Right, then. Let’s cut to the chase.

This week you shall pierce your music taste on the following spikes of interest:

• The Unisex - Ambitious Baggy Indie Rock
• The HotRats - Leather Jacket Garage
• Citay - Melodic 70s’ Prog-Folk
• Cuthbert & The Night Walkers - The Muppets On Broadway
• Stornoway - Multi-Harmony Melody Folk
• Milkymee - Minor Key Acoustic Indie
• Like A Stuntman - Queer Electronic Indie Rock
• JonPaul Palombo - Infectious Indie Ringtone Pop
• Violetness - Subterranean Indie Soul
• Darwin Deez - DIY Indie Funk Pop
• Luther Dickinson & The Sons Of Mudboy - Sparsely Lit Delta Blues
• Balmorhea - Instrumental Alt.Folk Orchestra
• Hands - Classical Acoustic Swing
• UTE - Skitter-Drum Prog Folk
• Joe Firstman - Hammond Country Alt.Rock
• Smile Smile - Wonky 2-Part Folktronica
• Megafaun - Appalachian Chain Gang Blues
• Cars & Trains - Asthmatic Glitch-Folk
• Alec Ounsworth - Claustrophobic Dancehall Pop
• Akai - Inebriated Torch Song
• Lars & The Hands Of Light - Psychedramatic Indie Pop
• Gigi - Authentic Retro Bubblegum
• Cosmobile - Muscular Avant Fuzz Pop
• John Mouse - Elastic Hoedown Anti-Folk
• Laura Marling - Coffee Coated Angst Folk
• Puerto Muerto - Melodramatic Ballad Folk

& all this wonderment shall be broadcast unsual time, usual place:

Saturday 30th January 2010 8am ET (USA) / 1pm GMT (UK)

Sunday 31st January 2010 4pm ET (USA) / 9pm GMT (UK)

via www.WOXY.com

The actual playlist, through the power of cut&paste/hit enter technology, will magically appear, track by track, just as each begins to play, here.

Like, WOAH!, yeh?

Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

½DC + TWoTH

Right, then.

End of January already. Christ. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are already on the shelves right next to the cashiers. It’s not so much a case of “How do you eat yours?” moreso “WHEN did you eat yours?”

Still, this first 12th has ushered in some remarkable new music already — absolutely tons of the bloody stuff. We’re still trawling through last year’s releases, ferchrisakes.

Anyway, my time running around a rather depressed & storm lashed Las Vegas last week was well spent (aside, that is, from picking up this monster throat infection & man cold) listening to hundreds of new releases & thousands of new songs.

Out of which, my gorgeous companions, I culled musical stunningness from the very likes of:

• John Mouse – mosaic freak-rock
• The Treats – indie leaning genre-pop
• Puerto Muerto – melodramatic tribal prog
• Danny & The Champions Of The World – giddy indie gospel folk
• Rachael Dadd – plinky plonky happy sad
• Pony The Pirate – shouty epic indie pop
• The Idaho Falls – elastic ’70s country bop
• Analog Rebellion – The Decemberists with testicles
• Basia Bulat – wobble-throated cardigan folk
• The Tallest Man On Earth – melody sharp fast finger Dylan botherer
• UTE – skitter-drum prog-folk
• These New Puritans – drum & double bass
• Fragments Of Winter – quick-step nu-rave
• Comaneci – nocturnal cello folk
• Jose Vanders – DIY broadway piano pop
• The Bears Of Blue River – twee indie swing
• Galapaghost – appalachian yodel pop
• Woozy Viper – garage valve amp blues
• The Penny Black Remedy – punk country
• The Sleepy Trees – sloppy indie college rock
• The Sandwitches – wonky rock n soul
• Fredrik – creaky floorboard digital orchestra
• The Secret Love Parade – folktronic ballad pop
• Erland & The Carnival – Arctic Monkeys w/Tunes
• The Magic Theatre – swinging ’60s angular sugarpop
• Francis – alt.blues gospel clatter

& all this delightfulness shall be broadcast usual time, usual place:

Saturday 30th January 2010 8am ET (USA) / 1pm GMT (UK)

Sunday 31st January 2010 4pm ET (USA) / 9pm GMT (UK)

via the good ship WOXY.

For the uninitiated look up to your right on the screen, towards the top of the page, & you will see some handy orange buttons that, once you have chosen your preferred listening media & the relevant button has been clicked, will stream the WOXY station right from your desktop media player.

White man’s magic, I believe, is what the college geeks who invented the code, or whatever makes it all happen, refers to it as.

But we know the only magic that powers this audio miracle is sourced direct from your collective, curious heart.  It is, especially now I am publicly acknowledging this fusion of spirit, of no detriment to the circumstance or grandeur of this singular generous act; your overwhelming thirst for the new & the unknown powers this little engine we call WOXY.  Not some fanciful nanotechnology & invisible ‘hot spots’ in airports or selected branches of Starbucks.

Hell no.

You deserve this. You’ve had a tough week.

Tuck the fuck in.

½DC + TWoTH

This week we have a bit of a treat for you.  Not only do we have a superb line up of new music from the best bands & artistes what we done found around the world, but we also have an amazing acoustic session from the brilliant Kill It Kid.

Oh, & they took time out to chat with us, also, just after they’d jumped off stage leaving an unsuspecting audience somewhat bemused & impressed by their sheer energy & talent.  Not to mention Chris’ gut deep caramelized vocals.  Quite a laugh we had, too.

There’s also a rather lovely competition too:

Q: Kill It Kid are on One Little Indian.  Name the Icelandic band, co-fronted by Björk, that were also on the label.

Send your answers (minus the paretheses) to: competition (@) twrhq.com & we’ll draw a wiiner frmo the hat in a future TWR.

