University of San Diego Radio

As we toast the memory of 2010 and ring in 2011, it would be foolish not to consider which songs made 2010 a special. I’d like to welcome everyone to the new section of the USDRadio.org known as “Favorites.” This will be a space for DJs to make top ten lists of some of their favorite genres, songs, albums, concerts…well, basically anything. This is an opportunity for our listeners to get a taste of what we all love over here at USD Radio. Below I have listed the ten songs that I believe made the music that came out of 2010 special. Enjoy!

Mumford & Sons, clashmusic.com

10. “Tighten Up” – The Black Keys – This is a far cry from what we have come to expect from the rockish-blues group, but I can’t help but love it. While “Tighten Up” may sound a little more mainstream to Black Keys fans, you cannot deny the raw guitar textures we have all come to love and expect from the Akron, OH based group.

9.“Nothin’ On You” – B.O.B. feat. Bruno Mars- Yes, “Nothin’ On You” was definitely one of the most overplayed songs of 2010, but who can’t love this song? The lyrics are definitely a little cliché, but they’re nevertheless irresistible.  The smooth rhymes of B.O.B. accompanied by vocal standout Bruno Mars make for a very distinctive sound. Besides, what would a wrap-up of a year in music be without one sappy love song?

8. “Only the Young” – Brandon Flowers- Okay so maybe Brandon Flowers as a solo artist will never carry anywhere near as much glory or hype as The Killers’ Hot Fuss ever did, but “Only the Young” shows a lot of promise. In a year that will probably be remembered best for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an earthquake in Haiti, obscene Arizona immigration laws, and Snooki, it is nice to hear an uplifting song with some depth every once in a while. “Only the Young” contains a message of reflection and redemption, giving hope to a generation of music that often lacks substance.

7. “Black and Yellow” – Wiz Khalifa- The Pittsburgh based rapper hit the scene with his breakout mixtape Kush and Orange Juice in April of 2010, and has seen tremendous success ever since.  “Black and Yellow” is the sort of song that at a first listen may not seem all that special, yet hours after hearing it for the first time, I found repeating “black and yellow, black and yellow…” like a mantra to myself, and came to love it.

6. “Not Afraid” – Eminem- Quite possibly the most controversial album of 2010, Recovery conjured up a wide range of emotions upon its release. While many found the album to be a positive breath of fresh air, others were critical of Recovery’s often-repetitive sound in what the Houston Chronicle referred to as “…a relentless, exhausting listen.” While that may be so, let’s give Em’ some credit. To me, “Not Afraid” is an indication of growth in Eminem as not only a rapper, but also as a person. While his message may not be as negative and he’s no longer on drugs, there is no question that the tight wound lyrical genius we have all come to love still thrives deep within “Not Afraid.”

5. “Down for the Count” – Girl Talk- One of the most overlooked albums of 2010, Girl Talk’s All Day may be his best release to date. The Pittsburgh based musician’s new song “Down for the Count” is an incredibly tight mash-up of sounds including (but not limited to) Eric Clapton, B.O.B., Usher, and even the late, great MJ. This is a track perfect for anytime you may need that extra jolt of motivation—in the gym, on your way to the bars, or just to kick start your day.

4. “Senior Skip Day” – Mac Miller- 2010 has been a great year for Pittsburgh based artists, and Mac Miller is no exception. While Mac Miller (aka Malcolm McCormick) did not see the same commercial success as fellow Rostrum Records standout Wiz Khalifa, his sound is nothing short of refreshing and new. “Senior Skip Day” is a glimpse into a day of sleeping in and enjoying the simple pleasures of doing nothing.  It is a subtle reminder that sometimes we need to let loose from the stresses of daily life and breathe easy. I have high hopes for this 18-year-old hip-hop prodigy in 2011. If you haven’t already, check this guy out!

3. “Laredo” – Band of Horses- The name Band of Horses has become synonymous with upbeat rock anthems, and “Laredo” does just this. I find this sound to be a mix of the upbeat vocals of The Magic Numbers (listen to “Forever Lost”) mixed with the classic sound of the Stone Temple Pilots (“Interstate Love Song”). I have yet to be disappointed by the Seattle based rock outfit, and have high hopes for these guys in 2011.

