Dreaming in Stereo episode 27 - the pre-comeback episode

It's been a minute, no? Rather than focus on the past and the usual excuses (life, etc...), let's talk about the good news: starting December 12, Dreaming in Stereo will return to being a live broadcast, regularly scheduled show! It's been quite a while since I've been live, and I'm really looking forward to it. So, every other Wednesday from 9-11 pm EST I'll be spinning the shoegaze, dreampop, and assorted adjacent genres that you've (hopefully) come to enjoy (otherwise, why are you reading this?).

You can find the show on Stranger Radio, where I'll be joining a nice selection of eclectic and quality programs. Or, you can hear the show directly on Stranger Radio's Mixlr page.

But moving to a new set-up means learning new tech, and the only way to really learn is do it. Hence, the latest episode, in which your humble DJ learns on the air how things work (and don't) (so many echoes!). But after working out a few kinks, everything seems to be working smoothly. Still, what's the point of having a rough show if you're not going to save it for posterity and share it, right?


As you'll see, it's a lot of artists and songs we've heard before, but since this was more of a dry run we might as well hear some favorites.And there'll be plenty of new stuff coming soon.

Now, the songs:

Pulp - Help the Aged - This is Hardcore - Universal
Blur - The Universal - The Great Escape - Virgin
Suede - Wastelands - The Blue Hour - Warner
James - Coming Home (PT. 2) - Living in Extraordinary Times - Infectious Music
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Adorable - Sunshine Smile - Against Perfection - Creation
The High Violets - Comfort in Light - Heroes and Halos - Saint Marie Records
Ether Aura - Your Favorite Song - Before We Could Sing - Analog Terror
Pale Saints - Sight of You - Comforts of Madness - 4AD
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Morrissey & Siouxsie - Interlude - single - Parlophone
PJ Harvery (w/ Thom Yorke) - This Mess We're In - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - Island
New Order (feat. Billy Corgan) - Turn My Way - Get Ready - London
Lush (w/ Jarvis Cocker) - Ciao! - Lovelife - 4AD
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Beach House - Space Song - Depression Cherry - Sub Pop
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (Can't Help Falling in Love With You) - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Dedicated
Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station - Souvlaki - Creation
Kindling - Sunspots - Spike & Wave - Moon Sounds Records
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Interpol - Lief Erickson - Turn On the Bright Lights - Matador
The Organ - Sinking Hearts - Grab That Gun - Mint Records
White Lies - Death - To Lose My Life... - Fiction
The Cure - The Blood - The Head On the Door - Fiction
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Ride - Vapour Trail - Nowhere - Sire Records
Chapterhouse - Pearl - Whirlpool - Cherry Red
The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored - Very Best of - Silvertone
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Bauhaus - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything - The Sky's Gone Out - Beggars Banquet

Dreaming in Stereo episode 26

It's funny how long Wye Oak flew under my radar. They're practically a local band for me, but I just now finally tuned into them. Digging what I heard, really interested to see what the new album has to offer. You can tell, though, that the group has elevated past the dreaded "local band" status, as their current tour features no Baltimore date (DC is the closest they get).

Lowtide is the key discovery of this show. As mentioned in the show, I caught them on an episode of Henry Rollins's radio show Fanatic on KCRW, where he played the entire album. It is brilliant all the way through, and definitely an album that will be on heavy rotation here.

And I've only been able to dig into a couple of tracks on the new TBTCI compilation, but so far it's looking like another quality comp. I don't know how he does it, but Renato Malizia is truly one of the standouts in keeping this music going.


Lowtide - On the Fence - Southern Mind - Rice is Nice
Purs - On - single
Tape Deck Mountain - Morse Code - Echo Chamber Blues -
Ride - Catch You Drowning - Tomorrow's Shore EP - Wichita Recordings
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Sway - Our Time On Poli - We Have No Influential Friends
Canards - Ending Soon - Ending Soon
Chapterhouse - Greater Power - Blood Music - Dedicated
Foliage - Fate - Truths
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Seasurfer - We Run - Dive In - Saint Marie Records
Minipop - Someone to Love - A New Hope - Arco Records
Wye Oak - If You Should See - Tween - Merge Records
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Zombie Girlfriend - Wind - Fuzzy Feelings - The Blog That Celebrates Itself