Aside from this treat, you can expect musical excellence from the likes of

• Nic Dawson Kelly
• Owen Pallett
• The Android Angel
• Puerto Rico Flowers
• The High Wire
• PJ Bond
• Larkin Grimm
• Anna Ash & The Family Tree
• A Singer Of Songs
• Aleks & The Ramps
• The Berndt
• Wartime Blues
• Dick Diver
• History Books
• Brothers Of End
• Passenger
• Nana Grizol
• Adam Green
• Twin Berlin
• The Miserable Rich

Oh, & there are some mind blowing covers in that lot too.

Tissues, then, at the ready.

½DC + TWoTH

Hi Ho Silver!

Apologies for the delay in posting this notice, but traveling commitments have seen to it I have been away from the world wide web for the past 72hrs.  The playlist is now online, too. Anyways…

This week we are doing something a little more than a little different from the norm. As ½DC is traveling the USof again &, therefore, had to pre-record a brace of shows in advance of the usual weekly deadline, we decided, in an effort to allow him to get some sleep before he flies 11hrs in economy class with a bad back, now might be a good time to present one of our favourite shows what we done did way before we were on WOXY when we were on the slightly free-for-all ErrorFM.

We have, therefore, plucked/polished/swear-word-edited one of our favourites from these extensive archives. Originally broadcast on 17/09/2008 — it was one of the first ever shows we played Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band w/Tim & Sam, there’s First Aid Kit, a duo we started playing in demo stage back in 2007, with a vintage track what is is sheer gorgeousness itself, as well as the playlist, as a whole, which is a bloody peach.

It’s the combination of this consistency of good, unheard (of) new music, that has trickled through our filter into your digi-ears, along with the sometimes telepathically insane interaction between one half of + the other half of Drunk Country (despite the sometimes dodgy audio capture) that crowns this outing an absolute classic show.

Musically, expect a bleeding stonker from the likes of:

• The Kabeedies
• Devil In A Woodpile
• Malcolm Middleton
• James Jackson Toth
• Absentee
• Backyard Tire Fire
• Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir
• Billie The Vision & The Dancers
• In Cadeo
• The Gorgeous Colours
• salut!machaut
• Judson Claiborne
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• The Features
• {{{sunset}}}
• Tim & Sam’s Tim & Sam Band with Tim & Sam
• Silver Jews
• First Aid Kit
• Horse Feathers
• Fredrik
• Glasvegas

Oh, & Mr. Mouse knocks out a session song as well.

If you so wish to hear the original show (minus the 2010 editing + ½DC & TWoTH top & tailing, then you can do so by visiting here.

Enjoy.

:o)

½DC + TWoTH

Hello You.

Sorry we’re late with the notification. I’ve had a particularly wretched monkey on my back this past week & have barely been able to muster the strength to find porn let alone market a show that took 3 days to compile & record because of the bursts of pain eminating from below my right hand shoulder blade. No, mum, I’m not whining.

Anyways.

Happy New Year (again) to one & all. Commiserations to anyone who may have begun divorce proceedings as a result of any emotional misdemeaner perpetrated over the holiday season. It clearly wasn’t meant to be. But, I digress.

Last year was a cracking year for new music. Lots of it slipped through the cracks in regular blogger/print media/punter’s listening habits/taste/focus. But, as my resolution this year is to be a little less judgemental, I simply say that can only really be a good for music.

Those bands & artists who might not have been stumbled upon, blog-jockeyed & presented with the glare of a Pitchfork or a Drowned In Sound clarion call airbrushing their every hair growth, those bands & artists now have the opportunity to regroup & blow us away with their next efforts.

Because even though some of their first efforts were quite astounding, they clearly weren’t astounding enough to register even the smallest of ripples along the far hemisphere of the zeitblog radar. But, what am I saying? That’s not the point at all, really, is it?

Out of all the bands we met, interviewed, recorded sessions with, got pissed with down the pub, took to breakfast & shared hangovers with in 2009, none of them felt any desire to play the “impress the blogger win an audience” game. Every one & each of them were in it solely for the ability & space to perform the stuff they’d sweating grits grafting to an audience that one day totally got it & somehow knew all the words, even to the unreleased songs.

Sure, to a wo/man, they greatly appreciated everything blogs did to spread the word, the ratified & illegal downloads, as well as the awarded kudos for certain appearances in certain podcasts or sessions or social network phenomenon.

They understood the journalistic/aural barometer power of the music blogger these days & understood implicitly the fine line between marketing & prostitution. It’s just more than a handful of these bright & wonderful bands & artists expressed a concern that some blogs/e-zines didn’t.

Which, frankly, is the edited/censored version of the lecture I WANTED to give but, because of the New Year resoltion thing, I allowed the inner Uncut sub-editor to shine instead.

Why? What the hell’s going on? You might well ask.

The flurry of ‘Best Of’ lists at the turn of the decade (a phrase I will only ever use once, which is now, because it reeks of smugness I can’t afford) confirmed for me how uniform the herd can get if you know which bits of pink to tickle & for how long.

Tragedies like the Rage Against The Machine sheperding & the transparent quirky indie synth-pop Diva Olympics (Ladies & Gentlemen, may we present this year’s contender for “Most Pointless Waste of Money Spent On A Marketing Campaign Once The Public Realise The Album Doesn’t Live Up To The Excitement Of The Names Attached To The Production/Re-Imagining Position” Award: Ellie Goulding) made me realise that I’m somewhat glad a lot of the bands/artists we playlisted aren’t caught up in that casting couch 5 star review game. It means they have room to do what they love doing without any false/forced expectations raining down on them from paragraph typists* who care more about a scoop than they do the actual artefact of what it is they’re supposedly trumpeting.