2. “F**k You” – Cee Lo Green- Picture this: your girlfriend has just dumped you for some jerk, a long list of homework which you have yet to attend to is waiting for you in the other room, and best of all, you’re broke. If this remotely describes you at any point in your life, then “F**k You” (I know, I wish I could just say it too) is the song for you. Albeit overplayed, Cee Lo Green takes the pent up frustration many of us face daily and puts an upbeat, soulful spin on it, sure to improve anyone’s mood!

1. “Little Lion Man” – Mumford & Sons- At the start of 2010, I never would have picked that an English folk-rock band would top my list. Of course, a year ago I doubt I would have imagined even publishing a top-ten list of songs for 2010. Mumford & Sons are not your average band. Rooted in the assertive yet enticing vocals of Marcus Mumford, it is the swirling sound that echoes out of instruments including the banjo, mandolin, and string bass (to name a few) that really ties together the unique sound of Mumford & Sons together. “Little Lion Man” says it all in one track. Lyrically addressing the self-loathing misery of pushing loved ones away, the positive air embedded in the instrumental backing suggests fixing the problems of your past and becoming a better man tomorrow. We could all find some truth in “Little Lion Man” as we ring in 2011.

Honorable Mentions:

“Every Day” – Girl Talk

“Stereo Love” – Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina

“Live Free” – Mac Miller

“Runaway” – Kanye West

I am looking for feedback on the “Favorites” section of USDRadio.org, so please don’t be shy. Maybe just go easy on me for my choices? Anyways, Happy New Year’s everyone!

—–Justin Marini

Hey guys,

Over the next few weeks USDRadio.org will be getting a facelift in time for the Spring 2011. We will not be streaming live until the start of the Spring 2011 semester on January 24, 2011. Please bear with us as we work through this! Any suggestions for the site would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Justin

Bedford Grove takes PETCO Park bv storm. (photo by Tom Roth)

While shooting a photo assignment recently, I was approached by one of the vendors at the event. A few minutes of conversation brought us to the topic of music. My acquaintance had been in the music industry before her current line of work as a fashion designer. As conversations regarding music sometimes go, we began trying to impress one another by naming off local artists, some more obscure than others. When it came my turn to wow her with my musical awareness, I mentioned Bedford Grove. She looked at me like Pavarotti would look at Justin Beiber, that is, with an expression mixed with amusement and pity. She gently told me that everyone who is anyone in the San Diego music scene has heard of Bedford Grove. Attempting to save face, I changed the subject.

As mentioned, Bedford Grove has been an integral part of the San Diego music scene since its formation in 2006. In a relatively short span of time, BFG has made more than a name for itself by sharing the stage with the likes of Pat Benatar, Macy Gray and John Legend. Not bad for a group of 20-somethings playing the occasional show with only one album out. Not bad at all.

“Welcome to Our Side of Town”, the group’s debut album, put BFG on the San Diego music scene’s radar. (check out USD Radio’s album review here). With its soulful sound infused with rock and R&B, the album stuck in enough minds to snag a Best Local Record nomination in 2008’s San Diego Music Awards.

Since then, BFG has been creating and performing new pieces. I sat down with Marc Gould, frontman and vocalist for Bedford Grove, after the group’s recent show at PETCO Park’s Western Metal Theatre where they played with Macy Gray and John Legend. The concert featured several new titles including “Jellybean”, “Saturday Night”, “Cherry Pie” and “Risk Taker” all of which had the crowd toe-tapping and head nodding.  Such catchy tunes can be found on the group’s upcoming sophomore album, due out this spring.

Tracks off of the album have become favorites with audiences throughout the area. On a regular basis, BFG can be found rocking the stage at Anthology in the Little Italy neighborhood but the big shows are the ones grabbing the headlines. Marc explained that much of the group’s exposure has been a result of self-promotion. For example, a series of pre-show interviews on San Diego’s KUSI, CW and FOX5 stations were personally organized by Gould and the band (see FOX5’s interview with BFG here).

Keep an eye out for Bedford Grove. If the success of their debut album is any indication, whatever they’ve got up their sleeves will be big.

Interview by Haley Earl-Lynn

I got a chance to talk with Kelly Winrich of Delta Spirit last week. Delta Spirit was on the last leg of their coast to coast tour when we spoke. They finished it all off right here in San Diego at the House of Blues last Friday night. Their live show proved to be even more incredible than playing Bushwick Blues on repeat in my living room all weekend was. Kelly tells us more about how the band got together, what their musical influences are and even what the future holds for this up and coming group. Not to fear, a new album is already in the works with a potential release date set for late next summer.

