Tag: Pitchfork

Old Fellas New Music Episode 63

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Episode 63

The Smile – Wall of Eyes

Orville Peck, Willie Nelson – Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other

Kim Gordon  – Bye Bye

Corb Lund –  Redneck Rehab

Charli XCX – Club Classics

Beyonce – Blackbird

CC Adcock & The Lafayette Marquis – Poke Chop

Jason Isbell – Strawberry Woman

The Drin – Tigers Cage

Orville Peck, Willie Nelson – Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other

I am beyond honoured to be a part of this unreal lineup, celebrating our dear Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday at the legendary Hollywood Bowl!

From part of a USA Today article

On Friday, Orville Peck and Willie Nelson released a duet cover of Ned Sublette’s 1981 song “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other,” a song about gay cowboys. Fans of the country singers have described the collaboration as “healing” when it comes to LGBTQ+ acceptance.

Peck, a gay country music artist, said in an interview with GLAAD published Monday that the duet was actually Nelson’s idea. “It’s actually been a long time in the making this whole collaboration. Willie asked me about it a couple of years ago,” he said.

More here from GLADD – He shares that Nelson wanted to “get gay married in the music video.” Saying he even said, “Annie, my wife, she can be the priest and she’ll give us away at the chapel!” 

Corb Lund –  Redneck Rehab

This is a great song so I thought I would add it here (above)

Then I found Redneck Rehab

Corb Lund — “Redneck Rehab” + “This Is My Prairie” | Neighborhoods (Live in Alberta, Canada)

This is his first album since 2020

From Taste of Country

“There’s quite an epidemic of drug use in rural North America these days. It doesn’t get talked about a lot but it’s a pretty big problem.”

Beyond the lyrics, the stripped-down nature of “Redneck Rehab” represents the musical direction of El Viejo. Lund recorded the new album in his living room, replacing the polished nature of a studio with the spontaneous feel of his home.

Read More: Corb Lund Shares Rollicking New Song, ‘Redneck Rehab’ [Exclusive] | https://tasteofcountry.com/corb-lund-new-song-redneck-rehab/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Beyonce – Blackbird

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-14/clip/16054224 https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-14/clip/16054224

From CBC

When Melba Pattillo Beals first heard the Beatles’ song Blackbird, she felt like it was written about her. Years later, she learned it actually was. As one of the “Little Rock Nine,” Beals trailblazed the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. She tells us about the violence and hatred she navigated there, what Blackbird means to her, and how Beyoncé’s cover gives the song new life.

more background

While attending Horace Mann High School in Little Rock, an all-black high school, Patillo became aware that she was not receiving the same quality education as her peers at Central High School. Patillo then volunteered to transfer to the all-white Central High School with eight other black students from Horace Mann and Dunbar Junior High School in Little Rock.[1]

External videos
video icon “Interview with Melba Pattillo Beals” conducted for Eyes on the Prize. Discussion centers on her experiences as one of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Beals was 15 years old when she chose to enroll at Central High school in May 1956.[2] The nine black students faced mobs that forced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne Division to protect their lives after the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, used National Guard troops to block the students’ entry to the school. Beals planned on returning to Central High for the 1958–1959 school year, but Governor Faubus shut down all Little Rock high schools that failed to resist integration,[3] leading to other school districts across the South to do the same.[citation needed] Not until August 1959 did Central High reopen on an integrated basis.

Spc. Jeffrey Stevenson, from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) escorts Little Rock Nine member Melba Pattillo Beals to the newly dedicated Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center after the dedciation ceremony Sept. 24, 2007. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class N. Maxfield

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Strawberry Woman

a quick substitution

Strawberry Woman

This is a look at what Pitchfork sees as the top country/alt-country albums in 2023

The Smile – “Wall of Eyes”  – S/T

The Smile is a side project for Radiohead’s Thom Yorke  and Jonny Greenwood .  The idea to form The Smile and record some tracks initially arose during the dark days of COVID.  Many critics likened them to a jazzier and looser Radiohead.

https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/the-smile-wall-of-eyes-review-lyrics-3573993

Kim Gordon  –  “ Bye Bye” – The Collective

Kim  Gordon is a bassist best know for her work with NY legends Sonic Youth.  She moved to New York City in the late seventies to start an art career but she end up forming Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981   She and Moore married in 1984.  Over the next three decades Sonic Youth would release over a dozen albums and become a major influence on countless other groups.  Her’s Sonic Youth at the height of their major label powers  

In 2011 Moore and Gordon separated after 27 years of marriage.  After the separation she released various projects and collaborations with others, but 2024’s The Collective is her second truly solo album.  Here are two versions of the song:.  The first is a pretty cool/creepy video which features Gordon and her daughter and the second is a live performance from Jimmy Kimmel.

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-kim-gordon-perform-bye-bye-on-kimmel

Add to Kim Gordon….   https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/24/kim-gordon-collective-interview-sonic-youth-solo-bye-bye

Charli XCX – “Club Classics” – Brat

Charlotte (Aitchisoni) XCX, is an English singer and songwriter. She took the name  XCX’s name as it’s  supposed to be Roman numerals.  It’s a hundred minus ten, then plus ten again which voila, is a hundred!  She started as young teenager sing in dance clubs in England  and started rising to fame when she began posting songs on MySpace.  She signed to a major record label in 2010 and since then, has released umpteen singles and mix tapes often in collaboration with others.  “Club Classics” is the new single from her yet to be released album Brat.    

Here’s an interesting article from ten years ago.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/10905375/Is-Charli-XCX-the-new-Adele.html

CC Adcock & The Lafayette Marquis – “Poke Chop” – from the movie  Roadhouse

C. C. Adcock a southern performer noted for his Cajun, zydeco, electric blues and swamp pop-influenced sound.   He is also a Grammy-nominated music and film producer and film and TV composer.   Adcock has provided some music for the new version of the silly Eighties film Roadhouse which now is apparently referred to a cult classic.  Poke Chop is an excellent scuzzy bluesy number which would go well with the highly choreographed scraps that I am sure the film provides.

https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/cc-adcock-tommy-mclain-rockin-dopsie-jr-and-jelly-joseph-add-louisiana-spice-to-road/article_b26cb51a-e8a6-11ee-b3d0-0f94a340158f.html

The Drin – “Tigers Cage” – Elude the Torch

The Drin’s are a group where even in the wide expanse of the interweb, I could find out very little about them.  We two old fellas have been toiling away at the podcast for a while now and this is  probably the least info for an act I have found. So in lieu of background overload, here is their Bandcamp page:

https://thedrin.bandcamp.com/track/tigers-cage-2

Episode 62

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

Music for Episode 62!

Feist – Borrow Trouble

Neko Case – Oh, Shadowless

Lana Del Rey – Doing Time

Gustaf – Starting and Staring

Weezer – Africa, The Teal Album

Geese – Killing Mt Borrowed Time

Andrea Ramolo, Kalascima – Bella Ci Dormi

Beverley Copeland – Harbour Song (Song For Elizabeth)

Juliana Hatfield – Can’t Get It Out of My Head

Show 62 from Mixcloud

Feist – Borrow Trouble

Feist – Borrow Trouble (Official Music Video)

Feist is back with another new song from her forthcoming album, Multitudes. The latest single, “Borrow Trouble,” comes with a music video co-directed by Mary Rozzi, Colby Richardson, Heather Goodchild, and Leslie Feist. Watch the visual above.

Multitudes is out April 14. In addition to “Borrow Trouble,” the new album includes the songs “Hiding Out in the Open,” “In Lightning,” and “Love Who We Are Meant To.”

From Pitchfork

Lana Del Rey – Doing Time

and here come the cover songs!! And Lana Del Rey is a remake of the 50 Foot woman!! (1958)

From Wikipedia

On May 7, 2019, American singer Lana Del Rey teased a cover of the song and said it was “coming soon”.[4] Del Rey’s cover was officially released on May 17, 2019, coinciding with the premiere of a documentary about Sublime at the Tribeca Film Festival.[5] It was released as the fourth single from Del Rey’s sixth studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell!. On August 29, 2019, she released a music video for the cover, she increased in height from 170 centimeters to 17 meters, which referenced the film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). When asked about covering the song, Del Rey credited the transitioning of and shifts in genres to Sublime, saying the group “made a genre and sound totally their own”, adding that because of the indelible “SoCal vibe” the group created, “not a day goes by that [she does not] listen to at least one Sublime song.”[6

also from Wikipedia – “Doin’ Time” is a song by American band Sublime, appearing as the closing track on their self-titled third album. The lyrics tell of a cheating girlfriend, whose infidelities and poor treatment of her lover makes him feel like he is in prison.