That, people, is exactly what The Waiting Room is for. A platform for those bands who are creating some of the most exciting music to be found across the world that most of you will never have heard of before. We have one rule — if I like it, it’s on the playlist.

Well, I say one. There are a few unspoken conditions, like glossiness of production or chewiness of vocal, that may jetison an otherwise top notch tune. But that’s by the by.

This year we plan to continue down the same path we set off on at the beginning of our WOXY tenure in February last year & will endeavour to bring you the very, very best new music from new & established turns from all over the world. Some of which, we hope, you will never have ever heard of & you’ll have your mind blown into millions of tiny microscopic joy bursts upon the hearing thereof.

Saturday 27th February 2010 marks our one year anniversary broadcasting on WOXY (give or take a day). It just so happens to be our 50th WOXY show.

To celebrate, if such a desire to do so exists within your ranks, we’d like to open the playlist to you, The Listening Few, to decide what it is we play on that show. Sound good? Good. Send your suggestions to dc (@) twrhq.com (minus the parentheses) & we’ll compile a playlist from those we feel slot together the best.

If you fancy recording a brief shout out for any specific track or band/artist, then by all means do. We’d need them as wav files or 320kbps MP3s. Nothing filthy. Because you know we’ll play it.

Meanwhile, on planet This Week, we shall be stuffing your musi-sponge head into the aural rain barrel that is TWR in order to bob for such juicy apples as

• Codeine Velvet Club
• MeatDraw
• Down Harvest
• Peter Adams
• Basia Bulat
• First Aid Kit
• The Sun
• Annie Bethancourt
• Eliza Doolittle
• McKisko
• The Irrepressibles
• Thus:Owls
• The Dry Spells
• The Penny Black Remedy
• Megafaun
• Frown Pow’r
• Girls In Trouble
• Northern Portrait
• Hellogoodbye
• Leddra Chapman
• The Flying Eyes
• Balance Problems
• Tinpan Orange
• Jackie Oates

That’s quite alright. Tuning in is thanks enough.

Anyway, at ease.

x DC + TWoTH

ps. Don’t forget the competition…

* this is by no means directed at the genuine article blogs out there who, by dint of their own understanding of the “game”, know exactly who we mean when we say “paragraph typists” — typically, & inevitably, the description ‘blog’ now seems to sully the very point of the genuine obsessives & musiphiles who push & plug new music with far more determination, passion & time consuming social detriment than us, here, on TWR.  In a way, the aforementioned whole rant is a celebration of the REAL musi-bloggers who remove ego & simply do what it is they can to brnig brilliant music to your attention.  They’re the ones who employ a radar worth monitoring, uncluttered as they are by palm greasing & comp kudos & label politiking & ego masturbation, unlike the unfortunate majority of the traffic chasing attention monkeys out there.

Happy New Year You!

As the hangover begins to lift we’re here to let you know our Pick Of The Year part 2 show airs as follows:

Saturday 2nd January 2010

8am ET / 1pm GMT

Sunday 3rd January 2010

4pm ET / 9pm GMT

Once again we will not be stating during the show who or what we are playing; If you want to know who we’ve culled from our previous WOXY broadcasts to represent our PoTY then go here where you’ll find all the information you need.

We will also be continuing our PoTY competition with a massive giveaway for the one lucky winner.

The question, as before, is:

During the 2 Pick Of The Year Shows we will play 2 songs by 1 artiste/band. Name that artiste/band.

Send your answers to competition (@) twrhq.com — minus the parentheses — by 23rd January 2010. We shall pull a winner out of the hat on the following week’s show. Good luck!

Many thanks once more to everyone who braved a listen to our nonsense over the course of last year.

Here’s to much of the same, then, again, this year.

Welcome, then, you, to 2010.

x DC + TWoTH

What Ho! Ho! Ho!

Well, then, Ladies & Gentlemen of The Listening Few, here we are at the end of the 2009 & WHAT a year it has been for music, eh? We at TWR would go so far as to say this year has been the best in living memory for new music right across the board — it has been our utter pleasure to discover it all & pass it on & into your ears via our ramshackle nonsense vehicle (see Fig.1) otherwise know as The Waiting Room.

So, then, we have bowed to this year’s seemingly compulsory task of ‘listing’ everything & assembled our Pick Of The Year from all of our WOXY playlists broadcast in our first annum’s tenure. & my Christ, WHAT a glut there was too. God in Heaven. You see, it is quite impossible to choose between songs/music you originally chose to air, the very ones whose charms you fell for in the first place, so the thought of an even more contrived Best of The Best of list made us blanch.

Because of the monu-mental Sophie’s Choice-style task our Pick Of The Year shall be broadcast over 2 shows (yes, you heard) & shall be broadcast thus:

Pick Of The Year part 1

Saturday 26th December (Boxing Day)

8am ET / 1pm GMT

Sunday 27th December

4pm ET / 9pm GMT

& then

Pick Of The Year part 2

Saturday 2nd January 2010

8am ET / 1pm GMT

Sunday 3rd January 2010

4pm ET / 9pm GMT

Trust us, if we had our way we would have simply rebroadcast the shows minus our inane chatter. But, of course, we are restricted to 2hrs per show, so we simply reduced the gabble-matter & slipped in more or longer songs. Over 2 shows. 2 joyously music-filled shows.

As a compromise we have plucked, from way over 200 tracks, those songs that, over the course of the year, struck us as particularly TWR fare. They are indeed favourites, but only insofaras we specifically chose them to playlist in the first place. None are better or worse than those we may have left out & we hope no one feels disappointed to not see their song(s) — whether the performers thereof or a listener loyal to — not included in the round up.

