Old Fellas New Music Episode 46

On May 12, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

This week’s show

and our updated Spotify playlist

This week

The Felice Brothers – Jazz on the Autobahn

Beach House – Holiday House

Allison Russel and Mumu Fresh – 4th Day Prayer

The National – The Alcott (feat. Taylor Swift)

Kelly Fraser – Sedna

PJ Harvey – A Child’s Question, August

TEKE:TEKE – Gotoku Lemon

The Gaslight Anthem – Positive Charge

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Broken Arrows

TAMPA, FLORIDA – APRIL 14: EDITORIAL USE ONLY Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner perform onstage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Raymond James Stadium on April 14, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Octavio Jones/TAS23/Getty Images for for TAS Rights Management)

The Felice Brothers – Jazz on the Autobahn

well, I didn’t know this – The duo craft these vivid, at times even violent, images through a sweet, sweet melody, an ironic balance of sound and content. As the song’s starring sheriff does, “Jazz on the Autobahn” drives us “through the principalities of unreality” in its whimsical, albeit tragic version of the end of the world.

Sparky

Listening to the Felice Brothers, I don’t think I agree with this. But, this review was written in 2008. This song is from their upcoming album.

From Pitchfork:

Who knows whether or not the Felice Brothers– brothers Ian, Simone, and James, plus a friend called Christmas– are actually, consciously trying to come as close as possible to replicating Dylan an/or the Band on their self-titled latest. Regardless, the point is, whether they intended to or not, they’ve come eerily, awkwardly, creepily close to capturing that familiar mix of mood, mystery, atmosphere, and aesthetic.
The Felice Brothers

Allison Russel and Mumu Fresh – 4th Day Prayer

Allison Russell – 4th Day Prayer [feat. Mumu Fresh] – dim star Remix (official audio)

Allison Russell has won or has been nominated for an incredible number of awards and from Rolling Stone a look into her upcoming work.

ALLISON RUSSELL STOPPED by Jimmy Kimmel Live to deliver a raucous, soulful performance of her song “4th Day Prayer”. Backed by a live band that included the duo Sista Strings and singer-guitarist Joy Clark, Russell gave the song a vibrant sensibility that matched the colorful stage backdrop.

“4th Day Prayer” comes off the singer-songwriter’s debut solo album Outside Child, released last year. The album is nominated for three Grammys — including Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Performance for single “Nightflyer.” Russell performed that track on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year, with accompaniment from Brittney Spencer and Brandi Carlile.
Rolling Stone

And from Wikipedia, a really impressive list of award nominations and wins

Kelly Fraser – Sedna

From her album Sedna released in 2023. Kelly Fraser tragically died by suicide in 2019. From a CBC article:

The death of musician, advocate and Indspire youth laureate Kelly Fraser was met with shock and sadness by those who knew her, her music and her advocacy work.

When Fraser released her Inuktitut cover of Rihanna’s Diamonds in 2013, it quickly went viral. Her success was followed by a Juno nomination for her second album, Sedna, and a 2019 Indspire Youth Award, which honours the outstanding achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

You can see her performing Sedna in this CBC appearance from 2018

TEKE:TEKE – Gotoku Lemon

Terrific Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock band has been on the show before. This is from their upcoming album and their music has such incredible energy.

From GhettoBlaster: (interesting name)

Acclaimed Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock band TEKE::TEKE have released “Gotoku Lemon,” the second single from their upcoming sophomore album, Hagata, out June 9 via Kill Rock Stars

and this

The result is something of a drunken bluesy calypso, with a lingering intensity just below the surface.

That could be a new genre of music!

Finally…

Translating to “Lemon Enlightenment” in English, the track sees lead vocalist Kuroki spinning a whimsical short story about a world in which glow-in-the-dark lemons are found to be the cure for all ills

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Broken Arrows

again, another band that I have never heard of (my bad) but Hurray For The Riff Raff has been around for 17 years.

From Pitchfork:

Fifteen years ago, Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff chose their band name to celebrate outsiders who threatened the status quo: “the riff raff” being “the weirdos and the poets,” they once said, “the rebellious women and the activists” whom society disregarded. These were the people who kept Segarra going as they carved an itinerant path from their fractured Bronx upbringing to their longtime home in New Orleans,

— Pitchfork

Now I realize I know this – here is a song from 5 years ago – Living in the City

Beach House – “Holiday House” from the Become EP

Beach House is an American band that has been kicking around since 2004. For lack of a better term, Beach House is often categorized as “dream pop”. They have released 9 albums to generally favourable reviews. The new EP was an official Record store Day release. To quote the band, “The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes”.

Here’s the official video

The National – “The Alcott” (feat. Taylor Swift) from the album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein

The National is an American band based in Brooklyn. Band members are Matt Berninger , twin brothers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards), as well as brothers Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf. They produced a couple of indie albums and in 2005, released their breakthrough lp, Alligator. The National have now released 9 albums in total garnering Grammy nominations along the way. Since 2020 Aaron Dessner has co-wrote and produced several blockbuster albums for Taylor Swift. Here, Swift returns the favour by performing a wonderful duet.

The Atlantic has a great piece on this collaboration.

…

PJ Harvey – “A Child’s Question, August” – single

Polly Jean Harvey is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. She has been creating music since the late eighties to overwhelming critical acclaim. Among the awards Harvey has received are both the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Prize for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake. She has also eight Brit Award nominations, seven Grammy Award nominations and two further Mercury Prize nominations. “A Child’s Question, August” is from her upcoming 10th studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying. Any song that references both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Elvis in the space of 2 and half minutes is alright in my books.

Here’s nice little capsule review/summary of the song.

The Gaslight Anthem – “Positive Charge” – single

The Gaslight Anthem is a New Jersey rock band formed in 2006. Possibly their finest moment was the 2008 release The ‘59 Sound which updated the urgency of Bruce Springsteen for a new generation. The band took a break in 2015, returned briefly in 2018. In March 2022, the band announced that they had reunited and returned to “full time status”, and that they had begun writing their sixth studio album which would be the band’s first new music release in nine years. “Positive Change” is the lead single for the upcoming album.

Speaking of New Jersey, here’s The Gaslight Anthem with Bruce himself

Old Fellas New Music Episode 45!

On April 30, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

wow – we have 45 episodes out there!!

our station

Week 45

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Death Wish

Blesse – Gant Noirs

The Nude Party – Ride On

Logan Richard – See Me Like This

Lana Del Rey – Did you Know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Nickybaby – She Sees Me

The Weather Station – Endless Time

Dart Trees –Bong and Mcquade

Valerie June – Stay

new video for the June release of Weathervanes

I seem to be going for the dark songs.

This one is compelling. Would love to see this live.

This is what Rolling Stone wrote, I would like to know lots more.

“Death Wish” immediately evokes a feeling of urgency with its sweeping guitar arpeggios and Isbell’s tense vocal delivery. “Did you ever love a woman with a death wish?/Something in her eyes like flipping off a light switch,” he sings, recounting a story about trauma and substance use seeping their way into a couple’s relationship. By the end, the song has grown to massive proportions, with swirling strings and multiple tracks of Isbell’s voice giving it a head-spinning effect.
Rolling Stone

This is the promo video for the new album

The Nude Party – Ride On

I don’t know this band, but they sound a bit like Lou Reed’s second coming.

Here is a video of them, not the song we are playing – this is more interesting

The Nude Party – Things Fall Apart (Nude Years Eve)

A review. I think this is their second album. Definitely a vintage sound. A review:

Following a debut EP and two albums with Black Lips‘ Oakley Munson in the producer’s chair, the Nude Party offer up their first self-produced effort, Rides On. It’s the culmination of an over-two-year period that generated over 20 songs — among them experiments with county and electro-pop — all tracked at the septet’s leisure in their own barn studio in upstate New York. When it came time to sequence the record, they homed in on songs that favored ’70s blues-rock à la Sticky Fingers-era Stones, albeit with conspicuous diversions into the ’60s among the 13 tracks that made the cut on an album full of vintage flair.

All Music

OK, here is a link to the song, but nothing but a visualization video

Lana Del Rey – Did you Know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Not worth watching, but here is the song.

Pretty haunting, could I say dark?

Pitchfork would seem to agree that this is where she was at in 2014:

In 2014, Lana Del Rey told a journalist that she wished she was dead, and for what seemed like years after, scarcely an article was written about her that didn’t mention it. Back then, the singer was still miserable at the sour critical reception of her debut album. She was, perhaps, peddling its underlying fatalism, pushing back on allegations that her noirish Born to Die persona was fabricated. Almost certainly, she was harboring the sort of creative ambition that craved association with tragic geniuses like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
Pitchfork

I learn nothing from garbage writing like this, but it fills the pages but says a little about the song we are featuring.

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd arrives as a sweeping, confounding work-in-process. It’s full of quiet ruminations and loud interruptions; of visible seams and unhemmed edges, from the choir rehearsal that runs through its opening moments to the sound of the piano’s sustain pedal releasing at its end. Beauty—long Lana’s virtue and her burden—fades or is forgotten, like that titular tunnel, its mosaic ceilings and painted tiles sealed up and abandoned. Here, Lana is after something more enduring, the matters “at the very heart of things”: family, love, healing, art, legacy, wisdom—and all the contradictions and consternation that come along with the pursuit.

Yes, more Pitchfork.

The Weather Station – Endless Time

The Weather Station – Endless Time (Official Video)

But it’s only the end of an endless time
We laughed so much, we wore lines around our eyes
You can see it in that picture of us from long ago
How we changed
And it happened so slowly, we couldn’t even say
I gotta find that picture, I want to look again
I used to think that I could see everything
That met my eyes

Tamara Lindeman from an interview on Pitchfork

“When I wrote Ignorance, it was a time of intense creativity, and I wrote more songs than I ever had in my life,” the Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman said in a statement. “The songs destined to be on the album were clear from the beginning, but as I continued down my writing path, songs kept appearing that had no place on the album I envisioned. Songs that were simple, pure; almost naive. Songs that spoke to many of the same questions and realities as Ignorance, but in a more internal, thoughtful way. So I began to envision How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, a quiet, strange album of ballads. I imagined it not as a follow-up to Ignorance, but rather as a companion piece; the moon to its sun.”

Valerie June – Stay

Valerie June Stay

much more interesting, from another show

Since darkness seems to be my theme for the week, here is an excerpt from a New York Times article about her written in March, 2021.

