Tag: The Guardian

Old Fellas new Music Episode 41

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment
Episode 41 on Mixcloud

Episode 41

Big Joanie –  Confident Man

Orville Peck – The Curse of the Blackened Eye

Macie Stewart – Maya Please

Wet Leg – Ur Mom

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen

Portugal. The Man – What, Me Worry?

The No Ones – Phil Ochs is Dead

Fireboy DML, Ed Sheeran – Peru

Jah Wobble – Trinidadian Chinese New Year

Orville Peck 

Paul’s Notes:

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

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

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

Wet Leg

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

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

From the Guardian 

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

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

Peru

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

BBC

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

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

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

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

‘Everything you do is for the culture’

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portugal. The man

How did they get their name?

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

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

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

Bob’s Notes:

Big Joanie –  “Confident Man”  

from the album Back Home

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

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

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

Macie Stewart – Maya Please 

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

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

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen 

from the album “Big Love Blanket”

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

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

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

Peter Buck/ Luke Haines 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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New Years Pop Up Old Fellas New Music

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd Radio1 Comment
This week’s Promo

This week, we are getting out our blog early so you can read up on the bands we will be playing. Again, we will try to live stream through Mixcloud using OBS software this time – last week, the live stream dropped all the time so I am hoping this will work better. Here is the link to use if you want to hear and see the broadcast – https://www.mixcloud.com/live/paul-mcguire3/

here are our selections for this week – some of this year’s best songs

Kiwi Jr – Only Here For a haircut
Jenna Esposito – The Other Side of Forever  – Guardian
Quivers – Gutters of Love
Olivia Rodrigo – Good 4 U – Guardian – Best music of 2021  # 6
Wet Leg – Too Late Now

Low – Days Like These – Pitchfork # 3

James Clark institute – Little Powder Keg
Mitski:  Working for the Knife – Pitchfork # 7
Silk Sonic – leave the Door Open

Kiwi Jr – Only Here For a haircut


Kiwi Jr. is a Toronto-based band.  This is the third song from the album “Cooler Returns” that has been featured on this podcast twice already.  Released in Jan. 2021, this hasn’t left  Bob’s turntable since he bought the album.

   

More info on Kiwi Jr here from their website

Jenna Esposito – The Other Side of Forever

I thought this was a great song, but when you read the incredible story below from the Guardian, I think you will agree we needed to include this one.

The best songs of 2021 … that you haven’t heard

It’s the heartbreak and hopefulness of a turbulent 2021 from the mind of a songwriter who knows them all too well. Ernie Rossi, owner of century-old gift and music shop E Rossi and Company in New York City’s Little Italy, was sidelined by health problems after reopening following the long city-mandated shutdown. Margaret, his wife of 51 years, knew the neighborhood icon might not stay afloat if doors closed once again and solely took over duties with the couple’s best friend, Freddy. Then this past spring, both Margaret and Freddy caught and died of Covid-19. In the wake of their consecutive deaths, Rossi wrote The Other Side of Forever, a heartfelt tribute to the bond the trio shared and the immense loss he feels. Recorded by the New York indie artist Jenna Esposito, the earworm ballad with a momentous opening and climatic finale was produced in the Italian folk style the store was known for being a chief importer of nearly 100 years ago. And today, Rossi is continuing his fight to stay in business.

Rob LeDonne

Quivers

Quivers – Gutters of Love

This Australian band via Tasmania are an absolute delight.  We had to be satisfied in listening to this album on Spotify as it is darned near impossible to snag a physical copy unless one is willing to pay a ridiculous price.  The NME calls “Gutters of Love” an instant classic.

From NME

As the 2010s drew to a close, Quivers found themselves on the ascent. They’d established a new lineup, and permanently relocated to Melbourne from their native Tasmania. They’d released two acclaimed singles, ‘You’re Not Always On My Mind’ and ‘When It Breaks’, which balanced a summery jangle-pop exterior and melancholic inner turmoil. American broadcasters NPR and KEXP co-signed their music, while at home they crossed a rare divide by getting played on both Double and triple j.

Olivia Rodrigo – Good 4 U

This is another one from the Guardian. I hadn’t heard of Olivia Rodrigo, and this really isn’t my type of music, but this is a really great song. So, why not. More from The Guardian below. They rated her album Sour the 8th best album of the year.

Having essayed one end of heartbreak with the piano lament Drivers License, Rodrigo’s mood swung like a wrecking ball towards this equally massive hit (between them, they spent 14 weeks at UK No 1). From its sarcastic title downwards, Good 4 U’s recrimination has the kind of bitterness that softens with age and only a teenage palate can truly appreciate, as Rodrigo rages against her blithely happy ex. The ways the chords shift through different shades of hurt is riveting, as is Rodrigo’s delivery, as if writing in a journal with the nib piercing the paper. BBT

Released in January, Drivers License sprang (almost) out of nowhere like a heaved sob. Four days later, it broke Spotify records for the most single-day streams (Christmas songs exempted). The next day, it broke that record again. After 10 weeks at No 1 in the US and nine in the UK, it has been streamed 1.9bn times. Next Tuesday, the California-born songwriter makes her live debut at the Brits; the following weekend, she does Saturday Night Live; a week later she releases her debut album, Sour, a grippingly well written – all by her – collection of balladry, pop-punk, bitter diatribes and euphoric taunts that dwells on this romantic treachery. Even in an era when virality powers pop, Rodrigo’s is a fast rise.

The Drivers License singer reflects on turning her first big breakup into the year’s biggest hit – and how songwriting saved her from the anxieties of being a Disney star

My second source for the best music comes from Pitchfork Magazine. I chose their #3 and #7 choices – both great songs by artists that are new to me.

By Pitchfork

December 6, 2021

In another trying year, many of the best songs—from “Like I Used To” to “Pick Up Your Feelings” to “Hard Drive” to “Good Days”—were about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and trying again. These tracks gave us a shoulder to cry on, but also, crucially, a kick in the pants when we needed it most. They were the soundtrack to our 2021, and we have a feeling we’ll keep turning to them in better times yet to come. These are the 100 best songs of the year.

