The Pop- Rock Candy Mountain Show: Todd Barry and Brian Huskey

With Amanda Brumfield and Coree Spencer

Free Radio: How Ya Like Me Now

BY JEFF CLARK
Senior Editor
Pop-Rock Candy Mountain

Don’t call it a comeback, Lance Krall has been here for years. OK, enough hip-hop wordplay — Krall’s Free Radio, a brilliant satire of both pop-culture and reality TV, will get another shot at life. Starting in November, Free Radio will begin airing on Comedy Central after the Colbert Report. Show creator and co-star Krall shared the info with Pop-Rock Candy Mountain on the new move and the biggest day in his life — the recent birth of his daughter.

When does “Free Radio” start airing on Comedy Central?
Nov 16th, following The Colbert Report. It will air every night for the first week, and then Wednesdays after that, unless Comedy Central changes their mind and changes everything. Either way, DVR that shit!

Are they going to show both seasons?
They are airing Season Two. Season One is tied up in several law suits at the moment. (Mostly sexual harassment stuff. No biggie.)

Read more

The Brian Huskey’s MixTape: The Brian Huskey’s Best Musics of 2008 List

By BRIAN HUSKEY
Contributing Columnist

Hi. I’m Brian Huskey, comedian, actor, comactodian. The shopkeeper of this fine websiteblogsite asked me if I would like to share some of my favorite music discoveries of the past year and I said “Why sure I will! Sure!”

I am calling it The Brian Huskey’s Best Musics of 2008 List. I think I am pretty original in this regard because there is absolutely no one else posting such a list… Not to my knowledge. I will admit, I do not own a radio, television, read any form of media, and only use the internet for emailing, so I might have missed any lists that might be out there. If there are any other best of list posters, I welcome them to check out my list and judge themselves accordingly.

I will say in advance that I have limited myself to the top ten, in honor of David Letterman, who will die someday, and that they are in play list/mix tape order with my favorite song from each album. This is not a ranking of better, better, best. It’s just a mix.

The Brian Huskey’s Best Musics of 2008 List

1. Song: BLACK CAT Artist: BLACK MOUNTAIN Album: INTO THE FUTURE (BONUS DISK)
The tense, restrained cloud of feedback bleeds into an avalanche of drums, and it is on. A simple, propulsive and infection tune that makes you feel like you are in a speeding big rig, hopped up on trucker’s speed- a great feeling, trust me. It’s the kind of tune that if you tried to cover, no how badly you did it, would still make you feel like a bad ass.
I was not the biggest fan of the INTO THE FUTURE record; I much preferred their debut. FUTURE was too much of the Sabbath, Deep Purple vibe for me, and guys I love that stuff. But this song makes up for the rest of the album.

2. Song: WHITE WINTER HYMN Artist: FLEET FOXES Album: FLEET FOXES
Who wants to feel suddenly terrific inside, like the soothing sensation of hot chocolate rolling down your neck and hitting your happy belly? Who wants to feel the brisk snap of fall and the sensory flash of seeing a autumn tree turned into a glorious fire ball in the afternoon sun? Who wants the feeling of glancing at someone you truly love as you roll down undiscovered back roads in the summer heat? Um, I DO! Oh god I want that!!
I love this album, top to bottom. With it’s Beach Boys harmonies, simplicity and sincerity, it makes me feel flat out groovy every time I listen to it. But this song… opph! It’s the kind of song that is an instant soundtrack to your life, to the memories you already have and to the new ones you are making as you hear the song again. So good.

3. Song: FOOLS Artitist: DODOS Album: Visiter
Two drums, one guitar. Two guys seated when they play, one standing, but not the guitarist. Stripped down, driving songs that are all about rhythm even when the guitar kicks in with some strange feedback after a seemingly relentless progression of finger picking. Artsy, but only in the sense that they probably have a lot of their friend’s artwork in their humble apartments.

