Self Help Radio 042617: Indiepop A To Z # 53

(Most, if not all, of these images came from Discogs.)

This week's show continued a series that threatens to turn into an obsession - indeed, it could be its own radio show!  If it were, this episode, the fifty-third, would be the first episode after an entire year of shows.  Imagine that.  No, don't.  I shouldn't be encouraged with this behavior.

In any event: we have made our way through the letter L & have begun the letter M.  M may take a few episodes - I don't really look too far ahead, so I can't be too sure - but I just got through to the band Males.  I am prepared to stay with the letter M for a while.

The show is at the Self Help Radio website now, should you want to listen.  In case you've never done this before, you need a username & password; the username is SHR & the password is selfhelp.  The show is in two parts, & the songs I played, in glorious alphabetical order, are listed below in their respective parts.  & hey!  There are lots more Indiepop A To Z episodes to listen to on the website's Archive Page.  I should probably put them all on the website.  But who has the time?

(part one)

"Little Things" Lunchbox _The Magic Of Sound_
"Small Screen Queen" Lung Leg _Hello Sir_
"De-Luxe" Lush _Mad Love EP_

"She Loves To Feel The Sun" The Luxembourg Signal _The Luxembourg Signal_
"Sheila" Luxuriator _Green Tennis Visor 7"_
"Equal On The Weekends" The Mabels _The Closest People_
"Cubicles" The Mabuses _The Mabuses_
"Rich Together" The MacGuffins _Rich Together_

"Big Jim (There's No Pubs In Heaven)" The MacKenzies _C86_
"The Drunk" Mad About Sunday _The Drunk_
"California" Mad Planets _Music Makes Me Think Of You_
"Paper Plane" The Mad Scene _A Trip Thru Monsterland_
"Spanish Bombs" Madame Godard _Galapagos_

"Swim" Madder Rose _Bring It Down_

(part two)

"Heavy Petal" Madison Electric _Heavy Petal_
"Lying Around" Magic Bullets _Magic Bullets_
"Hey Boy" Magic Kids _Memphis_
"It's True" The Magic Shop _Heroes & Villains: 23 Pop Songs 1980-1990_

"Helicopter People" The Magic Whispers _Carousels & Music Boxes_
"Born On A Train" The Magnetic Fields _The Charm Of The Highway Strip_
"Passion" The Magnificent Lkage _Passion_
"Stone In The River" Maher Shalal Hash Baz _You Don't Need Darkness To Do What You Think Is Right_
"The Mystique Of The Locomotive" Mahogany _The Dream Of A Modern Day_

"Autumn Tree" Maikotobranco _Fall Into The Glowing Fade_
"Heartache Avenue" The Maisonettes _Maisonettes For Sale_
"Bub" Majestic _Live It Up!_
"Nothing On TV" Majestic 12 _The Majestic 12 Years 1994-1998_
"Breakthrough" Making Marks _Nobody's Business, Vol. 1: A DIY Pop Compilation_

"Nothing Remains" Male Bonding _Nothing Hurts_
"So High" Males _Run Run Run/MalesMalesMales_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 53?

(Indiepop can be super cute. Here's a picture of the cutest dog in the world, Winston.)

You know by now what to expect from my thrice-yearly excursions into the world of indiepop, right? Lots of great songs by mostly obscure bands which are labors of love in a genre that barely gets any recognition except from diehard fans like myself.  We'll finish the letter L & begin our long stay in the letter M.  Bands you'll probably hear tonight are the Mabels, the Magnetic Fields, Magic Kids, Majestic, & Lush.  Not in that order, of course - it'll be in alphabetical order.  Because I have a problem.

The show will air tonight from 8-10pm central, 9-11pm eastern on WLXU in Lexington - that's at 93.9 fm - & online at Lexington Community Radio dot org (you have to pick WLXU).  It's all music tonight, friend.  I hope you like.

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 53: Here's A Picture Of My Cat

Look, you know what to expect - two more hours of indiepop music in alphabetical order.  Here's something more interesting: a picture of my cat Beatrice.

She turns 17 in June but is still pretty agile & clear-headed.  She's had some health issues but is doing pretty well these day.

If I could figure out how to turn her into a radio show, I'd be famous!

I Had Such A Good Idea

For something to write about in the blog today, & I had it on tonight's dog walk - but I've forgotten it.

That's a shame, because I'm sure it was good.  I mean, I can't be certain - so much of what I think about is awful trite, if not downright banal, but this idea - I think it might've been a list, like, something in list form, which everyone digs - this idea was going to go quite well.  In fact, it might have been one of the best things I've written on this blog.

