Modcast #399: Mr. Suave's Mod Tiki Christmas Extravaganza 2017

Another year, another Christmas modcast. The good tidings here are that at least this year we have a Christmas modcast! That's right I'm back with DJ Ken to bring you the yule you'll wish you could forget. And you just might if you keep up with us drink for drink for drink. And, being a tiki themed Christmas show you know there'll be more than just a smidgen of drinking happening. Hey without that it would hardly be a legally actionable office party. So, get your grass skirt hitched around and prepare to get lei'd for Christmas.

Listen Now
Download

Dukes Of Surf -- Aloha Christmas
King Kukelele -- Christmas Luau
Sparkle*jets U.K. -- christmas in june
Love Jones - Christmas Feels Like July
The Tiki Torches -- Quiet Christmas Village
Blue Hawaiins Enchanted Xmas
Here Comes Santa Claus in a Red Canoe -- The Surfers
Nina Kealiiwahamana & Boyce Rodrigues -- Spring Spends the Winter in Hawaii
Keely Smith -- Christmas Island
Martin Denny -- Exotic Night
Ixtahuele - White Christmas
Arthur Lyman - Mary's Boy Child
Esquivel -- The Christmas Song
Pink Martini - A Snowglobe Christmas



Check out a few of the ghosts of Christmas modcast past right here.

Modcast #398: Have Yourself a Mary Little Christmas

And now for something completely different. Well, okay, not completely different. The difference-maker this week is Mary Queen of Cosmos who is bringing her sleigh full of Christmas spirits to the modcast. She's delivering an audio essay augmented with all the holiday music you could want. It's a more a true podcast in the style of This American Life, but with the perfect seasonal accompaniment.

Listen Now
Download

Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' -- Albert King
Black Christmas -- Rose Graham
Holiday Cheer -- The Martini's
Christmas Threw Up All Over You -- April Smith and the Great Picture Show
It's Cliched to Be Cynical at Christmas -- Half Man Half Biscuit
I Want a Present for Christmas -- J.B. Summers
Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects -- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
My Favorite Things -- The Supremes
Christmas Gift -- Margie Joseph
Soul Santa -- Funk Machine
This Christmas -- Donny Hathaway
A Marshmallow World -- Darlene Love
Santa Claus -- The Sonics
Candy Cane Children -- The White Stripes
The Christmas Song -- The Raveonettes
Happy Xmas (War is Over) John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Fairytale of New York -- The Pogues (feat. Kirsty MacColl)
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day -- Pedro the Lion
That Was the Worst Chirstmas Ever! -- Sufjan Stevens
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) -- Darlene Love

Cranberry Gin Cocktail

1½ ounces Gin
¾ ounce rich simple syrup
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
Crushed ice
7 fresh cranberries, divided
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1 mint sprig, for garnish

In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, rich simple syrup, lemon juice and 2 to 3 pieces of crushed ice. Shake vigorously, then pour ½ ounce of the mixture in the bottom of a rocks glass. Add 4 of the cranberries to the glass and muddle well. Fill the glass with crushed ice and pour the remaining cocktail into the glass. Top with even more crushed ice then garnish with the remaining cranberries. Dust the cranberries with confectioners’ sugar, then garnish with a mint sprig and serve.

Modcast #397: Get Hip To The Beat

Welcome to Modcast number 397 and inching ever closer to 400 all the time. This episode is chock full of new music, so turn it up to 11 and get ready to rock.

Listen Now
Download

Liam Gallagher -- Greedy Soul (2017)
The Len Price 3 -- Sucking the Life Out of Me (2017)
Blondie -- My Monster (2017)
The New Pornographers -- Darling Shade (2017)
The Perms -- Lose Yourself (2017)
The Thorpedians -- On the Top of My Wall (2017)
Jonny Magus & The Bursting Bubbles -- Melody Delight (2017)
Mean Motor Scooter -- Wavespotting (2017)
Dirty Fences -- Teen Angel (2017)
Oh! Gunquit -- Walking The Streets (2017)
Bee Bee Sea -- D.I. Why Why Why (2017)
The Eddies -- Nuclear Boy (2016)
The Regrettes -- Fox on the Run (2017)
Robyn Gibson -- I Can't Reach You (2017)
Green Day -- Bouncing Off the Wall (2016)

