“Atmospheric Philly cinema-rockers iNFiNieN — who blend piano, many-pedaled guitars, sitar, Arabic melodies, complex percussion, and cooing female vocals straight out of a Blonde Redhead album.” (Philadelphia Weekly)

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Deena is Deena Shoshkes, the singer-songwriter who fronts the veteran Jersey power-pop group the Cucumbers. The sounds on Somewhere in Blue are a unique blend of new wave rockabilly, country and folk rock, filtered through Deena’s long-time indie pop sensibilities. Songs written with Tennessee-based lyricist David Graham (four of which appear on the CD) led Deena into country music, old and new, and southern rock, and inspired a new voice and direction in Deena’s solo songwriting as well. Recorded in Nashville, with producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Josh Rouse) and New Jersey, with The Laughing Boys, Tom Lucas and Ed Iglewski, the recordings bridge the distance between Deena’s roots in New Jersey music (from Hoboken indie pop to the Jersey shore) and alt country Americana. (via NotLame.com)

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Eeep! According to Dr. Cosmo, Canadian Invasion won’t be performing this Friday night on WPRB after all:

Due to a last-minute conflict, Philadelphia popsters Canadian Invasion will be unable to perform on Nocturnal Transmissions this Friday, April 24. I am working with the band to reschedule their appearance and will let you know as soon as this occurs.

As such, it looks like it will simply be me spinnin’ ‘n’ grinnin’ during the program. Tune in and let’s see where we go together! Avanti!

On Friday 4/24 at 10PM ET Dr. Cosmo and “Nocturnal Transmissions” welcome Philadelphia’s Canadian Invasion! (This performance has been postponed for a later date. Stay tuned!)

Take unlikely proportions of airline food, Built to Spill, and power pop sensibilities, mix, stir, electrify and bake over a copper wire, then serve chilled. This Philadelphia-based group answers your desperate musical questions with amusing and pointed lyrics and guitar whimsy. So says Magnet Magazine:

As if handed some imaginary baton from the late, great Bigger Lovers, the five-piece Canadian Invasion has inherited the title of Philadelphia’s best power-pop band. The proof is in sophomore album Three Cheers For The Invisible Hand (Transit Of Venus), a smartly written critique of—and ode to—suburbia. Three Cheers doesn’t rock the suburbs with rote teenage angst or anti-sprawl tirades, however; the voice of singer/guitarist Andy Canadian is coming from inside the ranch house, detailing the funny and sad lives of the members of an American family lost in their own bland anonymity. The clever lyrical conceit is held up by sturdy guitar-pop songwriting; Canadian Invasion sounds like Fountains Of Wayne with considerably less cheese, swapping regressive teenage fantasies and gimmicky Cars keyboards for Kinks-like character sketches and Teenage Fanclub guitar chime.

Intensely punkish and atmospheric lyricism stitched with dramatic shifts and structured intentionality is the cloth of progressive rock from which this band is made. Rather than recycling the old prog themes, The Tea Club forges new paths and creates a sound that is immediate and urgent.

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The PGSR is a performance-based music education program that utilizes the rock format as a way to teach children 7-18 how to play instruments. If you’ve never caught a PGSR showcase, don’t miss out!

“Nocturnal Transmissions” with Dr. Cosmo airs every Friday on WPRB, 10PM to 1 AM ET.

Direct from the desk of Dr. Cosmo, Esq.:

I have spent the past day sorting through boxes of old vinyl LPs from my basement. Some of these records I haven’t laid eyes on in 10 years and, in some cases, I haven’t actually spun these on the air since 1978. I’ve unearthed quite an eclectic collection of audio treasures.

Some of these tidbits are records that we listened to in high school. Some of the selections are from music videos that I worked on over the years in L.A. And, some of these gems date from the 60s (grade school and junior high dates for some of us).

All of this audio came into our lives many years before the wave of digital ones and zeros. Yes, it IS convenient to carry 10,000 songs to the station on my iPod. However, that convenience is just a little too comfortable so I have issued myself a performance challenge to produce a four-hour program using music that I haven’t previewed nor placed on a turntable for between 10 and 30 years. What will happen? What direction will present itself? Just how scratchy are some of these old 7″ jukebox veterans? I will be using the DiscWasher system (remember THAT?) quite a bit, I suspect. So many variables and unknowns…

I am excited.

My AIM is to listen to the music, to split my attention as performer and listener, to honor the role and, as much as I can honorably bear, BE the program.

So, my “usual” mix of digital offerings will be completely replaced by Olde School, black-plastic-with-a-hole-in-the-middle, licorice pizza, VINYL. For tonight’s edition of Nocturnal Transmissions, I will be foregoing the use of my iPod, iPhone, CD and DVD players, computers and using only the turntables in the studio as I spin ‘n’ grin with 33-1/3 r.p.m. and 45 r.p.m. 12″ and 7″ PVC platters in monaural, stereo, and SQ Quadraphonic (for those who still have their 70’s quad gear up & running…I’ll probably have a few words about that somewhere in the mix).