Good morning! Welcome to each of you who joined us this past week! You’ve landed at what was recently described as “the nicest place on the internet.“ Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, I want to thank those who have recently upgraded their subscriptions. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Thank you!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
Also, just a quick reminder that Sam Colt & I finished counting down our Top 100 records. We’ve gota running playlist for this project, and have been adding to it each week.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out! Get caught up & join us Wednesday as we share a recap of the project.
On to the music:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation:
Now it’s your turn.
What caught your ear this week? Any luck crate digging? How ‘bout at yard sales? Any upcoming releases or shows you’re excited about?
Getting excited here for the new Radio Free ABQ release from @Dave Purcell. And been listening to a lot of Japandroids' Post-Nothing in light of the release of their (disappointing) new record. Wrote them up in our new post.
From a relatively unfamiliar standpoint I have to say I rather like Fate and Alcohol. I think it’s more accessible than Post-Nothing and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Thanks for the link! I think I commented directly on the piece, but this is a great write up of Radio Free ABQs record, and I hope a bunch of people see it and give it a listen!
Also: I can’t listen to the Japandroids record w/o being a little bummed that it’s the last we’ll hear from ‘em!
I'm listening to the new Japandroids (so sad it's the last one) album. Also digging into Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers after seeing "Heartbreakers Beach Party" last week.
And catching up on some other new-ish releases like Devo's latest.
Oooh Tones on Tail! Haven’t heard of them in a while! Go! was one of the teen dance club songs that became somewhat of an anthem in my high school days.
I’ve continued listening to the Cranberries a lot, and after discussions around the Substack world (Lou!) I asked my car Spotify to play Royal Otis, and the first track it played was their cover of Linger!! A free days later, I asked my car to play Linger (I don’t pay for anything but one stream of Amazon music for my kitchen echo lol), so it played me “Linger radio” and the first song was the Royal Otis cover! Loved it! Then it took at least 4 more car trips for me to hear the original lol. Heard a lot of great stuff in the meantime though.
Also, went through my vinyl collection to find songs related to the theme of Death for the brewery vinyl night (a month of spooky theme nights for Halloween), which prompted me to listen to the entirety of Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart by Camper Van Beethoven- which contains the track O Death, and is such a fantastic song. Great album start to finish! It would absolutely be in my top 100! (I also played Fly on the Windscreen by Depeche Mode, Pretty Girls Make Graves by the Smiths, Dead Souls by Joy Division, and The People That Grinned Themselves to Death by the Housemartins). I then listened to Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears because every time I look through my vinyl I come across it and have to play it!
Good hahahaha! As a teacher I super hate when I spell things wrong!! But, my mind has not read the spelling properly until just now seeing it spelled with an “e,” so I totally had to verify and yep it’s an “e”
Ooh, nice to see "Less Than" on your list! Not that NIN was ever concerned with radio hits, but I still maintain that one deserved more airplay.
This weekend, I found Ethel Cain's 'Preacher's Daughter' for the first time, and I barely know what to do with myself. I'd been looking for albums that channelled horror the same way scary movies do, and boy did I find one... Currently attempting to write about it.
Kevin and I closed out our Top 100 Albums journey, and there were a bunch of goodies in Kevin's that I've been jamming out to. Also been really getting into Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats" and Santana's "Abraxas." Also tepidly reacquainting myself with Grateful Dead: "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" are great, but I'm not sure how I'll feel about their '60s stuff.
Oh I absolutely like his solo work more than the Mothers stuff too. And there’s an insane amount of it. One of the craziest (if not THE craziest) catalogs of any artist in history.
Not for nothing, the 'Dead "just" missed making my list-- mostly, 'cause I couldn't decide between those two albums (with In The Dark as a bit of a sleeper pick).
I usually spend part of the weekend going through the new music recommendations I saved during the week, but I was in album listening mode and I did stream-of-consciousness flow from one to the next:
- Kathleen Edwards - Most of her catalog. "Change The Sheets" is such a great song.
- Emmylou Harris - Spyboy (live) - Not available on streaming, unfortunately. I saw this incredible band twice live -- Brady Blade, Buddy Miller, and Daryl Johnson behind Emmylou's magnificent voice.
- The Silos - s/t (bird on the cover)
- The Vapors - Magnets, thanks to Tony Fletcher's terrific Substack essay this week.
- Public Service Broadcasting - The Last Flight. Good stuff, but I like them so much better without vox.
- Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Time
- Firehose - If'n
Hope you find something in there to dig. Looking forward to the playlist and your recommendations. Have a great week, everyone!
I love Brady as well and I just missed a chance to hang out with him recently! We were at a music festival at Ghost Ranch in northern NM. I saw this guy with dyed blonde hair hanging out by our cabin, and he looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't place him. Lucinda Wililams goes on stage that night and I realized it was Brady! I just hadn't seen him in a long time live, he rarely posts on IG, and the dye job was new. Such a bummer.
I met Brian and Daniel Lanois one night after a Black Dub show. They were both super nice.
I'll check out the RC record -- thanks for the heads up!
Okay that's weird because it was on Spotify for the longest time because I had it saved. And now it's gone. Maybe they're doing a reissue...
I agree. Deeper well on spyboy is definitive. (As is, in my opinion, ain't living long like this) I was fortunate to see Emmylou in LA at the Paramount when she did her Wrecking Ball tour where she played the whole album in sequence start to finish. It was glorious.