The list idea -

1) It would've gone something like this.
2) But it wouldn't have been too unwieldy; the lines would have been pithy, they wouldn't have gone on for so long that one of the items in the list was way longer than the rest.
3) It would've flowed.
4) & it would've been quite clever.

What happened to make me forget was probably a stupid discussion the wife & I have on dog walks.  Usually this involves mostly uninteresting observations which - if we didn't know each other better - might be mistaken for small talk.

& man am I easily distracted.  Anyone who's ever had a conversation with me knows this.  I will be talking about something & then an aside will loom & I'll go for it, I'll digress, I'm famous for digressing.  This one time, when I was in the middle of an important speech, I digressed so hard that I never made it back to the speech.  I spend a lot of time these days, actually, trying to recover from digression.  What was I talking about?

Who knows.  Oh wait, I can read back what a I wrote.  Hold on a second.  Okay.  I'm all caught up.

Well, you might have had a very interesting read on the Self Help Radio blog today.  I'm sorry you didn't.  But you could have, if I could've remembered the awesome idea - I've upgraded it from good to awesome because you'll never know if it was - that I had for something to write in the blog today.

There's always tomorrow!

Self Help Radio 041917: Umbrellas

(Original image here.)

Here's this past week's Self Help Radio, a show about umbrellas, which originally aired April 19, 2017.

You may note that I usually post these shows the day after they've aired.  It is now April 23, about four days after the show aired.  What up with that?

When the show aired, I was not in the usual place.  I was not even in the unusual place.  I was in the unexpected place: a vegan restaurant in New Orleans.  Ha!  No one saw that  coming!  (The restaurant was great, it's called Seed & for those of us who don't eat animals - especially not bugs or whatever crawfish are {they're probably bugs} - it was a good place to start a vacation.)  I checked on my phone to hear if the show were on, it was, & maybe you got a chance to hear it.

If you didn't, here it is!  Not too late after the fact, I hope.  I would say, "Let Self Help Radio be your umbrellas," but you'd be soaking wet in seconds.  Instead, you should listen to it somewhere warm & dry.  It doesn't matter - you'd just lose it anyway.

The show: at Self Help Radio dot net!  In two parts!  Password protected!  But the passwords are on the site!  The playlist is below!  Thank you for listening!

(part one)

"The Umbrella Man" Flanagan & Allen _Underneath The Arches: 24 Favorite Songs_
"A Fella With An Umbrella" Frank Sinatra _The Columbia Years (1943-1952)_
"Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella (vocals, Claire Hogan)" Jimmy Dorsey & His Original Dorseyland Jazz Band _Dorseyland Dance Parade_

"If I Had A Golden Umbrella" Alma Cogan _He Just Couldn't Resist Her: The Very Best Of Alma Cogan_
"The Lady With The Big Umbrella" Dean Martin _Memories Are Made Of This_
"The Girl In The Shade Of The Striped Umbrella" The Four Preps _Capitol Collector's Series_
"Guy With The Red Umbrella" Jim Gaffigan _Doing My Time_
"Umbrellas" Free Design _Kites Are Fun_
"Bus Stop" The Hollies _The Hollies' Greatest Hits_

"Under My Umbrella" Harry's Group _Fading Yellow, Vol. 13 (Lazy Days - US '60s Popsike & Other Delights)_
"Umbrella Man" The Searchers _Collected_
"Under Your Own Umbrella" Fox _Blue Hotel_
"Blue Umbrella" John Prine _Sweet Revenge_

"The Umbrella Song" Philomena Begley _Red Is The Rose_
"Umbrella" Nits _Tent_

(part two)

"Umbrella" Siouxsie & The Banshees _Downside Up_
"1000 Umbrellas" XTC _Skylarking_

"Umbrella" The Lucksmiths _Boondoggle_
"The Umbrella Song" The Shermans _Happiness Is Toy Shaped_
"All The Umbrellas In London" The Magnetic Fields _Get Lost_
"Umbrella" Dntel _Life Is Full Of Possibilities_

"Parasol" Niza _Modapop_
"Umbrella Day" The Haircuts _It's Always Better When We're Together_
"Parasols" Plastic Operator _Different Places_
"Umbrellas" Islands _Taste_

"Jumbie Umbrella" Mad Professor _Science & The Witch Doctor (Dub Me Crazy Part 9)_
"Penguin's Umbrella" The Sensational Guitars Of Dan & Dale _Batman & Robin_
"Umbrella" The Smoke _The Smoke