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Arjan Tupan's avatar

Had quite a bit of fun this weekend. I had never heard, or at least remembered hearing, the song I Shall Sing by Art Garfunkel. Other than that I had some KLF, a bit of Love And Pride.

But I also liked the early 90s house feel of this tune over on new music platform Sound dot xyz: https://www.sound.xyz/xinobi/extinction-event-with-moullinex

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

It's always a good time for 90s House music!

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Timothy Nisly's avatar

I LOVE this track my friend Caleb just released. https://open.spotify.com/album/1usKI3sRu1aZlMwFFWpMEy

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Terry Barr's avatar

The latest from The National, John Prine's The Missing Years, and Durand Jones' first solo album!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

"Wait 'Til Get Over" is great ! I'm bummed I missed this month's record discussion. Soccer's over, and the grad parties are all done, so hopefully I can start making these.

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Jim Ruland's avatar

Together Pangea

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I picked "Badillac" at random 'cause I liked the title, and it rips. If you had to pick, which one should I check out next?

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Justin Steiner's avatar

"Badillac" is great.

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Jim Ruland's avatar

They are going to be playing the album Living Dummy for its anniversary next month. So maybe there?

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I'm on it. Thanks!

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Glenn Cook's avatar

The entire playlist to The Bear, Season 2, which for some reason decided to mine much of my music collection.

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jasonelambeth's avatar

I’m about half way through the season and I’ve been loving the music selection.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Every one of my social media feeds is full of people raving about this soundtrack. I think (?) Hulu is the only streaming service we have left, so I'm in luck!

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Glenn Cook's avatar

It doesn’t hurt that the show also is (debatably) the best on TV this year.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Lots of 90s hip hop this week, including Kool Keith, EPMD (late 80s too), Tribe Called Quest, and a bunch of others.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Nice! Kind of a gut punch that "Strictly Business" just turned 35, and that Midnight Marauders turns 30 later this year. Both are amazing though. If you're interested, Jesse Ducker did a cool lookback at the EPMD record a few weeks ago: https://albumism.com/features/epmd-debut-album-strictly-business-album-anniversary

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Nice! This was an incredible album (Strictly Business, I mean). I completely missed it when I was a kid for whatever reason, too focused on whatever crap was on the radio in front of me at the time. So, the nostalgia others feel when listening to EPMD is lost on me! Not so with Tribe, though- they were way more popular locally.

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Brad Carl's avatar

Queens Of The Stone Age - In Times New Roman...

The Ruen Brothers - Ten Paces

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Weathervanes

The Alarm - Forwards

Spoon - Memory Dust EP

Also a couple of projects from Rick Springfield I didn't know about:

The Red Locusts - very Beatlesesque.

The Morris Springfield Project - can only find this on Bandcamp

There's also this guy I know who happens to have the same name as mine that has a cool song out called "Rebound Girl."

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

The resemblance is uncanny! :)

https://open.spotify.com/track/4LZa9sjcFY0tnxpsNN1zrn?si=a2ca8e19ace14b18

Also: I did not know The Alarm (do I have to call them "The Alarm MM++" now?) had a new record out!

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Brad Carl's avatar

:) ;)

I think it's still acceptable to refer to them as simply "The Alarm." Kind of like when Prince became a symbol. On the radio back in the day we still called him "Prince."

I really like the new album. I've liked a few of their more recent releases, actually.

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Margaret Goff's avatar

Saturday afternoon marked the return of the 11th Annual Grateful Dead Meetup at the Movies, featuring Jerry and the boys at Soldier Field in Chicago on Solstice, June 22, 1991. Sitting on double keyboards were Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby, replacing (I hate the term) the great Brent Midland who passed from a drug overdose.

