On Bubble Wrap radio this week, we tried to stay away from Christmas without being totally unseasonal in our selections. The end result was a wintry mix of new stuff just in and songs from past years with the words “winter” or “snow” in their titles. I know, it’s a cheap algorithm but it works, and gives […]
This week on Bubble Wrap radio show, we vowed a return to normalcy. Did we succeed? Let’s see…. Obligatory Prince track? check. Unknown 80s Italo funk cut? got it. Interesting new music from Chicago? Yup. Ok, we’re back at least for the moment. The Italo funk was “Living” by Island and Holiday, a 1980s remix […]
We first happened upon this record, Midwest Side Stories by Chicago Farmer, about a month before the presidential elections. Being Northeasterners, we were a little nervous when we realized that this was basically folk music about “deplorables.” Nowhere on the record will you find the word deplorable, but given that these are songs about mostly […]
The holiday season is upon us. First up: Thanksgiving. Are we feeling thankful? Maybe not entirely but I think this year more than some others, we were in the mood for a good old fashioned, comforting family Thanksgiving with all the trimmings. This week on Bubble Wrap, we attempted to fit the mood of the […]
I first saw And The Kids at a local all ages show here in Brattleboro, and they struck me then as a band to watch. Sure, they were a little rough around the edges, but they had an originality and passion that set them apart. Now with their second full length CD Friends Share Lovers, […]
We were looking forward to doing the Bubble Wrap show the day after the election, figuring Hillary would win and we could play upbeat pop songs with just a touch of whimsical sarcasm…. And then the unthinkable happened — Donald Trump won! How is this even possible. On one days notice it was back to […]
Since the election was all anyone was thinking about anyway, we decided to provide some musical encouragement on Bubble Wrap this week. But we threw in someunrelated new stuff too, just to keep it interesting. First off, apologies in advance to purists who think Bruno Mars is too pop for an indie show. I agree. […]
Doing a Hallowe’en show on the radio is always fun — it brings out your inner ham and suddenly you’re playing sound effects records of haunted mansions and wishing you had Monster Mash on your iPad… This year’s Bubble Wrap Halloween playlist consisted of two types of Halloween song. There are the songs that are […]
One hundred years ago, musicians didn’t have record labels — they had patrons. A patron was a single wealthy individual who made a hobby of supporting the artistic efforts of composers or other artists they liked who seemed promising to them. Such a one was the Princesse de Polignac, which sounds quite grand until you […]
There are weeks when we’re less inspired by the Bubble Wrap playlist options than others, but we always try to put together a good mix of old and new, warped and accessible, or at least entertaining… This week, we dug back in the archives for forgotten gems like “Man in the House” by Greenskeeper and […]
Northampton’s Winterpills have been around for over a decade now and in that time, they’ve laid down an impressive body of work, stretching the boundaries of pop with their enigmatic lyrics and the harmonic convergence of their vocals. Their latest release, Love Stories, cements their growing reputation as masters of their craft, again stretching convention […]
It’s hard to do a radio show in a vacuum, which is why this autumn’s media mayhem is great for sparking interesting musical choices. The interesting new artist of this week’s Bubble Wrap show was Chicago Farmer, aka Cody Dickoff (pronounced Dee-cough! — you can see why he calls himself Chicago Farmer.) The record, Midwest […]
This week on Bubble Wrap we focused on new music again with no particular theme in mind. There were a few chestnuts in there — accordion virtuoso Brent Buswell’s Pennsylvania Polka provided a rousing opening. In honor of hurricane Matthew, we tossed in Hurricane by Crooked Fingers, a perennial favorite of mine. We enjoyed a […]