4. Song: THE BIRMINGHAM ECCENTRIC Artist: KELLY STOLTZ Album: CIRCULAR SOUNDS
Poptastic, shades of Brit-love! This song could easily just be Mr. Stoltz playing all the instruments by himself, or a gang of musicians brought in to play just what he says to play. Either way, this song and the whole album, is the end result of one man knowing just what he wants his pop songs to sound like and getting them to sound that way. I am making him sound like a dick. Point is, these of tightly wound, perfectly executed pop ideas that have just the right amount of British slur to make them have some swagger.
What?

5. Song: MILLIONS OF MILLIONS Artitst: THE BOOKS Album: MUSIC FOR A FRENCH ELEVATOR
Not so much a song as a hilarious, arresting bit of tape reordering, this “tune” popped up on my iTunes one day and totally confused me. The Books are obsessive audio tidbits- found excerpts from old self help records, home recordings, etc., mashed with weirdly generated beats- i.e. a basketball in a washing machine, and great guitar work. FRENCH ELEVATOR is probably their most found audio bits heavy album yet, but the songs are always weirdly catchy and captivating, even when they aren’t really songs.
Basically The Books make me feel smarter and more artistic than I am.

6. Song: BARE FEET ON WET GRIPTAPE Artist: CHAD VANGALEEN Album: SOFT AIRPLANE
This is is my most recent discovery, only coming to my ears within the past two weeks, but whooo boy do I dig this album. He goes from Syd Barrett to Neil Young to random crappy keyboard work with tiny shreds of Archers of Loaf guitar work buried down in the mix, but it always sounds totally original. There is a psychedelic quality to the songs, but not in an annoyingly self conscious/I would be a drag to hang out with way. It’s just his personal point of view. I imagine Chad has a lot of sketchbooks filled with insane scribbles that he never shows to any one, and that’s just how he likes it.

7. Song: KIDS Artist: MGMT Album: ORACULAR SPECTACULAR
Speaking of psychedelic… I was actually surprised that this album has been lumped in with the new wave of psychedelia. To me this is album is a disco marriage of Abba, David Bowie and Human League. But I suppose all the free love, positive, life celebrating lyrics do make it a little hippy dippy. But regardless, this is a surprise favorite of mine for the year, but with infectious songs like KIDS and the equally earwhig-y ELECTRIC EEL, it’s hard not to love it.
I always feel too old to be listening to it though, like it’s my daughter’s music and I have co-opted it. That’s cool though. My daughter is only a year and half so she doesn’t know really what’s going on yet.

8. Song: AGING FACES/LOSING PLACES Artist: KEVIN DREW Album: SPIRIT IF…
I am a sucker for anything Broken Social Scene does, but I must admit that it is the Kevin Drew-ness of BSS that I love. I dig Apostle of Hustle. I am very happy for Feist and all her success, but Kevin Drew is the shit to me. And I am not even sure that this is a great album, but it just has all the elements I love from BSS records- slow burn songs that feel hung over, instruments piled on top of one another but never fighting for the spotlight, and the knowledge that everybody playing so great on this one song are doing so because they are happy in their other 15 bands.

9. Song: TEEN CREEPS Artist: NO AGE Album: NOUNS
Two dudes make all this sound. That is fucking great. And it all has that strange, restrained wall of sound squeezed through a tiny door sound that Pavement had on their early Drag City recordings. I dig these guys because I feel like they are carrying their lo-fi flag without trying to hard to do so. And their t-shirts are cool.

10. Song: LUMP SUM Artist: BON IVER Album: FOR EMMA, FOREVER
Oh man… I know I said I wouldn’t have a top of the list, but I gotta say, this album is… Okay. It’s probably my fave of the year. So lush and internal. It can definitely be filed in the Iron and Wine vein with it’s acoustic guitar, falsetto vocals and mournful quality, but there is something more to this record. I know he just went by himself to cabin in Wisconsin for three months and recorded it, and it really feels that way- one man, working things out by himself. Just beautiful.

Courtesy Photos