Rave's Raves Blog

Rave’s Top Five Current Airplay Faves

Dandy Warhols, Shivaree, U2, BT, No Doubt (“Bathwater”), SR-71, Caviar, and Wheatus.

The U2 song is their freshest in a decade. The Caviar song, “Tangerine Speedo,” will probably turn out to be quite big. It’s a fun, Latin-influenced song already being played in alternative and pop formats. You probably hate the Wheatus song (“Teenage Dirtbag”), if you’ve heard it, but it’s a cute tune about a couple of kids and their love of Iron Maiden, so it MUST be listed here 🙂

Honorable mention songs include David Gray, Incubus and new songs by Marilyn Manson, Blink 182, and the Wallflowers.

Good CD’s are by David Gray, Dandy Warhols, Moby, and Fastball (9/19).

Disappointments include Brian Setzer and Duran Duran (aptly named “Pop Trash”). As I feared, my Supergrass pick from Raves #8 never caught on with radio. They’re strong live; they’ll continue to tour this Fall and will open for Pearl Jam. I sure question that pairing, but I hope the exposure helps them. I hear Garbage are back in Madison, working on their new album. It will be interesting to see if they harden their sound to match the current radio situation.

L.A. Radio

To my ear, it continues to deteriorate with (AAA) 103.1’s move to internet-only status. We love a city with diversity, but it’s tough to have more good, current rock stations when so many frequencies are Spanish, R&B, etc. I should mention KCRW, which is a cutting edge public station when they play music. You can catch them at www.kcrw.org if you’re not in LA.

Internet

Lots has been said about Napster, MP3, etc. Let me add that I’m hopeful settlements will occur. As a matter of fact, I predict it. Although I want artists and labels to be paid for what they do, the labels have generally become boring bastions of the old economy–they need to be shaken up. Meanwhile, Chris Carter is now doing an AAA version of his new music show at www.worldclassrock.com (the old 103.1, KACD), Sunday nights from 6-10 Pacific Time. This is in addition to his new music show Saturdays 2-5 pm at www.spikeradio.com. I’m not sure whether Chris is still doing his Tuesday import show at www.woxy.com, but that station is very cool, no matter who is on the air. This week, their most played artists are Travis, U2, Dandy Warhols, and Superdrag.

Seattle

I enjoyed the Experience Music Project (the new museum), which is very high tech. It’s worth seeing, but I wouldn’t recommend that you go far out of your way to do it. Along with the anticipated Hendrix and Northwest Music exhibits and others, there is an interesting area featuring the LA punk scene from the late 70’s and early 80’s (X, Black Flag, etc). As for Seattle radio, they have twice the rock options of LA, and the stations themselves seem fresher.

80’s Colleagues

Iron Maiden just had a successful show here in LA. Their new CD is approaching 2 mil worldwide. They sold out Madison Square Garden in two hours, and the entire worldwide tour is doing well. In a few days, The Knack play in LA. So what year is this? Both bands continue to be very hot in concert. The Tina Turner show was also wonderful, as expected.

Okay folks, that does it for now. Since we all get buried with too much email, I’ve avoided details but please feel free to further discuss any of these subjects when we speak. As always, I look forward to your feedback on these or other issues. Have a good rest of 2000!

RAVE ON!!!