{"id":8721,"date":"2020-11-01T11:04:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T16:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8721"},"modified":"2020-11-01T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T16:04:41","slug":"music-update-october-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/01\/music-update-october-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, October 2020."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>October turned out to be a great month for new music, perhaps boosted by five Fridays (I feel like music analytics would have to adjust for that). I also think that the pandemic and inadequate responses by many developed nations have left musicians and labels at the point where they don&#8217;t feel like they can keep delaying releases \u2013 movie studios have a financial incentive to keep kicking the can down the road, but record labels don&#8217;t. So this month I have 24 songs on the playlist, with over 90 minutes of new music, running the full gamut of musical styles I like. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/6FdHQwoBY0leIVkzhvf3Bn?si=Kjty1uIGRVyBPe2-Gj3IKA\">access the playlist here<\/a> if you can&#8217;t see the widget below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-spotify wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Klaw&amp;apos;s October 2020 new music update\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/6FdHQwoBY0leIVkzhvf3Bn?si=Kjty1uIGRVyBPe2-Gj3IKA&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard \u2013 Automation<\/strong>. Maybe the best guitar riff of the year. I don&#8217;t love everything King Gizzard does, but I&#8217;m always amazed by their musical shapeshifting. They can move from psychedelia to metal to blues rock and in between and still put out two albums a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Creeper \u2013 Annabelle<\/strong>. Creeper&#8217;s first album was a horror-themed punk record, but they&#8217;ve remade themselves on their sophomore album, <em>Sex, Death &amp; the Infinite Void<\/em>, which is one of the best LPs of 2020, a mad, sprawling record that recalls Suede, the Killers, My Chemical Romance (in a good way), Americana, and elements of early 1980s post-punk\/new wave. Some other standout tracks on the album include &#8220;Paradise,&#8221; &#8220;Cyanide,&#8221; and &#8220;Poisoned Heart,&#8221; but really the whole album is incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAERTS &amp; Ed Droste \u2013 For the Sky<\/strong>. I don&#8217;t know if or when HAERTS will give us a new album \u2013 lead singer Nini Fabi just had a baby, which I&#8217;m sure impacts their timeline \u2013 but this one-off track with Grizzly Bear&#8217;s Ed Droste is a lovely interlude to tide us over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Peking Duk &amp; the Wombats \u2013 Nothing to Love About Love<\/strong>. I wasn&#8217;t familiar with the Australian &#8220;mad rock&#8221; duo Peking Duk, but this came on my Release Radar because I&#8217;m a huge fan of the Wombats \u2013 and this sounds like a Wombats song remixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Battles, DJ Dairy, &amp; DJ Orient \u2013 Stirling Bridge<\/strong>. Battles put out a call for artists interested in remixing tracks from their 2019 album <em>Juice B Crypts<\/em>, and the resulting EP will come out on November 20<sup>th<\/sup>. This track comes from two members of black midi, and it&#8217;s not a remix of any single song but a new creation from the raw tracks Battles recorded when making the original record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Goodie Mob ft. Organized Noize \u2013 Frontline<\/strong>. Goodie Mob&#8217;s first album in seven years, <em>Survival Kit<\/em>, comes out on November 13<sup>th<\/sup>, with tracks featuring Andr\u00e9 3000, Big Boi, and Chuck D. This single is an anthem for Black Lives Matter protesters, with prominent mention of the federal government&#8217;s use of tear gas on peaceful demonstrators. Cee-Lo also appeared on a new track from Big Boi and Killer Mike called &#8220;We the Ones,&#8221; which has great work from the two MCs but sluggish music and mailed-in vocals from Cee-Lo, who is a <a href=\"https:\/\/madamenoire.com\/1182282\/cee-lo-green-wap\/\">pretty terrible person<\/a> anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tori Handsley ft. Ruth Goller and Moses Boyd \u2013 What&#8217;s in a Tune<\/strong>. Tori Handsley is a jazz harpist who&#8217;s been playing with other artists since at least 2010, but is just now releasing her first music under her own name, leading a trio that includes drummer\/producer Moses Boyd (whose <em>Dark Matter<\/em> is one of my favorite albums of 2020). I heard this song before knowing anything about Handsley, and I assumed Handsley was playing a guitar via two-handed tapping, or maybe a Chapman stick, but she gets sounds and patterns from the harp that I don&#8217;t associate with that instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jorja Smith ft. Popcaan \u2013 Come Over<\/strong>. This new track from the Mercury-nominated English singer-songwriter Smith appears to be a prelude to a sophomore album, although it&#8217;s at least her third single since <em>Lost &amp; Found <\/em>came out in 2018. It has a more obvious reggae influence than the last few tracks and includes a contribution from dancehall artist Popcaan, although I don&#8217;t think he brings much to the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arlo Parks \u2013 Green Eyes<\/strong>. Parks&#8217; debut album is finished, and due for a release early in 2021, but this is at least her fifteenth single to date, at least according to her artist page on Spotify. I&#8217;ve been late to this party but her voice is gorgeous and whatever you might call her style of music \u2013 it&#8217;s soulful but not really soul, folk-ish but definitely not folk \u2013 I&#8217;m here for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TRAAMS \u2013 Intercontinental Radio Waves<\/strong>. I hadn&#8217;t heard TRAAMS before this song, but they released two albums in 2013 and 2015, and a song in 2016, before going dark for the last four years. Wikipedia calls their early music &#8220;krautrock&#8221; and that&#8217;s certainly still evident here, with a flat vocal delivery over a pulsing electronic backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Slow Pulp \u2013 Track<\/strong>. Slow Pulp&#8217;s music is indeed slow, and atmospheric, although here they sound more like Slow Smashing Pumpkins (the intro is a lot like the chord pattern from &#8220;Today&#8221;) \u2013 with lyrics about the lead singer&#8217;s mother&#8217;s anxiety over getting Alzheimer&#8217;s disease, which runs in their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Artificial Pleasure \u2013 The Movement of Sound<\/strong>. Artificial Pleasure released their second album, <em>A New Joy<\/em>, on Friday, so I haven&#8217;t had a chance to crack it yet \u2013 we&#8217;re seeing a flood of new material this fall, which is great except that I&#8217;m never in the car to listen to music at long stretches like I used to do \u2013 but it includes this banging track as well as last year&#8217;s &#8220;Boys Grow Up,&#8221; this year&#8217;s &#8220;Lose Myself Again,&#8221; and both parts of &#8220;Into the Unknown&#8221; as a single song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hot Chip ft. Jarvis Cocker \u2013 Straight to the Morning<\/strong>. I think I take Hot Chip for granted, because their singles are consistently good, just rarely great on the level of &#8220;Over and Over&#8221; or &#8220;Huarache Lights.