Lilacs & Champagne

Grails side project Lilacs & Champagne are back after almost a decade with a new album of psychedelia, jazz fusion, funk, library sounds, hip-hop, exotica, and so much more weirdness.  Check out new tune "Ill Gotten Gains" below and pre-order the upcoming "Fantasy World" LP here from Temporary Residence.

BADBADNOTGOOD

Here's a new one from Toronto instrumental wunderkinds BADBADNOTGOOD.  Fresh off being the backing band for soul singer Baby Rose's last release, the trio just dropped their own new EP with "Mid Spiral: Chaos."  Check out "Last Laugh" below and download the album here from XL Recordings.

Daily Jam - Vomit

“Nights I spend alone. I spend ‘em running ‘round looking for you Baby.”

The very first time I met my wife was in March of 1998 at a mutual friend’s parents’ house in a suburb of Houston. I was a freshman in college and there to see Radiohead and Spiritualized perform in the city, crashing with a group of guys at said parents’ house. She was still in high school, just hanging out with a friend on a Friday night. I might have been somewhat aloof, lost in my own college freshman-ness…OR I might have been drunk.

Neither one of us has any real recollection of meeting the other one.

The second time I met my wife was sometime during my sophomore year (those two semesters are very, very hazy) in College Station, visiting some friends over a weekend. She lived in the same off-campus dorm that a lot of my buddies did and hung out with them periodically. She might have been somewhat aloof, lost in her own college freshman-ness…OR I might have been…not in my right head.

Again, neither one of us has any real recollection of meeting the other.

Finally in October of 1999, again in College Station, this time for a mutual friend’s 21st birthday party, my wife and I met for the third time. Neither one of us was aloof, and I finally had my wits about me. This time it stuck.

We both remember this, quite vividly.

“Looking for love. Looking for love.”

As it was released in 2011 on the Father, Son, Holy Ghost LP, the second and final full-length album from the short lived San Francisco indie rock band Girls, the song “Vomit” doesn’t have much at all to do with my story about meeting my wife. But the lovelorn and maudlin track, an epic and gospel-tinged indie guitar rock ballad, always brings her to mind, especially in the song’s finale, the almost pleading repeating of “come into my heart” as a choir of singers ooh and aah in the background. Perhaps it’s overly sentimental of me. It was probably overly sentimental of the band. But it works. And I find myself often echoing the refrain.

And yes, it is weird (and kind of unfortunate) that a song called “Vomit” makes me think of my wife.

“Come into my heart. Come into my heart. Come into my heart.”

TR/ST

Here's some new electro-pop from LA-based artist TR/ST.  Dig on the airy synths of "Soon" below and download it here from Dais Records.

Daily Jam - Reach Out I'll Be There

This column was originally published in 2017, though honestly it could have been any year really.

I’m exhausted. The steady and constant flow of miserable information that courses across my eyeballs and into my brain, all at the impulsive touch of a screen is taking its toll. The prospect of taking a break, going on a vacation from social media and maybe the internet in general, is becoming increasingly desirable, a way to stop the media overload on my mind, to recharge, and I guess to avoid the constant, 24-hour onslaught of doom and gloom and utter horrible shit…if just for a week or so.

But I trudge on, like a pathetic junkie jonesing for his next fix, scrolling through Twitter feeds and Facebook comments like a trained lab rat.

Anyway, today let’s listen to The Four Tops’ 1966 hit “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” a little slice of Motown pop and soul that will settle my nerves for a moment or two. It’s damn near perfect and makes me want to be a background singer, dancing in unison with the rest of the chorus.

And as a bonus, the late, great lead singer Levi Stubbs would eventually go on to provide the voice of carnivorous plant Audrey II in the 1986 musical film version of Little Shop of Horrors, which is just awesome.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Belong

Now here's a name i haven't thought about in a long time.  It's been 13 years since we last heard from New Orleans experimental, shoegazey alt-rock duo Belong.  And now we've got a new album coming our way this summer.  Check out the metronomic beat and hazy swirl of "Souvenir" below and pre-order the upcoming "Realistic IX" LP here from Kranky.

Windows96

Brazilian artist Windows96 has been making electronic music for a number of years now, and for whatever reason, i've never really devoted any time to it.  And that's my bad, because i'm really digging the chillwave mall sounds of new album "Yes Da Da Da."  Check out the album opening "Sleep Chamber" below, download the album here from the artist, and just chill out for a little while.

Daily Jam - Like a Prayer

Yeah, I’m writing about a Madonna song today. Wanna fight about it?

