Music this week!
Episode 57
Philip Selway – Check for Signs of life
Black Pumas – More Than a Love Song
Nell Smith, The Flaming Lips – Red Right Hand
Say She She – Reeling
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Burning
Prince Fatty – Expansions
The Strumbellas – Hold Me
CMAT – Where Are Your Kids Tonight?
Aysanabee – Waste My Time
Philip Selway – Check for Signs of life
So Philip Selway is a member of Radiohead, I didn’t know that. This is his third solo album since 2010 – “today, Selway is announcing a new album called Strange Dance, which will be out in February of next year.” (Stereogum)
In the Stereogum article, he talks about aging – I like this “One of the things I’ve liked about this record is it’s me as a 55-year-old not trying to hide that fact,” he noted in some press materials. ““It feels kind of unguarded rather than seeing that ageing process as something that needs to be hidden.”
Nell and The Flaming Lips – Red Right Hand
I forgot that Red Right Hand actually goes back a ways
Here is the original video and song pretty great
This is an amazing cover
This is a pretty amazing story. Nell Smith is a 14-years old and a big fan of the Flaming Lips.
Spin Magazine tells the story best
Smith first met singer Wayne Coyne at a Flaming Lips show in Calgary three years ago. A regular at Lips’ concerts always bearing a parrot costume, Smith was eventually recognized by Coyne, who sang a David Bowie cover directly to her in Calgary, and Smith sang back. Staying in contact with Smith through her father, Coyne inspired Smith to pick up the guitar and write her own songs. Coyne planned a trip to record with the band in Oklahoma and suggested that Smith record some Nick Cave tracks and email them to the Lips so they could record backings. This is the result.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Burning
New Album – first in nine years. This is their second single off the album.
you can hear and see them reaching back to the 1960’s in Burning (RS) – Frankie Vallie and Beggin’
and they have been around for decades
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase.[4]
The Strumbellas – Hold Me
a great song, a fun video
I didn’t know they were still around.
Part Time Believer is their new album and it comes out in February. This is the first single off the album. Exclaim! has a piece on the new album
The Strumbellas are back! The Kawartha Lakes-hailing folk-rock outfit have announced their forthcoming new album, led by the single “Hold Me.”
Aysanabee – Waste My Time
I really like this song. It is currently trending on CBC. I used a song of the last album as my intro this week. Bringing the Fire is off the 2022 album Watin which was short listed for this year’s Polaris Prize.
Waste My Time is off his new EP Here and Now.
Aysanabee’s quote taken from Exclaim! has been featured several times already on CBC
“This is the first of more records that will explore the impact of colonization on Indigenous love in this country,” Aysanabee explained in a statement. “This country never made me feel worthy of love, and in turn never made me feel worthy of the love of another. Through this record, I wanted to be honest by facing my own fallibilities when it comes to building and keeping relationships.”
Here from Exclaim! is the tracklist for the EP
Here and Now:
1. Waste My Time
2. Letting Go
3. Alone
4. Somebody Else
5. Here and Now
6. The Giver
Bob’s reviews
Black Pumas – “More Than a Love Song” from Chronicles of a Diamond
Black Pumas is for lack of a better term, a neo soul band from Austin, Texas. The group received its first Grammy Award nomination in 2020 for Best New Artist. “More Than a Love Song” is the lead single from their second album. This surprised me as I thought the band had been around a lot lot longer. https://newsoundsmag.co.uk/2023/08/24/single-review-black-pumas-more-than-a-love-song/
SINGLE REVIEW: BLACK PUMAS – MORE THAN A LOVE SONG
Nearly 4 years after the release of their self-titled debut, Black Pumas, a psychedelic-rock and soul duo from Austin, Texas including Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada, have released a brand new single in preparation for their sophomore record titled Chronicles of a Diamond. The album will not be released until 27 October of this year, but ‘More Than a Love Song’ gives listeners a taste for what’s to come.
Here they performing on The Tonight Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WasO43LHvLg
Say She She – “Reeling” from Silver
According to the promotional material, “ Say She She is a soulful female-led trio, standing rock solid on their disco-delic duty with their boundary-breaking sophomore album Silver . The strong voices of Piya Malik (El Michels Affair, Chicano Batman), Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown front the band. Following the NYC siren song, the trio was pulled from their respective cities — Piya from London, Nya from DC, and Sabrina from NYC — to Manhattan’s downtown dance floors, through the Lower East Side floorboards, and up to the rooftops of Harlem, where their friendship was formed on one momentous, kismet evening!!!”
Earlier this year, Say She Say do their stuff on the long running BBC show Later… with Jools Holland.
Prince Fatty – “Expansions” single
Mike Pelanconi, better known under his record name Prince Fatty, is a British sound engineer and record producer. For almost twenty years, Prince Fatty has been producing reggae and dub which harken back to vintage Jamaican sounds. His name is a playful nod to legendary sound engineer King Tubby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxAl3Jijs20
The track featured here is a remake of Lonnie Liston Smith’s Expansions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwFXFximJ8g.
You can compare it to the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YJwNPMB4zU
Learn more about Prince Fatty here, https://headlinermagazine.net/mike-pelanconi-prince-fatty-reggae-rare-neve-8068-desk.html
CMAT – “Where Are Your Kids Tonight?” From Crazymad
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is known professionally as CMAT. She is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. Her debut studio album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, was released in February 2022 and entered the Irish Albums Chart 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…” Her second studio album, Crazymad, for Me was released in October 2023. On the chosen track, she is accompanied by John Grant, formerly of The Czars. https://www.stereogum.com/2229816/cmat-where-are-your-kids-tonight-feat-john-grant/music/ The video seems to pay homage to early 80’s MTV promos. The gauzy cinematography wouldn’t be out of place in a Bonnie Tyler or Laura Branigan video.
Whole-Hearted 