Destroyer – Hydroplaning off the Edge of the World
The Vapors – The Human Race
Maggie Rogers – So Sick of Dreaming
Doobie Brothers – Here to Stay
Rae Spoon – I’ve Got Friends in Low Places
Peter Holsapple – The Face of 68
David Byrne & Ghost Train Orchestra – Everybody Laughs
Pulp – Spike Island
Jessica Pratt – Life Is
and now our notes
Rae Spoon – I’ve Got Friends in Low Places
Such an interesting artist. Here is a note from their Bandcamp page
Dear listener, thank you for your interest in my album, Not Dead Yet. “Not Dead Yet” is a common saying in cancer communities to remind ourselves and others that we’re still living full lives in spite of whatever treatments we’re going through or cancer status we have.
I was diagnosed with cancer in March 2020, three days after I returned home from a tour for COVID-19 isolation. I was forced into the health care systems I had previously avoided because of how I was treated as a trans/non-binary person with CPTSD.
These songs are intended to be an expression of the unpredictable joy I discovered despite discrimination, indignities, medical abuse, relationship break downs and near-death experiences. I found who my people were, communities that engage in mutual support and that I no longer fear death or living. I developed a deep respect for health care workers and found that being in relationship often bridged our differences.
My treatment has not been linear and the impacts on my body and mind are ongoing. I hope singing about my experiences creates more space for under-represented folks in healthcare systems. Though, health experiences are as nuanced as each individual person, disability justice, universal health care and universal human rights are goals that serve everyone.
This is from their album Nor Dead Yet (July 2023). The intro track is Living More. You can hear the whole track here. Listen to the lyrics if you have some time.
This is a note I included back for Episode 10 of the show from the Georgia Strait giving more of the back story to a very talented artist.
Georgia Straight – Apr 28 2021
In the meantime, Spoon was healthy enough to discuss their fourth book, the young-adult novel Green Glass Ghosts, which includes illustrations by Gem Hall.
The narrator is a queer, guitar-wielding musician who arrives in Vancouver in 2000 at the age of 19. Written in Spoon’s usual highly accessible style, the story of youthful exuberance, excessive drinking, and emotional angst plays out across Vancouver—on the bus system, at the beaches, and in various neighbourhoods.
It’s astonishing to consider how far the trailblazing Spoon has come from being a poor couch-surfing, sometimes homeless trans youth living on the East Side. In addition to four books, including the Lambda Award finalist collection of short stories that kicked off their career, Spoon has created a dozen albums. In addition, they achieved their dream of touring extensively.
and a bit about the song
Since Garth Brooks’ original “Friends in Low Places” told the tale of an out-of-place wedding crasher who “showed up in boots,” Spoon dons lavender wedding attire in promotional materials to pay tribute to queer country pioneers Lavender Country. Partly inspired to cover the track by pondering the question “Have you ever been the problem queer or trans at a wedding,” the lyrics are flipped to take on new meaning when sung by someone of Spoon’s background.
from Range
They also talk about the publishing of their fifth book!
What’s next for Rae Spoon? Anything else you’d like us to know?
I’m working on a full-length country album to release in early 2026 called Hyper Country with producer Alaska B (Yamataka Sonic Titan) and a band of trans, non-binary, queer, Disabled and otherwise underrepresented people.
My pop country band Big Riverz will release a single on July 14 called “Heat Goes Up.” Everyone else in the band lives in the UK and I’m excited for people to hear how our collaboration makes upbeat, pop country.
In fall 2026 my next book, Cancer Person, will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press. It traces my health journey as a trans person who went through cancer treatment and extensive complications in a system that wasn’t equipped to respect my human rights.
Destroyer – Hydroplaning off the Edge of the World
Destroyer – Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World (Official Music Video)
Another musician I didn’t know anything about. I did see him on John Mulaney’s show (May 7: Andy Samberg, Robby Hoffman, Ramy Youssef, AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz, and music from Destroyer and Jessica Pratt). He has great musical guests, so I thought I should choose a bunch and then find out who they are. Maggie Rogers and Jessica Pratt were chosen for the same reason. I have also seen John Cale and Alanis Morissette on the same show.