Madonna Louise Ciccone has been veritable staple in our pop culture for four decades now. She’s had her ups and downs, fallen in and out of favor, stoked controversy, inspired other artists, earned her own fair share of mockery, recorded some great and fun music, and made some questionable artistic decisions, as our aging pop stars are wont to do in an often misguided attempt to maintain relevancy. But through all of this music, the good stuff, the bad stuff, the stuff I secretly like, and the REALLY bad stuff (please don’t ever rap again), the one constant for me has always been how awesome “Like A Prayer” is. And still is.

Yes. It IS awesome. I don’t care what you think.

Madge really hit it out of the park with that single, the title track from her 1989 album, inspiring equal amounts of evangelical derision and Pepsi ad dollars. Pairing gospel music with pop and dance proved infectious in the Williams household though, even as its ecstasy via spirituality themes flew right over my then 10-year old, prepubescent head. But it stayed with me, through my grunge years, and my industrial years, and my Britpop years, and my punk and metal and techno and hip-hop and indie rock and psych years…always there on the backburner…just waiting for me to come back…like Black Jesus.

“God…”

Bleached Cross

Chicago band Bleached Cross and Philly band The True Faith are set to release a split 12" this summer courtesy of A La Carte Records.  Pre-order "Columns of Impenetrable Light" here and listen to the darkwave and post punk sounds of "Grief's Eternal Wound" below.

Blockhead

New York producer Blockhead was given access to the extensive KPM music library by UK label Def Presse, and the result is the sublime mix of trip-hop and hip-hop of "Luminous Rubble."  Groove on the sounds of "Dork Crystal" below and get the LP here.

Trabants

And now for some fuzzy surf, psych, and garage rock vibes from LA band Trabants.  The trio's new "Mantra" 7" is out for out listening pleasure at month's end.  Pre-order the record here from the band and listen to the A-side below.

Magic Fig

San Francisco has been kicking out the psych pop jams for 60 years now, and some of the latest come from the sweet and dreamy vibes of Magic Fig.  The band's self-titled debut drops this Friday.  Get it here from Silver Current Records and listen to the lovely "PS1" below.

Bibi Club

Montreal duo Bibi Club make a wonderful mix of French pop and electro-tinged kosmische psych pop, headphone music for the cool kids.  New album "Feu de garde" just dropped on Friday.  Get it here from Secret City Records and listen to the mellow sounds of "You Can Wear a Jacket or a Shirt" below.

Daily Jam - The Black Amnesias

This column was originally published in October, 2017.

So, I had a song picked out for this week’s column, written up and ready to go, and then as seems to have happened on too many occasions to even comprehend this year, tragedy and horror greeted me Monday morning and made my little music and pop culture musings seem all the more trite and unnecessary. It feels like it’s every week now. A natural disaster, another racially motivated death or acquittal, the rich continuing to eat the poor in this country, the laughable state of this petulant administration, misdirected rage, or another mass shooting like we had last night in Las Vegas. This universe just keeps beating my soul down. And so, my prepared column just doesn’t seem like the way to go anymore. Maybe next week.

In the interim, I’ve got something that feels a little more relevant as to my current mood, “The Black Amnesias,” the opening track from UK band Hope of The States’ 2004 album The Lost Riots. The instrumental song to a record mired in death sounds like anguish. It sounds like pain. Like loss. And it should, as the band’s guitarist James Lawrence committed suicide before the record was complete, hanging himself in the studio after his bandmates and the recording engineers had gone home. The band completed the album, and then hobbled on for a couple more years before calling it quits. And while I can’t really attest to the rest of the group’s work, the post rock wail of “The Black Amnesias” moves me every time.

I guess it’s what I need right now.

Les Cyclades

Every now and then i find a song that just seems to completely catch my mood at the moment, and today, while looking out the window at the currently gray skies of Central Texas, that song is "Yser Mystère" by Belgian artist Les Cyclades.  The song is dreamy and noirish mix of ambient music, electronica, exotica, new age, Balearic dreampop, and jazz.  And at this moment, it just feels right.  Check the track out below and grab the new "Glika" LP here from Hi Scores.

Villagers

Here's some gentle, wistful, kinda spacey alt-rock from Irish artist Villagers.  "That Golden Time" moves in like a fog and hangs thick in the air, each note reverberating in the ears.  Get the album here from Domino and listen to the title track below.

