Paste Culture Club Overload.

Don’t know why I feel the need to catch up on old podcasts, but that is only one of the many unexplainable quirks, is it not.

4/14 edition: Josh Rouse.
Just saw him perform a few months ago (maybe even in April?). I like the Subtitulo, although not quite as much as Nashville or 1972, and I like it a lot more live. He’s a good interview, makes jokes, etc. – he is also one of not-all-that-many songwriters with good stage banter. I really like the Peter Case spoken word stuff they played during this show as well. Never heard of him before, but may need to check it out.

3/2 edition: Paste Recommends.
I had saved this one up because I knew they played some Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson on it. Kinda silly to bother listening at this point four months later, of course, as I already own most of the stuff I like from this show (the new Shawn Mullins and Rhett Miller albums). They also play a new one by a Chicago-band the M’s, that I just barely know, and a Sufjan Stevens song that samples the Copeland/Shaker tune ” ‘Tis a gift to be simple…”

4/28 edition: Erin McKeown.
Great interview with McKeown. She’s a real spitfire live and at the end of this interview she plays my favorite song off her new album. They also featured the Weepies (I LOVE that album) and Sonya Kitchell (who I’ve been wondering about — they refer to her as “halfway between Norah Jones and Joss Stone”). Also an interesting interview with Wim Wenders and Sam Shepherd about their new movie Don’t Come Knockin’ (their first collaboration since their great flick Paris, Texas 20 years ago…

5/11 edition: They Might Be Giants.
I can’t think about my senior year of college without having “Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople…” leap into my head. But I never followed the band after that, although I have a friend who goes to see them all the time and probably has all their albums (hey KP!). But this interview is really interesting, these guys have so much going on. Children’s albums (I bought these for my nephew a few months ago but have yet to hear if they’re enjoyable to listen to), doing jingle awards for people’s answering machines for a radio station, their website has lots of stuff (downloads, etc., doing their own podcast)… Really fun interview to listen to.

In general…
If you want to check out the lineup before deciding to listen to the PCC podcasts, you can go to the website. The first few I listened to I thought the emcee (Josh Jackson) was a little awkward. He’s getting more comfortable and some of them (particularly the Paste Recommends ones which I believe come out monthly) have a few people chatting and sound much more “radio-like”.

KCRW’s Bookworm: Leonard Cohen (6/22).

The beginning of this interview was a little annoying. Too much of Michael Silverblatt’s (usual) long meandering statement/questions with Cohen just saying “yeah, that’s a good way to describe it.” “Sure, that sounds good.” But eventually Silverblatt had him read one of the poems in the new book, and Cohen started to loosen up and participate a bit more. Cohen’s mournful songs are (yes I’m saying it again for about the 8th time in two weeks) “such a huge part of my childhood.” Always playing in the background, things like Suzanne takes you down…to her place by the river… Love reminding people that Cohen wrote Hallelujah, not Jeff Buckley (Buckley just did a cover of it). One of those artists with such a huge oeuvre, it feels like he’s been around FOREVER, but of course he’s 72 or something now…

Quirky Nomads: Wet Food (6/15)

Texan woman recounts her 14th year when she wasn’t allowed to listen to “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” at her relatives’ house where even the radio stations wouldn’t play it due to the cursing…the baddest man in the whole damn town… 🙂 Too funny.
Bonus: the little girl who won’t wear the sweater…because it’s not PINK!

Quirky Nomads: New Orleans (6/14)

Jennifer’s story about driving to New Orleans, and not just the devastation from the storm but the continuing complete destroyal of normal life, and the fact that most of us are just not really comprehending what it is like there now… Powerful stuff.

Quirky Nomads: Dear Skin (6/12)

Claudia is really loving her new microphones as she appears on this podcast as well. Too funny to randomly hear one of your friends when you are not expecting it! Enjoyed the bit read by the 15 year old although I actually felt my eye twitch on two mispronunciations! These are the things that drive me batty in my old age.

Leonard Lopate[‘s Stand-In] Interviews Lorraine Bracco (6/7)

Have been a fan of Bracco’s for years, before the Sopranos, as she’s got both a great voice and a great physical presence. Since she isn’t normally the subject of the gossip rags, I was unaware that she went through a horrific divorce and custody battle. Has a book out discussing such and her subsequent trips to therapy. It was an entertaining conversation to listen to but a little too much “since you play a psychiatrist on TV, what do you think of this?” on the part of the interviewer.

Wait, Wait…June 4th edition.

For some reason I just thought this entire episode was hilarious and I was having a really hard time not busting out laughing on the El. Craig Ferguson played Not My Job. There was a hilarious bit about a Greenpeace gaffe in a press release. The drought in England was the subject of the “which story is it” part of the show. And there were all kinds of sidecracks and random joke occurrences. Very funny episode. Why aren’t you listening to this podcast? Go!

Quirky Nomads (6/9): 8 Words a Month.

Remember Sally Struthers? For just 25 cents a day…
This is the “help the podcasters by leaving them comments” pitch, asking for just eight words a month.
Pretty funny, but I don’t know that I needed the full 19 minutes of it…