Well first off, I know you guys are wrapping up your tour this week. How has it been so far?

Well we went back to a couple places that we had already been to on our last tour. And our last tour ended recently so we were a little apprehensive of what it would be like in places like New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, etc. But people were still showing up so that was great. I guess people are digging what we are doing. Every time their manager asks them who they want to take out on tour with them they always say Delta Spirit and their manager is like, no, you can’t take the same band out every time.

Who have you most enjoyed touring with/meeting on tour?

Wow. Ok well those are like two different questions. We have most enjoyed touring with Dr. Dog and those guys. We have done three tours with them. We were hoping to tour with them again this fall but logistically it didn’t work out. Those guys are such a fun band. We have met some pretty insane people on tour. In particular, we met Robert Plant in the UK. It was great; he came out to one of our shows at this little hole in the wall spot in Camden, which is where he’s from. Luckily none of us knew he was there until after which was probably good because none of us could have been able to play if we had known he was in the room. Another great one was that we got to meet Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes in New York. He actually opened for us because he is doing this solo project right now. Then we went on and we decided to cover a Violent Femmes song so he came out and jammed with us. It was the craziest thing. Look it up on You Tube, I have like the dumbest grin on my face the whole time. What is even funnier is that he and Matt have been keeping in touch. Sometimes Gordon will just call him up and they’ll talk like they’re old buddies. It’s unreal.

Alright so now I want to know a little bit more about your musical influences as a band or even personally, what would you say your major influences are?

All of us in the band have really different influences. There are a few that are congruent throughout. We all love the Beatles. I love Radiohead, Santo and Johnny, Sam Cook, Otis Redding, Here We Go Magic, The Morning Benders, and ya know friend’s bands too. That is what is so great about going on tour is you get to hang out with and meet new bands. They are ones that end up influencing us the most I think. You are surrounded by them for months at a time. We definitely feed off of each other.

I know you started as the producer? How did you wind up here in the band?

What happened is that Matt and I used to be in a band in high school. We did some random shows here and there and it was kind of cheesy music. I actually got an offer to go another way and Matt did the same. Matt signed like a development deal. They threw a bunch of money at him and he went through the whole major label ringer. So pretty much all 4 of us were playing in different bands but eventually it all came full circle. Matt came to me and asked if he could use my studio to record with some new guys and I said sure and then eventually I started adding my two cents and doing some drums on the recording. I went on tour with them and helped out and played some piano on a few songs. Then we had a talk and they wanted me to join and I was down. It was definitely a process because I don’t think that at the beginning any of us imagined I would end up in the band.

I’m not sure if one of you writes or if all of you do, but are your songs written so that people can relate to them or is the writing experience more of a cathartic one or something else all together?

It varies for each song I think, but song writing for me is more of a personal outlet. It’s usually after something happens, whether it’s a traumatic experience or a great one. I get inspired most by those moments. The songs that I love come together in like an hour; it’s the bad ones that take days to write. I write a lot of songs and some of them don’t really work for Delta Spirit because you know, Matt is the one that ends up singing them. If they don’t work I just put them aside for a bit. Usually it is me or Matt writing the lyrics and the melody. We try to make kind of a loose arrangement of what the song should be. Then we take it to the band and sometimes it works and sometimes it ends up transforming into something totally different. Over time it has become a more collaborative, democratic process. It used to be that I recorded everything myself, the drums, the bass, the guitar, all the instruments. Now it is more that whatever the song needs we discuss as a group.

What do you guys listen to before you play that maybe our listeners would also enjoy?

Well we actually listen and do vocal warm-ups to our songs before the show just to get our voices ready. But recently our sound guy Jake has been playing Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats record before our show and we have all kind of come to love that. Harry Nilsson is this amazing songwriter who actually influenced John Lennon. There is a great documentary that you can stream on Netflix on it; it’s called “Who is Harry Nilsson?” Watch it. It’s great. In the 70s Nilsson and John Lennon kind of gallivanted around LA, mostly getting hammered and doing lots of drugs and terrorizing LA, but also making great music. They made the record Pussy Cats then. Lots of screaming contests went on and there are stories of them getting blood on the microphones in the recording studios they used from messing with their voices so much. It definitely pumps us up.