Daily Jam - We Are the Dead

There’s this joke internet theory that we’re all currently residing in some kind of false narrative, an alternate reality of sorts created by a rip in the fabric of space and time that opened when the Hadron Collider began operating. It’s a fun theory I suppose, ripe for Sci-fi situations and metaphysical conundrums, and an amusing accounting of why everything is so fucked. But it lets us all off the hook way too easily. The truth is that everything seems so fucked because the world is full of greedy and malicious assholes, and a lot of them are in charge of things. That, combined with our booming, ever-expanding technological landscape and humanity’s penchant for rampant, untethered consumerism, we find that we were always just barreling towards this modern dystopia anyway. It was just waiting for us to get there.

“People will hold us to blame. It hit me today, it hit me today.”

I’m sure the signs were there, both literal and metaphorical. And the oracles of our art and pop culture threw up flashing warnings throughout the decades in their prose, visuals, and songs before ultimately succumbing to the whole inevitability of it all.

These days, I’m drawn to the darker moments of David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs, the Orwellian imagery abounding as the record was assembled from the remnants of a proposed and rejected 1984 musical. The album’s glammy rock n’ roll aesthetic cushions the darker, gloomier themes it explores before coming to a head on the record’s second side with the foreboding and doom-fueled “We Are the Dead” in particular. The song slinks and oozes, a hopeless and dreadful lament for what was, what is, and what will be. There is no escape. There will be no survivors.

“Because of all we’ve seen, because of all we’ve said. We are the dead.”

-----

And I could end the column there, cold and devoid of all hope, our fates sealed, and the sun setting one last time. It’s where the song ends after all. But I have to believe that there is still a sliver of light to be seen, a crack to break through, a chance to right the ship. We do not live in an alternate dystopian timeline. We live now. And we make our own reality and our own narrative, and we can fight the assholes before they shit all over everything. We just have to do what’s right and never stop fighting. Don’t give up.

“Trusting on the sons of our love, that someone will care, someone will care.”

Xeno & Oaklander

I am tired.  I think we probably all are.  So here's a new jam from Xeno & Oaklander to get the blood pumping again.  Dig on the electro-pop of "Magic of the Manifold" below and download it here from Dais Records.

Daily Jam - Mr. Blue Sky

This column was originally published in 2017 when my sons were ages four and one.

Over the last month, I would estimate that I have watched Guardians of the Galaxy, or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, or parts and bits thereof everywhere and in between, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 times. The only thing that rivals its TV dominance in my household are on-demand episodes of Sesame Street or the fleeting, late night moments when I get to watch college football. The four-year old has made sure of this. He hath decreed it so.

And I’m okay with it for the most part. To some degree, it’s a kind of comeuppance for the hours and hours of Star Wars that my brother and I inflicted on my parents back in the early '80s, but to be fair and honest, I can certainly dig on some Marvel movies myself, the Guardians films in particular being fun and entertaining. My son is bonkers for them. And more than just the movies, he’s taken to the soundtracks to the films too, asking for the songs at all hours in both our home and our cars.

The “Awesome Mixes” are on 24/7 in my life.

And still, I’m pretty okay with all of this. There are some great songs in both movies, and it’s kind of interesting to see which ones in particular my son gets excited for. And I’m never not going to be down for some “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra.

Originally appearing on 1977’s Out of the Blue, “Mr. Blue Sky” is the finale of the “Concerto for a Rainy Day,” the album’s glorious and inventive Side 3. Maybe the pinnacle of ELO’s career, it’s akin to mainlining some pure and uncut Jeff Lynne, proggy pop rock in my veins forever. The song would go on to appear as shopping mall muzak, and then later in car commercials, before finally soundtracking a Baby Groot dance routine on the big screen, and then making its way into my ears every day.

My son and I are sharing an Endless Loop. Maybe I’ve got a grasp on this whole parenting thing after all.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

We've got some new music from UK electronic artist Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan out today with the "A Shared Sense of Purpose" EP.  This is our first taste of the upcoming full-length release, "Your Community Hub."  Check out the prog-tinged "A Shared Sense of Purpose: 1973 Version" below and get the record here from Castles in Space.

Friday Horror Trailer - Witch Story

 

Daily Jam - The Killing Moon

I am a man out of time. I move along, dreamlike in a blue and green world, a past that doesn’t actually belong to me, and I feel at home. Or there are hazy, yellow shades, like fading old pictures placing me firmly in a past that does belong to me, and I still feel at home. I am alive in different times, different years, different decades and places, living both false memories and real ones, melancholy and yearning, a little homesick, but trying not to look back. I am a man out of time. Or, at least that’s how I feel when listening to Echo and The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.”

