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I’m sorry FM… but I don’t want to get back together!!

I gave up on us a long ago after a lifetime of unannounced program changes and undelivered phone-in requests. You need to stop hounding me with your incessant repeating whiny musical cycles and inane banter, not to mention following me around the city in my car. The worst was when you changed personalities and played commercial dance music for a year straight. I’ve now filed a restraining order to keep you and your antiquated medium away for good.

Where did all it go wrong FM? Will you ever had anything intelligible to say, and will I always have to wait until odd hours for anything good to come out of my speakers? I often felt you only were relegating key content to those random hours just to string me along and make you look better. I loved your occasional community spirit and NPR ways, but it became next to impossible to wade through the morass of advertisements, and corall your goddamn morning zoo. I don’t know about you, but for me this is the clearest channel for making my voice heard.

I now have multiple partners who are always there when I need them, and I can pick and choose where they are from regionally at will. I’m no longer confined to one stale market. Not all are professionals, but they have loads of independent friends that they bring along for sessions as well.

Just look at all these damn fine local specimens below that I brought this time FM. Hell yeah, hot:

FEATURED TRACKS
1) The Black Watch - Steve Albini (clip)
2) Esquimaux - Dosvidanya
3) The Black Watch - Icing the Snow Queen
4) The Weepies - Hideaway
5) pic vicious - L.A. Dreamer
6) Chase Frank - Some Friend You Are
7) The Ruse - Beautiful is Gone
8 ) Fuji Minx - But No No No
9) Matt Ellis - Hey Mr.
10) The Muslims - Bright Side
11) Kaitlyn Anderson - So Much Better
12) Faded Paper Figures - I Fell Off My Name
13) The Orphan Factory - A Liar and a Thief
14) Mighty Six Ninety - Mistakes Like These

Today we focus our show spotlight on a well deserving independent band from the Little Armenia area of Los Angeles, Moss Bluff!

Bandmembers Travis Knight and Hugh Price came together in 2004 in Florida, then eventually teamed up with Grammy winning producer/mixer Paul McKenna to create their first LP entitled Sharpes Ferry Road. This LP had guest appearances from LA based Oliver Future and Rose’s Pawn Shop members, whom you may have heard on Insomnia Radio in the past. Jonah David (Matisyahu) also rounds out their new bill!

We are proud to bring you a new demo track that the band recently put the final touches on, and which they passed onto us recently out in Texas. The track is called ‘Elegant’ and is apparently planned for release on their next album.

The other two tracks, ‘Sidewalk Diving’, and ‘Agent Orange’ are available on their MySpace site through SnoCap.

SESSION TRACKS
1) Sidewalk Diving
2) Elegant (demo)
3) You’ve Been Had By Agent Orange

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Todays new session is on the heels of a lot of changes across the network. What are they, you ask? Well, I’ve provided a link below if interested, but it boils down to being involved with adding a bit of extra music programming across the network, which you will find on the Daily Dose and Main Feed. You can subscribe to the extra content at those links if interested in hearing what we are up to.

This musical offering is a long time in coming, and is saturated with some incredible tracks, definitely one of my favorite lineups to date from the Southern California region. The name given to the episode comes from a line in Cerulean’s track and is a just a play on drinking coffee right up to the evening, working hard to get this session out… nothing too deep.



I hope you enjoy our selection of fourteen tracks today. We’ve got some excellent local features from Ill Lillies and The Audiants, as well as our friends Sunday Drivers, Lost in Los Angeles, Joshua Lanes and much more!


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FEATURED TRACKS
1) Mark Silverman - Insomnia Song (clip)
2) Goldenboy - Summer of the Evening
3) Cerulean - Far Beneath & Below
4) How To Win At Life - Peak of My Physical Beauty
5) The Audiants - The Rest of the Day
6) Lost in Los Angeles - Pierce the Cold
7) Manhattan Murder Mystery - I Am Tired of Being a Man
8) The Secret 6 - Familiar
9) Sunday Drivers - The Sweetest Disguise
10) Mezzanine Owls - Snowglobe
11) Joshua Lanes - Pink Gloves
12) Great Northern - Home
13) Ill Lillies - Baby Diego
14) Austin James Band - Time


Check out our main website @ http://www.insomniaradio.net

(Cue best Casey Kasem voice)
The local punk-rock continues streaming in this week, raising in intensity to some degree, with some audio flashbacks to the 80s placed primarily so you’ll remember the featured band name long after listening.

In the vein of LA’s Wasted Youth and Bad Religion comes a group originally formed in Shreveport in 2000 and whom relocated to the Los Angeles area several years ago. After releasing a few CD’s and freshly remastering them recently, they’re working on a new EP set for release this month, called ‘Until the Plantation Burns”, whose first song is being featured this week over on Garageband.