Wet Leg

Wet Leg – Too Late Now . 

Old Fellas featured Wet Leg’s catchy “Chaise Lounge” a while back which is one of four single releases in their small but impressive output.  An album released is anticipated for spring 2022 so listening to the last single release “ Too Late Now” will have to do until then.  Great bathrobes! 

Low – Days Like These

Alan Sparhawk spirals through a series of escalating horrors as he offers a summary of his mindset over the past five years: “Holy crap, this guy’s going to be our president. Oh crap, he’s our president. Wow, things have been horrible for a long time, and it’s getting worse. What, we’re sick? We’re all going to die now?” Eventually, the Low singer and guitarist shifts from a cartoonish hysteria into a gruff acceptance as he makes a broader point about American life in 2021 as well as his band’s combustible new album, HEY WHAT. “Look at where we are,” he says, zooming to the present tense. “We’re still looking in each other’s eyes and going, What the hell?”

Along with his bandmate and wife, Mimi Parker, Sparhawk has long found inspiration in this type of unlikely perseverance. Nearly three decades into their career, and on their 13th album, Low are making their strangest, strongest, and most fearless music to date. On HEY WHAT, the duo is once again joined by producer BJ Burton, known for his work with Bon Iver and Charli XCX, who helped them explore abrasive digital effects and alien vocal manipulation on 2018’s Double Negative. The new album presents these abstract textures with even more intensity, as Sparhawk and Parker’s gorgeous harmonies pierce through a vertiginous landscape of glitches and static that may make you wonder if your speakers are imploding while you listen.

“Days Like These” is a song in the form of an eclipse: the first half made of blinding light, the second an uncanny, disembodied stillness. Singing into a static blur that sounds like wind noise on video, or like someone’s sawing through the tape, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker describe a vast and subtle longing, a desire for a kind of transcendence not found on Earth. “Know that I would do anything,” they cry, their fried-out vocals taking on the call-and-response pattern of a hymn. But in this strange, desaturated grief, there’s no action to take. Even the song doesn’t end, really; it just stretches out, twinkling in the distance, a lone satellite pressing on toward the edge of space. –Anna Gaca

James Clark Institute

James Clark institute – Little Powder Keg

To quote The Pursuit of Happiness’ Moe Berg, ““James takes the power pop traditions of The Beatles, Jellyfish and Split Enz and combines them with the high IQ lyrics of Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. The result makes him one of Canada’s greatest unsung songwriters”

Also, here’s great version of the Badfinger classic “Baby Blue”

Mitski: “Working for the Knife”  #7

The saying goes that if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Mitski would like to have a word on that. After a long and grueling world tour supporting her breakthrough album Be the Cowboy, the singer took time off in 2019, saying she needed a break from the “constant churn” of performance. “Working for the Knife” is her brooding, melancholic first major single back from this respite, and acts as an incisive warning about how much of our identity we give to our life’s greatest undertakings, and who we’re giving it up for. The song unfolds as a balancing act of vulnerability and expectation, of altruistic self-expression and the vanity of wanting to be seen, or even adored. There’s some humor to it all; forlorn, she recognizes that the world never stops turning, and that it’s fine to lie to ourselves if it helps pass the time. It’s a one-act play of existential malaise and a sardonic anthem for those who can’t help but seek out the spotlight. –Puja Patel

Pitchfork  

Silk Sonic

Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open

Silk Sonic is an R&B superduo composed of singer Bruno Mars and rapper and singer Anderson .Paak. The duo released its debut single, “Leave the Door Open”, in March 2021, and its debut album, An Evening with Silk Sonic, in November 2021.  This song veers close to a parody of 70’s soul but it’s just too good to be considered so. 

 You can hear all our music right here on Spotify

Old Fellas make it to week 20! Our notes

On By paulmcguire2013In InnovationLeave a comment
This is our updated playlist – I think you should put this on and chill
This was a fun show – hope you take a listen

OK, we know these are notes written by other people, but we go out and research this stuff

Now for our music for this week

Katherine Priddy – Wolf

album – The Eternal Rocks Beneath

Katherine Priddy – great song

from The Guardian, really one of the best sources I know of for new music

The folk prodigy delivers an elegant debut, infused with soaring vocals and nimble guitar-picking

Feted as a folk prodigy as a teenager, Katherine Priddy has wisely taken several years to reach this debut, an accomplished set of original songs delivered in a breathtaking voice and launched on a reputation as a great live act. Her nimble guitar-picking helps. Not that this is a strictly solo album; producer Simon Weaver has supplied a rhythm section and a parade of accordion, fiddle and string quartet, but in judicious measure. The star turn remains Priddy’s voice and its soaring, lark-like turns, meaning a song such as Wolf, the title track of her 2018 EP, can suddenly take unexpected flight.

That several numbers were written when she was young perhaps accounts for their unevenness; the banjo-backed Letters from a Travelling Man doesn’t pass muster with a poetic piece such as Icarus – a fond farewell to a lover seen as “a radiant stain falling like rain” – or with her funny homage to a boozy night on the Hebridean isle of Eigg. The rocks of the title is a verb, not a noun, testament to a belief that life’s fundamentals don’t change, a notion resolved elegantly in opener Indigo and closer The Summer Has Flown. A classy arrival.

Guardian- Neil Spencer

and one more – she really is wonderful

Binki – Clay Pigeon

American indie artist Binki is back with his first single since 2019 from the EP Motor Function. Apparently, it is inspired by “ the wisdom of Confucius and the failings of David Bowie” Here’s the video which is directed by his brother.

Griff – One Foot in Front of the Other

another great pick from The Guardian’s July picks for albums. Really like this artist

The Brits’ show-stealing 20-year-old has earworms and wise words to burn on this tantalising mini-album

Griff – One Foot In Front Of The Other (Official Video)

The rise of Griff feels like a silver lining around the thundercloud that was 2020. While all around the 20-year-old pop powerhouse careers stalled, tours evaporated and sound engineers peed in bottles while driving delivery vans, this singer went from buzzy obscurity in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, locked down with her family and foster siblings, to a Top 20 hit and a Brits rising star award.