Our choices reflect nothing more sinister than excellent (not the best) examples of the bands, songs, EPs, Albums, TWR sessions, + everything related to each, that we discovered & shared with your collective listening habit. This is by by no means a popularity contest &, as such, we’re all the best. (We suggest your bottom, deeper desk drawer, or the nearest recycling bin, as a deposit for any upchuck that may occur as a result of previous mewling).

Now, then, who, presumably you are wondering, will be the Pick Of The Year from those 40 (yup, we is officially middle aged) new music choked TWR shows? Well, if you go here on each of the noted air dates then you shall find out exactly who & what. For those who cant see/link to here simply click the Playlists tab at the top of this here homepage. The clue is in its title, kids.

Finally (Hoo-Ray! is an acceptable excalamation at this point) we must serve notice that throughout these 2 Pick Of The Year shows we shall be holding a competition with a massive giveaway for the one lucky winner.

The prizes include a clutch of band t-shirts, signed vinyl, signed CDs, Albums, EPs + a cassette single from the likes of Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers, Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band w/Tim & Sam, Jesus H. Foxx, Evening Chorus, Broken Records, Cancel The Astronauts, Ida Maria, The Wave Pictures, The Lovely Eggs, Kill It Kid + many more.

We haven’t even decided on the final stash, yet, but by the time we do it will cost us a fortune to post in the UK let alone overseas. Honestly, this is a quality prize & you DO want in.

The question, then:

During the 2 Pick Of The Year Shows we will play 2 songs by 1 artiste/band. Name that artiste/band.

Now, we might play the 2 songs in the same show, or 1 in each. Thing is, because we know you cheeky buggers, we won’t be listing the artiste/band twice in the playlists. It’s not going to be that easy. So, you know, y’gunna havta listen t’both shows all de way tru.

Send your answers to competition (@) twrhq.com (minus the parentheses) by 23rd January 2010. We shall pull a winner out of the hat on the following week’s show. Good luck!

So, then, you. S’about it.

Thank you all for tuning in over the year, tolerating our waffling nonsense, the dodgy emails & the poorly executed grammar (both verbally & written).

It has been a total pleasure being on & plugged into WOXY in the way we have; we hope you’ve enjoyed what we’ve spat out as much as we’ve enjoyed gobbling it up & spitting it out. In a loving way, of course. A love gob, if you will.

A very Merry Christmas & an extraordinaryly giddy New Year to you, The Listening Few, bloggers, pluggers, management, bands, musicians & guests alike, from all of us at TWR. It’s been a pleash. Onwards to 2010! (They made a filum about it, dontchaknow?)

Best of whatever is needed,

x DC + TWoTH

(photo © Dylan Matthews @ Blueback Hotrod)

Look Lively, You!

This week sees our last TWR show before Christmas &, so it follows, our penultimate outing before the New Year is upon us.

Therefore, you lucky pugs, you, for this last show proper of 2009, we have the delightful honour of presenting an interview & 8 track session (recorded back in June this year) from Edinburgh’s superb JESUS H. FOXX. Rather brilliant it is, too, & the interview is (as them youth do say in the old films, like) a blast.

On top of that we have also culled our final playlist of the year from the thousands of brilliant releases that have been filling up our inbox & doormat.

Expect, then, a seriously eclectic musical selection from the likes of:

• Mama Rosin
• The Devil & Abbe May
• The Grass (released in 2008 BUT too good to pass up)
• Said The Whale
• The Dimes
• Eek! Bandits
• Press On Randy
• Allison Weiss
• Pearl & The Beard
• The Novel Ideas
• MeatDraw
• Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains
• Marie-Pierre Arthur
• Angus & Julia Stone
• Language-Arts
• The Slew (Kid Koala & Dynamite D)
• Wild Honey
• Kid British

So, then, you. Tune in this week, usual time, usual place, usual blather.

Saturday 26th

8am ET / 1pm GMT

Sunday 27th 4pm ET / 9pm GMT

www.WOXY.com

Monday 28th Podcast

8am ET / 1pm GMT

Have a fecking Merry Christmas &, if we don’t speak before hand, have a very Happy New Year.

x DC + TWoTH & All @ TWR

p.s. Next week (26th December, Boxing Day) we shall air Part One of our “Pick Of The Year“, based on the TWR playlists broadcast on WOXY over 2009. Part Two shall be broadcast the following week, (2nd January 2010).

There’s a LOT of superb music on offer &, whereas this is NOT a tedious “Best Of” list, we hope these choices from possibly the best year of music for a very long time will tickle your pink

To celebrate this amazing year in music we will, on the 26th, announce our Pick Of The Year Competition — here we’ll offer a HUGE giveaway of CDs, vinyl, T-Shirts (& a tape cassette single!) & various other bits & bobs we’ve been given by bands & artists over 2009. Trust us, this is a BIG prize. You DO want in.

STOP PRESS!

Go here for a fantastic post on Evening Chorus by the ever lovely Tart over @ her wonderful blog Loveshack, Baby.  Cheers, Tart, old trout

Hello You.

We have a rather special treat for you this week, somuchso you might as well cancel Christmas because it surely doesn’t get any better than this.

Back on 27th November, after a couple of weeks attempting to get everyone in the same city at the same time, we sidled up to Offshore Music Recording Studios to record a TWR Session with Cardiff’s best new band: Evening Chorus.

We knew it would be something special, BUT what we didn’t expect was EIGHT absolutely stunning tracks from a band who have only been together for pretty much the same number of weeks.

The following morning we reconvened at a hip Cardiff café & recorded a very charming & lively interview with the band over breakfast.

The results of which can be heard in this week’s adventures in The Waiting Room.