From the English band’s 1984 album Ocean Rain, “The Killing Moon” nibbled away at my childhood psyche, working and caressing its way into me through bits and pieces picked up on MTV, overhead speakers in record stores, and the music collections of older kids and cooler siblings, finally staking its claim to my heart in my adolescence as I finally began to pay attention and discover everything that came before. As a pop music obsessed teenager, I tracked all of my favorite artists’ inspirations and forebears, digging through the first wave with as much curiosity and glee as I did current releases. I’m pretty sure I found the song on some 120 Minutes compilation CD that I picked up in a dollar bin somewhere, featuring an array of classic and amazing songs from REM, Morrissey, and so many more, but “The Killing Moon” struck a nerve and continues to reverberate through my soul.

It’s kind of hard to believe the song is now 40 years old, as it always just feels to be a part of whatever era I’m currently residing in. Listening to it, I’m a teen in the 1980’s, or some stylized, cinematic version thereof, sitting in a soft lit bedroom and fading away, an aesthetic sticking to my brain that makes my heart ache for something unattainable. OR I’m myself in my own memories of 1990’s west Texas, the light and sound and smell still feeling so real and so fresh, but gradually blurring and dissipating as my years move on. OR it’s right now, and I’m sitting in front of a computer screen, writing a music column, and feeling nostalgic for events both real and imagined…

…just like it’s always been. Just like it always will be. The loop continues. I am a man out of time.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Deary Remixed

The wonderful, London-based shoegaze duo Deary just released a couple of remixed tracks from last year's self-titled EP, tasking fellow UK band White Flowers and Bowery Electric's Lawrence Chandler with remixing "Beauty in All Blue Satin" and "Sleepsong" respectively.  Both are excellent and you should listen to them below, then download them here from Sonic Cathedral.

Daily Jam - Shadow

This column was originally published at the end of the summer in 2017.

So, I’m writing this column before the finale of Twin Peaks: The Return, but as it will air before I post this sucker online, I’m going to say that I’m sure I was riveted and will be talking about it for days…as I pretty much have with every other episode in the last three months. The consensus has been that getting a third season of the show has been a gift, and I concur wholeheartedly. Lynch and Frost drew me in hard this summer, and I’ll admit to maybe being a little obsessed. Okay, being totally obsessed. And now it’s over. And I’m going to miss getting a new installment every Sunday. And one of the things I’m probably going to miss the most is seeing my (almost) weekly music performance from The Roadhouse (aka the Bang Bang Bar).

So many great (and sometimes unexpected) performances were featured on the series, each feeling as much a part of Lynch’s soundscape as Julee Cruise or Angelo Badalamenti. I discovered some new artists, some new tunes, gained a new appreciation for some old bands I’ve listened to for years, and am now pumped for the upcoming new soundtrack albums coming out later this month. And starting it off was one of my favorite bands from the last decade, the dreamy and wistful Johnny Jewel project, Chromatics, performing the wonderful “Shadow.”

Originally surfacing a couple of years ago and intended to be on the band’s new album Dear Tommy, I kind of forgot about it, as that album’s release date kept getting pushed back farther and farther. We’re still not sure when (or if) we’re going to get it (we didn't), but seeing the band play the song on Twin Peaks got me anxious with anticipation all over again. Dreamy synths, poppy, subdued disco beats, Ruth Radelet’s angelic and haunting vocals, and Jewel’s airy and retro production aesthetic create a sonic environment that pairs all too perfectly with Lynch’s own audio and visual world. I want them making art together forever.

But now it’s ended. And maybe we’re sated, or maybe our hearts hurt, or maybe we’re cueing the whole thing up to watch and hear and love all over again, but at the very least, we got to experience something special, an intoxicating mix of experimental filmmaking, warped narrative, and pop art, a magnum opus that could very much prove to be a defining moment for all of the artists creating it. It was wonderful to visit this world again.

“…for the last time…for the last time.”

RIP Steve Albini

I just saw on the wire that legendary, curmudgeonly musician, sound engineer, and underground rock icon Steve Albini has passed away at the age of 61.  This man was responsible for and had his hands in so much of the music that made me who i am over the last four decades that i wouldn't even know where to begin discussing it.  The loss is immeasurable.  He will be missed.  RIP Steve Albini.

Motorists

Toronto band Motorists make a fun and infectious blend of new wave, grunge, alt-rock, and pop, the kind of stuff to jump around in bedrooms, garages, and music venues to.  The band's new album "Touched by the Stuff" is out later this month on We Are Time.  Listen to "L.O.W." below and pre-order the record here.

Wand

Hey, i didn't know we had new Wand on the agenda for this year.  The LA's psych/garage rock band's ever evolving sound continues to progress along with upcoming new album "Vertigo."  Check out the crunchy, roots rock-tinged, Crazy Horse vibes of "Smile" below and pre-order the LP here from Drag City.