One Foot in Front of the Other is, though, an odd release. A debut album in all but name, this mixtape comes with the caveat that it was written and recorded during lockdown. Griff and her label feel that her debut album proper is still ahead of her.

Pom Pom Squad – Head Cheerleader

Pom Pom squad is a band Inspired by Billie Holiday, riot grrrl bands, and  films Death of a Cheerleader/ But I’m a Cheerleader

Here’s the trailer for the 1999 cult classic  

Pom Pom squad was originally just Mia Berrin but now it it is a full fledged band.  For a better idea of what Pop Pom squad are all about, here is Pitchfork magazines review of the album.

Equally indebted to pioneering girl groups and her punk heroes, the New York singer-songwriter’s debut is a fiery exploration of love, anger, and coming-of-age.

In 1999, a satirical comedy film called But I’m a Cheerleader proposed an astonishing lead character: a cheerleader who isn’t quite like the other girls on her team. She gets whisked away to a hilariously straight-laced conversion-therapy camp on the suspicion that she might be—gasp—gay. “I’m a cheerleader!” she whines in hesitation, as if this makes it impossible to fall outside societal norms. The movie marked a memorable early instance of the divergent cheerleader, an increasingly popular trope that drives the creative mind of 23-year-old singer-songwriter Mia Berrin, who makes bratty grunge-punk as Pom Pom Squad. On her debut, Death of a Cheerleader, the New York musician stakes her claim to pleated miniskirt canon, joining the ranks of those who’ve weaponized cheer imagery to disrupt convention.

Pitchfork June 30 2021

The video  

I concur with one commenter … “this is my new favourite song”

Melissa Laveaux – Angeli-ko

Album  – Radyo Siwèl

Really need to watch this series of videos on Youtube – Mélissa Laveaux – Radyo Siwèl Series

One in the series

In 2018, Laveaux’s album Radyo Siwel was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize.[6]

In April 2016, Mélissa Laveaux headed to Haiti in search of her roots and on a mission to honour her ancestors. Born in Canada to Haitian parents, she did not know what would emerge musically from her pilgrimage although she had a particular interest in the period of American occupation of the island between 1915-1934. Two decades had gone by since she had last set foot in Haiti when she was 12 years old. She felt like a stranger and yet, at the same time, she experienced the thrill of an exile returning home, for Haiti is an intrinsic part of her identity.

From these she built Radyo Siwèl, a unique album steeped in Haitian history and culture and yet which is also highly personal and intimate. 

Youtube

Blinker the Star – It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)

Bob’s selection of a new Blinker the star track was a result of this article in the Montreal Gazette. 

Excitingly, his burbling, pitch-perfect cover of Eurythmics’ It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back) was chosen last month as one of the 20 “best songs of 2021 (so far)” by Esquire — ranking alongside such luminaries as Lorde (Solar Power), Doja Cat and SZA (Kiss Me More), BTS (Butter), Justin Bieber (Peaches) and FKA Twigs (Don’t Judge Me). Heady — and moneyed — company.

Montreal Gazette

Welcome back Blinker the Star!This is a cover version of an old Eurythmics song that was unfamiliar to both of us. Compare the 2 versions here 

If you would like more Blinker the Star, you can listen to a full show dedicated to his music put together by David Widmann on Mixcloud.

Rare Americans – Baggage 

I heard this one on CBC Radio 3 – a great find I think!

Rare Americans – Baggage (Official Music Video)

They also have a great website

Rare Americans – Crooked & Catchy. The band started on a whim two years ago when brothers James and Jared Priestner took an impromptu trip to the Caribbean. James joked they should try and write a song together, Jared said “A song? Fuck that, lets write an album!” Sure enough 10 days later the first Rare Americans record was born. Spring forward to 2020, the band has gained a reputation for story telling and genre bending fresh music, amassing over 50M YouTube views in the process. The bands roster includes two Slovak guitar virtuoso’s in Lubo Ivan & Jan Cajka, and Duran Ritz on drums.

(from website)

“Lubo and I were in another band before called the Lunas that toured Canada a few times and was going along really well and had recorded an EP,” said James Priester. “Then I took a trip to the Caribbean with my brother Jared and joked I would bring along my guitar so we could drink a few beers and write a song or two together. He’d never written a song before and we’d never written together, but we sat down and wrote an entire album.”

Rare Americans also put its main emphasis on producing videos. James runs a production company in Vancouver so he was up on how to concept a video. The band steadily built its online profile with high-quality clips for songs such as Balmoral Hotel and the Barry Tielman (Run the Jewels, others) animated piece for Cats, Dogs & Rats.

Vancouver Sun

Rare Americans – Cats, Dogs, & Rats (Official Video)

Angel Olsen – Eyes Without a Face

Bob’s final choice is also a cover of an 80’s chestnut.  Angel Olsen has the distinction of being the first three-peat artist on our venerable podcast. She has just released an Ep covering Laura Branigan, Men Without Hats, OMD, Madonna  and Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” 

The NME has an excellent evaluation of Olson’s latest offering. 

Angel Olsen – ‘Aisles’ EP review: ’80s classics through a warped lens

The North Carolina musician cuts right to the core of each song, before rebuilding her own mirror images with this five-track EP

“I’m really into doing shit that’s unexpected,” Angel Olsen told NME as she prepared to release the album ‘Whole New Mess’ last year. Taking the staggering orchestral ambition of her fourth album ‘All Mirrors’ and stripping it back to its rawest foundations, it marked something of a reset from an artist whose sound had grown grander and more intricate with each release. Though it was actually recorded first (and these demos later grew into ‘All Mirrors) the two records feel like subtly distorted reflections of each other when they’re placed side by side – almost as if Olsen is covering her own work.

New Music Review

Treephones – Matches

Also a CBC Radio 3 catch

Album Pink Objects

The ten song titles on Treephones’ — the musical moniker of Stephen Trothen — new album Pink Objects read like an inventory of things found stashed away in a closet or neglected drawer. With every song named after an object, the concept album takes the approach of a short story collection and focuses on the interactions and relationships of characters centred around these items. The album was written and recorded at home by Trothen who also handled all but a few of the performing duties. The result is a set of songs that weave beautifully evolving textures into a carefully arranged sound that matches the directness and understated complexity of its lyrics.

