Category: Dizzy Heights

Featuring Pete Yorn, The Lightning Seeds, The Wonder Stuff, The The, and more

The rules are simple for this one. Any song (or band) with ‘Life,’ ‘Live,’ or ‘Living’ in the title was fair game, which means I had a lot of options (my first list had over 200 songs to choose from). In fact, I would like to apologize to the following artists for just missing the cut: David Lee Roth, Soul II Soul, Chaka Khan (that one hurt more than you know), Coldplay, Oleta Adams, The Suburbs, Hard-Fi, and Madonna (that one also hurt more than you know). Oh, what could have been.

Featuring INXS and Jimmy Barnes, Matchbox and Kirsty MacColl, Aztec Camera & Mick Jones, Damon Albarn & Matt Sharp, and more.

If you listened to the last show (sorry for the delay), then you knew what the theme for this one would be. I tried not to play anything I’ve already played (I violated that many, many times), but the more surprising thing was how many of these songs I haven’t played yet! Have I really not played [redacted] or [redacted]? I am shocked. SHOCKED.

Finding the sequencing was a challenge, though. There weren’t a lot of tracks that clearly belonged together. Also a challenge? My microphone. I had to rerecord some of these talkie bits four times, so if I sound annoyed and ready to get to the end, that’s why. (I bought a new one. It’s not much better.)

Thank you, as always, for listening.

Features David Bowie, Pugwash, Fine Young Cannibals, Robbie Willilams, and more

You should know, it pained me to shut the show down four episodes away from Show #100. I WAS SO CLOSE.

And then it took another year after moving before I was properly motivated. Well, that’s not entirely true. Getting used to the new routines, the kids going to different high schools, it was a LOT of change. I basically sacrificed my time to be available for them. And I think it was the right move at the time.

At the time. After a while, I was ready to start it back up. And now my youngest is only a month away from getting her driver’s license. I’m so close to retiring from my part-time job as a chauffeur that I can taste it. I only hope that with more free time comes more good show ideas.

Speaking of which, this show is a callback to a column we did in ye olden days. There is no doubt that I play several songs here that were highlighted in those columns, but I don’t know that for a fact – I was too scared to look. I didn’t want to be accused of peeking at someone else’s test.

Boom! There’s a cannon for the first hundred shows. Boom! There’s a cannon for the next.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

Features The Human League, Le Flex, Howard Jones, Climie Fisher, The Pixies, and more

Lots of songs, oodles and bunches and tons of songs to choose from when the subject is love. Too many, really, which means that I have almost certainly not played any of the first five songs that popped into your head just now. But maybe there’s something here that you will enjoy anyway. A master of the sales pitch, that is me. “Yeah, you might like this, I dunno, whatever.”

Thank you, as always, for listening anyway.

Features Sam Phillips, The Coral, Redd Kross, Elliott Smith, Ween, and more

I forgot to tell you the name of the band after my first talkie bit. It’s Slade.

I also forgot to tell you the name of a song in the first set. It’s called “Original Song.”

I am a consummate professional.

I also didn’t realize it when I was recording it, but this is likely my last show of the year. I started putting together a track list for a potential ‘Home’ show, and decided to scrap the idea. We’re on the road in two weeks, and no one listens to Mixcloud in December. I’ll see you in January.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

Features The Heavy, Dead or Alive, Teddybears, Prince, Calvin Harris, and more

Yep, I refer to a movie as a song, but did I re-record the bit once I realized the mistake?

Reader, I did not.

This is the first in a two-part series of songs about living quarters. The ‘Home’ show comes in about a month, and that wraps it up. Can’t imagine I’d get very far on songs about apartments and condos.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

This is probably going to be the new normal, flipping between themed shows and acrostic shows. Not only are these shows easier to make, they enable me to play songs I love that don’t fit a theme. Indeed, there’s a certain red-haired New Pornographer here who wrote a song that I can’t believe I’m playing for the first time in Show #93.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

I will be the first to admit that this is not the most original idea, but it’s filled with possibilities…for me to play the Boomtown Rats for the twelfth time. Not a typo.

On the other hand, six artists are making their debut in show #92, and even I’m like, I still have bands I haven’t played yet? Yes. Yes, I do.

Thank you, as always, for listening.