I am a big fan of videos and I love what you guys have done with both La Blogotheque and Yours Truly. How do you arrange for that? Do you have creative ideas going into filming or are you just kind of told what to do?

Well for La Blogotheque, I mean that was two years ago, but we were in San Francisco and we agreed to do it there. Our best idea was to just buy a bunch of beer and round up some homeless people but that kind of seemed like we were exploiting them. They came back with the idea of getting on the trolley car. That seems like it’s everyone’s favorite. It has really helped get our name out a lot. We have random shows in the Midwest and the people tell us how much they love our video with La Blogotheque so it’s been great for us. And then with Yours Truly, we brought those guys on board for our last record to do an electronic press kit. For that we told them we wanted a couple of live videos and some time spent talking about our record and then we let them run with it. It is just like documentary style videos so they just did the editing.

What are your plans now that you have a break from touring?

We are actually in the process of finding new management right now. So that’s really exciting because there are lots of people who are eager to work with us. But, yeah we are making a new record. We will work more on that at the beginning of the year. Once we have like a cohesive idea of what we want to do in the studio we will go somewhere and record it. Hopefully we will get that done by February and go back on tour around March. We may tour with Dawes and Deer Tick. That is still in the works, but hopefully. Matt and the singers of those bands made a record and they are calling it Little Brother. There will be a tour for the record release of that. Once Matt is done we will get serious about our record and if it all goes as planned we will release the new album around the end of summer/fall of 2011. We are excited to make the best record that we have yet.

When mountain climbing, don't forget to bring your $300K chain and microphone

When I was three, I took a black piece of construction paper, drew a line down the middle with a white crayon and told my teacher I was finished with my art project. Fifteen years later, I saw the same piece of art, by a different artist, for sale in a Seattle art gallery for $15,000. The artist’s early works are entirely different from his current stuff. Instead of trendy modern pieces like the white-on-black I described, his first pieces are beautiful landscapes that are much more intricate than his current fare.

Now let’s talk about Kanye West.

Just a few years ago, Kanye was new on the scene with hits like “Through the Wire” and “Jesus Walks”. He rocked pink polos. He drank Cristal. He was a rapper.

Now, he shows up at the VMA’s wearing a $300,000 chain shaped like Horus with a matching pyramid style knuckle-ring. He wears a crown of thorns on the cover of Rolling Stone. There’s an entire episode of South Park dedicated to his douche-baggery.

So, how does his latest album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” fit into all of this? Well, in cases like these, it usually helps to check out the first track. “Dark Fantasy” sure as hell ain’t your typical rap. Sure, Ye talks about his “Murcielago”, his “bravado”, and “Chi-town where the Nines flow” but the hook sounds like a guest contribution from Queen with its epic chanting sound. In that regard, “Dark Fantasy” does a good job of setting up the rest of the album, which on the whole is pretty epic.

It’s undeniable that West’s increased celebrity has given him tons of pull when it comes to guest appearances but unlike his debut album “The College Dropout” in which guests were limited to hip-hop artists like Ludacris and Talib Kweli, “MBDTF” showcases the talents of artists from many genres. Among the stars: John Legend and Bon Iver. The third single from the album, which Ye described – in typical big-ego fashion -as being “completely seamless and completely ghetto as f***” has contributions from Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, John Legend, The Dream, Tony Williams, Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson, Ryan Leslie, and La Roux’s Elly Jackson. Keep in mind, all those people are on just one track out of the album’s thirteen.

West gets the album’s singles out of the way early with “Power”, “Monster” and “All Of the Lights” coming within the first six tracks. For those searching for the Kanye of old, look no further than these three cuts. With their rap guests and catchy hooks, they typify the sound that made Kanye famous. However, the meat of the album comes from cross-genre tracks like “Runaway” and “Lost in the World” which serve to induce much head scratching as opposed to foot-tapping.

Just like that artist I encountered in Seattle, Kanye has become famous enough to do basically whatever he wants in regards to his music. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is definitely a departure from what hip-hop fans have come to expect from well-known rappers but maybe that’s a good thing. As a recorder and producer, West has been known to push the envelope more than others. Let’s let him do his thing and see what he comes up with. If we don’t like it, we can always turn off the “Power”.