It’s such a bummer that Spyboy isn’t on streaming now. Wasn’t it at one time? I thought I remembered having it in my library. I have no idea what happened to my CD but it’s an insanely great album.
What you guys accomplished with 100 Greatest Records was absolutely epic! An entertaining and enlightening read to say the very least. And yeah, I've loved and listened to Head Hunters for years, so I was thrilled to see it mentioned. :)
Hiya! I’ve been enjoying Mariah’s 25th anniversary edition of “Rainbow” in heavyweight multicoloured vinyl. I’m generally not fussed about coloured vinyl but this one is something else. Sound quality is as good if not better than the first press, which was a nice surprise!
Joe Schoolcraft's substack has me listening to the Grateful Dead, which other than a few songs here and there, I've never done before. Good stuff, esp the live shows.
It's never too late to go down that Dead wormhole. I was a little intimidated before I dove in, but glad I did. I come from a more experimental indie rock background and the prevailing thought for many years was the jamband stuff was just noodling garbage. Many of my idols like Ira from Yo La Tengo and Lee from Sonic Youth were unabashed Deadheads, and I feel their vast catalog has been more welcomed among fans of the more underground music scene. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's no denying the Dead followed their own muse and never allowed the corporate suits to infiltrate their music.
Fantastic Negrito's "Son of a Broken Man" is, well, fantastic! Joy Oladokun's "OBSERVATIONS FROM A CROWDED ROOM" is now out in full, and it is getting the most listens of anything on my lists. Also, I am enjoying the blues stylings of Jovin Webb. His new album "Drifter" is produced by Tom Hambridge and features the blazing guitars of Kenny Greenberg.
Awesome. I have the original vinyl of that which I inherited from my older brother when he moved out. As a young boy interested in drumming, the solo was epic! I bet I still remember 3/4 of it. ;-)
This past week I finished my deep dive through the Oasis discography, and compiled my top 20 Oasis song list.
New stuff:
Oasis - Standing on The Shoulder of Giants. I'd argue this is the most uneven Oasis album, and shows the band in a state of flux. It also shows them going in a different direction - moving away from the rock and roll excess and towards a more reflective, softer nature. It's not quite executed in the best way, though - this would be refined on their next efforts.
Oasis - The Masterplan. A compilation of B-sides that, in my opinion, is underrated and overshadowed by the other records the band made in 90s.
Revisits:
Moyka - Movies, Cars and Heartbreak. This album celebrated its birthday yesterday. I rate it as the best album of 2023 that I've listened to. Every single track off of this album is a pop and it flows so smoothly. I wrote a review of this last year as well, and it still stands.
Found Darryl Hall's Sacred Songs at a thrift store this week. This one was produced by Robert Fripp and was deemed too experimental for RCA to release, although it did come out a few years later to little to bo promotion. It's a really good record that I think many would be shocked to know is in Hall's mainly by the books blue eyed soul discography.
I also got pretty stoked to find an Alice Cooper song or three to throw on there! I also realized that I stretched that boundary a lot based on personal preferences and experiences. I think the synth stuff was even more jarring in a way, like close calls as to whether they belonged or not, but the 70s stuff all seemed to fit in well.
It pains me, in a positive way, to say i that ALL of these albums are quite good and deserve more spins than you or I will likely likely find time to give them.
* Porridge Radio 'Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me' - Wow, their last was very good. This one, fantastic!
* Skegs 'Pacific Highway Music' - Laid back, catchy altrock. They have that rock n roll attitude thing.
* Silverbacks 'Easy Being A Winner' - New discovery I'm hearing Talking Heads x Pixies w/ a dash of B52's?
* Humdrum 'Every Heaven' - A little bit Cure, a little bit Modern English and a whole lotta excellent.
* W.H. Lung 'The Entire Earth Pulsates' I Love W.H. Lung! A new album is cause for celebration. If you get a chance to see them live make the effort. Production has an Albiniesque quality and so does...
* High Vis 'Guided Tour' - I adore this sort of production, chest cavity thumping drums & bass, shimmering guitars and crisp insistent vocals all layered and swirling... shades of Happy Mondays, less Madhouse and more post punk edge.
* Kelly Lee Owens 'Dreamstate' - The title nails the mood/tone expertly. Lose/ find yourself. Her 1st album still holds a special place but this one will likely be in rotation at next party.
* Rubblebucket 'Year of the Banana' - Life got you down? Rubblebucket has the cure.
* Upstairs 'Be Seeing You' - This album crept up on me. I started listening, got a bit distracted by work until at some point I thought, this is quite enjoyable.
* Christopher Owens 'I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair' - Ex Girls frontman shares his recovery journey. The sort of album I especially appreciated with my eyes closed.
* Svaneborg Kardyb 'Superkilen' - And now for something completely different. For me SK are akin to musical architects. I encourage you to set aside real estate in my mind for the their constructs; I may take up residency there...
* Bon Enfant 'Demande spéciale' - En Attendant Ana brought me here and I appreciate their guidance. Upbeat, tres chic pop rock.
* Japandroids 'Fate & Alcohol' - Swan song that's so good it made me want to revisit Celebration Rock.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time listening to albums from Sam and Kevin’s respective top 10s - time well spent.
