Music

Acts of Volition Radio: Session Six

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radio: Session SixSession six of Acts of Volition Radio done. This session doesn’t have a theme as some previous sessions have had. Rather, it’s just ten great songs.

Ten songs you’ll like. Recorded Sunday, February 8, 2004 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 52min.

Session Six Playlist:

  1. Metric – Combat Baby
  2. Garrison Starr – Superhero
  3. Ground – All the Most
  4. Dennison Witmer – The 80s
  5. Clem Snide – Accident
  6. Sixpence None the Richer – Tension is a Passing Note
  7. Counting Crows – Angels of the Silences
  8. Matthew Sweet – Smog Moon
  9. Daniel Lanois – Falling at Your Feet
  10. Dar Williams – Highway Patrolman

If this is your first time hearing Acts of Volition Radio, you may enjoy previous five Acts of Volition Radio sessions as well.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Six
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Acts of Volition Radio: Session Five

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radio: Session FiveSession five of Acts of Volition Radio is all about great guitar rock songs. This is a good one to burn to a CD and play in your car.

A collection of great guitar rocks songs. Recorded Sunday, February 2, 2004 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 45min.

Session Five Playlist:

  1. Aunt Bettys – Rock and Roll
  2. Catherine Wheel – Way Down
  3. Foo Fighters – Hey, Johnny Park!
  4. Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself
  5. Pearl Jam – Given To Fly
  6. Poor Old Lu – For the Love of My Country
  7. Smashing Pumpkins – Here Is No Why
  8. The Age of Electric – Ugly
  9. Weezer – Say It Ain’t So

If this is your first time hearing Acts of Volition Radio, you may enjoy previous four Acts of Volition Radio sessions as well.

The process of recording and assembling the radio sessions is getting easier each time (and hopefully better).

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Five
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Acts of Volition Radio: Session Four

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radion: Session FourThe fourth session of Acts of Volition Radio is here. This session is based on songs and albums that are particularly well recorded, produced, or engineered.

A collection of particularly well recorded, produced, or engineered tracks. Recorded Wednesday, January 21, 2003 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 49min.

Session Four Playlist:

  1. Sandbox – The Garden Song
  2. The Watchmen – Brighter Hell
  3. David Usher – F-Train
  4. Age of Electric – Enya
  5. Poor Old Lu – Ring True
  6. Hole – Awful
  7. Cush – Heaven Sent

Also, a reminder that Acts of Volition Radio has an RSS feed of it’s own. The next session is going to be all about great guitar songs — I’m looking forward to it.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Four
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Acts of Volition Radio: Session Three

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radion: Session ThreeA little overdue (if that’s possible when you have no deadlines or schedule), here is the third session of Acts of Volition Radio. This session is based around artists that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at some point.

An hour of name dropping – music by people I’ve actually met. Recorded Sunday, December 21, 2003 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 40min.

Session Three Playlist:

  1. Strawberry – I Miss My Mom
  2. Eyes for Telescopes – My Boy
  3. The Rude Mechanicals – Needles in the Hay
  4. Sloan – Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore
  5. Mike Knott – Rocket and a Bomb
  6. Adam Again – Worldwide

I hope I have the voice at a better volume this time (let me know). Also, I got some great tips on how to avoid peaking the recording levels by not punching my Ps and Ts from the lady of radio, Ann Thurlow. However, the advice came after I recorded this session, so my new expertise has not yet been applied.

Thanks to Stephen MacLeod and Dennis Arsenault for helping me track down a few of the rare tracks.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Three
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Christmas music that doesn’t suck

by Steven Garrity

I hate Christmas (music). I had intented to put together an Acts of Volition Radio session of Christmas music that doesn’t suck, but I could only turn up a few songs and didn’t quite have time.

So, for those with the means to find the music on their own, here is a quick list of Christmas music that doesn’t suck:

  • The First Noel by The Crash Test Dummies
    This comes from an entire disc of Christmas songs. Though I have only heard this one track, there is a possiblity that the other tracks also do not suck.

  • Christmastime by the Smashing Pumkins
    This song, from the A Very Special Christmas compilation from 1997, is one of the only modern Christmas songs I’ve heard that captures that elusive “Christmas carol” sound, yet manages to not suck.

