Daniel Bachman

One more post to close out the year, and one about a record that very possibly could have made my year-end favorites list had i caught it when it came out a month and a half ago.  Virginia guitarist and musician Daniel Bachman dropped his experimental opus "When the Roses Come Again" last month on Three Lobed Recordings, and it sounds like a complete deconstruction of Americana, bits of plucked acoustic guitar, banjo, and more lost in some ethereal wind.  Dusty drone folk for the masses.  Check out "Someone Straying, Long Delaying" below and get the record here.

Planning for Burial Covers Low

As we anxiously await "Your Voice Is Not Enough," The Flenser's upcoming tribute album to Low, we get another taste to hold us over.  We've already heard Allison Lorenzen's wonderful take on "Words," and now we get a staticky, scratchy, aching version of "Murderer" from droney, slowcore, doomgaze artist Planning for Burial.  Check it out below and get it here.

Daily Jam - Hands in the Dark

Closing out the year with an old track from Chromatics.  Seemingly like a lot Chromatics songs, there are either a dozen different versions or the track appears on a dozen different releases.  Anyway, "Hands in the Dark" is i believe the first track i ever heard from the band back when the "After Dark" compilation came out in the long, long ago that was 2007.  Check the track out below, perfect for your New Year's Eve party tonight, and our Daily Jam.

And Now...My Favorite Movies of 2023

I had a very hard time deciding what to put on my year-end favorite movie list this year.  In a lot of ways, i feel like i failed to see some stuff that i would certainly enjoy (think "Godzilla Minus One" or "Poor Things"), and i also crammed as many movies into my eyeholes as possible the last week that i was unable to catch in theaters earlier in the year.  Anyway, i think these 15 are the best i can assemble for now.  I don't believe i have a favorite, and these are presented alphabetically, but i do think it's something that the whole "Barbenheimer" event from this summer actually churned out two of the best flicks of 2023.  So without further ado, here are my favorite films of the year...

1. Barbie

2. Beau Is Afraid

3. Brooklyn 45

4. The Creator

5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

6. The Fall of The House of Usher

7. Infinity Pool

8. John Wick 4

9. The Killer

10. Killers of The Flower Moon

11. May December

12. Oppenheimer

13. Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain

14. When Evil Lurks

15. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

And that's that.  Happy New Year!

Animal Ghosts

Next week, month, year, we're getting a new record from Portland shoegaze artist Animal Ghosts.  Check out the reverbed explosion of sound and noise of "Wonder" below and pre-order the "Swell" LP here.

Daily Jam - Waiting for Nina

And now for some spacey, jazzy library music from composer and musician Paul Lewis.  Trunk Records used to be the go-to source for this kind of stuff, and today's track is taken from the 2009 compilation "G-Spots."  Listen to "Waiting for Nina" below, our Daily Jam.

Friday Horror Trailer - Off Balance

AKA "Phantom of Death."

The Circling Sun

The year will be closing out soon, so here's some spiritual jazz from New Zealand's The Circling Sun.  "Kohan" sounds like the world awakening, or maybe something you'd hear on a PBS public service broadcast.  Check it out below and get the band's "Spirits" LP from earlier this year here from Soundway Records.

Daily Jam - Amarillo by Morning

I'm not big on a lot of modern country music, though i guess some of George Strait's stuff is now 40 years old, so i don't have to make an exception for him anymore.  Anyhoo, here's a song from the man that always manages to get those nostalgia vibes pumping for me.  Listen to "Amarillo by Morning" below, our Daily Jam.

Hollow Hand

Hollow Hand is the project of Brighton based artist Max Kinghorn-Mills, and i'm just catching up to his March released third album "Your Own Adventure."  The artist ties together bits of psych, folk, country, and dreamy pop to craft a wonderful little indie record.  Check out the synth-laden "Before Tomorrow" below and get the album here from Curation Records.

Daily Jam - Leaving Del Norte

Bruce Langhorne was a folk musician who played in the Greenwich Village scene in the '60s, most notably as a session guitarist for Bob Dylan on "Bringing It All Back Home."  In the early '70s, he also provided the score to Peter Fonda's western, "The Hired Hand."  Check out the lonesome, dusty "Leaving Del Norte" from said score below, our Daily Jam.

Lael Neale

More music that i failed to find earlier this year, "Star Eaters Delight" from LA artist Lael Neale plays like late night folk pop somewhere in the cosmic heavens.  There's a dreamy, spacey quality to the whole affair that feels both exotic and comforting at the same time.  Check out "If I Had No Wings" below and get the LP here from Sub Pop.