You can see Mulaney’s show on Netflix here
so who is destroyer?
from Wikipedia
Destroyer is a Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver, formed in 1995. The band is fronted by founding member and lead vocalist Dan Bejar,[3] with a collective of regular band members and collaborators joining him in the studio and during live performances. Alongside Bejar, Destroyer currently includes longtime producers John Collins (bass) and David Carswell (guitar), Nicolas Bragg (lead guitar), Ted Bois (keyboards), JP Carter (trumpet) and Joshua Wells (drums).
The band’s discography draws on a variety of musical influences, resulting in albums that can sound markedly distinct from one another; in Bejar’s words, “That’s kind of my goal: to start from scratch every time.”[4] Destroyer have released fourteen studio albums to date, with their most recent, Dan’s Boogie, released in March 2025.
Pitchfork gave his latest (of 14 albums) an 8/10. Pretty high praise!
They also write
Over the past three decades, Bejar has built up a whole register of these images. He has created his own syntax and grammar. When he sings about television supervisors, Chinatowns in unremarkable cities, and a Ferris wheel on the run from the snow, all of it is ruthlessly in conversation with itself. His 14th record, Dan’s Boogie, is no outlier. It builds on this language and, like all Destroyer records, is a character study. The character being studied is once again Bejar himself.
Pitchfork gave his 13th album Labyrinthitis, an 8.5.
He has also been a member of the New Pornographers – didn’t know that.
Maggie Rogers – So Sick of Dreaming
Another John Mulaney pick (April 30: Molly Shannon, Marc Maron, anesthesiologist Dr. Emily Methangkool, Ronny Chieng, and music from John Cale and Maggie Rogers). Here is Maggie Rogers in Toronto performing So Sick of Dreaming
Indie-pop-folk artist Maggie Rogers has dropped “So Sick of Dreaming,” the second single off her upcoming album, Don’t Forget Me.
Produced alongside Ian Fitchuk, who also worked with Kacey Musgraves on her new album Deeper Well, this breezy indie folk track packs a punch with its upbeat vibe and introspective lyrics. In a post on Instagram, Rogers shared that the song captures her hope and optimism for life, clarifying that she’s actually “not sick of dreaming.”
Margaret Debay Rogers (born April 25, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Easton, Maryland.[1] After her song “Alaska” was played to artist-in-residence Pharrell Williams during a master class at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in Manhattan in 2016, she received widespread recognition.[2] She has released two independent albums, The Echo (2012) and Blood Ballet (2014), and three studio albums, Heard It in a Past Life (2019), Surrender (2022), and Don’t Forget Me (2024). She was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2020.
Here is the first time I saw her
John Cale – Shark-Shark (feat. Maggie Rogers) (Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney)
another note about John Mulaney’s show
With Everybody’s Live, John Mulaney is shaking up what music on TV can be
The unpredictable nature of the madcap late night show extends to its musical guests, too.
Mannequin Pussy rocking out in front of a gothic church backdrop, Maggie Rogers and John Cale singing about sharks and jail time, Cypress Hill living out a Simpsons joke and performing with the London Symphony Orchestra. These are just some of the musical highlights of Everybody’s Live, the John Mulaney chat show breathing new life into the stale late night landscape.
There is an air of chaos to Mulaney’s fever dream of a late night show, which broadcasts weekly live on Netflix. It’s ostensibly a discussion show with celebrity guests and an expert gathering to discuss a weekly theme and, later, take calls from the public. While Jimmy Fallon guffaws on The Tonight Show as his guests promote the latest Marvel blockbuster, Everybody’s Live has John Waters and comedian Stavros Halkias talking about squatters rights.
Jessica Pratt – Life Is
and Life Is
Jessica Pratt – “Life Is” (Official Video)
Her last two albums, Here is the Pitch 8.8 and Quiet Sounds 8.4 are listed as Best New Music by Pitchfork.