Daily Jam - Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me

Morrissey’s kind of an asshole right? Anytime he’s interviewed for a website or magazine, he’s bound to say something stupid…something an asshole would say. Something a fascist might say. Every reported incident, every cancellation, every quoted blurb, Morrissey continually proves to be someone I would probably hate. But he makes great music, so I guess it gets complicated.

Personal feelings for Morrissey aside, he has released a ton of music, both with The Smiths and as a solo artist, that I can’t help but adore. It’s actually kind of difficult to even narrow it down for an entry today, but there’s just always been something about the morose and maudlin “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” from 1987’s Strangeways, Here We Come.

Beginning with a slightly discordant and reverbed piano riff accompanied by echoed crowd noise in the background, the song shifts instantly into melodramatic, lovelorn requiem, the sudden blast of a synthesized orchestra hit cueing the artist’s lonesome lament. Listening to “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” now, it’s really easy to see why The Smiths’ and Morrissey’s catalogs resonate so intensely with young music fans. Morrissey effortlessly captures that kind of teenage outsider zeitgeist, parlaying notions of alienation and sour feelings into wonderfully relatable (and damn good) pop. It’s almost like an Emily Dickinson poem come to life.

So yeah, Morrissey makes wonderful music. He’s adept at touching your soul with his lyrics, maybe making you feel like you’re not alone in this world.

But, he’s also an asshole.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

The Garrys

Saskatchewan sister trio The Garrys have added their brother to the mix for new track "Cakewalk."  The song is a blend of lo-fi surf rock, indie folk, and dreampop, and is the perfect sonic accompaniment to a hazy afternoon.  Check it out below and download it here.

Daily Jam - Walk into the Sea

This column was originally published in August of 2017, right after the fascist "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that left activist Heather Heyer dead. Almost seven years later, and things are actually worse. We live in a fascist state that is currently aiding and abetting a genocide, and it doesn't seem to matter whether there's a Democrat or a Republican in office. And while I am proud of the students and faculty currently holding protests at college campuses across the country, they are going to have to get bigger and reach beyond academia. I think we can do it. There's a sea change coming.

I’ve been writing this column for a while now, and after over 100 entries, some weeks are more difficult than others to say something interesting or insightful…even about the music I love. And damn, if current events don’t make it even harder to come up with something…anything to write about, either as escapism or criticism, devotion or aplomb. I love all of these songs so much, and I want others to as well, but it’s incredibly hard to whip up excitement, all of the ballyhoo seeming trite or conspicuously vacant when our current culture war is taking a decidedly violent turn. Nazis abound evidently, and that’s about as abhorrent a phrase as I’ve ever had to write before. And while it’d be easy (and certainly cathartic) to gather and listen to “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” all day, it’s just something I can’t do right now. (I am at work after all.)

Anyway, here’s a song about dying by the classic Minnesota band Low (RIP Mimi), from their 2005 album The Great Destroyer. “Walk into the Sea” closes the record out, a wistful desire to meet again after time washes everything away. It’s a wonderful, if melancholy sentiment, and maybe something to cling onto every now and again to let the anger subside.

Hopefully someday, time will wash these fuckers away too.

Julia Holter

The enigmatic Julia Holter dropped her latest album "Something in the Room She Moves" back in March, and it's a delirious and fascinating listen, elements of pop, electronic music, and experimental sounds swirling in an avant garde stew.  Check out the jazz-tinged "These Morning" below and get the record here from Domino.

Daily Jam - Il Est Trop Loin

“Cause Doris Day could never make me cheer up quite the way those French girls always do.”

I open with a lyric from the great Neil Hannon and his baroque pop band The Divine Comedy because he’s really onto something. There is a certain mystique surrounding French women that pervades so many aspects of our pop culture, and I am certainly not immune to the allure. Whether it’s the smoking, cool, and flirty aloofness of the women portrayed in any number of French New Wave films, the pouty and detached chic of the country’s fashionistas, or the throngs of yé-yé girls making music over the last half century, I am so there. And I have been smitten with original yé-yé girl Françoise Hardy for the better part of 20 years.