Daily Jam - Endless Pathway

Here's a little psych folk from Wendy & Bonnie for what is an absolutely beautiful day here in Central Texas.  Check out "Endless Pathway" below, our Daily Jam.

Mystic 100's

It's that time of year again!  When all of the excellent music that i somehow missed the first time around earlier in the year comes crashing into my eardrums in December as i peruse dozens of year-end best-of lists online.  A major one comes from Washington psych rock band Mystic 100's and their March release, "On a Micro Diet."  The band, formerly know as the more punk rock leaning Milk Music, craft a record that at times sounds like a bunch of stoners just fucking around in the garage before morphing into just about the best thing you've ever heard.  And then back again.  I have a feeling that this one will pay off huge with multiple listens.  Check out "Windowpane" below and download the album here.

Daily Jam - Nightswimming

It's my wife's birthday today, and she wants to do things like go to a brewery, play video games with our boys, watch college football bowl games, and then go to a hot pot restaurant for dinner.  She rules.  So here's a cover of R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" by one of my perennial favorites The Wrens, from a Stereogum compilation celebrating the 15th anniversary of "Drive."  That compilation is now 15 years old itself.  Man, we are getting old.  Anyway, listen to the track below, our Daily Jam...and happy birthday Paige.

Daily Jam - Fairytale of New York

Good morning.  Here's "Fairytale of New York" from The Pogues, your Daily Jam.  Merry Christmas and RIP Shane MacGowan.

Mint Mile

Mint Mile is the project from Silkworm's Tim Midyett.  New album "Roughrider" is due in February.  Pre-order the record here from Comedy Minus One and listen to the chugging "Brigadier" below.

Daily Jam - Silent Night

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone out there.  Here's a classic hymn/carol as performed by Low.  Listen to "Silent Night" below, our Daily Jam.

Alabaster DePlume

Here's a wonderful and melancholy new Christmas song from experimental jazz artist Alabaster DePlume that serves as tribute to Refaat Alareer, the Palestinian poet and professor who was killed by an Israeli air strike earlier this month.  DePlume shared the following statement with the track as well:

At this specific time, may I reach you with appreciation, for I admire you for living, and I come to tell you I believe in you. I have faith in you. You are humanity and this time is in your hands. You survive moment by moment, while crimes are committed against you. And there is no state that can defeat you, no nation state, authority, project nor organisation on this earth can ultimately deny you, humanity. I am reaching to you with my love, and this little Christmas song, where at this time I feel grief. In case it voices a grief for you too, I love you.

Check out "Gifts of Olive" below and download it here.

Daily Jam - Believe

I sure do love me some forgotten '90s alt-rock.  So here's some from LA band Dig with "Believe," our Daily Jam.

Fawning

It looks like we've got some new dreampop on the horizon from Fawning coming out next month.  Check out the hazy, pulsing pop of "Under Your Skin" below and pre-order the "All Around Me" LP here from Graveface Records.

Friday Horror Trailer - P2

Daily Jam - B-13

I was able to pick up the 25th(!) anniversary reissue of Jump, Little Children's 1998 "Magazine" album the other day, which made me feel very, very old.  Dig on some late '90s alt-rock below with "B-13," our Daily Jam.

Perturbator & Kabbel Cover Depeche Mode

I was unaware that an "American Psycho" comic book was something that existed.  Or that said comic book had a soundtrack.  Or that said soundtrack included French synthwave artist Perturbator covering a Depeche Mode B-side with a little help from Swedish artist Kabbel.  But all those things are true.  Big thanks to Shawn Baker for clueing me on to this.  Check out the track below.

Daily Jam - Dear Eloise

Here's a little something from The Hollies.  Listen to "Dear Eloise" below, our Daily Jam.

And Now...My Favorite Movies of 2023 (That Didn't Come Out in 2023)

I feel like i probably watch more movies than the average bear.  Not uber-cinephile levels or anything, but i watch a movie (or more) almost every single day.  Even then, i somehow manage to miss things that i should have seen years ago.  And since COVID made working from a home (most of the time) a thing for me, i've been trying to rectify some of these misses of the last three and a half years.  Here are 10 that i really liked in 2023.

1. After Hours (1985)

2. Blue Collar (1978)

3. Body Heat (1981)

4. Body Parts (1991)

5. California Split (1974)

6. Cop Land (1997)

7. The Last Detail (1973)

8. The Manitou (1978)

9. Matewan (1987)

10. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

I probably could have put more on this list, but i'm tired and need to put some thought into my favorite movies released this year.  I'm going to try and squeeze a few more in before New Year's Eve.  Be on the lookout for my favorite movies of 2023 in a week or so.