The set list for Soldier Field on 6/22/1991:

Set 1:

Hell in a Bucket

Shakedown Street

Wang Dang Doodle

Friend of the Devil

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Brown Eyed Women

Let it Grow

SET 2:

Foolish Heart

Looks Like Rain

Crazy Fingers

Playing in the Band

Terrapin Station

Drums

Space

Dark Star

Black Peter

One More Saturday Night

Encore: The Weight

The film itself had its good points and bad points. The good points included seeing more up close coverage from Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzman for extended periods. Of course Bob Weir, in excellent vocal form and Jerry himself. The real treat for me was watching the upclose delivery of soloing during Drums by Micky Hart, who, in my estimation, has always gets received too little coverage of his mind blowing techniques. The theater sound was able replicate the effects of Hart’s Drums well.

The film editors cut away from Jerry’s solo licks often in lieu of showing backstage happenings of other band members. Talking with other Deadheads after the show we all felt that was a serious Achilles heel of the production. We all were so disappointed that when Jerry was getting into his prime every song, the cameras cut away.

To say that Bruce Hornsby looked uncomfortable during the structured parts of the music would be a gross understatement. Hornsby looked like he was struggling to keep pace with the rest of the band until the free-flowing parts came into play, and it was there he found his comfort zone. Nobody should ever look like they’re ever struggling through “Wang Dang Doodle”. But Hornsby pulled out his Squeeze Box and delivered one hell of an amazing delivery during “Playing in the Band” that had me thinking the keys might fall off and the bellows melt. It was absolutely mindblowing and an unexpected melding with the rest of the band. He found his place.

Vince Welnick looked like a permanent fixture, with a smoke at times hanging from his lips, until he took another drag and returned to singing. His keyboard work looked effortless and his fingers seemed to skip along in pure pleasure.

“Hell in a Bucket” reeled me in right from the start and as the set list progressed I was in a state of pure delight. I had not seen these shows because I was involved for many years in an offshore sailboat racing fleet that was a seriou commitment of time and energy. It was hard not to have gone, but I also was feeling without Brent that it would be the same. To some degree that was true. The Dead never stopped playing between songs when Brent was alive, they worked through key changes and patterns providing hints of possible song choices until one emerged. Now there were stops between songs that broke that connectivity and flow they were known for. But it was easy enough to overlook after the fourth song. It was watching Bruce Hornsby look like he was going to lay an egg that kept me wary during the first set. But he pulled through in the end.

Favorites of mine that popped up included “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, the elusive “Dark Star” which started making its return after many elusive years, and “Black Peter”. But it was the encore that shot a chill right up my spine and nearly made me cry with glee at their delivery of “The Weight”.

As the few of us who came to the show, whether it be through the lack of publicity about the film, or attrition of music listeners of The Dead, we vowed to meet up again next year… and bring some “Shakedown Street” to the parking lot beforehand.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Sounds like a killer film, and thanks for the great breakdown! The setlist covers most of my favorites, so I'm already sold.

Sailboat racing?

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Katie Burkhart's avatar

I woke up with Hooked On A Feeling in my head. I listened to it quite a few times over the last couple of weeks.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6Ac4NVYYl2U73QiTt11ZKd?si=bcceuNPxTNSXu7eYUtMCWw

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Arjan Tupan's avatar

Oh, yes, love that song.

I thought Ally McBeal was a wonderful series. Loved the weirdness in that show.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Not a bad way to start the day!

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Andres's avatar

Hi Kevin and fellow readers and writers! I’m waiting for a Lake Street Dive record I ordered online yesterday. A band I discovered thanks to you! So thanks for that 😉

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Right on!

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Wallytbm's avatar

I've been catching up on several releases by the band Brideshead and anyone who collects 45 rom or 7" singles will enjoy this song - https://youtu.be/TMPbyIhOyig

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

FWIW, I'm still down an Asteroid no. 4 hole thanks to your mention of them last week. What a band!

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Wallytbm's avatar

Very cool, I discovered them when a small local label decided to release one of their albums and I was hooked & then of course when they did a cover of my favorite Church songs, that didn't hurt either 😀

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Lol. I just bought that record. I'd listened to their version of "To Be In Your Eyes" a bunch of times, so it made sense.

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Kiley Larsen's avatar

Speaking of R.E.M., you see that random “Strange Currencies” single drop this weekend? Not sure why that is a thing, ha!