Killbeat Music

I love this video of Treephones playing in Waterloo, Ontario. A terrific song with the addition of the saxophone. How many videos have we shown that shows the band playing in their bedroom?

Live version of “Matches” from the album “Pink Objects” (out now on digital, vinyl, streaming).

Recorded July 2021 in Waterloo, Ontario.

Stephen Trothen – Vocals, Guitar

Michael Borkovic – Saxophones, Sampler

Ahmad Hachem – Drums

Chris Hull – Vibraphone, Synths

Old Fellas new Music Episode 19 Notes

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

This week’s songs

Duran Duran – Invisible

Matt Sweeney and Bonnie Prince Billy – Resist the Urge 

Merchant – Dead days and Gatorade

Sufjan Steven’s & Angelo De Augustine-Reach Out 

Silk Sonic –Skate

Bobby Gillespie and Jehenny Beth – Chase it Down 

John Sally Ride – Putting It Off

Hiss Golden Messenger – Sanctuary 

Olivia Rodrigo – Brutal

added after

Gram Parsons – Streets of Baltimore

Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open

Sufjan Stevens – Mystery of love

Father John Misty – Real Love Baby 

John Sally Ride – Don’t Flatter Yourself

Duran Duran – Invisible

Bob’s first 2 selections were suggested by good friend Lisa Riipi.   Duran Duran has returned after a 5 year absence with the new single is “Invisible”. The music video for the song was created by an artificial intelligence system called Huxley.


Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy          Superwolves

Song – Resist the Urge

16 years after their original underground classic, Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham reunite for an album that plays like the continuation of a decades-long conversation. 

Afew years after he’d decided to start calling himself Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Will Oldham released a song called “A Wolf Among Wolves.” It’s about a person who doesn’t feel properly seen, and it’s exceptionally sad, even for the guy who wrote “I See a Darkness.” “Why can’t I be loved as what I am?” he sighs. “A wolf among wolves, and not as a man.” Wildness, ferocity, heart, all the things wolves tend to signify—the way he sings, it’s as if they’ve all been drained away by loneliness. In the years since, Oldham has made collaboration central to his work, partly, as he recently told GQ, in the hopes of “turning aspects of an innate introversion into something that resembles extroversion.” And while he’s had innumerable artistic successes, both on his own and with others, he never sounds more at home, more fully himself, than he does when writing and recording with guitarist Matt Sweeney. Not for nothing did they name their first album together Superwolf.

From Fader – 10 Songs you need in your life right now

personally, I could really only find one or two. Bob added this song from Bonny Prince Billy. Nice song!

Merchant – Dead days and Gatorade

Lisa  also suggested the song “ Dead Days and Gatorade” by Merchant because it features Duran bassist John Taylor.  Looks like the song gives a excellent advice in how to deal with a hangover.

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine – “Reach Out”

Heather suggested this song, and here are her notes. This sums it up for sure.

I chose this song because it has been a while since I have listened to Sufjan Stevens. I love the guitar plucking, like tiny thoughts flying through the air, the reflective lyrics and their beautiful voices together.

and from elsewhere

Last year, they released their first collaborative song, “Santa Barbara.” In April, Stevens shared “Celebration VIII,” from Celebrations, the fourth installment of his five-volume set, Convocations, which arrived in May. De Augustine dropped his latest album, Tomb, in 2019.

 Silk Sonic –Skate

Bob’s other 3 suggestions were all taken from the blog. “Burning Wood”.  This is an excellent blog that contains the musings and tastes of former New York record store owner Sal Nunziato  Explore it here.   http://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/ 

Silk Sonic is an American R&B superduo consisting of recording artists Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. The duo released their debut single, “Leave the Door Open”, on March 5, 2021, with a forthcoming debut album, An Evening with Silk Sonic, announced for release. To quote the blog’s author Sal Nunziato, “I took a walk around the neighborhood on Saturday and heard a song coming out of some guy’s car, as he was fiddling with something under his hood. I knew what it was but I couldn’t place it. The Whispers? Tavares? No! Shuggie Otis! I couldn’t place it. Then, while scrolling through one of Brooklyn Vegan’s email blasts, the word “vintage” followed by “R&B”  jumped out at me. Could it be Silk Sonic? Yes. It could. “Skate” is the brand new second single from Anderson.Paak and Bruno Mars doing business as Silk Sonic and it’s a good one. The first single “Leave The Door Open” got by me, and it too, has a classic summer soul sound, though I think “Skate” is the better of the two.

Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth – Chase It Down

Album – Utopian Ashes

My choices are now from the Guardian – they released a great article last week – The Month’s Best Albums – July.

I pan to go back to this great list for our next show. Incredible what can come out in one month!

Born in Glasgow, Bobby Gillespie, 58, founded Primal Scream in 1982. The band’s third album, Screamadelica, won the 1992 Mercury music prize. Utopian Ashes, Gillespie’s album with Jehnny Beth, is released on 2 July; their single, Remember We Were Lovers, is out now. He lives in London with his wife, fashion stylist Katy England, and two sons.

The Primal Scream frontman trades brashness for contemplation in this rewarding collaboration with the former Savages singer

During the course of a 35-year career, “sensitive” and “mature” are not adjectives that have often been wheeled out to describe Bobby Gillespie’s lyrics. Indeed, the Primal Scream lead singer’s canon of work has generally favoured MC5-lite rebel posturing over insight and depth. All of which makes this collaboration with former Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth such a welcome surprise. The pair have written a set of songs located within the wreckage of a marriage that is falling apart, with both parties torn between looking back with remorse and nostalgia on what’s been lost, and moving on and making a new start alone. We’ve come a long way from Bomb the Pentagon.

