Good morning!
(I totally heard that in the voice of that mean talk show host from Reality Bites. Excuse me, my brain is still foggy from a deep sleep.)
Today is Friday, and Friday is a big radio day for me. My shift at my college’s radio station is this afternoon, and I’ll be in there spinning tunes! If you’ve read my posts, you know that I have been extremely active at our radio station since my second day of college four years ago. For three of the last four years, I’ve served as the station’s Music Director where I’ve been surrounded by music. Every week, I would sort out my new weekly music picks. Monday and Tuesday nights were extremely busy!
However, this year was the first that I wasn’t a Music Director full time. I admit that it’s been a bit harder to keep up with the latest popular college radio songs. Every year, my station hosts a countdown of our top 30 most popular songs of the year. We’ve measured them by deejay and listener favorites, and highest level of rotation. Not having the rotation levels for some of these songs memorized has been hard, but it’s been a fun time of discovery. I hope to do more music related posts; I LOVE to write about music to an exausting level! I’ll include my list and provide commentary for my top five tunes.
30. Sylvan Esso- Radio
29. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions- Let Me Get There
28. Carseat Headrest- Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales
27. 87- Shopping Mall
26. Wilco- If I Ever Was A Child
25. Kings of Leon- Waste A Moment
24. Yoko Ono- Soul Got Out Of The Box
23. Tommy Womack- Nashville
22. Violent Femmes- Memory
21. Sturgill Simpson- Keep It Between The Lines
20. Tacocat- Dana Katherine Scully
19. Devandra Bandhart- Fig In Leather
18. Bob Mould- Voices In My Head
17. Fitz & The Tantrums- Handclap
16. Kitten- Fall On Me
15. Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift- Love Is a Drag
14. Pretenders- Holy Commotion
13. Mitski- Your Best American Girl
12. Pocket Fever (a local trio)- When I’m Looking
11. Margo Price- About To Find Out
10. David Bowie- Lazarus
9. Iggy Pop & Joshua Homme- Gardina
8. Britta Phillips- Drive
7. Andrew Bird- Left Handed Kisses
6. Charles Bradley- Changes
5. Cinepak- Blue: Cinepak is a vaporwave artist based out of Lexington, Kentucky. I don’t understand vaporwave beyond what the internets have showed me, and I have a hard time putting its meaning into words, even after listening to Cinepak. Cinepak’s noises remind me of some weird faraway time. I’m transported into a really weird part of my brain that is reserved for memories of a childhood mall. The lights are neon, and the hallways are short and narrow. Cinepak evokes all kind of forgotten senses within me. If you’re interested in hearing more, head over to Soundcloud or Bandcamp.
4. M83- Sunday Night, 1987: This song is one of the last tracks on M83’s latest record. When their new album, “Junk”, crossed my desk, I quickly found a bouncy single to play for our rotation. I was more captivated with this mysterious track which evoked a serious “mind trip” like Cinepak does. I don’t know what it was like on a Sunday night in 1987, but I can guess that there were lots of dreamy synths playing as someone’s soundtrack to dreading the upcoming work week.
3. The Fat White Family- When Shipman Decides: I was proud to pick this song because it freaked everyone out. I’d been a big fan since I’d heard their previous record in 2014. This is one of those tracks that I didn’t expect a lot of people to “get”, but if you “got” it, then you were all in. Slow melodies and haunting vocals do it for me.
2. Sunseeker- Georgia Dust: Sunseeker is a band out of my hometown of Nashville, who released their first single on Jack White’s Third Man Records. It’s got some twang, and extremely warm vocal harmonies to take you on a three-minute ride. It’s nostalgic for me; it’s extremely southern, and it reminds me of home.
- Mothxr- Centerfold: No song or new band hit me harder than Mothxr. I was extremely attracted to their album cover; a lady donning a wind breaker, and a walkman/vintage headphones combination. I first heard their track “Easy” and was intrigued by how simple their videos are. The video I saw for “Easy” just featured a girl smoking a cigarette in black and white. However, I was really really taken with the song “Centerfold.” It’s haunting and simple. I kept it in heavy rotation for ages! It also didn’t hurt that I was watching “Gossip Girl” for the first time, and discovered the connection between the show and Mothxr lead singer Penn Badgely. 🙂 I haven’t bought a new CD in ages, but I searched long and hard for this one. The bass heavy goodness of Mothxr has been in constant CD player rotation for me.
It’s been a noisy year, but these songs have reduced some of the ringing in my ears.
Taylor Hodgkins 