{"id":6597,"date":"2018-05-04T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=6597"},"modified":"2018-05-04T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T13:50:08","slug":"music-update-april-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/04\/music-update-april-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, April 2018."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This month\u2019s playlist is a little shorter than the last few because I\u2019ve been traveling so much the last few weeks, but that should slow down now as we approach the draft, so I\u2019ll get to spend more time hunting down new tracks. I\u2019ve also broken with tradition and opened this month\u2019s playlist with a metal track, although after that it\u2019s back to normal, with two more metal tracks at the end. As always, you can access <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/keithlaw1\/playlist\/51mbWm3pYzX0nC8fcVsOzW?si=Jbs0pUE0RFqVh_AnWpGKfA\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Spotify playlist directly<\/a> here if you can\u2019t see the widget below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/user\/keithlaw1\/playlist\/51mbWm3pYzX0nC8fcVsOzW\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ghost \u2014 Rats.<\/strong> Ghost\u2019s marketing shtick is that they\u2019re a black metal band from Norway (of course)  and no one knows the band members\u2019 identities. The black metal stuff is stupid, the identity thing is tired, but they have turned out to be a rather adept creator of new heavy metal tracks that sound very much like peak New Wave of British Heavy Metal artists like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Some of their songs have gone too far with the Satanic theme &#8211; which feels to me like patronizing the audience &#8211; but this one is just a straight-up rocker.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DMA\u2019s \u2014 Break Me.<\/strong> The Aussie band\u2019s early Britpop vibe, still more Oasis than Blur, continues throughout their new album <em>For Now<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hatchie \u2014 Sugar &#038; Spice.<\/strong> The first of two songs from this Australian singer\/songwriter\/multi-instrumentalist on this playlist, although both of them have the same early Cranberries-meet-shoegaze vibe. Harriette Pilbeam doesn\u2019t have Dolores O\u2019Riordan\u2019s pipes but she has the late Irish band\u2019s sense of melody.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ring the Bells \u2014 Johnnyswim with Drew Holcomb &#038; the Neighbors.<\/strong> Johnnyswim is a folk duo from Nashville comprising Donna Summer\u2019s daughter Amanda Sudano and Sudano\u2019s husband Abner Ramirez. I freely admit I\u2019d never heard them before this song, which is a sort of folk-rock banger, if there is such a thing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>C\u0153ur de Pirate \u2014 Somnambule.<\/strong> I just adore B\u00e9atrice Martin\u2019s voice, so I\u2019m going to tell people she\u2019s my girlfriend, and when they ask why she isn\u2019t here with me, I can truthfully tell them, \u201cShe lives in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Janelle Mon\u00e1e featuring Grimes \u2014 Pynk.<\/strong> I\u2019m still unpacking <em>Dirty Computer<\/em>, Mon\u00e1e\u2019s new album; so much of her music seems to demand repeated listens to pick up all her ideas. This isn\u2019t as good as \u201cVenus Fly,\u201d the collaboration between these two women on Grimes\u2019 <em>Art Angels<\/em>, but it\u2019s a totally different kind of song, and there\u2019s a lot of very suggestive wordplay here that wasn\u2019t there on the Grimes-led track.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hundred Waters \u2014 Mushroom Cloud<\/strong>. This spare, devastating new single from the Gainesville, Florida trio comes amidst rumors that <a href=\"https:\/\/consequenceofsound.net\/2018\/04\/hundred-waters-share-new-single-mushroom-cloud-stream\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the band might be breaking up<\/a>, but it finds singer Nicole Miglis at her soaring, commanding best.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Snail Mail \u2014 Heat Wave<\/strong>. The second solid single from the Baltimore singer\/guitarist starts slow, literally and figuratively, but wait for the guitar to come in before you pass judgment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wooden Shjips \u2014 Red Line.<\/strong> This San Francisco band, who always sound like they\u2019re midway through a set at Altamont, just released this lead single from their forthcoming album <em>V<\/em>, their first new music in five years. All hail the Hammond organ.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Courtney Barnett \u2014 City Looks Pretty.