Sublime broke up in 1996 when band member Bradley Nowell died from a heroive overdose.
Here is the 1996 Sublime song

Weezer – Africa, The Teal Album

This is the stuff of musical legend, and it is within our 2017 timeline!



Its been a while, man, lifes so rad. A while, that is, since we were awarded with a gold record! Thanks to everyone – Mary the @weezerafrica
twitter girl, our fans, terrestrial and satellite stations, streaming services, and Crush management – for supporting this crazy single!

Weezer, also known as the Teal Album or just Teal, is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band Weezer. It was released digitally on January 24, 2019, through Crush Music and Atlantic Records, with a retail release on March 8. The album is composed of cover songs, mostly from the 1980s, making it the band’s first covers album. It was announced and released on the same day as a surprise precursor to Weezer’s thirteenth studio album, which was released on March 1, 2019. The album received mixed reviews, with some praising the self-aware frivolity of the project, while others criticized the arrangements.

Weezer – Africa (starring Weird Al Yankovic)

On the morning of December 7, 2017, I was sitting at the Noisey desk, finishing up a hearty blogger’s breakfast (two bags of nacho cheese Doritos and one can of Red Bull) when I noticed my friend Luke O’Neil was tweeting about Weezer slightly more than usual.

“Please RT if you want to help make Ohio teen @weezerafrica’s simple, wholesome dream come true of seeing rock band @Weezer cover Africa by Toto,” he tweeted. Luke is an occasional Noisey writer, and is very adept at wandering into the dark rooms of the internet and causing trouble in them. So my interest was piqued. “OK, I’ll bite,” I thought, and gave Luke’s tweet the one true currency left in our capitalist hell world: my Click.

Upon opening his thread I realized Luke was trying to signal boost @weezerafrica, an underfollowed Twitter account whose sole purpose was to convince the band Weezer to cover Toto’s 1982 hit single “Africa.” The sentiment straddled that sweet middle ground between ironic detachment and genuine enthusiasm. It was so stupid. So irreverent. So utterly lacking in any useful information. I knew it belonged on Noisey. My intuition kicked in. On sheer instinct, my fingers started an email to Luke and threw his directive entirely into the subject line: interview the weezer/toto person for me plz.

Vice

and you have to see the original Toto version

Andrea Ramolo, Kalascima – Bella Ci Dormi

A live interpretation of a southern Italian serenata (love serenade) as part of the new international collaboration with Canada’s alternative folk songwriter Andrea Ramolo and southern Italian world music band Kalàscima.
“Five Minutes With” Toronto Musician Andrea Ramolo

January 21, 2020 Joel Levy Folk-Country, Music, Rock-Indie

Andrea Ramolo is a multiple Canadian Folk Music Award nominee and has been recording and touring her music since 2008. Born in Toronto to Italian immigrants, Andrea began her artistic life as a dancer and actress. In 2003 she picked up the guitar producing two albums “Thank You For The Ride’ and “The Shadows and the Cracks.” The latter earned her a nomination at the Canadian Folk Music Awards for Emerging Artist of the Year.

This is a great track and you can find it on Bandcamp here

Here is the trailer from a movie she made based on this collaboration

“The Canada Council granted me an amazing opportunity to make an ancestral folk record with a world music folk band, Kalàscima, in southern Italy,” she explained. “We’re making a documentary of the recording process and of the history of the ‘healing dance’ and the music of the south.” 
The film will premiere in June in Toronto with a six-song EP released at the same time. 
“I really hope to bring the band over for the premiere,” she said. “They did Folk Alliance in Montreal, which is where I met them. They were playing the ancient instruments like the Zampogna, which are Italian bagpipes. This is an ancient music they play from a time when the musicians were the healers, and they were paid like doctors.” 

Just Folk

Juliana Hatfield – Can’t Get It Out of My Head

Juliana Hatfield – Can’t Get It Out of My Head (Official Video)

excerpts from an interview – not a very good one at that. But Bob did fill me in a little about her. Three cover albums since 2018, the last one ELO recorded during COVID – pretty impressive.

After cutting two solid covers albums, Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John in 2018, and Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police a year later, the singer is now issuing an even more passionate third set, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, revolving around the earworm work of that band’s brilliant symphonic-rock mastermind Jeff Lynne

but how she made the album is interesting – another product of COVID

when I was making this album, I didn’t have access to a studio, so I did it all in my bedroom. Or at least all of my parts, and then the bass and drums were recorded in a rehearsal space while I was there rehearsing the parts.

from the Illinois Entertainer – August 31, 2023 interview by Brassneck

but who is she? Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls,[2] and The Lemonheads.  Thanks Wikipedia!

Neko Case –  “Oh, Shadowless” – Wild Creatures

Until about ten years ago, I thought Neko Case was a Canadian. However, Case was born in Virginia and moved to Canada in the nineties, to attend the Emily Carr Institute of Art in Vancouver. She became involved in the music scene played drums in several local bands, like Cub and Maow.  Here’s a young Neko Case in Maow’s  video “Ms. Lefevre”.   

Maow – Ms. Lefevre (featuring Neko Case)

  Also, she performed on Cub’s classic “Pillow Queen”

Of course, she came to prominence as one of the vocalists with West Coast “super group”The New Pornographers but by the late 1990’s she returned to the states.  She has seven solo albums out and in 2022 released a compilation Wild Creatures

https://www.popmatters.com/neko-case-wild-creatures-review  

The album comes with one unreleased wonderful song “Oh Shadowless”

Gustaf – “Starting and Staring” – Package Pt 2

This young NYC band came together in 2018.  Like most things, Gustaf shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  They finally starting releasing new material in 2021.  The Burning Wood blog was my inspiration for choosing these guys.  This is a great read.

https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/search?q=gustaf. 

Scroll to the bottom for “Starting and Staring”

Geese – “Killing My Borrowed Time” – 4D EP

Geese are an American rock band based in Brooklyn, New York.  According to Wikipedia, “ The band formed in 2016 while the members were attending Brooklyn Friends School and Little Red School House in New York City. During high school, the band practiced and recorded material in the basement of Bassin’s home in Fort Greene. As a few of the members had received acceptance letters to attend schools such as Oberlin College and the Berklee College of Music, the band had intended to break up once they graduated high school in 2020. Towards mid-2020, however, the band’s self-produced demos attracted attention from several record labels, including 4AD, Fat Possum, and Sub Pop. Ultimately, the band signed with Partisan Records.”

Once again The Burning Wood blog comes to the rescue for inspiration and elucidation.  https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2024/01/these-are-geese.html. 

Let’s cha-cha to  “Killing My Borrowed Time”

Beverley Copeland – “Harbour Song (Song For Elizabeth)” –  The One’s Ahead

Beverly Glenn-Copeland  is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter. I going to let Canada’s evergreen publication fill you in on this artist’s incredibly interesting life.  https://thewalrus.ca/beverly-glenn-copelands-late-bloom/ 

In fifty years, his released recordings have been sporadic but 2023’s The One’s Ahead has landed on many people’s year end best of lists.  At 80 years of age , he is finally receiving wider spread recognition.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland – “Harbour (Song For Elizabeth)”

Old Fellas New Music Episode 60

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off “(Taylor’s Version)

Okan – La Reina Del Norte (OKantomi)

The Lemon Twigs – “My Golden Years”

The National – Crumble feat. Rosanne Cash – (Laugh Track)

Durand Jones – “Wait Til I Get Over”

Grian Chatten – Last Time Every Time Forever– (Chaos for the Fly)

Liam Gallagher and John Squire – “Just Another Rainbow”

Lonnie Holley and Sharon van Etten – None of us have but a little while (Oh Me Oh My) 

SPRINTS  –  “Adore Adore Adore”

Our show on Mixcloud

This is our second show of the best of for 2023. I chose my songs from a variety of best of lists – CBC Top 100 Canadian Songs, The Guardian – for The National (they were everywhere), The Guardian again for Grian Chatten, and The New Yorker‘s list for Lonnie Holley. These are all solid suggestions and write-ups so I have included them all here. I will include a few additional notes in some spots.

