Dreamy atlantic blue song

August 20, 2012 7:53 AM

Song ID help: spacey, dreampop, female vocalist(s), with the refrain 'memories of Atlantic blue.'

Yesterday while driving near Burlington, Vermont, I heard a song on the radio, and was out of range before it was back-announced. Due to a busted radio dial, I also do not know which radio station it was, so I can't find an online playlist (I'm guessing it was a college radio station though). The song attributes, best I can remember:

- Female vocals, possibly two singers.
- Music was guitar-based, dreampop-ish, quiet, somewhere between Tones on Tail's 'Twist,' Lush, and the Cocteau Twins.
- The phrase 'Atlantic blue' (or something similar) was repeated several times, including the phrase 'memories of Atlantic Blue.'

Googling brings up a whole lot of songs with 'atlantic blue' that are nowhere near what I heard.

posted by googly to media & arts (17 answers total)

Ivy, Edge of the Ocean?
posted by crush-onastick at 8:03 AM on August 20, 2012

Sadly, no. But that's the right feel for the music (drums were less dancey in the song I heard) and the vocals. And I just found a new song I like!
posted by googly at 8:16 AM on August 20, 2012

Could it have been Enya - Caribbean Blue?
posted by azlondon at 8:45 AM on August 20, 2012

Not Enya. The Ivy song matches the general feel much more closely.
posted by googly at 8:47 AM on August 20, 2012

Long shot, but do you remember around what time of day the song was playing? A couple college stations in that areas post their playlists by time of day, so process of elimination would be easier.
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:33 AM on August 20, 2012

Good call! It was around 3pm on Sunday, which led me to this page for WRUV. Coincidentally, the first song in the stream (0:00-1:16) that plays for "DJ AWOL 1" is the song I'm looking for! No playlist though.

And on second listen it may not be 'atlantic blue' after all, but possibly 'electric blue' or something else...
posted by googly at 10:03 AM on August 20, 2012

Ladytron? I don't know the band well enough to pinpoint, but they sound a lot like Ivy up there in a lot of ways.
posted by Jacen at 10:30 AM on August 20, 2012

The lyrics don't show up in a google search as far as I can tell, so I'd call or e-mail the station.
posted by sonmi at 10:38 AM on August 20, 2012

It starts playing at the end of the set before DJ Awol 1, so I'd email that DJ. I did not recognize it personally and couldn't get any hits off searching the lyrics I picked out.
posted by crush-onastick at 11:52 AM on August 20, 2012

I tried running the song through both Shazam and SoundHound on my iPhone and neither of those apps recognized it. I think everyone else is right, and your best bet is to talk to someone at the station.
posted by jessypie at 11:54 AM on August 20, 2012

(BTW, I would lay down good money that it is NOT Ladytron)
posted by crush-onastick at 12:01 PM on August 20, 2012

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I also tried Shazam, Soundhound, and lots of lyric googling to no avail. The previous DJ is listed as being the "Native Metal" guy, but the stream of his set doesn't have any metal at all, so I can't believe that is who was actually DJing at that time. I did send a message to the main station email address.
posted by googly at 12:06 PM on August 20, 2012

I listened to that stream for while, and since there were no breaks for song IDs/station IDs/DJ banter/whatever, I'm sure that DJ AWOL is a generic schedule fill-in for "couldn't find anyone to fill the slot" or "DJ didn't show up", which is not an uncommon problem on college stations in the summer. The station manager should be able to figure out what playlist was set to play at that time. I tried to figure out what the first five songs were, but couldn't identify any of them, so perhaps they are all from an obscure compilation.

If you hear back, please let us know what the song was.
posted by otters walk among us at 12:24 PM on August 20, 2012

It's a piss, too--we might have been able to get it from an online playlist if we had checked in a little earlier! Their playlist page ostensibly goes back 24 hours (scroll down), but it stops at 5:25 on Sunday. Someone at the station should be able to pull up the rest of that archive, though.
posted by dlugoczaj at 12:34 PM on August 20, 2012

It sounds like "mid-atlantic blue" to me.
posted by grog at 4:46 PM on August 20, 2012

Did you ever identify the song? Because I'm pretty sure the song I'm listening to right now is the same one I remember hearing from the radio's stream - "Gainesville" by Pure Bathing Culture.
posted by jessypie at 11:53 AM on December 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wahoo! jessypie FTW 3 months later. Thank you!!!
posted by googly at 8:17 AM on December 14, 2012