1. the sold-out, capacity crowd of hardcore, open minded Bay Area music headz that fully embraced the diverse line-up of rock, hip-hop, djs, punk and indie bands.... can't thank you all enough for supporting our baby and summer kick-off party BFD 2008!

2. the triumphant return of the subsonic dance tent: how sick was DJ AM's set? what about mega miles and DJ omar droppin' all the phat flo fillas! Lyrics Born brought the house down with his infectious brand of East Bay underground funky fresh hip-hop. Steve Aoki is a freakin' lunatic (in a good way) and one of the best DJs the West Coast has to offer. Mstrkrft's set was legendary and really brought all the punk rockers and ravers together as one. Moby is still an electronic music genius and the SF live debut of Brooklyn's Santogold was one of my top 2 performances of the entire festival!

3. soundcheck local music stage: a vital component and essential ingredient to the success of BFD 08 was the strength of the local music scene represantin' this year! the stage was packed all day with both the usual suspects of the amazing Bay Area music scene AND thousands of brand new fans that were discovering these excellent local bands for the very first time. (i believe each local act that performed all increased their fanbase by 26.7%)

4. flogging molly : there was so much 'Green' woven into the fabric of BFD by the droves of flogging molly fans wearing the colors that i thought for a second we were at the Boston Garden rootin' for the damn Celtics. (they killed it, too)

5. alkaline trio's backstage acoustic performance: alkaline trio unplugged was pretty fantastic.

6. SF burlesque dancers vs. local band the hundred days : talk about utilizing your 25 minute opportunity to play in front of thousands @ BFD 2008! kudos to Kendra and the band for adding a very 'unique,' alluring and memorable touch to their performance. (though, i did have drunken nightmares that night about the 'clown lady' on stilts walking around the crowd passing out roses, yikes) http://www.myspace.com/thehundreddays

7. pennywise: punk rock legends still got it and their kick ass set generated one of the biggest mosh pits in the history of BFD!

8. the sea of killer band t-shirts: if i could make a mix tape from all the great band t-shirts donned by those in attendance it would sound like this: The Smiths, Pink Floyd , Minor Threat, Iron Maiden, Bob Marley, Vampire Weekend, The Clash, Black Flag, Public Enemy, The Cure , Radiohead, Misfits, Sigur Ros, Black Sabbath, The Cult, Beatles, Daft Punk and Velvet Underground.... yes, my utopian radio station!!

9. Woody's Coming at Cancer 2008 campaign @ BFD: big ups to Woody and the morning show posse -as well as those listeners that supported this worthy charity- for raising over $10,000 to help fight Lymphoma! (and props to Cypress Hill for donating their time at the backstage 'smoke out', too)

10.53. yes, reason #10 is simply this: $10.53 to experience over 30 incredible acts on 3 music stages at what was one of the best BFD's in its storied history!

SOUNDCHECK RADIO OVERTHROW with THE MATCHES!!

and to top off a crazy music-filled weekend for me, that saw UK rising stars THE WOMBATS at my popscene club last Thursday (www.popscene-sf.com), a stellar pre-BFD party on Friday with THE WHIGS , ACTION DESIGN and THE HUNDRED DAYS , and the afterparty of the year @ mezzanine on Saturday night (that put me in bed around 4am after Moby's ridiculously insane closing set), i had the privilege to host Oakland's THE MATCHES on soundcheck with an energetic live in-studio audience (listen here on the soundcheck page!)

much respect,
Aaron Axelsen
Live 105 Music Director

i'm feeling a bit fat right now, rubbing my belly as i type this in fact, because i've just consumed like seven of these damn tasty chocolate chip cookies that Emily Whitehurst of local buzz band THE ACTION DESIGN made for us last night on soundcheck. And speaking of tasty, how fantastic did the band sound last night live on soundcheck for an 'in-studio session?!' (the performance will be posted on this soundcheck blog ASAP!!)

you can catch The Action Design, The Hundred Days (sf) and The Whigs (all the way from Atlanta) at both the PRE-BFD PARTY this Friday night (9pm, 21+, FREE @ 330 ritch street, SF and i'll be djing at this pre-BFD shindig) AND of course all 3 acts will be performing at the shoreline this Saturday @ BFD 2008.

