WAIH
90.3 fm WAIH Blog

If you’re not sure what you’re listening to, chances are it can be summed up in this photo:

Love,
Amanda & Tyler

‘Cause it’s on rotation! And it’s beautiful! And I encourage you to call us during format shows and request it!

I’m sure many of you know Noah and the Whale from that whole “5 Years Time” song last year (the whole sun sun sun!! one, used in a car commercial, etc etc). TALK ABOUT A COMPLETE DEPARTURE. This is entirely more mature and substantially more depressing than their first album, BUT IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. Also, track 6 (”Love of an Orchestra”) is basically like Christmas. I highly recommend this album to every single one of you reading this (and by one of you I mean Bill, because he has an RSS on this and I don’t think anyone else reads, hahahahahahhahahahahhaha)

LOVE YOU ALL,
Amanda

A few photos by Julie Koehler of Olivia Quillio’s in-studio performance this past Saturday, October 3rd. Do an in-studio with the WAIH!!!! We’d love to hear you!

Hello hello to all. Once again it’s DJ Ariel with some delicious blogging fun.  This past weekend I went to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, New York. When I first heard about the show I was shocked because I never get the chance to see acts there that I like, so I was really excited to go.

Once when I got there I wasn’t expecting it to be as crowded as it was. The line to get in was so long and didn’t seem like it was moving for a long time. I got there a few minutes after the doors were supposed to open. Something tells me the doors didn’t open until much later than what was said. While standing in a frozen line for what seemed like forever I finally got in. Even better, despite the fact of the incredibly long line, I managed to snag the one tiny spot in the front that was left it didn’t seem like long before the show began.

It started out with an unannounced and unknown opening act, literally. As always, not that great. The beats were really cool and the bass nearly blew me over from the speakers. Then some girl came on stage singing really lame lyrics like, “I think I’d like you better if we slept together.” It reminded me very much of a tacky sweet sixteen act. Oh well, not all opening acts can be gems.

Finally Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on stage and I can honestly say I was in awe when I first saw Karen O live. I had never been a huge super fan of Yeah Yeah Yeahs but after seeing them live I have much more of an appreciation for their music. They blend several genres of music together to create their own sound that works for them. I was caught off guard when they performed one of their less popular songs first and everyone was really into it. Not only that but their stage presence is incredible. Karen O is simply ridiculous and thats all I can say about that. Wether she was spitting water into the audience or nearly swallowing her mic, her presence was just about impossible to ignore. Her super fans were just as crazy too, but in a good way and almost cult like. Overall really fun show and I’m glad I got the chance to go. Other than being sucked in by Karen O’s awesomeness, there were some other highlights that I feel the need to point out right now. I will start out by giving a shout out to the Mom standing behind me who was there with her young tweeny daughter who was standing next to me. This Mom took the blasting bass and crazy dancing hipsters like a real pro. I really wanted to give her kudos at the end of the show but her and her daughter seemed to disappear into the crowd once the show ended. Disappointing.  My next highlight was this quote I heard from an unknown drunk girl which I think sums up the whole night, “LETS FIND THE NEAREST MOTEL AND POOP IN THEIR POOL!”. Crazy kids. Crazy Moms. Crazy night. Here are some pictures!

All my pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/whoiseinbinder/.

FUCKING YES!!!!!! I just got back from the Cursive show and with my new digital voice recorder I was able to get my interview on my computer in like 3 seconds! So here you go! Enjoy!

Tyler Durden
Cursive Interview

Hello all you fantastic readers this is DJ Ariel with a summer update. I have always said that this summer was going to be the summer for music and I haven’t been let down yet.

A while back our super Music Director, Amanda Stockwell, told me about Black Moth Super Rainbow doing a free show in New York City and was instantly psyched as soon as she told me. I had discovered this magical band in my travels earlier this year but had yet to see them perform live. To say that BMSR is eccentric is an understatement. Their music can be described as pyschedelic/electronic/folk/pop and all their instruments are far from conventional. I’ve also noticed it seems as if they like to steer away from the media. Not in an arrogant “We’re too good for you” way, but it a “We want to keep you guessing” way.

Amanda and I got to the venue before it looked like a concert was going to happen soon. I’m pretty sure bystanders might have confused us with protesting hipsters. Once when more people showed up, the concert began with the first of two open acts, Dan Friel. He put down some nice beats that reminded me of Animal Collective and did a good job at keeping the crowd interested. The next act, Blank Dogs, was a bit of a disappointment. I was really excited to see they had a sax thrown into the mix, but it was impossible to hear behind all the feed back and bad guitar riffs. All I remember them singing about was something about lions and burning down houses. Don’t get me wrong I’d like to think there is hope for most of the not so great bands. These guys just need to clean it up A LOT.

