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December, 2011

  1. Best of 2011 Playlist

    December 31, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    Happy New Year!

    I wanted to celebrate the start of a new year by looking back at some of the great music that came out last year. In the next few weeks, we’ll continue to mix in some great flavors of the past year in our show. Here’s what you heard this weekend. Your comments and requests are welcome. Either make them here or comment on Facebook. Thanks.

    Song/Artist/Album

    Best of 2011 Playlist

    Keep Me Tonight The Open Sea Little Apple – EP

    French Exit The Antlers Burst Apart

    Houdini Foster the People Torches Alternative

    Baby The Phenomenal Handclap Friendly Fire Recordings 2011 Sampler

    Nightwatch Acrylics Friendly Fire Recordings 2011 Sampler

    Four Days Straight Scattered Trees Sympathy


    Somehow Joss Stone (Single 2011)


    Calgary Bon Iver Calgary / I Can’t Make You Love Me / Nick of Time

    Hear the Noise That Moves So Soft and Low James Vincent McMorrow Early In the Morning (Bonus Version)

    I Was Born To Love Her Ivan & Alyosha Fathers Be Kind EP

    Sunshine The Little Bear Bridges EP

    Indeed I Will David Gray Foundling [Disc 2]

    The Wake The Albertans One Track Mind: May 2011 MP3 Rewind

    Booth Love Umphrey’s McGee Death By Stereo

    Who Are You? Kathryn Calder Bright and Vivid

    Impossible Katie Thompson Impossible – Single

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  2. Best of 2011

    December 29, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    We covered A LOT of music this past year, some from people you know and more from people you don’t. As always, it was a lot of fun.

    What did you think was the best from what we featured? You can let your voice be heard by voting in the Golden Fork Awards.

    Closing out the year this weekend, I’m going to feature some fantastic music that came out this year. Some of it, I have to admit, I discovered a bit late. But as the old adage goes, better late than never.
    If you are fans of acoustic folk, then you know the names Rosi Golan and Ari Hest. What you might not know, is that this year that teamed up and put out an EP as a duet, calling themselves The Open Sea. The album is full of richly crafted folk music and the way their two voices blend together is quite remarkable. That’s one feature I’ll present in our upcoming presentation.

    I don’t want to give away much more. Be sure to check out Facebook page to see more of the artists we’ll be featuring.

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  3. The Appetizer Christmas 2011 Playlist

    December 24, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    We wish you a very merry Christmas.

    Our annual Christmas special program this year took some traditional Christmas songs and applied them to a more modern context. We hope you enjoyed.

    Here is a full playlist of all the music we featured.

    The Killers-Joseph, Better You Than Me (feat. Elton John & Neil Tennant) (Single)

    The Rocketboys-Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (from the album 20,000 Ghosts of Christmas)

    Copeland-Do You Hear What I Hear? (from the album Maybe This Christmas Tree)

    Relient K-12 Days of Christmas;Handel’s Messiah (from the album Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer)

    Emmylou Harris-Light Of The Stable

    Maura Jensen-Christmas Reverie (from the album A Merry Mixtape Compilation)

    Pedro the Lion-I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (from the album Maybe This Christmas Tree)

    The Bird And The Bee-Carol Of The Bells (iTunes Single of the Week)

    Katie Herzig- Silent Night (from Ten Out of Tenn – Christmas)

    The Civil Wars-O Come O Come Emmanuel (from the Tracks In the Snow – Single)

    Zach Williams & The Bellow-It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (from the album A Little Christmas Cheer)

    Ryan Flanigan-Glory In The Heights (from the album Merry Christmas. Good Night.)

    Kris MacQueen-Hear Oh Hear (from the album Merry Christmas. Good Night.)

    Beta Radio-The Song The Season Brings (from the album The Songs the Season Brings)

    Dunn & Wilt-Hope For Everyone (from the album Merry Christmas. Good Night.)

