Hockey Season – Things Around Here Will Never Be The Same
Valley – Bop Ba
Beabadoobee -Beaches
Hurray for the Rif Raff – Hawkmoon
Cam Kahin – Old Shoes
Willie Watson – Real Love
Haleluya Hailu – MANIC PIXIE PACIFIST
Mustafa – Old Life
Kris Kristofferson – Duvalier’s Dream
Our notes
Valley – Bop Ba
Valley – Bop Ba (Live Performance)
I love this song, it seems so different from what Valley has put out before. The and seems to be going through a wonderful transition.
“We really had these two paths that we previously didn’t know we had,” Karah reflects on the discovery of the old song. While “Like 1999” and their ensuing pop direction did many wonderful things for them, “Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden” has brought them back to who they were always meant to be; somewhere more playfully between indie, folk and pop, with a lyrical depth of a band that has worked through every stage of the grieving process.
Today’s focus track, the intimate, folky “Bop Ba” is another song that explores some of the other changes in their lives. It has a different meaning for each member, with Rob relating it to his mother’s struggle with bipolar disorder while Karah pulled inspiration from a feeling of dependency and unhealthy attachment in a romantic relationship. Watch the official live video (above)
and from a great Reddit conversation:
hey it’s Rob from a band called Valley, Ask Me Anything.
Howdy, I’ve listened to Valley on and off since 2019, and at some point would like to see you live (hopefully head to Baltimore sometime). Anyways, What is in your opinion the best song that ya’ll have ever written? Can be from any album. Thanks for doing the Q&A.
Valley
hey!!! such a great q and impossible to answer haha
i think Bop Ba is definitely up there…thats todays answer 🙂
Hii guys what songs would you say represent each of you as people? Doesn’t have to be Valley related 🙂
answer:
Rob: There She Goes by The La’s
Alex: Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day
Karah: Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House
Hurray for the Rif Raff – Hawkmoon
Hurray for the Riff Raff – Hawkmoon (Official Video)
About this song from Rolling Stone
Hurray for the Riff Raff Release ‘Hawkmoon,’ a ‘Trans Song’ About Running Away
The new single is about “memories of the first trans woman I ever met,” said Alynda Segarra
“‘Hawkmoon’ is a song about running away — a trans song, and memories of the first trans woman I ever met. Miss Jonathan was a German rapper, poet and train-riding crusty homeless kid who loved to wear the skimpiest outfits she could get away with and was a surprisingly great shoplifter,” said Segarra in a statement. “We became best friends for a winter, before I learned to play music in New Orleans, and I would ride shotgun in her beat up car and search for abandoned houses to sleep in.”
more about the song and the album
This Friday, February 23rd, Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra, they/them) will release their anticipated and already-acclaimed new album, The Past Is Still Alive, via Nonesuch. Today, they share its latest single and final preview with “Hawkmoon,” a rebellious road song and stirring remembrance of the first trans woman Segarra ever met – a poet, punk and fellow traveler named Miss Jonathan.
Pitchfork gives the new album – their ninth an 8.3
Willie Watson – Real Love
Willie Watson – “Real Love” (Official Video)
Singer-songwriter, poet, actor and multi-instrumentalist Willie Watson has announced his first-ever solo album of original material – over 20 years into his career. The former member of Old Crow Medicine Show has been a part of numerous musical projects, soundtracks, and films and is now set to release Willie Watson on September 13th via Little Operation Records and More (Thirty Tigers). Ahead of that he recently released the first single ‘Real Love’ and its gorgeous accompanying video. Directed by Joseph Wasilewski, the video follows Willie and his wife Mindy as they slow dance through significant places in their relationship.
