Members of the Grandsons, Bombpop and Cowlick Lucy, influenced by VU, Replacements, Wilco, Lucinda.

6 MP3 Songs
POP: Power Pop, POP: Pop Underground



Details:
Radio still exists. Music is still transmitted through the air (albeit in a highly compressed fashion). In the era of MP3s, ipods, and file-sharing, you can still listen to a radio. That being said, The Radio EP is not a reverent look at the glory days of radio - no references to Alan Freed or Wolfman Jack...or even the Ramones "Rock and Roll Radio".

The Radio EP was intended to be a collection of tunes written by Virginia-based (or at least Virginia-related) bands and songwriters. Great songs that should get another look and listen. We start with our answer to the Replacements with "Wrong Side of the Dial". Next up is "Radio On" by Richmond's Cashmere Jungle Lords - a song so good that they've recorded it twice. If you were in the DC area in the 90s, you would know of the Graverobbers and stellar tunesmith, Karl Straub. From a rehearsal tape, we worked up "Mermaid Radio" into a frothy mix with surfy guitars to match the seafaring lyric. Continuing the Virginia theme, "Radio Kill" is a cover we got from Brooklyn-based rockers Idle, whose singer, Will Croxton, fronted Harrisonburg's DT and the Shakes in the 80s and early 90s (a band as great as their name). "Radio Cure" is by Chicago-based Wilco(although Jay Bennett's brother and our bassist did work at the same company in the early 2000s). Tellingly, "Radio Cure" is the only song on the EP that doesn't seem to be about the radio at all. And we bookend the Radio EP with the Replacements' "Left of the Dial", a classic, hands down. Our take is a sad one, with Vivian's clear vocal augmented by piano, stand up bass and the Coleman Hawkins-esque tenor of the Grandsons' Chris Watling. (Bonus - you can actually make out the lyrics).

Years in the making, these 6 songs. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.