Music — Page 5

→ November 2, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, October 2022.

October was a big month for new releases, but the one I was probably most excited to hear, Arctic Monkeys’ The Car, was a huge, boring disappointment. I wasn’t that enamored of the new albums from Dry Cleaning or Alvvays, to say nothing of larger acts like Taylor Swift or Tegan & Sara. But for lesser-known acts it was a great month, including a bunch of artists I heard for the first time. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6K4bRVCxkcTXo4TrMkqT2q?si=72309fd0f0b54e64

Anxious – Where You Been. This Connecticut punk quintet just dropped their first full-length, Little Green House, and it’s one of the year’s best records, including the 2022 single “In April” (#76 on my top songs of 2021 ranking), “Sunsign,” “Call from You,” and “Let Me.” It’s hard-edged but with a strong melodic sense, too heavy to be punk-pop but too rough-and-ready to be post-punk.

The Lathums – Say My Name. Anthemic indie rock from Wigan, reminiscent of the Amazons but maybe a bit less slick? Their debut album came out last September, but this is the first track from them I’ve heard, from their upcoming LP From Nothing to a Little Bit More, due out February 24^th.

The Reytons – Avalanche. That opening riff … it’s Royal Blood, Turbowolf, the Amazons, Death from Above 1979. I can see why this south Yorkshire band are rising stars in the UK. As with the Lathums, they’re new to me, but had an album out last year called The Kids Off the Estate; this is from their upcoming album What’s Rock and Roll?

The Rills – Landslide. Merseyside lads who nod to the Arctic Monkeys and the Libertines as their primary influences. The B-Side, “Spit Me Out,” is almost as good, and maybe the title is a nod to the refrain of the Monkeys’ “Fake Tales of San Francisco?”

Crawlers – I Don’t Want It. This Liverpool band reminds me quite a bit of their neighbors The Mysterines, both led by women singers with powerful voices and crunchy guitar rock behind the vocals.

Black Honey – Out of My Mind. I’ve been on Black Honey’s wavelength since day one, with “Hello Today,” and this track reminds me of a few of their earliest tracks, with a crisper melody and less of the harder edges (which also work) from their second album or this year’s “Charlie Bronson.”

CVC – Good Morning Vietnam. That opening melody line sounds familiar to me, like it might be almost borrowed from something else, but I’m still in on this new Welsh band’s updated psychedelic rock sound.

Inhaler – Love Will Get You There. I feel like Inhaler has produced enough good new music that we can stop talking about who anyone’s father is, although if you listen to any of their tracks you’ll probably realize how much the lead singer sounds like his dad. I love how their sound feels like an evolution of you-know-who without sounding derivative; here it sounds like they’ve been listening to a bit of Lord Huron, incorporating that kind of folk-rock shuffle into their normal style.

Autre ne Veut – Okay. Arthur Ashin’s first new music in seven years, “Okay” is a lovely track that somehow manages to sound lush without coming off as overwritten or overproduced. Critics tend to describe their music as some form of R&B, but I think that sells it a bit short, with jazzier elements and more electronic work in the backdrop.

Cumulus – Teenage Plans. “Can you please slow it down?/It’s too much change to take.” There are so damn many songs about being a teenager and trying to slow down time to appreciate the moment – or being older and wishing you’d thought more like that when you were that age – that it’s rare for something else to break through the monotony, but this new track from Alexandra Lockhart does so, notably with the melody in the chorus.

John-Allison Weiss – Feels Like Hell. I think I liked Weiss’ previous single, “Different Now,” better, but this is also some great indie-pop ahead his 2023 album The Long Way.

The Wombats – I Think My Mind Has Made Its Mind Up. The second track from the Wombats’ forthcoming EP Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This?, which will be their second release this year after the full-length LP Fix Yourself, Not the World, which all puts them on track to put out the most good new music of any band this year.

Sports Team – Fingers (Taken Off). Gulp! is one of my favorite albums of the year so far, the second full-length album from this London band who just sound so very English between the vocals and the offbeat lyrics.

The Cool Greenhouse – Get Unjaded. Singer/lyricist Tom Greenhouse has a way with words and packs them into this tight post-punk track, talk-singing his way through a track that slithers like a tritone in search of its resolution.

The Go! Team – Divebomb. The Go! Team have been around for 22 years, so I’m rather remiss in that this was the first song of theirs I’ve heard. Their mix of samples and various pop styles reminds me a bit of the Space Monkeys’ “Sugar Cane” and the more contemporary Bad Sounds.

Young Fathers – I Saw. Heavy Heavy is due out on February 3^rd, with this the second very promising single from the Mercury Prize-winning trio, who’ve moved away from their original alternative-rap style to a more experimental lo-fi electronic sound instead.

Archers of Loaf – Screaming Undercover. Reason in Decline is the first new album in 24 years from this Chapel Hill band, who had a brief run of critical success and built a cult following in the mid-90s with their hard-edged indie rock sound.

Crystal Axis – Black AF. This is the third single from Crystal Axis, a Nairobi Afro-punk band whose lyrics are a mix of Swahili and English. I found them via this BBC profile.

Pinkshift – nothing (in my head). One of two tracks from this Baltimore trio’s new EP i’m not crying you’re crying. If you wondered what Paramore would sound like if they didn’t suck, this is a pretty good approximation. The title track from the EP is solid too.

Quicksand – Felíz. Another remnant from the Distant Populations sessions, but man, if this is what you leave on the cutting room floor, you are doing something very right. This thing rocks with this giant muscular riff that frames the sludgy chorus, where they sound most like the post-hardcore icons they are. They’re on tour right now with Clutch and Helmet, in case you wanted to wonder what year it was.

Blessed – Anything. This Canadian art-rock band announced their second full-length album, Circuitous, and released this lead single, which has a very doom- or sludge-metal feel without the big crunch.

Gojira – Our Time Is Now. I’ve been listening to less metal overall this year, but I will stop traffic for a new Gojira song, and this track has a glorious opening followed by some intense riffing in the verse before the bottom-heavy chorus.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hard rock, Music, post-punk, progressive metal

→ October 22, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 10/22/22.

My second and much longer notebook on guys I saw in the Arizona Fall League went up this week for subscribers to the Athletic. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.

My guest on The Keith Law Show this week was Craig Calcaterra, writer of the excellent Cup of Coffee newsletter and author of the book Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game. You can listen and subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can sign up for my free email newsletter and maybe I’ll send another edition out this week. Also, you can buy either of my books, Smart Baseball or The Inside Game, via bookshop.org at those links, or at your friendly local independent bookstore. I hear they make great holiday gifts.

My friend and former colleague at ESPN Sarah Langs announced a few weeks ago on Twitter that she has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Mandy Bell of MLB.com set up a GoFundMe for Sarah, if you’d like to join me in contributing.