Okan – La Reina Del Norte (OKantomi)

Taking their name from the word for heart in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, OKAN is an award-winning, women-led ensemble that fuses Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk, and global rhythms in songs about immigration, courage, and love. (Chamberfest Ottawa)

The open secret to Okan’s brilliance is the palpable creative chemistry of its married co-leaders Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne. Their dynamic interplay — Rodriguez’s violin and lead vocals and Savigne’s percussion and backing vocals — is an enthralling dance, and evident in every aspect of their music. Okantomi, their third and most ambitious record yet, is a testament to the ways in which they’ve grown together as a band but also as individual musicians and composers. The artists draw on their shared Afro-Cuban roots and musical cultures to craft a brilliantly lush sonic garden of genre-defying jazz-classical-pop that’s as personal as it is experimental. Dance along to the joyful liberation of “La Reina del Norte,” exchange flirty glances to the sultry Afro-Latin pop of “Iglu,” and witness the urgent, fervent hope of the richly layered “Oriki Oshun,” which Rodriguez composed in the wake of a miscarriage and as a prayer for protection in her next pregnancy. — AW

CBC Best 100 2023

And from Errol Nazareth (CBC)

Okan, which comes from the word for heart or soul in Santeria religion, is an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz ensemble led by Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne. The composers, multi-instrumentalists and vocalists are both from Cuba and have Afro-Cuban roots, but it wasn’t until they moved to Canada that they met and fell in love. The married duo released their first album as Okan in 2019 (Sombras) and followed that up with 2020’s Espiral, which won a Juno for world album of the year.

Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off “(Taylor’s Version) from 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

What can you say about Taylor Swift that hasn’t been said already? So there’s no need here to dispense with any biographical details.  However, in  2019,   Swift came in dispute with her former record label, Big Machine Records over the ownership of the masters of her first six studio albums.  This led her to release the re-recorded albums—Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and 1989 (Taylor’s Version)—from 2021 through 2023 to gain complete ownership of her music.   

Rolling Stone magazine loves 1989: 

“Everybody here wanted something more,” Taylor Swift sang on ‘Welcome To New York’, the opening track to ‘1989’. “Searching for a sound we hadn’t heard before.”

And the search for that sound is what led Swift here, to her 2014 magnum opus in the all-bangers, no-clangers 1980s pure-pop tradition of Madonna’s ‘True Blue’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.

The Lemon Twigs – “My Golden Years”  – single

This is the  Lemon Twigs third appearance on the podcast.  The new single “My Golden Years” harkens back to the power pop sound of the early 70’s. The song is very reminiscent of the Raspberries. While all three Lemon Twigs selections are wonderful, the jury is still out on listening and enjoying a whole album by the band.  Here’s an interesting take on the band.

Back in the dark days of COVID lockdown, I wrote two extensive buyer’s guides to Todd Rundgren and Utopia. I am proud of those pieces, in part because, I was unafraid to point out the bad along with the good, something most disciples and fanboys just won’t do, as if the news would get back to the artist and then suddenly, no more Christmas cards from Mr. Rundgren. I love Todd with all my heart, but I also know when he either phones it in, or purposely sabotages an absolutely perfect pop song, something he’s done a little too often over his almost 60 year career. 

Everyone writes shitty songs or has shitty ideas. Everyone. Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Prince, David Bowie, Pete Townshend. EVERYONE!

Burning Wood blog also encapsulates this song the best. https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2024/01/that-bridge-that-coda.html

Durand Jones – “Wait Til I Get Over” from Wait Til I Get Over

I picked the title track from Durand Jones’s first solo lp.  The album is a  musical departure from his work with his main band, the Indications.

 

Jones really explores his gospel Louisiana roots on this number.

…

The National – Crumble fea. Rosanne Cash – (Laugh Track)

As frontman Matt Berninger confronted a debilitating breakdown towards the end of 2019, the National wondered if they would ever even make another album. Then they made two, of which Laugh Track was the surprise second release this year – and which proved that they hadn’t just regrouped but revitalised. For the first time in several years, they sounded like five guys hunkered down in the engine room, smelting lean, light-headed epics such as Deep End and Dreaming, and leaning on a quarter-century’s worth of trust to get out of their own way, letting classic ballads remain unfussed (Laugh Track) and manic dirges untrammelled (Smoke Detector – maybe their best ever song). And almost losing it all gave Berninger’s lyrics a newfound clarity about what’s worth holding on to, most strikingly expressed in Space Invader, which conveyed a kind of panicked gratitude for having recognised love and pursued it years ago when it could so easily have dissolved in a letter that went unwritten, a subway stop missed. LS

33
Grian Chatten – Last Time Every Time Forever– (Chaos for the Fly)

Fontaines DC remain a going concern, but their frontman made this solo release feel anything but a between-albums diversion. There are forays into new sounds for him, such as the breezy Rat Pack backing of Bob’s Casino and cosmic trip-hop on East Coast Bed, but what remains the same is his strength as a lyricist: he tramps moodily towards misanthropy, but a deep love for humanity prevents him from ever quite getting there. Chatten writes the way a sketch artist draws, in deft, sure lines – whether describing New York’s freezing sidewalks getting salted (“the whole of the city was seasoned to taste”) or pinpointing toxic acquaintances (“they will celebrate the things that make you who you’re not”). BBT

Liam Gallagher and John Squire – “Just Another Rainbow” single

Fellow Mancunians  Liam Gallagher (Oasis) and John Squire (The Stone Roses) team up for a song that sounds a lot like both their former bands. 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/21/liam-gallagher-and-the-stone-roses-john-squire-album

It’s nothing more the a sturdy melodic rock number and there’s nothing wrong with that. . https://pitchfork.com/news/liam-gallagher-and-the-stone-roses-john-squire-join-forces-for-new-song-just-another-rainbow-listen/

SPRINTS  –  “Adore Adore Adore” from Letter to Self

Sprints are an Irish garage punk band, formed in Dublin in 2019. Their debut album, Letter to Self, was just released last week. This a wonderful album full of scuzzy guitars and great melodies.  The video for Adore Adore Adore is charmingly over the top. 

Karla Chubb, Sprints’ lead vocalist, explains the song::

“Adore Adore Adore is a guttural reaction to my experience of criticism, gender and misogyny. People can’t seem to stop pressing their idea of what being a woman or acting like a woman is or should be upon us. You can’t act like this, you can’t say that, you have to be born with this or that and it’s exhausting.

There is still a different standard of behaviour expected from me vs even the other members in Sprints. There is a different set of invisible rules I am supposed to abide by – I am supposed to fit their mould and give them what they want – and not deliver what it is I am here to do.So at a time when trans rights are under attack, people are trying to force upon us what they think a woman is or should be, this is the outward expression of my own frustration, struggle and rage.”

Here’s just one of the many overwhelmingly positive reviews of Sprints debut record.

8. Lonnie Holley, “Oh Me Oh My” (Jagjaguwar)

None of us have but a little while – Lonnie Holly, Sharon van Etten

At seventy-three, the visual artist and musician Lonnie Holley still seems to be discovering new worlds. I don’t know how to describe this music in a way that feels true to its magnitude or its singularity: there are strains of free jazz, folk, ambient, and gospel, but mostly it feels like the apotheosis of a genre that we don’t have a name for yet. Michael Stipe adds vocals to the title track, which, like all of Holley’s best and strangest songs, reckons with trauma and God and perseverance and joy. “I suggest you all go as deep as you can,” Holley sings. His delivery is gentle, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of advice anyone can afford to ignore.

The subject of this album is the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children.

COTTON PICKING, 1902. /nPicking the school cotton crop at Mt. Meigs Institute, Alabama. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1902.

Pitchfork has written a great piece about Holley here

Here is the opening:

The Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children was the kind of educational institution that traumatized its students more than it educated them. Founded in 1911, after the state of Alabama took over a large farming campus in the Mount Meigs community near Montgomery, the juvenile correctional facility became infamous for the horrific abuse and torture it inflicted on poor Black youth. In 1947, inspectors visiting the school found 300 boys “cooped up in cramped quarters with nothing to do or occupy their energies except to eat and live like hogs.” By the 1960s, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, young inmates were forced to pick cotton from sunrise until sundown; beatings and sexual abuse were common. “This was functionally a slave plantation,” concluded the journalist Josie Duffy Rice, who spent a year and a half researching the school’s history for a podcast series.

sources

New Yorker Best Music of 2023

Episode 59 The New Year’s Edition!