I’m also enjoying Cunningham Bird, Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham’s cover of the album Buckingham Nicks. I’ve never heard the original but this version is very lovely.
Mustard is listening to HARDWAREZ from MASTER BOOT RECORDS.
Imagine if Mettaton from Undertale made computer metal and was really angry that you were not cheering for them in the audience. That is what music by MASTER BOOTS RECORDS sounds like.
I was punishing Die Alone (In Your Lover's Arms) by Holding Absence most of yesterday. It's a little strange when you find out that the female vocals on it are Lucas' sister, but the melody and lyrics are gorgeous
I'm a huge fan of the Snarski brothers (Mark and Rob) - their first band, Chad's Tree, was a junior contemporary of the Triffids over in Perth. They did 2 albums as Chad's Tree before they went their separate ways - Mark onto The Jackson Code and Rob onto The Blackeyed Susans. They've teamed up for "Waiting For The Bell" which has them reinterpreting some of the material from the above bands and more. Mark is famously anti-Spotify, so Bandmcamp and YouTube if you're keen! https://robsnarski.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-for-the-bell
Walked into a record shop for first time in ages and loved getting lost in browsing bins. Saddened by how locally owned record shops can't really afford to deep-stock bins by any but the biggest volume (pun intended) selling artists. Also, many worthy artists have lost their own artist bin cards altogether and just get herded and lumped into USED DISC alphabitized sections. I get the biz fundamentals such as Supply\Demand and "Buy Low\Sell High. File this under Lamentations and not Useful Suggestions.
When I got to an artist whose soulfulness has marked my adult life and whose output I hadn't looked up since well before Covid pandemic spread and thinned out foot traffic, there were only 2 new releases in her bin. That would be Joan Osborne with a live CD I didn't know her record label officially issued and what I took to be her new studio album. I felt like this was a jackpot since I didn't have money for any more than 2 new CD purchases and these were just what the Soul Dr Rx'd for what ails me (fatigue, anxious queasy stomach and nausea, irregular sleep and protracted free-floating malaise).
Only when I got home and started looking through the liner notes on these discs did I notice they were not 2024 releases, rather 2023. Doesn't bother me a bit. Whenever good and therapeutic music is recorded or finds its way into a bin whether used or new I'm gonna be jazzed to have found it. In this case both the cuts and sequencing selected from decades of road gigs on the Joan Osborne Band (JOB has an appropriate scriptural sound, like Lamentations) single CD were superb.
Road arrangements that packed live interplay between Joan and her band-mates as well as the room presence which counts for a lot especially in the case of this artist and band. In fact one of my most precious in terms of where I was in my life bootleg cassettes (only made for myself and friends, I'm not in biz of bootlegging) was something I recall hearing on the radio as a live Bay Area afternoon gig Joan and her earlier band were doing live in real time and aired over KFOG (SF) in Oakland at Yoshi's Jazz Club (House) and was airing live to promote an evening gig she had coming up. I was at work at the time doing a repetitive manual labor task and fortunately there were blank cassettes handy that I could pop into the boom box I brought to my work shift and quickly pressed record to capture that off the air. Her band was so tight and her own inhabiting of some of her fiercest and rawest emotional material up to that early point in her career became one of my most listened to live cassettes that I happened to be in a position to hit RECORD on with a radio\cassette nearby.
JOB's recent live album had a few of those earlier numbers from her scintillating live set at KFOG (although recorded elsewhere according to the new live album's liner note credits) and different band line-ups but the inner excitation of being transported to those soulfully grooving gigs was and is palpable each time I play any of her live recordings now, whether the recently released one, or older bootleg off-the-air stuff I've kept on cassette.
Her new album titled "NOBODY OWNS YOU" was something I was afraid to listen to, figuring her experience as "Chick singer for all these other touring bands" as she describes her time (and as U. of Tube dba YouTube has video archived and that I've also been binge-ing on) touring with the post-Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead line-ups, including Phil Lesh & Friends & Further Tour line-ups, Bob Dylan's various tours with various collaborating headliners, the Hooters, genetically unrelated albeit musically closely related Anders Osborne, some or all of Robert Randolph and the Randolph Family band, Jackie Greene with some other Tom Petty tribute band line-ups and earlier in her gigging life touring with the Funk Brothers as well as the Holmes Brothers etc....
Every man should have, to be truly interesting, a particular taste for one group's music way outside his normal fare that cuts right to the soul of him, that he refuses to explain.
It was kind of just a lazy weekend. I spent most of the weekend with a random Gothic playlist on in the background. However, on Sunday I had an overwhelming urge to play Killers, by iron Maiden. It now seems so appropriate.
Killers is a great album that just really doesn't get the credit. It deserves because of being overshadowed by the Bruce Dickinson version of iron Maiden.
I'm liking that Office Dog song you shared. I've never heard of them before. NOT to say that I think this song is perfect or that its even my favorite but I made a playlist of every rendition I could find of the surf rock ballad, Sleep Walk. They're all pretty good!
They were a happy surprise for me as well. They opened for Nada Surf, and it just sounded a little… off. Not the band, just the sound? I’m glad I checked record out, though; it turned out to be right up my alley!
I've been digging into the new one by Nick Piunti & the Complicated Men, Up and Out of It, as well as the debut album from Wyatt Flores, Welcome to the Plains.
