Squawkin’ Good Showdown: Round 3 Begins!

sqm16Voting has now opened for Round 3 of Squawkin’ Good Showdown! We are down to the Avian Eight and only four of these artists will come back to battle on next Wednesday’s show. The matches this week are:

Match #1: (1) Dr. Dog vs. (3) Toro Y Moi

Match #2: (1) Alabama Shakes vs. (2) Beach House

Match #3: (1) Animal Collective vs. (3) Kurt Vile

Match #4: (1) Death Cab For Cutie vs. (2) Tame Impala

The winner in each match will get TWO of their songs played on next Wednesday’s show. The loser will get NONE. Decide you you want to make the Feathered Four below! (You can vote here if the form below doesn’t show up)

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Squawkin’ Good Showdown Round 2 Results!

The votes are in! Round 2 of Squawkin’ Good Showdown has ended and with 13 people voting, you have selected your Avian Eight! Some of these matches were decided by one vote. Here’s how it went down:

Match #1: Dr. Dog 53.8% / Foals 46.2%

Match #2: Unknown Mortal Orchestra 46.2% / Toro Y Moi 53.8%

Match #3: Alabama Shakes 76.9% / 23.1%

Match #4: Beach House 53.8% / Beirut 46.2%

Match #5: Animal Collective 69.2% / Half Moon Run 30.8%

Match #6: Hot Chip 0% / Kurt Vile 100%

Match #7: Death Cab For Cutie 53.8% / Purity Ring 46.2%

Match #8: Tame Impala 76.9% / Neon Indian 23.1%

Now it’s time to vote for which artists you want to move on to Round 4. The four artists who win in each match will get two of their songs played on next Wednesday’s show, the losers will get none. Vote now to decide who moves on! (Vote here if form doesn’t show up below)

Squawkin’ Good Showdown: Round 1 Results!

The votes are in! Round 1 of Squawkin’ Good Showdown has ended. Round 2 has begun and you can get the info for it and how to vote here. A lot of people voted; some of the matches were close, others not so much. Here’s how it all went down in Round 1:

Dr. Dog 81.8% / Waterstrider 18.2 %

Foals 90.9% / Meg Myers 9.1%

Courtney Barnett 45.5% / Unknown Mortal Orchestra 54.5%

Toro Y Moi 72.7% / Youth Lagoon 27.3%

Alabama Shakes 81.8% / Wild Nothing 18.2 %

The Tallest Man on Earth 45.5% / Speedy Ortiz 54.5%

Beach House 63.6% / Glass Animals 36.4%

Beirut 63.6% / Silversun Pickups 36.4%

Animal Collective 90.9% / Sunflower Bean 9.1%

Frank Turner 45.5% / Half Moon Run 54.5%

Hot Chip 72.7% / City and Colour 27.3%

Kurt Vile 72.7% / Deerhunter 27.3%

Death Cab For Cutie 90.9% / Darlingside 9.1%

Purity Ring 63.6% / The Front Bottoms 36.4%

Tame Impala 100% / Mansionair 0%

Modest Mouse 45.5% / Neon Indian 54.5%

 

 

 

 

Squawkin’ Good Showdown – Round 2 Begins!

Round 2 of Squawkin’ Good Showdown, the musical March Madness tournament on WRUV, has begun! The 16 artists who won their respective matches in Round 1 will battle it out for a spot in the Avian Eight and will be played on next week’s show.

Below, you can vote for which artists you want to make it to the next round. The winners in each match will be played on the March 30th edition of Squawkin’ Good Radio, the losers will not. You have until March 30 at 5 pm to vote. If the survey below doesn’t show up, you can also vote here.

Squawkin’ Good Showdown: Round 1 Begins

Squawkin’ Good Showdown has begun! Here are the matchups this round:

(1) Dr. Dog vs. (8) Waterstrider

(4) Foals vs. (5) Meg Myers

(2) Courtney Barnett vs. (7) Unknown Mortal Orchestra

(3) Toro Y Moi vs. (6) Youth Lagoon

(1) Alabama Shakes vs. (8) Wild Nothing

(4) The Tallest Man on Earth vs. (5) Speedy Ortiz

(2) Beach House vs. (7) Glass Animals

(3) Beirut vs. (6) Silversun Pickups

(1) Animal Collective vs. (8) Sunflower Bean

(4) Frank Turner vs. (5) Half Moon Run

(2) Hot Chip vs. (7) City and Colour

(3) Kurt Vile vs. (6) Deerhunter

(1) Death Cab For Cutie vs. (8) Darlingside

(4) Purity Ring vs. (5) The Front Bottoms

(2) Tame Impala vs. (7) Mansionair

(3) Modest Mouse vs. (6) Neon Indian

Below, you can vote for which artists you want to make it to the next round. The winners in each match will be played on the March 23rd edition of Squawkin’ Good Radio, the losers will not. You have until March 23 at 5 pm to vote. If the survey below doesn’t show up, you can also vote here. Also, you can stream this week’s show to hear songs by all 32 artists at http://wruv.org/schedule/wednesday

Squawkin’ Good Showdown: Voting has ended!