Behold, in all of their glory, LA’s “Raised Under Reagan” and check out the psychedelic message from Nanc I hid in the first song. Make sure to visit their website after the face melting has ended. Until then:

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1) Raised Under Reagan - Note in a Bottle
2) Raised Under Reagan - End of the Rope
3) Raised Under Reagan - Igor’s Dilemma

TOURDATES
5/1/08 - DiPiazza’s in Long Beach (8pm)
5/3/08 - Surf City Saloon in Huntington Beach (8pm)

Clearing the palette after a complex musical odyssey in Texas, I figured what would be better than heading to a punk show down on the edge of Newport Beach in order to cleanse some of the cloying pretentious hipster residue out of the system, and make my ears finally ring.



Just past midnight on Sunday morning, a friend and I had the pleasure of watching the Huntington Beach/LA based group, “Cry Havoc” assault a local crowd with their fiery punk rock ‘Easter hymns’ in the early morning hours. Can I get a witness?

I had seen this group a few times before, as they were in a battle of the bands I had assisted in judging previously, although every single band from our market lost in the end (pending one last round of wildcard results). Um, not my fault man.

I managed to snap several pictures of the night’s events which you can view over on Flickr. Most are hastily taken during the last two songs, which generally sent the assembled crowd and opening groups up onto the stage, culminating in a ripping cover of Face to Face’s “Disconnected”.

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Check these guys out on their way up:

1) Cry Havoc - Ghost Town
2) Cry Havoc - From the Stars

I WISH TO ANNOUNCE THAT…

Apple Valley based progressive rock band Aulta will be performing at two upcoming shows here in the Southland over the next few weeks, specifically in Fullerton at The Alley and then a week or so later in Universal City at BB Kings!

I WISH TO ANNOUNCE THAT…

Aulta has just released two completely NEW tracks over at their website (found below), which are called "Come On" and "Earth Glow". These are both going to be released on independent label, Math Records!

I WISH TO ANNOUNCE THAT…

A is for Aulta!

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TRACKS FEATURED
1) Aulta - High on Life
2) Aulta - Lose Your Breath

February 25, 2008 (Taken from http://socal.insomniaradio.net]



Opening up our newest mixed shot comes LA’s Horrorpops, whom are Denmark reared and currently gearing up to blaze a trail across the United States with their third release, “Kiss Kiss Kill Kill”. There’s no doubt they’ll be packing a pistol-full of psychobilly hellfire that will be unleashed sixfold at their upcoming showdate in Austin, Texas for SXSW.

Following the Horrorpops comes two mixed tracks from Cleveland bred, Colleen Duffy, whom CD Baby describes as a sultry mix of Jessica Rabbit and Joan Jett; sexy torch jazz fused with punk rock. Her newest release “The Return of Eve” came out last year, and she will unfurl the rockabilly banner across the nation over the next few months.

If you can handle it, Horrorpops fires off a final multi-colored strobe, in their 80’s tale of spandex, fluffed hair, and Brett Michaels of Poison.

FEATURED TRACKS
1) HorrorPops - Thelma & Louise
2) Devil Doll - Doreen
3) Devil Doll - The One Who Got Away
4) HorrorPops - Heading for the Disco

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

TOURDATES
03/07/08 - Devil Doll @ Downtown Brewing Co. in San Luis Obispo
03/08/08 - Devil Doll @ Club Fred in Fresno
03/14/08 - Devil Doll @ ROX Club in Las Vegas, Nevada
03/15/08 - Devil Doll @ The Key Club in West Hollywood
03/15/08 - Horrorpops @ Red Seven in Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/16/08 - Horrorpops @ Canyon Club in Agoura Hills
03/22/08 - Horrorpops @ The House of Blues in Los Angeles

Video: Horropops - Heading for the Disco

As a precursor to the South by SouthWest Music Festival in Austin, I thought it would be nice to highlight sixteen Southern California artists out of the few hundred that will likely be in the area at the time performing inside and outside of the official showcases.

The South Austin Jug Band kick things off on a welcoming note, following from which we find ourselves at 6th St. in Austin, where a wandering mic picks up the ambient sounds spilling into the street. The SoCal regional tracks follow suit in an hour-long 'mixtape' format.



Special thanks go out to IODA Promonet, Podsafe Music Network, as well as to Bedroom Walls and San Diego's TruckeeBros, not to mention the rest of the artists assembled within:


FEATURED TRACKS
1) Low Vs Diamond - Life After Love
2) Wisely - Parador
3) Luckyiam - The Best I Can
4) The Deadly Syndrome - Eucalyptus
5) Truckee Brothers - Formula 0
6) The Willowz - Evil Son
7) Limbeck - Big Drag
8) Ari Shine - Age/Occupation
9) Bedroom Walls - Somewhere in Newhall
10) Division Day - Tigers
11) Bitter:Sweet - The Mating Game
12) Mark Rae - Skio
13) The Playing Favorites - Indigineous
14) Film School - p.s.
15) Foreign Born - In the Shape
16) Tom Brosseau - The Young and the Free (live)



Files Available For Download With This Article:

SXSW Preview Mixtape: The SoCal Sessions