Audiobook: “The Dead Romantics”
La Isla Bonita - Madonna
Yes!
🕺💃🕺💃
New Pinhead Gunpowder LP and revisiting Sense Field collection while and after reading Anti-Matter interview here on Substack: https://substack.com/@antimatter/note/p-150313355?r=16tjy&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Hey Kev. Here's my 7 for the week. There's some you'll like, I reckon! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7KUBMwmB9VFqu2IyTLy5ZK?si=Ns8rwgUXT_-IGlFeO2y_cA
Oooh Kim Deal! Love it!
Thanks for the link! I see Dehd is on there, there’s at least one I’m sure I’ll like!
Getting excited here for the new Radio Free ABQ release from @Dave Purcell. And been listening to a lot of Japandroids' Post-Nothing in light of the release of their (disappointing) new record. Wrote them up in our new post.
https://3albums6oldguys.substack.com/p/radio-free-abq-lambrini-girls-perennial
Thanks for the terrific review!
From a relatively unfamiliar standpoint I have to say I rather like Fate and Alcohol. I think it’s more accessible than Post-Nothing and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Thanks for the link! I think I commented directly on the piece, but this is a great write up of Radio Free ABQs record, and I hope a bunch of people see it and give it a listen!
Also: I can’t listen to the Japandroids record w/o being a little bummed that it’s the last we’ll hear from ‘em!
Svaneborg Kardyb, Kamasi Washington, Sungazer, MARO :-D
I'm listening to the new Japandroids (so sad it's the last one) album. Also digging into Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers after seeing "Heartbreakers Beach Party" last week.
And catching up on some other new-ish releases like Devo's latest.
Oh wow, I had no idea about 'Heartbreakers Beach Party". Thanks so much for mentioning it!
Don’t forget Tom Petty’s solo stuff. It’s pretty much Tom playing with the Heartbreakers anyway. And it is some of his best stuff.
Wait, there’s a new Devo record?! How did I miss that?
No idea!!!
Good morning from the Left Coast.
Here is what is in my ears:
1. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1knJSMzp6SWo8aUh3W2hVo?si=611c3a5ec8d14f30
2. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/71PrDfTT9eNSnK4nHDJCqx?si=2afd5ea9fec34bdb
3. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EpiZRrzSeuNAh?si=0354b6bf22b44169
Thanks for the lists! Beautiful photos this week as always, btw.
thanks!
Oooh Tones on Tail! Haven’t heard of them in a while! Go! was one of the teen dance club songs that became somewhat of an anthem in my high school days.
I’ve continued listening to the Cranberries a lot, and after discussions around the Substack world (Lou!) I asked my car Spotify to play Royal Otis, and the first track it played was their cover of Linger!! A free days later, I asked my car to play Linger (I don’t pay for anything but one stream of Amazon music for my kitchen echo lol), so it played me “Linger radio” and the first song was the Royal Otis cover! Loved it! Then it took at least 4 more car trips for me to hear the original lol. Heard a lot of great stuff in the meantime though.
Also, went through my vinyl collection to find songs related to the theme of Death for the brewery vinyl night (a month of spooky theme nights for Halloween), which prompted me to listen to the entirety of Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart by Camper Van Beethoven- which contains the track O Death, and is such a fantastic song. Great album start to finish! It would absolutely be in my top 100! (I also played Fly on the Windscreen by Depeche Mode, Pretty Girls Make Graves by the Smiths, Dead Souls by Joy Division, and The People That Grinned Themselves to Death by the Housemartins). I then listened to Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears because every time I look through my vinyl I come across it and have to play it!
Absolutely love The Housemartins! Also, received my Royel Otis vinyl today (It ain’t over til it ends edition) 🎉
Dangit, I’ve been spelling it wrong!! Hahahahaha
I hadn’t even noticed!
Good hahahaha! As a teacher I super hate when I spell things wrong!! But, my mind has not read the spelling properly until just now seeing it spelled with an “e,” so I totally had to verify and yep it’s an “e”
Might be old news, but Stan Cullimore is on here!
https://stancullimore.substack.com/
Thanks!! Subscribed!
My best music buddy told me that Norman Cook is Fatboy Slim and my mind was blown!
I did not know this! Thank you
That's a great list for vinyl night! And huge +1 to for Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart!
Ooh, nice to see "Less Than" on your list! Not that NIN was ever concerned with radio hits, but I still maintain that one deserved more airplay.
This weekend, I found Ethel Cain's 'Preacher's Daughter' for the first time, and I barely know what to do with myself. I'd been looking for albums that channelled horror the same way scary movies do, and boy did I find one... Currently attempting to write about it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3WmujGwOS0ANHkJRnMH6n8?si=AYuVo17_RjqNjb3RLqpPDA
Omg “A House in Nebraska” amirite?! That song gets me right in the feels.
It's so jaw-dropping. Immediately added that one to my bucket list of Songs I've Gotta See Performed Live.
Yes! I badly want to see her live. I’m really excited for her new album coming out in January.
It definitely deserved more airplay! It's about as close as they get to "radio friendly."
And please share the link to your Ethel Cain piece when it's ready!
Absolutely. It hath been written: https://open.substack.com/pub/popdeco/p/the-slow-burn-southern-gothic-dread?r=3erqzm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Sweet! Thanks for posting it here.