And now, the links…

Climate change could cause the collapse of Antarctica’s ice shelves even sooner than forecasted, in case you were feeling too good about anything this week.
Two stories of women who nearly died because anti-abortion laws denied them access to medical care, one in Texas who suffered a miscarriage and had to wait so long she developed sepsis before doctors would intervene, and one in Missouri whose own state Senator referred her to an anti-abortion clinic. The latter woman had to go to Illinois to get medical care to save her life.
Parker Molloy wrote about how the English press, buoyed by transphobic parents, bullied a schoolteacher who came out as trans into suicide. One of the main writers who attacked Lucy Meadows was Richard Littlejohn, who is still alive and writing twice a week for the Daily Mail, which ignored calls to fire him for his role.
WIRED has an excerpt from Rebecca Gilbin and Cory Doctorow’s new book Chokepoint Capitalism on how streaming services control what we hear and what music gets made, abrogating the promise that the technology would democratize music.
A Supreme Court case around copyright law, fair use, and an Andy Warhol piece may permanently alter the landscape of American art.
Florida’s state Surgeon General issued new guidance around COVID vaccines based on research that produced howls of derisive laughter from actual experts. Here’s one takedown of its many, many flaws. Charles Pierce put it well when he wrote that Florida will just keep “asking questions” until it gets the answer it wants ($).
Dr. Mehmet Oz, currently running for Senate, met a gun-violence victim at a campaign stop, but failed to disclose that she works for him and has received over $2100 from the campaign. The Associated Press reported on the encounter without noting the conflict. Do your fucking jobs, AP.
While on TV, Dr. Oz also promoted Joseph Mercola, long one of the biggest purveyors of anti-vaccine and other forms of medical misinformation online. Mercola has been selling supplements by denigrating evidence-based treatments since at least the 1990s, when I first came across his site’s claims that aspartame caused multiple sclerosis and all sorts of other health problems that it doesn’t cause at all.
Oz’s opponent, John Fetterman, accused the super PAC Democratic Coalition, run by Scott Dworkin, of misleading donors into thinking their money is going to support candidates like him.
Will Leitch wrote about the abysmal media response to Tua Tagovalioa’s second head injury in five days.
Slate’s Evan Urquhart defended Jon Stewart’s interview with and humiliation of Arkansas’s bigoted Attorney General, where he makes it clear she’s either ignorant of the facts on the issue of gender affirming care or just denying them.
How did social media content moderation become such an issue in the culture war?
This is sort of old news by now, but if you haven’t heard the racist comments by members of the Los Angeles City Council, you should check it out. Only one of the three people making those comments, Nury Martinez, has resigned, as calls mount for the other two to do the same.
Wildfire smoke doesn’t just pollute the air, but it can carry bacteria and fungal spores across long distances, thus potentially expanding the area where Valley fever and other diseases of rural/desert areas into more population regions.
Research published in Polymers showed microplastics in human breast milk.
Many artists are pushing for more student debt relief, as the $10,000 offered is a “drop in the bucket” compared to their debt loads.
An Oklahoma teacher encouraged students to call a special-needs student in the class the f-slur. The school district dragged its feet, so the state is investigating while many parents are calling for the teacher’s removal. This is the lowest bar, really.
Is hip-hop’s dominance in American popular music finally slipping? Billboard spoke to industry executives who believe it is, and I would point to the lack of innovation in the space as a reason – and streaming may be the cause, as seen above.
A terrorist group calling itself a branch of ISIS is attacking villages in northern Mozambique, killing men and raping women, while threatening one of the most important natural gas supply lines in Africa.
Amidst news of ethnic cleansing in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the Economist called for sanctions against Eritrean dictator Issaias Afwerki ($), calling him “equally malign” as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.
Randy Kaufman, running for the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board and who said he wanted to “protect our children from the progressive left,” suspended his campaign after he was arrested for masturbating in his car near a preschool. Always be wary of those who doth protest too much.
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) refused to say whether she would accept the election results if she loses.
Republicans in Congress have introduced a “Don’t Say Gay” bill that would prohibit schools, libraries, and other institutions that receive federal money from teaching children about, well, anything related to sex, gender, gender identity, and so on, and would allow parents to sue if they did. The Human Rights Campaign has denounced it. The end result of bills and laws like this is more youth suicides, and if that’s your goal, we’re not going to agree.
George M. Johnson wrote about his experiences seeing his book, All Boys Aren’t Blue, a memoir of growing up Black and queer in America, become the second-most banned book in the country.
Michigan Republicans introduced an anti-trans bill that would jail parents for life if they sought gender-affirming care for their kids. This is the totalitarian playbook: demonize a small, vulnerable minority to rally your adherents and get them to the polls.
Florida Times-Union columnist called Gov. Ron DeSantis’ closed-door selection of Sen. Ben Sasse, both Republicans, as the new President of the University of Florida, the “crowning achievement of the DeSantis-led effort to defile” the college, questioning Sasse’s qualifications and his intentions.
A Texas sheriff certified that the nearly 50 migrants DeSantis trafficked to Massachusetts are “crime victims,” creating the possibility they could receive special visas to stay in the U.S. Unintended consequences FTW!
In the wake of Hurricane Ian, DeSantis relaxed voting restrictions in three heavily Republican counties, but not in heavily Democratic Orange County.
Police body camera footage shows officers arresting people for so-called voter fraud, as DeSantis proudly announced a sweep and emphasized the criminal records of the arrestees, who were overwhelmingly Black.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist James Causey called Sen. Ron Johnson’s comment that his opponent this year, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D), has “turned on America” and “finds America awful” a “cheap shot,” saying that you can love America and still criticize it. Johnson’s campaign has also run ads that darkened Barnes’s skin tone and claimed he’ll be soft on crime.
South Carolina’s medical licensing board has yet to discipline any physicians for spreading misinformation on COVID-19 or the vaccines that help prevent it, apparently for fear of backlash from the conservatives who run the state government.
Marin County in northern California was once a haven for highly educated anti-vaxxer parents. COVID-19 vaccines changed that, and the county now has one of the highest uptake rates in the country at 91%.
Jazz Chisholm was impressive in his brief stint on MLB Network’s studio coverage of the first round of the playoffs.
A new property, the Hotel Lyra, is trying to revive a nearly-abandoned town in Croatia called Licko Petrovo Selo. The town, which is near the country’s scenic Plitvice Lakes National Park, was destroyed during World War II, rebuilt by the Yugoslav government, and then heavily damaged during the Balkan wars, with most of the population, especially its Serbs, driven out.
The white nationalist teenager who opened fire outside an LGBTQ+ bar in Slovakia had posted anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ+, and white replacement views on Twitter and 4chan. The Anti-Defamation League says in response that Twitter and similar sites don’t do enough to moderate hate speech.
Board game news: Rock Manor Games, run by my friend Mike Gnade, has a Kickstarter up for its new role-playing game The Few and the Cursed.
BoardGameTables, who make tables for board games (!) and have also published titles like On Tour and Sequoia, have a Kickstarter up for three small-box games, including Pollen, a re-theming of Reiner Knizia’s Samurai: The Card Game.
Rising Waters, the historical co-op game about the 1927 Mississippi Flood and the racial disparities it exposed, just funded in the last few days, with about a week and a half to go in its Kickstarter.
Race to the Raft, a cooperative game from Isle of Cats designer Frank West, is already about 8x funded on Kickstarter.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: abortion, africa, arizona, arkansas, art, baseball, board game news, california, climate change, croatia, florida, football, frauds, hip-hop, lgbt rights, links, los angeles, missouri, Music, oklahoma, pennsylvania, social media, south carolina, stick to baseball, texas, vaccines, wisconsin

→ October 2, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, September 2022.