Really enjoying Freeman DeJongh’s ‘Dreadful Feelings’ and trying to buy into the Militarie Gun hype - starts off white hit before sagging after a few listens.

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Justin Steiner's avatar

"Strange Currencies" is in the new season of The Bear.

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Kiley Larsen's avatar

Ah, thanks for the note. Getting into season 2 this week - great music in each episode!

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Justin Steiner's avatar

Absolutely!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I hadn't! After reading below, it's one more sign that I need to watch The Bear.

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Kiley Larsen's avatar

I'm not sure if this is an endorsement or not, but I kinda hate tv shows and season one of The Bear is the best thing I've seen in a while. If you've ever worked in a kitchen, you'll especially love it / have 'nam flashbacks.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I have. I still have issues going to IHOP or similar.

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Mark Nash's avatar

I’ve been back and forth between two very different albums.

The first is Solstice by Macroblank which is a new artist to me (https://macroblank.bandcamp.com/album/solstice). A fantastic, very chilled album. Great focus music for me.

The second is Ray Price’s Night Life which I was introduced to on Listening Sessions (https://open.substack.com/pub/listeningsessions/p/ray-prices-night-life-and-the-fork). Can’t seem to get enough of this and have been listening to it daily for the last week.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Really dug the Macroblank record! Good for writing.

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Kristen Fung's avatar

Just did a website redesign and have been listening to a lot of Dream Pop because that is the feeling I wanted to have.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Your own website, or someone else's?

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Kristen Fung's avatar

Mine. I am not a talented web designer. The Dream Pop and Bedroom Pop kept me calm during html scavenger hunts and also wanting to bring the calm to things that are frustrating to people --like navigating sprawling Los Angeles.

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Katie Wojciechowski's avatar

Been listening a lot to the new Jason Isbell, as well as the new Jess Williamson album "Time Ain't Accidental."

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I finally listened to Weathervanes last week, and now I'm wondering what took me so long.

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Pete Riddle's avatar

I am at the start of my 8 days of live music overload

- Friday was Bartees Strange, Dijon, Clairo, and Boygenius. Boygenius was everything I expected and more. For the van load of teenagers I drove, it was life-changing.

- Tonight is Toad the West Sprocket with Marcy Playground.

- Saturday is Taylor Swift….because I am a good parent 😜

But hey, I’ve also been enjoying the new singles collection from Wye Oak - Every Day Like the Last.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

What a week! Would love to see Boygenius play. Always awesome to see kids excited after a show too.

If you're interested, Abandoned Albums interviewed Toad the Wet Sprockets' Glen Phillips not too long ago: https://abandonedalbums.com/2023/03/1809/

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Binnie Klein's avatar

I'm really liking "Francesca" by Hozier, "The Fall," by Gregory Alan Isakov, "Big Eye" by Christine and the Queens, and "Catalyst" by Rising Appalachia

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jasonelambeth's avatar

I was tasked with listening to the new albums by Tough Age and feeble little horse last week and quite liked them a lot.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Giving feeble little horse a first listen as I type this. So far, so good!

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jasonelambeth's avatar

Lots of pretty interesting sounds on there!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Right?

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Steve Goldberg's avatar

I've been going through some of my all-time favorite albums trying to narrow it down to what I want to discuss at next month's album of the month club discussion. I won't give away the winner, but a couple that I seriously considered were: Brian Eno/David Byrne "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," Japan "Tin Drum" and Thomas Dolby "The Flat Earth." All three masterful, immersive albums.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

If those 3 didn't make the cut, I can't wait to see what did! I mentioned it upthread, but I was bummed to miss Sunday's call. Had one last grad party to go to.

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Justin Steiner's avatar

Bonny Doon's Let There Be Music and Deer Tick's Emotional Contracts are the two for me at the moment.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Huge +1 for Deer Tick.

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Justin Steiner's avatar

"The Real Thing" is a great album closer.

