Playlists, upcoming albums, radio changes, and housekeeping

Playlists: I want to cover a few things with this post, but let's start with Other Music show playlists for the last 2 weeks. Instead of posting the song title info this time, here are some links to experience parts of these shows yourself. Let's start with the Paul/Killed In Cars guest spot: Paul put a mix on 8-tracks that covers most of the material he played on the show two weeks ago, which you can listen to here. For last week's show, I made a special mix of music related to chickens/eggs/birds (which I'll explain below). Unfortunately, streaming audio was unavailable at the station this weekend. Sorry if you tried to tune in over the internet. Download the Chicken Mix here and enjoy it yourself.

More upcoming records: I wanted to mention three more 2012 release announcements that I'm excited about. Dirty Projectors will release a new LP in July, Maps and Atlases release a new LP on April 17, and Igorrr expects to release a new album in December. Those are three of my favorite bands, and added to the other amazing releases slated for this year, it's clear that 2012 is going to be an exceptional year for recordings.

Other Music news: KZUM will be moving to new studios very soon. We don't have an exact date, but it's possible that we already broadcast our last show from the terminal building. I'll miss the old studios, and being downtown in general, but there will be great opportunities at the new location, including enough space to occasionally host live-in-the-studio performances on the show. Also, we've added a new DJ to the show! Please welcome Joseph, who also hosts a jazz/improvised music program called Out To Lunch every Thursday night from 10-midnight on KZUM. Joseph has incredible taste and he's going to be a great addition to the show. In related news, Malcom is entering a phase of semi-retirement from the program (but he'll still be on occasionally). We'll miss his presence and decade of experience on the program even more than the funky old studios we'll soon be leaving behind.

Reviews: I've received even more submissions, including another batch of material from Killed in Cars. I'm amazed and humbled at how great the majority of these albums are. It's going to take a long time to get caught up, but at least I'll have a good time getting there. It's been a couple of weeks since I got a chance to finish any reviews, but I have been listening and taking notes. Expect reviews soon...

Here's where I explain the "chicken mix," and how that relates to reviews: for the last few weeks, I've been busy preparing, prepping, modifying, and building materials for a little "urban flock" of 3 chickens. I'm not a very mechanically inclined fellow, and it took quite a while to everything together, but "the ladies" have arrived, and all seems to be well. Now that these girls are doing well, I'll be able to focus my attention elsewhere.

One final note before I dive into review-writing for the night: we knew this was going to happen soon, but today the increasingly sick elm tree in front of my house was removed by the city. It was time, but I'm still very sad about it. The tree was probably almost as old as my house, and one of maybe two of the original elm trees planted along my street in the early 20th century (the rest were killed by Dutch Elm disease in the 1980s). Cheers for all of the good years, noble tree.