Dreaming in Stereo epsiode 25

True confession time: I haven't watched Twin Peaks. I know, I, too, feel that this is a personal failing of mine, something my better half is keen to point out. But, to be fair, I was 13 or so when it came out, and while I did enjoy a good mystery even at that age, I also think a lot of the truly Lynchian qualities of the show would have been lost on me at that point (although by that point in my life I was very much fond of the weird). I did see Fire Walk with Me while in high school though (with my parents, no less), and remember thinking, "He's really reaching with this one" (something my teenage self would most definitely say). But even then I was blown away by the soundtrack. Angelo Badalementi's compositions were just haunting, aided greatly by Julee Cruise's voice. I'd actually been toying with the idea of dropping some of that into the show, and here we finally are. If I had better foresight, I could have timed it to fit somewhere with the revival last year, but such is life. Anyway, here we're definitely putting the dream in dream pop.

And again, ignore what I say, the band is called Coma Pony. This is what happens when you have multiple notes all over the place.

Also, just to vent some steam, Mixcloud has been acting really wonky lately, making uploading far more difficult than it seems it should be. Here's hoping nothing goes away, but at least I feel better about filling up my computer's memory with all those backup files.

But enough kvetching. Enjoy!

Voluptuos Panic - If I Could Shine (The Sweetest Ache) - Popkiss, TBTCI Meets Sarah Records - The Blog That Celebrates Itself
Coma Pony (feat. Lucia Tacchetti) - Teletransportar - Magnánima Compilado Vol. 4 - Magnánima
The Black Windmill - Medicine - Black Windmill EP
Angelo Badalamenti feat. Julee Cruise - Into the Night - Soundtrack to Twin Peaks - Warner Bros.
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Starrsha - Sway - Starrsha
The Churchhill Garden (feat. HIDEKA) - Forever - single  Kindling - Sunspots - Spike & Wave
Slowdive - When the Sun Hits - Souvlaki - Sanctuary
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Snowbird - Porcelain - Moon - Bella Union
Love Spirals Downward - Ladonna Dissima - Idylls - Projekt
Bauhaus - Hope - Burning From the Inside - Beggar's Banquet
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Dead Can Dance - Don't Fade Away - Toward the Within - 4AD

Dreaming in Stereo episode 24

A "theme" show if you will - perhaps not as consistently noisy as I'd thought when putting it together (that middle sections ends up more like loud dreampop than anything), but I think there's enough feedback here to keep the people who enjoy that sort of thing happy.

That new A Place to Bury Strangers track is magnificent, and I can't wait for the full album to drop in a couple of months. I'll most likely also be revisiting Tape Deck Mountain when their new one hits in a few weeks. I still haven't made it all the way through the Magnánima Compilado Vol. 4 - it's 50 tracks, people! - but so far there are definitely a few keepers. One thing I'm really enjoying about doing the show in 2018 (not that I didn't in 2008) is seeing how this music is global now. There was an article in the Guardian a few months back focusing on Asian shoegaze which I think nicely puts a point on it. Needless to say, I think there's another theme show coming in the not-too-distant future.

That Medicine song was a fun find. There's a band with a definitely interesting evolution - I actually enjoyed their electronic album (which featured Brandon Lee's sister, of all people). 

That Dirty Sidewalks song was a joyous find - an American band that sounds like Definitely Maybe-era Oasis with Going Blank Again-era Ride feedback? I'm in!

Enjoy!


A Place to Bury Strangers - Never Coming Back - Pinned - Dead Oceans
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Reverance - Honey's Dead - American Recordings
Car Crash Sisters - Orange - Sundance Sea / Magnánima Compilado Vol. 4 - Industrias WIO / Magnánima
Young Boys - Love Hits - New York Sun - Hollow Eyed
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Communions - Forget It's a Dream - Communions - Big Love Records
Spotlight Kid - Sugar Pills - Ten Thousand Hours - Saint Marie Records
Merchandise (feat. Dum Dum Girls) - Red Sun - Red Sun single - Sub Pop
June Parker - Slow - We're Exactly Where We Are
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Medicine - Long As the Sun - To the Happy Few - Captured Tracks
My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep - Loveless - Creation
Tape Deck Mountain - Suicide 1997 - Slow Salvation - Lefse Records
Au.Ra - Pyramid - Jane's Lament - felte
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Dirty Sidewalks - Where's the Love - Bring Down the House Lights

