Travel on the Radio
Being on the radio is every child’s dream come true, right?
Remember that time as a kid, when you and your siblings would hit ‘record’ on your tape player and introduce yourselves as the DJ’s for the next hour of music, sports and weather? When you’d filter through your Dad’s collection of Randy Travis tapes to pick the next song, or take turns making up crazy news stories about your neighbours?
No?
Was that just us? Were my sisters and I the only ones to interview the cat and our barbie dolls ‘on air’?
It should be no surprise then that my oldest sister ended up a DJ at CJSW – the college radio station in her home city of Calgary – or that both Pete and I were giddy with excitement to spend an hour on the same airwaves as guests of our friend, the lovely Joan Sarro, hostess of The Spin Evolution.
Joan (smartly) did not let us play with any dials or buttons (even though I was DYING to), but she did let us pick the tunes for our hour on the air. Music has always been a big part of our lives, and of our travels – we’ve been to several concerts around the globe and thus chose our playlist based on that.
Which, (sadly?), did not include any Randy Travis.
Our Playlist of Travelin’ Tunes
We kicked off the hour with two great Canadian bands we saw perform live while volunteering for the Reeperbahn festival last year in Hamburg, Germany.
~ Wilderness of Manitoba – Orono Park
~ Hot Panda – Evil Nature
Next, we relived our time at the Castlepalooza festival in central Ireland with two bands that have been permanent fixtures on our iPods ever since.
~ Dry the River – Bible Belt
We’ve been to several evening concerts, but two that especially stand out were in Buenos Aires and London.
~ Joy Formidable – Cradle
And it’s not just popular English music we take in on the road, catching local bands in the action is always a favourite past time with us.
~ Aniceto – Ya Sabes Porque – While in a hostel in Valparaiso, Chile, one of the workers invited us to a CD release party for this band Aniceto. How could we turn that down? We were sure glad we didn’t.
~Â Katalena – Lucija – The lead singer of this group is a good friend of ours in Slovenia, and we saw the band perform in Maribol. Katalena takes traditional Slovenian songs and gives them a modern rock twist, which gives a highly energetic and entertaining show.
We closed the show with two songs that are on heavy rotation for both of us – songs that are good to stare out of windows to on long travel days, those that help foster contemplative thoughts and writing inspiration.
~ Beirut – East Harlem – The addiction to this song began during our six weeks in West Harlem!
~ Rural Alberta Advantage – Frank, AB – For some reason, this song will always remind Pete of Morocco.
In between songs, we had an excellent time chatting it up with Joan about our travels. The entire show is available for a listen right here!
You have had a wonderful day I see. Yes, being on the radio is everyone’s dream. Mine as well. If I could pick up one song, I would go for Society by Eddie Vedder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouANEo2w0Pg
I love that song. AND Eddie Vedder, his voice just causes me to melt!
That’s so exciting you were on the radio! Why I’m really commenting is to say thank you for such an excellent playlist. I’m always looking for good music recommendations. Thanks!
Hope you enjoy it Victoria!
Hi I saw your comment on Alex in Wanderland site. I like your website a lot. I am also getting ready to sell everything and start my life as a travel blogger. I like the post and the music selection.
Congrats Stephen! Good luck on your travels, and glad you like our selection!
oh what fun! I used to call into the radio every day trying to have my request played. I only requested Mambo No.5 by Lou Bega. But a whole hour of music picked by you two? INCREDIBLE.
Mambo No.5?? Haha! That’s awesome.
A few important things:
– I love Randy Travis.
– I am excited to go through your playlist and discover some new tunes.
– I know, Dalene, that you are a big Arcade Fire fan. Thank you for making me give Funeral another listen; it’s amazing.
– In other Arcade Fire news, I have been meaning to tell about a cover of The Suburbs by a woman who goes by Mr. Little Jeans. The track is excellent (as are the few other songs she has recorded). Definitely search her out.
– The Cranberries are one of the things Kent and I bonded over very early in our relationship.