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

This Week!! Featuring

Brendan Hendry – Lonely

Bar Italia – Jelsy

Tobi – Flatline

Carly Rae Jepsen – Psychedelic Switch

Olivia Rodrigo – All American Bitch

Janelle Monáe – Only Have Eyes 42

​​Paramore –  ‘This Is Why’

Lankum – Newcastle

Nemahsis – I Wanna be Your Right Hand

Notes

Brendan Hendry – Lonely

all my notes this week are directly taken from different best-of lists supplied by Bob.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/27/best-songs-this-year-small-artists

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-2023-1234879538/

https://www.cbc.ca/music/top-100-canadian-songs-of-2023-1.7043304

They make for interesting reading as each list has a different set of criteria for establishing what they consider the best. I am starting with one of the choices from the Guardian – The best songs of 2023 … you may not have heard

I like this list as it features a Canadian I have never heard of before. The description is interesting and the video is worth watching. A great start to my list!

The Guardian

In Canadian singer-songwriter Brendan Hendry’s self-directed video for Lonely – made with “$2, a box of wigs, some friends, and a 90s music video dream!” – he starts by placing a battered cassette in an equally battered boombox. What follows is a frayed-around-the-edges post-bar house party featuring flying wigs, snogging and the briefest flash of a bottom encased in leather chaps. The throwback visuals are anchored by a song that fits perfectly with our ongoing obsession with bratty, emo-coded power pop, from Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts album to Kelly Clarkson’s viral chat show cover versions to the return of 00s UK pop-punkers Busted. Hendry also continues the video’s queering of that 90s aesthetic, pairing a lo-fi drum machine, earworm acoustic guitar and big crunchy riffs with his tale of gay dating woes – essentially men are flaky and freakout at the first suggestion of real emotions. If the early verses grapple with the choice between dispassionate sex or no sex at all – “every now and then I still miss you in my mouth” Hendry sighs at one point – then the pogoing, top-tier chorus, which ramps up the emotional catharsis as the song grows sweatier, reaffirms the idea that being alone is better than being a fool. Michael Cragg

Bar Italia – Jelsy

bar italia –  “Jelsy” from Twits

bar italia, is a London-based rock band who released not one but 2 albums in 2023.  Both Twits and Tracey Denim are rather marvellous.  If you are fan of Wet Leg and the  Velvet Underground, this is a band for you.  All three memebrs contribute deadpan vocals with lots of fuzzy guitars.  “Jelsy” is the latest single from the November release Twits.  https://www.stereogum.com/2238511/bar-italia-jelsy/music/

Exclaim! review

…

8. ‘Flatline,’ Tobi

CBC

I really like this song. Once heard, it is hard to forget. This selection is part of a CBC 3-hour feature – The top 100 Canadian songs of 2023 by Pete Morey. Haven’t listened to this yet, but you can get the whole broadcast here.

they even give you a breakdown of the show:

Joined by friends and special guests, host Pete Morey rewinds the musical highlights of 2023 and cues up what 2024 has in store. The 23 best Canadian albums of 2023 at 00:00:00 The breakout stars of 2022 at 55:50:00 Albums to look forward to in 2024 at 1:21:15 Songs turning 20 in 2024 at 1:33:54 The top 10 Canadian songs of 2023 at 1:50:13

“Flatline” is the embodiment of Tobi’s self-described style of “unapologetic soul music.” Exploring the theme of power — who has it, how one seizes it, etc. — the Toronto rapper weaves the personal and political into one bold, ambitious track. Jabbing piano notes anchor “Flatline” as Tobi effortlessly raps around the beat, covering a swath of topics including the Land Back movement and Black death, as he unabashedly points out: “How they gon’ steal the wave? We on stolen land.” Pain is inevitable, but here, Tobi encourages listeners to transform that pain into power: “Flatline” is the motivational anthem that we needed this year. 

Carly Rae Jepsen – Psychedelic Switch

Carly Rae Jepsen  is a Canadian pop star who of course had an international mega hit with “Call Me Maybe” in 2012.  Her sixth album The Loneliest Time, was released in October 2022. It’s  companion album, The Loveliest Time, followed in July 2023.  This record is a collection of B-sides and tracks left off The Loneliest Time.  The track we chose is a wonderful pseudo Daft Punkish disco number “Psychedelic Switch.”  Don’t ponder the lyrics, just dance!

from Pitchfork

5 Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Guts’ (Album)

All American Bitch

The next two selections come from the Rolling Stone list – The 100 Best Albums of 2023

This is a great list that I want to return to for our next show. We have played lots of these artists over the year so we must be doing something right. I had to add Olivia Rodrigo, I just really like the sense of humour in her music. AND, this album is mentioned in the piece by the Guardian above.

On Guts, Olivia Rodrigo captures the insurmountable challenges of coming to fame while coming of age, with its romantic betrayals, vampiric exes, and fair-weather friends. Throughout the album’s heart-tugging ballads and sneering pop-punk cuts, the 20-year-old maintains a cutting lyrical precision — while unafraid to poke fun at her own shortcomings and social faux pas — that has cemented her as one of her generation’s best pop songwriters. As if to push herself out of the predictable path of “torch singer” and reject the well-mannered vision of femininity she skewers on “all-american bitch,” she delivers the full emotional breadth of teenager girldom through manic screaming, sarcastic sing-speak, and rage-fueled grit. —M.H.K.

Janelle Monáe – Only Have Eyes 42 –   The Age of Pleasure

Janelle Monáe Robinson  is of course is an immensely successful  singer, songwriter,  and actor. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and won a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy .  In April 2022, she came out publicly as non-binary.  The song “Only Have Eyes 42” is about being in a polyamorous relationship and being open about it.  According to Songtell, the lyrics appear to be an account of a consensual and satisfying threesome.

More here

The song samples Derrick Harriot’s 1967 rock steady reggae classic , The Loser  

and Dick Powell’s 1934 version of I only have Eyes For You 

…

​​6. Paramore, ‘This Is Why’

Right after Olivia Rodrigo, a song that caught my attention. Don’t know anything about the band, but that’s pretty normal for me. But, read below – this band has been around for twenty years.

Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro made their return on This Is Why as masters of existentialism, and their deep familiarity with impending doom and self-destruction made from some rich emotional mining. Set against expertly executed post-punk and New Wave, they explore their fascination with the complexities of the human condition. Williams wonders about what it means to be a good person who isn’t able to save everyone, including herself. As the first album in the band’s 20-year career that was made with the same lineup as their last one, it was the first new Paramore LP that didn’t require them to rebuild themselves from ruins. What better way to begin building on that newfound foundation than by using the external world as a lens for self-examination? —L.P.

Lankum – Newcastle – False Lankun

Lankum  are an Irish folk music group from Dublin, consisting of Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch, Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat.  They have released the albums Cold Old Fire in 2014 and Between the Earth and Sky in 2017. In 2018, they were named Best Folk Group at the RTÉ Folk Music Awards.  The band were nominated for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year in 2017 for their album Between the Earth and Sky, and won the prize in 2019 for their album The Livelong Day.  The band’s fourth studio album, False Lankum (2023), was released to widespread critical acclaim and  was nominated for the Mercury Prize and placed highly on several end-of-year lists. The selected track “Newcastle” is an absolutely haunting centuries old ballad.

Lankum – “Newcastle”

The Guardian gave a 5 star review to a recent performance. 

I Wanna be Your Right Hand,’ Nemahsis

This is another selection of the CBC list. A new artist, she seems to be putting out lots of music including the EP track (Eleven Archers) that we played at the beginning of the show.

This song makes it to #10 which is pretty impressive.

Palestinian Canadian pop artist Nemahsis expresses her love language on “I Wanna be Your Right Hand,” with her voice desperately reaching out to someone as she begs to be of service — to be useful in the name of showing her love and devotion. Over an acoustic riff that’s reminiscent of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979,” Nemahsis sounds equal parts steadfast and free, playing with her voice in ways she hasn’t in previous releases. While she’s already established her talent for writing heart-wrenching ballads — as displayed on her 2022 EP, Eleven Achers — “I Wanna be Your Right Hand” proves that the rising star has a much wider range that has yet to be fully explored. We can’t wait to hear where she takes her music next. (Songs You Need to Hear, March 22)

Here is a link to her interview with Tom Power

Episode 58 The Christmas Edition!!

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music1 Comment

Our Songs for this Saturday!!

