Sunday, February 27, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-changes

We are busy moving earcandleproductions.com, noodlebrain.com, and jneomarvin.com to a new server and the sites are temporarily offline. Please be patient while we make our move. We'll be back up in 24-48 hours and gradually adding improvements both bold and subtle. Watch this space for announcements. We're looking forward to the changes.

UPDATE: Well, that was fast! As of 8:00 AM Sunday, we are back again! Good morning!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Liliputmania!

Jenny Woolworth's excellent interview with the great Swiss post-punk band LiliPut can be found here, here, and here.

Some videos for your pleasure:


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Solidarity is a beautiful thing



UPDATE: Those bold freedom-fighters of the "tea party" respond:



Compare and contrast.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Happy birthday Yoko Ono!

Even Paul gets into bringing the noise here. We would have bumped "The Long And Winding Road" in favor of some of this lively jam if it had been up to us.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, January 2011

Two great ladies of the stage appear twice on our charts, so let's raise a glass to Patti Smith and Terese Taylor. Julie London's impeccable lounge take on a bubblegum classic returns to our charts. (Hat tip to Johnny Ray Houston for first turning J Neo on to this great cover) Iggy Pop shows up with a portrait of industrial drudgery from his weirdest album ever, The Velvet Underground give us a sublime instrumental that was first unearthed in the 80s, Tom Verlaine stretches out, and the Slits unleash a boisterous number from their final album. (What a shame that "World Of Grownups" was never recorded!)

Troubled founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green released a highly underrated instrumental album shortly after he first went around the bend, and the track "Hidden Depth" holds the number 8 spot here--very much in keeping with the Experimental Bunnies spirit, we're thinking. Paul Kantner's first solo album got a lot of stick from some Jefferson Airplane fans, but when it's good, it's really good, and "Have You Seen The Stars Tonight" is as good as awestruck San Francisco acid-folk gets--certainly miles above anything else to come out under the dreaded "Jefferson Starship" name. The mighty voice of Mark Lanegan calls out for the all-too-rare Pacific Northwest sunshine, Ken Nordine guides us through the plumbing, and the late great Gregory Isaacs croons sweetly.

The Fall offer up the mysterious, haunting "Riddler!" (possibly the definitive mission statement of Mark E. Smith), Donovan witnesses the innocent decadence of a more innocent time, Brighter Shades from Baltimore toss off some superior pop-punk, Public Image go psychedelic and quasi-Arabic, Brian Wilson reimagines Gershwin for the California girls and boys, and the Mountain Goats wrap it up with a supernatural vignette: "When the ghost of your father starts pushing you around/how are gonna make him stop?/I took down all of the crosses/I let him set up shop!"

We listened hard to our dry run of the new playlist last weekend, and realized there is some room for change. We're back on random shuffle while we rework some bits, add and subtract here and there, and record our back-announcements. See you with the new version soon, and keep listening!

1. Patti Smith Group - Pumping (My Heart) - Radio Ethiopia
2. Julie London - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
3. Iggy Pop - Life Of Work - Zombie Birdhouse
4. The Velvet Underground - Ride Into The Sun [Instrumental] - Another View
5. Tom Verlaine - Days On The Mountain - Words From The Front
6. Terese Taylor - Chief Letters - The Clothes We Wore Before We Were Married
7. The Slits - Trapped Animal - Trapped Animal
8. Peter Green - Hidden Depth - The End Of The Game
9. Paul Kantner - Have You Seen The Stars Tonight - Blows Against The Empire
10. Mark Lanegan - El Sol - Whiskey For The Holy Ghost
11. Ken Nordine - Down the Drain - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
12. Gregory Isaacs - Love Is Overdue - Reggae Mix
13. The Fall - Riddler! - Bend Sinister
14. Donovan - The Trip - Sunshine Superman
15. Brighter Shades - There's Nothing, Stranger - You Shine So Bright
16. Terese Taylor - Goats For Daddy - The Cryingness Of Your Crying When You Cry
17. Public Image Ltd. - Flowers of Romance - The Flowers Of Romance
18. Patti Smith - Higher Learning - Land (1975-2002)
19. Brian Wilson - They Can't Take That Away From Me - Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
20. The Mountain Goats - Cao Dai Blowout - New Asian Cinema