I’m told there is also a good Barenaked Ladies / Sarah McLachlan Christmas single from a year or two ago – but I am unable to confirm it’s suck/doesn’t-suck status. Also, Jon Hicks points to The Darkest Night of the Year by Over the Rhine. It too doesn’t suck.

Hope your Christmas doesn’t suck. Look for a new session of Acts of Volition Radio in the days after Christmas.

 

Calling all Hipsters: Help me find a Strawberry song

by Steven Garrity

I’m looking for a copy of the song I Miss My Mom from the album Brokenheart Audio by the band Strawberry.

Update: I’ve got it.

The local record stores don’t have any copies. I can order it from No Records – but I’d like to get a copy of that song right away so I can release the next session of Acts of Volition radio.

If anyone has a copy (I know it must be all over the basements of Charlottetown), please contact me. If someone can get me a rip of that song, I promise I will buy order the disc (to preserve my indie karma).

 

Acts of Volition Radio: Session Two

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radion: Session TwoThe reaction to the first session of Acts of Volition Radio was generally positive. Here, then, is Session Two:

Nine great live recordings. Recorded during a snow storm on Sunday, December 7, 2003 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 1hour.

Session One Playlist:

  1. Jellyfish – Ghost at (live)
  2. Ben Folds & John McRae – Fred Jones (Part 2) (live)
  3. Ben Folds – Brick (live)
  4. Sloan – Deeper Than Beauty (live)
  5. Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter (live)
  6. Tragically Hip – Nautical Disaster (live)
  7. Radiohead – True Love Waits (live)
  8. U2 – The Fly (live)
  9. MxPx – KKK Took My Baby Away (live)

Some technical notes: I will try to get one of those foam microphone covers before the next recording to try and cut down those annoying punchy ‘p’ and ‘t’ letters. Does anyone with any recording/engineering experience having any advice? Should I be compressing or normalizing the voice tracks?

Also, there is an RSS feed for the Acts of Volition Radio posts.

Next week: an hour of name-dropping – songs by people I’ve actually met – and maybe an interview with the president of the internet.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Two
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Acts of Volition Radio: Session One

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radio: Session OneI’ve had the idea of doing a weekly radio show on the web floating around in my head since the Acts of Volition website started over three years ago. I like the idea of assembling a bit of music, talking about who it is and why I like it, and making it available for download. An hour show could be posted for download and those interested could listen at their convenience (much like we enjoy the Strong Bad emails at HomeStarRunner.com or a new edition of The Onion each week).

I finally got around to trying it out tonight. I’m unclear on the licensing issues, but if I have to, I will pay the appropriate licensing fees if and when I can figure out what they are.

So, here you have the first ever edition of Acts of Volition Radio:

Six fine songs and me talking about them. Recorded Friday, November 28, 2003 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 34min 30sec.

Session One Playlist:

  1. The Postal Service – Nothing Better
  2. The Weakerthans – (manifest)
  3. Brad Sucks – Making Me Nervous
  4. Pedro the Lion – Magazine
  5. Apollo Sunshine – I Was On The Moon
  6. The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio: Session One
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Sloan, Geeks, and Rock and Roll

by Steven Garrity

Sloan PhotosIn 1996, I went to see Sloan and Thrush Hermit play on their One Chord to Another tour at “The Barn” at UPEI. It was one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever seen. When Sloan’s last album came out, I wrote about it here on Acts of Volition.

Now, seven years later, their new album, Action Pact has been released (today, August 19), I’ve had the honour of working on the redesign and redevelopment of the official Sloan website. Along with the rest of the team at silverorange, we’ve developed the new site with the fans in mind. Fans can post show reviews in the Tour History and post photos of the shows they’ve seen. The response has been great.

On the geeklier side, the site is valid XHTML strict with a completely table-free CSS-based layout (big ups to Daniel B. who did most of the design and CSS work). The site makes use of The silverorange Weblog Platform and the silverorange Photo Gallery System. As a result, it was easy for us to generate RSS feeds for the regularly updated content on the site, including the news (RSS) and recent photos (RSS).

Check out the new site at SloanMusic.com.

And so the line between work and life fades even more.

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