Episode 66
Shaboozy, Noah Cyrus – My Fault
Kiwi Jr – Murder in the Cathedral
Vera Sola – The Line
Mermaid Chunky – Chaperone
Rikashay – Sun Girl
Sabrina Carpenter- Espresso
Laughing – Will She Ever be a Friend of Mine
English Teacher- World’s Biggest Paving Slab
Zach Bryan, Noeline Hofman – Purple Gas
Shaboozy, Noah Cyrus – My Fault
A really beautiful song, hard to get this one out of my head. By two artists who like usual, are new to me.
The material I have for Shaboozy is from Rolling Stone, along with this great promo for his new album
As a rapper, singer, and producer, Shaboozey has been toying around with the boundaries of hip-hop and country. It’s what made his two appearances on Beyoncé’s similarly genre-bending album Cowboy Carter — on “Spaghettii” and “Sweet Honey Buckiin” — a perfect fit. And he’s just as comfortable unapologetically taking up space in country as she is.
Vera Sola – The Line
Another artist who I don’t know, but I love the music. I listened to a few of her songs in prepping for this show and one of her’s is in the intro. All great tunes accompanied by a sultry voice.
I think this excerpt from Everything is Noise captures things pretty well
the dramatic flare of the album became apparent to me immediately, as first “Bad Idea” and then “The Line” evoked visions of Vera as an entertainer on stage, the audience completely enthralled by her sultry voice and masterful storytelling. Together with that performative effect, the instrumentation on these two opening tracks give the impression we are looking on a scene from the past, as if an ancient, sun-bleached picture came to life.
Thank goodness for Wikipedia – I would never have picked this up
Vera Sola was born Danielle Aykroyd to actor Dan Aykroyd and actress Donna Dixon, on November 18, 1989, in Los Angeles, California. She grew up between New York and Canada. She went to Saint Ann’s School (Brooklyn) and graduated from Harvard with a degree in literature. After college, she worked on the radio and as a voice actor. She still provides commercial voice-overs and narration for television and film.
And keeping with my country theme. Wikipedia also reports
In November 2018, Rolling Stone Magazine named her one of “The Top Ten Country Artists You Need to Know”, citing her sense of social conscience and comparing her voice to Nancy Sinatra.[11]
Rikashay – Sun Girl
Not really a country song but that’s OK. Another band/artist I know nothing about, but I really like this song
Rikashay is Issac Papineau, Jaiden Crawford, and OG Bassman from Markham, Ontario. Here is a bit of a promo on the band:
Rikashay is a constantly evolving zesty indie rock trio from Markham, Ontario. A fusion of relentless experimentation and old-time pop motives has long shaped Rikashay’s sound and can be heard throughout their extensive catalog of singles & EP’s since their inception in 2015. The band has taken its jovial and striking sound to countless audiences at prestigious Toronto venues like The Horseshoe Tavern and The Mod Club, as well as stages throughout Eastern Canada and Quebec.
Alas, no info on Wikipedia on the band. This is a great song (again).
Laughing – Will She Ever be a Friend of Mine
Ok, not a country song again so my theme is breaking down. But a fabulous song from a distant era. I am learning lots this episode. Stereogum says this band in from Montreal – not expected.
Last month the Montréal power-pop band Laughing shared “Bruised,” an early single from their new album Because It’s True. They’ve got another teaser track out today. “Will She Ever Be A Friend Of Mine” is three minutes of pure Byrds-y bliss by way of Big Star, Teenage Fanclub, and the Lemonheads. Let the jangly riffs and harmonious melancholia commence
This may be an album to pick up. Here is another track from their album Because Its True which I think just came out (according to Stereogum)
Zach Bryan, Noeline Hofman – Purple Gas
This one counts for my country theme. Three out of five is OK. I don’t know what Purple Gas is but this is another tune that is pretty hard to get out of your head
This is a pretty good story. Zach Bryan is definitely a country thing, but very interesting that he chose Noeline Hofman for his first cover song
Before the song dropped on Friday, Bryan took to X saying, “This song brought me to tears the first time I heard it so it was really important for me that Noeline gave me the privilege to sing it with her. I have never covered another musician on an album and it’s because I was waiting on someone to write a song like this. Noeline resonates like Gillian Welch to me and Gillian is one of my favorite musicians to ever live.”
