The Ledge #600: Hudson’s Best of 2023
Choosing my favorite records of the year is always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great fun for a music nerd like me to revisit the hundreds of releases I’ve checked out the last twelve months. But it’s also frustrating trying to thin down those picks into a list that truly represents the past year. Many records that initially seemed a lock are suddenly eclipsed by new records that I simply can’t ignore. Other albums that I had prematurely set aside have revealed themselves to be chock full of fabulous tunes that I can’t imagine living without. Overall, this is another great year for music. I’ll never understand the mindset of people, especially those around my age, that complain how there’s no great bands or records these days. Sure, the pop charts are primarily filled with garbage, and one does have to spend more time than ever finding new artists. But the search has always been a great part of the fun of being a collector, and my main reason I’ve now put together 600 episodes of this show is to share my findings with others. I’m always thrilled when I hear that someone has bought a record […]
The Ledge #600: Hudson’s Best of 2023
Choosing my favorite records of the year is always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great fun for a music nerd like me to revisit the hundreds of releases I’ve checked out the last twelve months. But it’s also frustrating trying to thin down those picks into a list that truly represents the past year. Many records that initially seemed a lock are suddenly eclipsed by new records that I simply can’t ignore. Other albums that I had prematurely set aside have revealed themselves to be chock full of fabulous tunes that I can’t imagine living without. Overall, this is another great year for music. I’ll never understand the mindset of people, especially those around my age, that complain how there’s no great bands or records these days. Sure, the pop charts are primarily filled with garbage, and one does have to spend more time than ever finding new artists. But the search has always been a great part of the fun of being a collector, and my main reason I’ve now put together 600 episodes of this show is to share my findings with others. I’m always thrilled when I hear that someone has bought a record […]
The Ledge #575: Second Quarter Report
With tonight’s show being the last broadcast of June, and especially as it is also the last day of the month, it’s pretty clear that it needed to be a second quarter recap. There’s over two hours of great music that has come out in the last three months, similar to the first quarter recap show of March 31. The material ranges from the fantastic power pop of Paint Fumes and Jagger Holly to veteran rockers such as Ian Hunter and The Waco Brothers. There’s some rootsy rock and roll from Tommy Stinson, Deer Tick and The Baseball Project. The music comes from not only the usual US, UK, and Canadian artists but also from Australia, Austria, France, and Germany. As for this week’s “52 weeks of Teenage Kicks” series, I have a very special cover by German punkers Die Toten Hosen. Way back in the early 90s they had a fantastic covers record called Learning English, Lesson One, where they invited members of the original bands to assist them with their remakes. 2017 saw the relese of Learning English, Lesson Two that continued that format. For their version of “Teenage Kicks”, they featured original Undertones guitarist Damian O’Neill! I […]
The Ledge #528: New Releases (Pt. 2)
After last week’s special Record Store Day edition of the monthly “new release” show, we’re back this week with the more traditional type of broadcast devoted to brand new tunes. And, like usual, we’re all over the place when it comes to genres. There’s some great power pop. There’s a little bit of punk. A tad here and there of garage rock. And, yes, there’s some Americana. But it’s not just the varied genres of the show. It’s the fact that this music comes from all over the world. From Australia to Germany to Canada to even my little city of Sioux Falls, SD. Yes, the first set of the show is devoted to a trio of great local bands – The Rose Quarter, Thought Patrol, and Off Contact – all of whom have wonderful records that are eithier already out or about to be released. As for the “52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks”, I have a cover that’s almost 40 years old but is still technically a new release. The version by Dawn Chorus & The Blue Tits initially came out on Stiff Records in 1985, but it has also now been included in a brand new collection of […]
The Ledge #566: Twofers
Tonight unveils a new sort of theme for a Ledge episode – Twofers! Everybody loves a twofer deal at the bar, so why not transfer the idea to rock and roll. (Yeah yeah yeah, I know radio stations have done this for decades. But it’s new to The Ledge!) The inspiration was a handful of great records that I’ve been paying a lot of attention to in the last few days. Last Saturday, for Record Store Day Sioux Falls (soon to be) legends Off Contact put out a few advance copies of their upcoming debut album, Pearls Before Swine. Of course I had to air some tracks off it! And then two days ago I received what may be my second-favorite power pop album of the year. Paint Fumes new record, Real Romancer, is chock full of great hooks accompanied by the sort of noisy guitars that everyone knows I love so much. Of course, I couldn’t resist airing tracks from the brand new albums of original punkers The Damned and former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock. But it’s not all twofers on the show. There’s a “four-fer” of selections from the Record Store Day release of previously unreleased live Husker Du […]