Kings of Leon / Come Around Sundown
Kings Of Leon are a puzzle for me. Sometimes thumbs up, sometimes thumbs down.
Same here!
Kevin and I closed out our Top 100 Albums journey, and there were a bunch of goodies in Kevin's that I've been jamming out to. Also been really getting into Frank Zappa's "Hot Rats" and Santana's "Abraxas." Also tepidly reacquainting myself with Grateful Dead: "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" are great, but I'm not sure how I'll feel about their '60s stuff.
Kevin's List: https://thekevinalexander.substack.com/p/wax-ecstatic-the-100-greatest-albums-e59?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web
My List: https://thatguyfromtheinternet.substack.com/p/another-100-best-albums-of-all-time-3e3
Peaches en Regalia is my favorite.
I think I like his solo work more than his stuff with the Mothers of Invention. Gonna check it out.
Oh I absolutely like his solo work more than the Mothers stuff too. And there’s an insane amount of it. One of the craziest (if not THE craziest) catalogs of any artist in history.
Not for nothing, the 'Dead "just" missed making my list-- mostly, 'cause I couldn't decide between those two albums (with In The Dark as a bit of a sleeper pick).
https://open.spotify.com/track/0SnqtELl1vwb3xytPxfso3?si=8465e5ad6f674386
maybe I'm late to the game but Curtis Harding is awesome
If you're late, we both are! I'm not sure I've heard this before?
I usually spend part of the weekend going through the new music recommendations I saved during the week, but I was in album listening mode and I did stream-of-consciousness flow from one to the next:
- Kathleen Edwards - Most of her catalog. "Change The Sheets" is such a great song.
- Emmylou Harris - Spyboy (live) - Not available on streaming, unfortunately. I saw this incredible band twice live -- Brady Blade, Buddy Miller, and Daryl Johnson behind Emmylou's magnificent voice.
- The Silos - s/t (bird on the cover)
- The Vapors - Magnets, thanks to Tony Fletcher's terrific Substack essay this week.
- Public Service Broadcasting - The Last Flight. Good stuff, but I like them so much better without vox.
- Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Time
- Firehose - If'n
Hope you find something in there to dig. Looking forward to the playlist and your recommendations. Have a great week, everyone!
Big Brady Blade fan and would love to see that lineup behind Harris. Really been digging The Traveling Kind w/ Rodney Crowell.
I love Brady as well and I just missed a chance to hang out with him recently! We were at a music festival at Ghost Ranch in northern NM. I saw this guy with dyed blonde hair hanging out by our cabin, and he looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't place him. Lucinda Wililams goes on stage that night and I realized it was Brady! I just hadn't seen him in a long time live, he rarely posts on IG, and the dye job was new. Such a bummer.
I met Brian and Daniel Lanois one night after a Black Dub show. They were both super nice.
I'll check out the RC record -- thanks for the heads up!
Spyboy is an incredible concert album. And not well known.
It's so good. It's a bummer it's not on the streaming platforms.
There's a great live show from this period on YouTube. The version of Deeper Well is so good.
https://youtu.be/1nvd4loNTXU?si=JiiU85xOvkbE9Vi7&t=1904
Okay that's weird because it was on Spotify for the longest time because I had it saved. And now it's gone. Maybe they're doing a reissue...
I agree. Deeper well on spyboy is definitive. (As is, in my opinion, ain't living long like this) I was fortunate to see Emmylou in LA at the Paramount when she did her Wrecking Ball tour where she played the whole album in sequence start to finish. It was glorious.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0HhNshS897Tdnl1nmuTYWn?si=v3bTCtsES9uYQ9tI6cj-Yw
Spyboy, but not all of it and it didn't come up on Spotify search. I had to go through google. I wonder what's going on with it, that it's like this.
Interesting and very strange!
Love Kathleen Edwards. Hoping we get a new album in the near future, as Total Freedom was 4 years ago already.
It’s such a bummer that Spyboy isn’t on streaming now. Wasn’t it at one time? I thought I remembered having it in my library. I have no idea what happened to my CD but it’s an insanely great album.
See the link Faith posted above -- part of it is on Spotify, but you can only find it by Google, not by searching Spotify. Very odd.
Double Nickels is an all-timer! Part of me is still kicking myself for leaving off my 100 best list.
And agreed on Public Service Broadcasting!
Stuck lately on the heartbreaking posthumous album from Richard Laviolette, All Wild Things Are Shy
High Vis
The new one?
Yeah it’s great though I have no idea how to describe it.
Lol. Me either. Too hardcore for pop…too pop for hardcore… But it’s definitely great.
Palace - "Son" 🎧🔁☁️ https://open.spotify.com/track/3qyBGhzXPbHSHjmEIqHo8S?si=9f73779a06174d56 and basically whole "Ultrasound" album
I haven’t heard this one. I’m on it!
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
RZA - Bobby Digital in Stereo
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
Sam Colt picked Headhunters as one of his 100 Best records, and I gotta say it was a great pick!
What you guys accomplished with 100 Greatest Records was absolutely epic! An entertaining and enlightening read to say the very least. And yeah, I've loved and listened to Head Hunters for years, so I was thrilled to see it mentioned. :)
Thank you!!