Then the time came for Black Moth Super Rainbow. Most of the band looked relatively normal at first, though their female drummer was going all out in a ninja outfit. It wasn’t long before we were introduced to a man dressed in furry suit and mask, who was passing out chips and fruit to everyone throughout the night (at one point he gave me a chunk of pineapple). The fuzzy man, whose name was never said from what I remember, had a good amount of control over the crowd. He was also really fantastic about trying to get everyone watching involved from small children to the cleaning staff. The fuzzy man was also cool about giving out hugs to almost everyone including Amanda and Myself. He also entertained us all with Axis and Allies plus some sweet dance moves that even I was jealous of. The man in the fuzzy suit was the focus of the night while the rest of the band kept a low profile, they didn’t seem to mind. The band did a really good job in showing off all albums playing a little bit of something from each including some improvised stuff too. I think my favorite from the night was probably the opening track “Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise” off their newest album “Eating Us.” Surprising because the album wasn’t my favorite from them at first, but I’ve been starting to re-listen to it and digging it.

We both had a fantastic time and so did everyone else that was there. It was great to see a large group of people there just to have fun and dance around. If you ever get the chance check out this band because I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I’m strongly considering going to one of their upcoming shows next month. Come join in. Props to Amanda for taking mad pictures but first, enjoy this picture I took of someone getting mobbed by fuzzy man. Guess who?

And now Amanda’s! (Guess who else!)

Hey all! It’s Durden once again with a recap of our wicked time at Warped Tour. DJ Fuzzy, The Alpha Wolf, Super Rockin’ Mister Magic, the beautiful Lia-ison and myself were in attendance representing WAIH! Thanks to the wonderful Amanda, Fuzzy and I were able to get press passes and do a handful of interviews.

Fuzzy and I waited for Lia and Mr. Magic to get there to receive our video camera and then we were off! When we entered, it took us about 15 minutes to find where the press area was because everyone we asked had no idea because they don’t like to tell event staff things. So we found it and found the promoter I was set up to see. She had told me she was only promoting Underoath, Alexisonfire and the founder of Warped in my e-mail, but when we got in there, she had a list of about 20 bands we could contact. Before leaving, Fuzzy found one of his idols in the same room as us, David McWane. So, with press passes attached and interview times with Underoath, Alexisonfire, and Therefore, I Am all set, Fuzzy and I enter the beautiful world of the music festival.

First band; Alexisonfire. I have been a huge fan of these guys since I began venturing into the world of indie music in 2003, but I have never been able to see them. I was slightly dissappointed with their new C.D., but their live show was everything I imagined. The crowd went nuts, the singer had an insane amount of energy and the music was spot on. Sadly, their set was during Streetlight Manifesto, whom I would have loved to see, but I have priorities. I was able to catch up with the rest of the crew and watch one of the best performances I saw that day; Dear and the Headlights.

I was a mediocre fan of these guys, only having heard a 10 song mix my buddy Nate made, but I knew the Alpha Wolf loves them, so I really wanted to see them. Watching them made me fall in love. The crowd was tiny, but the guys in Dear didn’t care; neither did Brian(Alpha Wolf). He was right up front, rocking out and singing along with EVERY song. Their music is just fun to hear live. I heard most of the songs I knew, including Sweet Talk and Grace. I haven’t been able to stop listening to them since(yes, I am currently listening to them).

After that, we all stuck around to catch Westbound Train who played the stage right next to them. About half way through the set, Tyler and I had to embark on our first interview with Tim McTague of Underoath. I will spare transcribing the entire interview right now because I plan on posting other blogs containing the interviews. Being my first time meeting someone from a band I love, let alone my first time conducting an interview of any kind, I was totally nervous, and this ended up being the shortest interview of the day. But he was uber nice and a great guy to talk to.

Following this, I went and caught the end of Bad Religion’s set. In my opinion, their newer stuff isn’t soo good, but luckily, they didn’t play any songs since their 2002 release, The Process of Belief. I was annoyed by the amount of stupid 14/15/16 year old tool bags that didn’t give BR the time of day. IF IT WEREN’T FOR THEM YOU DOUCHE BAGS WOULDN’T HAVE HALF THE BANDS YOU WERE THERE TO SEE!!!! sorry about that, had to be done.

Fuzzy and I were then summoned to the interview room again, where we got a very long interview with Brian Marquis from Therefore, I Am. He was the nicest guy I met all day, which I found funny because he was in the most hardcore band we interviewed all day. Directly after that, we were able to sit down with George Pettit and Jordan Hastings of Alexisonfire. This interview went fairly well, aside from the fact I accidentally taped over it!

