The Sweet Hereafter Feb. 28, 2006: Leaping into the future...later this week

Hey superstars,

I was hoping to spice up this reminder to listen to our modest yet excellent station in an hour with a big announcement that this show is now available for podcasting, but I've been running into a few technical glitches. A friend of mine offered to help me on this task, but I felt like donning my Do-It-Yourself Home Depot apron and get'er done. Well, I guess I'm more technically incompetent than I thought, but mama Bui didn't raise no quitter so get'er done is what I will do, just not today. So that just means you'll have to cherish this show for what it is, an ephemeral slice of time that we get to share, but only in that instantaneous space in time when it happens. Unless you were like me as a kid, with my tape recorder and microphone, recording every episode of Transformers and falling asleep to the soothing voice of Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Just to get some music content in this email: The album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by the Arctic Monkeys might not be able to match the ridiculous hype that has been surrounding it, it is still a very clever and great sounding album.

See you in a bit

Tuan

The Sweet Hereafter Feb. 21, 2006: Uncaging the music nerd in all of us

Hey everyone,

So as part of my daily existence as an academic, I get to read articles on the visual cortex of the giant blowfly and the electrosensory computations of the weakly electric fish. It's interesting but nothing that enhances my weekly existence as a radio DJ. However, just a week ago, while perusing the Uber-journal named Science, I ran across an article looking at music markets. My interest was piqued. The researchers in question created artificial music markets composed of a group of unreleased music and studied how songs became popular, or not popular. And the interesting thing is, it varied. Some of the songs were really popular in some of the markets but not others, while some of the other songs were busts in some markets but relative successes in other markets. Thus, assuming that the makeup of each market was essentially the same, there doesn't seem to be any easy way to determine whether a song will be a success or not.

The article can be found at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/296/5571/1302?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Duncan+watts&searchid=1140713916908_9714&FIRSTINDEX=0&journalcode=sci.pdf

I'll go into more details in the show. Or you can just turn down the volume for a couple minutes when you hear me talk about it, and turn it back up and your musical enjoyment should be unhindered.

Tuan

Sweet Hereafter February 14: Putting the saccharine in Sweet

Yes kids, every 6 years, that most time-honoured of holiday, St. Valentine's Day falls on the Sweet Hereafter's broadcast day and the Sweet Hereafter gets to put the saccharine in Sweet. Today's playlist will be dedicated to that most noble of sentiment embodied by this day.

Some of you may hate today's show and it may cause you to upchuck. If that is the case, please come back next week. Maybe I'll play some anti-romance songs then.

Some of you will love today's playlist. Some of you may really, really love it. For those of you who fall in the latter case, please consider Tuan as a possible name for your newborn. It is exotic, sophisticated and monosyllabic, and therefore resistant to most attempts to abbreviate.

If anyone has any dedications, send them over, though I do reserve the right to not play your reservation in the name of good taste.

Expect to hear

Bright Eyes
David Gray
Feist
Sia
Snow patrol
Art Brut
Your dedication
Sarah Harmer (dedication to myself)

Love,

Tuan

The Sweet Hereafter Feb. 7, 2006: Living up to the Hype

Hey everyone,

Good Tuesday afternoon to you. You may have heard by now but the Pledge Drive was a kickin' success. We exceeded our goals by at least 60%. Big, big thanks to all those of you who've made pledges by calling in or through the online form. While I may not be around next year, i'm happy to know that we've made a big step in ensuring that Kingston still has a great station to tune into.

Now onto some music talk. I'll be playing some Arctic Monkeys on the show. Why this is worth mentioning is because the Arctic Monkeys have ridden an amazing wave of hype in Great Britain to become the fastest selling artists beating out the likes of Oasis with their freshman release, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Having, euh, hmm, sampled some of the tracks from that album, I can safely say that it is good brit-pop music a la Libertines, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and early Oasis. Nice to listen to, lots of hook-ladden songs, high energy, a bit of freshness, overall, very enjoyable. Is it going to be the best british album of all time as suggested by their record sales? Unlikely. In fact, I would like to put forth the guess that they will not be remembered as the best British band of all time, simply because they've peaked too early with their first release.

I have a theory (with co-authorship from my friend Jerome) that for a band to have long-lasting careers, it is the second album that is most critical. A lot of bands put out brilliant first albums but seem to fizzle afterwards, never capturing the magic of the first one. Hot Hot Heat and the Strokes immediately come to mind. The reason is that the first album contains inspired music that was created through an inspiration that was given the span of years to brew and to be nurtured. Putting out a greater second album is tough because there is more pressure to retain or improve on commercial success, and to grow musically and lyrically. This pressure increases with the success of the first album. Thus, bands that have put out a decent promising first album but really delivered on that promise on their second albums such as Coldplay and the White Stripes, well, we know where their position is in the music world don't we. So with that in mind, I truly hope that acts like the Arcade Fire, Feist and the Wolf Parade can top themselves on their next release and cement their places in the music consciousness.

Expect to hear today

Arctic Monkeys and songs from bands' first and second albums

Giveways

Tickets to see the ASUS Sunday Movie Night presentation of Pride and Prejudice featuring Keira Nightley. Hmm, I'm not inclined to see this movie but you and a friend might be so drop me a call (613-533-2372 or 613-533-CFRC).

Tuan