Above all, a willed and unblinking optimism courses through Valerie June’s songs. “One of my lessons for this life is, how can I keep my energy?” she said. “I know darkness. I know the blues. And so how can I use the blues as a fuel for what I wish to say? You know, the negativity is always going to be there. It’s just, how do you work with it? We all have these seeds of darkness within us and we all have these seeds of light. We get the choice.”

New York Times

Blesse – “Gant Noirs” from Normal

Montreal’s Blesse are a trio from Montreal who have just recently released the lp Normal. Members Léo Leblanc, Charles-Antoine Olivier (aka CAO), and Xavier Touikan used to be members of Polaris nominated Zen Bamboo. Blesse display an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from psych-pop to bedroom lo-fi LCD Soundsystem grooves. The song “Gant Noirs” sounds like a male Quebecois Wet Leg.

Readrange gets us all caught up with Blesse.

Logan Richard – “See Me Like This” from Learning to Love ep

Logan Richard has been described as the Canadian East Coast’s answer to John Mayer, Bahamas, Billy Joel and Colin James all rolled into one. While that may not be a good idea, this track is:

Richard reminds me more of Scotland’s late great lamented The Thrills

Logan and lupins?

Logan Richard‘s latest release, “See Me Like This,” is a fantastic blend of retro and modern sounds. It is the kind of song, for me, that Harry Styles would pay good money to have written for him. The piano takes the lead in the song, with its live sound providing a sense of authenticity. The bass line is groovy in an old-fashioned Paul McCartney sense, while the percussion gives the song a nice swagger.

— Up To Hear Music

Nickybaby – She Sees Me from “Nickybaby”

Nicholas Goszer, who records as Nickybaby, was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As evidenced, his music is influenced by Elliott Smith, Silver Jews, Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground.

However, don’t confuse him with this Nickybaby

Always request the Canadian one!

Nickybaby features 10 deeply personal tracks with themes of addiction, loss, doubt, friendship, and love
Winnipeg’s Nickybaby (Nick Goszer) shares his debut self-titled LP with the world via Slow Shine Records. The album features Nicky’s deep and honest songwriting and poetry backed by a full band. The album was produced by Adam Soloway and Gilad Carroll (Living Hour) and mixed by Brady Allard (Warming). The album also features contributions from Sam Sarty and Brett Ticzon (Living Hour).
Canada Beats

Dart Trees –Bong and Mcquade from “Consider Two Beers”

I believe Dart Trees is one of the first Ottawa bands featured on this venerable podcast and what a good choice it is! I’m gonna get lazy and describe Dart Trees as giving off a slacker stoner “Mac Demarco” vibe but there you go. This ep is a lot of fun.

The track reminds me of the Parquet Courts which is definitely a good thing.

Check out the whole ep here:

EP Premiere: Dart Trees – ‘Consider Two Beers’

Old Fellas New Music Episode 44

On April 25, 2023April 25, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

Episode 44 show as recorded on Mixcloud

And our current Spotify Playlist

This week’s songs

Sunny War – New Day

July Talk – After This

The Mary Wallopers – Love Will Never Conquer Me

Crown Lands – White Buffalo

Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud

Caroline Rose – Miami

Joe Henry – Mission

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Bad Night

Robert Forster – Go Free

Sunny War – “New Day” from Anarchist Gospel

Sunny War is actually Sydney Lyndella , a singer/songwiter based in California. She started playing guitar at 13 and became enamoured with punk/folk rock and a wide variety of music as evidenced by her participation in The Anus Kings.

She spent a rough period combating substance abuse and poverty and she eventually shifted to blues and folk and adopted the moniker Sunny War.

Mary Wallopers – “Love will Never Conquer Me” from The Mary Wallopers

The Mary Wallopers are an Irish folk music group based in Dundalk, County Louth. The main members are brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy who also front TPM, a comedy rap duo. If you liked The Pogues, you’ll like these folks.

The Mary Wallopers name has an interesting backstory. To quote, “We were named after a boat; the harbourmaster at the dock had a little rowing boat and he wrote on the side, the “Mary Walloper”. “Walloper” actually means “a mad person”. When Seán was a child, his father would say, “There’s the Mary Walloper!” as a joke. It was a tiny row boat and those don’t even have names on them. But this fella wrote a massive name for Mary Walloper on his boat. We only found out later on that there was actually a sex worker who used to work around the docks called Mary Walloper. She used to drink cider and like starting riots and having craic. So, he named the boat after her.”

Let’s get to know these fine fellows. https://roarnews.co.uk/2022/getting-to-know-the-mary-wallopers-interview/

“Love Will never Conquer Me” is simple but powerful.

Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud from I play My Bass Loud

Gina Birch is an English musician and filmmaker. She is best known as a member of the seminal late 70’s band The Raincoats. Probably their most “famous” song is this one:

The Raincoats broke up in 1984. Birch went on to attend art college. She has spent the last 40 years directing film, video and painting. This year at the age of 67, she created her first solo album. An AllMusic review noted that “It’s a loud, celebratory album that perfectly boils down Birch’s 40-plus-year journey as a tireless, boundless, and most of all fearless, creator”

From Pitchfork

The song has a very cool video

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Bad Night

The Steep Canyon Rangers have been together since 2000 and have produced nine albums, two with Steve Martin. In 2013 they won Best Bluegrass Album at the Emmys. They toured with Martin for a few years and produced two albums with him.

A great band, glad to include them here. They are still playing, but there have been several personnel changes. I would think there was lots of comedy during their touring time with Steve Martin including this one.

Crown Lands

We saw this band when they opened for July Talk this week. We didn’t know anything about them, but they are pretty amazing. Just a band of two with an incredible story.

a little from one of their interviews:

“We don’t really do a lot in solitude for this band,” Comeau says. “When I’m alone and making music, it’s synth music, kind of like Vangelis or Tangerine Dream or John Carpenter. And when Cody’s on their own, Cody’s playing all these amazing flutes these days, and that’s a whole other world. But when we come together, it’s like, what would Pink Floyd do if they jammed with Rush? It’s a different kind of headspace.”
From their bio

This I didn’t know, from Wikipedia

Crown Lands won the Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year (this is their acceptance speech) at the Juno Awards of 2021.^[6] The band were also nominated for Rock Album of the Year.^[7]

The band consists of vocalist and drummer Cody Bowles, and guitarist, bassist and keyboardist Kevin Comeau.^[1][2]

and from their Facebook Page

They also do an amazing cover of Come Together

Their influences (from e-talk) include Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. If you hear them this makes lots of sense.

They also do a great version of Come Together. They were asked to play this for the FIFA World Cup.

July Talk – After This

Everything this band does energizes. We saw them this week at the NAC, and really I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage. Every song was a dynamic dialogue among the members, especially Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay.

They have been together since 2012 and won a Juno for Alternative Album of the Year. Their new two albums also won Alternative Album of the Year – why not Album of the Year?

(thanks Wikipedia)

July Talk – After This [Official Music Video]

Their latest album Remember Never Before is now out. Exclaim loved it saying this is a return to their “hurl yourself into the moment” style of playing. I really didn’t know that they had to return to this – looking at their material it’s always been there.

Listening to Paper Girl right now – produced ten years ago now. And of course – Picturing Love which they played perfectly at the NAC.

Caroline Rose – Miami (Official Music Video)

Caroline Rose

Just because I’m brooding
And wanna kill everything moving
It doesn’t mean I’m losing my marbles
I’m just moody
Carolyn Rose – Miami

I keep on hearing this song. What really captures me first is the ending of the plaintive song. The video is dramatic and she comments on the featured song Miami

“I’m not one to shy away from drama, and so this was a perfect opportunity to really bring out every ounce of desperation and anger and all those confusing emotions that happen after a big heartbreak,” Rose elaborates on “Miami.”
Stereogum

This is Rose’s third album all since 2020.

and the ending

This is the hard part
The part that they don’t tell you about
There is the art of loving
This is the art of forgetting how

This is gonna break you
You’re gonna rip your own heart out
There is the art of loving
This is the art of forgetting how

This is the art of forgetting how
This is the art of forgetting how
This is the art of forgetting how
This is the art of forgetting how

You’ve gotta get through this life somehow
You’ve gotta get through this life somehow
You’ve gotta get through this life somehow
You’ve gotta get through this life somehow

Joe Henry – “Mission” from All the Eye Can See

Joe Henry has had an illustrious and varied career as an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released multiple studio albums and produced countless recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina he moved to Brooklyn in 1985 after graduating from the University of Michigan. He has produced Solomon Burke, Billy Bragg, Louden Wainwright 111 , Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello and many others.

He has co-written with Madonna as he has been married to her sister since 1987. From his 15th solo album, “The Mission”

The new release is garnering good reviews.

Years ago, Henry released “Our Song” Always loved these cryptic and melancholy lyrics.

“ Our Song”

I saw Willie Mays

At a Scotsdale Home Depot

Looking at Garage Door Springs

At the the far end of the 14th row

His wife stood there beside him

She was quiet and they both were proud

I gave them room but was close enough

That I heard him when he said out loud

This was my country

And this was my song

Somewhere in the middle there

Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

Robert Forster – “Go Free” from The Candle and the Flame

Robert Forster is a a former of the great 80’s Australian band The Go- Betweens mainly with the late great Grant McLennan. The Go-Betweens broke up in 1989 after six stellar underappreciated albums. Fave track? This gem:

The Go – Betweens reformed in 2000 and miraculously didn’t lose a beat releasing three more wonderful albums. Unfortunately, MacLennan succumbed to a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 48. Since then, Forster established a career as a music journalist in Australia and has over the years, released solo material. From his eighth solo lp, “Go Free”

The Guardian article excellently describes Forster’s tribulations which inspired his latest release, The Candle and the Flame

Old Fellas New Music Episode 42 Notes

On February 25, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment

Episode 42

Rina Sawayama – This Hell

Lemon Twigs – Anytime of the Day

Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint

Blues Lawyer – Chance Encounters

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

Yo La Tengo – Aselestine

Horace Andy – Watch Over Them

Brad Mehldau – Your Mother Should Know

Pony – Très Jolie

Bob’s notes

Lemon Twigs – “Anytime of the Day” from the Everything Harmony being released on May 5th

This is the second Lemon Twigs number to have aired on the podcast. We played one from their previous album back in the Old Fellas “Jurassic” period. The band are principally Brian and Michael D’Addario. Their music and sartorial style seems frozen in about 1972 but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “Anytime of Day” could have been lifted off a Todd Rundgren or Carpenters album. Blogger Burning Wood elaborates:

https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2023/02/hello-its-them.html

Whenthehornblows concurs: https://whenthehornblows.com/content/2023/2/19/the-lemon-twigs-any-time-of-day

Blues Lawyer – “Chance Encounters” from All in Good Time

Although this podcast is about listening to new music and pithy penetrating conversation, sometimes we all learn something. I picked Blues Lawyer because of their intriguing name. Well… who knew there’s a whole story there?

https://killerguitarrigs.com/what-is-a-blues-lawyer/ As a semi-musician, I had never heard this term before. Oakland-based Blues Lawyer are anything but “Blues Lawyers”. Chance Encounters is wonderful punchy song with a great retro video

. Here’s the story behind the new album. https://rockandrollglobe.com/indie-rock/blues-lawyer-and-the-art-of-patience/

Yo La Tengo – “Aselestine” from This Stupid World,

Critics’ faves Yo La Tengo have been kicking around for almost 40 years now. They have released fifteen studio albums, six compilation albums, fifteen extended plays, twenty-two singles, two film score albums, four collaborative albums, and one album of cover songs. Hoboken’s finest (not counting Frank Sinatra) have just released This Stupid World. Drummer Georgia Hubley takes lead vocals on “Aselestine”

Pitchfork evaluates:

On their liveliest album in at least a decade, indie rock’s most steadfast institution squares up against ubiquitous darkness.

