Let me tell you people! Erika Elizabeth of Expressway To Yr Skull put together a So Tough! So Cute! mixtape with all female fronted records.
Guest Mixtape 22: So Tough! So Cute! Mix by Erika Elizabeth of Expressway To Yr Skull
The single best music radio show I’ve heard since Mr. John Peel’s reign – or at least since my own – comes to an end tonight. Erika Elizabeth, whom I interviewed here, has been hosting “Expressway To Yr Skull” on Amherst, MA’s WMUA for about eight years now. She’s moving to the Northwest and taking her record collection with her, with the express promise of creating online-only shows on her laptop, which we need to aggressively pressure her to fulfill on if the shows don’t start hitting her website by, say, mid-August – what do you think?
I only discovered the show in 2011, but it really has been a game-changer for me & my ever-evolving rocknroll music tastes. As I wrote when I interviewed her, “Her record collection, and her ability to wield it like a weapon of knowledge and truth on-air, is phenomenal – and it’s all employed at a perfect intersection of deep-underground pop; 70s-80s British DIY and postpunk; 90s shoegaze and twee (stuff from lost 45s and cassettes that no one’s heard for two decades, I’m serious); garage punk; and a lot of noisy girl-helmed bands that had been lost in a patriarchal fog of several decades of disregard.”
Here’s an only partial list of bands I’ve either discovered or positively reevaluated since I started downloading each weekly 2-hour show: The Minders, Submarine Races, Unrest, Lung Leg, The Yummy Fur, The Godrays, My Bloody Valentine, Wilderness Children, Mil Mascaras, Joyride!, Priests, The Moodists, International Strike Force, Golden Starlet, Dear Nora, Blast Off Country Style, Moon Duo, Suburban Reptiles, Dog-Faced Hermans, The Wendy Darlings, Happy Refugees, UV Race, Liechtenstein, The Nixe, The Fizzbombs, Oh-OK, Free Kitten, Petty Crime, Bud & Kathy……and yeah, a lot more.
The final show’s on tonight at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific, and you can listen here. Thanks to Erika for being such a rad tastemaker, and a big fare thee well for the upcoming move.
Let me tell you people! Erika Elizabeth of Expressway To Yr Skull put together a So Tough! So Cute! mixtape with all female fronted records.
Guest Mixtape 22: So Tough! So Cute! Mix by Erika Elizabeth of Expressway To Yr Skull
Just as she did for those of us who donated to WMUA this year because of her rad rocknroll show “Expressway to Your Skull”, disc jockey Erika Elizabeth made a “custom mix” of songs that she’s decided to not just share with donators, but with everyone. I asked her for a collection of female-fronted 90s punk/noise/pop, and I got what I asked for.
I guess for some of those who said simply, “surprise me”, they got the all-covers mix “Reflect What You Are”. And now you get it as well. Maybe you should send her some money if you’re feeling guilty or if you’re a fan of the show like the rest of us in Dynamite Hemorrhage Nation are.
I sort of passed over the 1994 “Starfish” album by the UK’s FAT TULIPS in favor of their earlier singles and EPs, but was reminded of this shredding C-86 style loud pop song the other day when it was played on WMUA’s Expressway To Yr Skull. OK, definitely one stellar track on that album. See if you agree.
Erika Elizabeth played this one last week from THE SIC ALPS on her Expressway to Your Skull radio show on WMUA, and I guess it helped me remember to go back to their 2012 album on Drag City that I didn’t like so much at first. Mea culpa. It’s terrific.
The band, and this track in particular, are mining a nice cross between “Exile on Main Street” Stones and Royal Trux’ mid-period swagger, and despite changing lineups multiple times, they’re still got a hell of a sound, once it sinks in & all.
I wrote up a guide to essential music apps for you iPhone users who, you know, listen to music & stuff. Perhaps you’ve heard of Spotify and Soundcloud, but may I please introduce you to FlickTunes, 8Tracks, iCrates and Bandcamper?
Erika Elizabeth, hostess of the outstanding Expressway To Your Skull radio show and podcast on WMUA, opines about her favorite releases of this year. I’m pretty sure she turned me onto about 47 new bands in 2012, and I’d believe what she says if I were you.