Simon Kearney ft. Gabrielle Shonk – Jusqu’a  Noel

Samara Joy – Warm in December

Grandaddy – It Was a Silent Night At least Until Jeff Lynne Arrived

Jon Pardi – Beer for Santa

Chateaubriand – Notre Dernier Sapin

Bright Eyes and John Prine – Christmas in Prison

Emmy Law – John Denver

Panter Bélico – Un Vaquero En Navidad (A Cowboy At Christmas)

Valley – Christmas Lights

Our Notes for you

Simon Kearney ft. Gabrielle Shonk – Jusqu’a  Noel

Simon Kearney is a Quebecois singer-songwriter. He released his first album, “La vie en mauve”  in 2015, when he was only 17 years old.  Here he is joined by Gabrielle Shonk.  Shonk  is a Juno nominated performer who we have featured before on Old Fellas.  The daughter of an American father and a Québécois mother, Shonk was born in the States but  raised in Quebec City. Although fluently bilingual, she writes songs almost entirely in English, which she attributes to having been influenced primarily by Anglophone rather than francophone music.  Jusqu’a Noel is a wonderful ballad.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNEDkm8P2c

Some background:  https://christmasagogo.blogspot.com/2023/12/simon-kearney-ft-gabrielle-shonk-until.html

Grandaddy –  “It Was a Silent Night At Least Until Jeff Lynne Arrived”

Grandaddy is an American  band from Modesto, California. The group was formed in 1992, and managed to release four studio albums before splitting in 2006.  The band seemed to achieve more recognition in the UK than North America.  The band  reformed in 2012, made a number of live appearances and released its fifth studio album, Last Place, in March 2017.  This is very silly song but nonetheless fun. Bandleader Jason Lytle explains ,”Santa Claus gave me some pretty cool gifts as a kid. But I have to say Jeff Lynne has given me about a million or so more. Here is my little light hearted holiday combo-homage to the two of them.” 

Grandaddy – “It Was A Silent Night At Least Until Jeff Lynne Arrived”

This isn’t the first silly mash-up by Grandaddy. In 2000  they released this goofy gem.

Chateaubriand – “Notre Dernier Sapin”

This the second offering from “la belle province”   To quote Montreal based Chateaubriand from their band camp page, “Nous sommes un groupe de musique qui aime beaucoup la musique.”  Fair enough.

Our last fir tree  as far as I can make out, seems to be a song about regret and If the singer takes down his tree, his dreams will end.

This lovely number comes from a Christmas ep Laisse le Sapin Allume.  Check the whole thing out here.

Châteaubriand – Laisse le sapin allumé (2023)

Emmy Law – “John Denver”

Emmy Law is an indie pop singer-songwriter based in Nashville. Check out her website.    https://emmylawmusic.com/bio/

Law explains the genesis of this wonderful song, “ I started writing it when I was doing some object writing over the summer…found myself writing about my childhood Christmases. One of my high school best friends lost her mom this year and I’m very close to my mom…I was thinking about them when writing it.”     The video mimics both the movie Love Actually and Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues”

Valley – “Christmas Lights”

No stranger to this blog , Juno nominated Valley have released a Christmas song.  It’s a cover of a Coldplay offering.  https://www.universalmusic.ca/press-releases/valley-share-sentimental-reimagining-of-a-coldplay-original-christmas-lights/

The video features childhood footage of the band from winters and Christmases’ past.

Samara Joy

This is a beautiful song, definitely an artist I need to listen to more in the New Year!

some quickly gathered notes:

Samara Joy McLendon[1] (born November 11, 1999) is an American jazz singer. She released her self-titled debut album in 2021 and was subsequently named Best New Artist by JazzTimes. Her second album, Linger Awhile, was released in September 2022, winning the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and herself for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Samara Joy has followed up her major label debut album, Linger Awhile, with a new take on a holiday song, “Warm In December.”

“Warm In December” was originally written by Bob Russell and is relatively unknown and rarely performed by modern artists. The most commonly known recording of it was released by Julie London in 1956, and Joy’s new version provides a refreshing addition to the holiday song cannon.

“I’ll keep you warm in December/Warm when the cold breezes blow,” she sings in her rich tone over double bass, piano and brushed drums. “My arms so lovin’/A kind of oven/To melt the sleet and snow.”

Samara Joy is back with another taste of her forthcoming Verve Records debut Linger Awhile, out September 16, this time reimagining Ronnell Bright’s 1960 tune “Sweet Pumpkin.” She joins a long line of musicians who have tackled the classic track including Bill Henderson, Freda Payne, Gail Wynters, Irene Reid, and more.

“All the songs that I chose for my first album were standards that I’d learned in the previous couple of years when I was in school just gathering material,” Joy told What’s Up Newp in a recent interview. “Now I’m experimenting with some new material, it falls under the same vein of standards, just different ones that maybe people haven’t heard of.”

Jon Pardi – Beer for Santa

another up and coming artist (morte like multiplatinum star) getting stuff out there for Christmas

13 DECEMBER 2023 (TORONTO, ON) – Multi-Platinum singer/songwriter/producer Jon Pardi continues to celebrate a milestone year on the heels of his Grand Ole Opry induction as the first California native ever inducted with the release of his first-ever holiday album, Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi. 

Jon Pardi is changing things up this Christmas with his first animated music video – “Beer For Santa.”

“I picked this song because it was just so fun when you heard it and wasn’t like anything I had heard before,” Pardi said. “Literally, wasn’t your typical Christmas cookie-cutter song and a fun one to dance to.”

Jonathan Ryan Pardi (born May 20, 1985) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to Capitol Nashville, he has released four studio albums: Write You a Song (2014), California Sunrise (2016), Heartache Medication (2019), and Mr. Saturday Night (2022). Pardi has also charted fourteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, of which four have hit number one on the latter: “Head Over Boots“, “Dirt on My Boots“, “Heartache Medication” and “Last Night Lonely“. Pardi’s music style is defined by neotraditional country influences.

In 2023, he gained one of country music’s crowning achievements when he was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Panter Bélico – Un Vaquero En Navidad (A Cowboy At Christmas)

as I said on the show, it is hard to find out this musician. Even on Wikipedia the information is sparse:

Arturo González Galeno (July 8, 2002), known as Panter Bélico , is a Mexican singer , composer and musician of regional Mexican music . 1 From 2020 to 2023, he was the lead vocalist and accordionist of Grupo Arriesgado. Since then, he has had a solo career.

BUT – I was able to find some material on Spotify. He is a rising star so i will include some of their material on him here.

Just 21 years old, Panter Bélico has become one of the leading lights of the Música Mexicana scene. The former Grupo Arriesgado member broke through as a solo artist earlier this year, topping charts with hits like “LA 701” and “Símbolo Sexual,” along with releasing his debut album, Punto Y Aparte. 

For this year’s edition of Spotify Holiday Singles, the rising star took a different approach and contributed an original song: “Un Vaquero En Navidad.” 

More on the inspiration for the song and the style of Mexican music Bob asked about during the show.

When they asked me to record an original Christmas corrido, I thought I’d go outside of the traditional and tell a story about something I’m passionate about, which is horses. I imagined being a cowboy at Christmas time, and that’s where the lyrics came from. And with my musicians, we realized that the northern cumbia style was best for the period. 

Bright Eyes and John Prine – Christmas in Prison

This is a good story from Pitchfork on this song. Best let them tell it, pretty nice version.

Bright Eyes have shared a new cover of the John Prine song “Christmas in Prison.” Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott’s new rendition features a sample of Prine’s “A John Prine Christmas.”

Proceeds from the song will benefit for the late Prine’s charity, the Hello in There Foundation and its 2023 beneficiaries: the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Porters Call, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, and Renewal House. They’re also selling a Bright Eyes and John Prine holiday ornament to benefit the foundation.

“It is strange to get a chance to share a track with a hero of mine who has passed on,” Oberst said in a statement. “Normally not something I would do. I don’t like holograms. But I have so much love and affection for John as a person and his music. He really changed my life on a lot of levels. When I heard the sample of him talking about Christmas just put such a big smile on my face and I couldn’t help but want to share it with other people. A little Christmas gift to a stranger. It’s all about John and his beautiful song. But I am happy to sing in the choir. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone all around the world. I wish love and light this season to you and yours.”

Revisit 2020’s “Remembering John Prine, the Ultimate Songwriter’s Songwriter.”

Here are some of the links Bob mentioned on today’s show

https://christmasagogo.blogspot.com/

https://merryandbright.blogspot.com/

https://ernienotbert.blogspot.com/

https://christmasunderground.com/

Old Fellas New Music Episode 54

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

Episode 54 Old Fellas New Music

Forest Swords – Low

Noname – namesake (Pitchfork)

– BO2A3 ALWAN (COLOR PATCHES)

Big Thief – Vampire Empire (Pitchfork)

Barry Can’t Swim – Define Dancing

Alison Russell and the Resistance Revival Chorus – Take Me to Church (Exclaim!)

Sleaford Mods – UK Grim

The Resonance Between – The Passage (Frequencies)

Sparkle Division – Oh Yeah

This week’s episode on Mixcloud!!