To fully dig the manifold charms of This Stupid World, it’s best to take a single step back into Yo La Tengo’s 38 years-and-counting catalog. In July 2020, amid that first summer of extreme pandemic disorientation, the trio surprised devotees not only with a new Bandcamp page but also with a fresh album, captured at their Hoboken practice space just weeks earlier and offered up like a timely postcard from a friend you’ve missed—we’re OK, and we hope you’re OK, too.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yo-la-tengo-this-stupid-world/

Yo La Tengo rocking out in 2013 at the Pitchfork Festival

Brad Mehldau – “Your Mother Should Know” from Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles

Everybody artist at some point tackles a Beatles cover; it’s inevitable. Bradford is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. As a jazz guy, he takes a fresh approach covering one of Paul McCartney’s minor songs. Mehldau doesn’t, like many jazz guys, stretch the original tune in length or go off on fancy tangents. The actual playing time is very close to the original track. Here he playing live.

Hey it’s the Burning Wood Blog again!

https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2023/02/your-mother-should-know.html

Tidal magazine provides insight.

Paul’s Notes

Rina Sawayama – This Hell (Official Music Video)

Don’t know if I would call this a country song, but it certainly is a banger as the kids say. The lyrics are really interesting to, so I had no problem making this my first pick this week.

About the song – from Wikipedia

“This Hell” is a “glammy, country pop inspired” song which contains references to numerous country and western motifs such as cowboys and horseriding.^[3] It was produced by Paul Epworth and Clarence Clarity, and written by Sawayama alongside Vic Jamieson, Epworth, and Lauren Aquilina.^[10]

Sawayama has noted Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves as inspirations for “This Hell”, as well as Shania Twain, whom Sawayama has described as “The queen of country pop”.^[11]

Sawayama wrote “This Hell” while reflecting about attacks against LGBT people, which are often motivated by religious beliefs, stating: “When the world tells us we don’t deserve love and protection, we have no choice but to give love and protection to each other”.^[12] The song contains a guitar solo which was described as “over-the-top” by NPR.^[3] The singer makes references to some gay icons such as Britney Spears, Princess Diana, and Whitney Houston,^[10] and references Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” with the beginning line, “Let’s go, girls”, as well as Paris Hilton‘s signature catchphrase “that’s hot”.^[12] Sawayama stated: “I put in as many iconic pop culture moments as I can, but the song is more than that.” ^[13] Upon the song’s release, Sawayama posted to Twitter: “I wanted to write a western pop song that celebrated COMMUNITY and LOVE in a time where the world seemed hellish.”^[11]

Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint

Another band that has been around for a long time that I didn’t know about. Body Paint, like all the songs on their latest album is so interesting, certainly a cut above the music I was hearing on the Top Lists this week. The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ seventh album.

a bit about the song – interesting notes here.

Musically the song has been described as a “lounge-y piano ballad”, and Beatlesque,^[6] with “gorgeous string arrangements” reminiscent of Burt Bacharach and George Martin‘s work with said group.^[2] The band has been said as being “in introspective lounge lizard mode over sparkling piano and slowed-down drums.”^[7] Robin Murray of Clash, thought there was a “sense of Bowie‘s mid 70s peak in the arrangement”.

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

[Verse 1]

Grew up under yellow light on the street

Putting too much faith in the make-believe

And another high school football team

The neighbor’s brother came home in a box

But he wanted to go, so maybe it was his fault

Another red heart taken by the American dream

More and more I am choosing songs that I think we have played before, but I checked and we haven’t. We have (I forgot) played Arctic Monkeys beforte – different song.

I like everything about Ethel Cain. Bob thinks her last name comes from a Band Song – that is pretty interesting, but I couldn’t find anything on that.

A bit about Ethel Cain from Pitchfork.

“Growing up I was surrounded by visions of NASCAR, rock’n’roll, and being the one who would change everything,” Cain said in a statement. “They make you think it’s all achievable and that if nothing else, you should at least die trying. What they don’t tell you is that you need your neighbor more than your country needs you. I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”

Pitchfork

Horace Andy

Yet another long-time famous musician I hadn’t heard of before. Bob talks a lot about him during the podcast – I am adding a few notes, mainly for me so I can catch up. This for me would be a great album to pick up soon. I have included below an NPR episode featuring some discussion of his latest album. Plus I found – again from NPR – a great session including Horace Andy and a great group of musicians.

NPR’s favorite music of April, from broken-hearted R&B to paranoid post-punk

Horace Andy is a reggae legend and a beloved Massive Attack collaborator. On his new album Midnight Rocker, producer Adrian Sherwood sticks to the basics: a full band adorns Andy’s golden voice with rich arrangements, as he offers messages of care in an uncaring world. We open the best music of the month show with “Watch Over Them,” and it’s easy to get lost in Andy’s voice.

Today, right here, we get to peek into the decked-out living room of producer Adrian Sherwood’s home and watch masters of reggae playfully chill. We hear Horace Andy‘s gruff tenor tell stories with 55 years of experience, rasp and wear.

“You’ve got to live, live, live for today, for tomorrow might never come your way,” he pleads as he sings “Today Is Right Here,” a track on his 2022 album Midnight Rocker. And then the lines I love best, “My mama told me when I was a child, said all the best things take a little while. But mama was wrong, wrong, wrong, the best things in life come and they go in the blink of an eye.” All the while, a single snare drum and hi-hat keep the beat, and the band of bass, guitar, keyboard, sax, trumpet and cello warmly support the emotions pouring from Horace Andy.

Horace Andy: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

NPR All Songs Considered

Pony – Très Jolie

a great way to finish off the show. One line from the reviews sets the song up nicely

“Spunky, sprightly, and positively infectious, ‘Très Jolie’ is basically the perfect song for a summer that hasn’t come yet.”

Far Out Magazine

PONY – “Très Jolie”

From their album “Velveteen”

Out May 19th via Take This To Heart Records

Old Fellas new Music Episode 41

On February 18, 2023February 18, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment

Episode 41 on Mixcloud

Episode 41

Big Joanie – Confident Man

Orville Peck – The Curse of the Blackened Eye

Macie Stewart – Maya Please

Wet Leg – Ur Mom

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen

Portugal. The Man – What, Me Worry?

The No Ones – Phil Ochs is Dead

Fireboy DML, Ed Sheeran – Peru

Jah Wobble – Trinidadian Chinese New Year

Orville Peck

Paul’s Notes:

Orville Peck is originally from South Africa and is now based in Canada. Last year he released his second album Bronco on April 8, 2022. Between South Africa and Canada, he moved to London to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and later starred in a play on the West End.^[7]

Though he’s never revealed his identity, it is commonly accepted that Orville Peck is the alter ego of Daniel Pitout. Over the past 15-odd years, has gone from punk drummer to stage actor to the world’s most mysterious cowboy crooner. He’s a talented enough singer, but more importantly he is a calculated aesthete. Peck has committed to a cartoonish persona, turning his public life into an endless performance.

Peck grew up in the badlands outside of Johannesburg. He was a lonely child, friendless and bullied, so he clung to old movies: Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns and The Lone Ranger, films about outsiders who turn into heroes, anonymous vigilantes who come out of nowhere and save the town and charm the girl and choose solitude anyway. At 15, Peck’s family moved from South Africa to Vancouver. Peck has said in interviews that he played in punk bands in his youth. Pitout, his suspected alter ego, was the drummer in the Vancouver band Nü Sensae, which achieved some recognition in the early 2010s but went on hiatus in 2014 after he decided to pursue an acting career in England. He entered a two-year acting program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and landed a role in a 2016 West End production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

Wet Leg

Wet Leg a British band founded in 2019 has already been shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize. Wet Leg has already won Best Alternative Music Album for their debut and Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Longue”, and were nominated for Best New Artist at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Pretty amazing.

Here is a live performance by Wet Leg at Glastonbury in 2022.

From the Guardian

Wet Leg seemed to come out of nowhere. Silly name. Lyrical double (and single) entendres. A Domino record deal off the back of a couple of tracks on SoundCloud. Within weeks, their June 2021 debut single Chaise Longue had flung the Isle of Wight duo from unknowns into the buzziest band around on just the basis of a few minutes of stupidly catchy guitar-pop.

That song hinted at how Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers could shove new wave, post-punk and incessant hooks into a raucous embrace. And yes, Chaise Longue set a high bar, with its Mean Girls reference and a bucolic music video (now watched more than 8.5m times). It was widely rated as one of the best songs of 2021. Could their first record make good on its promise? In April, their self-titled debut answered, conclusively, yes.

Peru

Peru: How Ed Sheeran helped Fireboy DML’s hit go global

BBC

When Fireboy DML was told to check his DMs, he had to be convinced Ed Sheeran’s message was real.

Ed had sent the Nigerian singer a note saying he was a fan and wanted to collaborate on a remix of his Afrobeats hit, Peru.

“He had apparently been listening to the song for weeks,” Fireboy tells Radio 1 Newsbeat, from his studio in Lagos, Nigeria.

“Not only had he heard the song, but he’d already recorded a verse for it too.”

‘Everything you do is for the culture’

The 25-year-old is aware of critics who say having such a big name on the track dilutes the song’s origin.

“People were saying Peru was already big. It was already good enough without him,” he says.