Recorded with Gillespie’s Scream bandmates, as well as Beth’s regular foil Johnny Hostile, as much care has gone into the arrangements as the lyrics. Opener Chase It Down is a gorgeous slice of southern soul, made all the more powerful for its devastating “I don’t even love you any more” line. Grievances are aired in the despairing Living a Lie. Your Heart Will Always Be Broken, meanwhile, recalls Gram Parsons’s work with Emmylou Harris. Throughout, there are echoes of the rootsier moments from Give Out But Don’t Give Up, but with the earlier swagger replaced by vulnerability. It’s as pleasing as it is unexpected.

Phil Mongredien– Guardian

Bobby Gillespie, Jehnny Beth – Chase It Down

John Sally Ride – Putting It Off

Next is “Putting it Off”   by the  John Sally Ride.  Sal Nunziato plays the drums in this trio.   Check out the band’s link for some excellent power pop

Hiss Golden Messenger – If it comes in the Morning

Album – Quietly Blowing It

MC Taylor offers up soulful Dylan-esque country rockers about the impact of the system on ordinary lives

At the start of the pandemic, MC Taylor, AKA Hiss Golden Messenger, sat in his North Carolina basement studio and began several months’ of pouring out songs about “life as I felt it”. There was a lot going on outside – protests after the murder of George Floyd, the presidential election, and fires burning across the US – but his thoughts turned to some of the deeper issues underpinning it all, from class and inequality to the climate crisis.

The title track finds him watching the news and sighing “things don’t look too good”. However, the tunes are stirring and uplifting and the overall spirit is optimistic. As the father-of-two sings in the exquisite If It Comes in the Morning: “There’s a new day coming, we’ve been a long time running … but all hope is contagious.”

Dave Simpson

Hiss Golden Messenger – Sanctuary (Official Video)

Olivia Rodrigo – Brutal

Finally we wrap it up with, at this moment, one of the most popular performers on the planet.  Olivia Rodrigo.

Rodrigo has had some controversy recently as Courtney Love accused Olivia Rodrigo of plagiarising the cover of Hole’s “Live Through This.”   https://www.spin.com/2021/06/courtney-love-says-olivia-rodrigo-ripped-off-live-through-this-album-cover/

Sal comments, ““Rodrigo’s “Brutal” is a rip of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” which it is, to some extent. Costello’s response? “This is fine by me, It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”  Is a rip?  You be the judge…

Just a note – this episode has extra songs, some come out of our conversations during the show. he extra songs are basically in context and were added to give the show the 90 minutes for VoicEd Radio – thank-you Stephen Hurley!

As they are extras, we are not writing about these ones.

have a great week everyone!

Episode 19 all 90 minutes!
and our updated Spotify playlist for your listening pleasure

Old Fellas New Music Episode 18

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment
Episode 18 on Mixcloud – 1 hour 2 minutes

Songs for Thursday

 Ghost Twin – Strobe Light

The Bright Light Social Hour – Harder Out Here

Packs – Silvertongue 

Gospel Machine -That Ring

Russell Louder – Vow

White Denim – Mirrored in Reverse

Los Pinguos – Debajo del Pelo

exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye

Laura Stevenson – Don’t Think About Me 

Ghost Twin – Strobe Light

This was a big week for me picking up songs on CBC Radio 3. This is one of three great ones I listened to during the week. All are pretty obscure, all are worth a listen!

Album – Love Songs for End Times

Love Songs for End Times

Ghost Twin is a dark synthpop duo – Jaimz & Karen Asmundson from Winnipeg, that combine roaring synthlines, dirty pulsing bass, dreamy guitar, and a haunting vocal dichotomy where Baroque meets Industrial, with live video percussion that feeds cinema through a cut-up technique imbued with occult aesthetics.

Here is a sampling of some of their music:

GHOST TWIN: “Blue Sunshine” LYRIC VIDEO #ARTOFFACT

from a 2017 CBC article:

They are getting ready to release their first full-length album, three years after the couple decided to bring their own brand of dark, brooding electronic music to Winnipeg stages.

On Plastic Heart, fans will get more of the sound they love from the band’s first EP, but this time, with cranked production values.

Jaimz and Karen Asmundson started writing the album in 2015, and after two failed attempts at securing funding to make it, finally got somewhere.

“On the third try, [Michael P. Falk], who is the co-producer and engineer, said, ‘What songs are you submitting?’ and it turned out we were submitting the weirdest songs, that nobody was getting, so we submitted all the really pop-y stuff and then we got the money [from FACTOR and Manitoba Film and Music],” said Jaimz.

The album was produced by Maya Postepski, who has worked with two major sources of inspiration for Ghost Twin: Austra and Tr/st.

The pair have more than a decade of filmmaking experience, including a short film in 2009 that got so much attention it took them to Cannes. 

“We made one really silly film together called Goths on the Bus. That was stupidly successful,” said Jaimz. “I still kind of feel ashamed that that’s the most successful film I’ve ever made.”

But for fans of the “really silly” Goths on the Bus, there’s a bit of a callback in their upcoming music video. It’s set in a gym for goths. 

A couple of uber-goths ride the public transit to go to the mall and buy more lipstick.
Shot in sequence and in one take, for the One Take Super 8 Event at the WNDX Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Film and Music by Karen & Jaimz Asmundson
* Winner of the Audience Favourite Award @ $100 Film Festival, Calgary
* Winner of the Audience Favourite Award (3rd Place) @ Weiterstadt Film Festival, Germany
* Winner of the Best Music Video Award @ Chicago International Movies & Music Festival

from CBC Goth synth-pop duo Ghost Twin readies for first full-length album release

All of Bob’s selections this week came from the Amazon Prime TV show Sneaky Pete.  You can find which songs are on any movie or Television show using the website TuneFind

https://www.tunefind.com/

The Bright Light Social Hour – Harder Out Here

The Bright Light Social Hour is an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas.  The band performs its song, “Harder Out Here’’” over the opening credits of the show.  Here is a version of the song live. 

Packs – Silvertongue

Another CBC Radio 3 find.