The votes are in! Thank you everyone who has voted in selecting the Top 32 artists competing in Squawkin’ Good Showdown. You’ve picked an excellent group of artists to compete this year who will be played on this week’s edition of Squawkin’ Good Radio on WRUV. Including one band who received 3 write-in votes! 14 people voted (including myself), and many different artists received votes, but 32 clearly stood out.

Congratulations to Dr. Dog, Animal Collective, Death Cab For Cutie and Alabama Shakes, who received the most votes and are the #1 seeds in the tournament. The rest of the Top 32 will be announced on tomorrow night’s show.

Tune in on Wednesday from 8-10 pm on 90.1 WRUV FM in Burlington, VT (or listen online at http://wruv.org/) The Top 32 will be competing for a place in the Squawky Sixteen. The eventual winner of Squawkin’ Good Showdown will be guaranteed airplay on my show the next 12 weeks after their victory plus they will get a special feature on this page. Get all the details at the official Squawkin’ Good Showdown page.

Squawkin’ Good Showdown – There’s still time to vote!

On next Wednesday’s edition of Squawkin’ Good Radio, we’re kicking off Squawkin’ Good Showdown, a musical March Madness tournament where 32 of Squawkin’ Good Tunes/WRUV listeners’ favorite artists will go head to head. The twist this year is you, not me, get to decide which artists compete this year! Vote in the survey below for which artists you would like to compete. The 32 artists who get the most votes will be selected and the first round will kick off on Squawkin’ Good Radio on Wednesday, where I will play a song from each artist you voted into the Top 32! Those artists will compete for a spot in the Squawky Sixteen, who will be played on the following week’s show.

If you are unable to view the survey below, you can vote here as well.

Announcing…Squawkin’ Good Showdown 2016!

March is here and that means it’s time for my musical March Madness style tournament. Formerly known as Squawkatiel Madness, Squawkin’ Good Showdown will have 32 of your favorite artists heard on my show in the past year going head to head, competing to be your 2016 champion.

Here’s how the tournament works: Each week, starting Wednesday, March 16, the artists who are up for voting in the current round will be played on that week’s edition of Squawkin’ Good Radio from 8-10 pm on WRUV. Two artists will be paired up in each round to compete for your votes. The one that gets more votes moves on to the next round and will be played on that next week’s show. This will continue until my April 20th show where the champion will be crowned, who you, the listeners, have picked as your favorite Squawkin’ Good artist of the 2015-2016 school year!

The winner of Squawkin’ Good Showdown gets the following prizes: They will be guaranteed one of their songs played each week on Squawkin’ Good Radio for the next 12 weeks after their victory, plus they will get a special feature about them on this website.

For the next 2 weeks I’m giving you, the listeners, the chance to pick which 32 artists will compete in Squawkin’ Good Showdown 2016! Vote in the window below. If it doesn’t show up, you can vote here. You have until 5 pm on Tuesday, March 15 to get your vote in.

Upcoming Releases – Spring 2016

We’re already 2 months into 2016. That means the weather will finally start getting warmer here in Vermont, aside from the occasional March snowstorm. It also means a whole bunch of new music as the release schedule picks up, and this spring is no exception. March 4th is particularly stacked with new albums from the indie/alternative sphere, and lots of other great artists will be releasing albums later in the spring including The Thermals, Bibio, Yeasayer, Frightened Rabbit and two new albums from Islands. Here’s what you have to look forward to this spring:

 

March 4

Dead Stars – Bright Colors (Weird Tree)

Jennifer O’Connor – Surface Noise (Kiam)

Kitten – Heaven or Somewhere in Between (Scary Kids)

La Sera – Music For Listening to Music To (Polyvinyl)

Miike Snow – III (Downtown/Atlantic)

Nada Surf – You Know Who You Are (Barsuk)

Poliça – United Crushers (Mom + Pop)

Prince Rama – Xtreme Now (Carpark)

Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place – You’re Doomed. Be Nice. (Temporary Residence Ltd.)