But he says the “only thing” on his mind when he got Ed Sheeran involved with the remix was how it was “going to be amazing for Afrobeats.”

“It’s the selfless mind-set that comes with being an Afrobeats artist. Everything you do is for the culture.”

In the song, Ed sings a couple of lines in Yoruba, a language predominantly used by millions of people across West Africa, especially in south western Nigeria.

“He did great,” says Fireboy, who’s real name is Adedamola Adefolahan.

Portugal. The man

How did they get their name?

The band’s name is based on the idea of David Bowie‘s “bigger than life” fame. They wanted the band to have a bigger-than-life feel but did not want to name it after one of their members. “A country is a group of people,” guitar player and vocalist John Gourley explains. “With Portugal, it just ended up being the first country that came to mind. The band’s name is ‘Portugal’. The period is stating that, and ‘The Man’ states that it’s just one person” (any one of the band members). The name has a more personal meaning as well: Portugal. The Man was going to be the name of a book that Gourley had planned to write about his father and his many adventures.^[5]^[6]^[7]

A critical and commercial success, “Feel It Still” earned Portugal. The Man a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Returning in 2020, the group turned in a pair of unlikely tracks: first, a cover of “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie for the children’s compilation At Home with the Kids in August, followed later that year by “Who’s Gonna Stop Me,” a collaboration with Weird Al Yankovic that honored Indigenous Peoples’ Day. A live studio recording from 2008 emerged in 2021, originally taking place after the tour for their third album and before the recording of their fourth; released as Oregon City Sessions it captured the live energy they had built up from playing stages worldwide.

Led by the single “Feel It Still,” [Live/Stripped Session] it was named in honor of the 1969 festival and the group’s attempt to “say something that mattered” in a context of sociopolitical unrest. A critical and commercial success, “Feel It Still” earned Portugal. The Man a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Bob’s Notes:

Big Joanie – “Confident Man”

from the album Back Home

Big Joanie is a British punk trio formed in London in 2013. Big Joanie was formed when by Stephanie Phillips in 2013, posted online asking for bandmates with whom to start a black feminist punk band. They signed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. 2018 saw the release of their debut Sistahs. Back Home, released in 2022 on the Kill Rock Stars label, contains the number, “Confident Man”.

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/big-joanie-unveil-new-cut-confident-man

Rolling Stone magazine discusses: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/big-joanie-confident-man-1234596046/

Macie Stewart – Maya Please

from the album A Mouth Full of Glass (bonus track)

Macie Stewart is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter based in Chicago. From what I can tell, they has had an amazingly diverse career. Starting as a child prodigy on piano and violin, Stewart has played with both avant- garde jazz improvisational groups and toured with as back up musician with Japanese Breakfast, The Weather Station, Chance the Rapper and Jeff Tweedy. “Maya Please” is a single form last summer.

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen

from the album “Big Love Blanket”

Personal Trainer are a collective of musicians who hail from the Netherlands. From what I can tell, this track is from their first full length album. “Texas in the Kitchen” is a jaunty little number that would sound out of place on a mid-90’s Pavement lp.

There’s not a lot of info on these folks so I’ll post this article from Read Dork.

Personal Trainer have shared a new single, ‘Former Puppy’, from their upcoming debut album, ‘Big Love Blanket’

Peter Buck/ Luke Haines

– “Phil Ochs is Dead” from the album All the Kids Are Super Bummed OutThe No Ones is a collaboration featuring Scott McCaughey, Frode Strømstad, Peter Buck and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, is a band that stretches from the southwest of Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the USA, consisting of members from I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and R.E.M. This track features primarily REM’s Peter Buck and Luke Haines formely of the Auteurs. Dangerous Minds elaborates:

https://dangerousminds.net/ For the record, Phil Ochs is dead . He tragically took his own life in 1975 at the age of 35. Just for the heck of it, I am including my favourite Phil Ochs song.

Jah Wobble – “Trinidadian Chinese New Year” from the album Guanyin

Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He was born John Joseph Wardle in London. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He later left the band after two albums and has since enjoyed a lengthy and fruitful career exploring all sorts of genres of music. Check out this lengthy discography. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jah-wobble-mn0000107259/discography

The track, “Trinidadian Chinese New Year” continues Wobble’s exploration of Jamaican dub and World Music. It’s taken from 2021 album Guanyin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp3yxFKEoaY

Here’s a tidy little guide to his career. https://thevinylfactory.com/features/jah-wobble-10-records/

Old Fellas New Music Episode 40

On February 13, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment

Episode 40 right here

Julian Taylor – Opening the Sky

Ty Segall – Saturday Pt. 2

Adam Baldwin – Causeway Road

The Bros Landreth – Stay

SG Goodman – All My Love is Coming Back to Me

Laura Veirs – Eucalyptus

Days Of Lavender – People Who Care

Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Loves The Rain

The Dead South – People Are Strange

Bob’s notes

Ty Segall – Saturday Pt. 2

Ty Segall is an American musician and producer. He is extremely prolific as exemplified by the sheer amount of his album, ep and single releases. Check out his Discogs entry. https://www.discogs.com/artist/1265284-Ty-Segall?limit=250&type=Releases&subtype=Albums&filter_anv=0&page=1 . I suppose he could be pigeonholed into the “garage-rock” genre but his latest lp, “Hello Hi” is anything but that. Pitchfork Magazine explains: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ty-segall-hello-hi/

Here he is performing Saturday Pt. 2 live

The Bros Landreth – Stay – from 2022 lp Come Morning

The Bros. Landreth is a group from Winnipeg Manitoba. Their debut album “Let It Lie” won the Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2015 so they have been around for a while. In 2022, Bonnie Raitt released a cover of “Made Up Mind”, which appears on her album “Just Like That” Her recording of the song won a Grammy Award for Best Americana Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2022

Bonnie Raitt gave the guys a shoutout at the Grammys. Stay is a soulful number with a nice kooky video.

The whole album is solid. https://atthebarrier.com/2022/05/24/the-bros-landreth-come-morning-album-review/

Laura Veirs – Eucalyptus from the lp “Found Light”

Laura Veirs is an American singer-songwriter based out of Portland, Oregon. She is known for her folk/alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang on the case/lang/veirs project. Check this album out. It’s a treasure. https://www.allmusic.com/album/case-lang-veirs-mw0002925163

Veirs has been releasing music since 1999. Her producer was usually her husband Tucker Martine. However, in 2019, Martine and Veirs separated. Found Light is considered by some as an album still dealing with the ending of that relationship.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/08/laura-veirs-found-light-review. The featured track Eucalyptas seems to reflect this

Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Loves The Rain from “Shufflemania”

Cult figure Robyn Hitchcock has been making music since the late 1970’s first with The Soft Boys, then The Egyptians and for many many years as a solo artist. He has released close to 30 solo albums. Hitchcock’s lyrics are often absurd in the best Lewis Carroll vein. He has been both an acoustic performer and full out rock and roller. “The Man Who Loves the Rain” shows he hasn’t lost a step.

I’ve included 2 of my fave Hitchcock song from the past.

Here he is on Letterman in 1980s. The quality of the video isn’t great but the performance is. Watch for the broken string!

Robyn Hitchcock was a favourite of the late film director Jonathan Demme. They made a documentary in 1998 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storefront_Hitchcock

The wonderful song “1974” is taken from this movie… This is probably my favourite Hitchcock song.

Paul’s Notes

This guy is amazing, I love the song and his voice. I can’t believe that he was ready to pack things up (read below).

Another Covid artifact – he had a great video series – Cross Country Chin Up – pretty amazing, I have included a bit of this series with my notes.

Playing in Wolfville this April!!

Baldwin Cross-Country Chin Up IX

Hey gang. I’m gonna broadcast live on the World Wide Web this Friday night at 9pm ATLANTIC. You can find the program here, hit SET REMINDER to be notified. I hope you can join me for the Cross-Country Chin Up. Hope you’re all staying well.

Baldwin credits fellow singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright with “kinda setting me straight” in a long conversation over dinner when they chanced across each other on the same Québécois TV show and encouraging him not to give up.

After that cathartic encounter, he vowed to keep it honest and “write some songs about this part of the world” and the “unique kind of nuts” to be found in the darkest corners of the Atlantic Provinces. After that, the vivid rural character studies that would eventually make up “Concertos & Serenades” — stories of fishermen dabbling in fiery revenge and the cocaine trade, stoic miners drawing their last breaths underground in Springhill and the colourful regulars stopping by “Gerald Burgess RaceTrac Full Serve Autobody” for gas, a pack of smokes and some chit-chat — started spilling out of him.

Toronto Star

Singer-songwriter Adam Baldwin has been a mainstay of the Atlantic Canada music scene for over a decade. Starting as a member of rock combo Gloryhound before joining Matt Mays & El Torpedo in 2009, Baldwin’s own music has continued to evolve since his award winning self-titled solo debut EP in 2013.

Julian Taylor – Opening the Sky

Another incredible voice and songwriter. I think we have featured Julian Taylor three times on our show and that is fine with me. This current song is getting lots of airplay on North Americana radio

The lyrics are really interesting on this song, good to give this one a second listen.

JULIAN TAYLOR PRESENTS BEYOND THE RESERVOIR

Story by Howard Druckman | Monday October 17th, 2022

(Full disclosure: My wife happens to be Julian Taylor’s Canadian publicist. So, after a brief introduction, it’ll be just Taylor talking about his album. And I’d be writing this story, this way, regardless of who his publicist is. Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.)

It looks like Julian Taylor is poised on the verge of broadening and deepening his international breakthrough of 2020.

That year, his album The Ridge earned more than five million plays on Spotify, praise from the press worldwide, and airplay from Canada and the U.S. to Australia and the U.K. Loaded with soulful Americana and country twang, The Ridge won Taylor the Solo Artist of the Year honour at the Canadian Folk Music Awards; was nominated for two JUNO Awards (Contemporary Folk Album and Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year); and made the Polaris Prize Long List of the 40 best albums in Canada. He also won Best Male Artist at the International Acoustic Music Awards.

https://www.socanmagazine.ca/features/julian-taylor-presents-beyond-the-reservoir/

The final track, “Opening the Sky,” hits fast-forward and imagines the end of life, both the final struggles of a body breaking down and the memories of the life that’s come before. But most urgent is the desire to make sure learnings are passed down to the next generation: “Always love beyond your own comprehension. / In a world that may not see you for all that you are, never forget you have so much power.” The flood of final words of advice and encouragement end with “find time to simply stay still.” When the words repeat, they become the last living moment of the narrator and also a reinforcement of his lasting presence despite death: “Time to simply stay … still.”

https://www.adventuresinamericana.com/the-music-distillery-blog/music-review-julian-taylor-beyond-the-reservoir

SG Goodman

Again, yet another amazing voice! This time from Kentucky. Glad I found this one, I don’t know much about her, but I would be happy to see her in concert – this would be great! This is from a feature on her in Rolling Stone.