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Lisa Says's avatar

My son’s band (he’s the drummer - they wrote & recorded this one last year when they were 17):

https://music.apple.com/us/album/hey-you-there/1661039949?i=1661039950

And my son’s friend’s band (he wrote, played all the instruments, sang & recorded this song himself):

https://music.apple.com/us/album/last-thing-you-wanted/1540632633?i=1540632634

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Senor Fix's avatar

Johanna Samuels album Bystander somehow came into my earholes and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my friend Josh produced the album. It's quite good, growing on me with each listen and I'm not saying that b/c he's a friend. Listening to the album got me thinking about another recent project of his so next I listened to Muzz which is SO good. Next it was on to Bonnie Light Horseman... needless to say, it was a very good weekend.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I still haven't quite made it to Bystanders, but this review says Josh did some great work!

https://open.substack.com/pub/mattberenson/p/welcome-to-the-club-johanna-samuels?r=3cbf2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Senor Fix's avatar

Ah hah, that's where I discovered it! So much input it is often hard to remember the sources.

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Norman's avatar

Highlights of the week were Bill Evans and The Raconteurs. For a deeper listen, I hope this is OK with Kevin, you can checkout my blog about this weeks listenings. It ran a bit long which is why I didn't just copy and paste in this comment box. And as always, thanks Kevin for some more great tunes, I need to re listen to REM and introduce myself to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. https://wordpress.com/post/weatheredmusic.ca/4885

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Of course it's okay! Love "Drums & Wires"- "life begins at the Hop" might be my fave XTC track. Popsicko too!

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Shaggy Snodgrass's avatar

I tried out Jason Isbell's new one, bc so many folks were talking about it; but it didn't really do anything for me. Win some, lose some.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Nothin' wrong with that!

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Amy McGrath's avatar

Bopping around my trial subscription to SiriusXM:

Hot Time In The Town of Berlin - Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters (1944)

Terry - Twinkle (1964)

Escapism - RAYE w/070 Shake (2023)

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Sirius XM is dangerous if I'm driving. Too many choices! lol. Have a favorite channel yet?

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Amy McGrath's avatar

Goes without saying: The Beatles Channel (18) 😆😆

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

...just meet me halfway over and over and over again...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pYNd0MSVXs

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

That's one I haven't heard in a while!

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

...just cranking out daily rewatches of Over The Top :)...

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Lol. Awesome.

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Marmi's avatar

My best friend reminded me about the freestyle genre (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force, Stacey Q, The Jets) and said she discovered an artist today who is carrying the torch called The Galleria. Listening to them right now and it's taking me back big time!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Oh wow! Those names take me back. I mean, mostly to terribly awkward junior dances, but still. lol. I'm gonna have to check The Galleria out!

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Marmi's avatar

They're so fun! They do not have too many songs but there's multiple dub versions of each, so a good half hour or so 😀 Where I grew up in SoCal there was a mall called The Galleria and apparently there was also one in NJ, which is what this group named themselves after. I mean brilliant move to appeal to us Gen X huh!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Portland had one too, so yes! lol.

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Lisa Says's avatar

And this new one, by Mean Sweetie:

https://on.soundcloud.com/hsZih5TW4hbeVTYKA

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Margaret Goff's avatar

I truly enjoyed myself, as did my ex-boyfriend. What can I say, I don’t hold grudges. He never saw a show. This was my first ever movie review. Obviously its a subject that I’m well schooled on. I grew up with my father owning a boat that raced on Lake Ontario. I crewed on boats in Chicago, (which was how I met my husband), and then in Florida, for my BIL, a bit, but did some more higher profile events.we also had a sailboat for cruising and a couple of other boats. Life was good for a while. I so wanted to do liveaboard in the USVI, but my health had other plans for me.

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Ben Wakeman's avatar

I'm a long-time fan of Jason Isbell and I've been enjoying his latest release so much. When I thought his songwriting couldn't get better he leveled up yet again. He has a way of crafting songs that feel like short stories in their polished completeness. "Cast Iron Skillet" is such a gorgeous song.

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