Dizzy Heights #59: A Touch of Tuesday Weld – ‘New’ Songs

New World Man takes his New Girl Now, dolled up in a New Dress, for a ride in a Brand New Cadillac. Aaaaaand that’s the show, simple as that. Songs or artists with the word ‘New’ in the title. I’m not deep.

Most of these shows are pretty easy to put together. This one was like herding cats. A couple song blocks put themselves together, but the others? Chaos. Did I really put the ‘90s ska band next to The Only Band That Matters? Yes. Yes, I did.

There were 10 other songs that were in the mix at some point, and later jettisoned. Like I said, this was an unruly show, but ultimately I think it turned out all right. Individual results, though, may vary.

There are seven artists making their debut this week, but I kinda don’t want to tell you who they are. It would spoil the fun in a big, big way.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

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Dizzy Heights #58: Contemplating a Crime – Animals, Vol. I

Fans of classic alternative will (hopefully) find lots to love here, though I do play a couple of songs from the last decade, so this isn’t purely a First Wave lovefest. It’s close, but nothing like Show #57 was.

Honestly, this was one of those show ideas where I just stopped writing song ideas down because I already had so many. I even left out Bowie. BOWIE, PEOPLE.

 The artists making their Dizzy Heights debuts in this show, frankly. Shock me. How on earth have I not played Elastica, or Sweet, or Los Straitjackets, The Pixies (THE PIXIES, PEOPLE), The Blow Monkeys, Don Dixon, Glass Tiger, The Polecats, The Bird and the Bee, or Tame Impala before now? The mind boggles.

Next up: a New show. And yes, the capital N is a clue.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

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Dizzy Heights #57: Kiss Me Senseless – One-Syllable Songs (Classic Alternative Edition)

Think. Stay. Go. Change. Why bother with two syllables when one will do just fine?

Credit goes to Scraps, Popdose’s former Name That Tune host, as he came up with this idea over a decade ago.

There is some hot classic alternative action going on here. In fact, this is the only show I’ve ever done that stays in one lane. It is all modern, or modern-adjacent, from start to finish. This will probably never happen again.

Artists making their Dizzy Heights debuts this week: Godley & Crème, The Apples in Stereo, The Sugarcubes, Tones on Tail, Age of Chance, My Bloody Valentine, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and (checks notes) Gary Numan? What?

Thank you, as always, for listening.

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Dizzy Heights #56: Let’s Stay Friends Forever – The Wind and the Rain

Sorry for the extended absence. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks (kids finish school, vacation, totally first world problems), but here is the overdue, Tears for Fears-inspired follow-up to the show about the sun and the moon. I actually had to export this show about six times to get all of the tracks to appear (thanks, network drive), but I think, THINK, that everything turned out okay.

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Dizzy Heights #55: They Will Never Find Me Here – The Sun and the Moon, Vol. I

I called an audible. Originally, the plan was to do a show about kids and children, after hearing a great show by Mixclouder The Show About… on the same subject, but one that left enough room for me to do a similar show without copying too much off of his paper.

Then he did a show about stars, and that reminded me of another idea that I had been flirting with for a while. This month, the sun and the moon. The Seeds of Love-era Tears for Fears fans know what the next show will be. Assuming I have enough material, that is.

Bands/artists making their Dizzy Heights debut: Aqualung, The Beloved, Matthew Sweet, Paul McCartney (solo), The Waterboys, Eggstone, The Merrymakers, Love & Rockets, Len, and somehow, I’m just now playing The Police for the first time.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

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The Popdose Interview with Stine Bramsen of Alphabeat

They may play the bounciest dance pop this side of ABBA, but make no mistake, the members of Danish sextet Alphabeat take their band seriously. They turned down multiple offers that would have raised their profile on the global stage, and to hear co-singer Stine Bramsen explain it, she and her bandmates wouldn’t have done it any other way. Freshly reunited after a six-year hiatus, Alphabeat has signed their first US record deal (a mere 12 years after their debut album), and with Atlantic Records, no less, who promptly flew the band to Austin to showcase at South by Southwest. Popdose’s resident Alphabeat fan boy chatted with Bramsen about conquering America, and the importance of making sure the world knows that your pop band was not created in a boardroom.

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Dizzy Heights #54: Watch the World Argue – Songs About Dancing

I’ve been sitting on this idea for about a year. It felt too obvious, but then I ran into a really busy stretch, and then suddenly obvious sounded AWESOME. So here we are.

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Dizzy Heights #53: Gold

This show was originally going to be about shiny things. I thought of precious metals, and then opened things up to include any gem that would be included in jewelry. Gold, silver, rubies, diamonds, all that stuff.

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Dizzy Heights #52: Someday We’ll Be Happy Again – Breakup Songs Part 2 (The Ballads)

I’m bringing the mope this week, love birds. If I know anything about love, it’s that it dies a slow, painful death when the month of February rolls around. Seriously, for two Februarys in a row in college, all of my friends and I saw our relationships come to an end. The following year, we threw a party to celebrate it, and that annual party tradition carried on for another ten years. The breakups, thankfully, didn’t.

Bands making their DH debuts this week include Alison Moyet, The Bangles, Deon Estus, David Gray, Elliott Smith (what), Kate Bush (WHAT), Simply Red, Vitamin Z, and World Party. Wait, really? Sorry, Mr. Wallinger. I just assumed I had played you by now.

The March show is still being built, but I’ll give you a hint as to its theme: the giant crab in “Moana” would approve.

Thank you, as always, for listening.

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Dizzy Heights #50: Heat Beneath Your Winter – Dreams, Vol. I

The idea came, as a lot of my ideas do, from a Duran Duran song. Do I have enough songs to do a full show about dreams? As I quickly discovered, the answer was no. I have enough songs to do five or six shows about dreams.

Artists making their Dizzy Heights debut this week include Asia, Alice Cooper, Bram Tchaikovsky, Cliff Richard, Daryl Hall, A Flock of Seagulls, Freiheit, Paul Williams, The Posies, Pseudo Echo, Rainbow, and Emily Browning courtesy of the Sucker Punch soundtrack.

Thanks for listening!

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