<\/strong> I\u2019m on record as preferring Barnett\u2019s material when she picks up the tempo; her lyrics are always strong, but because her vocal style is kind of flat and talky by design, it doesn\u2019t meld well with slower tracks. This one moves at a quick enough pace to work with her laconic singing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gang of Four \u2014 Ivanka (Things You Can\u2019t Have).<\/strong> Gang of Four have always been political, but this has to be their most direct attack on a target in &#8230; ever? Of course, Go4 aren\u2019t what they used to be, in a literal sense: guitarist and primary songwriter Andy Gill is the only one of the original Gang still in the band, and their sound is a lot more modern and less post-punk than it once was. It does still work, though, and Gill\u2019s righteous anger is well-placed on this EP, titled <em>Complicit<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Soft Science \u2014 Undone.<\/strong> This Sacramento outfit calls itself a dream-pop\/shoegaze act, so it\u2019s not surprising that this song\u2019s main riff is at least similar to My Bloody Valentine\u2019s \u201cI Only Said,\u201d from <em>Loveless<\/em>, long considered one of the seminal records of the shoegaze movement. At least here I can understand what the singer is saying, though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hatchie \u2014 Sleep.<\/strong> Pilbeam\u2019s accent comes through a bit more here, but what really draws me to this track is the staccato, off-beat percussion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kid Astray \u2014 Are You Here?<\/strong> I wonder if this Norwegian outfit is just too weird to get much airplay here, but it\u2019s a shame &#8211; they continue to churn out great hooks and there really isn\u2019t anyone else who sounds like them at all. This five-minute track seems to keep folding in on itself and back out again into new shapes, like a musical hexaflexagon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speedy Ortiz \u2014 Buck Me Off.<\/strong> The lead track from the group\u2019s third album, <em>Twerp Verse<\/em>, which I can say off one listen so far is really damn good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lord Huron \u2014 Never Ever.<\/strong> Huron\u2019s new album, <em>Vide Noir<\/em>, feels like a big step forward, as they were caught in purgatory between folk-lite bands like Mumford &#038; Sons and the rock mainstream, where bands like the Avett Brothers draw on folk but aren\u2019t afraid to air it out a little. This record definitely airs it out, as on this track and on the two-part \u201cAncient Names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Johnny Marr \u2014 The Tracers.<\/strong> While Moz continues to milkshake duck himself with racist and bigoted commentary, Johnny Marr keeps making guitar-driven alternative rock, less charming than Smiths material but still bringing the hooks. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Lizzy Borden \u2014 My Midnight Things.<\/strong> File this one under \u201cI had no idea this band was still recording and has been for the last thirty years.\u201d I know Lizzy Borden (the band) from its occasional appearances on MTV\u2019s <em>Headbanger\u2019s Ball<\/em>, which was always a little light on the head banging and heavy on the hair metal. The original singer, who has always gone by the name Lizzy Borden, and drummer are still in the band, and I don\u2019t think their sound has changed that much from what I remember of their 1980s output. This wouldn\u2019t be out of place on a reboot of the aforementioned TV show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Khemmis \u2014 Isolation.<\/strong> <em>Desolation<\/em>, the third album from this Colorado heavy metal outfit, arrives June 22nd; they have elements of doom, but this track is positively uptempo for that genre, and I appreciate the totally clean vocals in a space that generally looks down on guys who can actually sing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>League of Starz ft. Freddy Gibbs, G Perico, &#038; Mozzy \u2014 Colors.<\/strong> A collaborative rap track dominated by Gibbs&#8217; verse, as he&#8217;s one of the few MCs today whose style and technical skill rival the stars of the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month\u2019s playlist is a little shorter than the last few because I\u2019ve been traveling so much the last few weeks, but that should slow down now as we approach the draft, so I\u2019ll get to spend more time hunting down new tracks. I\u2019ve also broken with tradition and opened this month\u2019s playlist with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[978,359,763,757,852,261],"class_list":["post-6597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2018-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-australian-music","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-rap","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6605,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6597\/revisions\/6605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}