The Rodent Hour

On this week's broadcast we featured more music by two-piece bands that I love plus new music and recent releases by independent artists from home and abroad. I think two-piece bands fall into a special category of artists due to the nature of the relationship that the two musicians/artists have to have in order to make the project work.

I'm forever grateful for the fantastic amount of music that today's independent artists continue to create.

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On this episode of The Rodent Hour I focused on the music of duos. Some of whom have been guests, some of whom I've seen live but all of whom create music that I enjoy listening to.

For the average music fan I think they're often confused by duos. They may like the music but from a musical perspective they're seen as being limited in what they can do because they're only two members in the band. The bands, at least based on the interviews that I've done, view being in a duo as incredibly liberating since there's no restrictions on where they can go with the music.

Take a listen and let me know what you think.

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Live live on Monday evenings at 8PM EST on Radio Free Brooklyn.

Over the years we've been treated to a number of outstanding, live performances on The Rodent Hour so I decided to put a few of them together and feature them all on the same show.

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Perhaps calling this episode "Support Local Artists" is a bit simplistic since I'm always encouraging people to listen to local artists. However when I'm usually encouraging people to listen to local artists it's because there's a lot of really good music being created by independent artists that just isn't featured on terrestrial radio or even satellite radio and that I think deserves to be heard by a wider audience.

What makes this episode of The Rodent Hour different is that I'm encouraging listeners to listen to local artists because I find that it's the local, independent artists that I listen to that help me make sense of the world around me. Not all of the songs on this episode are deep thinkers and thought provokers and that's because it's also the local, independent artists who create works of art that help energize me is also a pretty wonderful thing.

PLAYLIST

Listen LIVE on Monday evenings at 8 PM EST (UTC-4) on Radio Free Brooklyn.

Visiting with artists/musicians is the best as it gives me an opportunity to get to know their work better and to share more of their music with listeners than simply sharing one song during a show. Unfortunately we're not able to do that right now so I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the music of some my guests who I think released some really good albums, albums that you can put on and leave on.

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Hosted by Matt Attack. The Rodent Hour features interviews with independent musicians along with a curated playlist of music from Brooklyn and beyond the borough. Matt Attack has conducted interviews with over 240 unique artists from places such as Detroit (MI), Durham (NC), Nashville (TN), Scranton (PA), Philadelphia (PA), Atlanta (GA), Denver (CO), Evansville (IN), Portland (OR), London (UK), Pamplona (ES), Toronto (ON), Halifax (NS), Stockholm (SE), Dublin, (IE), Glasgow (SCT), Perth (AU) and, of course, New York City.

Growing up I used to listen to a show on CBC Radio called "Brave New Waves". The show aired overnight five nights a week and it profiled alternative and indie music and culture, including film, comics, literature and art. This episode's playlist is somewhat of a reflection on those long ago nights when I was up late studying or getting home after work.

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The Rodent Hour is an homage to the friends that Matt Attack made during his misspent youth, those lifelong friends who joined him on those weekend nights so many years ago and whose eclectic tastes still influence the selection of artists and music that is featured on the show.

Thirteen years after arriving in Brooklyn he continues to be a tireless advocate for the independent musicians that still play with the ferocity and intensity he grew up listening to.

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This show's focus is on the Canadian punk rock legends NoMeansNo (sometimes stylized as No Means No or spelled Nomeansno) and how my appreciation of their music has influenced some of the music by independent artists that we’ve featured on The Rodent Hour over the years.

Listen LIVE every Monday at 8:00 pm

Over the last few weeks I’ve been telling the story about the origins of The Rodent Hour and what the name means. I’ve also been sharing tracks by select artists whose music influences the music that I share on this show and how the shared love of independent music helped me form some lifelong friendships.

One of the bands that sustained us during those times was a local band called SNFU and if there was an opportunity to see them play live we would. The entire band had an energetic live performance and the front man, Mr. Chi Pig, was amazing.

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We're working through the origins of The Rodent Hour and there was always one band that my friends and I never saw eye-to-eye on: The Simple Minds. Everyone knows the band from “The Breakfast Club” but before they became chart toppers they created much darker and far more experimental, atmospheric music.

Back in the day I was such a fan of the band that I went on a road trip with some other bands to see them perform in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was a great trip, except for the fact that when we got to the venue everyone else was dressed up for a Halloween party and we seemed to be the only ones there to see the band.

The influence of early Simple Minds music can still be heard in the music of some the artists that I've had in the studio as guests as well as featured on the show.

PLAYLIST

Listen LIVE every Monday at 8:00 pm on Radio Free Brooklyn.

As I shared last week, The Rodent Hour is an homage to the friends that I made during my misspent youth in Edmonton, Alberta. Tonight’s show features a track by another one of those bands that, while being relatively unknown, had a huge influence on the music that I listen to today and the music that we feature on this show.

That band is Jerry Jerry & the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, more often just called Jerry Jerry. Originally conceived as a “fuck band” they brought a different approach to the music that was being created in Alberta “back in the day” with their unique combination of surf music, gospel music, rockabilly, garage and punk.

So along with an old Jerry Jerry track our playlist this evening has tracks by two current independent artists from Alberta plus music from Portland, London, Toronto, California and, of course, Brooklyn.

PLAYLIST

Listen LIVE every Monday at 8:00 pm