We also cram in some fantastic tunery from, we’re betting, a handful of bands most people will never have heard of.  Your favourite new artists are:

• Big Strides
• Wetdog
• Coming Soon
• Bearstronaut
• DinoSau
• Language Arts
• The Amazing
• Nic Dawson Kelly
• King Automatic
• Golden Bloom
• The Modern Electric
• Total Babe
• Leopold Skin
• The Novel Ideas

‘Course, not forgetting the deliciously good Evening Chorus.

So, ladies & gentlemen of The Listening Few, you know what to do.

x DC + TWoTH

Hey You.

We really, really like the playlist on this one.  O, by Christ, we do.

If you’re wondering what to do with 2 hours of your life why not tune in & listen to music still being released this year, or music/artists that’ve never crossed your radar before?  It’s rather more exciting than fretting over pointless ‘best of’ lists. You know?  ‘Course you do.

Here, then, is who you can expect to be massaging your inner head muscle this week:

(2 points for each band/artist you genuinely know)

• BATS
• Total Babe
• Uninhabitable Mansions
• Men Should Brothers Be
• The Law
• Random Patterns
• StickLips
• Bakers At Dawn
• The Bitter Tears
• Tenfold Loadstar
• The Brute Chorus
• Alec K. Redfearn & The Seizures
• Mountain Man
• MV & EE
• Nic Dawson Kelly
• The Heavy
• Sherlock’s Daughter
• Séverin w/Liza Manili
• Savoir Adore
• The Brunettes
• BOAT
• The Black & White Years
• The Vals
• Middle Distance Runner
• The Micragirls
• The Swimmers

& Enjoy

x DC + TWoTH

Morning All.

Bit late with the old notification but we’ve been in & out of the studio recording a session & interview with a rather remarkable Cardiff band, Evening Chorus. Rather good it was & they are, too. That’ll be on air mid December. Definitely something to listen out for.

Anyways, to this week’s show &, begorrah, it’s the mutt’s.

• Freelance Whale
• Bob Log III
• Dark Meat
• Kill It Kid
• Daniel Johnston
• Karen O & The Kids
• Brown Bird
• Josh Mease
• Firefly Effect
• The Sandwitches
• Dead Man’s Bones
• Bakers At Dawn
• Coo & Howl
• Isbells
• Said The Whale
• This Immortal Coil
• Bruce Peninsula
• Hard Drugs
• Earl Pickens & Family
• Bad Weather California
• Evening Chorus
• Hush Arbors
• Otouto
• Rosa
• Naosol & The Waxx Blend

What else do you need to kick start your weekend?

Enbloodyjoy.

x DC + TWoTH

How do.

This week’s show is something a little more than much different than the norm & will be coming at you from a slightly different angle than you’re perhaps used to from us here on that there The Waiting Room.

Welcome, then, to our No Music Day special.

To that end, we have 4(!) studio guests this week, wibbling & wobbling around the idea of giving an opinion on such things as No Music Day, Musicals, TV Theme Tunes, Cartoon Music, Burlesque Nights, Rhys Ifans, & Live Music.

Them 4 shall be:

BoTWoTH, returning after a rather well received debut a few weeks back; Lou Noble, a well known Cardiff singer/songwriter & jazz guitarist; the legendary Mr. Nick Fisk, an old TWR co-host & 1990’s Baggy era / Stone Roses obsessive; &, Mr. Fisk’s current squeeze, Karen (second name never revealed), otherwise known as the devoted friend of Stephen Jenkins (we have no idea who he is, either) & she is possibly the maddest person we have ever met or had on the show.

Amongst the chatter & blather you shall get

* The Decemberists * Andrew Bird * Clem Snide * Tom Waits * Was Not Was * Jools Holland * The Divine Comedy * Spiritualized * The Smiths * Morrissey * KD Lang * Sting * Prince * Madonna * Radiohead * WASP * Dead Kennedys

& many more…

So, strap in, then, you, & make sure you go pee pee before we set off.

x DC + TWoTH

Right then.

This week is our report(ish) on our recent foray into the wonder that was the Sŵn Festival — held in city-wide venues across Cardiff, Wales, UK between 22nd - 24th October.

Quite smart it were too.

Think of it as a much smaller SXSW, only less organised (yes, less organised than the contolled chaos of SXSW), but with more access to the bands (as a punter, rather than someone in the ‘biz’ - although it is indeed a boon for the likes of I, as I hope to demonstrate at the end of this sentence & beyond the forthcoming parenthesis).

We had the absolute pleasure of being joined in the studio by Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band w/Tim & Sam + Mitchell Museum, who gave us a wonderful session & interview each, as well as Slow Club who popped by & effortlessly knocked out a rugged turn despite the onset of a throat infection.

Throughout the festival, despite West Coast-flavoured jetlag & the slowburn of a viral infection, we managed to see pretty much everyone we’d highlighted in the 3day programme &, even though most were tied up being all bandy & gig-focussed, therefore studio time asides were off the radar, we managed to forward plan a number of genuinely exciting sessions for future dates. Watch this space, innit.

Anyhoo, this week’s running order (culled from bands who played at the festival) looks something a bit like this:

• Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band with Tim & Sam (Interview & Session, featuring exclusive new unreleased album tracks)
• Mitchell Museum (Interview & Session)
• Slow Club (Session)
• The Leisure Society
• Sons Of Noel & Adrian
• Sweet Baboo
• The Young Republic
• Los Campesinos! (exclusive new unreleased 2010 album track)
• Broken Family Band
• Girls
• The Drums
• Goldheart Assembly

Set your alarms to stunned, then, you spoilt little buggers & enjoy.

DC + TWoTH

Hello TLF.