Hiya! I’ve been enjoying Mariah’s 25th anniversary edition of “Rainbow” in heavyweight multicoloured vinyl. I’m generally not fussed about coloured vinyl but this one is something else. Sound quality is as good if not better than the first press, which was a nice surprise!
Oh nice! Also, how is this record 25?! 😬
I know. Don’t even. I used to be young, you know? Until one day I woke up and I wasn’t young anymore 🤣🤣
Joe Schoolcraft's substack has me listening to the Grateful Dead, which other than a few songs here and there, I've never done before. Good stuff, esp the live shows.
It's never too late to go down that Dead wormhole. I was a little intimidated before I dove in, but glad I did. I come from a more experimental indie rock background and the prevailing thought for many years was the jamband stuff was just noodling garbage. Many of my idols like Ira from Yo La Tengo and Lee from Sonic Youth were unabashed Deadheads, and I feel their vast catalog has been more welcomed among fans of the more underground music scene. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's no denying the Dead followed their own muse and never allowed the corporate suits to infiltrate their music.
I found a good list on Reddit of live shows to start with. I don't know if it's definitive, but I'm enjoying digging in.
+1 to all of that.
YLT fan here as well, and I would’ve never thought Ira would dig the Dead.
That sounds like my kinda newsletter! Thanks for getting it on my radar.
Fantastic Negrito's "Son of a Broken Man" is, well, fantastic! Joy Oladokun's "OBSERVATIONS FROM A CROWDED ROOM" is now out in full, and it is getting the most listens of anything on my lists. Also, I am enjoying the blues stylings of Jovin Webb. His new album "Drifter" is produced by Tom Hambridge and features the blazing guitars of Kenny Greenberg.
And, ..... Leon Bridges. "Leon" should win awards across the board.
Couldn’t agree more re: Leon, FN, and JO. All incredible releases. All making appearances on tops of 2024 lists.
A few new tracks I've been listening to a lot this week:
I Gotta Limit - Matt Berry & Kitty Liv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udzml7daqVE
Keep it Coming - Rosie & the Revival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unUC_zLgPpA
The Lighthouse - Stevie Nicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDCYh5iWQs
New Stevie Nicks is awesome! May we all be going as strong as she is at that age.
In A Gadda Da Vida- Iron Butterfly. I was finally able to hear the title track in all of its 17-minute glory!
Awesome. I have the original vinyl of that which I inherited from my older brother when he moved out. As a young boy interested in drumming, the solo was epic! I bet I still remember 3/4 of it. ;-)
I love it!
This past week I finished my deep dive through the Oasis discography, and compiled my top 20 Oasis song list.
New stuff:
Oasis - Standing on The Shoulder of Giants. I'd argue this is the most uneven Oasis album, and shows the band in a state of flux. It also shows them going in a different direction - moving away from the rock and roll excess and towards a more reflective, softer nature. It's not quite executed in the best way, though - this would be refined on their next efforts.
Oasis - The Masterplan. A compilation of B-sides that, in my opinion, is underrated and overshadowed by the other records the band made in 90s.
Revisits:
Moyka - Movies, Cars and Heartbreak. This album celebrated its birthday yesterday. I rate it as the best album of 2023 that I've listened to. Every single track off of this album is a pop and it flows so smoothly. I wrote a review of this last year as well, and it still stands.
Have you posted the Oasis stuff yet? I went to look for it, t didn’t see anything. If you have, please share the link here!
I keep a list of the top 10/20's of artists that I've listened to in full here: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Dylan14/rym-artists-top-10-dylan14s-submissions/
Found Darryl Hall's Sacred Songs at a thrift store this week. This one was produced by Robert Fripp and was deemed too experimental for RCA to release, although it did come out a few years later to little to bo promotion. It's a really good record that I think many would be shocked to know is in Hall's mainly by the books blue eyed soul discography.
That’s a great find!
This babehoven track really got a hold of me:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4gif6bJeeX82M3CYG9yJLE?si=APTM5cEiSMC0Ttu2LVCcoA
Every now and then I will go on a Jim O’Rourke kick, like this past weekend. This one’s a masterpiece:
https://youtu.be/7c2ZgVKTmTI?si=HyVm_Z7ER54_wMy3
Also digging the new live Songs: Ohia live disc, particularly this one:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Kh8YrwTOrtRAKRTCaBGsD?si=kfsHHeM5Ty-H_KQeR1k0Tw
Finally, the latest Karen O/Danger Mouse:
https://open.spotify.com/track/71dMjqJ8UJV700zYs5YZCh?si=jrqC8gVuRxGHRKSIUGDc0g
This is a killer mix!
"Christian Says" is a great little goth punk ditty. It was one of the first songs I added to the goth/punk playlist: https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:198494836309887817:74638688
Lots of killer stuff on there! Was looking to expecting to see Aerosmith. Lol.
I also got pretty stoked to find an Alice Cooper song or three to throw on there! I also realized that I stretched that boundary a lot based on personal preferences and experiences. I think the synth stuff was even more jarring in a way, like close calls as to whether they belonged or not, but the 70s stuff all seemed to fit in well.
NEW & SHINY:
It pains me, in a positive way, to say i that ALL of these albums are quite good and deserve more spins than you or I will likely likely find time to give them.
* Porridge Radio 'Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me' - Wow, their last was very good. This one, fantastic!