Lots of new music in September … but not a lot of great music, I think, even with two extremely strong new albums and a couple of others of note. As always, you can see the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Kid Kapichi – Super Soaker. Two of my favorite albums of 2022 so far came out in September, including Kid Kapichi’s second album in the last 18 months, Here’s What You Could Have Won, which carries forward the harder-edged rock with Alex Turner-like lyrics but expands their musical palate somewhat, such as adding a guest appearance from Bob Vylan.

The Beths – When You Know You Know. And then there’s The Beths’ third album, Expert in a Dying Field, their best one yet, with more uptempo songs and a more consistent musical throughline over the entire album.

White Lies – Trouble in America. A tremendous track from the bonus edition of As I Try Not to Fall Apart, frankly a better song than several that did make the original LP.

Sports Team – Dig! Another banger from Sports Team, but unusual for them in that the vocals are far more conventional, and clearly play second fiddle to the driving guitar work.

Sprints – Literary Mind. These Dublin punks go a little more pop here, without losing any of their usual intensity, in what I think is their longest song yet.

Courtney Barnett – Words and Guitar. A cover of the Sleater-Kinney song from an upcoming album of covers of the band’s 1997 album Dig Me Out.

John-Allison Weiss – Different Now. This is the first new music from Weiss, who has previously recorded as A.W., since 2017’s “Runaway,” although their indie-pop sound is quite similar even after the five-year hiatus.

Editors – Vibe. Editors just released their seventh album, EBM, their first with Blanck Mass (Benjamin John Power) as a full-time member. The sound across the album is similar to what they’ve shown since their big stylistic shift around 2009-10 to something more electro-noir, with a heavy New Order influence. I also really liked “Karma Climb,” the first single from the record; and “Kiss,” which is great in the sub-4 minute single version but wears out its welcome at 8 minutes on the album.

The Fashion Weak feat. Gruff Rhys – Welsh Words. The debut single from a new Welsh band, with help from Super Furry Animals lead singer Rhys, with hilarious lyrics about songwriting advice from Joan Didion.

Freddie Gibbs feat. Moneybagg Yo – Too Much. Gibbs might be the best active rapper going, certainly in terms of flow and delivery, and just dropped his fifth album, the expansive $oul $old $eparately, on Friday. “Dark Hearted” and “Space Rabbit” are also highlights.

Phoenix feat. Ezra Koenig – Tonight. I like this song despite the intrusion of Vampire Weekend (via Koenig, their twee-voiced lead singer and songwriter).

Jamie xx – KILL DEM. The second new single this year from Jamie xx, whose In Colour was one of the best albums of 2015 and provided two standout tracks of the entire decade in “Loud Places” and “See Saw,” but who hasn’t put out another LP since. His solo work is electronica, but he’s also one of three members of the indie band the xx.

Quicksand – Giving the Past Away. A muscular new track from these post-hardcore icons, left over from the sessions for last year’s album Distant Populations.

Palm – On the Sly. A Philly art-rock outfit that’s been around for a decade, Palm just crossed my radar this month with this new track reminiscent of some of Battles’ better work.

WITCH – Waile. WITCH are legends of Zamrock, a musical style from the sub-Saharan country of Zambia that emerged in the 1970s, and were active from 1972-1984, by the end of which they’d moved away from rock and towards disco. This is a new recording of a song they played live in their heyday but never committed to wax. With the crossover success of Mdou Moctar, I could see WITCH (which stands for We Intend to Cause Havoc!) finding a new audience as they continue to tour.

Wheel – Blood Drinker. I’m a big fan of this Finnish prog-metal outfit, whether it’s their ten-minute, multi-section tracks or tighter radio-friendly ones like this one, primarily because of their guitarwork, both the sound itself and the intricacy of some of their guitar lines. This is the advance single from their upcoming EP Rumination, which follows last year’s full-length album Resident Human.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hip-hop, Music, progressive metal, rap

→ September 4, 2022
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 9/4/22.

One new post for subscribers to The Athletic this week, looking at some of the more significant or interesting September callups from the last seven days. Some other good names, like Triston Casas, came up after I wrote it.

My podcast returned this week with Dan Pfeiffer, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and author of the new book Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media Are Destroying America. You can subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And now, the links…

Longreads first: The New Yorker looks at the roots of Justice Samuel Alito’s crusade to make America an explicitly Christian nation, regardless of the Constitution’s protections against this.
Multiple women have accused Arcade Fire co-leader Win Butler of sexual misconduct, as reported by Pitchfork.
This long Vanity Fair profile of Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee sure makes it sound like she’s going to both-sides our political moment.
Not sure if I linked this previously, but this study in Science should be (have been) the final nail in the “lab-leak” hypothesis, which is now just a conspiracy theory pushed by cranks and grifters in the face of such strong evidence for a zoonotic origin.
NBC News’ Ben Collins pulls back the curtain on Kiwi Farms, a message board where trolls dox their targets, mostly LGBTQ+ people and women, leading to at least two suicides and substantial real-world harassment, including swatting attacks. After the article ran, Kiwi Farms’ trolls doxxed Collins and threatened further attacks and even violence, so Cloudflare, their caching and DDoS protection provider, finally dropped them as a free client.
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is the best tool we have to help self-harming and suicidal teens, but it’s widely underused, in part because it’s expensive and insurance carriers often deny coverage.
A secular activist sent signs saying “In God We Trust” in Arabic to Carroll ISD in Texas, because the theocratic state has a policy saying any such signs must be displayed in a “conspicuous” place, but of course the district is refusing to display them, as well as signs that say it in rainbow-colored letters.
Having a miscarriage or stillbirth in Alabama can land you 18 years in prison if a jury decides that you used drugs and those caused the loss of the pregnancy.
Ginni Thomas, the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice, tried to get lawmakers in both Arizona and Wisconsin to nullify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Presidential election.
The Council for National Policy has long operated in secret while helping conservatives try to take over multiple levels of the U.S., state, and local governments, but a recent leak has given us a glimpse at how the clandestine group works.
Philadelphia chef Jim Burke died early last month at 49 due to a rare lung cancer. He’d previously worked at James and Wm. Mulherin & Sons. I met him briefly last winter, as he was involved in several projects down here in Wilmington as well.
The Houston Chronicle’s editorial board writes that the U.S. had eradicated polio, but anti-vaxxers have brought it back.
Here’s yet another study showing that COVID-19 vaccines reduce infectiousness – that is, if you’re vaccinated and still get the virus, you are less likely to spread it.
California lawmakers approved funding to keep the state’s only nuclear reactor running well into the future, a key component of reducing our emissions of CO2 and other gases that contribute to climate change.
Mississippi, a state so poorly run it can’t even provide running water to residents of its capital and largest city, also may have paid $70 million in federal welfare funds to various cronies do things like give motivational speeches, including over $1 million to Brett Favre – who never even made the speeches for which he was paid. One party has controlled every aspect of the state government of Mississippi since 2012.
New Hampshire libertarians calling themselves Free Staters are trying to dismantle the state government from within, notably attacking public schools, as part of their goal of forming an independent “libertarian utopia.”
The New York Times is running nine editorials asking ‘what are schools for?’ Guess how many slots went to teachers.
The ridiculous but still concerning lawsuit that tried to stop bookstores from selling the YA book Gender Queer has been dismissed. The plaintiffs, a couple of homophobic men from Virginia, claimed the book met the definition of obscenity.
If you’re seeing book bans enacted or proposed in your area, here’s an editorial on how to fight back from the Washington Post.
Florida, meanwhile, is trying to force public-school teachers to indoctrinate students with conservative ideology (video).
Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman but got just six months in prison (and served only three) because the judge didn’t want to ruin his life, is now running around bars in Ohio.
Brittany Aldean, the wife of country music singer Jason Aldean, posted a shitty transphobic joke on her Instagram page, and now claims she was taken out of context.
Candace Buckner, also of the Washington Post, writes about John Wall’s recent comments about his depression and thoughts of suicide.
Board game news: You can pre-order Clank! Catacombs, a new version of Clank! with a modular board and some new elements brought over from the legacy game, and read some of the designer diaries.
The Kickstarter closed but you can still download the free version of the print-and-play game Sunshine City (and I’m sure there will be a way to just buy the whole $5 package).
Cartouche, a game from the co-designer of the upcoming game The Fox Experiment (alongside Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave), is on Pledgemanager for $39 and up, although I don’t see an end date for the campaign.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: board game news, coronavirus, first amendment, florida, links, longreads, mental health, mississippi, Music, psychology, scotus, social media, stick to baseball, texas, vaccines