Singer/songwriter Jessica Pratt has a gentle, understated style that calls on the spirit of ’70s folk introverts, finding a haunted elegance in her subtle yet sublime songs of acoustic guitar and layered, reverb-heavy vocals. She rose to acclaim for her albums with indie labels Drag City and Mexican Summer, and branched out from the hushed folk minimalism of 2019’s Quiet Signs to the more ornate, Pet Sounds-inspired arrangements of 2024’s Here in the Pitch.
David Byrne & Ghost Train Orchestra – Everybody Laughs
I am choosing this song because Frankie likes it. He dances to this even when he is in his car seat.
What actually got his attention was the video
David Byrne – “Everybody Laughs” (Official Music Video)
about the song
The track is a burst of orchestral pop, propelled by a jaunty groove and the lush, cinematic arrangements of the New York-based chamber ensemble. It finds Byrne cataloguing the shared, often unspoken, truths of existence. “Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling,” he intones, his delivery poised between sincere observation and wry commentary. It’s a litany that could feel like a platitude, but in Byrne’s hands, it becomes a unifying mantra. The song builds into a joyous cacophony, with Byrne and guest vocalist St. Vincent “doing a lot of hollering and singing together,” transforming the litany into a cathartic release.
“Everybody Laughs” is the perfect overture—a smart, compassionate, and deeply danceable reminder that in a chaotic world, sometimes the most profound thing we can do is share a laugh at the beautiful absurdity of it all.
‘Who are artists that have made really cool, significant contributions to music and pop culture? Who are long overdue their flowers?’
Kevin O’Donnell (Everybodys Live)
The Vapors – “ The Human Race” – Wasp in a Jar
The Vapors are an English new wave and power pop band that formed in 1978. The band of course is remembered for the 1980’s hit “Turning Japanese” in 1980.
The band broke up in 1982 but reformed in 2016. Wasp in a Jar was released earlier this month.
The Vapors return with a punky and rocking new album
‘Wasp in a Jar,’ the first new album by the New Wave legends in five years, is an impressive release that can hold its own against the band’s early 1980’s work.
“Human Race” is a welcome return to form for the band.
Doobie Brothers – “Here to Stay” – Walk This Road.
The Doobie Brothers of course, were an extremely popular band throughout the 1970’s. At least one Old Fella was at this show in 1975 at the Montreal Forum.
Does 2025 need another Doobie Brothers record? Most reviews seem to think so.
I am more of a Patrick Simmons vocal fan so i selected this track
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Peter Holsapple – “The Face of 68” – S/T
Peter Holsapple is an American musician who has been making music since the turn of the 80’s. Along with Chris Stamey, he formed the formed the dB’s, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. here is a sample of his work from the early 80’s.
After 4 great albums in the 80’s the band broke up. Holsapple and Stamey released a wonderful album in 1991. This is one of my fave tracks.
Holsapple also spent time touring with R.E.M. and Hootie & the Blowfish.In 1997, he released his first solo album, Out of the Way. He followed it up twenty-one years later with Game Day and now in 2025, Face of 68.
Here’s the title track.
Follow Peter on his cool blog:
Pulp – “Spike Island” – More
Pulp are a British band that formed around Jarvis Cocker in 1978. The band struggled to find success during the 1980s, but gained UK prominence in the mid-1990s Different Class which won the Mercury Prize, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and spawned four top ten singles, including the number two hits “Common People” and “Mis-Shapes/Sorted for E’s & Wizz”.
More is the eighth studio album released earlier this month on Rough Trade Records. It is the band’s first studio album in twenty-four years.
Here’s Pulp live on the Jonathan Ross show
As a side note, Pulp became more infamous when Cocker crashed Michael Jackson’s performance on the 1996 Brit Awards. As Wikipedia explains, “ Cocker and Peter Mansell (a former Pulp member) invaded the stage in a spur-of-the-moment protest against Michael Jackson’s performance. Jackson was performing his hit “Earth Song” while surrounded by children and a rabbi. Cocker was detained and interviewed by the police on suspicion of assault. He was accompanied by the comedian Bob Mortimer, who was attending the Brit Awards; Mortimer is a former solicitor and represented him in that capacity. Cocker was released without charge. “
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Whole-Hearted 
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