06.03.12 California Diner - 'Geology and Geography!'

Tuesday Night Diner

In an effort to bring you the most tenuous of themes, this week I bring you Geology and Geography. Those are a couple of things I studied in college long ago. Believe it or not, Geography has changed some since then--a few countries changed their names, perhaps to keep it interesting, or maybe because they hired a marketing department. Some countries split into pieces, others merged. In any case, the map doesn’t look the same as it did back in the day. And Geology--now there’s a rock and roll field of study if I ever saw one. Earthquakes, tidal waves, molten lava, plate tectonics, erupting volcanoes. Crazy! It just doesn’t get more rock and roll than that. So to pull it all together, as dodgy as this theme may seem, I have a new song to play for you from each discipline. Sparklejet is a trio from Fresno, California, featuring Victor Sotelo on lead vocals and guitars, Wade Krause on drums, and Geoff Anderson on bass and vocals. We mentioned them in passing a couple of weeks ago on our “Fresno Rocks!” show. They started working their musical magic up and down the great Central Valley of California over a decade ago as a rootsy, Americana band. Then they hardened and honed their sound, and became more of a straightforward rock band. They recorded their most recent effort, “Beyond the Beyond”, with the legendary Chicago engineer Steve Albini about 5 years ago. This explosive album absolutely blew the roof off. So it’s been a long wait for we fans of the Jet, and they have not disappointed. Victor sent me a brand new track called “The World Before Longitude”. And this one’s a departure for them. The hard, focused sound loosens up just a bit. The songwriting and playing, however, are tight as ever, but genre-wise, they may have invented something here. Picture Jim Morrison fronting 1990-era R.E.M., and you might be close. Guitars are plentiful, both acoustic and electric. The lyrics are intellectual, and I literally listened to this one about 5 or 6 times in a row, just so my brain and ears could take in all the nuances. Magnificent, and you’ll hear it on the show. www.myspace.com/sparklejet Laurie Biagini writes and performs fun, sunny pop songs, heavily influenced by the more carefree side of the 1960’s beach sound. Lots of people, including myself, say that between her warm, honey-hued vocals and her upbeat keyboards, she sounds something like Karen Carpenter fronting the Beach Boys. Not a bad set of influences. She recently released a new album, “A Go-Go Girl in a Modern World”, and added some guitars into her sonic arsenal. So here’s the geographic rub--you usually think of beach music coming from California, but she hails from Vancouver, Canada! By my reckoning, she’s an honorary Californian. And she proves it--we’re going to hear her song that covers the Geology portion of our show--”The California Quake”. Yes, parts of our fair state do tend to shake quite a bit, and now, you can shake (and shimmy) when you hear this song--a choreographer friend of Laurie’s created a dance to go with this fun song. You’ll want to get out there and move! www.lauriebiagini.com Hey! Recharged Radio now has a magazine! It’s a free monthly music e-zine called Sound of the Suburbs (not to be confused with our radio show of the same name--oh heck, go ahead and confuse it--we don’t mind!) It’s our joint effort with our friends at Perfect Pop Co-Op. You can get it on the left hand side of the home page of Recharged Radio. Just scroll down a bit, and get reading! If you'd like to make a request, just drop me a line at mike(at)rechargedradio.com. If you'd like to become an honorary California citizen, drop me a line at the same address. And if you'd like to hear all this great music—simply tune in to the California Diner, Tuesday night, 8:00-10:00 p.m. (GMT), 12:00-2:00 p.m. Pacific, only at Recharged Radio—www.rechargedradio.com. See you then! Chef Mike mike(at)rechargedradio.com MN2BDNC The Whiskey Saints - Eastbound Anton Barbeau - MTV Song Cult of Wedge - St George and the Dragon Anny Celsi - Tangle-Free World Andy quirk - Hackney You're Not So Crap Ben Swidenbank - Girl (Leave That Animal Tonight) Sparklejet - The World Before Longitude Laurie Biagini - The California Quake Emily Zuzik & Tim Lefebvre - E-Vill Patrick Campbell-Lyons - Flowers For Friday The Vinyl Junkies - Gangs Baby Scream - Bad Seed Jay Fraser - Breaking the Reigns Jimmy Catlett - Everybody Sez Lindy LaFontaine - Sunday (Trip Hop remix) Auditorium - Did Your Heart Shake Like This Song? Braam - Way Away Maxi Dunn - Why Do I Want You? Hail The Size - Crazy Girl M.A.D.I.S.O.N - Home part II Skip Heller - Let's Stay Home 3 Foot Ninja - Fear Jet Electro - For Sale By Owner Tom Alford - Look To The Stars Agony Aunts - Linus's Fists Of Death Maple Mars - The Excursion Volary - Blackbird Fly The Taters - Wolfman Told Me Tonight Mark Bacino - Queens English Little Guilt Shrine - One Two Dead Heart Bloom - Sentimental