Prior to her solo career, Goodman was part of the band The Savage Radley.^[7] Her debut album, Old Time Feeling, was co-produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket.^[5] The album has been described as Americana, folk, country, and rock.^[8] She is signed to Verve Forecast Records. In 2021, she, as a solo artist, was inter alia part of the Newport Folk Festival in July.^[9]

In June 2022, Goodman released her second album, Teeth Marks, on Verve Forecast.^[10] She usually plays with her guitar tuned down a whole step, though some songs on the record were played in this tuning with a capo.^[6] The fifth track on the album, “If You Were Someone I Loved” deals with the opioid crisis.^[11] Because her debut album was released during the COVID-19 pandemic, Goodman did not headline a tour for the album. As such, her tour for Teeth Marks was her first solo tour.^[12]

Kentucky farmer’s daughter writes songs so the world can hear what life is like where she grew up

WHEN S.G. GOODMAN was growing up, her farmer father would plant an annual crop of sweet corn for his three kids, which they later harvested by hand and sold for money to buy their school clothes.

The farm isn’t Goodman’s home anymore: “I live in a house where the backyard is too shaded by these maple trees so that I can’t really grow anything,” she says. But the Murray, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter, 31, maintains a deep connection to the place that shaped her on her debut album, Old Time Feeling. Produced by Goodman with bandmates S. Knox Montgomery and Matthew Rowan, plus fellow Kentuckian Jim James of My Morning Jacket, it’s at once earthy and otherworldly, relaying her personal experiences alongside razor-sharp social commentary about the South.

Rolling Stone

The Dead South – People Are Strange

This band is so incredibly good. I don’t know how I found them, but their music is really different. I didn’t expect to find a blue grass band in Saskatchewan, but happy to feature them. Truly a great band that deserves more exposure.

The Dead South on Bluegrass Purists, New Album ‘Sugar & Joy’ and Being Canada’s “Night Off” Band

The Dead South are arguably Canada’s best-known “bluegrass” band. Their video for “In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company” has been viewed over 150 million times on YouTube, and the band have toured across North America and Europe. They just released their new album, Sugar & Joy, and will be hitting the road hard to support it.

On the surface, the band look like a typical bluegrass ensemble: the members play banjo, cello, guitar and mandolin; they sing in four-part harmony; and their songs tell stories of hard times and broken hearts; and they won the Juno for Traditional Roots Album in 2018 for Illusion & Doubt. But despite what you might have heard, the Dead South aren’t bluegrass — at least, not according to purists.

“We don’t know how to define our sound,” lead singer, guitarist and mandolinist Nate Hilts tells Exclaim! “We’re definitely very inspired by bluegrass music — that’s what kind of started the band. The instrumentation that we brought in was to play a bluegrass style; however, our own personal forms came in, we just started playing music and this is what we came up with. We don’t really know what to identify it as, because it touches on a lot of different places.”

The group have been together since 2012, and although there has been some interchanging of musicians over the years, original members, Nate Hilts, Scott Pringle (mandolin/guitar), Danny Kenyon (cello) and Colton “Crawdaddy” Crawford (banjo), remain in the current lineup. The group recently embarked on their “Served Cold” tour, which Nate expects to last until January 2021, and will see the foursome performing their unique variety of traditional Canadian folk on stages in Germany, the UK, and even the birthplace of bluegrass music, Raleigh, NC.

Easy Listening for Jerks Pt. 1 and 2 (2022-present)

Days Of Lavender – People Who Care

The lead singer of Days of Lavender grew up here in Ottawa. Daniela has a magical voice and it is great to listen to them at the beginning of a very creative musical career – I hope!

🔮We’re a band that plays wholesome electronic music in Vancouver

Days of Lavender is the Vancouver-based duo project of producer and bassist Stephen Clarke and singer/songwriter Daniela Mae. They mix their love of 80s synth pop, electronic, gospel and folk music to guide you on a meditative sci-fi ride you won’t want to get off. In the last year of playing together they have released 6 songs, played for private parties, public events and two BC music festivals. In March 2022, they started an event series in collaboration with DJ Chachøu called InnerSpace: A Cosmic Arts Journey, which showcases the work of local visual artists and includes wellness classes, dance performances, DJs and their own live music.

Old Fellas New Music Notes for Episode 39

On January 27, 2023 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd Radio1 Comment

https://www.mixcloud.com/paul-mcguire3/old-fellas-new-music-episode-39-jan-25-2023

Episode 39 – our notes!

Bob’s notes

Martin Courtney – Sailboat

Martin Courtney is a member of the Brooklyn based band Real Estate. This track is taken from taken from his second solo album, “Magic Sign”. Pitchfork always a Real Estate supporter, gave a fairly positive review of the album.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/martin-courtney-magic-sign/

“Sailboat” is reminiscent of 80’s REM

I also include one of my fave Real Estate tracks

Nina Nastasia – Afterwards

Nina Maria Nastasia is an American folk singer-songwriter. I first came to know her from legendary British DJ John Peel’s online archives. She is prominently featured on his radio shows from the early 2000’s. As of 2022, Nastasia has released a total of seven studio albums. The latest, is “Riderless Horse” Much of the writing on this album was apparently influenced by the suicide Natasia’s partner in 2020.

Stereogum has an excellent interview with her regarding “Riderless Horse”

Nina Nastasia Rediscovers Herself In The Aftermath

Gwenno- Anima

This is a first for old fellas. We have a song in Cornish! Gwenno Mererid is a Welsh musician, known by the stage name Gwenno. . Tresor is her third album from July 2022. All the songs on this album are entirely in Cornish except one song, “N.Y.C.A.W.” which is in Welsh. The album’s name comes from the Cornish word for “treasure”. The album was shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize. The video is very cool as it is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s animation work in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

For all her mysterious Cornish esoterica, it’s surprising to me that Gwenno used to be a member of The Pipettes!

MJ Lenderman – SUV

Jake Lenderman goes by the moniker as MJ Lenderman. He is an American singer, songwriter, and musician based in Asheville, North Carolina. In April, 2022, Lenderman released his third studio album, Boat Songs. He has been compared to John Prine, Neil Young and The Drive-By Truckers’s which is always a good thing. Here he is playing the crunchy little number SUV, live in Austin Texas.

Let us get to know MJ Lenderman! https://fortherabbits.net/2021/03/25/get-to-know-mj-lenderman/

This week’s playlist

Gord Downie, Bob Rock – Is there nowhere

Martin Courtney – Sailboat

July Talk – When You Stop

Nina Nastasia – Afterwards

Master KG, Burma Boy, Nomcebo Zikode – Jerusalema

Gwenno- Anima

Andy Shauf – Wasted on You

MJ Lenderman – SUV

Fast Romantics – Outta Love

Gord Downie, Bob Rock – Is there nowhere

This is totally new to me, but it is not every week that we get to feature a Gord Downie track!

By Alex Hudson

Published Nov 22, 2022

Late Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie and mega-producer Bob Rock made an album together that never saw the light of day, but that is finally about to change. Following the single “Lustre Parfait” last month, Arts & Crafts has now shared two more songs and confirmed the details of the full-length. Lustre Parfait will be out May 5.

As a taste of the album to come, A&C has released the three-song collection The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk. It includes the title track, plus last month’s “Lustre Parfait” and the B-side “Is There Nowhere.”

The sessions for Lustre Parfait followed the two Hip albums produced by Rock, 2006’s World Container and 2009’s We Are the Same. According to a press release, Downie asked Rock if the producer had any music he could write lyrics for, and Rock created these raucous arrangements for the vocalist to accompany.

Rock said in a statement, “First and foremost Gord was my friend, and having the opportunity to work with him on these songs was one of the biggest highlights of my professional life. I am grateful that I got to witness his genius in such close proximity.”

Exclaim

Premiere: July Talk’s ‘When You Stop’ captures everything about the band that we love

Great to see July Talk featured on NPR. The band will be here in Ottawa at the NAC. Looking forward to this!

I included extra video material. The second one – After This is terrific!

Almost a decade ago, World Cafe went to Toronto for our Sense of Place series in search of new music discoveries. We found one in the indie rock band July Talk. At the time, the band had just released its self-titled debut album. We became instantly enamored of the band’s music. With co-lead vocalists Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis, the energy has always brought about an equal balance of beguiling tension. The twin guitar playing of guitarists Ian Docherty and Josh Warburton, and double drummers Danny Miles and Dani Nash, round out the band, who release their new album, Remember Never Before, tomorrow.

Today, World Cafe is premiering, “When You Stop.” From the band’s new album, it captures everything about this band that we love: the decadelong relationship between Goldstein and Derimanis that has brought about both light and darkness in the way their vocals work together, the co-mingling and interlacing of the guitar playing, and the understated yet powerful push and pull of the rhythms.

It’s been three years since their last album, Pray For It, and we asked them how the pandemic affected the making of this record. In an email, Goldstein said: ” In a lot of ways we feel we already released our pandemic album in July of 2020. Pray For It was written between 2017 and 2019 and was our way of processing the reality of a very uncertain new world. One that saw what felt like a global shift toward darkness, baseless hatred, intolerance, bigotry, fear-mongering, climate doom, etc.”

July Talk – When You Stop [Official Lyric Video]

July Talk – After This [Official Music Video]

Master KG, Burma Boy, Nomcebo Zikode – Jerusalema

“Jerusalema” is a song by South African DJ and record producer Master KG featuring South African vocalist Nomcebo. The upbeat gospel-influenced house song was initially released on 29 November 2019 after it garnered positive response online, with a music video following on 21 December. The music video of the song has generated half a billion views on YouTube. It was later included on Master KG’s second album of the same title, released in January 2020.^[1]

What is so interesting is the viral challenge the song has created

Some examples below

The #Jerusalemachallenge has finally arrived to Jerusalem! During these challenging times of social distancing we have all gathered to dance together, so we can reunite.

Holocaust survivors, elementary school students, youth from both east and west of Jerusalem, university students, and municipality workers along with the mayor, Moshe Lion. Watch how good we dance during times of social distancing ♥

#jerusalema #jerusalem #dance #challenge #happy #socialdistancing #viralvideo #15M #dancing

Master KG – Jerusalema Remix [Feat. Burna Boy and Nomcebo] (Official Music Video)

Jerusalema Challenge in Jerusalem!