Bryan’s words were high praise for Hofmann, who didn’t even have a song on streaming services before this. Since Purple Gas dropped, she has already accumulated 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
These are beautiful lyrics too.
Neoline Hofman explains what Purple Gas is
She also explained the inspiration behind Purple Gas: “This song is inspired by the rural resilience I’ve witnessed in my young life, notably my experience working on a cattle ranch in Western Manitoba circa 2022. (Purple Gas is dyed fuel with a tax break for farmers and ranchers in Western Canada that you need a special license plate for to burn on public roads.) That period of time was an intense coming of age, as joyful as it could be jarring. American Heartbreak was released during the time I was working there. Those songs are woven into my memories there, and therefore woven into the song Purple Gas.”
We have played Zach Bryan before. He is relatively new and has already won a Grammy and a slew of other awards. He has sold over 30 million records and singles sold (Wikipedia). We played I Remember Everything with Kasey Musgraves.
Now I have found Neoline Hofman playing Purple Gas on Zach Bryan’s Belting Broncho
Like Zach Bryan, Neoline was discovered on Tik Tok
Noeline Hofmann shares how Zach first came across ‘Purple Gas’, “I had a clip of purple gas on TikTok which started to pick up traction, and then I posted it on Instagram. Zach ended up seeing it and loved the song. That’s when we connected, and…when he first reached out to us, he said, ‘This would be amazing in the Bronco’”.
Here are some of the lyrics taken from Hofman’s Instagram post
I’ve got plates for purple gas
About the only break I catch
But I am not the kind of man
To blame the dealer on a losing handHave a lone star in my eye
The darker the sky the brighter it shines
Pumpjack cheques and baler twine
A ton of grit or maybe it’s spite
Kiwi Jr- “Murder in the Cathedral” – Football Money
This is Kiwi Jr’s 6th appearance on the podcast! This excellent track is taken from their 2019 debut album. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kiwi-jr-football-money/
I didn’t realize they had three albums so I purchased this one at the excellent Back Alley Music in Charlottetown PEI. https://www.facebook.com/people/Back-Alley-Music/100063496212907/
Weirdly, when purchasing said lp, the clerk informed me that these guys were originally from Charlottetown which I completely forgot!
Mermaid Chunky- Chaperone (edit) – slif slaf slof
Semi discovered by LCD’s James Murphy, Mermaid Chunky are to quote, “ The 2 nutty ladies go by Mermaid Chunky are an audio visual duo made up of artists Freya Tate and Moina Moin. Bathing in milkmaid serenity and improvised chaos, the duo boast of pumping trance rhythms, sad Easter time chicks and seriously arousing sax solos. Catching their live performances may cause havoc on your retinas as they are often accompanied by euphoric sculptural visuals and an entourage of sweating puppy’s in frills.”
The track “Chaperone” is a taste of what’s on the upcoming album slif slaf slof.
Sabrina Carpenter-“ Espresso” – single but on the upcoming album Short and Sweet
In the “this is news to me dept.”, apparently this is one of the biggest and hottest songs of the spring/summer. Sabrina Carpenter is an American singer who first gained fame on the series Girl Meets World . Since 2015 Carpenter has has 4 albums and countless single releases and eps. Her latest “Espresso” peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Carpenter’s first top ten single on the chart. Outside of the United States, “Espresso” topped the charts in Australia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in many other countries, including Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The song also earned Carpenter her first number-one single on the Billboard Global 200.
English Teacher- “World’s Biggest Paving Slab” – This Could Be Texas
English Teacher are a group from Leeds, who have been around since 2020. . Their song “Nearly Daffodils” was named one of the 10 best songs of 2023 by Time magazine. The track I picked appears on their debut album This Could Be Texas, which was released in April. They were called “2024’s hottest new guitar band” by Guitar.com. https://www.stereogum.com/2232857/english-teacher-the-worlds-biggest-paving-slab/music/
The video for this song features a character wandering around in large papier mache head reminiscent of 1980’s cult performer Frank Sidebottom. The band actually used to be called Frank. Here’s the original Frank Sidebottom in all his glory
,Years later, the movie Frank was made where Michael Fassbender played an Americanised version.
English Teacher performed at the Glastonbury Festival this year and our headed for some big things. https://www.thefader.com/2023/08/11/english-teacher-the-worlds-biggest-paving-slab
Whole-Hearted 
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