WLI Radio: Episode 1

The podcast is available here.

It's finally up! The first episode of our new podcast, WLI Radio! This first episode is a mixtape, twelve songs that Hannah and I put together, for you! Normally the episodes will have a lot more talking, but every so often we're going to put out one of these.

Here's the tracklist:

1. "Never Had Nobody Like You" - M. Ward & Zooey Deschanel
2. "Come On Mona" - Mona Reels
3. "Auctioneer" - The Broken West
4. "Seaside" - The Kooks
5. "Northwestern Girls" - Say Hi
6. "The Capitol" - Visqueen
7. "Chips Ahoy (Acoustic)" - The Hold Steady
8. "Shelly Gets High" - Tennis Pro
9. "Forever" - Walter Meego
10. "In the Sun" - She & Him
11. "Pure Imagination" - The Smoking Popes
12. "It Started With A Mixx" - Los Campesinos

We're still trying to get the feed going so that you can get it like a normal podcast, maybe even through iTunes. Right now though it's just a download.

Summer Songs

I am not good at picking specific music for seasons or weather or whatever. All the same, it's Too Hot here and these are some new-ish songs that don't make me think of how much better life was in the winter:

• King of Spain - Tallest Man on Earth
• Home - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
• Thinkin' Bout Something - Hanson (yes. Hanson. Shutupshutupshutup.)
• Turn Off the Song and Go Outside - The Lonely Forest
• My Life With the Living Dead - The Secret History
• Romance is Boring - Los Campesinos!
• Come on Mona - Mona Reels
• All Y'all - Carcrashlander
• Little King - Casper & the Cookies

Yeah, I've talked about half of these before, but I don't really have any way to get new music.

Besides those, these older songs immediately pop into my head too:

• Float On - Modest Mouse
• Psychic City (Voodoo City) - YACHT
• The Ave - Blue Scholars (full disclosure, I am on or near the Ave 80% of the time that I'm listening to music)
• Nothing to Worry About - Peter, Bjorn & John
• Faster - Dept. of Energy
• This Year - The Mountain Goats

That's all that comes to mind right away. Go outside.

Best song around right now

Off the People In A Position To Know sampler CD (the origins of which I'm going to need to go into in another post) comes a fantastic track from a band I've never heard of. "Come On Mona" by Mona Reels is a bright, almost twee track with a solid piano back. In fact, listening to the song I'm unable to hear any guitar, just the piano and drums, with a few bits of harmony thrown in among the singing. Speaking of the singing, the lyrics are fantastic: "I found her very smart, she said 'you're just too dumb, and that's going to be the only time I tell someone'" is just one of the better bits. Despite a line like that, it's still an incredibly upbeat number. Check it out.

http://www.myspace.com/themonareels