Noname – namesake (heard on Pitchfork)

I didn’t know what this song was about (see below), but I kept on seeing Noname on my playlist so it was time to play one of her songs.

So, what is namesake about?

from Confidence

Noname has never been shy about calling out big names, and on her new track, “​​​​​​namesake,” the Chicago rapper disses titans of the music industry as hypocrites for working with the NFL. Spitting in a rapid-fire flow over a slinky instrumental from Slimwav, Noname specifically hits out at JAY-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, and Beyoncé on the Sundial cut.

On the second verse, Noname makes it clear where she stands regarding Jay and his relationship with the NFL. “I ain’t fuckin’ with the NFL or JAY-Z/ Propaganda for the military complex,” she raps. “The same gun that shot Lil Terry/ Out West, the same gun that shot Senair in the West Bank/ We all think the Superbowl’s the best thing.”

From noname

Go, Rihanna, go
Watch the fighter jet fly high
War machine gets glamorized
We play the game to pass the time
Go, Beyoncé, go
Watch the fighter jet fly high
War machine gets glamorized
We play the game to pass the time
Go, Kendrick, go
Watch the fighter jet fly high
War machine gets glamorized
We play the game to pass the time

Genius

Big Thief – Vampire Empire (heard on Pitchfork)

From Wikipedia

Big Thief is an American indie folk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Its members are Adrianne Lenker (guitar, vocals), Buck Meek (guitar, backing vocals), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums).[1]

Here is Big Thief on the amazing KEXP

Big Thief – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

This is yet another band that I know nothing about, but they have made a lot of music and Pitchfork loves them.

There’s an imperial effortlessness to Big Thief’s music-making that’s hard not to find dazzling: five full-lengths, including a double album, three solo Adrianne Lenker albums, all in seven years, with no “minor” one, no asterisk in the catalog. Once you start grasping for comparison points, you wind up pretty quickly in superlatives territory: Elliott Smith. Bob Dylan. Prince.

what is imperial effortlessness??

This is what they have done since 2016:

5 albums

2 EPs

21 singles

4 music videos

Grammy nominations in 2020, 2021, 2023

Alison Russell and the Resistance Revival Chorus

The Take Me to Church single is part of Spotify’s Singles Series. The series asks artists to reimagine one of their own songs along with a song they love. Some more from Exclaim! Magazine on Montrealer Allison Russell, an artist we play on a regular basis on this show.

…in 2021 her track “Nightflyer” was on Barack Obama’s annual best-of-the-year playlist, and in 2022 she earned three Grammy nominations and won the JUNO Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, becoming the first Black artist to do so. “The timing of it, the fact that we were at a conjunction of pandemic, of major social justice, and racial reckoning. There’s a lot of things that happened for this record to be listened to in the way that it was and continues to be,” she reflects. “I’m still pondering these things in my heart.”

The Resonance Between – The Passage

There is very little written about The Resonance Between, probably because this is a collaboration, not a band.

So, here is a bit about the project from Bandcamp

The Resonance Between (TRB) is the new collaborative album by artists Alam Khan, Arjun K. Verma, and Del Sol Quartet — an ensemble of remarkably synergistic vision and virtuosity.

Despite their many aesthetic similarities, Indian classical and European classical music have rarely been combined, and generally have been done so in mere juxtapositions rather than with fluid integration. TRB presents a groundbreaking new level of fusion between these cultural genres, crafting a contemporary instrumental sound for this unique original work that is so much more than simply the sum of its parts.

Here is a good article on the collaborators for this project from Seattle Sacred Musi

Alam Khan, Arjun K. Verma, Del Sol Quartet: The Resonance Between

and a little more about this amazing project from World Music Central

The album highlights the Indian classical mastery of Khan and Verma, who teamed up with cross-cultural composer Jack Perla. The American string ensemble Del Sol Quartet, led by violist Charlton Lee, adds a unique touch with their multicultural approach to chamber music. The strings of the quartet beautifully complement the Indian instruments, resulting in cinematic soundscapes that are both emotionally expressive and thought-provoking.

Forest Swords – “Low” from Bolted

Forest Swords is the stage name for English record producer and  DJ, Matt Barnes.  He has released three studio albums, of which Bolted is his latest.  This Old Fella is stepping out of his usual wheelhouse and presenting a little UK electronica this week.

     Mojo magazine calls the album  “ a master class in sound design, Bolted creeps up slowly then engulfs you.”

The online Treble magazine is much better at describing this tune than me.

As a dedicated fan of science fiction, I’m a keen believer in the concept of the multiverse. One of the lesser alternate timelines I imagine for myself involves dropping my political science degree to study music theory and composition instead. I envision falling in love with jazz and postmodern classical music, pursuing an advanced degree or two, and finding experimental electronic music earlier that I did in this timeline. Eventually, I would have landed a gig teaching at either a mid-sized high school or decent community college, and made my own music on the side. And when my students ask me about the sort of art I both create and appreciate, I think it might exist in the same sphere of music as the work of Forest Swords.

Ramy Essam – “BO2A3 ALWAN (Color Patches)” from Metgharabiin (Outsiders)

Ramy Essam is an Egyptian musician who came to prominence during the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt in 2011.  His songs of protest in Cairo were seen by millions of people.  His music was considered incendiary by the Mubarak regime and he was forced to seek exile in Sweden where he has resided ever since. Here he is captivating an enormous audience in Tahir Square in 2011. 

His new release includes this mesmerizing selection which comes with an equally captivating video.  

Barry Can’t Swim –“ Define Dancing” from When Will We Land

Barry Can’t Swim is just one guy, Josh Mainnie, a London-based producer and musician. He makes a type of laid back tuneful house music with an emphasis on piano and interesting samples.  For example, see if the repetitive piano riff in “Define Dancing” doesn’t remind you of a sound off of Pink Floyd’s 1973 Dark Side of the Moon. 

   

Do you have a question for Barry can’t Swim?  Well here’s ten answered.

10 QUESTIONS WITH BARRY CAN’T SWIM, FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF HIS NEW EP ‘MORE CONTENT’

BY HEATHER CLEAL


1. Can you describe your sound in 3 words?

“Fairly jazzy stuff.”

2. How has your childhood in Edinburgh influenced the musician that you are today?

“It’s definitely a big influence, although I would say the people I grew up with shaped my music more than the city itself in all honesty. Edinburgh isn’t amazing at supporting the grassroots scenes, especially compared to somewhere like Glasgow. But I met a lot of incredibly talented musicians growing up there.”

3. If you wrote a screenplay about your life, what would it be called and who would play you?

“Probably Sonja from Eastenders or Steve Buscemi because we all share boggly eyes. It would be called the mindboggling life of Barry.”

4. You worked with many different artists to produce this EP, but who would be your dream collaborator?

“There are so many amazing people I’d love to collab with, but Jai Paul probably pips it, purely because of how elusive he is. I just wanna talk to him man.”

5. What is the greatest highlight of your career so far?

“I think the first-time seeing people singing along to your tunes when you’re playing live. That is such a mad thing to experience, man. Seeing people you’ve never met before in places you’ve never been to before singing along is still so surreal.”

Sleaford Mods – “UK Grim” from UK Grim

Sleaford Mods are a duo, from Nottingham, U.K.  They have been around for almost 20 years.  Prolific (a dozen albums) and popular in their native land, Sleaford Mods haven’t gained much traction on this side of the Atlantic possibly due to their spoken word rants of British class struggles and angst delivered in a thick Midland’s accent.  Check out their latest.  

Here is Pitchfork’s assessment of their latest offering.  

It’s the irascible British duo’s most varied album to date. Just don’t expect anything to change.

Sleaford Mods don’t make music about how terrible things are in hopes that they will get better. Over the past decade, Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson have channeled public discontent and everyday malaise in the UK, scrutinizing their country’s faults as well as their own. And though they’ve found personal growth and commercial success, the Mods’ outlook hasn’t brightened.

If this peaks your interest, Sleaford Mods have been the subject of several full length documentaries like this.  