Randy’s music is like the soundtrack of my childhood! And Arcade Fire if my adulthood (so far!) SO GLAD you gave Funeral another listen. I hope you have moved on to Neon Bible as well by now! Will be checking out Mr Little Jeans fo sho.
Love The Cranberries. That is the music of my collegehood. They were so much fun to see in Buenos Aires!
I think that when we all finally meet up, we should perhaps exchange some mixed tapes.
The Cranberries in BsAs?! Shut yo’ mouth. 🙂
Neon Bible? Will do. Mixed Tapes? Definitely.
Remember when we used to throw the barbie dolls under the bed for capital punishment via cat attack?
I know that has nothing to do with this post, but reading about our radio interviews made me think of it.
Carry on.
Oh yes, when we used to play “Lawyer”. (Nerds!) I think we might have recorded such a session for the radio once or twice?
You guys are way too cool for me…I’ve heard of ONE of these groups (Cranberries)! This is not news, though, since my musical tastes tend toward “whatever’s on the radio in the car.” Maybe I’ll have to check out some of your picks and expand my horizons.
Check ’em out Emily! Especially my two favourites – Hot Panda and Beirut. Both of their entire collections are well worth a listen.
This is hilarious timing, as I found out today that Scott and I are going to see Randy Travis live next week. (We’re actually going to see the Avett Brothers, but he’s playing with them so, yeah…you know.)
Please, please, please, tell me if Randy plays his most ridiculous song: “Diggin’ Up Bones”. HAHA!
I would love to subject people to my musical tastes!
Is the world ready for that? 🙂
Oh you are SO dating us. As a child I remember my mother was such a good singer she should be on the radio. I remember when cassette tapes were white and getting a stereo with two players so you could dub music was the best thing ever.
I love your picks here because I haven’t heard of many of them and I need to update my music list.
I also remember calling into the local radio station and requesting a song, waiting patiently with my finger on ‘record’ on the tape player in case it came on. Wow.
Sadly, this has become a lost art! Kids these days will never experience it – you would just pray that the DJ wouldn’t be talking over the beginning of the song! 🙂
Yeah, those damn DJs!! Kids don’t know what they are missing out on these days.
Wow, what a cool experience! Thanks for sharing your playlist with us, sounds like you guys have seen some great shows.
I”m totally out of touch with music–sign of getting old–but it seems to me your list is healthily eclectic. I started thinking in terms of travel with music because of Kerry Dexter at Music Road who suggested tunes and musicians for each of the states we visited in a virtual road trip of books and music at A Traveler’s Library over a period of 50 plus weeks.
I’ll be coming back to this post to check out your music and trying to learn something new.
And by the way, as a kid, I called in requests and was SO excited when the tune was played.
What a cool idea for a theme trip – music from each state. Hmmm. You’ve got me thinking…. 🙂
I’ve been listening to Beirut about 5 times on loop. Love them and love the Canadian music shout-outs!
I LOVE them too…they have to be one of my favorite bands. We *almost* got to see them in Belgium but just missed them. Next time!
This sounds like so much fun. I had a friend who worked as a DJ for a bit too. I actually listened to the soundcloud clip of the show and thought it was great. You guys have excellent taste in music – and I’m not just saying that because you featured a few of my favourite bands.
Thanks Alouise! I haven’t listened to the show because I hate how I sound – haha!
We considered continuing with a tour of the provinces of Canada, but I was exhausted having going through the 50 States and gave up. But if you want to see what music Kerry chose to go with each state in the U.S., check out musicroad.blogspot.com
The list of recommendations for reading and movies is at http://atravelerslibrary.com/2011/03/09/54-road-trip-books-movies/
Love your taste. But I would need a little more country 😉
Oh boy. That is one kind of music you will never find us talking about…. 🙂
Just so we are perfectly clear, that was entirely Nicole… you’ll never catch me (Cam) listening to country music 🙂
I could never do radio. I get ridiculously nervous even talking on conference calls!