TWoTH here. It’s been quite a slow-paced week here at DCHQ following DC’s return to our version of civilisation after culture-swapping with yours for over 3 weeks. This is chiefly due to some strange, lingering malaise that has befallen him.

It looks & sounds (from his frequent girly grunts & snuffles) like a nightmare case of jetlag — his sleeping patterns are buggered, to be frank. The Doctor, however, seems to think it is a virus he may have picked up while in your care. Yes. YOUR care America. Tsk Tsk.

Of course, it could be he’s just a little run down after all the traveling & running around festivals & gigs & sessions & such. We’ll know more after the test results.

Whatever the cause, this week’s show is a loose affair (albeit high in spirit & jinks) & we are proud to bring you a superb live studio session from the brilliant Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards, recorded at the lovely Offshore Music Recording Studio in Cardiff.

There’s also the small matter of an interview I conducted with the band, but the less we dwell on that the better.

There’s also the addition of an extra studio guest (factored in to make up for DC’s potential lack of pizazz), who happens to be a veteran TV/radio broadcaster, journalist/film critic & stand up comedian. He also just so happens to be my brother. Or, BoTWoTH as we inevitably crowned him.

Finally, we will be introducing a brand new Cardiff 4-piece to the show, WOXY & you. We saw their first ever gig a few weeks back & up until then they had only been together 3 weeks.

During that period they wrote a handful of songs, ambient mic* recorded them in a live room* at the University of Wales in Cardiff (UWIC) Howard Gardens School of Art & Design, then gave them away as a CDr at the end of their (yes) headlining set.

Even though the sound engineer* did an appalling job on the night we (ok, DC) recognised the raw talent up on stage. So impressed was DC that he immediately booked them in for a studio session & interview.

For now, though, we will be playing one of the brilliant tracks off their CDr. Hopefully that will whet your appetite as much as it has ours.

That’s about it I think. I forget how DC signs these things off & I’ve probably written far too much. Oh well nevermind…

Enjoy the show.

TWoTH (+ DC in absentia)

*words & phrases, which mean little to me if I’m honest, dictated by DC from his death chair

Hello You…

Don’t be alarmed.  We have not become a blog.  This is fundamentally a simple way of getting through some hideous jetlag as well as, more importantly, one suspects, a way of letting you know how wonderfully full our schedule is for the next however many weekly broadcasts.

We’ve been as busy as chimpanzees in a shit writing contest, to be frank, & coming up we have

• an interview with Andrew Bird + some exclusive live concert audio
• an interview with Clem Snide + some exclusive & live concert audio
• an interview + session with Celebrity Chimp (R.I.P.)
• an interview + session with Jesus H. Fox

(not necessarily in that order)

but, first up we have

• the 31st of October See-Thru Holiday Special

& then

• the Sŵn Festival* Special — featuring interviews & sessions with Mitchell Museum, Tim & Sam’s Tim & the Sam Band with Tim & Sam, + Slow Club & shedloads of gossip

& finally, before the real deluge, we have

TWoTH’s (first ever) solo interview & deliriously good session with Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards

Ah do believe a *PHEW* is in odour.

Of course, this won’t mean we will be resting on our laurels. Heavens to betsy, no. We have plans taking us right up through the year — we do, afterall, have the Boxing Day** & first weekend of the New Year slots, within which we’ll more than likely be creating a couple of playlists out of the favourite tracks we’ve played, & introduced you to, on WOXY over the year.

Indeed, if you have any TWR playlisted tracks you’ve loved from our playlists & would like to hear in our end of year round up shows, then email us your choices to request@twhrq.com.

That’s about it for now. We’ll be putting the details of our 31st of October See-Thru Holiday Special up on line around Wednesday. So, you know, cross over into the light & be free children. Be free.

This ‘arse is clean.

x DC + TWoTH I knew I’d forget this…

*the now annual music festival & symposium, hosted by a string of city-wide Cardiff venues (some perfect, some inspired, some deluded), & (ahem) “curated by” (in this instance “curated by” is to be taken on the same level as Executive Producer) Huw Stephens off of the BBC Radio One. He’s Welsh, see. Plus, he went to SXSW a few times.

**Boxing Day, or St. Stephen’s Day, is, perhaps, more of a British/Commonwealth thing than an American thing — this day, the day after Christmas Day, derives from the English tradition of giving gifts (a “Christmas box”) to less fortunate members of society, in the days when people worked in rural economies such as estates or hundreds. No, I have no idea what a ‘hundred’ is, either. But, thank you Wikipedia. Your work is done.

Hey Kids.

Well, no rest for the wicked.  ½DC landed in the UK on 23rd October at stupid O’Clock AM &, when he got back to Cardiff, was immediately off to the third annual Sŵn festival.

TWR will be, amongst many other things, interviewing bands & recording sessions over the 2 days we have at our disposal. ½DC, of course, will be battling jetlag after flying over from San Diego the day before.  So, in short, it’s going to be interestink.

This week’s show was actually edited at the WOXY studio in Austin, TX, on the day ½DC crashed 3 shows (Mike’s, Shiv’s & Paige’s) & generally got under people’s feet.  In all, the visit to WOXY was very, very enjoyable - a full run down of this visit + the USof jaunt in totality will feature in the Hallowe’en Special, to be broadcast on (when else?) 31st October (officially No Music Day, but, meh, fuck ‘em).