Sego – Once Was Lost Now Just Hanging Around (Dine Alone)

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down – A Man Alive (Ribbon)

Wintersleep – The Great Detachment (Dine Alone)

 

March 11

Bent Shapes – Wolves of Want (Slumberland)

Brian Fallon – Painkillers (Island)

Lucius – Good Grief (Mom + Pop)

Into It. Over It. – Standards (Triple Crown)

The Wild Feathers – Lonely is a Lifetime (Warner Bros.)

 

March 18

Cullen Omori – New Misery (Sub Pop)

Damien Jurado – Visions of Us on the Land (Secretly Canadian)

Dustin Kensrue – Thoughts That Float on a Different Boat (Vagrant)

Lust For Youth – Compassion (Sacred Bones)

 

March 25

Bob Mould – Patch the Sky (Merge)

RJD2 – Dame Fortune (RJ’s Electrical Connections)

The Joy Formidable – Hitch (Canvasback/Atlantic)

The Range – Potential (Domino)

The Thermals – We Disappear (Saddle Creek)

White Denim – Stiff (Downtown)

 

April 1

Andrew Bird – Are You Serious (EMI)

Com Truise – Silicon Tare (Ghostly International)

Bibio – A Mineral Love (Warp)

Moderat – III (Mute/Monkeytown)

Mogwai – Atomic (Rock Action)

Weezer – Weezer (White Album) (Crush Music)

Yeasayer – Amen & Goodbye (Mute)

 

April 8

Deftones – Gore (Reprise)

Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack (Canvasback/Atlantic)

Woods – City Sun Eater in the River of Light (Woodsist)

 

April 15

Bear Hands – You’ll Pay For This (Spensive Sounds)

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – PersonA (Community Music)

Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop – Love Letter For Fire (Sub Pop)

 

April 22

 

April 29

Holy Ghost! – Crime Cutz EP (DFA)

Pity Sex – White Hot Moon (Run For Cover)

Rogue Wave – Delusions of Grand Fur (Easy Sound)

 

May 6

Aloha – Little Windows Cut Right Through (Polyvinyl)

White Lung – Paradise (Domino)

 

May 13

Islands – Taste and Should I Remain Here at Sea? (PledgeMusic)

Nothing – Tired of Tomorrow (Relapse)

Oscar – Cut and Paste (Wichita)

The So So Glos – Kamikaze (Votiv)

 

May 20

Marissa Nadler – Strangers (Sacred Bones)

 

May 27

Gold Panda – Good Luck and Do Your Best (City Slang)

 

Listen to songs from each of these albums below:

*I will be updating this list as more albums are announced.

Weekend SoundCloud Picks: 2/21/16

After being sick last week, I’m back with a new set of my favorite new tracks I heard on SoundCloud this week. Got a good variety of stuff this week from some familiar faces as well as some new bands I’m excited to hear more from. Take a listen and let me know which songs you like best and I will play them on Wednesday’s show!

Gypsy & The Cat “Inside Your Mind”

Australian duo Gypsy & The Cat are back with their latest single “Inside Your Mind”, a great sounding track reminding me a little of the band Waterstrider who I discovered the last year, and has also been compared to MGMT’s “Electric Feel”.

The Derevolutions “Purple, Gold & White”

Boston band The Derevolutions (who you may have heard on Flight of the Squawkatiel in 2014) have been releasing new songs over the past few months. Their latest track, “Purple, Gold & White” is one of their weirder, sound collage type songs but is very catchy.

DMA’s “In the Moment”

I’ve been hearing a lot of great new bands out of Australia lately, and Sydney band DMA’s are another one to check out. Their latest song “In the Moment” is a throwback to the peak of 90’s Britpop, with a catchy guitar riff. From their debut album Hills End out February 26.

The American Vogue “I Don’t Care About the Lights”

Debut single from Nashville band The American Vogue. Definitely want to hear more from them!

Radical Face “Rivers in the Dust”

Radical Face (aka singer-songwriter Ben Cooper) is back with the final album in his Family Tree trilogy called The Family Tree: The Leaves. I really like the drums that turn up halfway through the song.

The Cave Singers “Christmas Night”

Seattle band The Cave Singers (featuring former members of Pretty Girls Make Graves) are back with their latest album Banshee that just came out this Friday. Despite the title, this is not a Christmas song, but a catchy garage-pop track good for any time of the year.

Lust For Youth “Sudden Ambitions”

Danish synth-pop band Lust For Youth are back with a new album Compassion, out March 18 on Sacred Bones Records. Here is the latest single from it.

Kidsmoke “Cut Yourself Loose”

Sunny guitar-pop from Welsh band Kidsmoke, who list Wild Nothing and Real Estate as influences.

Listen to all 8 songs below.