Dreaming in Stereo episode 23

One of the joys of ever-evolving technology (and generous friends) is that at some point in your life you'll find yourself booting up an old machine of some sort and finding all sorts of old treasures you'd forgotten about (as well as the occasional file you'd wished stayed buried). Looking through an old homemade tower I'd been gifted several years ago (how many? We're talking Windows XP) I came across my old rip of Mew's 2005 album And the Glass-Handed Kites, and quickly fell back in love with it. Seriously, this was the album to beat back in '05/'06, with its soaring melodies, wall of sound, and just the sheer ambitiousness of it - not just the lack of gaps between songs, but the way they bled into each other - it was very much an album of its era, and yet it stood out so far from what else was on offer that year.

2009's No More Stories Are Told Today, I'm Sorry They Washed Away // No More Stories, The World Is Grey, I'm Tired, Let's Wash Away on the other hand, couldn't live up to the glory of its predecessor (at least to my ears at the time), and I found myself eventually moving on. I suppose I'll be revisiting that album soon as well, and checking out last year's Visuals (which is worth checking out just for the cover, if nothing else).

Also on the technology tip (to borrow from '90s hip hop slang), can we all admit what a godsend mp3 blogs were/are? Even though all the streaming services have basically killed the format (save for a few notable holdouts), it was a great way to find a song or two from some band you'd never heard of, or even knew a bit. Not that a Soundcloud or Bandcamp link isn't just as good - hell, you should be supporting the artists, anyway - but those blogs were nice, especially for out of print or super rare tracks. Case in point, the Mercury Rev and Mazzy Star songs in this episode. I honestly can't remember where that MR one came from, and even after doing some research I'm still not sure that Mazzy Star live collection is 100% above the board, even by the much looser standards overseas.

The set as a whole is a pretty broad range, and covers the spectrum of genres this show features, so if you listen to only one - but why limit yourself? Oh, and that Indelicates song - another group I'd long forgotten about and recently re-discovered. So bitter, so acerbic, so entertaining. "Thank you and goodnight," indeed.


Blushing - Hidden Places - Weak - ATHRecords
Nabihah Iqbal - Saw U Twice - Weighing of the Heart - Ninja Tune
Dayflower - Big Blue - single / We're Sad and Listen to Loveless Every Night Vol. 1
Ride - Pulsar - Tomorrow's Shore - Wichita Recordings
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The Sundays - I Kicked a Boy - Can't Be Sure 12" - Rough Trade
Mercury Rev - Isolation (live) -
The Malady of Sevendials - Idol Hands - single
Mazzy Star - Flowers in December (Live at KCRW 1996) - Ghost Highway
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SKYDREAMER - Nebula - SKYDREAMER
Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy - And the Glass-Handed Kites - Sony BMG
M83 - Graveyard Girl - Saturdays = Youth - Mute Records
British Sea Power - Waving Flags - Do You Like Rock Music? - Rough Trade
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The Indelicates - We Hate the Kids - American Demo - Weekender Records

Dreaming in Stereo episode 22

As you can see, with the new year comes a new naming convention for the shows. I'm not sure it really matters, but I feel that having the episodes less tied to the date might make them more listenable in the future. And it makes hiding the erratic nature of the release schedule less obvious (did I just admit that?). I'm definitely looking forward/hoping for more consistency in the coming year.

I said before that I wouldn't indulge in a "best of" show for 2017, so this is as close as we'll get. Partly it's clearing out some tracks that have been patiently waiting to get played (I've been trying to work that Autumn Sighs song in for several episodes now) and partly featuring songs that made the end of last year far more enjoyable. With that new Ride EP already on the way, I'm looking forward to what the one-eight has to offer. And I was recently going through an old computer and found some gems I'd forgotten about, so I figured it would be good to share (especially that last one).

As you can hear, I'm still working out the mic configurations, but at least now you won't have to deal with the extreme volume disparities (hopefully). One of the joys of DIY is actually having to DIY, but we should have the kinks out sooner rather than later, I'd think.