Musically, this week, you may expect the darling delights of the following wonderments:

• Auletta
• Friskor Viljor
• The Danks
• The Duchess & The Duke
• Phil & The Osophers
• The Gentle Lurch
• SixToes
• The Essex Green
• Emily Jane White
• Niobe
• Magpie Wedding
• The Witch & The Robot
• Zero Degre
• Blue Roses
• Ah Holly Fam’ly
• Turbo Fruits
• Philadelphia Grand Jury
• Wheat
• Tap Tap
• Boy In Static
• Langhorne Slim
• The Hidden Cameras
• Eva & The Heartmaker
• The Middle East

That’s a LOT of talent in one room, people.  Show them some love & tune in, buy/download their wares, & go see their gigs.  You deserve some payback for their loyalty over the years.  You really do.

’till next time…

x ½DC + TWoTH

Hello You.

Well, we certainly have an eclectic selection of music for you this week. Highlights amongst the highlights are the warbling throated richness of Asaf Avidan & The Mojos, the deliciously Gothic folk of SixToes, the incredible vocal juxtaposition of Ah Holly Fam’ly (you heard them here first, kids), the strange but beautiful grand opera folk of The Tiny & the frenetic gypsy circus that is Blackbird Raum.

The complete line up runs a little like this:

• Tea Cozies
• Envelopes
• The Danks
• The Dimes
• Band Of Skulls
• Asaf Avidan & The Mojos
• Clutchy Hopkins Meets Lord Kenjamin
• Califone
• One eskimO
• SixToes
• The Tiny
• Money Can’t Buy You Music
• Golden Bloom
• Alasdair Roberts
• Ah Holly Fam’ly
• Attack In Black
• The Mountains & The Trees
• Dandelion Junk Orchestra
• De Rosa
• Yourself & The Air
• Dame Satan
• Arms
• Blackbird Raum
• Blue Roses

So, put your slippers on, hug your cocoa, & get your ears cleaned out with TWR’s musical Q-Tip.

Enjoy!

DC + TWoTH

How do.

Me?  Very well, ta.  Very well indeed. Still in America.  Currently annoying Texans.  Amazingly have interweb access.  Hence this post.  But, let’s keep it brief in case it all goes breasts skywards.

Here’s what you get this week:

• SixToes – Single Siamese Soul
• Tea Cozies – Like Luca Brasi
• Thee Oh Sees – The Sun Goes All Around
• The Morning After Girls – Alone
• Pinkle – Titanic Death
• Band Of Skulls – Dull Gold Heart / Cold Fame
• The Tiny – Last Weekend
• Navvy – Navvy
• The Chatham Singers – Evil Thing
• The Deep Dark Woods – Ballad Of Frank Dupree
• Autopilot Is For Lovers – The World Is Flat
• The Ladybug Transistor – Meadowport Arch
• Dot Allison ft. Peter Doherty – I Wanna Break Your Heart
• Red Heart The Ticker – Small Sky Country (What I’ve Found Part II)
• One eskimO – Simple Day
• Hair Rocket – Come Here Be Near
• The Danks – No Radio
• The Almighty Defenders – Lay Down & Die
• Spiral Beach – Battery
• Orenda Fink – High Ground
• Oh, Atoms – This Is Not You Song
• Bad Veins - Found
• Mumford & Sons – Winter Winds
• Withered Hand – Hard On (Charles Latham cover)

Go on, then: enjoy why don’t you, eh?

½DC + TWoTH

Morning Kids.

My, what a palaver these past few days have been.  Doesn’t matter where I go in the USof the hotel interweb connectivity strength seems to be set to zilch.  Also, Podbean has been screwing up very badly over the last 2 weeks &, for reasons their non existent customer service team have yet to disclose, simply refuses to allow any files to be uploaded to the archive ready or posting.

Doesn’t matter how politely or angrily you ask them what the fuck is going on you c*nts? you never get an answer that actually resolves the issue.  If anyone can recommend an alternative provider please let us know as we’re now in the postal district of kicking Podbean into touch.

So, immediately, apologies for the delay in posting last week’s show & apologies in advance for any difficulties we have posting this weeks & subsequent shows in the next few days.

This week’s show is, genuinely for once, a little confused.  As we had so many shows to pre-record before ½DC trotted off to the USof we accidentally mixed up where he’d be when.  So, bear with the references to certain cities & events that, at the time of recording, hadn’t happened &, at time of broadcast, hadn’t happened yet either.  See? Confused.

Anyhoo, here’s this week’s clatterathon playlist.  Now sod off & enjoy the show.

½DC + TWoTH

PODCAST NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD.  APOLOGIES FOR THE DELAY.

Morning Kiddie Winks.

Bit late in posting this one as we’ve been right *beep* busy preparing for ½DC disappearing to the *beep* USof for 3 *beep* weeks or so.

But, anyway, suffice to *beep* say, this week’s *beep* show is a bit *beep* madcap — & we don’t *beep* use that *beep* term *beep* lightly. Or, *beep* , ever.

Musically, then, wrap your *beep* skull ports around this *beep* lot:

• Emily Wells
• Phil & The Osophers
• PRE
• Clues
• Bawn In The Mash
• Asaf Avidan & The Mojos
• Fireside Bellows
• Two White Horses
• Jesca Hoop
• Ilya
• Le Loup
• Lady & Bird
• Haruko
• Press On Randy
• Eek! Bandits
• Ambulances
• Micha P. Hinson
• Girls
• Islands
• HoneyHoney
• Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band With Tim & Sam
• Cuff The Duke
• Frank Turner
• Chet

En*beep*joy.

½ *beep* DC + *beep* TWoTH

OK, you.

Week 27.

Remember it.

Because this week’s playlist is quite a ride. We’re very smug about it.

We’re particularly pleased with our discovery of a brand new band from Austin, TX called Eek! Bandits. Don’t let the now expected quirky indie name fool you. There’s some serious talent behind that daft moniker. Hunt them down. Buy their album. Go to their shows. They have the potential to be big.