Jerusalema Dance Challenge – Ärentunastallet Uppsala Sweden #jerusalemachallenge #horse #stable

Andy Shauf – Wasted on You

This is such a great sone – hard to believe he has eight albums out.

May 20, 2016 by ROBIN HILTON • Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Andy Shauf is the kind of guy you’d find laying low at a party, maybe tucked into the corner of a room with a drink in his hand, keeping to himself but taking everything in. He’s soft-spoken and reserved, more comfortable delivering the news than being a part of it (though “comfortable” may be too strong a word).

Shauf’s latest album is, appropriately enough, called The Party. It’s an emotionally remote collection of character studies and bent observations made during a gathering of drunken fools, smooth operators and the painfully self-aware.

Andy Shauf recently brought The Party to the NPR Music offices for this quietly affecting Tiny Desk performance. His set opens with “The Magician,” a song about a poser schmoozing his way through a crowd, followed by “To You,” a slightly comical but awkward confession of unrequited love. Shauf closes with the relatively propulsive “You’re Out Wasting,” a meditation on greed, selling out and late-night anxiety; it’s from his 2015 album The Bearer Of Bad News.

“Wasted On You” was the lead single for Andy Shauf’s eighth studio album, Norm. The lyrics are from the perspective of the Christian God, who asks nonbelievers upon their arrival to heaven “Was all my love wasted on you?” In A 2016 interview, Shauf says he grew up Christian but became nonreligious in his twenties. He has touched on religion before, such as on his 2022 single “Satan”, usually with a dry sense of humor.

Major tour – Ottawa – 04-28 Ottawa, Ontario – The Bronson Centre

Andy Shauf – “Wasted On You”

Andy Shauf has announced a new album: Norm is due February 10 via Anti-. The Canadian singer-songwriter has also shared the lead single, “Wasted on You,” along with a music video directed by V Haddad. Check it out below.

Spanning 12 tracks, Norm follows Shauf’s surprise-release album Wilds from last year and 2020’s The Neon Skyline. He performs every instrument on the new LP himself and shaped the lyrics around an invented, eponymous person. “The character of Norm is introduced in a really nice way,” Shauf explained in a statement. “But the closer you pay attention to the record, the more you’re going to realize that it’s sinister.”

Shauf will hit the road early next year in support of Norm. His 2023 North American tour will kick off on February 21 in Columbus, Ohio and see him stop at major cities across the United States and Canada. Find the complete list of dates below.

Pitchfork = Andy Shauf Announces New Album Norm, Shares Video for Song “Wasted on You”: Watch

Fast Romantics unveiled new single & video for “Outta Love”

Just love this band – I think this is the first time we have featured them on our show. I have included a 2020 recording at the height of the Pandemic – interesting to see what we were doing just a few years ago. This is a great concert to watch if you have a few minutes.

Toronto-based, Fast Romantics have been waiting patiently for 2023. Since 2017 they’d been traveling as a six-piece band, fronted by Matthew Angus and Kirty, around North America as unrelenting road warriors. NPR had declared their hit Julia “triumphant,” and they found themselves unexpectedly in Apple Music’s top ten. In those ensuing years of touring and radio charting, they perfected a larger-than-life live show, endearing fans to their unique brand of irresistible pop hooks and frontman Matthew Angus’ personal and emotive approach to lyricism.

They returned with their first new music in three years via a big and buoyant new sing-along single, “Outta Love,” that cleverly serves up a sublime sleight of hand with cutting lyrical cynicism belying the celebratory chorus vocals and lush instrumentation. The accompanying video was directed and produced by Raven Shields at Cheval Studio.

Fast Romantics – “Outta Love” (Official Video)

Fast Romantics – “Live From a Pandemic” (Full Show, Live from Dakota Tavern)

On August 20, 2020, Fast Romantics faced an empty Dakota Tavern in Toronto, Canada. Lights went up, director Jared Raab started filming, and the result was broadcast live to hundreds of people streaming it from their houses and backyards.

It was the thick of the pandemic. No audiences allowed. But the band gathered some close friends to join them in celebrating the release of their also pandemically-released album “PICK IT UP.” A year later, we’re releasing the entire concert, uncut from its original live broadcast.

And here is a shorter a clip from the concert – Julia

Old Fellas New Music Episode 38

On December 22, 2022December 22, 2022 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd Radio1 Comment

Episode 38

Julia Jacklin – I was Neon

Arctic Monkeys – There’d Better Be a Mirrorball

Men I Trust – Billie Toppy

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Grace and Eddie

OMBIIGIZI, Status/Non-Status, Zoon – Cherry Coke

Sister Ray – Visions

The Handsome Family – Gold

Lizzo – About Damn Time

Fontaines D.C. – Jackie Down the Line

Bob’s Notes

Arctic Monkeys – “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball”

The Arctic Monkeys are a band formed in Sheffield, England in 2002. They are sometimes mentioned as one of the first bands who gained their initial buzz and popularity due to the internet. As a result in 2006, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history. The band became a Brit. fave winning numerous awards but it wasn’t until 2013 that the band became more universally known with the release of its 2015’s album AM. The song featured here is taken from The Car, the seventh studio album.

Lizzo – “About Damn Time”

Lizzo, is an American singer and rapper from Houston, Texas. She attained immense popularity with the release of her third studio album, Cuz I Love You (2019), which peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200. About Damn Time” was lead single from the album Special released earlier this year. The song was nominated at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards for Song of the Year, Best Pop Video, and Song of Summer. The song also received three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. Here she is performing “About Damn Time” on SNL.

Fun fact- Lizzo is also a classically trained flautist. Back in September, she caused the American right to get all huffy when she played James Madison’s silver flute.

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – “Grace and Eddie”

Michael William Head is an English singer-songwriter and musician from Liverpool, England. He is most famous as the lead singer and songwriter for Shack, The Pale Fountains and Michael Head & The Strands. Some have described him as a lost genius and among the most gifted British songwriters of his generation. In 2013 he formed Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band. In 2017, Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band released an album called Adiós Señor Pussycat. It reached No 1 in the UK independent album chart and No. 57 in the UK Albums Chart. The new one, Dear Scott was released in June 2022. The tile is apparently inspired by a note F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to himself.

The album peaked at number 6 in the official UK chart, making it Michael Head’s highest-ever charting album. Here’s a version performed live. I don’t know who Grace and Eddie are.

Flash back to the early eighties! Michael Head in The Pale Fountains

Sister Ray – “Visions”

Sister Ray is the stage name of Ella Coyes, a Métis singer-songwriter. They were born and raised in Sturgeon County, Alberta. Their debut full-length album Communion was released in May 2022. Exclaim explains:

Also, though four years old, this interview provides excellent background to Sister Ray.

Here’s the strangely beguiling video.

Paul’s Notes

Julia Jacklin – I was Neon

This is her third album Pre Pleasure – “Pre Pleasure is an easygoing album from a mind that rarely stops racing.“

One of the songs from the album, not the one I am playing, is #94 on Pitchfork’s 100 Best Songs of 2022

The Australian songwriter’s empathetic, understated rock songs sift through a litany of relationships and beliefs, seeking a balance between thinking about life and actually living it.

“I Was Neon,” in which she wonders if a version of herself has been lost to time. “I quite like the person that I am/Am I gonna lose myself again?” she repeats, voice roiling with equal parts anxiety and excitement. If she could reach through the photograph and make contact with that incarnation of herself, what would she say?

It seems like many of the artists I am choosing are writing about being lost.

Julia Jacklin (born 30 August 1990) is a singer-songwriter from the Blue Mountains, Australia. Jacklin’s musical style has been described as indie pop, indie folk, and alternative country. from Wikipedia

Men I Trust – Billie Toppy

(singe 2022, last album Untourable Album 2021)

The information about this band is somewhat dreamy, and so is their music. It is interesting that the two founders of the band actually played with a rotating series of lead singers, settling on Emma Proulx, the face of the band some time in 2015.

From their dreamy Bandcamp article:

Mixing dreamy atmospheres, wistful extended chords, and funky, low-key dance grooves, Men I Trust was the brainchild of then-Laval University music students Dragos Chiriac and Jessy Caron. The Montreal, Canada D.I.Y. project made its full-length debut with Men I Trust in 2014. While the duo’s first two albums employed a variety of guest vocalists, singer Emmanuelle Proulx has been an official member since 2015. Their third studio album, 2019’s Oncle Jazz, was long-listed for 2020 Polaris Music Prize. Untourable Album followed in 2021 and was ultimately accompanied by a tour.

In June 2021, the band announced the release of their 4th album “The Untourable Album” along tour dates to support the release. Men I Trust posted on their social medias about the release and the tours, elaborating on their context:

Cherry Coke – OMBIIGIZI, Status/Non-Status, Zoon

Another song I like more every time I hear it. I think we have played Status/Non-status before, but Zoom is new to the show.

Zoon and Status/Non-Status have shared a new single, “Cherry Coke,” under their collaborative project, OMBIIGIZI. The track comes from their forthcoming debut album, Sewn Back Together, out February 10th via Arts & Crafts.

“Cherry Coke” is a dreamy, shoegazy tune with smooth instrumentals that allow OMBIIGIZI’s smooth vocals to take the lead. Lyrically, the song is about Zoon’s Daniel Monkman’s childhood.

“I used to get into a lot of fights at school when I was younger,” the band’s Daniel Monkman explains. “One of the schools was called ‘Happy Thought’ which ironically was filled with racist rural farmer type folk. I think as a type of punishment my Mom sent me to live with my Dad on the Rez, so he could show me how to be a ‘man.’ Although my Dad was a very complex human, he was very compassionate towards me, especially when I explained how the kids would tease me for being Ojibway. He’d always let me stay home with him and oftentimes we’d go to the Rez store for chips and pop; I’d get Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke. The lyrics and song title are inspired by these memories of my childhood and of my father.”

Indie 88 FM

After quoting 88FM, I had to look them up. A very interesting station from Toronto. They are doing some interesting work featuring indie bands.

and the OMBIIGIZI video for Cherry Coke

Gold – The Handsome Family

I heard about this band last week when Bob played a Phoebe Bridgers cover of their song So Much Wine.