With a range of material spanning decades, and in different languages, it can be a tad daunting to dive into the musical works of Mlle. Hardy. As a fan, even I haven’t been able to traverse everything, but I always seem to be able to stumble across something I’ve never heard before…and that new (to me) song tends to become my obsession for a while. In 2017, i found myself looping “Il Est Trop Loin,” from the artist’s 1967 album Ma Jeunesse Fout L’Camp, and it may be my favorite thing that Françoise Hardy ever recorded. The song, which loosely translates to “It Is Too Far,” is a reworking of Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “Sorrow,” itself a reworking of the traditional American folk song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” originally penned by Dick Burnett. Featuring Hardy’s almost mournful vocals laid over a plucked electric guitar, a minimal tambourine beat, and a rising wave of soft strings and choir voices, “Il Est Trop Loin” sounds like the psych-tinged lament of a lonely soul, the world hanging heavy. It’s a wonderful interpretation of a song that’s now over a century old.

Those French girls will continue to cheer me up, to amaze me.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Bill Baird

I know i posted about San Antonio psych pop artist Bill Baird a few days ago, but i would be remiss if i didn't put "Invisible," from the instrumental "Soundtrack" LP out into the world for your listening pleasure.  In April, the artist dropped this album as well as well as another called "Astral Suitcase."  Both are rad, but i'm particularly digging on the French film score vibes of "Invisible" today.  Check it out below and get both albums here from the artist.

Daily Jam - Playground Love

You ever make a mixtape for someone? An aural definition of you assembled by bits and pieces of pop radio? A testament of your deepest feelings as conveyed by rock stars, composers, and singer songwriters alike, all presented in an old school, analog tape format? Or maybe just a collection of tunes you think that certain someone might like? I did. I used to do it all the time. I even wrote about it once, a long time ago. Hell, I still make CD-R mixes, agonizing over sequence and flow, to jam in my car on the drive to work because I’m an old person and stuck in my ways. I still feel that there is an underappreciated art to it, especially when dubbing cassettes, and tucked away in boxes in closets in my house are dozens of old tapes I made for myself years ago.

And lo and behold, when my wife was cleaning out some stuff the other day, she came across the empty case for the first tape I made for her. It was an interesting artifact to uncover, with some of the music kind of dated, and the actual tape missing, probably eaten long ago by a car tape deck. But ultimately, it’s still a pretty decent mix, featuring some love songs my then 20-year old heart thought were to die for…except for one glaring omission. Being that I most likely made the tape either at the end of 1999 or the beginning of 2000, I’m aghast at my exclusion.

“Playground Love.”

So far, writing this column (in 2017), I have yet to repeat an artist, but “Playground Love” is just too silky smooth to ignore. Penned for Sofia Coppola’s 1999 film The Virgin Suicides, and included with the score, the song is an absolute gem from French electronic duo Air featuring Gordon Tracks. It’s sexy, and alluring, and feels like some kind of wonderful Godley & Creme homage, all dreamy pining and pangs of teenage lust and love. Gorgeous and haunting, the song is the embodiment of the kind of smoky, lovelorn jam you would put on a youthful and sincere (and maybe a little naïve) mixtape for the object of your desire.

So how the hell did I leave it off of there? To remedy the situation, I suppose a new mixtape should be in the works. Odes to domesticity…and cool, slinky sex songs…and sax. Plenty of sax.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Broken Telepathy

Before i depart to go watch some 8-year olds play soccer and hope the rain stays away, here's some weird synthy punk from New York's Broken Telepathy.  Listen to "Reasons for Excuses" below and pre-order the self-titled album here from Sophomore Lounge.

Daily Jam - Spirit Animal

2009 was kind of whirlwind year for me. I turned 30. It was my first year of marriage and the year my dad died. My first year in a new home with my wife. It was the last time the Longhorns were any good (until now finally), and the beginning of the Saints’ Super Bowl run. It was the year I started blogging. The year I spent many a weekend in the car driving back and forth to Grand Prairie, Texas to check in on my mom. It was a year that I saw tons of live music and bought even more. To be honest, even though I had always bought a lot of records and such, the hunt and procural thereof became a form of catharsis for me in 2009. After losing my dad, it filled up more and more of my time, and to this day, can still give me a weird sense of euphoria when I finally discover something on my want list.

And man, did I get a bunch of great stuff.

Aside from their numerous solo ventures, Steve Moore’s and Anthony Paterra’s Zombi has become a favorite project of mine ever since 2009, and the duo’s third proper full length LP Spirit Animal. Hyped on many of the different music blogs and websites I was reading at the time, the record was a wonderful hybrid of spacey prog rock and blaring analog synthesizers, perfectly encapsulated on the epic, 15-minute album opener and title track. Playing like some alternate, unused score from Romero’s (RIP) Dawn of the Dead, an unearthed Goblin B-side, or the house music for the coolest planetarium ever, “Spirit Animal” is full of dramatic synths, pulsing, oozing bass, and ominous celestial tones. It feels like a story. It feels cinematic. If these guys weren’t already scoring films, I’d be urging them to with every breath.

