CDs, CDs, CDs!

As a lot of music listeners know, Tuesdays mean CD release day at most major record stores. Well CJAM also gets these CDs, and we get all of them! Now when you get over a hundred CDs every week, there is no possible way, unless you have some kind of warehouse, that you can store them all. This is where CJAM's own Chris White comes in. Chris and his review army go through CD after CD and weeds them out. You can read the reviews Chris writes at his blog. There are many reasons why certain CDs don't make it into the CD library at CJAM. Some CDs just are plain terrible, well others might be too mainstream for the station's mandate to be independent of commercial radio. The CDs that do make it through the gauntlet make it into the on air studio, which is a set of CDs that live in the production studio and are easily accessed by the DJs.

To finish off this post, I am going to review a CD. I am going to do this every so often to mix up the pace of this blog.

Artist: Against Me!
Album: New Wave
Label: Sire Records



The boys of Against Me! have come back after their 2005, Searching for a Former Clarity, album with a record that a lot of die hards might see as too soft. On New Wave, Against Me! has toned down their brash vocals and crunching guitars and have turned to a more melody driven watered down punk rock. Now I sound extremely critical and negative with my description but please understand me, I really love this album. I find the songs on New Wave to be easy to listen to, as opposed to older albums which I found I needed to be in a certain mood, as well as New Wave seems to have lyrics that aren't as in your face, smashing the radical ideas of Against Me! into your brain.

Sadly, when a band takes a turn like this there are a lot of people who are going to yell, "sell out!" And if selling out is making a record that is marketable to a large audience, then yes I guess they sound out. Against Me! has made a catchy record, have brought some friends along for the ride (track 6 features a great duet with Canada's own Tegan Quin from Tegan and Sarah) and has become a mainstay in my CD player since the record came out.

Songs to listen to: Bourne on the FM waves of the heart feat. Tegan Quin
Sounds like: Rocket From the Crypt, The Clash

p.s. if you enjoy the album OR not, check out Ben Lee's version of New Wave