Two more albums go into the mix.  One, the highly anticipated one from the Roots, Rising Down.  Love, love, love the Roots, but I've listened to this one a few times, and so far... meh.  Of course, their last one, Game Theory, is their best in my book, so maybe disappointment was inevitable.

Holy F**k where ya been Steve?



Holy Fuck "Milkshake" video

Hey radio fans. Steven here checking in. Been a long time since I posted here. I've been in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for about a year almost (how time flies). Recently Stuart Flanagan of The Signal Show told me that he had seen electro-instrumental groovers Toronto band Holy Fuck play live. Great band that has two lead keyboardists that have all these little synths crazily wired together, a live drummer and bass player. I started thinking about them again and how I haven't been keeping up with a lot of the great indie music coming out of Toronto since I left home. So I have to recommend their new album simply called "LP." How can I describe Holy Fuck. If you're a fan of LCD Soundsystem, !!! and Add N To (X) you may dig them. I say watch the video above to get a feeling for them. That is the latest thing that I am really digging as of late. Also the new album from Thao, I've rediscovered my lost love for the excellent Spoon and also enjoying the new Black Mountain.

Something else that has been a lot of fun in the past little while is my involvement as a part of the music selections committee here in Yellowknife for this summer's Folk On The Rocks Festival. Lots of great bands this year (nothing to announce officially yet). Last year Great Lake Swimmers, Sarah Harmer and Sadies were just a few of the great bands who appeared. This year promises to be just as good. I've also been enjoying the major music geekery of a monthly party that a few friends and I have been running called SnowMAN (stands for Snow Music Appreciation Night). We all get together with a theme (the past two have been "Generic" and "Take It To The Man" with next month's being "What's Wrong With You?"). I've met some great indie music geeks like myself and it's fun. It's a great way to get exposed to new music.

Well not much else to report. I apologize for those of you who are missing RadioSteven. I am considering reviving it again in the next couple months so keep checking back.

Wow, it's been a gazillion years since I've done an update.  But I've updated the 365 playlist, and since we had a bunch of "adds", as we say in the business, I thought I'd do a shout-out.  I picked up some new stuff from Steve Malkmus, Gnarls Barkley, the Kills, and newcomers Times New Viking.  I initially resisted TNV - I thought they were one of those bands like Vampire Weekend that I feel like I'm supposed to like but can't really get into.  As it turns out, they're the real deal.  Fuzzed-out hooks, male-female harmonies - what more could anyone possibly want?  How 'bout some more fuzzed-out hooks from the Dirtbombs (pictured)?  'Cause they've got a new one out too.

Just a periodic update. I threw a bunch of new and new/old stuff onto the Live365, and took off a lot of the songs people have been giving low ratings to. Yes, it's democratic radio! Anyway, the highlights are new stuff from The National, who still sound like American Music Club; Pharoahe Monch, who has the audacity to cover "Welcome To the Terrordome"; and a preview track from the new New Pornographers - I'll throw up some more songs from that one as soon as its out. I've also been hearing good things about Talib Kweli's new one, Eardrum, which comes out in a few weeks, and I'll play it as soon as I get ahold of it.

It's been a busy few months, and I haven't had much time for the blog or the audio stream, but now that the lazy days of summer are here, that's all changed. No news yet on the future of internet radio, so enjoy the Live365 stream while you can - new stuff from the New Pornographers, the White Stripes, and the Mary Timony Band (she was in Helium, back in the day), plus some different old stuff. Enjoy!

As you may know, the major record labels have pressured Congress to levy even more exorbitant
fees against internet radio. Back in 2002, they introduced these fees - which we have to pay on top of artist royalties - which made it nearly impossible to run an internet radio station as even a break-even proposition. Because of these fees, I shut down Invisible Radio, and launched this site. Fortunately, a compromise was worked out to protect college radio and NPR, which allowed stations run by a nonprofit to pay a much smaller rate.