Album – Take the Cake 2021

Take the Cake 2021

Initially a solo songwriting project of Link’s (Madeline Link)that she pursued between gigs as a set dresser for commercials, the band blossomed into a four piece, composed of Shane Hooper (drums), Noah O’Neil (bass), and Dexter Nash (lead guitar). Anchored by Link’s voice, which brings such an easy charm to her songs that it’s easy to miss her keen ear for acrobatic vocal lines, together they turn Link’s melodically adventurous and introspective songs into the purest and brightest kind of indie rock. The band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wide-eyed wonder of the first Shins LP. It will be released in partnership with buzzy Brooklyn label Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mamalarky), and Toronto mainstays Royal Mountain (Alvvays, Wild Pink, Mac Demarco).

Bandcamp

Just a note, Bob didn’t hear Pavement in this song. Or I would say the Shins either. Still, a good song.

PACKS – Silvertongue (Official Music Video)

To celebrate the announcement, the band have shared new single “Silvertongue” and an accompanying video. The fuzzed-out tune merges Pavement’s laconic flair with Sonic Youth’s simmering menace, while the video finds vocalist Link strutting, staggering and flailing across the Toronto harbourfront, looking effortlessly cool as she rocks a series of stylish jackets.

Of the song, Link said: “It’s easy to be lured into the comforts of past relationships. What’s harder is dealing with years of exhaustion, mistrust, and always hoping. Ditch the whiplash of manipulation and decide what YOU want out of love!”

Exclaim!

Gospel Machine -That Ring

Gospel Machine is garage gospel band out of Northeast Minneapolis resurrecting the soul and R&B styles of the 1960’s. Gospel Machine formed in 2011 when leader Kyle Burdine wrote a soul/gospel liturgy for a church in  Minneapolis. Lutheran Church. 

https://wtmd.org/radio/2015/08/27/in-the-mix-gospel-machine/

 The band perform the featured track, ‘That Ring”

Russell Louder – Vow

My last CBC Radio 3 tune for this week.

Russell Louder is a trans Performance Artist and musician from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, now based in Montreal, Québec.

In this case I can hear some of the bands mentioned below. I would add Austra.

Borrowing inspiration from the Eurythmics, Florence and the Machine with a hint of Fleetwood Mac for good measure, the Charlottetown-born, Montreal-based Louder says the single “is the introduction. It is the wandering protagonist who sets the tone for the entire album. The idea of finding “home” is now a question, not an answer. Elements of preparation, the romanticizing of arrival, deep, deep uncertainty, pain, lack of belonging – yet bursting with hope.”

Louder’s upcoming album, Humor, is set to explore themes of liberation through an exploration of memory, grief, and identity, with each song representing different characters with some overlapping.

Louder says “some (of the songs) are written in the first person and some are witnessing other characters so it’s like the listener can be a character and also on a journey with other characters in the songs. The characters can be developed and formed in the listener’s mind from the feelings described in the songs and the questions being asked in the lyrics.”

White Denim – Mirrored in Reverse

White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, United States. Even after 14 album releases, they still managed to remain active during the pandemic.

Here is a great article about the band and how they dealt with the pandemic

The Pandemic Separated These Band Members. It Didn’t Stop Them From Creating an Album. – Texas Monthly

White Denim’s Greg Clifford playing drums in Radio Milk’s live room. (Texas Monthly)

White Denim playing “Mirrored and Reversed” in Colorado  

White Denim live at Twist & Shout – “Mirrored In Reverse”

Los Pinguos – Debajo del Pelo

Debajo del Pelo | Los Pinguos | Playing For Change

Album – Hummingbird 2021

“Debajo del Pelo,” meaning “Under the Hair,” is a beautiful metaphorical song that speaks about life’s experiences and the many lessons learned throughout. Featured on Los Pinguos’ latest album, ‘Hummingbird,’ this video brings together a few of Los Pinguos’ friends across the globe in PFC style. Enjoy!

Los Pinguos’ Hummingbird

I am adding a note here about Playing for Change because they always offer such wonderful music and I think they are trying to do some pretty important things right now.

https://playingforchange.org/

Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. The primary focus of PFC is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos called Songs Around The World. Creating these videos motivated PFC to form the Playing For Change Band—a tangible, traveling representation of its mission, featuring musicians met along their journey; and establish the Playing For Change Foundation—a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting music programs for children around the world. Through these efforts, Playing For Change aims to create hope and inspiration for the future of our planet.

and about the band

Los Pinguos came to the United States from Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a mixture of Latin rhythms, reggae, rumba flamenca and rock. The sound of the band has claimed fans worldwide. The story began in 1999 when Adrián Buono, Enzo Buono, José Agote, Juan Manzur and Juan Manuel Leguizamón (later joined by bassist Santiago Lee) formed the band. In early 2001, Los Pinguos arrived in the City of Los Angeles and began playing on the street (3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica) and local bars.

Website

exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye

exmagician is  Belfast duo  Danny Todd and James Smith. The track Kiss the Wealth Goodbye’ was taken from their debut album, “ I Scan the Blue”

BELFAST BAND HAVE PLENTY OF TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES.

While it was a sad day when Cashier No. 9 fizzled out a few years ago, fans of their sterling album To The Death Of Fun can turn their frowns upside down now, as the Belfast band’s song-writing nucleus have returned in the form of Exmagician. Featuring childhood friends Danny Todd and James Smith (and not to be confused with the latter’s initial foray under that moniker a decade ago), their debut is a dazzling collection of songs that dispenses with the sunny West Coast vibes of their previous incarnation and delves deeper down the rabbit hole to explore darker, grittier themes and soundscapes.

Hot Press

exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye (Live)

Laura Stevenson

Don’t Think About Me

Because you have to have at least one Guardian pick

If her day job as one of America’s best if most underrated songwriters doesn’t work out for Laura Stevenson, her surreal lyrics could make for a poetry bestseller. But it would be criminal to miss out on the air-punching power pop showcased in her latest single, a tackling of heartbreak that’s as knotty and sticky as spaghetti chucked at the wall.

Guardian

Don’t Think About Me – lyrics

Lyrics

It’s all the same, “the kettle cools,”

that’s just the thing that we repeat when we can’t sleep cuz we hope it’s true.

But then there’s you, then I think of you, 

and I’m run through so I beg of you,

please don’t think, like I think,

like I think of you.

For a minute, I watch the scenery unfold, I think of you.