Zombi still certainly hooks me with every subsequent release, but nothing quite like that first revelation. It soundtracked several of those aforementioned drives to visit my mom in '09, and in some ways, I would have been lost without them, as well as the hundreds of other artists that helped massage my soul.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Quietus

And now to feel the slowcore pull Quietus and upcoming new album "Volume Six."  Check out the crawl and hum of "Distance Is Everywhere" below and pre-order the album here from Ever/Never Records.

Dawn Chorus and The Infallible Sea

Here's some aching and beautiful ambient music from Indianapolis trio Dawn Chorus and The Infallible Sea.  The band's new "Reveries" LP just came out last week, and it's a hazy, dreamy soundscape to lose oneself in for just a little while.  Check out the album opening title track below and get the LP here from Sonic Cathedral.

Friday Horror Trailer - Silent Scream

Daily Jam - Destination Unknown

For those not in the know, Replicants was a one-and-done covers project from members of Failure, Lusk, and Tool, a veritable super group of sorts. The band’s self-titled 1995 release featured spacey, alt-rock takes on songs by The Cars, T. Rex, Neil Young, David Bowie, a couple of Beatles, and a whole lot more. Tool’s Maynard James Keenan even pops in, providing vocals on a cover of “Silly Love Songs” of all things. As the record was my initial exposure to Ken Andrews and Failure (one of my all-time favorites), it’s pretty near and dear to my heart, a collection of classic rock jams and a couple of synth wonders spun into '90s jelly. It’s one of those albums I adore from start to finish, but for me, the real raison dêtre is the record’s centerpiece, the propulsive and intoxicating electro-crawl version of Missing Persons’ “Destination Unknown.”

I can’t even begin to recall how many 11th grade events and evenings “Destination Unknown” soundtracked. It feels like it was everywhere, an undercurrent of murky sound that followed me everywhere I went. The song’s mid-'90s, this-is-what-the-future-will-sound-like, pre-millennial aesthetic was like a harbinger of the digital age to come…or at the very least a cool tune to listen to outside while I washed my car in my parents’ driveway, anxiously wondering where the beer was coming from later that night. And while it may sound a little dated now (or just in time for a modern revival), I just can’t help but let it take me back.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Washed Out

This summer brings us new pop from the always enjoyable Washed Out.  I've been a big fan of the artist from his chillwave origins in the '00s through the dreamy synth pop he makes now.  Check out new tune "The Hardest Part" below and pre-order the upcoming "Notes from a Quiet Life" LP here from Sub Pop.

Daily Jam - Lamb

My dad used to talk about how when he was younger, he thought he might make his living playing music (jazz music to be exact). I certainly felt that way for a number of years myself, and while the likelihood of that ever happening now is somewhere far below 1%, a middle aged guy can still dream the dream. So, regardless of whatever crap day job or settled on career holds my future (gotta have health insurance (hopefully) for the boys), I’m probably going to keep writing my little pop songs until the day I die. I have to. I need to.

Unfortunately, sometimes after writing a song, I come to the deflating conclusion that I’ve somehow unwittingly lifted the melody from someone else’s tune. And that really sucks, because it can be frustratingly difficult to try and separate that other song from my lyrics. Such is the case on a song I attempted to write a few years ago called “Virgins,” a reflection on the trial and error of young love and its inevitable end through adult eyes, a kind of mature take on teenage breakup and heartache. I’m not one to toot my own horn or whatnot, but still consider these to be some of the best lyrics I’ve ever written, and so far I’ve been unable to come up with an accompanying melody because I’m forever stuck on that one I accidentally stole.

That song of course is the beautifully dour and aching “Lamb” by Lower Dens.

The project of the hipper-than-you-or-I-can-ever-hope-to-be Jana Hunter, “Lamb” comes from the band’s brilliant 2012 sophomore effort Nootropics, and pulled and tugged at me and (apparently) embedded itself within my psyche for later use. It’s gloomy and heart wrenching pop, a mix of synth pop and dreampop that oozes dark atmosphere and cutting sadness.

I love it, and I’m sorry I tried to steal it.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

pôt-pot

Time to traverse some psychedelic waters with the droning sounds of pôt-pot.  Check out the Velvet Underground vibes of "Going Insane," a track that really captures my mood these days, below and download the album of same name here from Blind Head Recordings.

Daily Jam - Heavy 33

You know what was awesome? The AIDS benefit compilation album No Alternative released in 1993. That’s what was awesome.