Sparkle Division – “Oh Yeah” from Foxy

I am getting lazy here so I am going to describe Sparkle Division by lifting straight and from the All Music Guide. “Sparkle Division‘s play lounge funk and blunted instrumental hip-hop that still had a degree of poignancy to it, given that two of its guests had passed on since its creation, and another song paid tribute to the late David Bowie. The collaboration’s sequel, Foxy, fully dives into the realm of fantasy, loosely following a story line taking place in 1969, about a pair of Hollywood film interns attending a lavish party at a Beverly Hills estate owned by a pimp and drug dealer named Foxy. The music sounds much closer to an Austin Powers-like revision of the late ’60s than the era itself, retaining elements of exotica and spy soundtracks but adding ’90s-style lounge grooves and break beats.“Oh Yeah!” picks up this thread and dives head-first into late-’90s atmospheric jungle, with busy beat programming skittering beneath fluttering sax. Maybe the next Sparkle Division record will be an imaginary soundtrack to a Home Alone-style holiday caper.” — AMG  

In summation:  

Old Fellas New Music Episode 52

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

Episode 52 Friday, Oct. 13 at 1:00 PM on Mixcloud

you can find all our shows here
Episode 52 on Mixcloud



Dermot Kennedy – Better Days
Jeremy Dutcher – Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok
Jungle – Back On 74
Gord Downie, Bob Rock – The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk
Post Malone – Chemical
Debbie Friday – So hard to tell
Sufjan Stevens – So You Are Tired
Olivia Rodrigo – Bad Idea Right?
A. Savage – Elvis in the Army

Screenshot of our OBS screen
here is our updated playlist on Spotify

Here are this week’s notes!!

Jeremy Dutcher – Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok

Jeremy Dutcher – Pomawsuwinuwok Wanakiyawolotuwok / ᐯᒪᐧᓱᐧᐃᓄᐧᐁᒃᐧᐊᓇᑭᔭᐧᐁᓓᑐᐧᐁᒃ (Official Music Video)

Beautiful music. I am including here a release note from October 3 regarding the release of a single from his upcoming second album. The album was released on October 6 and is available on Bandcamp.

Today, Jeremy Dutcher – the classically trained Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, and member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada – shares the final single before his sophomore album is released into the world this Friday. “Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok” translates to ‘people are rising’ and is a “resistance song for all voices.” Jeremy shares the inspiration behind the piece: “Inspired by a traditional Wolastoq melody that is expanded on, this song was supposed to be on my first record, but I could never find a way to make the chorus right. I wanted to write a song that flowed between Wolastoqey language and English, in hopes of calling as many to the table as possible to witness the rising.”

our struggle isn’t
in the fields [as it once was]
it’s in the streets
the people are rising 

Kill Beat Music

and from Exclaim!

A press release calls Motewolonuwok an “experimental pop” album, featuring the first time that Dutcher has written and sung in English. It also finds him singing in the endangered language of Wolastoqey and interpreting traditional songs from his people, just as he did on his debut. The album features strings arranged by Owen Pallett.

Gord Downie, Bob Rock – The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk

The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk

Some days I can’t do it
Sometimes I just can’t do it
The only way around is through it
Some days I can’t do it
Some days I just can’t do it
The only way around is through it

Genius


The songs were recorded in 2006, but since the album only came out last year – released May 5, 2022, this qualifies for our show.

Again, a little bit from Exclaim!

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.” 

Debbie Friday – So hard to tell

What a great song. I had to include something from this year’s Polaris Prize winner. That means two of my selections are winners of the prize (Jeremy Dutcher is the other one).

DEBBY FRIDAY – SO HARD TO TELL (Official Video)

So Hard to Tell is different from her other music. As Pitchfork writes

“So Hard to Tell,” the lead single from Debby Friday’s forthcoming debut, Good Luck, opens with a sly smokescreen. At first, it adopts the hardened, sinister pose of the Toronto artist’s usual steely electronics, unleashing a mangled industrial synth and defensive warning: “They want to hurt you!” But it soon explodes into softness, like feathers erupting from a pillow.

For the contrast, try out GOOD LUCK on Bandcamp or Spotify

Debbie Friday GOOD LUCK on Spotify

Olivia Rodrigo – Bad Idea Right?

Just a fun song I thought would go well with all the rest

From Pichfork (I think they got this right!)

Were the person performing “Bad Idea Right?” even slightly less committed to the bit, it likely wouldn’t have worked. But Rodrigo, a capital-P Performer, barrels into the song with profound commitment to playing the role of sloppy main character. Chattering over the song’s strutting bassline, Rodrigo narrates her decision to link up with an ex-boyfriend like she’s relaying the information in real time: “I’m out right now and I’m all fucked up/And you’re callin’ my phone and you’re all alone/And I’m sensing some undertone!”

This is a great video

Olivia Rodrigo – bad idea right? (Official Video)

Along with Vampire, this is her third Number One Single on Billboard Hot 100

Colleen likes Vampire so i will add it here. Pretty amazing vocals

Olivia Rodrigo – vampire (Official Video)

and thanks BOB for this extra!

Olivia Rodrigo Stans Savage GOP State Senator for Attacking Her iPhone Ad

Olivia Rodrigo’s fans opened up a can of whoop-ass on a Republican Pennsylvania state senator who dared to criticize their idol’s behavior in an iPhone ad.

“Just saw the new @Apple iPhone commercial,” John DiSanto wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. “Young girl, filming with phone, dressed suggestively, keying a car, trashing a room and so on. Pathetic promoting this is how a young women [sic] should act.”

Last month, Apple released a video shot on an iPhone 15 Pro featuring Rodrigo performing her song “get him back!” The commercial does show the 20-year-old keying a parked vehicle, as well as her sitting in a car with the windows and windshield smashed, and throwing a lamp across a bedroom.

The backlash to DiSanto’s disapproval was swift and ruthless.

“This is really pathetic,” one Rodrigo stan replied, while another called him “such a loser.” A third said DiSanto should “cry into your juice box about it you big baby.”

One said they “wanna key his car,” while several called him some variation of a “creep” for describing Rodrigo’s outfit—a crop top and a skirt—as suggestive. A typical comment accused DiSanto of being a “pathetic creep,” advising him to “stop commenting on how younger people, especially women, should dress and act.”

Others just wanted DiSanto to “shut up.” One person, apparently upset, wrote simply: “You are a fart.”

Dermot Kennedy –  “ Better Days”  single from 2021

Dermot Kennedy is an Irish singer and songwriter.  Unknown to these old fellas, Kennedy has scored success these last few years with the songs   “Outnumbered” and “Power Over Me” among others.  He has millions of listens on Spotify and has appeared at major venues and festivals all over North America.  I snapped a picture of him last night playing in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre.  On describing “Better Days”, Kennedy explained “This is a song about patience. It’s about believing in something brighter, and never losing sight of better days, no matter how hard things might get. In a time where so many people feel worried and exhausted, I would love for this song to remind even one person that things will improve.”

Jungle – “Back On 74 “ from Volcano

Jungle is a British duo in 2013 by producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland.  During the past week I have heard “Back on 1974” at least three times in the car and had to crank the radio each time. But remember, driver safety first.Jungle have released four studio albums and this track is from their latest.   The video for “Back on 1974” is very intriguing. 

read more here

excerpt

Acclaimed production duo JUNGLE have returned with a new single, ‘Back On 74’, which arrives alongside a music video which is the first of its kind to be made. A product of the pair’s collaboration with WeTransfer, it’s an interactive experience which is slightly different for every viewer.

Only available for 14 days exclusively via WeTransfer, the video sees dancers performing in a virtual art gallery, where each piece of art can be downloaded by viewers in real time. Each artwork download is then replaced by a random selection of 10,000 other unique pieces (created by JUNGLE’s J Lloyd), meaning no two views of the video are the same.

Post Malone – Chemical  from “Austin”

Post Malone, is an extremely popular,  American rapper and singer.  This is the old fellas’ first opportunity to hear Mr. Malone and it was a pleasant surprise.  It wasn’t what we expected. Chemical is a catchy three minutes of fizzy synth pop.  The NME checks in:

Check out Post Malone’s pop-leaning new single ‘Chemical’

Sufjan Stevens – “So You Are Tired” from Javelin

Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter. He has released ten solo studio albums and been nominated for  Grammy and Academy Awards.  Twenty or so years ago he started his own label with the best name ever, Asthmatic Kitty.  His latest album, Javelin comes on the heels of a tough year for Stevens. He had been hospitalized the previous month and diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome. Also, his partner Evans Richardson, died in April.  “So You Are Tired” seems to sum up his tough year. Pitchfork calls it an “elegant break-up song that sounds like a lullaby.”

A. Savage – “Elvis in the Army” from  Several Songs About Fire

Andrew Savage, or A. Savage, is best known as a member of the Parquet Courts. This track is taken from his second solo album.  First is a glimpse of the Parquet Courts playing their very Velvet Underground fave, Stoned and Starving.

This is possibly the only song in history that references the Canadian candy Swedish Fish!