Northern Soulshaker Cocktail

The Perms -- Lose Yourself

Modcast #396: They Got You Covered

I'm baaaaaack. And with a very cool show of very cool covers. Everybody loves a good cover song. I've got a baker's dozen of them for you that showcase some of the best. What makes a good cover? Everybody has a different answer, but for me it's when a band surprises you somehow. Either with an atypical but spot on tribute, like The Ramones did on occasion, or when they simply outshine the original with a unique twist of some sort. Whatever it is that makes a good cover we all know one when we hear one, and you're going to hear a bunch on this modcast.

D'oh! Now with a working link!

Listen Now
Download

The Clash -- I Fought The Law (Bobby Fuller Four)
Madness -- It Must Be Love (Labi Siffre)
The Specials -- Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) (Guy Lombardo & The Royal Canadians)
UB40 -- Red Red Wine (Neil Diamond)
Beautiful South -- Don't Fear The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)
Talking Heads -- Take Me To The River (Al Green)
Cake -- I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
Social Distortion -- Ring of Fire (Anita Carter)
X -- Soul Kitchen (The Doors)
Ramones -- Needles & Pins (Jackie Delshannon)
The Damned -- Alone Again Or (Love)
Blondie -- Hanging On The Telephone (The Nerves)
Chicago Transit Authority -- I'm A Man (The Spencer Davis Group)

NORTHERN SOULSHAKER COCKTAIL

Guy Lombardo & His Canadians -- Enjoy Yourself


Doris Day -- Enjoy Yourself


Bing Crosby & Dean Martin -- Medley w/Enjoy Yourself


Louis Prima & Keely Smith -- Enjoy Yourself

DJ Ken's 10th Annual Halloween Modcast #395: Back From The Dead (2017)

After 10 years of torturing us with his halloween mixes DJ Ken is Back From The Dead with a mix so ghoulish it'll make you long for some pumpkin spice. 

Gluttons for punishment will want to check out his 9 other halloween modcast mixes. 

Listen Now
Download


3-D Invisibles - The Monster DJ (Jump Off The Screen, 1986)
Spinal Tap - Back From The Dead (Back from the Dead, 2009)
Creepshow - Life After Death (Life After Death, 2013)
T.S.O.L. - Terrible People (Disappear, 2001)
Cadaver Club - I'm Making A Monster, Baby (A Fate Worse Than Life, 2013)
Eels - Your Lucky Day in Hell (Beautiful Freak, 1996)
Tally Hall - Cannibal (Good & Evil, 2011)
Josie & The Pussycats - Voodoo (Single, 1970)
Todd Rundgren - Wolfman Jack (Something/Anything?, 1972)
Damned - Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde (The Black Album, 1980)
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House (Kaleidoscope, 1980)
Elvis Costello - Complicated Shadows (All This Useless Beauty, 1996)
Joe Jackson - Evil Eye (Beat Crazy, 1980)
Madness - Shadow Of Fear (Absolutely, 1980)
Messer Chups - Coffin-Mobile (Vamp Babes (Upgrade Version), 2004)
Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures - Day Of The Dead (Rob Zombie Presents Captain Clegg And The Night Creatures, 2009)
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - La Araña (La Araña Es La Vida, 2016)
Cubanismo - Marie Laveaux (Mardi Gras Mambo, 2002)
King Flash & the Calypso Carnival - Zombie Jamboree (Single, 1956)
Mummy Calls - Beauty Has Her Way (Mummy Calls, 1986)
Southern Culture On The Skids - Undertaker (Zombified, 1999)
Syreeta - Happy Birthday to Me (Happy Birthday to Me Soundtrack, 1981)


The Three Stooges "Spook Louder" 1943

Modcast #394: Give Yourself A Hand

So this is it, this is where the modcast jumps the shark ... again. All the music in the world and I'm busy making a jerk off mix. Hey, I just made it, you're the one listening to it! I hope. It wasn't the easiest modcast to put together either. Do you know how many songs there are about self pleasure? It was hard to narrow it down. But I did. So get comfortable and listen in.

