a weekly two-hour block of brand new independent music. It was quite good and my new show will be much like it, but better. If you want to check out my old shows in the archives (the archiver broke at the end of july, though... but you can still check out my playlists from then on!) head on over to wnyu.org/archives.

TUNE IN
THE LIFE AQUATIC
SUNDAYS, 6-8 PM
HTTP://WNYU.ORG