“Real Love” is a love song I wrote for my wife,” explains Watson. “It kinda turned out to be the story of my life and it’s clear now that she’s standing in the center of everything. We’ve been looking for each other for a long time and now we can’t even remember all the struggle it took to get here.
also – Willie Watson was born and raised in upstate New York where he started the earliest iterations of his musical life while still in high school. As a teenager, Watson and Ketch Secor co-founded Old Crow Medicine Show – a group of remarkable players obsessed with early American traditional music. He remained in the band as one of its main creative forces until he departed in 2011.
a bit more from The Guardian
The album includes a great cover of Harris and the Mare
Mustafa – Old Life
Mustafa – Old Life (Official Video)
We have played Mustafa before and I know we will play him again. This is from his debut album here Stereogum takes up the story
In addition to hosting star-studded benefit shows for Gaza and Sudan in both New Jersey and London this year, Mustafa has been preparing his debut album. The Toronto-based Sudanese-Canadian artist has shared a handful of singles from it already, including “Gaza Is Calling,” “Imaan,” “Name Of God,” and “SNL,” and he has another one out today called “Old Life.”
about the song:
“‘Old Life’ is about reminiscence, and separation, and romance being a life sentence even in tragedy,” Mustafa explains in a press release. The track is a bit of a tearjerker: “You must hate me by now/ You won’t see me again/ But I look nothing like/ I did back then/ I know you heard all about how hard it’s been,” he sings over layered strings
My debut album, Dunya, is out everywhere. Listen to it, I hope it makes you reconsider the dark. I tried my hand at beauty when it wasn’t in the cards. Free all my people from the grasp of this wretched Dunya and glad tidings to the ones who have left it.
“Dunya means the life of this world from the moment we are born until the moment we die.
The Qur’an refers to the dunya as being temporary and only a means to prepare for the next life…”
Masjid Ar-Rahmah (Mosque of Mercy)
Hockey Season – “Things Around Here Will Never Be The Same” single
In all the hallowed years of the Old Fellas podcast, never has an artist had seemingly less info available than Hockey Season. The group? duo? has for around six years, made their music available via many outlets like Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Spotify but there is truly a lack of biographical information. However, that doesn’t lessen the enjoyment of this recent song, “Things Around Here Will Never Be The Same”
Beabadoobee – “Beaches” – This Is How Tomorrow Moves
Beabadoobee is a British singer and songwriter. She was born in the Philippines and moved to London, at the age of three. In the UK, it seems that she has achieved some popularity since the release of a series of eps. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, and she won the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards. Worldwide popularity is on the rise as she was an opening act for Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour.
The video for Beaches is good colourful fun.
Here’s a slightly stripped down version of Beaches which is maybe even better.
Oh, and the Guardian gave her its stamp of approval. https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/10/beabadoobee-this-is-how-tomorrow-moves-review-rick-rubin
Cam Cahin – “Old Shoes” – single
Cam Cahin hails from Dunville Ontario and has been releasing music since 2021. This is a nice comprehensive article from The Line of Best Fit.
Check out the Toronto Centric video
Haleluya Hailu – “MANIC PIXIE PACIFIST” – eternally, yours – ep
Haleluya Hailu is a Vancouver area based musician who this year released her first EP. However she has been recording since she was a high school student According to Wikipedia, “A Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a stock character type in fiction, usually depicted as a young woman with eccentric personality quirks who serves as the romantic interest for a male protagonist. The term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after observing Kirsten Dunst’s character in Elizabethtown (2005). Rabin criticized the type as one-dimensional, existing only to provide emotional support to the protagonist, or to teach him important life lessons, while receiving nothing in return. The term has since entered the general vernacular.”
In the song, Hailu sort of spins that stereotype and has fun with it.
The video is kinda fun too!
Kris Kristofferson – “Duvalier’s Dream” – The Cedar Creek Sessions
Kris Kristofferson died last week at the age of 88. . The guy had and incredible life that included his past as a Rhodes scholar, award winning short story writer, boxer, Army Captain, helicopter pilot, and a movie star. Duvalier’s Dream was actually on Kristofferson’s debut album from 1970 but the version we played was recorded in 2016 for the Cedar Creek Sessions. Here are the two versions separated by 46 years. The song apparently is about a loveless, bitter man who lives in an ivory tower. It was also one of the first songs that Kristofferson played at his first audition for a record contract.
Kris Kristofferson ~ Duvalier’s Dream
I’ve included one of the scads of obituaries that came out since his passing.
It gives a real sense of what a full life this guy had.
Whole-Hearted 
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