WHERE DID THE HOLIDAYS GO?

woah, woah, at one point we were like "hey, sweet, it's festvus" but then it came and went so fast, and without any buildup. totally unfestive. we're disappointed. we had our little trees up and everything. although it's tough to get into festivus rituals because on top of the trees, you've got your tents and rangoli and tycho drumming and...well, the list goes on.

so we figured, hey, why not do our holiday thing again? last weeks "best of the music blogs par 2" will be rebroadcast in its usual time slot on the last day of the year, as in the 31st of december, year of our lord 2005, tomorrow.

we'll have that playlist for you in the new year. big up to dj fase from stylistik endeavours, derek westerholm from creeping nobodies/no beat radio and sam petite of the backstabbers, all CIUT folk, who made it to now's year in review top pick in various categories. the creeping nobodies are definitely a band to get into. i have yet to see them live but i intend to make it so in the new year.

we may have to cancel the don cash special in january because i was too damn lazy to get up and go see his show and i think his 75 song mp3 album is no longer available commercially. but do look out for a very smashing start to the new year with the tape-beatles/public works, a story involving the hospitals/vulcan db squad/dan burke, and tomate potate with a brand new song about boxing day.

happy new year,
guy stevos

FESTIVE ME...FESTIVE YOU...FESTIVUS!

happy festivus, kids. we'll have a prerecorded show tomorrow. tune in for some david byrne/robert fripp collaboration, a low-fi cher cover, and a few interesting interpretations of holiday music from some very famous robots.

there's been rumours goon' 'roond n' aboot that ESB may one day soon become a two hour afternoon/evening show, like it was back in the day...we're not quite ready for that, as we've settled into this one hour groove quite comfortably. but the offer is flattering.

so, off you go to your loved ones if you have any. we here at ESB like to work through the holidays. you may think we're staunchly devoted to the cause with an industrious fervor, but the truth is, if we all split up for the holidays, we'd miss each other too much.

playlist for next week will be up after xmas. we're just far too busy to publish it now. we're going dogsledding on sunday.




merry mooselicks,
molson bh

ESB 12/17/04

we were going to do a boring old "top ten of 2004" this week but we decided we're way too cool for that. since we've been surfing music blogs frequently for material, we figured, why don't we just do a show on music blogs instead? fuck it, just cause we hate year end roundups so much, we extended it to a two part series. hence this week's title...

THE BEST OF THE MUSIC BLOGS PART UNO

Playlist

MADVILLAIN - meat grinder
* stereogum's number one song of the year, a collaborative effort between madlib and MF doom.

THE ELECTRAS - sample montage
* senator john kerry's 1961 high school surf/dance rock band...imagine, john kerry, the rock n' roll president!

KERRY ROCKS - Kerry in 2004
*very depressing to listen to, but nonetheless, humourous on a scale that increases logarithmically as each day passes. also from www.kerryrocks.com.

ARCADE FIRE live in cambridge, mass- laika/une annee sans lumiere/power out/rebellion/this must be the place/haiti
* fairly good live recording, as the band are much less restrained as they are on the album. lots of energy and the crowd gets into it. full set available at bradley's almanac.

SNOWDEN - time of the season
* cover of the zombies' classic defiled recently by a "tampax was at woodstock" commercial. from revolution in the head.

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES - geoffrey ingram
* what british music is all about. from teaching indie kids to dance again.

BABY SHAMBLES - kilimanjaro
pete doherty, the fucked up dude from the god-awful libertines puts out a side project that is surprisingly pretty damn good. aso from "teaching indie kids".

SONIC YOUTH from john peel sessions, 10/19/88 - rouche rumble
* the best band of the late 80s covers the best band of the early 80s on john peel. more live cuts available at the jean genie

MAGNETA LANE - cheap linguistics
* when i first heard this band a couple months back, i was in a vintage clothing store assisting on a photo shoot with controller.controller. the girl at the store put on magneta lane, the latest paper bag princesses, and i was totally having a shitty day and i was growing sick of the saturated toronto music club, so i figured they were just another stupid forgettable band, but i have come to reconsider my initial distaste for what is actually really fun music by some very purdy ladies who are workin hard to keep the city interesting and enjoyable. this tune has been all over blog city recently but i found it at zoilus, toronto musician carl wilson's blog, who apparently really likes magneta lane.

tune in next week. we're going on holiday at ESB but we'll more than likely have the second part to the best of the music blogs prerecorded for the format. playlist will be posted shortly. we'll take a week to wind the year down and party with disconnected avec CFRC business manager mike sallot aka dj seez of CFRC's dance to the underground. tonight, we're headed to wavelength (see links on sidebar) for deep dark united.

in the new year, we'll look at the music of j. alexander ferron, aka don cash, a former toronto music writer who produced his own hip-hop/garage-rock fusion deal and ended up in new york hangin with DFA records. he didn't like it too much down there, and recently came back to toronto to rock the box. ESB says: "sounds good to us!" he's playing tuesday night at sneaky dee's, so check it out.

- steve birek, director, ESB Industries

WELCOME...

the eclectic sound basement is a radio/internet project currently in its fourth year of existence. originally a streaming web station on mp3.com before its outrageous and unjust corporate washout, ESB moved to CFRC Queen's Radio in kingston, ontario canada where host steve birek brought listeners two years of music from the margins of the rock/pop/jazz world. now in it's third broadcast year, ESB has relocated to CIUT in toronto, where the repertoire of artists and sounds heard on the show continues to diversify. you can tune in to steve's show every friday at noon hour ET on 89.FM, from buffalo to barrie, kitchener to cobourg, or you can tune in over the web at www.ciut.fm.

this blog is pretty minimal right now but by tomorrow, we'll have the set list for this week's show and some songs available for download. drop by the site every few days for musical suggestions, reviews, and news from the musical-cultural vein.

we promote music that twists conventions into offbeat expressions and interpretations of the complex world we live in. please feel free to leave comments on the page, and don't be afraid to promote yourself. just know that we have high and erratic standards...so maybe get a little intimidated? it would make us feel much stronger.

- molson brewhard, secretary general, Offices of the ESB