We Want the Airwaves

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

KROQ Top 20 Songs of 2009

Time for some cleanup. I've got complete sets (as complete as I can make them) of 2010 and 2011 year end countdowns for Alternative and AAA stations. There are a few from 2009 I didn't post yet , the most prominent being this one.

1. Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
2. Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch
3. MGMT - Kids
4. Incubus - Love Hurts
5. Linkin Park -New Divide
6. Rise Against - Savior
7. Muse - Uprising
8. Weezer - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
9. Anberlin - Feel Good Drag
10. AFI - Medicate
11. Apocalyptica f/Adam Gontier -I Don’t Care
12. Paramore - Decode
13. Green Day - 21 Guns
14. Slightly Stoopid = 2AM
15. Rise Against - Audience Of One
16. Phoenix - 1901
17. Pearl Jam -The Fixer
18. Cage the Elephant - Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked
19. Kings of Leon - Notion
20. Incubus - Black Heart Inertia

Friday, March 30, 2012

2010 Top Crossover Songs

A couple of posts past, I listed the biggest songs that crossed over from alternative to AAA and vice versa, based upon appearances in the year end charts of 2011. Let's do the same for the year 2010.

I looked at the year end charts for 37 alternative and 13 AAA stations. I assigned points based upon the percentage of each genre and added the two numbers up. To qualify the song must have appeared on two charts of each format. For example if a song appeared on 11 alternative charts and 13 AAA charts, The alternative score would be 33 and the AAA score would be 100 for a total of 133 points.

1. Radioactive -- Kings of Leon. 33/12, 89/92, 181
2. Tighten Up -- The Black Keys 30/12, 81/92, 173
3. Little Lion Man -- Mumford & Sons 31/11, 84/85, 169
4. The High Road -- Broken Bells 26/10, 70/77, 147
5. Ready to Start -- Arcade Fire 28/8, 76/62, 138
6. Dog Days Are Over -- Florence and the Machine 20/9, 54/69, 123
7. Crossfire -- Brandon Flowers 25/7, 68/54, 122
8T. Lay Me Down -- Dirty Heads feat. Rome 29/5, 78/38, 116
8T. You and Your Heart -- Jack Johnson 20/8, 54/62, 116
10. Cousins -- Vampire Weekend 18/8, 49/62, 111
11. Sick of You -- Cake, 23/6, 62/46, 108
12. Animal -- Neon Trees, 30/3, 81/23, 104
13. Lisztomania -- Phoenix, 24/5, 65/38, 103
14. Laredo -- Band of Horses, 9/10, 24/77, 101
15. Sweet Disposition -- Temper Trap, 23/5, 62/38, 100
16. The Sound of Sunshine -- Michael Franti & Spearhead, 3/11, 8/85, 93
17. 1901 -- Phoenix, 17/6, 46/46, 92
18T. Forget You -- Cee Lo Green, 13/7, 35/54, 89
18T Home -- Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros 13/7, 35/54, 89
18T Stylo -- Gorillaz, 19/5, 51/38, 89
21. Just Breathe -- Pearl Jam, 18/5, 49/38, 87
22. Written In Reverse -- Spoon, 9/8, 24/62, 86
23T Between the Lines -- Stone Temple Pilots, 25/2, 68/15, 83
23T The Catalyst -- Linkin Park, 25/2, 68/15, 83
25T Resistance -- Muse, 24/2, 65/15, 80
25T Undisclosed Desires -- Muse, 24/2, 65/15, 80
27. Giving Up the Gun -- Vampire Weekend, 12/6, 32/46, 78
28. Do You Love Me? -- Guster 5/8, 14/62, 76
29. Letters From the Sky -- Civil Twilight, 19/3, 51/23, 74
30. The Cave -- Mumford & Sons, 15/4, 41/31, 72
31T. At or With Me -- Jack Johnson, 9/6, 24/46
31T The Ghost Inside -- Broken Bells, 12/5, 32/38, 70
33. Bloodbuzz Ohio -- The National, 7/6, 19/46, 65
35T Down By the Water -- The Decemberists, 2/7, 5/54, 59
35T New Morning -- Alpha Rev, 2/7, 5/54, 59
37. The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire, 5/5, 14/38, 52
38. Bushwick Blues -- Delta Spirit, 2/6, 5/46, 51
39. Amongst the Waves -- Pearl Jam, 13/2, 35/15, 50
40. Wheels -- Foo Fighters, 9/3, 24/23, 47

Friday, March 23, 2012

Simulcasts still suck

In my city the University at Buffalo station WBFO was acquired by the local NPR outfit and they merged programming, beginning to

As a result they dropped what jazz progamming they had left and put a syndicated jazz programming on their HD2 channel instead of Exponential radio -- the sole source of AAA type music in Buffalo/Toronto. So now I've got an HD radio with no good HD2 stations to listen to.

And now they simulcast WBEN (right wing talk) not only on the station that used to be The Lake ( a slightly softer and hipper version of classic rock station) but now on an HD2 channel. So we can hear Rush Limbaugh call a law student a slut on 3 different frequencies. What a joy.

Essential 11 -- Winter 2012

In my efforts to make the essential 11 a monthly feature, I included some songs that I liked, but were already ubiquitous. What's the point in that? So I decided to dial down the frequency of this post and concentrate on songs that are really good and really need to be played more. So We Are Young by Fun won't be on this list.

1. Little Talks -- Of Monsters and Men In the wake of Arcade Fire, there's a bunch of groups out there that look more like hippie communes than rock bands. This one can play real good and star in weird music videos.

2. Fire Escape -- Civil Twilight Tense little burner of a song. Why this isn't burning up the charts is beyond me.

3.I Like It -- Foxy Shazam The bastard son of "Fat Bottom Girls" and "Brown Sugar". Totally over the top tastelessness and I like it. Freddie Mercury would be proud.

