ALL THE RAGE BACK HOME: I first started working with Interpol in 2002, Arcade Fire in 2004 and Spoon in 2005. Nearly a decade later, Arcade Fire is about to launch another leg of their U.S. arena tour (from Spaceland to two nights at the L.A. Forum!!), promoting Reflektor and the current single "Normal Person." Interpol just released their BEST song since "Slow Hands" with "All the Rage Back Home," with Risa at Beggars leading the campaign, and Spoon have a new label (Loma Vista), now part of Concord Music Group.

The new Spoon single, "Do You," has been #1 Most Added at Triple A for the past two weeks, and is already on Alt Nation, WEQX, KROX, KBZT and KNRK, with a Modern Rock add-date set for 7/29. The Spoon album, They Want My Soul, will be released on 8/5 (my birthday), and they will be opening for Arcade Fire that night in San Diego. Spoon also opened for Arcade Fire on 8/5 at Madison Square Garden in 2010, and I was there as well. Leslie Fram, then PD at WRXP, bought me dinner that night, Matt Pinfield introduced Spoon onstage and Britt muttered "Happy Birthday, Ka-ren" once between songs. It was my indie version of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to JFK at MSG in 1962. Later that year, on 8/5, Marilyn Monroe died. She was 36...

While radio (and the music business in general) has changed radically in the past decade, there remains only ONE WAY to promote artists whose music doesn’t "fit" the mainstream: WITH PASSION. Whether it’s Arcade Fire, Interpol, Spoon or any other artist I’ve bled for, the first step is to find your "radio partners"—the key programmers willing to take a shot on a new band, with the ultimate goal of building "the story" until the artist’s music is at a point where it "redefines" the mainstream. Obviously, many artists have hugely successful and lengthy careers without ever having a radio hit, but there’s no debate that radio is still the #1 way to break artists. So for the foreseeable future, or until I’m rendered obsolete, I’ll allow myself to be judged by that Tuesday add-date "report card."…

The challenge of how to "start" records at Modern Rock is being compromised further when the only new reporters being added to the panel are what we refer to in the HITS bunker as "aftermarket stations," meaning they ONLY play the proven hits…

The bright spot in an otherwise difficult Tuesday was the massive, and I mean MASSIVE launch Rob Goldklang and Heather Luke at WB had on the Priory single "Weekend": Over 30 adds on the first week! It helps that the song is a one-list, top-down SMASH, but still, this is promotion at its FINEST. Major kudos to all! Rob is dropping the new Death From Above 1979 track "Trainwreck 1979" this week, with 91X and WWCD already on board…

What better way to celebrate July 14 than by adding the new Bastille single "Flaws," or so thought WBOS, WSUN, WWCD, KTCL, KRXP and WZNE. "LET THEM EAT CAKE," proclaimed Capitol’s Bill Carroll and Howard P…

A standing ovation to Ron Cerrito and Amanda Walk for having their best week to date with Milky Chance’s "Stolen Dance." Like we told you months ago, this is the perfect summer song for the format….

Kurt Steffek at Razor & Tie had another extraordinary week with Pretty Reckless’ "Heaven Knows," with KFMA, X-96, WEDG and KBZT now onboard, following the huge KROQ add last week!...

The new Neighbourhood single is called "Let It Go." Any parent of a living thing under the age of 10 would rather be exposed to an antibiotic-resistant flesh-eating bacteria than to hear a different song by the same title ever again. Columbia’s Mike DePippa and new hire Darice Lee (Hi, Darice!) are on their way to breaking Hozier’s "Take Me to Church" at the format. Seriously, I’m Jewish and this song has made me a believer…

I think we all agree that the word moist is the absolute WORST WORD EVER. There is no runner-up. That said, I absolutely ADORE the word gooey. EVEN BETTER is the song "Gooey" by Glass Animals, championed by Lazlo at KRBZ and Jeff Regan at Alt Nation. "Sexy," declared KNDD’s Pepper Ashley, after I sent her the link. This is one to watch.