DNTTA Playlist for Feburary 19, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Secret Mommy* - Pool - Very Rec (Ache)
The B-52s - Is That You Mo-Dean? - Nude on the Moon (Rhino)
Wilfred Kozub* - One Revolution - What's Gonna Become of Us? (Zonik)
Knautic* - Persist - Agwe EP (East Van Digital)
Le Rex - The Dwarf - Wild Man (Cuneiform)
Pixel - Our Beauty - Golden Years (Cuneiform)
Adam Rudolph/Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra - Specular - Turning Towards the Light (Cuneiform)
Keith Price Double Quartet* - Yuma - Double Quartet (Independent)
Mike Field* - One Time in Tibet - Attic Jump (Independent)
Pendulum - Propane Nightmares - In Silico (Modular)

DNTTA Playlist for February 12, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Corridor* - Passage Secret - Voyage Eternel (Independent)
U.S. Girls* - New Age Thriller - Half Free (4AD)
Majical Cloudz* - So Blue - Are You Alone? (Arts and Crafts)
KEN Mode* - The Owl - Success (New Damage)
AM Static* - For Your Benefit - A Life Well Lived (Independent)
Humans* - Over Again - Noontide (Hybridity)
Braids* - Bunny Rose - Deep in the Iris (Flemish Eye)
Telephone Maison* - Galaxie 7 - Translucidopathe (Port Vanderlay)
Michael Cota* - Laden - Branches (Port Vanderlay)
Yacht - White Mirror - I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler (Downtown)
Paranoid Winter - Words Fall Us - Thaw (Foolproof)

Albums I'm looking forward to: The Thermals - We Disappear

Recently, I came to the decision to finally cut my cable. The only thing I watch on TV anymore is The Simpsons and Jeopardy, and the upcoming season of Archer. I rarely even watch the news anymore. Lately I've found myself putting it on in the background and running marathons of Hoarders or some shit like that. It's time to shut it off and put on some more music and read more.

So, as I count down to the cut off this weekend, I've been digging into my music catalogue more. After a marathon session of Elvis Costello bootlegs and live albums that blurred together in a blissful four hours I barely remember, I was so zoned out on good music, I put on Desperate Ground by The Thermals, one of my favourite albums of 2013. By Dobbs, I love this band. They are insistent and demand to be listened to, and don't care if you listen to them, like any good punk band.

This morning, their Facebook feed had an article from Paste Magazine, talking about their upcoming album, We Disappear, coming out late March on Saddle Creek Records.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/02/catching-up-with-the-thermals-1.html

And they've got their first single out too, "Hey You". This has a very strong punch to it. I can't wait for this album. It'll be a nice late birthday present for myself. Yeah, I usually buy myself lots of music for my birthday. Just like Christmas. And every other holiday...

Best of 2015 #4: Tacocat - NVM (Hardly Art Records)

Tacocat are probably my favourite new band I discovered this year. I first heard them on Seattle's KEXP, which I often listen to if I have to work at my desk and have a lot of paperwork to do. One of the best things that campus/community radio can do is expose you to the obscure bands in the local scene, and KEXP were definitely championing local heroes Tacocat. This band is the closest thing we have to capturing the joyful and cute punk spirit that Vancouver's cub once created. And I'm a huge fan of cub.

Tacocat have the manic pixie energy of an all-girl garage band from the 60s and the updated slacker snark of a band from the 2010s. Their songs are punky and scrappy, tackling life in Seattle, crappy bus service, women problems, hipsterism and misogyny. They have a wicked sense of humour and aren't afraid to laugh at themselves. They're unbearably cute. They make music fun to listen to, which not a minor thing with the type of music I tend to link. I missed cub. Now I have Tacocat.

Outside of my #1 album of the year, I think I listened to NVM more than any other album in 2015. Their video for "Crimson Wave" is my go to pick for video of the year. They have a new album coming out in April, and have just been tapped to perform the theme song for the revamped Powerpuff Girls cartoon.

Best of 2014 $5 - ttwwrrss - ttwwrrss_2 (Maisonneuve Music)

Hamilton's Sean Thompson is the real name of the electronic musician ttwwrrss (prounounced "towers"). His second album is a tense powerhouse of remarkably forward looking electronica. With so many modern electronic artists relying on cliche, tired breakbeats and beat dropping, Hamilton has weaved together a startlingly engaging mix of techno, dark ambience and industrial. Each track is atmospheric with just the right touch of glitchyness. He's just in his early 20s too. This is just his second album to boot. This album came out of nowhere and stuck in my head all year.

Check out the original review I did for Earshot in May right chere

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DNTTA Playlist for February 5, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Sandviess* - Blindsided - Scream Queen (Independent)
Black - Everything is Coming Up Roses - Wonderful Life (A&M)
Birch Barks* - Gravity Straps - abcc (Independent)
Merganzer* - Up in Smoke - Mirror Maze (Independent)
Soul Coughing - Unmarked Helicopters - Songs in the Key of X (Warner)
Reef Shark* - Mind Race - Mind Race EP (Independent)
36?* - Old Bones - Split LP (with The Ashley Hundred) (Independent)
Death Kart* - Beach Bummer - Death Kart EP (Shake!)
Medicine - Aruca - Shot Forth Self Living (American)
Flatbed* - Double Bitch - Bodies of Pain (Independent)
Flatbed* - Second to the Darkness - Bodies of Pain (Independent)
Le Pelican Noir* - Hyperlune - Sous tes paupières les plages désertes luminescentes (Independent)

DNTTA Playlist for January 29, 2016

Artist - Song - Album (Label)  * indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Pointed Sticks* - Tin Foil Hat - Pointed Sticks (Sudden Death)
David Bowie - V-2 Schneider - Christiane F OST (EMI)
Tin Machine - Under the God - Tin Machine (EMI)
David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans - Best of Bowie (EMI)
The Red Daggers* - Red Velvette - House of Mystery (Shake!)
The Hearts* - Cold Connection - Equal Love (Independent)
Futurekids* - Butterscotch - This is Everything (Independent)
Moss Lime* - Chou Frise - Zoo Du Quebec (Telephone Explosion)
Protomartyr - Why Does it Shake? - The Agent Intellect (Hardly Art)
The Effort Award - Follow Me - Relaxtronaut (Independent)
Mercury Rev - Emotional Free Fall - The Light in You (Bella Union)
Fresh Snow* - Witches Tomb - Hot Heros 2 (Mint)