Here, then, is the rundown for the rest of your Saturday Morning trip:

• Natalia Lafourcade
• 7 Worlds Collide (Ed O’Brien + Neil Finn)
• Fake Problems
• Cohete
• Press On Randy
• A.A. Bondy
• Joshua James
• Strange Boys
• Roses Kings Castles
• A Fine Frenzy
• The Horse’s Ha
• Vic Chesnutt
• Baby Teeth
• I Am Your Autopilot
• Eek! Bandits
• The Wooden Sky
• The Soil & The Sun
• Pocketbooks
• Tim & Sam’s Tim & The Sam Band With Tim & Sam
• Hair Rocket
• Bawn In The Mash
• Lucky Dragons
• Jamie T.
• Grand Hallway

You know what to do.

½DC + TWoTH

Way back on May 12th at Cardiff’s Offshore Music Recording Studios, after being near thwarted by the city’s maze-like one way systems, Mumford & Sons turned up with a cheeky sparkle in their collective eye.  A sparkle that hinted at the bite & barely muted fury they’d inject into a damn near perfect session, recorded in lightning quick time & impressing the studio engineers to exclaim it the best session they’d had the pleasure of to date.

What resulted from those 2 sweaty hours in the cosy Offshore Music studio is a remarkably tight session from a truly remarkable band who, impressively, are unassuming & unaffected in the face of mounting attention that their brilliant songs & live shows are bringing their way.

The interview between the tracks is light & breezy; full of a band humbly taken aback by the spotlight &, to some degree, steadfastly ignoring it in order to concentrate on what it is they’re here to do: play music.

The session will be available for download from the Lounge Act pages over at WOXY, & eventually via TWRHQ, in a week or so.

Splashed either side of the session will be a brace of excellent new (& some old) tracks from new (& some old, yet criminally unknown) bands & artistes gleaned from the avalanche of promos dropping on the TWR mat, both physical & virtual.

Expect, then, the usual nonsense & blather from your convivials, with hints for birthday gifts & far too much information on mechanical sex toys.

Not bad for our first show broadcast from Austin, TX eh?

x ½DC + TWoTH

Hello You.

Firstly, apologies.

This week’s special one-off Nostalgiacast should have been on-line at the usual WOXY broadcast time. Unfortunately, during the recording of the show, we were visited by a tired & emotional Lloyd Robson who was, for want of a better phrase, ‘on one’.

Long story short, after moreorless single handedly contributing to one expletive strewn, wonky-arsed ramble of a 25minute single section recording later Mr. Robson wandered off in search of a fish ‘n’ chips shop. This left ½DC with a mammoth editing task to compete — that, or re-record the whole section again sans Mr. R.. The former, foolishly, was decided upon. As a result the length of time it took to stitch together a conherent (& not too offensive) narrative was far in excess of the shceduled editing time. That said, because ½DC + TWoTH reminisced in a rather ’round the houses’ fashion, the planned 3hr show overran to 3½hrs+.

Therefore, my little cherubs, we is late. By a country mile.

But, enough excuses.

This past weekend Team WOXY were busy choosing the cushions & matching pop shields for the new Austin studio-come-fun nest, therefore TWR did not air. Some, we know, will consider that a mighty relief.

For those of you who fell into a Kenneth Hutchinson-style heroin stupour as a result of our missing Saturday alarm call dulcets, fear not. Here’s something we made earlier that you can use to kick your brain awake with.

This one off so-called Nostalgiacast contains a looksee through the ‘grown up listening to’ musical history of your favourite twatmouth’s questionable ‘taste’. ½DC’s, that is.

Over 4½days 20 years of music & personal listening habit (covering late ’70s - mid ’90s) has been filtered, whittled & crunched down by ½DC into a playlist that could have realistically been at least 6hrs long. & that’s without the inane chatter in the between bits.

We’ll be honest. We missed a LOT of music & bands out that were very important in the musical appreciation by our young, strident protagonist (½DC, again; keep up). It’s just we simply couldn’t fit it all in.

Expect, then, the avant garde, goth, indie jangle, indie folk, blues, rock, psychedelic, punk, musicals, & a whole damn host of things you may have never heard of before, or, hopefully, a tone of stuff you’ve not heard for, like, ages, man. Yeh? Just don’t expect the obvious track choices associated with any of the bands.

So, then, & onwards towards naughty words, bawdy nonsense + expletive intactus lyricalisation. Oh, & a bit of Terence Trent D’arby to get your knickers steamed up.

You have been weaned.

x ½DC + TWoTH

Hello All.

This week’s show is brought to you by the letters W + O + X + Y, D + C, & (in our “special” studio guest’s case) E, & the number 3.

Come ride the fun bus with us as we travel down memory lane with a few choice music dishes served up by our guest & a whole ream of nonsense conversation.

Amongst the new music featured this week you shall hear:

• Allo, Darlin’
• Ambulances
• Charades
• Boat Beam
• Bunky
• Too Soft
• Twi The Humble Feather
• The Turkish Delights
• Bark Cat Bark
• Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers
• Tabernacle

+ the very usual many more…

As WOXY are in the throes of moving to Austin, TX we won’t have a show next week - however, as a treat ½DC + TWoTH will be recording a special one off 2hr podcast (for the weekend of 5th/6th September) for you to download &, ahem, enjoy.

This podcast will not feature any ‘new’ music, but instead will contain a playlist consisting of tunes constituting ½DC’s musical taste education from when he was a wee nipper. Reminders will be sent in advance of it going ‘live’.

Until then, enjoy this week’s show & we’ll catch you in Austin from the 12th September with a session & interview with the superb Mumford & Sons.

Ta Ta.

½DC + TWoTH