you have killed me

picture from
Stand Up Sit Down

The Best Party Ever!

First of all, our radio show yesterday was jamming and we had an awesome time. I think it was by far one of our best shows in a long time. Here are all the songs we played:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- Under the Hedge
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Destroyer- Priest's Knees
Rufus Wainwright- Memphis Sky
Tullycraft- Cow Girls on Parade
Tilly and the Wall- Shake it Out
Jose Gonzalez- Crosses
Tapes n' Tapes- Insistor
The Smiths- Panic
Jeff London- Long Island
The New Pornographers- Testament to Youth in Verse
Feist- Let it Die
Wolf Parade- I'll Believe in Anything
Rilo Kiley- More Adventerous
Neko Case- Hold On, Hold On
The Boy Least Likely To- Be Gentle with Me
Islands- Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone
New Order- Age of Consesnt
Jon Crocker- A Way to Move Across the Ground
Christopher O'Riley- Between the Bars
The Decemberists- 16 Military Wives
Yo La Tengo- Autumn Sweater
The Mountain Goats- This Year

Wow that is a lot of awesome music. You are probably pretty upset if you didnt listen in.



Next, The Useless Dolphins attended The Boy Least Likely at Cornell University. Boy do those sweater vest wearing kids know how to throw a party. If you don't know about The Boy Least Likely to I would advise you to go to their site right Now. They are the best twee-pop band to ever come out of England, and perhaps the only one. They stopped at Cornell on their recent tour with James Blunt. Yeah, he is not cool. We know.



One of the other crowd members summed the show up best by saying, "that was like eating a bag of marshmallows". They ran through pretty much the entire Best Party Ever CD and threw in the B-side, "Rock Upon a Porch with You". They left the stage to much applause and to my surprise came back out. They stated they were out of songs and asked if anyone would like to hear a song again. They then played two more songs and left the stage. Everyone was sad the party was over, but we left with hearts filled of joy.



I would say the highlight for me was "My Tiger, My Heart" because even though it is such a silly song Jof sang it in such a serious manner as evidenced by this photo:



It was well worth the hour and half drive. We even had an awkward interaction with some of the band members and they seemed quite nice. They smiled through out their set and were so happy to see 100 private school kids jumping up and down singing about monsters, tigers, butterflys, and apple wagons.

Set List:
Hugging My Grudge
Fur Soft as Fur
Rock Upon a Porch With You
Warm Panda Cola
I See Spiders
My Tiger, My Heart
Monsters
The Battle of the Boy Least Likely To
Paper Guts
I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon to Your Star
Be Gentle With Me
----------------------
Monsters
Hugging My Grudge


Don't forget to tune into our radio show Tuesdays 8-10!

I'll Meet You At The Statue In An Hour

Well the first Useless Dolphins road trip proved to be quite the successful one. Our deep love for music took us out of the country to Montreal to see Belle and Sebastian and the New Pornographers. It was indeed a favorable jaunt if I do say; I had never been to Montreal and found it to be rather charming. Our inability to speak French proved to present no problem as these clever dolphins were able to successfully order scrumptious sandwiches, navigate the bus system and drink copious amounts of beer...all without French! Anyways...

While seeing Belle and Sebastian AND the New Pornographers is any plastic rimmed glasses wearing, argyle sweater donning, blog browing 15 year old indie kid's wet dream...the show was 19+. I must say, the show is probably tied for my favorite concert with the Decemberists who I saw in Toronto this past October (go Canada!). The New Pornographers were without both Neko Case and Dan Bejar but I thought their fill-ins: Kurt Dahle (on drums) and Kathryn Calder (keys and vocals) did a fine job taking over such big shoes.

Set List (not in order):
The Laws Have Changed
Testament to Youth in Verse
Mass Romantic
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
The Body Says No
Twin Cinema
Bones of an Idol
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
Jackie Dressed In Cobras
These Are The Fables
Sing Me Spanish Techno
The Jessica Numbers
Stacked Crooked

Like seeing The New Pornographers, one of the staples in indie music currently, was enough...BELLE AND SEBASTIAN- a living legend followed them. Belle and Sebastian...what can I even say? They are Belle and Sebastian! I was afraid I had really high expectations and would perhaps be disappointed, but I was proved wrong (thankfully). Belle and Sebastian and more namely, Stuart Murdoch, have such a magnetic stage presence, I was instantly pulled into the show.

Montreal might eat it's young

There was no leap year because our radio show was so awesome that February 29th ran away. If you didnt get the memo, Useless Dolphins airs Tuesdays from 8-10 this semester. They couldnt resist putting us in prime time. We talked about our trip to Montreal to see Belle and Sebastian/The New Pornographers. Alysa will be posting a review of that at some point in time with some pictoral documentation of our first every true Useless Dolphin road trip. But for now here is the list of songs that we shook our asses to last night.