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  4. Reasons To Celebrate

    December 22, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    Christmas is a time of year when most of us gather with our families and spend time enjoying gifts wrapped in paper, trees decorated with lights and tinsel, home-cooked food, and usually there’s a fire in the fireplace (if you’re lucky). It’s traditionally a time of year when we celebrate family and meaningful relationships. It’s also culturally a time of year when bargains, store sails, hurriedness, and a bit of selfishness (I use the “bit” part sarcastically, some of us are more selfish than we admit to). I think a lot of our modern Christmas music reflects both of these aspects of the holiday. Last week on our radio program I featured a lot of the more fun, modern styled Christmas tunes. This week though I’ll be serving a side of Christmas that most of us are fairly familiar with, but in a way we don’t always think about. The religious side of the holiday is one that church people tout in a big way. In some ways, the religious community is a bit too over-the-top and defensive of how Christmas is celebrated (or should be in their opinions). Non-religious people have a hard time with some of the religious stuff in Christmas and intentionally avoid it. That makes sense. So in a way to not overdo the religious side of Christmas, the presentation of music will include some traditional Christmas hymns and songs, but also some tracks that tell the Jesus part of Christmas in a more modern context, and shine some light on things that most of us might not be aware of about this side of the holiday.

    One of those things is the historical character of Joseph the carpenter. Here’s a guy who is set up to marry a young girl and then finds out that she’s preggo before they get hitched. Today that’s somewhat common, but in Jewish culture back then, that’s an instant ticket to the bottom of the social dreggs. The guy could have called everything off and moved on down the road. But he didn’t. That took guts, courage, and a lot of heart. This side of the story gets left out of the Christmas narrative all too often. On top of that, he gets to be the earthy dad to God’s son. Those are some big shoes to fill or try to. What was puberty like in the Joseph household when Jesus was entering his teenage years? Did Joe ever have to say, “Look I know you’re going to save the world one day, but right now you’re living in my house and this is the way it goes. So until you leave the roof I provide for you, you better do things my way!” I’m being sarcastic, but Joseph is a man who had a pretty tough job, and there’s not a lot said about him in the Bible.

    I’m thankful for people who take note of such things and have similar questions and curiosities as I. The Killers have a great song that highlights some of these things called Joseph, Better You Than Me. The video is below, but this is the lead-off track for our special presentation of Christmas 2011 this year. The playlist will post on Sunday.

    Have a very Merry Christmas. Be safe. Be blessed!

    -D Grant and The Appetizer crew.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW8oEWfuEIg}

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  5. Playlist for Christmas Fun 12-17-11 Weekend

    December 20, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    We hope you enjoyed our fun mix of great Christmas music. If you’d like information of what you heard, please Google or Facebook these artists. They’re all wonderful.

    Christmas weekend we have a special presentation of The Appetizer Christmas 2011 with traditional Christmas music reinterpreted for a modern context. We hope you enjoy!

    Playlist for Christmas Fun

    Alice Smith-Silver Bells (From the compilation album The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs)

    Bess Rogers-Little Saint Nick (single from her website)

    Hem-Peace At Last (from the album Hem Merry Happy Christmas)

    Fiona Apple-Frosty The Snowman (single)

    KT Tunstall-Sleigh Ride (from the compilation album The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs)
    Christmas

    Nicole Atkins-Blue Christmas

    A Fine Frenzy-Wish You Well (from the album Oh, Blue Christmas – EP)

    Holly Conlan-I’ll Be Home For Christmas (from the compilation album The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs)


    Coolfield    -Let it Snow ft. For Summer Hopes (from the compilation album A Very Indie Christmas)

    They Might Be Giants-Santa’s Beard (from the album Lincoln)

    Relient K-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; and the song 12 Days of Christmas (both from the album Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer)

    Weezer-The First Noel (from the album Christmas With Weezer)

    The Rocketboys-Up on a Housetop (single from their website from 2010)

    Trans-Siberian Orchestra-Christmas Canon Rock (from the album The Lost Christmas
    Eve)

    Travis-River (Joni Mitchell cover; from the album Christmas Calling)

    The Civil Wars    -Tracks in the Snow (digital release from their website)

    Seabird-O Come, O Come Emmanuel from the album Over the Hills and Everywhere – A Christmas Ep)

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  6. End of 2011 and You

    December 16, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    So the year is winding down and as we head towards Christmas, I just want to extend an invitation to you to be a part of The Appetizer.

    How?

    I want to know what you thought was the best music that came out this year. We still are taking votes for our Golden Fork Awards, but there were still tons of music that came out this year from artists all over the map. We played a lot of music, a lot of new music, and a lot of music from unknown and emerging artists. But chances are, we missed something.

    This is where you come in.

    Let us know what albums and songs from 2011 really struck a chord with you. For New Year’s Eve, we’ll be featuring some of the Best of 2011, and we’ll continue with that as we head into the first few weeks of the new year.

    How can you let us know what music you thought was great in 2011?

    That’s easy too. You can comment here, make a post of our Facebook page, or send us an email. The contact info is at our website.