→ September 3, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, August 2022.

And we’re back, after I missed a non-December monthly playlist for the first time in something like six or seven years, thanks to the combination of the late draft, trade deadline, Gen Con, and my big family vacation to the UK, so this playlist covers stuff from two months rather than just the one. We’ve got a ton of potentially great new albums and EPs due out the rest of the year, including stuff from the first four artists here, plus something new from the Arctic Monkeys, Suede, Christine & the Queens, Editors, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dry Cleaning, and more. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the Spotify playlist here.

The Beths – Knees Deep. The Beths have released three fantastic singles ahead of their album, Expert in a Dying Field, due out on the 16^th. I have gotten much worse at predicting which bands will break out into broader success, but man, if any band seems poised to do so right now, it’s the Beths.

The Wombats – Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This? One of my favorite bands going, the Wombats are putting out a six-track EP in November, just nine months after releasing their latest album, and this title track is a banger.

GIFT – Gumball Garden. The first time I heard this I was sure it was Tame Impala, or a Kevin Parker side project. It’s that precise psychedelic-rock vibe – or you might think DIIV if you’re familiar with them – and the vocalist sounds a good bit like Parker, but there’s no connection. GIFT is a five-piece band from Brooklyn and their debut album, Momentary Presence, is due out on October 14^th. I love the whole track but the surprise guitar riff around the 1:35 mark is next-level.

Sports Team – The Drop. Sports Team’s second album, GULP!, is due out on September 23^rd, a two-month delay due to production issues, but we’ve got four strong singles from the album now, including this, “R Entertainment,” “The Game,” and “Dig,” showing some versatility beyond their initial art-punk style.

STONE – Waste. Heavy post-punk music from a band led by the son of John Power, former lead singer/guitarist of the La’s (“There She Goes”) and Cast (“Alright,” “Sandstorm”), which is quite the way to rebel against your parents, I guess.

YUNGBLUD – Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today. I’m not a big YUNGBLUD fan but this is a perfect little 2-minute punk-pop song.

The Mars Volta – Blacklight Shine. TMV’s first album in a decade, just called The Mars Volta, will drop on September 16^th, and will feature this track as well as their latest release, “Vigil,” both of which are experimental yet also somehow rather accessible.

The Lounge Society – No Driver. This punk/post-punk quartet comprises four teens from Yorkshire who’ve been releasing music since 2020 and just released their debut album Tired of Liberty on Friday.

Young Fathers – Geronimo. The Mercury Prize winners return with their first new music since 2018’s tremendous album Cocoa Sugar, bringing a track that combines multiple genres with just a dash of rap mixed in.

Black Honey – Charlie Bronson. Definitely a rougher edge this time around from the Brighton indie-rockers, although you can still hear their melodic tendencies underneath the grit.

Two Door Cinema Club – Wonderful Life. This Northern Irish band will release its fifth album, Keep on Smiling, on Friday; this lead single came out in mid-July and is more of the electro-pop we’ve come to expect from the trio, maybe skewing a little more towards rock than “I Can Talk” or “Sleep Alone” did.

The Killers – boy. A leftover track from before last year’s Pressure Machine, one that sounds like it belonged on 2020’s Imploding the Mirage.

Martin Courtney – Sailboat. Courtney is the lead singer/guitarist for Real Estate, but released his second solo album, Magic Sign, this summer; this track might be my favorite thing he’s done, a soft psychedelic-rock track that features a perfectly timed guitar riff that elevates the song into something more.

Sam Fender – Alright. A B-side from the Seventeen Going Under sessions, this could easily have appeared on the album, and I do think it’s a good rule of thumb that when an artist’s B-sides are good enough to consider as singles in their own right (or, say, to include on one of my playlists), then the artist is pretty damn good.

Stella Donnelly – How Was Your Day? Donnelly is an acclaimed singer/songwriter in her native Australia, but hasn’t received a ton of attention outside of it, although her quirky vocal style and hooky melodies would fit in well in the British indie scene. Her second album, Flood, dropped a week ago. I am also obligated to mention that, according to Wikipedia, Donnelly’s mother is Welsh.

Rina Sawayama – Catch Me in the Air. Sawayama is a pop artist at heart, and this is one of her most straightforward pop tracks so far, with a big hook in the chorus.

Lizzo – 2 Be Loved (I Am Ready). I thought Special was generally strong, with two big standout tracks in “About Damn Time” and this song, which I think most clearly reflects her work with Prince before he died.

Broken Bells – We’re Not in Orbit Yet… James Mercer (the Shins) and Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) are back with their first new music since 2019’s “Good Luck” and first new album since 2014’s After the Disco with a track that reminds me in good ways of “The High Road” off their first record.

Tei Shi – GRIP. Tei Shi ended up in a fight with her old label after they refused to pay her the rest of her advanced for her last album, La Linda, and wrote this song in 2021 about the experience.

Death Cab for Cutie – Here to Forever. DCFC return with their tenth album, Asphalt Meadows, on September 16^th, featuring this very upbeat song with an existentialist message as well as “Roman Candles.”

Jack White – A Tip From Me to You. A surprise second album from White, Entering Heaven Alive, dropped in July, this one more acoustic/downtempo and less experimental than this spring’s Fear of the Dawn.

The Linda Lindas – Tonite. The Linda Lindas are media darlings, which makes me worry their label (or manager) will turn them into some bland pop act, which is largely what happened to the Donnas back in the 1990s. This is a cover of a Go-Go’s song the Lindas often cover live, and it’s a great version, but ironic because the Go-Go’s were also co-opted by the mainstream music industry.

The Front Bottoms – More than It Hurts You. From their new EP Theresa, this track feels like a throwback to the earliest days of emo, with the overly earnest vocal delivery but an inherent pop sensibility underneath the emo trappings.

Muse – Kill or Be Killed. I fell off the Muse bandwagon probably around The Resistance in 2009, although I’d been a big fan of their earliest work, and this track has a strong “Muscle Museum” or “Cave” vibe to me, so maybe they’re going back to their roots a little bit.