the new Action Design record is really excellent, too and they'll be selling them this Friday night where you'll be able to pick it up like 3 months before its officially released in September (i'm gonna load it into my ipod tonight after work and go for a run to try and burn off those aforementioned snacky cookies)

new event alert: BFD 2008 AFTER PARTY this Saturday @ Mezzanine with dj sets by MSTRKRFT, MOBY , SHIT DISCO, OMAR and MOTOR (uk) live!! (http://www.mezzaninesf.com/calendar.asp)

this Sunday, June 8 on soundcheck we'll be hijacked for an hour by Oakland next big thing contenders THE MATCHES for a Live 105 radio overthrow! the band will be performing live in the studio, guest djing with me and entertaining a live soundcheck in-studio audience as well. (Matches' fans that won tickets on soundcheck last week for their upcoming Fillmore show on 6.14 ALSO won passes to join me in the studio for a pizza party and hang session with the boys)

free giveaways slated for soundcheck this week: MY MORNING JACKET (Greek 9/19), THE MATCHES (Fillmore 6/14) and DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL (shoreline 7/19) with Atmosphere , Cut Copy, M83, Brand New, Airborne Toxic Event and much more...

highlights from the Sunday, June 1 episode of radio soundcheck:

5 most wanted new records- (texts, emails, phone requests)

1. WOLF PARADE - California dreamer (sub pop)
2. MIDDLE CLASS RUT- new low/busy bein' born (unsigned/Sacto band, must see them open up the festival stage on Saturday!)
3. RADIOHEAD - house of cards (ato)
4. SANTOGOLD - l.e.s artistes (first ever trip to SF in the subsonic tent at BFD!)
5. MY MORNING JACKET - touch me, i'm going to scream part 2 (ato)

hi-five the top 5 most requested Bay Area bands of the week:

1. FOXBORO HOT TUBS - ruby room (oh yes, finally a song about my favorite Oakland bar!)
2. LYRIC'S BORN - i like it i love it
3. APSIDE - she's lovely
4. THE HUNDRED DAYS - hey
5. THE PHENOMENAUTS - man alone

soundcheck single of the week:

PENDULUM - propane nightmares (import/Atlantic)

crazy week of shows, here's some help to guide you my friends:

Monday, 6.2: Chevelle/Sick Puppies @ Fillmore
Monday, 6.2: The Long Blondes (uk) @ Great American Music Hall
Thursday, 6.5: The Wombats (uk) @ popscene (www.popscene-sf.com)
Friday, 6.6:

bfd 08 was unveiled this past Monday on our fabulous morning show and we are absolutely thrilled here at live 105 to officially kick off the summer with an amazing music festival that harbors 3 music zones, 30+ acts and all for the whopping price of 3 grande, non-fat vanilla ice lattes! we offer a smorgasbord of musical stylings this year and if you have a penchant for the mosh-pit and anthemic punk rock anthems we give you PENNYWISE, ALKALINE TRIO, FLOGGING MOLLY and ANTI-FLAG. for the indie rock connoisseur we have MGMT, THE KOOKS, THE WHIGS, AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT and MIDDLE CLASS RUT and for those BFD seekers looking for a little more RAWK action we have Orange County faves ATREYU locked and loaded. providing the fresh summer hip-hop grooves we got West Coast kingpins CYPRESS HILL and local East Bay cool cat LYRICS BORN in da house. finally, if your looking to shake your ass and throw down to some funky BFD beats we've assembled a phat subsonic dance tent for y'all that features some strong talent, including MOBY, MSTRKRFT, DJ AM, SANTOGOLD, STEVE AOKI, MIKE RELM, PLAYRADIOPLAY and much more..... AND if you act now, we'll even throw in an AMAZING soundcheck local music stage, chalk full of the Bay Area's finest up-and-coming acts, like THE PHENOMAUNTS, MAGIC BULLETS, ACTION DESIGN, HERE HERE, THE HUNDRED DAYS, LOVE LIKE FIRE, APSIDE and THE FEDERALISTS all at no extra charge!!

tickets go on sale for only $10.53 this Thursday for the live 105 activists and Sunday @ 10am for everyone else at livenation.com

10 new records dominating my office stereo at the moment:

1. the presets- apocalypso (modular) for fans of: mstrkrft, cut copy, nine inch nails, depeche mode, does it offend you, yeah?
2. santogold- santogold (downtown) for fans of: m.i.a., gnarls barkley, lady sovereign, missy elliott, peaches, spank rock, noisettes
3. tilly and the wall- s/t (team love) for fans of: rilo kiley, bikini kill, sleater-kinney, bright eyes, the gossip, death cab for cutie
4. these new puritans- beat pyramid (domino) for fans of: joy division, nick cave, the horrors, the fall, birthday party, death rock
5. tapes 'n tapes- walk it off (xl recordings) for fans of: pavement, pixies, wolf parade, cold war kids, cool indie rock haircuts
6. darker my love- s/t (dangerbird records) for fans of: dandy warhols, spiritualized, kasabian, ride, nu-gaze, shoegaze
7. operator please- yes yes vindictive (import) for fans of: yeah yeah yeahs, perez hilton's head, b-52s, new young pony club, nu-rave
8. plants and animals- s/t (secret city records) for fans of: the shins, broken social scene, hipster Canadian bands, band of horses
9. lyrics born- everywhere at once (anti/quannum) for fans of: deltron 3030, dj shadow, prince paul, gorillaz, n.e.r.d, j5, backpack hip-hop
10. headlights- some racing, some stopping (polyvinyl records) for fans of: yo la tengo, the lilys, postal service, quasi, twee indie-pop

