shuffle.
california
with julietcritsimilios

While Burlington’s weather gets colder sometimes all we can think of is The Sunshine State and how much warmer (and tanner) we’d be if we’d chosen to go to school in Cali.

California The Kooks Now I miss the ocean when I go to sleep/Oh man it’s gonna break my heart

Hotel California The Eagles Welcome to the hotel California/such a lovely place/such a lovely face

Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers Space may be the final frontier/but it’s made in a Hollywood basement

California Rouge Wave So screw California/and friends that are never there

California Dreamin’ The Mamas and the Papas I’d be safe and warm/If I was in L.A/California dreamin’/on such a winter’s day

Going Back to Cali Notorious B.I.G Cali got gunplay/models on the runway/scream Biggie Biggie gimme one more chance

California Girls The Beach Boys The west coast has the sunshine/and the girls all get so tanned

California Love 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre We in that sunshine state with a bomb ass hemp beat/the state where you never find dance floors empty

Going To California Led Zeppelin Made up my mind made a new start/goin’ to California with an achin’ in my heart

your weekly WRUV music review
by nyikobeguin & andrewseier

Tegan and Sara - Sainthood
The sixth album from the twin sister duo is not to be taken lightly. Straying from the atmosphere of their previous album, Sainthood is packed with punchy and upbeat orchestrations that serve to highlight the contrast between writing styles. Combining lush vocal harmonies, intriguing song structure, and heart-wrenching content, their signature sound remains in tact. The album has a poppy value similar to So Jealous; however, much of the emotion and intensity that has been prominent in earlier works is still here.
For Fans Of: Rilo Kiley, Metric

Lackthereof - A Lackthereof Retrospective - I Was A Christian Emo TwentySomething (Film Guerro)
Melancholy indie rock. Head man from Menomena, Danny Seim. A compilation of previously released/unreleased work. Lo-fi beauty, I would compare this album with Accumulation:None by (smog) aka Bill Calahan. Voice and instrumentation is layered. The mood of this one is pretty mellow to slightly depressed, but occasionally there are some electronic beats that pick up the atmosphere a bit.
For Fans Of: Grizzly Bear (think Horn of Plenty)

all the jazz
by sarahmoylan

Over the years I’ve found many factors standing in the way of me appreciating jazz music. Let’s start with the Weather Channel, whose constant need to play some seriously bad jazz in the background of “Your Local Forecast” really hindered my ability to take the genre seriously. Then, there’s Kenny G—oh, Kenny G. Growing up, we used to listen to Christmas tunes as interpreted by the G man while munching on our waffles and opening presents. It’s a good thing there were plenty of holiday distractions or else I fear my memories of Christmas might not be so fond.

That said, I know there’s more to the genre than the Weather Channel and Kenny G, and I really want to like jazz. But as someone who is more likely to play The Ramones than Miles Davis, jazz just seems so…classy in comparison! I guess I’m just worried I’m not cool enough to like it. But man, I’d sure like to be. So, when my friend asked me if I’d accompany her to the Radio Bean on a Thursday evening for the “jazz night,” I agreed.

I’d never been to the Radio Bean before, but in a way I sort of had been there, because the Radio Bean meets the expected criteria for a typical Burlington hippie-chic coffee house: the dimly lit, cozy interior is accented by a couple of non-matching booths and a few haggard tables and chairs. And, of course, there are the weird and wonderful locals who populate the place on a Thursday night.

We arrived in the midst of a set played by the opening band. Individually, they were clearly talented musicians—there was a phenomenal standup bassist, an uber-talented jazz guitarist, and great drummer and trumpeter. They were all wailing away, filling the tiny shop with the most dulcet tones, and I easily recognized that the quality of this jazz was far superior to that of the Weather Channel version. But I just didn’t get it. Maybe it’s because I’m used to the simple hooks and easy melodies of more mainstream music, but I just couldn’t understand how it all meshed together.

I decided to relax and not to worry about whether I really liked the music or not. I just wanted to take it all in—the feel of the place, the smell of the food (which was positively phenomenal), the people who were there. The man next to me, bundled up like a true Burlington native in a bohemian-looking wool coat and a red knit hat, pulled out a sketchbook from the layers of clothing that covered him and began to draw the outline of the bass player. Meanwhile, the night’s main attraction, the Anthony Santor group, began to arrive, lugging their equipment in from the front door and bringing the nippy Autumn air with them. To top it all off, the guy to my right started brazenly rolling a joint near the end of the first set, and it didn’t really seem to faze anyone.

And that’s when I really started to get it. I’m not saying that you have to be surrounded by stoners (in fact, the opposite is probably more true), but jazz is all about the atmosphere. Something about the jazz that night at the Radio Bean just felt right. It’s not to say that what was being played was just background music or mood music to the scene, because that would seem to subjugate it. No, the music was an essential component of the complete experience. I still don’t understand jazz the way that the musicians do, or even the veteran regulars of the scene do, and given the choice I would probably still listen to the Ramones before Duke Ellington. But give me more nights at the Radio Bean, and I think I’ll be there.