Recorded and released at what was probably the cultural apex for the alt-rock music scene in the '90s (though 1994 was pretty rad too), the album featured a whole slew of artists who pretty much defined the era. Contributions from Bob Mould, Matthew Sweet, and Urge Overkill rank right up there with the best work those artists ever recorded, while standouts from Pavement, Mark Eitzel, and Uncle Tupelo make for an essential release. And that’s not even mentioning Soundgarden or Beastie Boys or The Breeders or an uncredited Nirvana appearance. Seriously, this album was a monster, and all for a good cause to boot. And among all of these gems lays what is probably my favorite track on the compilation, the gloomy and propulsive “Heavy 33” from New Zealand band The Verlaines, an act that at the time I had never heard of, and to be honest, am still only remotely familiar with.

After falling for the band’s contribution to No Alternative, I spent some time trying to locate their past work of which is fairly plentiful considering the group’s been around since 1981, but was no easy feat to accomplish for a teenager living in a smallish city in west Texas in the pre-internet age. It wasn’t until I was in college in Austin that I was able to procure some old albums from The Verlaines, scouring through used racks and dollar bins. And while that output was great, nothing ever captured my heart the way “Heavy 33” did. Dense and heavy lyrics atop angsty and slightly menacing music, tied together with a wonderful pleading and frustrated chorus.

This should have been an anthem. And, for completely selfish reasons, I’m glad it wasn’t. It kind of makes it mine. But I’m ready for it to be yours now too. Give it a listen.

“All the clouds keep hoarding, all their airborne oceans won’t fall.”

Beings

Beings is the new New York collective of Steve Gunn, Jim White, Zoh Amba, and Shazad Ismaily.  The quartet make a very cool, avant garde blend of jazz, folk, psych, no-wave, and pop.  Dig on "Flowers that Talk" below and pre-order the upcoming "There Is a Garden" LP here from No Quarter.

Daily Jam - You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

Admittedly, karaoke is kind of lame. But also, it can be crazy fun if you’re in the right frame of mind.

The apex of my karaoke participation came a few years ago, long before we all started popping out babies and mowing our lawns on Sunday mornings. On weekend trips to Houston to visit a group of guys and girls I’ve known too long to even remember, for a stretch, we somehow managed to find ourselves frequenters of a local karaoke dive every time I came into town. And it was awesome…cheap, bad drinks and cigarettes and taking turns humiliating ourselves in front of a room of random strangers we didn’t know. And there was much aplomb and applause in this house of lost weekends, blurred vision, slurred speech, and mighty, thunderous tributes to the arts.

Yeah, we probably sucked, but we swung through all the hits.

Of all my turns at the mic, taking on songs by Bowie or The Carpenters or Erasure or whatnot, there are two tracks I regret never getting around to singing. One of those is Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”

Originally penned by Italian songwriter and composer Pino Donaggio with lyrics by Vito Pallavicini in 1965, the track eventually made its way to English singer Dusty Springfield, herself a huge fan of the original Italian iteration. Released a year later, her English version, much more of a reinterpretation than a translation, still soars as one of the greatest odes to unrequited love that I’ve ever heard. It’s the sonic equivalent of tearing your heart out and holding it up for the whole world to see. It moves me literally every time I hear it.

So, naturally I want to butcher it in a dirty room in front of a bunch of drunk weirdos.

No word or hints as to when my next karaoke excursion will be, but after a few cocktails, I think I’ll be ready to perform.

And for the record, the other song is “Just a Gigolo” by David Lee Roth.

Geneva Jacuzzi

Here's some new dancy synth pop from LA's Geneva Jacuzzi.  Check out "Dry" below and download it here from Dais Records.

Daily Jam - Cum on Feel the Noize

Sometimes I just like a dumb song.

My feelings for LA heavy metal band Quiet Riot’s 1983 cover of UK glam band Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” have pretty much remained consistent since I first heard the song when I was 4 or 5 years old...and that’s that it rules. The song was featured prominently on an 80’s pop rock compilation cassette I got when I was a kid (possibly the first cassette I ever bought if memory serves), and was the closing track on side A. I played that tape to death, jamming it in my Walkman repeatedly on summer vacation road trips through the south with my family, over and over again from start to finish. My affinity for Duran Duran was born with it, as was probably my penchant for digging on synthesizers. That cassette served as my gateway to a large swath of popular music at the time, much of which would fall out of favor over the succeeding years while all the while I still sang along.

I can’t not sing along to “Cum on Feel the Noize.”

And neither should you. Come on! You know the words!