The Handsome Family is an American music duo consisting of husband and wife Brett and Rennie Sparks formed in Chicago, Illinois, and as of 2001 based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[1] They are perhaps best known for their song “Far from Any Road” from the album Singing Bones, which was used as the main title theme for the first season of the 2014 crime drama True Detective. The band’s tenth album, Unseen, was released on September 16, 2016, the first new release on the band’s own label Milk & Scissors Music^[2] and through long-time label Loose in Europe

(Wikipedia)

And, to top all this off, Rennie Sparks is an artist. She has done a wonderful series of dog paintings – I have included one here.

HOLLOW, their tenth studio record, is planned to be released in 2023 with live touring hopefully to follow.

Website

Jackie Down the Line – Fontaines D.C.

The Irish post-punk band’s most demanding and musically adventurous album is also its most open-hearted, striking a perfect balance between tough and tender.

The year 2019 already feels like the distant past for most of us, but for Fontaines D.C., it really must seem like another lifetime—and that has less to do with the pandemic than their own skyrocketing success in spite of it. Pretty much everything that defined this band three years ago, when they dropped their debut LP, Dogrel, has already changed. Once the scrappy underdogs who ironically declared “I’m gonna be big!”, the Dublin-bred quintet have headlined arena shows for crowds of 10,000 in the UK, appeared on CNN, scored a Grammy nomination (outside the Alternative category ghetto, no less).

Pitchfork

Fontaines D.C. are an Irish post-punk band formed in Dublin in 2017.^[1]^[2]^[3] The band consists of Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan III (bass), and Tom Coll (drums).

The band’s debut album, Dogrel, was released on 12 April 2019 to widespread critical acclaim; it was listed as Album of the Year on the record store Rough Trade‘s website,^[4] voted Album of the Year by presenters on BBC Radio 6 Music,^[5] and was nominated for both the Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize.^[6]

The band’s second studio album, A Hero’s Death, was written and recorded in the midst of extensive touring for their debut, and was released on 31 July 2020. A Hero’s Death was later nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Their third album Skinty Fia, released in 2022, became the band’s first to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart and Irish Albums Chart.

Its title refers to an old Irish saying that drummer Tom Coll’s great-aunt used to say. The phrase “Skinty Fia” translates to “the damnation of the deer”. Both the title and the cover art allude to the extinct Irish elk, also known as the “giant deer”

Wikipedia

Old Fellas New Music Episode 37

On December 16, 2022 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd Radio1 Comment

This is our 37th episode and the music is staying interesting for sure

show 37 link: https://www.mixcloud.com/paul-mcguire3/old-fellas-new-music-episode-37-dec-16/

Jim White and Mary Margaret O’Hara – And the Angels Sing (Rising Singles Club)
Panda Bear, Sonic Boom – Edge of the Edge
CMAT – Every Bottle (Is My Boyfriend)
Cole Pulice – City in a City
The Beths – “Expert In A Dying Field
Weyes Blood – Grapevine
Porridge Radio – Birthday Party
Ethel Cain – American Teenager
Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine https://www.mixcloud.com/paul-mcguire3/old-fellas-new-music-episode-37-dec-16/

This is our 37th episode and the music remains always interesting. This show is a little bit longer – the tracks were mainly 5 minutes of more.

As always, I am including the notes we used to put together the show. Bob’s first, then mine.

Bob’s Notes

Jim White and Mary Margaret O’Hara – “And the Angels Sing”

First up is a sort of Christmasy tune from Mary Margaret O’Hara and Jim White. Jim is an Australian drummer, songwriter, and producer. He has worked with Warren Ellis in the Dirty Three and collaborated frequently with Nick Cave.

O’Hara is from Toronto and of course, is the sister of comedy legend Catherine O’Hara. O’Hara made a huge splash in 1988 with her album “Miss America”. This song is their contribution to the Rising Singles Club. Rising is an annual festival that takes place in Melbourne Australia.

MARY MARGARET O’HARA & JIM WHITE / RENA ANAKWE

The song they tackle was first recorded in 1939 by Benny Goodman. here are both versions:

CMAT – “Every Bottle (Is My Boyfriend)”

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is known professionally as CMAT, is a singer, songwriter, and musician from Dublin, Ireland. Her debut album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, was released in February 2022 and entered the Irish Album Charts at number one. The Guardian wrote of her music; “Her songs are mournful yet accessible, emotionally literate and cleverly crafted, but, crucially, with a huge sense of humour…” She is a little reminiscent of Jann Arden.

CMAT Drops New Single ”Every Bottle Is My Boyfriend”

Porridge Radio –“ Birthday Party”

Porridge Radio are a British indie rock band formed in Brighton in 2015. The The Guardian listed them among their top 40 new artists of 2018. Birthday Party is a track taken from the 2022 album, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky”.

The All Music Guide discusses : https://www.allmusic.com/album/waterslide-diving-board-ladder-to-the-sky-mw0003677449

here they are performing the song in Manchester. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EVReNd0NAM

The Beths – “Expert In A Dying Field”

This is the third or fourth time The Beths have made an appearance on the podcast. The Beths are a New Zealand powerpop group. Formed in 2014, the band consists of Elizabeth Stokes (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jonathan Pearce (lead guitar, vocals), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, vocals), and Tristan Deck. This is the title track from their 2022 release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KACt6YhOyY

Both Rolling Stone Magazine and Paste Magazine love them. So do we…. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beths-expert-in-a-dying-field-1234584653/

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-beths/expert-in-a-dying-field-album-review/

Phoebe Bridgers – “So Much Wine”

Phoebe Bridgers is a Grammy nominated singer/ songwriter. Bridgers is also a member of the musical groups Boygenius (with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus) and Better Oblivion Community Center (with Conor Oberst)

Here, Bridgers tackles The Handsome Family 2001 Xmas song, “Too Much Wine”. Bridger’s version is a one-off single to benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

https://pitchfork.com/news/phoebe-bridgers-covers-the-handsome-family-so-much-wine-listen

Here’s the original

Paul’s Notes –

based on some of the reading I did for the show

Weyes Blood – Grapevine

her real name is Natalie Mering from California. Big article in the most recent Exclaim! Magazine.

Her first album 2011. She also did an interesting cover of Your No Good (Linda Ronstadt) for the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru soundtrack.

had to put this in here

some of the recent writing

Weyes Blood Reflects on Life’s “Sublime Violence”

Songwriter Natalie Mering talks her new album ‘And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow’ and why “California is a little bit like the canary in the coal mine”

By Kaelen Bell

Published Nov 17, 2022

Opening the door to Weyes Blood’s And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, you’ll encounter the king and queen of loneliness, angels and dueling flames, an Emotional Cowboy looking to kick the moon’s ass. It’s a wonderland of sorts, a world awash in deep purples and reds so bright they blur white.

Possessed of a grounded warmth that pulls the cosmic swirl of 2019’s Titanic Rising somewhere closer to a slowly burning Earth, Natalie Mering’s latest opus dresses modern terrors — climate disaster, digital disconnection, apathy and fear for a future that may not come — in great swathes of velvet, silk and bloodied chainmail.

Exclaim

Video for Grapevine

Panda Bear, Sonic Boom – Edge of the Edge

Album Reset 2022

I think this is Pitchfork – interesting article, the guys are neighbours in Portugal – didn’t see them though

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom Wring Joy Out of Terrible Times on Their Collaborative Album Reset

When the Zoom window opens, giving me a peek into Noah Lennox’s basement studio in Lisbon, Portugal, the psych-pop pathfinder best known as Animal Collective’s (Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band’s work is characterized by an eclectic exploration of styles, including psychedelia, freak folk, noise, and electronica,^[5] with the use of elements such as loops, drones, sampling, vocal harmonies, and sound collage, alongside complex production techniques.^[6] AllMusic‘s Fred Thomas suggests that the group “defined the face of independent experimental rock during the 2000s and 2010s.”^[7]⁾Panda Bear and journeyman producer Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom) sit in semi-darkness, a single mic stand casting a stark shadow on the wall behind them.

Shot through with Beach Boys harmonies, sleigh bells, and toy-like synths, it’s infused with a naive, almost childlike spirit. “It’s one of those records that’s for children of all ages,” Kember says.

The two men clearly share a strong bond: After multiple work trips to Lennox’s adopted home of Lisbon, Kember—a lifelong resident of the English market town of Rugby—moved to Sintra, on the outskirts of the Portuguese capital, in 2018.

When you actually pay attention to the lyrics, they’re singing about the fact that they can’t get tea and they can’t get rice, and the police and the gangsters are indiscernable, but they do it in this really awesome way. I think we were trying to—”

Lennox interrupts him: “Make lemonade out of lemons.”

Video Go On from the album

Cole Pulice – Scry

Cole Pulice is a composer, saxophonist and electroacoustic musician from Oakland-via-Minneapolis. Following their debut album “Gloam” and two duo collaborations with Lynn Avery and Nat Harvie, Cole Pulice returns with their sophomore album “Scry”.

It’s a record that, for me, resonates strongly with this sort of “between-ness:” it began in Minneapolis, and was finished in Oakland, bridging pre-pandemic life with the “new normal” of current times; being genderqueer and navigating the spaces between and outside of the masculine and feminine binary; wandering through a musical interchange station that is interconnects improvisation, “song,” and collage experiments . . . multidimensional yet woven together by similar aesthetic threads.

“To scry” defines the practice of foretelling the future through gazing into a crystal ball or other reflective surfaces.

Bandcamp

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

From what I could find, here earliest published material came out in 2019

From a Pitchfork interview – I am not sure how much I have learned about this musician, but I think we will hear more from her in the future…..singer, songwriter, and producer Hayden Anhedönia discusses her witchy alter ego Ethel Cain, her stifling Baptist upbringing, and her desire to soothe listeners even as she unsettles them.

Though Anhedönia was raised in a tight-knit Southern Baptist community—her dad was a deacon, and she and her mom sang in the choir—at this point, the 23-year-old’s relationship with religion is complicated. She left the church at 16, a few years after she was first ostracized for being gay, and a few years before she would come out as a transgender woman and start making harrowing music under the name Ethel Cain. She insists that her choice to live in a former place of worship—and to sometimes explore the nightmarish side of Christianity in her work—was made not out of spite but rather in the spirit of…

Here is American Teenager – great song

Episode 36 Old Fellas New Music

On December 9, 2022 By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment

This week’s episode

And our Spotify playlist!