* Skegs 'Pacific Highway Music' - Laid back, catchy altrock. They have that rock n roll attitude thing.
* Silverbacks 'Easy Being A Winner' - New discovery I'm hearing Talking Heads x Pixies w/ a dash of B52's?
* Humdrum 'Every Heaven' - A little bit Cure, a little bit Modern English and a whole lotta excellent.
* W.H. Lung 'The Entire Earth Pulsates' I Love W.H. Lung! A new album is cause for celebration. If you get a chance to see them live make the effort. Production has an Albiniesque quality and so does...
* High Vis 'Guided Tour' - I adore this sort of production, chest cavity thumping drums & bass, shimmering guitars and crisp insistent vocals all layered and swirling... shades of Happy Mondays, less Madhouse and more post punk edge.
* Kelly Lee Owens 'Dreamstate' - The title nails the mood/tone expertly. Lose/ find yourself. Her 1st album still holds a special place but this one will likely be in rotation at next party.
* Rubblebucket 'Year of the Banana' - Life got you down? Rubblebucket has the cure.
* Upstairs 'Be Seeing You' - This album crept up on me. I started listening, got a bit distracted by work until at some point I thought, this is quite enjoyable.
* Christopher Owens 'I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair' - Ex Girls frontman shares his recovery journey. The sort of album I especially appreciated with my eyes closed.
* Svaneborg Kardyb 'Superkilen' - And now for something completely different. For me SK are akin to musical architects. I encourage you to set aside real estate in my mind for the their constructs; I may take up residency there...
* Bon Enfant 'Demande spéciale' - En Attendant Ana brought me here and I appreciate their guidance. Upbeat, tres chic pop rock.
* Japandroids 'Fate & Alcohol' - Swan song that's so good it made me want to revisit Celebration Rock.
* Nothing Natural 'Cold Star' - Heavy 90's throwback. Seattle + shoegaze.
* Letting Up Despite Great Faults 'Reveries' - Music that tickles my ears, makes my heels bounce, creates an irrepressible grin and sad when it ends.
* Snowgoose 'Descendant'- Blending genres (jazzy, folky, funky, etc) and harmonies. Avant garde?
* Cold Cave 'Passion Depression' Music made by Bauhaus designed robots programmed to create music like New Order + Depeche Mode.
Thanks Rosy Overdrive (I think) for leading me to a few of the above.
Yes, I really enjoyed the Rubblebucket and Japandroids albums this week.
Hahaha. Someday I will listen to 1/3 the number of records Rosy overdrive does, and it will be glorious.
Huge +1 to both Humdrum and the new High Vis!
Thanks for all the recs! Gonna start with Cold Cave and work my way through them from there.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time listening to albums from Sam and Kevin’s respective top 10s - time well spent.
I’m also enjoying Cunningham Bird, Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham’s cover of the album Buckingham Nicks. I’ve never heard the original but this version is very lovely.
Mustard is listening to HARDWAREZ from MASTER BOOT RECORDS.
Imagine if Mettaton from Undertale made computer metal and was really angry that you were not cheering for them in the audience. That is what music by MASTER BOOTS RECORDS sounds like.
https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/hardwarez
Kevin finds this description compelling and as always is grateful for the rec. he’s also curious how Duplingo is going.
Mustard hopes you enjoy!
It is going well. They are trying out various languages to see what they enjoy most.
Currently testing out: German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese.
I was punishing Die Alone (In Your Lover's Arms) by Holding Absence most of yesterday. It's a little strange when you find out that the female vocals on it are Lucas' sister, but the melody and lyrics are gorgeous
I'm a huge fan of the Snarski brothers (Mark and Rob) - their first band, Chad's Tree, was a junior contemporary of the Triffids over in Perth. They did 2 albums as Chad's Tree before they went their separate ways - Mark onto The Jackson Code and Rob onto The Blackeyed Susans. They've teamed up for "Waiting For The Bell" which has them reinterpreting some of the material from the above bands and more. Mark is famously anti-Spotify, so Bandmcamp and YouTube if you're keen! https://robsnarski.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-for-the-bell
King Crimson and Daniel Amos were getting some airtime this week. For the long list, follow this: https://weatheredmusic.ca
Thanks for the link, Norman!
Walked into a record shop for first time in ages and loved getting lost in browsing bins. Saddened by how locally owned record shops can't really afford to deep-stock bins by any but the biggest volume (pun intended) selling artists. Also, many worthy artists have lost their own artist bin cards altogether and just get herded and lumped into USED DISC alphabitized sections. I get the biz fundamentals such as Supply\Demand and "Buy Low\Sell High. File this under Lamentations and not Useful Suggestions.
When I got to an artist whose soulfulness has marked my adult life and whose output I hadn't looked up since well before Covid pandemic spread and thinned out foot traffic, there were only 2 new releases in her bin. That would be Joan Osborne with a live CD I didn't know her record label officially issued and what I took to be her new studio album. I felt like this was a jackpot since I didn't have money for any more than 2 new CD purchases and these were just what the Soul Dr Rx'd for what ails me (fatigue, anxious queasy stomach and nausea, irregular sleep and protracted free-floating malaise).