Archers of Loaf – In the Surface Noise. I wasn’t a big Archers of Loaf fan in their 1990s heyday, but they are about to release their first new album in 24 years, Reason in Decline, on October 21^st, and I do like this vaguely psychedelic-rock track.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music

→ July 4, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, June 2022.

We have a bunch of comebacks this month, with bands I liked once upon a time returning either in reality or just to my radar because they put out something great in June. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

Editors – Karma Climb. This is the best New Order song in 21 years. (Editors are not New Order, and this is the second single ahead of their seventh album, EBM, due out in September.)

The Beths – Silence is Golden. The Beths have had some great tracks over their four years of releasing music, with a lot of punk influences in their power-pop formula, but the music here is as close to straight metal as they’ve ever veered – and it works.

Talk Show – Cold House. Talk Show gets labeled as post-punk, or new wave punk, but their music is more darkwave with far less of a punk influence than any of the reviews.

Jungle – GOOD TIMES. Jungle’s already back with a two-track single less than a year after Loving in Stereo dropped, with this the better (and more uptempo) of the two songs.

Automatic – Skyscraper. Now this is post-punk new wave.Automatic was new to me before this track, although their newest album, Excess, was their sophomore release.

Queen Colobus – Think Fast. Welsh vocalist/saxophonist Beth Hopkins leads Queen Colobus, mixing jazz with indie/alternative rock, as if Dry Cleaning or Yard Act merged with Sons of Kemet.

CVC – Docking the Pay. Another Welsh band – I swear this is a coincidence – CVC might be most notable for wiping all their old music from streaming platforms, so right now all there is from them are two songs, this and “Winston.” This new single combines an electronic beat that reminds me of a HAERTS track with vocals that might be from a drinking song.

Inhaler – These Are the Days. Bono’s son – I guess at some point I should stop calling him that – and his band keep churning out solid alt-rock singles.

The Aces – Girls Make Me Wanna Die. I’d lost track of Aces after their first single, “Stuck,” made my top songs of 2016 playlist, because I didn’t find the debut album as catchy, but this has that same pop energy with better production values.

Sløtface – Come hell or whatever. Sløtface has gone from a band to a one-woman operation, with singer/songwriter Haley Shea the only remaining member, and this the first new single from her as the new Sløtface.

Bartees Strange – Wretched. Strange’s second album, Farm to Table, is a big step forward, expanding his repertoire of genres and reducing the influence of the National on his overall sound.

Preoccupations – Ricochet. A welcome return for these Canadian post-punks, whose fourth album, Arrangements, is due out in September.

Kid Kapichi – Rob the Supermarket. Kid Kapichi had two singles this month, this rocker, which could fit very well on their debut album This Time Next Year, and the extra-biting acoustic track “Party at Number 10,” the subject of which should be quite evident.

beabadoobee – 10:36. Beabadoobee does Sunflower Bean? This is a delightfully sunny pop track, leading into her second album, Beatopia, due out on July 15^th.

FKA twigs – killer. Yet another new track from FKA twigs, separate from her Caprisongs mixtape, and I think more in line with the music from magdalena. “It’s dangerous to be a woman in love” can have so many meanings here.

Dry Cleaning – Don’t Press Me. I don’t love Dry Cleaning’s flat and very forward-produced vocals, but they get this great Wire/Magazine vibe when they let it rip, as they do on this lead single from their sophomore album, Stumpwork, due out in October.

Christine and the Queens – Je te vois enfin. This is the first new track from Christine and the Queens since last fall, and introduces the “Redcar” persona, although whether that means anything for the music remains to be seen. It’s in a similar musical vein to “I disappear in your arms,” one of my favorite tracks of 2020.

Kiwi jr. – Unspeakable Things. Man that organ riff with its one chromatic tone is pretty great, harkening back to the brief moment in the mid-aughts when emo was listenable.

La Luz – San Fernando Shadow Blues. I assume this is the theme to the next James Bond movie, which will star the as-yet unnamed actor skeet-surfing in the opening scenes to save the planet.

Porcupine Tree – Rats Return. Closure/Continuation marks Porcupine Tree’s return after a 13-year absence from recording, including this heavy, Rush-like rocker and last year’s single “Harridan.”

Soilwork – Nous Sommes la Guerre. New prog metal from a Swedish band I typically associate with more extreme sounds, but here we get only clean vocals and a very melodic synth line driving the track.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music, progressive metal

→ June 3, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, May 2022.

May went by a little too quickly for my tastes, but it did have plenty of new music, including album releases from Everything Everything, Stars, Porridge Radio, Just Mustard, Craig Finn, The Black Keys, Florence + the Machine, Kendrick Lamar, The Smile, Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire, Sunflower Bean, and Black Star. If you can’t see the widget below, here’s a direct link to the playlist.

Jamie T – The Old Style Raiders. Jamie T has been quite popular in the UK for about 15 years now, since Zane Lowe gave him a boost before his debut album even appeared, but I haven’t been a fan of his music before, between the cracked-voice sung-talked vocals and off-kilter guitar lines, but this … put this straight into my veins. Every aspect of this song works, right from that initial power-chord riff through the vocals (his voice is fuller, and its tone more consistent) through the soaring lines over the chorus. I’m in.

Sharon Van Etten – Mistakes. I think this is SVE’s second-ever appearance on my playlists, and the other was a track she did with the National. Her laconic vocal style has never quite done it for me, but paired with a dark and insistent beat to contrast with some of her boldest singing yet. She leaned a bit into distortion and electronic elements on her last album, and they pop up even more on her latest record, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, although, once again, I’m less of a fan of her slower-tempo tracks.

Blossoms – Born Wild. I liked Blossoms’ latest album, Ribbon Around the Bomb, a bit less than I expected given how much I loved the two lead singles, “Ode to NYC” and “The Sulking Poet.” The title track, “Care For,” and this song are all quite solid. Recommended for fans of The Head and the Heart, Whiskeytown, and Lord Huron.

Folk Implosion – Don’t Give It Away. One of two new songs from Lou Barlow and John Davis, their first new music written and recorded together in 23 years, since the last Folk Implosion album was a Barlow solo effort. It sounds like they never left.

Young Guv – Nowhere At All. I saw the name “Young Guv” and thought it was going to be a horrible white rapper, but it’s actually Ben Cook, the guitarist for Fucked Up, making dream-pop tracks that sound like part of the Paisley Underground movement (early Bangles, Green on Red) rather than something new in 2022. I’m saying that’s a good thing.

Porcupine Tree – Herd Culling. Steve Wilson’s work with Opeth is evident once again on this new track, the third in advance of Closure/Continuation, the British prog-rock stalwarts’ first new album since 2009. This is edited to be a single, so I assume the album version will clock in at 10:28.

The Smile – Thin Thing. A Light for Attracting Attention, the debut album from The Smile (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead plus Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet), is almost certainly going to end up among my top ten albums of the year, but I’m still digesting it – it’s strange and ambitious and full of unexpected turns. This track has a big of “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” but moves into different territory with Skinner’s percussion when we hit the first break.

Foals – 2001. Foals promised us an upbeat dance album, and through four singles, where’s the lie? This is the funkiest these guys have ever sounded, and it turns out it melds extremely well with their previous sound.

