Arbor & Ardour

ultra honey earth day celebration, 1984.

As most of you are probably aware, this past Sunday was Earth Day, an opportunity for the recognition of nature's bounty and wonder. In honor of such a noble holiday, we formulated a playlist based on tunes relating to either trees or love. Or both, if we were especially lucky. The 'arbor' aspect is rather self-explanatory, serving as an ideal soundtrack for the numerous embraces you hopefully bestowed upon our rooted friends. 'Ardour', both auditorily pleasing and conducive to feelings of love and passion, served the dual purpose of reflecting our affection for the earth and wishing Beth fond tidings on her birthday [(b)earthday].

beat happening - honey pot
the clientele - my own face inside the trees
tyrannosaurus rex - woodland bop
lost in the trees - walk around the lake
of montreal - at night the trees aren't sleeping
orange juice - l.o.v.e. love
lost in the trees - tall trees
the mountain goats - earth air water trees
i'm from barcelona - treehouse
azure ray - trees keep growing
the blow - hey boy [remix]
devendra banhart - koreandogwood
françoise hardy - le temps de l'amour
david vandervelde - wisdom from a tree
jens lekman - maple leaves
edith piaf - la vie en rose
germans - nature's mouth
animal collective - leaf house
the field mice - everything about you
mandrew - cocktail tree
the beatles - norwegian wood
arbouretum - mohammed's hex & bounty
anathallo - the man who made dead trees bloom
dark meat - in the woods
the magnetic fields - nothing matters when we're dancing
peter björn & john - paris 2004
the clientele - elm grove window
beach house - apple orchard
let's go sailing - all i want from you is love
the beach boys - wouldn't it be nice
marc bolan & t.rex - hot love

Simply fantastic. I hope everyone felt akin to a dryad at least once. We did.

Fruit Salad

Sorry I'm a bit late! This week's theme was what it says: a delicious melange of fruit-related tunes. Just in time for what ought to be picnic weather!


jesus & mary chain - just like honey
the boy least likely to - i'm glad i hitched my apple wagon to your star
final fantasy - peach, plum, pear
miles better than the joanna newson version, btw
slowdive - melon yellow
jarvis cocker - fat children
too much fruit.
xiu xiu - the pineapple vs. the watermelon
elk city - cherries in the snow
serge gainsbourg & charlotte gainsbourg - lemon incest
macromantics - apple crumble
soft machine - orange skin food
family fodder - banana
marnie stern - grapefruit
the beatles - strawberry fields forever
little richard - tutti frutti
drop the lime - butterscotch
cat power - red apples
beat happening - bad seeds
clinic visitations - harvest (within you)
neutral milk hotel - three peaches
yoko ono f. peaches - kiss kiss kiss
air - cherry blossom girl
prince - raspberry beret
el perro del mar - candy
almost always fruit flavored
the books - lemon of pink
patrick wolf - bluebells
beach house - apple orchard
eagles of death metal - cherry cola


This week also featured our in-house Prince expert, Chris Robinson! Chris knows everything even mildly interesting about Prince Rogers Nelson, which we think is pretty rad. We may be bringing him back on Ultra Honey sometime soon, especially if we are able to realize our fondly held dream of structuring each week's theme around a different Prince song. If only we had remembered to play When Doves Cry during bird week! Alas.

Roy G. Biv

According to Wikipedia, a rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a nearly continuous spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the earth's atmosphere.
This week, it ALSO happened to be the theme of our show. Hurrah.
Our playlist was organized in order of the natural rainbow's colors (not the backwards 'double loop'--wiki to satiate your curiosity, if you desire), with some traxx relating to various other aspects rainbow traits and lore. These included but were not limited to: rain, leprechauns, and, accordingly, pots of gold.

the apples in stereo - the rainbow
cold war kids - red wine, success!
the book of knots - red apple boy
sonmi - ready, red
devendra banhart - the red lagoon
vashti bunyan - rainbow river
air - redhead girl
alexi murdoch - orange sky
jonathan richman - rockin' rockin' leprechauns
orange juice - simply thrilled honey
television personalities - where the rainbow ends
the flaming lips - she don't use jelly [by request]
the twilight sad - last year's rain didn't fall
drop the lime - butterscotch [the candy of an orangey-yellow hue, and thus an excellent transition, in case you were put off]
the beatles - yellow submarine
fruit bats - rainbow sign
the ditty bops - pale yellow
the woggles - it's not about what i want, it's what you got
the artichoke - god save the queen
the chills - green-eyed owl
simon & garfunkel - big bright green pleasure machine
the rolling stones - she's a rainbow
big sir - east side west side blue
the exploding hearts - you're black and blue
gruff rhys - painting people blue
anagram - blue atlantic
the eagles of death metal - solid gold
animal collective - the purple bottle
PRINCE - PURPLE RAIN
lightning bolt - wonderful rainbow
gogol bordello - start wearing purple
the blow - pile of gold

Also, if you listened to the show, perhaps you heard the brief description of a cult website devoted to marshmallow peeps, which was apparently featured on CNN. I was unable to find the exact link, but did come across this one page that gives you a good summary of what is known as 'peep jousting'. Click if interested. Perhaps this can be added to your undoubtedly packed list of Easter-related activities (though in my opinion, the mutual semi-destruction of naturally inanimate marshamallow chicks is mildly disturbing).
Have a sweet next seven days, and start racking your brainz for fruit-related songs that you can request during our upcoming show.