Mates of State- Fraud in the 80's
The Light Footwork- Art of Everyday Communication, Pt. 1
Feist- Mushaboom
Franz Ferdinand- Do You Wanna?
Patrick Wolfe- Libertine
Men, Women, and Children- Dance in my Blood
Antony and the Johnsons- My Lady Stay
The Decemberists- Clementine
Broken Social Scene- 7/4 Shoreline
The Lucksmiths- The Music Next Door
Rufus Wainwright- Matinee Idol
Stars- Romantic Comedy
The Elected- Not Going Home
The New Pornographers- The Bleeding Heart Show
Belle and Sebsatian- Your Cover's Blown
Jens Lekman- Black Cab
Destroyer- Destroyer's the Temple
Thunderbirds are Now!- Cobra Feet
Silver Jews- Horse Leg Swatsika
Four Tet- Iron Man
M83- Fields, Shorelines, Trappers

A special gift for you Mates of State- Fraud in the 80's

Spring '06

We are totally back for another semester of singing and dancing. Alysa and I have been searching for the best music to debut this Tuesday from 8-10pm. That is right we have moved days and times yet again, but we are going prime time now. Every Tuesday from 8-10pm you can tune into 88.9 WNYO if you are in the Oswego area and actually own a radio. If you do, then I give you props. If not, you can listen right HERE using your Commodore 64 or whatever it is you kids use these days. I suggest you tune in because we have big plans this semester. We have lined up some great concerts for us to attend, and hopefully we can snag an interview or two. Here is the list as of right now.

Belle and Sebastian + New Pornographers in Montreal 2/26
Ted Leo in Rochester March 6th
The Boy Least Likely To March 11th
Billy Joel March 25th in Syracuse
Jon Crocker + More TBA in Oswego March 27th
Men, Women & Children in Oswego April 5th
Death Cab for Cutie/Franz Ferdinand April 8th
Belle Orchestre- April 26th

For being in such a remote area this is a good start to the semester. In addition we will be taking requests and providing you with hottest news in the indie rock world.

I would say we are most excited about seeing Belle and Sebastian. We asked for an interview with them but we were denied, but I mean they are the #1 Scottish band in the world! They do not have time for measly folks like us. Anyways, so now out of boredom I present to you, the setlist Rob wishes that B+S would play when he sees them:

If You Find Yourself Caught in Love (with opening instrumental)
Like Dylan and the Movies
Dress Up in You
Dear Catastrophe Waitress
The State I Am In
Sukie in the Graveyard
Funny Little Frog
Fox in the Snow
I Don't Love Anyone
Seeing Other People
Is it Wicked Not to Care?
If She Wants Me
White Collar Boy
You Made Me Forget My Dreams
Jonathan David
Just Another Modern Rock Song

ENCORE
A Summer Wasting
Act of the Apostle II
I'm A Cuckoo

I tried to include enough songs off the new CD to make it realistic. So Stuart, if you are reading this please take note and make my wish come true in Montreal.

An Apology Post

Dear Valued Readers/Listeners,


Please excuse our absence/neglect of the blog in the past couple of months. While we could have been simply reporting the same news as all of the other blogs on the net, we find that to be a bit trite and also the purpose of this blog, to advertise our radio show, would be lost. But! With a new year and semester, your favorite Useless Dolphins shall make their triumphant return and again provide you with some lovely music samplings. The day and time of our show is currently up in the air, but will be known to us in the coming days.

Thank you for your patience,


Useless Dolphins

Free Format Week

Hey all!

Hope you enjoyed our awesome countdown show! If you didnt listen, then you suck. The end.

But you can redeem yourself from sucking by listening to us during free format week.

On Tuesday December 13th from 4-6 Rob (me) will be doing a show alone, and I have no clue what I am going to play but I am sure it will be a good time.

then

On Wednesday December 14th from 2-4pm is our big finale for the semester. We will be playing an hour of Sufjan Stevens and an hour of The Decemberists. This will include rare songs, live songs, and songs from former and related bands. It is sure to be an enlightening experience.

Coming soon we will be posting our Top 10 albums of 2005. So stay tuned for that!

Listen to us on 88.9 WNYO and online Here

Here are our lists for the top 7 songs of the semester if you didnt get a chance to listen:

Rob
7) Matt Pond PA- Halloween
6) Men, Women, and Children- Dance in My Blood
5) Wolf Parade- I am a Runner, You are my Father's Son
4) The Decemberists- Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right
3) Stars- Heart
2) Final Fantasy- This is the Dream of Win and Regine
1) Dears- Lost in the Plot

Alysa
7)The New Pornographers-Sing Me Spanish Techno
6)The Fruit Bats-Lives of Crime
5) Stars- Your Ex-Lover is Dead
4) The Decemberists- Red Right Ankle
3) Final Fantasy- The CN Tower Belongs Dead
2) Wolf Parade- Dear Songs and Daugthers of Hungry Ghost
1) Wilco- Company In My Back