Rina Sawayama – This Hell. A pretty straight-ahead pop track from Sawayama, this is the lead single from her sophomore album, Hold the Girl, due out September 2^nd. I’d be surprised if this album didn’t make her a global star, although I know that isn’t always just about the music.

beabadoobee – Love Song. Beatrice is a talented guitarist who doesn’t let it rip enough, in my opinion, but this is a lovely little acoustic-ish number ahead of her second album, Beatopia, due out in July.

Sports Team – The Game. This extremely British rock band’s second album, Gulp, is due out in July. If the Libertines were more upper-class, but no more sober, they might sound like Sports Team.

Adwaith – Wedi Blino. If you think I’m including this song because it’s sung entirely in Welsh – the title means “Tired” – then, on the advice of my attorney, I will invoke my rights under the fifth amendment to avoid self-incrimination.

Suede – She Still Leads Me On. When Bernard Butler left Suede after their second album, Richard Oakes, who was just 17 years old, beat out hundreds of other guitarists to take his place. Oakes is now 46 years old. And Brett Anderson is 54. I suppose the bright side here is that I’m still young enough to put out that debut album!

Sky Ferreira – Don’t Forget. Ferreira released one single in 2019, and until now that was her only new music since 2013’s Night Time, My Time, her well-reviewed but uneven debut LP. This definitely sounds like a different artist – this is deeply rooted in mid-80s synthpop sounds, with music like Nu Shooz or even Peter Schilling.

Kendrick Lamar feat. Sampha – Father Time. I think I’ve settled into a space where I respect Kendrick Lamar’s work, but I know I’ll probably never love it. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is a fascinating work of art, with some tremendous highlights, including “Auntie Diaries,” which is a massive statement of trans acceptance that also includes frequent use of the f-slur (in context, but still, regrettable). Barring that, this is my favorite track on the record, thanks to the presence of Mercury Prize winner Sampha on the chorus.

Stars – Pretenders. From Capelton Hill is Stars’ first album in five years, and it’s lovely even without the highs of 2012’s The North, which contained my favorite Stars track (and our wedding song), “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It.” This is probably my favorite song from the new album, especially with the duet in the chorus between Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell.

Superbloom – Falling Up. Very Melvins meets the Smashing Pumpkins circa 1994. I’m very vulnerable to music that reminds me of very specific eras, bands, or moments in time. This does it.

Just Mustard – Seed. This Irish group lives on the abrasive side of shoegaze without becoming as inscrutable (or unlistenable) as My Bloody Valentine, whose music I could just never get into. Just Mustard’s second album, Heart Under, just came out last Friday.

Killing Joke – Lord of Chaos. This is not a drill – we have new music from Killing Joke, a four-song EP called Lord of Chaos, and they pick up right where they left off after 2015’s Pylon. (The EP actually came out in late March. I’m just behind.)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, hip-hop, indie, Music, rap

→ May 6, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, April 2022.

April was a lighter month for good singles, but we’re heading into a heavy period of new album releases starting today (Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Sunflower Bean, Warpaint). We get new albums from The Smile, Everything Everything, Porridge Radio, Stars, and Liam Gallagher this month, and Bartees Strange, Foals, Soccer Mommy, and Post Malahahahaha I can’t even finish that, next month. As always, you can click here to access the playlist if you can’t see the widget below.

Kae Tempest feat. Grian Chatten – I Saw Light. Tempest is a poet and spoken-word artist whose work I was unfamiliar with, but this song, featuring Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C., flattened me. I heard the song and thought they might be a poet, just because the lyrics are that good, especially the depth of imagery within them.

Belle and Sebastian – Young and Stupid. This is the sweet spot for me with Belle and Sebastian – lush and a little more uptempo, with Murdoch’s wry humor throughout the lyrics, which he also exhibited in this tweet on Wednesday.

Sports Team – R Entertainment. Strong lyrics might be the theme for this month’s playlist; Sports Team does that thing I keep mentioning that I like where we get some British singer sing-talking clever lyrics over post-punk backing music. They’re just the right side of obnoxious for me.

Just Mustard – Mirrors. I think this Irish shoegaze band is starting to come into its own heading into their second album, with a better sense of its sound, including a slightly more prominent melody, and better production that better centers the vocals.

Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler – The Eagle and the Dove. Yep, that’s Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. Buckley’s career started on a British reality competition show, where she finished second, with the winner getting a part in a new stage production of Oliver! … which is a long way of saying she was a singer before she was an actress. It turns out she’s great at both, which you can see in 2019’s Wild Rose.

Let’s Eat Grandma – Levitation. I understand the joke in this band’s name (the importance of proper punctuation!) but I still don’t like it. Their sound, though, has a very mid-80s synthpop vibe that is catnip to me as a child of that era. This is my favorite song from them so far, coming off their third album, Two Ribbons, released last month.

Everything Everything – I Want a Love Like This. One of my favorite bands of the last decade, EE will release their sixth album, Raw Data Feel, on May 20^th. This is the third single from that album – a fourth, “Pizza Boy,” dropped this morning – and I’m pretty excited about the direction so far.

Foals – Looking High. Foals promised that their upcoming album, Life Is Yours, due out June 17^th, would be upbeat and danceable, and the early singles have delivered on that promise.

Cory Wong – Power Station. Wong has worked with a few musicians who worked with Prince, and this track sounds a lot like something we might hear from Prince’s endless well of unreleased tracks. I’m in.

beabadoobee – See You Soon. Beatopiacomes outon July 17^th; withthis and “Talk,” both very strong singles with different vibes (this one is quieter and more lush, “Talk” is more straight-up rock), coming out in the last few weeks, I’m expecting a big leap forward on her second record.

The Head and the Heart – Shut Up. Every Shade of Blue came out in April and it’s really all over the place – it sounds like the work of three different bands who split the album between them – with this my favorite track on the album.

Arcade Fire – Unconditional I (Lookout Kid). I definitely worry any time Arcade Fire puts out a song with a second part, but this is actually a simpler and less pretentious affair than Win Butler has offered on similar diptychs (“Infinite Content,” the Orpheus/Eurydice tracks from Reflektor, or the two singles they released in March).

Interpol – Toni. The lead single from their forthcoming album The Other Side of Make-Believe, due out July 15^th, is an understated affair from Interpol as they celebrate their 25^th anniversary, a change from how they usually announce new albums – “PDA,” “Slow Hands,” and “The Heinrich Maneuver” were all heavier rock tracks and the lead singles from their respective albums.

Sunflower Bean – I Don’t Have Control Sometimes. This jangle-pop trio’s third album, Headful of Sugar, comes out today, featuring five songs we’ve heard already – four advance singles as well as the bonus track “Moment in the Sun,” a one-off single from 2020 that made my top 100 from that year.

Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia. Speaking of these Dublin punks, they dial the intensity down on their third album, as on the title track here. It’s hit or miss, unfortunately, as I think they’ve lost the righteous anger that made their last album, A Hero’s Death, more successful.

Iceage – All the Junk on the Outskirts. This track was left on the cutting room floor during the recording of 2018’s Beyondless, but they’ve “reconfigured” it and released in advance of their summer/fall tour.

Buzzcocks – Senses Out of Control. I assumed the death of Pete Shelley in 2018 would be the end of the Buzzcocks, but here they are … and this is actually pretty good, wth 66-year-old Steve Diggle handling vocals.