Listen Now
Download

The English Beat -- Hit It (Auto-Erotic) (1981)
Barenaked Ladies -- It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland) (2001)
Macy Gray -- B.O.B. (2015)
Garfunkel & Oates -- Go-kart Racing Accidentally Masturbating
Cyndi Lauper -- She Bop (1983)
The Decemberists -- Billy Liar (2003)
Devo -- Praying Hands (1978)
Oingo Boingo -- Nasty Habits (1981)
Nerf Herder -- Doin' Laundry (1999)
The Pixies -- Holiday Song (1987)
The Buzzcocks -- Orgasm Addict (1977)
Makin' Time -- Pump It Up (1986)
The Vapors -- Turning Japanese (1980)
Ivor Biggun And The Red-Nosed Burglars -- The Winkers Song (1978)
The Modsters -- Put Your Hands Down There (1985)
The Who -- Pictures of Lily (1967)

The Who -- Pictures of Lily

Modcast #393: Caution Gerbils May Explode If Kicked

Action packed show this week, so hot it could explode into flames at any time.

Here we are turning the corner from summer to fall and heading into the back stretch of 2017 aimed at the finish line. There's about a dozen weeks left in the year and I've got seven modcasts to pump out in order to hit show #400. I was hoping to do that this year, but it's going to be tight. But I pumped one out for you this week that has lots of cool new music, as well as some ... er, shall we just call them more experienced sounds?

Listen
Download

Karla Kane -- Lilac Line (2017) (get the new album here)
Vista Blue -- Girl Who Can Curl (2017)
Oh! Gunquit -- Never Sorry (2017)
The Darts -- Revolution (2017)
Dirty Fences -- Goodbye Love (2017)
Duncan Reid and the big heads -- Bombs Away (2017)
Alvvays -- Plimsoll Punks (2017)
Joan Jett & Paul Westerberg -- Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) (1995)
Mood Six -- Flowers and Boxes (1987)
Southern Culture on the Skids -- Freak Flag (2016)
The Selecter -- Frontline (2017)
Rude Boy George -Town Called Malice (2017)
Spy Kids -- Today's News (1991)
The Employees -- Pick It Up (1980)
King Apparatus -- Made For TV (1999)
The Jam -- But I'm Different Now (1980)


Dirty Fences -- Teen Angel



Oh! Gunquit -- Lights Out

The Corner Laughers vocalist debuts a soft and sensational new solo album

The Corner Laughers have become one of my favorite groups over the past decade. It's surprising because I'm not to fond of folk music, and they have folksiness in spades. Rather than folksy though I've always heard a sort of twee, poppishness to their songs. Vocalist Karla Kane has always ridden atop the Laughers music effortlessly, an integral part of the whole. When I realized the latest release was a solo project I wondered how that would sound. And now I know. It sounds great. Again surprising to me is my enjoyment of what can only be called a folk album. Kane's voice is strong and striking as always, reminding a little bit of She & Him's Zoey Daschenal not because they sound so similar but because they have this sort of ethereal quality that belies an elegant and underlying strength. They both share a softness around the edges that works especially well here for Kane when coupled with the thought provoking lyrics on songs like All Aboard, the feminist folk of Don't Hush Darling, and the album's title track King's Daughters Home For Incurables. Another striking song is Lilac Line, with Kane's customary ukulele twanging along, it boasts a catchy chorus and builds to what amounts to a crescendo for an otherwise subtly understated album. And it reminded me just a bit of the Beautiful South, which is a good thing in my book. Overall this is a strong and enjoyable solo debut, and maybe will inspire me to expand my listening boundaries even a bit further. I'm not going to stop hoping for another right proper album from the Laughers as a whole though!

Karla Kane's King's Daughters Home For Incurables will be released October 6th and you can order it here.