For a minute, I watch the clock and when it stops I think of you.

I think of you.

Here is our updated Spotify Playlist – hope you like this!

Old Fellas New Music Episode 14 Notes

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment
the artists for this weeksome of

Music for Week 14

Quivers- You Are Not Always on My Mind

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To

Coal Porters – The Day the Last Ramone Died

Bleachers – Chinatown 

Goon Sax – A Few Times Too Many

Japanese Breakfast – Paprika

Lambchop – A Chef’s Kiss

Mdou Moctar – Chismiten

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Reel Around the Fountain

Our show on Mixcloud

Episode 14. You can find all our episodes here
And here is our ever-growing Spotify Playlist

Quivers- You Are Not Always on My Mind

The Quivers performing some pop perfection:

Quivers – You’re Not Always On My Mind (Live on KEXP)

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To

I have to start with another fun quote from the Guardian

“I strongly believe that if Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen teamed up to sing anything up to and including Las Ketchup it would be a moment so emotional we’d all emerge three minutes later with dewy eyes and a strong urge to become better people. So you can imagine what they’ve done with this swirling eddy of a song. Exhaustingly amazing.”

Guardian

Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen – Like I Used To (Official Video)

This is another artist(s) that seem to be really popular in the UK, but I have never heard them here. Not that this is any measure of note. But everything I read about this new single is really positive and the video is pretty good too. Last word goes to Pitchfork:

Their first collaborative single, “Like I Used To,” lives up to its potential, plays to their strengths, and still manages to pack a surprise.

Pitchfork

The Coal Porters

The Coal Porters was a long time Sid Griffin led band.  Sid  in the 80’s was in the band the Long Ryders .  This is a cut from their 1984 debut ep . 

The Long Ryders – 10-5-60

2016 brought the Coal Porters tribute to the Ramones, The Day the Last Ramone Died”   

The Coal Porters – The Day the Last Ramone Died (Official Video)

The “1234” used in the lyrics is of course reference to how many Ramones song began.  

 The “Gabba Gabba Hey”  references  Tod Browing’s 1932  disturbing horror classic, “Freaks” 

Freaks (1932) – Gooba Gabba Gooba Gobble

 Sid is also an accomplished author. 

Bleachers

Bleachers is an American indie pop act based in New York City. It is the official stage name of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, who is also part of the bands Steel Train, Fun, and Red Hearse. Bleachers’ pop music is heavily influenced by the late ’80s, early ’90s and the high school-based films of John Hughes while still using modern production techniques. Their first single, “I Wanna Get Better“, was released February 18, 2014.

Panned on The Guardian with song – Stop Making This Hurt

The world’s premier Springsteen tribute act is back with producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff channelling the Boss into a skittery break-up song. It feels as if it’s trying to say one thing and do another, with the gang vocals attempting to build to euphoria, but coming off a bit like a bunch of lads worse for wear on the train after a match.

Instead, we featured the song Chinatown  and there are several Youtube videos of this song, all with Bruce Springsteen. This is the one I liked

Bleachers – Chinatown (BLEACHERS ON THE ROOF live at electric lady) ft. Bruce Springsteen

How did Jack Antonoff get Bruce Springsteen to play on this song? You will have to listen to the broadcast to get Bob’s reasoning which makes lots of sense.

Another great song, but outside our timeline is Roller Coaster

Bleachers – Rollercoaster

Their upcoming album including Chinatown and Stop Making This Hurt will be Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night.

Goon Sax

The Goon Sax are indie pop trio from Brisbane, Australia. Formed in 2013, the band consists of Riley Jones, Louis Forster and James Harrison.

The Goon Sax – A few times too many

I think Robert Christgau, (the “ Dean of US Rock criticism “) hits the nail on the head,  

The Goon Sax

  • Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016] A-
  • We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016]
My brilliant wife heard Go-Betweens in this high school band well before I learned that Robert Forster’s son Louis was a cofounder or that they were “driven” by a female drummer or even that they were Australian. Nah, I told her, though I liked them fine–too crude. And indeed, they’re cruder than even the earliest Go-Betweens, who were a university band after all, and somewhat static at their worst. Usually, however, they’re charming at least. When Louis fantasizes about a “Boyfriend” or James Harrison hates the “Telephone,” it just accentuates the specifically adolescent angst they pin down so much more candidly and affectingly than any other high school band that comes to mind. “If you don’t want to hold my sweaty hands / I completely understand”? Pretty mature, in its way. A-

We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018]
Although Louis Forster takes fewer leads on this young threesomes’s smoother and trickier follow-up, their unpretentious affect, plain guitar, and flat groove still recall the early years of his dad’s Go-Betweens. True, Louis reports that he’s barely heard them. But I doubt de facto frontman James Harrison was so cautious, and can imagine drummer Riley Jones learning that Lindy Morrison never stepped up to the mike and deciding she’d better: “I don’t want distance / When distance always seems to be the thing / That comes and hurts us.” In any case, a university art band they’re not. Instead they’re still reflecting on adolescence with a humility and concentration that hurts. No one’s calling but they’re not picking up the phone. Passing your bus stop hurts even though they know you need time to yourself. Come to think on it, they “never knew what love meant” anyway. Yet already mortality impends in the form of “piles of books I’ll never read / And a list of things I’ll never be.” Twelve songs in half an hour that say more than they pretend and plenty they may only intuit. A-

Robert Christgau

Comparisons to the Go- Betweens are unavoidable.  Here’s a neat little 5 minute bio  with Louis Forster’s dad Robert.  

The Go-Betweens: The 80s band that never conquered the world – BBC Newsnight

Japanese Breakfast – Paprika

This is the second act that Bob and I were both planning to feature for this show. Here are some selected quotes from Exclaim Magazine.

“When the world divides into two people / Those who have felt pain and those who have yet to,” Michelle Zauner sings during the aching ballad “Posing in Bondage.” It’s clear that she falls into the former camp, but Jubilee, her third album as Japanese Breakfast, dances the pain away. Whether it’s the fashionable funk of “Be Sweet” and “Slide Tackle,” the stately Beirut horns of “Paprika,” or the honeyed pop classicism of “Kokomo, IN” and “Tactics,” Jubilee is always tinged with melancholy but never defeated by it.