New legislation has increased the rates for everyone, several times over. As far as I know, there is no exception for nonprofits or anyone else. The minimum fee for a station is $500, so a site with numerous channels like Live365 or Pandora would owe hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

AM and FM radio do not pay these fees - they are a patently unfair assault, perpetrated by a near-monopoly of broadcasters and record labels who are terrified of new technology and the competition it engenders. There was a time in this country when antitrust legislation was enforced, and monopolies like Clear Channel and Warner/Sony/EMI/Universal were discouraged, but sadly we no longer live in such times.

However, there is hope. Congressman Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Washington State, has introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060), which will immediately strike down these unfair rates that threaten to cripple, if not utterly destroy internet broadcasting.

Please, please, if you live in the U.S., contact your representative in Congress and ask them to support HR 2060. Click here for contact info.

'07 has been a pretty slow year for new albums... until now! Last Tuesday brought a ton of new stuff, including albums from Low, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, El-P, and the long-awaited Arcade Fire, which everyone on Earth except me managed to get ahold of in advance of the release date. But with RIR no longer a real station, I don't have any pull with the labels. So I had to wait in line like everyone else. But having finally loaded up on new albums, I've thrown a bunch of new stuff onto the Live365.

The Arcades' new one isn't as good as their first (isn't that everyone's story?), but then again, Funeral took some time to grow on me too. There's still some good songwriting, and the band has a great sound - they don't have quite the same momentous buildup some of the older songs do. But worth hearing nonetheless.

Ted Leo? More of the same, which is a good, good thing. Nothin' fancy, just another great postpunk album. And Low continue to mesmerize with hypnotic, driving slow stuff. Definitive Jux label head El-P is frontrunner for album title of the year with I'll Sleep When You're Dead; more of the complex, compelling hip-hop you've come to expect from Def Jux.

I somehow never heard that Talib Kweli was doing an album with Madlib (I thought we were MySpace friends, Kweli! We never talk anymore!). Maybe I need to give it time to sink in, but so far, it's disappointing. Madlib's production is all pretty straightforward (read: boring), where I was expecting the kind of complicated, sample-heavy stuff he did with Madlib. And Kweli's still a great lyricist, but he lost something after Quality (or maybe just after Kanye stopped producing his records), and hasn't quite gotten it back. Still, a few songs from the new on the playlist so you can judge for yourself.

P.S. - Why did I think S-K were on Merge? I have the album right here! Thanks for setting me straight.

Sorry for the slow start to 2007, but I'm finally done painting, spackling and unpacking and am safely ensconced in the new apartment. I've added a bunch of stuff to the Live365 playlist, mostly falling under the theme "stuff I found on Mp3 blogs". And looks like I'm back not a moment too soon. There's a renewed effort underway to kill internet radio. Basically, the major labels - Sony/BMG, Universal, Warners, EMI - are hellbent on stopping anyone from listening to music over the internet, never mind the costs to the artists and the listeners, ie. their customers.

Which makes it kind of depressing that The Gossip have signed to Columbia. I mean, good for them for getting recognition (although, as Steve Albini explained, being on a major label doesn't mean you make any money). What's worse, they're not on Columbia proper, they're on Colmbia's new queer-friendly botique label "Music With a Twist." Personally, when I listen to the Gossip, I don't think about Beth Ditto's sexuality; I think about what an awesome voice she has. But if they want to pigeonhole themselves in service of the Sony Corporation... I guess I can just hope the next album is half as good as their last one and things will be okay.

One thing I always loved about Sleater-Kinney; when they left Kill Rock Stars for a bigger label, it was still an indie label.

I've posted a new show for February 2007 over at RadioSteven @ Live365 (can you believe it's already February?).
Lots of new stuff for 2007, some greats from 2006 and also some classics for you to enjoy. Over 7 hours of music.

Send me an email. Keep respecting the rock and thanks for listening!