thanks for supporting radio soundcheck and please tune-in this Sunday for some stuff,
aaron axelsen

fresh off an amazing week of noise pop 2008 madness, punctuated by stellar shows i caught with Airborne Toxic Event, Cursive, The Virgins, Darker My Love, The Blakes, The Rosebuds and Manchester, England's psychedelic specialists Working For A Nuclear Free City, i'm recharged, reenergized and ready for my yearly pillage of Austin, Texas for the world-famous music festival known as SXSW (making this my 11th consecutive trip to south by southwest, damn)

this utopian vacation resort for music enthusiasts and industry types alike, features over 1,000 bands, daily and nightly parties, music showcases, seminars, workshops and yes, copious amounts of booze and schmoozing consumption to be had. (basically, you eat, breath and live music for 5 glorious days, starting from the moment you wake-up and going blissfully strong until you exhaustively pass out at 4am... not good times for my poor liver)

many excellent Bay Area bands are already en-route to the lone star state and will be proudly representing the local music scene, including Scissors For Lefty, Audrye Sessions, The Matches, Magic Bullets, Loquat, Built For the Sea, Port O'Brien, Minipop , Immigrant and The Dodos.

for those lucky soundcheck listeners attending sxsw 2008 this week, here is my list of 10 MUST SEE NEW BANDS:

FOALS- new Oxford post-punk collective that just inked to Sub Pop and sound a bit like the cure, gang of four and morphine!
DUFFY- northern soul & UK R&B revivalist makes her first buzzworthy performance here in the states. (the next amy winehouse or lily allen?)
MIDDLE CLASS RUT- my #1 new favorite band (uh, at least for this week) and well worth the 180 mile round trip effort i made two weeks ago out to the state capitol to see this highly-touted new Sacramento two-piece.
THESE NEW PURITANS- one of my many sxsw agendas is to scout new talent for future shows to book at my weekly popscene club and this new dark/death-rock UK act -originally tipped off to me LAST year @ sxsw by The Horrors- seems like they'd be a perfect fit here in SF at a Thursday night party!
THE TOUGH ALLIANCE- new Swedish indie-pop export and beloved by bloggers, think of this new group as the bastard stepchild of the beach boys and OMD.
DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?- nu-rave UK tweakers channeling the energy of daft punk and bloc party AND coming to Coachella, too
GRAND ARCHIVES- new folky-indie rock band from the very venerable Sub Pop family, remind me a bit of band of horses, nada surf and iron & wine.
LOW VS. DIAMOND- this will be my first opportunity to catch one of our most requested new soundcheck discoveries from 2007!
THE FASHION- i may be a bit biased 'cause the lead singer of this new Danish group and i share the last name (maybe he's like a distant cousin or something?), but regardless of this ancestry connection, i'm really excited to see this these new indie-disco faves! (for fans of the rapture, killers, lcd soundsystem, the glass)
DeVOTCHKA- yeah, i'm a sucker for moody, and gloomy cinematic indie rock, ala antony and the johnsons, arcade fire, beirut, decembrists, etc... combine all those elements, with a hint of Roy Orbison, and you get a pretty good idea of what this new Denver, Colorado 4-piece sound like.

also, on my list of must see acts @ sxsw 2008: Pigeon Detectives, Two Sheds, Be your own pet, Lightspeed Champion, Islands, She & Him, Santogold, A Place to Bury Strangers, Sea Wolf, Phantom Planet, The Kills and The Wombats!!

THIS WEEK ON SOUNDCHECK: 3.9

THE DUKE SPIRIT (uk) live soundcheck in-studio session!!!

and free tickets for SXSF: south by San Francisco music fest, featuring THE DUKE SPRIT, PERSEPHONE'S BEES and hot new Manchester commodity THE TING TINGS live this Monday, 3.10 @ the Rickshaw with Omar (popscene) and i djing. www.rickshawstop.com

thanks for supporting good music and radio soundcheck,
aaron axelsen
music director, live 105

NOISE POP 2008 RADIO OVERTHROW on SOUNDCHECK!

Tune in to a special Noisepop edition of Soundcheck this Sunday, February 24th from 7-10pm on LIVE 105 (105.3FM and online at live105.com).

SF's legendary new music festival NOISE POP turns 16 this year and hits the local club circuit February 26-March 2!

Organizers and founders Kevin Arnold and Jordan Kurland will be joining me this Sunday night @7pm armed with tons of new NOISE POP 2008 music to spin as well as giving away TWO highly-coveted badges to get you and a friend into ALL the shows and parties!