Savage is also a painter and visual artist, and has created all Parquet Courts’ album covers. He received a Grammy Awards nomination for Best album art of his band’s 2016 album Human Performance.

The song presented here, is less about Elvis and more about what it means to be an American.

More here

Old Fellas New Music Episode 47

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

Episode 47

Whitehorse – Am I just Going to Stand Here (While You Take My Girl Away)

Maybel – Winter city

Mozart Estate – Vanilla Gorilla

Darlingside – Eliza I See

The Bad Ends – Thanksgiving 1915

Maya De Vitry – Never on the Map

Complete Mountain Almanac – May

Tanlines – The Big Mess

Feeble Little Horse – Steamroller

This week’s songs

Whitehorse – “Am I just Going to Stand Here (While You Take My Girl Away)” from  From  Strike Me Down 2021

Whitehorse is a long time favourite in the Old fellas camp.  Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland have been releasing high quality roots inflected music for years.  I recently heard this gem on the radio and assumed it was from the band’s latest 2023 release, I’m Not Crying Your Crying.  This track is actually a couple of years old.    I like the psychedelic vibe to this number.  

These guys are great live.  I encourage everyone to see them if you can.  

https://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2021/05/09/whitehorse-am-i-just-gonna-stand-here

Mozart Estate – “Vanilla Gorilla” from Pop-Up! Ker-Ching! and the Possibilities of Modern Shopping 2023

Mozart Estate, formerly known as Go-Kart Mozart, are an English indie pop band founded by cult figure Lawrence.  Lawrence first came to mild prominence in the early 80’s as the chief member of The UK band Felt.  If one is feeling lazy, Felt could be lumped in with other jangly bands of the era like The Smiths and REM.  Here’s Felt performing one of their best known songs. 

After 9 lps, Felt broke up.  Lawrence eventually formed the glam/bubblegum pastiche Denim.  Felt  released nine albums in the 1980s, and Lawrence was the only constant member of the band from its inception in 1979 to its dissolution in 1989.  After Felt’s breakup, Lawrence became somewhat of a eccentric recluse.  He later remerged  in the 90’s with Bubblegum/Glam Rock  pastiche Denim.   

There was a documentary made about his life and disappearance from public view.  

He eventually bounced back with the group Go-Cart Mozart now named Mozart Estate.  “Vanilla Gorilla” is a catchy little number taken from the latest release.  

The Bad Ends – “Thanksgiving 1915” from 2023’s The Power and the Glory

This is a musical project involving former REM drummer Bill Berry and  Mike Mantione from Five Eight. Both being residents of Athen GA, the two met up occasionally over several years and eventually they started sending demos to each other.  This led to the formation of The Bad Ends.  This is the first album that Berry had worked on in over 20 years.  In 1995, at the height of REM’s powers , Berry suffered a cerebral aneurysm onstage and collapsed. he recovered but left music to become a farmer.  The video is gratifying as shows some other old fellas shaking it up.

https://www.operationeveryband.com/sxswrec/the-bad-ends-thanksgiving-1915

Darlingside – Eliza I See

All of the four bandmates were also members of The Williams Octet during their time at the College. (Sofie Jones/The Williams Record)

Darlingside – Eliza I See (Official Lyric Video)

Beautiful song, I hope you give this a listen!

Darlingside is a four-person indie folk band from Boston, MA. The band consists of Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji, Harris Paseltiner, and David Senft. Their style has been described as “exquisitely arranged, literary-minded, baroque folk-pop” by All Songs Considered.[1] Their latest full-length album, Fish Pond Fish, was released in October 2020.

The band’s name is a derivation of Lewis’ class motto: “Kill your darlings,” or, take out an idea that may be dear to you because that idea might be the very thing holding you back. “Darlingside is to darlings as pesticide is to pests,” Mitchell said. “We changed the ‘C’ to an ‘S’ just to have people not calling us ‘darling-kh-ide’ all the time.”

Maya De Vitry – Never on the Map

How Bad I Wanna Live

So, apart from the wonderful voice, Maya De Vitry has an interesting story about a hike she took. Read below.

In 2022, one of the ultimate acts of resistance is simply embracing our existence. That realization came after listening to Maya De Vitry’s “How Bad I Wanna Live,” from her third solo album, Violet Light. Maya takes the experience of her own harrowing hike on a washed-out trail abutting a severe cliffside and turns it into an anthem for continuation.

In just under three minutes of mid-tempo Americana — that seemingly could have sprung from the songbook of Richard & Linda Thompson in their heyday — De Vitry fends off mortality wielding nothing more than generosity, spirit and the soaring harmony she sings with Shelby Means and Joel Timmons of Sally & George. Whether you have been in danger of leaving the earth suddenly, like De Vitry was, or have like so many simply been cracking under the strain of recent events, this song is the perfect soundtrack for uncorking that emotion and (defiantly) loving life again.

NPR

from her website:

Maya de Vitry’s dynamic and vibrant voice seems to rise out of some necessity of bringing songs to life, embracing listeners with what Folk Alley calls a “soulful intimacy”. She grew up in a musical family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, understanding music to be a place of gathering, a way to spend a summer night by a campfire. She was surrounded by bluegrass and old-time music, and country, gospel, and folk songs. She took piano lessons from her grandmother, and took up classical violin in school, but it was some combination of the haunting fiddle music of Appalachia and the vulnerable poetry in Townes Van Zandt’s songwriting that first compelled her to begin creating tunes and songs of her own

Complete Mountain Almanac – “May” from Complete Mountain Almanac

This wonderful release is a collaboration involving Norwegian singer/songwriter Rebekka Karijord, poet Jessica Dessner, and from The National, guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner.  I am going to let this article explain this compelling piece of music.  https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-complete-mountain-almanac-complete-mountain-almanac/   The track we chose is “May”.  This song is quote,  “a pained address to the earth and indirect submission to St. Agatha (“I can give all of this back”   

Feeble Little Horse – “Steamroller”  from Girl With Fish

Feeble Little Horse  is a band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the spirit of e.e. cummings, bill bisset and  k.d. lang, the band sometimes goes with the lowercase.  They formed in early 2021  The group signed to Saddle Creek Records in October 2022, and re-released Hayday. Last week they released their second album.  Why discuss them when I can get Pitchfork to do the heavy lifting?   https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/feeble-little-horse-hayday/

Here’s a live version of the song. 

Maybel – Winter City

This is yet another example of a band with members who we knew as kids. A great band with Alison Hendra!!

“Winter City” by Maybel was written by Loris Kecaj, Le Ren, Fez Gielen & Alison Hendra.

Maybel is the new project of Montreal’s Lauren Spear — who released two beautiful country EPs in 2018 as Le Ren — and her bandmates Loris Kecaj, Ali Hendra, and Fez Gielen. Montreal winters can be notoriously intense and isolating, and the group says that their absolutely gorgeous and heartwarming folk gem “Winter City” is a love song dedicated to their hometown, “and the many Winters spent helping each other through.” Maybel adds, “The band hopes that this song will bring the listener some light during what can sometimes be a heavy season.” Listen to the exquisitely sparkly track, taken from the group’s forthcoming debut LP Gathering, below, and download it here.

Gorilla vs Bear

Tanlines – The Big Mess

I really like this band. Pitchfork does not. Maybe there is a bit of ageism going on here??

When they were young, Tanlines made a couple EPs and an album that, at the time and still today, sum up a specific place and time. In their case, it was Brooklyn in 2012; but it was also the sound of at least half a dozen middle-class urban enclaves around the world, where, for a brief moment, straight white dudes got it up and started dancing. Tanlines did it with rare efficiency. It was good fun, which is harder than it sounds, and they made it sound easy.

and

As an album, The Big Mess isn’t really declarative, or sizable, or wrecked. It aims for something complicated and settles for complacency: a working definition of modern masculinity. If Tanlines once sounded effortless, now little sounds like it’s worth the effort.

Pitchfork

but a five-star rating from All Music

Following an extended hiatus, Tanlines return with their introspective yet still anthemic third album, 2023’s The Big Mess. The record, which arrives eight years after 2015’s Highlights, reunites the duo of singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Eric Emm and percussionist and instrumentalist Jesse Cohen. Having initially established themselves in Brooklyn as purveyors of arty, indie electronic pop in the vein of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot,  Tanlines spent much of the time after Highlights away from each other, with Emm moving his family to Connecticut and Cohen working a marketing job in New York.

Tanlines – Outer Banks (Official Music Video)
Tanlines – The Big Mess (Official Music Video)

Old Fellas New Music Episode 46

On 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 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’