I couldn’t find a good version of Paprika on Youtube so instead here is her performance on the Tonight Show with Be Sweet from the same album.

Alex Hudson – Exclaim Magazine

Japanese Breakfast: Be Sweet | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

# 20 0n Exclaim!’s 31 Best Albums of 2021 So Far

Japanese Breakfast is an indie rock band headed by Korean-American musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner (born March 29, 1989). The band released its first studio album Psychopomp (2016) on Yellow K Records, followed by Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021) on Dead Oceans.

Zauner released her debut book, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, via Alfred A. Knopf in 2021. The book is planned to be adapted into a feature film by Orion Pictures, with Zauner providing the soundtrack.

Lambchop –  A Chef’s Kiss

Lambchop – A Chef’s Kiss (Official Lyric Video)

Here is an interview with Lambchop’s head guy Kurt Wagner explaining the lp “Showtunes”

Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner: “I was looking for something less structured, something I hadn’t done before” – Interview by Steven Johnson

On the background to new album Showtunes, converting guitar into piano sounds, continuing to embrace technology and broadening his range of collaboratorsLambchop's Kurt Wagner

Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner (Photo: Angelina Castillo)

As frontman of Lambchop for the best part of the last 30 years, Kurt Wagner has pursued a long, satisfying musical journey where developments within the band’s sound have been gradual and considered. Yet, there have also been discreet nods to different genres along the way, pleasing embellishments and expansions to their core alt-country aesthetic. New album Showtunes provides another stylistic detour of sorts, building on the fresh direction put in place on 2019’s This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) and 2016’s FLOTUS as Wagner takes indirect inspiration from showtunes, American standards from the first half of the 20th century.

These aren’t covers or close appropriations however, but rather typically impressionistic pieces that bring together Wagner’s songwriting strengths and his broader interest in musical experimentation. Given the sense of progression that has defined Lambchop’s recent releases it feels oddly apt that when we catch up with Wagner to talk about the album, the conversation begins on a travel-related note. “I’m out here in Las Vegas visiting my in-laws at the moment. We haven’t seen them in quite a while, so we just drove on out here. It feels weird to actually travel. I haven’t been on an interstate for over a year. It feels like things are transitioning with the pandemic. Having driven across the country, it feels like we’re on the cusp of a lot of people getting out and about.”

more here

Mdou Moctar – Chismiten

I read a few articles about this amazing musician from Niger the first one from Pitchfork. Their new album is listed as on of the top 6 you need to be listening to right now.

Some notes about who he is:

  • Mahamadou Souleymane,[1][2] known professionally as Mdou Moctar (also M.dou Mouktar; born c. 1986[3][1] or 1984[1]) is a Tuareg songwriter and musician based in Agadez, Niger, and is one of the first musicians to perform modern electronic adaptations of Tuareg guitar music.[4][5] He first became famous through a trading network of cellphones and memory cards in West Africa.[6]
  • Mdou Moctar is a popular wedding performer and sings about Islam, education, love, and peace in Tamasheq.[7][8][9] He plays a left-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar in a takamba and assouf style.

A little from the Pitchfork article:

If it were up to Mdou Moctar, the fiery, psychedelic rock music that has made him one of the most respected guitarists working today would be kept far away from professional recording studios. “With all due respect to all engineers,” the Tuareg virtuoso recently confessed to Reverb, “I find it much too square.” Late last year, the Nigerien musician gathered his bandmates outside a friend’s house in Niamey to test out material from Afrique Victime in a more comfortable environment. In the open air, the quartet quickly attracted an audience: adults dancing, children air-drumming, and others just watching in awe as Moctar’s songs ascended and burst in the desert sky like fireworks. As Sam Sodomsky writes in his Best New Music review: “You get the sense that when the lights go down and he looks out at his audience, he doesn’t just see his community: He sees the future.”

6 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Mdou Moctar, CHAI, Erika de Casier, and More

and more from the Guardian

From the Guardian

‘We are modern slaves’: Mdou Moctar, the Hendrix of the Sahara

Kim Willsher

His first guitar was made from wood and bicycle parts and his first songs were shared via Bluetooth in the desert. But the Niger musician has become international – and is taking aim at France

How do you even dream of making music when your family and religious leaders disapprove, when you live at the edge of the Sahara desert, and you cannot afford an instrument?

It helps that the Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar, from Niger, is not easily discouraged. Unable to acquire a guitar, he made one out of a piece of wood with brake wires from an old bicycle for strings, and taught himself to play in secret. “I was from a religious family and music was not welcome, but I would go and listen to local musicians and dream of being like them,” the 32-year-old singer-songwriter says over the phone while on tour in the US.

“My parents didn’t have the means to buy me an instrument and wouldn’t have done so. To them, becoming a musician would mean I was a delinquent, a terrible person drinking beer and taking drugs. I never told them I wanted to play the guitar, I didn’t dare. So I made one.”

The next challenge was reaching an audience. Moctar, born in the village of Abalak in the Azawagh desert of northern Niger, began playing at weddings, singing in Tamasheq, the Tuareg language. His first album Anar – composed for a lost love – was recorded in Nigeria in 2008: it introduced Moctar’s simple, raw guitar sound and haunting lyrics, a style known locally as “assouf”, a word that does not easily translate, but evokes desert blues. Anar wasn’t officially released; instead, it spread across the continent via Bluetooth swaps between mobile phone data cards.

Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame.

(Bandcamp)

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Reel Around the Fountain

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg are an instrumental duo who play original compositions and a stunning diverse set of cover songs.  Who would think of covering The Smith’s, “Reel Around the Fountain”?

Reel Around the Fountain – James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg

Here’s the original version juxtaposed to scenes from the film, “Atonement.”  I guess both song and film have fountains?

The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain

Nathan Salsburg is also the Curator of the Alan Lomax Archive at the Association for Cultural Equity. This is the website.  It is definitely worth diving into.

I mentioned Brador in passing.  In celebration of June 24th, here is a stubby of Brador!