• Tag Archives the ledge

  • The Ledge #438: Power Pop

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    What is power pop? According to the dictionary, it’s “a style of pop music characterized by a strong melody line, heavy use of guitars, and simple rhythm”. Yeah, that works. I prefer to just call it “revved up pop music”.

    Tonight’s show features over 50 years of power pop, from The Who single “Pictures of Lily” that Pete Townshend described as “power pop” to some great new bands that are powering that sound into the future. Lou from Rum Bar Records even helped us out with some great gems from the early days of his label.

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #437: 1980 American Punk

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    Earlier this year I featured a show that focused on British punk rock from 1980. Tonight, I do the same thing but featuring nothing but tunes from American punk bands from that same year.

    It’s kind of interesting how the focus of the punk scene (at least as far as releases went) moved from New York to the West Coast. It was quite a year for California bands, with many veteran acts still pumping out new music, but also a ton of brand new bands with their first single or album. X, The Plimsouls, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Red Cross, Minutemen, and so many more made their debuts that year. (And yes, there is one error as a non-1980 track was discovered to have aired.)

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #436: Double Albums

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    It was a few weeks ago when Sonic Youth’s “Teenage Riot” came up in a Spotify playlist, and it spurred my feeble mind into this week’s show format. This week is a countdown of my 15 favorite double albums of all time. As always, I do have too many rules. No live albums. No compilatoins. No single albums expanded to two pieces of vinyl by nefarious ways (bonus tracks, 45 speed, etc.). Real double albums.

    So the results is an interesting mix spanning over 50 years. From top sellers by the world’s biggest bands to landmark college rock albums to a few more recent masterpieces. Feel free to comment on YOUR favorite double albums as I certainly acknowledge there are so many seminal records missing from this list.

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #435: Scott’s Favorite Records, Vol. 5 – Americana

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    Americana, country-punk, No Depression, alt-country. Whatever you want to call this twangy-ish sort of music it’s been a part of my life since the early 80’s. Nope, not after the scene exploded with Uncle Tupelo. The country influence has always been a part of college rock, which is the first half of this week’s look at my favorite songs of all time.

    The second half does kick off with Uncle Tupelo and the wonderful spinoffs Wilco and Son Volt, along with quite a few fantastic singer/songwriters and revved up Gram Parsons acolytes. Actually, acolyltes of both Parsons AND The Replacements!

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #432: Covers

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    Once a year or so, I like to put together a show of nothing but covers. Partly due to COVID-19 this year has already seen more of these sorts of tracks than ever before. Bands have put out full albums or EP’s of covers; labels have upped the ante in tribute records. As always, there’s also the well-placed rave-up of classic tunes on regular albums and singles.

    Tonight collects the cream of these sorts of releases, with all but two tracks coming from 2020 releases. (I couldn’t resist including the old Redd Kross cover of the Stones’ “Citadel” after buying the vinyl this week.) There are surprise covers albums by The Dollyrots, D.I., and Built To Spill (a great tribute to the late Daniel Johnston). Add to that some great tribute releases, including a fabulous tribute to Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”, and you have an extremely fun couple of hours.

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #431: New Releases, Pt. 2

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    As I said last week, there have been so many great releases in the last few weeks that this month’s new release episode was forced to expand to two episodes. Quality-wise, there’s no difference between the two episodes. In fact, it could be argued that this episode is more varoius than last week’s as it flows in and out of punk, post-punk, power pop, jangle-pop, experimental pop, psych, and even a nod to folk thanks to some of the last recordings by legendary rockers The Pretty Things.

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #430: New Releases (Pt. 1)

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    I didn’t expect this month’s new release show to be a two part extravaganza. But as I was throwing songs into the play folder for this week’s show I suddenly realized I had way too many tracks for one show. So once again, next week I’ll be playing another two hours of brand new music.

    Of course, it really helped strengthen the folder with the surprise releases from a couple of old favorites. First we saw Bob Mould preview his upcoming 14th solo album with the release of the blistering “American Crisis”, and just 24 hours later Elvis Costello suddenly dropped a new song called “No Flag”. And if that’s not enough for surprise drops, Ledge favorite Pavid Vermin suddenly had a new record of covers from Lookout Records releases!

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #429: More Minneapolis

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    After last week’s Minneapolis edition of my favorite songs of all time I was contacted by a ton of listeners with their own favorites of the great city. With that sort of response I coudn’t help but doing a sequel consisting of nothing but their favorites.

    And it was a great decisions, as Ledge listeners are the best listeners. The result is a show much more varied than the one I put together last week. It begins with the great 60’s classic, “Action Woman” by The Litter, and meanders through all sorts of great artists from the last 40 years. The last few tracks showcase how the city continues to provide fabulous and varied music.

    This show goes out to everybody in Minneapolis. Our thoughts are with you in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #428: Scott’s Fave Songs Vol. 4 – Minneapolis

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    It’s safe to say that a Minneapolis-themed show would come out of the series of my favorite songs of all time. It was actually the easiest of the shows to put together. No, it’s not two hours of Replacements and Husker Du songs. Certainly both of those bands are well-represented but so many other bands from that great city had a huge impact on my life. Many of these are extremely popular (Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, Suburbs) but there are also a lesser-known ton of records that were just as important in my life. For example, I saw The Phones as many times over the years as I saw any of these other bands. And I may not know much about the history of artists such as The Ticks or Crash Street Kids but I played those records to death over the years.

    Now here’s a bit of a disclaimer. I did switch away from Minneapolis for a long set of Sioux Falls bands, and other artists from places such as Austin, Minnesota and Cedar Falls, Iowa are represented. And technically The Hold Steady are a Brooklyn band. But Minneapolis certainly influenced all of the Sioux Falls bands I included, and those other bands did consider Minneapolis home. Or a second home?

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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  • The Ledge #427: Quarantunes

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    When this awful pandemic first hit the U.S. and we started hearing about “stay at home” orders and “social distancing” I commented on twitter how I hoped this down time would inspire artists to spend their forced down time writing and recording.

    Little did I know what an explosion we’d see in new music. Tonight’s show is a sampling of the various projects that have come out in the past few weeks, and outside of a couple of tracks all of these were recorded at home. There’s a great variety in the music presented on this episode. There’s a few acoustic tunes, some great covers (including Daniel Romano’s cover of the entire “Infidels” album), and lots of noisy little garage rockers.

    After listening, please go purchase those tracks you enjoy! These great artists deserve to be compensated for their hard work, and every purchase surely helps not only pay their bills but fund their next set of wonderful songs.

     

    Download MP3 here


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