Only when I got home and started looking through the liner notes on these discs did I notice they were not 2024 releases, rather 2023. Doesn't bother me a bit. Whenever good and therapeutic music is recorded or finds its way into a bin whether used or new I'm gonna be jazzed to have found it. In this case both the cuts and sequencing selected from decades of road gigs on the Joan Osborne Band (JOB has an appropriate scriptural sound, like Lamentations) single CD were superb.
Road arrangements that packed live interplay between Joan and her band-mates as well as the room presence which counts for a lot especially in the case of this artist and band. In fact one of my most precious in terms of where I was in my life bootleg cassettes (only made for myself and friends, I'm not in biz of bootlegging) was something I recall hearing on the radio as a live Bay Area afternoon gig Joan and her earlier band were doing live in real time and aired over KFOG (SF) in Oakland at Yoshi's Jazz Club (House) and was airing live to promote an evening gig she had coming up. I was at work at the time doing a repetitive manual labor task and fortunately there were blank cassettes handy that I could pop into the boom box I brought to my work shift and quickly pressed record to capture that off the air. Her band was so tight and her own inhabiting of some of her fiercest and rawest emotional material up to that early point in her career became one of my most listened to live cassettes that I happened to be in a position to hit RECORD on with a radio\cassette nearby.
JOB's recent live album had a few of those earlier numbers from her scintillating live set at KFOG (although recorded elsewhere according to the new live album's liner note credits) and different band line-ups but the inner excitation of being transported to those soulfully grooving gigs was and is palpable each time I play any of her live recordings now, whether the recently released one, or older bootleg off-the-air stuff I've kept on cassette.
Her new album titled "NOBODY OWNS YOU" was something I was afraid to listen to, figuring her experience as "Chick singer for all these other touring bands" as she describes her time (and as U. of Tube dba YouTube has video archived and that I've also been binge-ing on) touring with the post-Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead line-ups, including Phil Lesh & Friends & Further Tour line-ups, Bob Dylan's various tours with various collaborating headliners, the Hooters, genetically unrelated albeit musically closely related Anders Osborne, some or all of Robert Randolph and the Randolph Family band, Jackie Greene with some other Tom Petty tribute band line-ups and earlier in her gigging life touring with the Funk Brothers as well as the Holmes Brothers etc....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSV0m_9E2Y
Joan Osborne (w/Anders Osborne & Robert Randolph) - All Along The Watchtower - 12/1/18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwTvwgb7BU
Steve Earle, Joan Osborne, Jackie Greene, Anders Osborne - Tom Petty Tribute
You Don't Know How I Feel, I Won't Back Down.
Blue Rose Foundation Benefit - Red Bank NJ 10-18-17
Encore w Jason Crosby on Keyboards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZShatSmE_g
Daddy-O - LIVE on Coney Island boardwalk, no stage - Joan Osborne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN5yu7hWBV0&list=RDIN5yu7hWBV0&start_radio=1
The Funk Brothers - I Heard it Through the Grapevine - Joan Osborne
905,645 views Jul 27, 2010
The Funk Brothers - Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival 2004 The Life time Achievement award winning studio band from Motown Records 1959-1971
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Thanks for this! Agreed on locally owned/indie record stores.
New Fantastic Negrito is superb. Soundgarden’s “Head Down” covered by Lizzie Weber is cinematic, haunting, and all around outstanding.
That Lizzie Weber track is gorgeous! Thank you.
Thanks, Lou! I’m so thrilled that you like it! It really is so incredibly beautiful.
Every man should have, to be truly interesting, a particular taste for one group's music way outside his normal fare that cuts right to the soul of him, that he refuses to explain.
For me, that group is Phantogram.
https://youtu.be/sRIzziGQNrY?si=YJzBZfBGr1HK5ete
Yes! The new LP is gorgeous.
It was kind of just a lazy weekend. I spent most of the weekend with a random Gothic playlist on in the background. However, on Sunday I had an overwhelming urge to play Killers, by iron Maiden. It now seems so appropriate.
Killers is a great album that just really doesn't get the credit. It deserves because of being overshadowed by the Bruce Dickinson version of iron Maiden.
I'm liking that Office Dog song you shared. I've never heard of them before. NOT to say that I think this song is perfect or that its even my favorite but I made a playlist of every rendition I could find of the surf rock ballad, Sleep Walk. They're all pretty good!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4MEGKlTZSD3W9VUzm1REdB?si=4f8d76d11461434a
They were a happy surprise for me as well. They opened for Nada Surf, and it just sounded a little… off. Not the band, just the sound? I’m glad I checked record out, though; it turned out to be right up my alley!
I've been digging into the new one by Nick Piunti & the Complicated Men, Up and Out of It, as well as the debut album from Wyatt Flores, Welcome to the Plains.
Also, I can't quite Nada Surf.
Ha. Me, either!
I’ve been listening to most of Kevin and Sam’s top ten picks, most of which I enjoyed.
Also been enjoying some of my 2024 AOTY candidates and definites:
- Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer
- Lionlimb - Limbo
- Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
- Gossip - Real Power
- Bonny Light Horseman - Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free
- Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past is Still Alive
- Loma - How Will I Live Without a Body?
- Lady Blackbird - Slang Spirituals
- GIFT - Illuminator
- Kaia Kater - Strange Medicine
- Esy Tadesse - Ahadu
REALLY looking forward to the new Cure album coming next week!!
I am too!
And it’s Gonna be tough to winnow down this year’s AOTY list. A great problem to have, I suppose.