4. Baby Came Back -- Bush This is definitely my month for guilty pleasures. I hated this band in the 90's and still hate their 90's stuff for the most part. This song, however, rocks hard and has

5. Hold On -- Alabama Shakes Doesn't sound like much at the beginning, but boy does it build.

6. Simple Song -- The Shins Come on. You don't think I'll leave them off. Huge, majestic melody.

7. Comeback Kid -- Sleigh Bells Their songcraft is improving. Their combination of electronica and dirty guitar is unbeatable.

8. California -- Delta Spirit A rollicking, upbeat breakup song. How do they do that?

9. Disparate Youth -- Santagold Makes the most of a very unusual time signature -- sort of reggae on 3 cans of Red Bull.

10. When I Write My Master's Thesis -- John K. Samson Literate pop punk from Toronto. All about the twilight zone of post graduate education!

11. Afterlife -- Switchfoot Proof that the devil doesn't have all the great hard rock bands.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Top Crossover Alternative Songs of 2011

1. Radioactive -- Kings of Leon. 33/12, 89/92, 181
2. Tighten Up -- The Black Keys 30/12, 81/92, 173
3. Little Lion Man -- Mumford and Sons, 31/11, 84/85, 169
4. The High Road -- Broken Bells 26/10, 70/77, 147
5. Ready to Start -- Arcade Fire 28/8, 76/62, 138
6. Dog Days Are Over -- Florence and the Machine 20/9, 54/69, 123
7. Crossfire -- Brandon Flowers 25/7, 68/54, 122
8T Lay Me Down -- Dirty Heads feat. Rome 29/5, 78/38, 116
8T You and Your Heart -- Jack Johnson 20/8, 54/62, 116
10. Cousins -- Vampire Weekend 18/8, 49/62, 111
11. Sick of You -- Cake 23/6, 62/46, 108
12. Animal -- Neon Trees 30/3, 81/23, 104
13. Lisztomania -- Phoenix 24/5, 65/38, 103
14. Laredo -- Band of Horses 9/10, 24/77, 101
15. Sweet Disposition -- Temper Trap 23/5, 62/38, 100
16. The Sound of Sunshine -- Michael Franti & Spearhead 3/11, 8/85, 93
17. 1901 -- Phoenix 17/6, 46/46, 92
18T Forget You -- Ceelo Green 13/7, 35/54, 89
18T Home -- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes 13/7, 35/54, 89
18T Stylo -- Gorillaz 19/5, 51/38, 89
21. Just Breathe -- Pearl Jam 18/5, 49/38, 87
22. Written In Reverse -- Spoon 9/8, 24/62, 86
23T Between the Lines -- Stone Temple Pilots 25/2, 68/15, 83
23T The Catalyst -- Linkin Park 25/2, 68/15, 83
25T Resistance -- Muse 24/2, 65/15, 80
25T Undisclosed Desires -- Muse 24/2, 65/14, 80
27. Giving Up the Gun -- Vampire Weekend 12/6, 32/46, 78
28. Do You Love Me? -- Guster 5/8, 14/62, 76
29. Letters From the Sky -- Civil Twilight 19/3, 51/23, 74
30. The Cave -- Mumford and Sons 15/4, 41/31, 72
31T At Or With Me -- Jack Johnson 9/6, 24/46, 70
31T The Ghost Inside -- Broken Bells 12/5, 32/38, 70
33. Bloodbuzz Ohio -- The National 7/6, 19/46, 65
34T Down By the Water -- The Decembrists 2/7, 5/54, 59
34T New Morning -- Alpha Rev 2/7, 5/54, 59
36. Uprising -- Muse 15/2, 41/15, 56
37 The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire 5/5, 14/38, 52
38. Bushwick Blues -- Delta Spirit 2/6, 5/46, 51
39. Amongst the Waves -- Pearl Jam 13/2, 35/15, 50
40. Wheels -- Foo Fighters 9/3, 24/23, 47

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Katy Perry -- closet alt rocker

Katy Perry broke a few years back as as alternative artist -- her single "I Kissed A Girl" got significant airplay on alternative stations before breaking out big time on CHR. I saw her perform on Later with Jools Holland (a music show out of England, which you can get in the US if your TV gets the Ovation channel, [or at least used to haven't seen it in awhile]). Anyway, back then she had a rock band behind her and her performance was very edgy.

So Katy name-checks Radiohead in her latest single. Like Lady Gaga (props to her for having the late Clarence Clemons perform on her last album) and Pink, Katy Perry is a pop artist who is a rocker at heart. It seems almost inevitable that at some point Katy will tire of the CHR straightjacket and try something different.

When and if she does will alternative rock radio have her back? Judging by its history I would say no. The programmers who aren't suits obsessed with not offending the 18-36 male demographic (and often goes out of its way to offend the 18-36 female demographic) are indie snobs who are bent on reliving their glory days on their college station.

I love indie myself, but WLIR and KROQ did not become successes in the 80s by being indie purists. They played just as much Howard Jones as Replacements. When a band like Neon Trees had a radio hit they jumped on it. They did not become successes by buying into the fiction that all women are interested in is dance pop and singer-songwriters.

The 90's are over. What worked then won't work now. If alternative rock radio is to survive (and as a long time listener I hope it does) it has to adapt. I think it's starting to -- so if pop artists like Pink try to throw a little edge into their music, maybe alt rock radio shouldn't be so quick to ignore or dismiss it.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bonus Countdown Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011

Here is another Australian countdown. This one is Triple J immensely popular Hottest 100 Countdown. Triple J is a nationwide network on non-commerical network of rock/talk stations and is more alterantive and local oriented than the commercial stations.

1Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)Gotye