Working Men’s Club – Circumference. I don’t know if WMC qualify as “darkwave,” but I love their darker spin on new wave, which at least has strong roots in 1980s darkwave bands like Clan of Xymox and Bauhaus.

Wet Leg – Ur Mum. I’m just not on this duo’s wavelength despite the wide critical acclaim; the weird high/low vocal delivery just rubs me the wrong way, and I find myself in the minority in thinking their lyrics aren’t that witty. That said, there are three songs on their self-titled debut album I like, this one “Angelica,” and “Wet Dream,” which is a pretty solid effort.

SAULT – Luos Higher. SAULT changed their entire sound for their sixth album, Air, released last month with no advance notice, as with their previous records. They’ve dispensed with the ’70s funk and soul sounds, and all of the Black Lives Matter-themed lyrics are gone … in fact, just about all of the lyrics are gone. Air is almost all instrumental, highly experimental in music styles and forms, and simultaneously impressive and disappointing. I respect the ambition here, but what made SAULT’s first four albums in particular so incredible was their combination of smart, incisive lyrics and a modern twist on classic genres of music. Bring that beat back, Inflo.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, Music

→ April 4, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, March 2022.

Another strong month for new music, enough that I ended up cutting a few tracks – any time I do that I feel like it means the standard to make the playlist is getting higher. You can access it here if you can’t see the widget below.

Blossoms – Ode to NYC. I’d heard Blossoms before, but not much of their music, and nothing grabbed me like the two singles they released in March from their upcoming album, Ribbon Around the Bomb, have. “Ode to NYC” is like a mad scientist selected the best genes from Lord Huron and The Head and the Heart and made a new creature into this song. It’s also kind of amazing to me that a British band can so effortlessly co-opt the American indie-folk sound.

Riverby – Chapel. The vocals here from August Greenberg are stunning, on what is by far the best track on this emo-punk band’s latest album, Absolution. Just make the whole record out of this.

Hatchie – Lights On. This Australiandream-pop singer/songwriter is about to release her second full-length album, Giving the World Away, on April 22^nd, featuring this track, “Quicksand,” and the solid title track.

HAIM – Lost Track. I have never cared for HAIM’s sort of inoffensive soft-pop, despite their acclaim from other musicians, many of whose music I liked. This is the first song by theirs I’ve really liked, as it doesn’t try to do much at all – there’s a good hook in the chorus, some nice counterpoint in the vocals, and it’s over in under two and a half minutes.

Soccer Mommy – Shotgun. Another artist I’ve never been able to get into, Soccer Mommy announced her third album, Sometimes, Forever, will drop on June 24^th, with this lead single boasting a great hook in the pre-chorus line “Whenever you want me…”

Greentea Peng – Your Mind. Peng has shown an experimental bent since the start of her career, but she’s widening her musical template even further with this single, which leans further into jazz and if anything de-emphasizes her vocals in favor of more interesting music.

Elzhi feat. Georgia-Anne Muldrow – Already Gone. Elzhi is a Detroit rapper loosely associated with Danny Brown and the late J Dilla, with a discography that goes back to an EP he released in 1998. I’d never heard anything by him, but he has a strong old-school delivery that reflects those late ’90s roots.

Jack White feat. Q-Tip – Hi-De-Ho. White and Tip worked together on the final ATCQ album in 2016, so the pairing here isn’t surprising, but the song itself is. It’s not just Q-Tip making one of his hundred or so guest appearances, where he never mails it in but also never seems to exert himself that much, and it’s not just White playing a riff or two over and over again. It sounds like an experiment, like two people got in the studio and started messing with several ideas, but decided to release four minutes of that musical exploration even though it doesn’t confirm to expectations of what a single from two experienced, fairly mainstream artists should sound like.

Bartees Strange – Heavy Heart. Strange is a huge fan of the National but his music always sounds to me like a better twist on The Hold Steady.

Band of Horses – Warning Signs. I’d say Things Are Great is much better than Why Are You OK and somewhat better than Mirage Rock but not as good as Cease to Begin. So, if you already like Band of Horses, you should like this album, which for me was a mixed bag but more good than not.

Spiritualized – The Mainline Song. I’ve known about Spiritualized for probably 25 years, at least since Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, which was widely praised by critics at the time and has only grown in stature since then. Also, it’s hard to believe that that album, OK Computer, and Urban Hymns are all a quarter century old. Anyway, this is a joyous track from Spiritualized that seems to catch them at the top of their game.

Weird Nightmare – Searching for You. Weird Nightmare is Alex Edkins of METZ, and this sounds a lot like METZ, unsurprisingly, although if anything it’s a bit tighter and more accessible.

Blossoms – The Sulking Poet. I haven’t put two songs from one artist on the same playlist in probably five or more years, so it’s a big fucking deal (to me, at least), when I do do it. Like, big enough that I was looking at Blossoms tour dates and debating whether it made sense to go to Lisbon for two days to see them in a music festival.

alt-J – Happier When You’re Gone. I’vegone from the world’s biggest alt-J fan to someone who’d be fine if they never released another album. The ambitious, experimental, meticulous songwriting from their first album, An Awesome Wave, is long gone in favor of more easily digestible and, consequently, more boring alt-pop songs. This track is probably the closest they’ve come at least to the sensibility of the first album since anything on their second record.

Everything Everything – Teletype. Contrast that with Everything Everything, who probably peaked for me with the two tremendous singles off Arc, “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe,” yet who haven’t stopped trying to innovate, or given up their weirdness to pander to a larger audience. This draws more on electronic music styles than what we’ve heard from them previously, although the next track, “I Want a Love Like This,” goes in a different direction.

Sprints – Delia Smith. Sprints’ new EP, A Modern Job, features a couple of very strong punk-pop tracks that are more punk than pop, including this one, which names one of Britain’s most notable celebrity chefs.

Pillow Queens – Hearts & Minds. This Irish quartet released its new album, Leave the Lights On, on Friday, to positive reviews. There’s definitely an American alt-rock vibe to their music; I saw a comparison to the Killers, which holds if you consider the half of the Killers’ catalogue where they lean into roots and country-rock, like “Dying Breed” or “Lightning Fields” from Imploding the Mirage.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Personal Message. A new artist to me, Melody Prochet released her first album a decade ago, and continues to make ethereal chamber-pop with a similar vocal style to Hatchie’s.

Arcade Fire – The Lightning II. Arcade Fire released two albums in March, right before Will Butler announced he was leaving the band. “The Lightning I” is a pretentious slog, while this track has more of the big energy that recalls their first two albums.

The Smile – Skrting on the Surface. I assume this supergroup’s album is coming very soon, with three singles released so far; it’s hard not to think of this as pre-Kid A Radiohead given the prominence of Thom Yorke’s voice and Jonny Greenwood’s musical direction, although nothing they’ve put out so far has the same rock vibe as Radiohead’s peak albums Pablo Honey and OK Computer.

Bloc Party – Sex Magik. I will probably forever want Kele & Company to make the next “Banquet,” but I’ll settle for something as frenetic and loud in that post-punk vein. Last year’s “Traps” had it, this mostly has it, while the newest single “If We Get Caught” doesn’t.

beabadoobee – Talk. Beatrice Laus’s second album Beatopia is due out on July 15^th, and if this sunny fuzzed-out lead single is an indicator of what’s coming, I’m in.