This is all less music-oriented than I'd planned, so enough of me, let's get to the music:


Spiritualized -  Medication - Pure Phase - Dedicated
Look Blue Go Purple - As Does the Sun - Time to Go: The Southern Psychedelic Movement 1981-86 - Flying Nun Records
Asobi Seksu - New Years - Citrus - Friendly Fire Recordings
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Deafcult - Stars Collide - Auras - Hobbledehoy Record Co.
The Autumn Sighs - The Autumn Sighs - Branches - Reptile Music
Amber Arcades - Right Now - Fading Lines - [PIAS] Recordings
Echo and the Bunnymen - The Back of Love - Porcupine - Sire
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Japanese Breakfast - Diving Woman - Soft Sounds from Another Planet - Dead Oceans
Ariel Pink - Feels Like Heaven - Decicated to Bobby Jameson - Mexican Summer
Alvvays - Plimsoll Punks - Antisocialites - Polyvinyl
Morrissey - Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up On the Stage - Low in High School - BMG
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Blink-182 (feat. Robert Smith) - All of This - Blink-182 - Geffen

New Songs to Tide You Over

When I first came up with the idea for Dreaming in Stereo 2.0, the idea was to replicate the radio show I used to have way back when - 2 hours a week of playing the jams and yammering on in between sets, hopefully entertaining music fans while scratching the DJ itch I've had for a while now (and since I don't foresee re-entering college any time soon, the Internet was the natural next choice). Between the technical limitations that come with relying on freeware and, well, life, the format and schedule didn't quite work out that way, but the hour-long shows are probably sufficient for the modern attention span anyway. Despite my best efforts, there are still some technical issues to be resolved, so while I set out to record a new show tonight, it was not meant to be. Hopefully I'll be back up and running again soon, unless this all turns out like some horrible Black Mirror episode.

That all being said, I don't want to leave you with nothing in the interim. So I'll share some new gems I've recently uncovered:


First things first, and you've probably already caught this by now, but the Iggy Pop/Jarvis Cocker cover of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' Red Right Hand. The song has been used as the theme for the Netflix series Peaky Blinders (which is completely worth your time), and if you wanted to know what it felt like to watch the show, this track is actually the perfect summation. This is one of those duet teams you'd never think to put together, yet the combination works so well, and turns the brooding doom of the original and makes it manifest as some wild fever dream. And frankly, after so many years of watching Jarvis perfect his singer/songwriter persona, it's nice to see there's still a bit of the wild man left in him.

And for another take on the song, PJ Harvey contributed her version as well, which is brilliant in its own right:

After blowing us away with their return album last year, Ride are back again (already!) with a new EP, Tomorrow's Shore, coming next month. The first track, Pulsar, is a solid continuation of the gazey rock of Weather Diaries, while Catch You Dreaming, features more keyboard and electronics than I'm used to, and sounds a lot to me like Mew circa 2005 (which is not a bad thing by any means). Definitely looking forward to hear the rest of the release.


I've mentioned KEXP's blog on the show before, and it might be cheating, but they have been a great source of music, not just in the DiS format but in general. A new artist I just discovered (as in right before I started typing this entry) is Nabihah Iqbal, a British artist who's apparently making the transition from straight electronica (do they even still call it that?) to a more indie/dreampop sound, and well, damn. She's got that solid groove/rock balance that New Order struck so perfectly in the early '90s, with a nice contemporary take. Definitely worth checking out:


Monday would have been David Bowie's 71st birthday and yesterday marked the two year anniversary of his passing. I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch the Lazarus video. Perhaps this will be the year, perhaps not. I was recently tipped off to Tony Visconti's remastered edition of Lodger that came out last year (yes, I am out of touch), and thanks to Henry Rollins and his Fanatic radio show got to hear it and the original mix back to back for a nice compare/contrast. Can't say I was in love with all of it, and it all sounds a little to of the moment for me to be really comfortable with, but some of the songs got a nice kick, particularly one that's always been near and dear to my heart (at least since I started getting behind the decks):


Way back when, I got Lodger (the Rykodisc edition, to be exact) through the Columbia House CD club, back when you'd get a stupid amount of CDs for the price of one, and it completely went over my head at the time (to be fair, I was young). Giving it a re-listen, I realize now what a great album it was, and now I'm sad again that we'll never get any more new material from David (although I keep holding out hope that there's some secret unreleased album or extra songs that will see the light of day).

Speaking of Visconti, he's apparently producing a new The Good, the Bad, and the Queen album. So there's that to look forward to.