    Thanks and have a happy holiday season!

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  7. More Christmas Fun

    December 15, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    And this stuff is free.

    If you haven’t partaken in the joys and wonders of Noisetrade, I encourage you to not waste anymore time. Noisetrade is a product of Derek Webb, acclaimed musician and songwriter. He understands not only the current state of the music industry, but also the hurdles, obstacles and struggles that emerging artists face in launching and promoting their career. Even established artists are facing some tough hurdles. And so, on Noisetrade, you can access and download singles, EPs, and albums from artists that are just trying to get some exposure.

    So in the box below, all you have to do is provide your email and zipcode. That info goes to the band or group. The zipcode helps them chart where to book shows, based on the amount of people from a region that downloads their music. It’s a great way to market, and I tip my hat to Webb for coming up with it. It’s how we were able to book Kelley McRae last month.

    There are a plethora of Christmas albums on the site. Since we featured a lot of the members of Ten out of Tenn this year, namely Amy Stroup, Katie Herzig, and our friend Andrew Belle, pick this one up and incorporate it into your holiday celebrations.

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  8. Christmas Fun

    December 13, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    As many of you know, I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas music. There are many reasons for this, mainly having worked in radio for so long that every year becomes a repeat of the previous one with having to be inundated with the same 20-30 songs played all day everyday for over a month. I don’t work in Top 40 radio on purpose, which is the same thing.

    However, lately there have been quite a few tracks written for this season that are original to the artist and not (for lack of a better term) covers of older Christmas songs. This week, as we get ready for another episode of our radio program, I want to share with you some of these fun, creative Christmas songs so you can add them to your music ensemble and incorporate them into your holiday celebration.

    I like videos, because they’re fun and can showcase a creative presence beyond just that of the music itself, so here are some fun videos to correspond with the tracks. Enjoy!

    The Killers-Don’t Shoot Me Santa

    Weird Al-Christmas At Ground Zero

    Weezer-Christmas Song

    More to come this week!

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  9. Girl Power Playlist

    December 11, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    Aside from the interviews with Mindy Smith and Courtney E Smith, we featured a few tracks that you might want some information on. Below is the list of music featured on this weekend’s episode of The Appetizer titled “Girl Power.”


    Mindy Smith-Love Love (from her album Stupid Love)




    Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs-Run To Me (from their album Under the Covers Vol. 1)




    Fiona Apple-Carrion (from her album Tital)




    Fiona Apple-Paper Bag (from her iTunes Originals-Fiona Apple )




    Elvis Costello-That’s not The Part Of Him You’re Leaving (from his album National Ransom )

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  10. Girl Power

    December 9, 2011 by DGrantSmith

    I know it sounds pretty cliche (and it was not the intention), but that’s the best title I could think of for a program that did something we hadn’t tried before: 2 interviews with 2 different people in the same show. Since both of our guests are female, then the title just works.

    Mindy Smith

    But seriously, this weekend our presentation is a really unique experience for not just radio listeners, but for me as well. I love getting to talk with people about music. I especially love getting to talk with musicians about music, their music, and the music that inspires them and shapes the art they create. I had a great conversation along those lines recently with an emerging indie artist named Mindy Smith. Mindy got her start as a songwriter from New York who traveled to Nashville, discovered a style of music she didn’t know and covered a classic Dolly Parton tune that put her on the map. Since then she’s recorded 3 studio albums and is currently working on a new one. She was traveling through Texas when she stopped off at our little home at Flyboy and recorded not only a fun conversation, but also some great unplugged songs. You can hear some of those tracks, as well as a tune we weren’t able to include in the show at our podcast site here.

    The other conversation was with another emerging voice in music, though she communicates in a different way, and that’s through media and books. Courtney E Smith is the author of Record Collecting For Girls, a great new book that any music fan or music nerd will certainly want to get their hands on. The book highlights not just her own selections and picks in music, but also encourages readers to pick and choose their own favorites from certain set criteria. Before she became an author, Courtney was one of the people behind the scenes at MTV that helped launched the careers on some now prominent indie acts like Death Cab, Vampire Weekend, the Shins and more. Our conversation deals with not just her role at MTV and her book, but observations about people and music, and our preferences for and against things we might not be aware of. You can hear an extended cut of the interview, including portions we left out of the radio show at our podcast page.

    You can listen to The Appetizer, and an episode titled Girl Power this weekend on stations across Texas including KACU, KTRL, and KVLU. Check station’s program schedule for date and time.

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