&#8221; This track includes former Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker, although he&#8217;s barely noticeable, and the melody is strong enough that the song doesn&#8217;t need any help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Deep Sea Diver \u2013 Hurricane<\/strong>. Deep Sea Diver grew out of a solo project of that name by Jennifer Dobson, now the lead singer\/guitarist\/songwriter of a full four-piece band. Sharon Van Etten makes a cameo on the band&#8217;s new album, <em>Impossible Weight<\/em>, which gives you some idea of their sound, although Dobson&#8217;s vocals are far superior and give this song a hint of pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Struts ft. Joe Elliott and Phil Collen \u2013 I Hate How Much I Want You<\/strong>. It is entirely appropriate for a band as bombastic as the Struts to call in two members of hair metal icons Def Leppard for a song this ridiculous. I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dinosaur Pile-Up \u2013 It&#8217;s Tricky<\/strong>. Another snotty rock band covers another seminal early hip-hop track. This shouldn&#8217;t work, but it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are We Static \u2013 Wildfire<\/strong>. This new track from AWS starts out a little like that annoying 2014 song &#8220;Geronimo&#8221; by Sheppard, but instead of turning into a poppy sing-along it converts that nervous energy into a swirling guitar-driven chorus, a quantum improvement in my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Black Honey \u2013 I Like the Way You Die<\/strong>. I love Black Honey but this title is on the bleak side for a band this poppy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>All Them Witches \u2013 Lights Out<\/strong>. ATW&#8217;s <em>Nothing as the Ideal<\/em> has some incredible psychedelic sludge rock riffs across its eight songs, highlighted by this one and &#8220;Enemy of my Enemy,&#8221; although the six-minute-plus tracks go too long for their content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rob Zombie \u2013 The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)<\/strong>. I did not foresee Rob Zombie dropping one of the best hard-rock tracks of 2020, I have to admit, but this is peak RZ content, even hinting back at the last White Zombie album <em>Astro-Creep: 2000<\/em> with samples and electronic elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pallbearer \u2013 Vengeance &amp; Ruination<\/strong>. The kings of American doom metal \u2013 or just modern doom metal, period \u2013 just released their 4th album, <em>Forgotten Days<\/em>, and I think it&#8217;s their most accessible work to date, although it still has some longer tracks to satisfy diehards (and perhaps scare off folks looking for more radio-friendly lengths).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Killer Be Killed \u2013 Dream Gone Bad<\/strong>. Mastodon vocalist Troy Sanders is involved in two side projects that released new tracks this month; this is the better of the two, as the latest Gone is Gone track didn&#8217;t do much for me. KBK includes Max Cavalera of Soulfly and formerly of Sepultura, but the sound is closer to Mastodon&#8217;s here, very bass-forward with thrash elements but mostly clean (and strong) vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dark Tranquility \u2013 Identical to None<\/strong>. DT&#8217;s newest album <em>Moment<\/em> will drop on November 20<sup>th<\/sup>; it seems like more classic Gothenburg melodic death metal, with some great thrash riffing below the growled vocals. I haven&#8217;t spent a ton of time on this but I think Gothenburg bands have a distinctive melodic sound that works more at the middle and higher ends of the guitar&#8217;s range in each song&#8217;s standout riffs, whereas comparable bands from other scenes just try to blow you away with speed or riffs at the bottom end of the range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Carcass \u2013 Slaughtered in Soho<\/strong>. And this is the one exception to everything I just said \u2013 but Carcass is sort of an exception to a lot of generalizations about extreme metal, coming out of grindcore to create a ridiculous subgenre termed &#8220;goregrind&#8221; (which didn&#8217;t need its own name), only to abandon both the style and the lyrical content with <em>Heartwork<\/em>, among the greatest extreme metal albums in history and proof that you could craft compelling melodies without sacrificing speed, growled vocals, or other trappings of the death-metal genre. This track comes off their four-song EP <em>Despicable<\/em>, which just came out on Friday, with tracks that missed the cut for their next album. The riff on this one is great, and remarkably slow and grooved for Carcass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October turned out to be a great month for new music, perhaps boosted by five Fridays (I feel like music analytics would have to adjust for that). I also think that the pandemic and inadequate responses by many developed nations have left musicians and labels at the point where they don&#8217;t feel like they can [&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":[1153,359,1191,167,1127,979,852,261],"class_list":["post-8721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2020-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-hip-hop-2","tag-indie","tag-jazz","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-music","tag-rap","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721","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=8721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8722,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions\/8722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}