Episode 36

here are our songs for this week:

1. Benjamin Clementine – Difference

2.Alvvays – Belinda Says

3. Bria – Where have all the Cowboys Gone

4. Alex G – Runner

5. Tierra Whack – Dora

6. Bad Bunny, ‘Titi Me Preguntó

7. The Sarandons – Letting On,

8. Steve Lacy -Bad Habit

9. Busty and the Bass – all the Things I Couldn’t Say to You

BOB’s Notes

Alvvays

Alvvays – Belinda Says # 1 Pitchfork

has been probably been featured on Old Guys as much as any artist. They are a Canadian band based in Toronto. The track, Belinda Says is from their third album, Blue Rev, was released on October 7, 2022. Pitchfork Magazine named this song #1 in its top 100 songs of 2022. To quote “ Alvvays frontwoman Molly Rankin recently cited the Canadian short story master Alice Munro as an influence, noting the way the writer’s work can “knock the wind out of you.” Rankin and her band offer their own bracing wallop with “Belinda Says,” a heartbreaking sketch of an unexpected pregnancy that’s also a modern power-pop classic. She only needs one line to render vivid scenes: a warm vodka cooler chugged behind a hockey rink, a tense phone call with a would-be father, a forlorn move to the countryside soundtracked by Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.” Like a heroine in one of Munro’s timeless stories, the narrator’s life is altered forever by a single choice of impossible magnitude”

Allvays are a Canadian band who are clearly creating a stir outside the borders of their home and native land. The Blue Rev album is showing up in many end of years best of lists. here is the MUCH Music parody video for Belinda Says

Alex G – Runner

Alex G is an American musician who has recorded 9 albums. He started releasing his stuff on Bandcamp. He later signed to Domino in 2017. His ninth lp God Save the Animals was released last September. A track from this album, Runner was considered by Pitchfork Magazine to be the #4 song of the year. You be the judge. Watch him perform the song on The Tonight Showhttps://pitchfork.com/news/watch-alex-g-perform-runner-on-fallon/

Bad Bunny, ‘Titi Me Preguntó Pitchfork #9 Rolling Stone #1

Bad Bunny is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. he is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. After doing a little research, this Old Fella has discovered that right now,Bad Bunny is one of the most popular performers on the planet. He became the first non-English language act to be Spotify’s most streamed artist of the year twice.A brief translation of the opening lyrics:

Ey, auntie, asked me if I have a lot of girlfriends, a lot of girlfriends

Today I have one; tomorrow I’ll have another,

hey, but there’s no wedding, there’s no wedding, auntie

Auntie asked me if I have a lot of girlfriends; he, a lot of girlfriends

Today I have one; tomorrow I’ll have another

The song title roughly translates as “Auntie asked me”

This song is Rolling Stones #1 song of the year while Pitchfork placed it at #9. Here’s Bad Bunny performing 2022’s VMA’s.

Though not my cup of tea, I can see how the energy and sass of Bad Bunny works for others. Here’s an interesting take from one of my fave blogs, Burning Wood , on why possibly new music isn’t as good as old music.

https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2022/12/not-bad-is-new-amazing.html

Steve Lacy -Bad Habit Rolling Stone #3 Pitchfork #27

Steve Lacy is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He has worked with Frank Ocean, Solange Knowles and Kendrick Lamar. The song “Bad Habit” became Lacy’s first song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok. He received two Grammy Award nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Rolling Stone called in the #3 song of 2022.

The NME has good primer to Lacy. https://www.nme.com/features/music-features/steve-lacy-best-tracks-bad-habit-3344101

Paul’s Notes

Benjamin Clementine – Difference

Difference, meanwhile, is a meditation about making a difference in the world, a song that’s as rueful as it is catchy.

After winning the Mercury prize with his 2015 debut At Least for Now,

From his newest album

His last release was as the Clementines, a duo with his partner, Flo Morrissey. Written, played and produced exclusively by Clementine, And I Have Been is a more straightforwardly elegant listen than I Tell a Fly. Melodies abound, orchestral elements trade off with electronics, and Clementine’s still-startling voice, an elastic tenor capable of shock and awe as well as succour, is front and centre.

Bria – Where have all the Cowboys Gone

Set for release on 24th February 2023, Bria (Salmena) has announced her new ‘Cuntry Covers Vol. 2’ EP, sharing her take on Paula Cole’s 1997 single ‘Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?’

Also plays with Orville Peck and the covers EPs were done with Duncan Hay Jennings

Original by Paula Cole 1996 (best new artist 1998) 25 year career with 10 albums out

“Physical space and environment have greatly informed each iteration of Cuntry Covers” shares Bria Salmena. “With Vol. 1 (2021) we had acres of beautiful farmland in summer to explore. With Vol. 2 we had a small apartment in Toronto during the dark winter months that created a kind of claustrophobic creative energy.”

Speaking about ‘Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?’, she adds, “the song stuck with me – I found Cole’s delivery to be both brooding and chilling. The lyrics all together are confused; discovery, disillusionment, despair. I wanted to make it even more dystopian by turning it into a dreamy dance track. This track became the first song to inspire the “Homage” approach to these covers, embracing the spirit of experimentation. We wanted to stretch this song as far as it would go while honoring the elements of it that make it memorable.”

I had to include this video too – sends shivers up the spine

The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore (original The Walker Brothers)

Tierra Whack – Dora

Dora

I like my nice things
Buy me nice things
Give me compliments
Please have common sense
Open the door, tell ’em that you ready to explore
Yeah, Aventador, yeah, I had to chalk him, I got bored
I need support, like a sports bra, bae, I need support
I say less is best but I need more
Shoulda took me shoppin’ to the store

A school poetry assignment sparked Whack’s interest in writing for herself. Being given the choice to write about whatever she wanted (“just to express, freely”) was a revelation. She resolved to write every day, filling notebooks so quickly her mum began to buy in bulk, to save herself multiple trips to the store. From her obsession with Dr. Seuss books, Whack already knew she loved the feeling of reading rhyming verse aloud; then, she had an epiphany. “I’m in the backseat of my mom’s car. She was playing rap music: DMX; Jay Z; Biggie, she loves Biggie so much; 50 Cent – and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re rhyming. Rhyming is rap. Poetry is rap. Rap is poetry’.” Whack asked her uncle to burn her a CD of beats, and she began to write bars.

Daze

The Sarandons – Letting On

The Sarandons hail from Toronto. Influences like Wilco, The Band, Kurt Vile, Dr Dog, Dylan and The War on Drugs percolate through their brand of rock & roll, which spans neo-psychedelia, roots rock, Americana and indie rock. Formed in early 2018, The Sarandons is the fully collaborative endeavour of Toronto music stalwarts Damian Coleman (vocals, bass), Edmund Cummings (vocals, keys), Craig Keeney (lead guitar), Phil Skot (drums) and Dave Suchon (vocals, guitar). With strong ties to Toronto’s west end music scene, The Sarandons are vying for the title of official band to The Junction.

Busty and the Bass – all the Things I Couldn’t Say to You

Busty and the Bass

is a Canadian electro-soul and hip hop band from Montreal, Quebec. The band is known for its unique brand of music, which incorporates two vocalists, a horn section, and a diverse range of musical genres.

Having met while attending college at McGill University, seven of the nine founding members are still with the band: Evan Crofton a.k.a. Alistair Blu (vocals, keyboards, synths), Scott Bevins (trumpet), Chris Vincent (trombone), Louis Stein (guitar), Milo Johnson (bass), Eric Haynes (keyboards, piano) and Julian Trivers (drums).^[1]

Part of the reason for the diverse sounds on the album has to do with the sheer size of the band, who originally met at as students in the jazz program at McGill University. Video –

Busty and the Bass, STS – Everything Comes In Waves

Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny performs onstage during “The Last Tour Of The World” at FTX Arena in Miami, Florida on April 1, 2022. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Tierra Whack for Banter by Piercing Pagoda

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The Felice Brothers – Jazz on the Autobahn

Allison Russel and Mumu Fresh – 4th Day Prayer

Kelly Fraser – Sedna

TEKE:TEKE – Gotoku Lemon

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Broken Arrows

Beach House – “Holiday House” from the Become EP

The National – “The Alcott” (feat. Taylor Swift) from the album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein

PJ Harvey – “A Child’s Question, August” – single

The Gaslight Anthem – “Positive Charge” – single

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wow – we have 45 episodes out there!!

Week 45

The Nude Party – Ride On

Lana Del Rey – Did you Know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

The Weather Station – Endless Time

Valerie June – Stay

Blesse – “Gant Noirs” from Normal

Logan Richard – “See Me Like This” from Learning to Love ep

Nickybaby – She Sees Me from “Nickybaby”

Dart Trees –Bong and Mcquade from “Consider Two Beers”

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This week’s songs

Sunny War – “New Day” from Anarchist Gospel

Mary Wallopers – “Love will Never Conquer Me” from The Mary Wallopers

Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud from I play My Bass Loud

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Bad Night

Crown Lands

July Talk – After This

Caroline Rose – Miami (Official Music Video)

Caroline Rose

Joe Henry – “Mission” from All the Eye Can See

Robert Forster – “Go Free” from The Candle and the Flame

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Episode 42

Bob’s notes

Lemon Twigs – “Anytime of the Day” from the Everything Harmony being released on May 5th

Blues Lawyer – “Chance Encounters” from All in Good Time

Yo La Tengo – “Aselestine” from This Stupid World,

Paul’s Notes

Rina Sawayama – This Hell (Official Music Video)

Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint

a bit about the song – interesting notes here.

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

Pony – Très Jolie

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Paul’s Notes:

Wet Leg

Peru

‘Everything you do is for the culture’

Portugal. The man

How did they get their name?

Bob’s Notes:

Big Joanie – “Confident Man”

Macie Stewart – Maya Please

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen

Peter Buck/ Luke Haines

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Bob’s notes

Ty Segall – Saturday Pt. 2

The Bros Landreth – Stay – from 2022 lp Come Morning

Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Loves The Rain from “Shufflemania”

Paul’s Notes

Baldwin Cross-Country Chin Up IX

Hey gang. I’m gonna broadcast live on the World Wide Web this Friday night at 9pm ATLANTIC. You can find the program here, hit SET REMINDER to be notified. I hope you can join me for the Cross-Country Chin Up. Hope you’re all staying well.

Julian Taylor – Opening the Sky

JULIAN TAYLOR PRESENTS BEYOND THE RESERVOIR

SG Goodman

The Dead South – People Are Strange

The Dead South on Bluegrass Purists, New Album ‘Sugar & Joy’ and Being Canada’s “Night Off” Band

Easy Listening for Jerks Pt. 1 and 2 (2022-present)

🔮We’re a band that plays wholesome electronic music in Vancouver

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Episode 39 – our notes!

Martin Courtney – Sailboat