The Mysterines – Means to Bleed. Lia Metcalfe and company finally released their first full-length album, but it didn’t include some of their best singles to date. Where’s “I Win Every Time?” Or “Gasoline?” Or “Bet Your Pretty Face?” There’s good material here, and Metcalfe’s deep, smoky voice pairs so well with the band’s crunching guitars, but they’ve toned some of the energy down a notch, and I miss their earliest work. I still think they’ve got a chance to be huge.

Drug Church – Fun’s Over. Musicians I know love Drug Church, and this marks the post-hardcore group’s second appearance on one of my playlists; their new album Hygiene is quick and punchy, with short bursts of mid-tempo punk with heavy bottoms and garage-rock production.

Crows – Garden of England. Crows’ debut album Silver Tongues was one of my favorites of 2019, and they just returned with their second LP, Beware Believers, on Friday. Their music is just as loud and angry, blending punk, garage, and thrash on this furious track released just a few weeks before the full record.

Opeth – Width of a Circle. Don’t get too excited – it’s a bonus track on the extended edition of Opeth’s 2019 album In Cauda Venenum. But it’s still new Opeth, and that’s good.

Vio-Lence – Upon their Cross. The lyrics don’t make a ton of sense, but the riffing from these Bay Area thrash pioneers is still good.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, Music, progressive metal, rap, thrash

→ March 6, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, February 2022.

February turned out to be a loaded month for music, especially album releases, with The Wombats’ Fix Yourself, Not the World and Frank Turner’s FTHC two of my favorites, while Gang of Youths’ angel in realtime was a letdown after three great singles leading up to the release. I still need to listen to Black Country, New Road’s new album, and re-listen to the new LPs from White Lies and Band of Horses (which came out on Friday). In the meantime, here’s my latest playlist, which you can see here if you can’t see the widget below.

Everything Everything – Bad Friday. I love the way this song recalls the frenetic energy of some of EE’s best tracks, from “Cough Cough” to “Kemosabe” to “My Kz, Ur Bf” and “Planets.” The English art-rock quartet will release their sixth album, Raw Data Feel, on May 20^th.

Portugal. The Man – What, Me Worry? Five years after Woodstock made the band into stars, led by the all-timer hit “Feel It Still,” the Portland-based rockers will return with their ninth album this June, and have just begun a U.S. tour with alt-J.

Arlo Parks – Softly. Parks’ first new music since her Mercury Prize-winning debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams came out in January of 2021 is this shimmering new track that contrasts sunny music with melancholy lyrics about a dying relationship. She told NME that she’s expanding her musical palette, which I take as a great sign.

Mattiel – Lighthouse. Featuring one of the best pop hooks of the year so far, this is the second single in advance of the Atlanta indie-rock duo’s third album, Georgia Gothic, on March 18^th. I get a big Swing Out Sister vibe from the song, maybe just because of the lead singer’s voice.

Pillow Queens – Be By Your Side. I think this is the first Pillow Queens track I’ve heard, but their 2020 debut album In Waiting earned some very positive reviews; I’m fairly sure Spotify’s algorithm put it on my Release Radar because I love whenyoung, another Irish band that mines similar sonic territory.

Foals – 2am. Life is Yours, Foals’ seventh album, is due out on June 17^th, and this is the second banger so far from the record, after last fall’s outstanding “Wake Me Up.”

Sunflower Bean – Who Put You Up to This? Great guitar work here, unusual for Sunflower Bean, whose previous songs have been more muted and driven by bright melodies.

Just Mustard – Still. This Irish shoegaze band first showed up on my playlists in 2019, with the singles “October” and “Seven,” but this is their first new music since then and comes with an announcement of a new album, Heart Under, due out in May. I enjoy the hard-edged guitar work contrasted with the clear vocals of Katie Ball.

Mdou Moctar – Nakanegh Digh. This bonus track on the deluxe version of Afrique Victime absolutely rocks, like so much of that album, and I can’t believe I have a college game to attend on the same night Moctar and Parquet Courts are playing near me.

Melt Yourself Down – Balance. I don’t even know how to describe MYD’s music; it’s not eclectic so much as it smushes together a half-dozen genres or styles, notably jazz, American R&B, and dance. They’ve been around for a decade, with their fourth album, Pray for Me I Don’t Fit In, coming out in February, but this was my first exposure to them. The guitar riff here is fucking incredible.

Johnny Marr – Ghoster. Marr has never quite hit the right melodic notes as a solo artist – I hate to say he needs his former bandmate, given what happened to that guy, but he needs someone like that – although the early singles from Fever Dreams Parts 1-4 have had some decent hooks.

Joy Oladokun w/Tim Gent – Fortune Favors the Bold. I love Oladokun’s voice, and here she finds another strong hook in the chorus; I’m not sure if Gent’s rapping adds much here, though.

Belle & Sebastian – Unnecessary Drama. I can never tell the direction in which Stuart Murdoch et al are going, but this sounds like a shift back to the more uptempo, rock-oriented sounds from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

Wet Leg – Angelica. I hated Wet Leg’s single “Chaise Longue,” which got all kinds of critical praise despite being annoying and juvenile, but this track is far better in every way. The lyrics are actually funny and clever, the melody is stronger, and they’re not repeating the same line ad nauseum. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, as they’re still quite distinctly in that vein of British indie rock where everything’s a bit off kilter, but if you’ve read my music posts for a while, you know I’m usually a sucker for that (from Gang of Four to Yard Act).

Blossoms – Ode to NYC. Another band I feel like I should have known before, Blossoms are English but remind me of Lord Huron and The Head and the Heart in all the good ways.

The Head and the Heart – Virginia (Wind in the Night). These folk-rock stalwarts will release their fifth album, Every Shade of Blue, on April 29^th.

The Afghan Whigs – I’ll Make You See God. Good to have Dulli and company back. Age hasn’t blunted their sharp edges at all.

Killing Joke – Lords of Chaos. I assumed these post-punk icons were done after 2015’s Pylon, a fantastic album that would have served as a perfect coda to a long career of genre-expanding albums and influencing several generations of punk, metal, and alternative bands, but they’re releasing a new EP with this as the title track. Also, the show Euphoria really should have used Killing Joke’s song of the same name for the theme music.

The Beths – A Real Thing. The Beths return nearly two years after the New Zealand power-pop band’s last album, Jump Rope Gazers, with a song that talks obliquely about climate change. There’s no word on a new album but the band is about to finally embark on their first North American tour.

Alt-J – Happier When You’re Gone. The Dream, alt-J’s fourth album, represents a further shift in a less ambitious, more overtly commercial direction for the British trio, who have never managed to reach the heights of their debut An Awesome Wave in the decade since its release. This track bears some resemblance to that first album in its music, although there’s nothing so daring anywhere on this record.

Kreator – Hate Über Alles. The German thrash legends are still at it, forty years after they first formed, and I don’t think they’ve lost a step or even changed their sound much in that time.

Zeal and Ardor – Death to the Holy. This is about as good as Z&A’s marriage of gospel and death metal can get, where the extreme sounds actually work to enhance the more traditional elements between those moments.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, metal, Music

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