Anyways, Fuzzy and I went under the amphitheater to wait for the legendary Black Tide. This was an EPIC performance from this teenage 80’s metal band. I found this to be the second best, right behind Dear and the Headlights. Yet again, not a huge crowd, but tons of energy on stage and their showmanship was fantastic. Their sound sorta blew, but that was the story of the day.

My sister and I ended up wandering around for about 20 minutes until Big D and the Kids Table came on. Yet another great performance from a band I didn’t know that well. Their crowd was one of the best I saw all day. There were skankin’ circles every 10 feet and even the people in the seats were dancing to themselves. Also, Dave McWane commented on how the crowd was the best one he had seen on the tour and that we “smoked more weed then anywhere else…. and [they had] even been to Canada.”

After this skankin good time, I was able to catch Bayside for my second time at Warped Tour. Their singer and bassist were all over the place, singing and dancing, but their lead guitarist was just sorta creepy. Since the last time I saw them two years ago, the only thing they changed in their set list was that they added a few songs off their new C.D. and played a cover song they had done on their Acoustic C.D.

The following band at the same stage was Saosin, a band I have been a fan of since their first E.P came out. This being my second time seeing them live, I was slightly disappointed. The singer had no life in him, mainly just standing around singing, and his vocals always sound like he’s singing in a different key then the recording. But the crowd was pretty into it. Oh well.

Needless to say, I left Saosin early and meet up with Brian and Fuzzy to conduct an interview with the horn section of Westbound Train, which is a great ska band. These guys were very down to earth and actually asked us to do the interview. It was nice to get insight from a band who’s style isn’t one seen on Warped Tour that often. While there are a handful of ska bands,(mainly just Westbound, Big D, Streetlight and Less Than Jake) they are sorta considered outsiders to the Warped scene. But in our talks, they expressed interest in visiting the Northern NY some time soon and would love to do a live performance at the station.

To cap the day off, I went between Flogging Molly and this “local” band(they are from Salt Lake City, but they were on the local stage and were only doing select dates) called Ivy League. Flogging Molly is always fun live, but I had seen them every other Warped Tour I had gone to. So I stuck around the Ivy League stage. Ivy League had style, musically and visually. They had a very catchy reggae/ska/punk sound that reminded me of Sublime. At this point(8:30 at night) most people had left, but the ones who stuck around for Ivy League were really into them. And luckily for them, a lot of the Flogging Molly crowd stopped and checked them out on their way out the door.

This was the end of our day at Warped, but just the beginning of our escapades around WNY, including a Mighty Taco run, which is necessary after any show in Buffalo, and then an extremely late night uploading photos. I have all my photos on facebook, just look me up!
Durden!

…to post this photo.

Although I unfortunately heard nothing related to the contest (it’s possible there’d just be some goodies waiting for us in the mail in the fall, though doubtful), I still think this picture was a big success. I mean, how fucking cool do we look? Honestly.

I’m trying to dig up the money this summer to print this nice and big for the station, but if any of you guys have the connect to print it super cheap / free, DOOO ITTT.

Looking forward to coming back to Potsdam
-Amanda

Hey all! Durden again. I don’t know why, but I just love ranting about music so here I go again
My new rant is about the new Drop Dead, Gorgeous CD. For those who have ever listened to them, you know that they are very dark, but super intelligent. Their 2007 release, “Worse Than a Fairy Tale” proved that. It was a concept album based around murders in a fictional town, Saylor Lake, Colorado, the band’s home state. Each song depicts the brutal murder/rapes accompanied by a web site which helps fans try to find the murderer. But their new CD, “The Hot n’ Heavy,” proved to be less of an album.
I was able to read through the lyrics before I listened to the album, figuring I would be blown away with the lyrical content as with the last album. This proved to be false. The lyrics of almost every song consisted of ridiculous remarks concerning addiction(one song is even called “There’s No Business Like Snow Business”(obviously referring to cocaine)), lost love (which the singer often talks about “stabbing”) and mellow-dramatic “scremo” non-sense. While the music proves to be more advanced than the lyrics, that still was not that impressive. It consists of repeated build-up/breakdown sections that are seen in almost every song. As a whole, this young band(2 members were finishing up high school while touring in 2007) has come to disappoint an avid fan. I have pretty much given up on this band. I see them falling to the fate of bands that follow trends and lose creativity. If they can produce an album even half as smart as “Worse….” I may change my mind. But for now, I am very disappointed.

-Durden

Drop Dead, Gorgeous