Daily Jam - Tell Me You're Mine

Here's a little early '80s private press throwback choral jazz pop from a band called The Ghostriders.  Seriously, this song kind of sounds like it could have come out in the '40s.  Listen to "Tell Me You're Mine" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - The Championship

Every morning, i wake up and doom scroll for a few minutes online to a veritable mountain of bad news and endless horrible shit.  Why do i do this to my mental health you ask?  I have no idea.  But it's taking its toll, and somedays, only listening to something full of love, hope, and joy, like The Polyphonic Spree, can shake me from doom scrolling's accompanying doom spiral, if only for a few moments.  Today is that day.  Listen to "The Championship" below, our Daily Jam.

The Partridge Family Temple

Here's a little psych pop from a group of weirdos (i mean that in a good way) who claim to be in a cult that worships the characters from the 1970's sitcom "The Partridge Family."  I don't know about all that, but i can certainly appreciate weird psych pop.  Listen to "All in Your Mind" below and get the "Family Tree" LP here from Discriminate Audio.

Daily Jam - L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo

This column was originally published right before Halloween in 2018.

I’m going to be out of the office next week, right during my most favorite time of the year, and so it seems like today is the day for a Halloween-themed entry into the annals of songs I ceaselessly entertain myself with. Halloween has long been my favorite holiday, the combination of autumn weather, horror movies, ghosts and ghouls, pumpkin ales, and adolescent debauchery being things I would take in full time if it were so possible. And I used to pride myself on my costume effort before the boys came along and the focus shifted to them instead. Some of my past disguises include:

    - Kurt Cobain

    - Hunter S. Thompson

    - Token Goth Guy

    - Shaggy from Scooby-Doo

    - Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman from The Lost Boys)

    - A Mad Scientist

    - A Bear

    - A Werewolf

    - Courtney Love

And for my sons:

    - Chewbacca

    - Freddy Krueger

    - Ash (from Evil Dead)*

    - A White Tiger

    - A Vampire

    - A Skunk

This year, it’s looking like I’ll be repeating the werewolf, my wife as a witch, and my boys as ninja and some cartoon character named Catboy respectively.

Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that I love, love, love Halloween and everything that comes with it. But let’s get to the music.

From a man who really needs no introduction and whose catalog of work has been inspiring me for years and years and years, Italian Maestro Ennio Morricone’s score for Dario Argento’s directorial debut, 1970’s The Bird with The Crystal Plumage, ranks as one of my all time favorites. Though he’s most well known for scoring spaghetti westerns, Morricone actually provided the soundtrack to quite a few giallos as well, utilizing his usual penchant for combining and mixing styles into something uniquely his own. The Bird with The Crystal Plumage is no different, shades of psychedelia and choral harmonies crafting a surreal and unnerving tapestry of sound, and very notably so on the haunting “L'uccello dalle Piume Di Cristallo.”

So let’s all enjoy some wonderfully eerie music from a master of the craft and take in these last few days of the Halloween season before we have to wait all over again. Watch a scary movie. Eat some candy. Carry out that murder you were thinking about. And have a Happy Halloween (even if it's still June).

*That one is quite possibly my masterpiece.

Daily Jam - Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In

It’s a little embarrassing to admit to how much I like “Aquarius.” How much I love “Aquarius.” I’ve never even seen Hair before, so I can’t attest to the quality of that musical, but as far as The 5th Dimension’s 1969 version of the tune goes, I am happily and steadily on board, a devotee if you will.

A lot of music I listen to (and love) could easily be filed under the doom and gloom category, but I’ve got to cut loose every now and then. Sometimes you have to skew happy. To quote a movie that a fellow blogging friend of mine absolutely abhors, “it can’t rain all the time.” The “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” medley, the opening song from The Age of Aquarius LP is that kind of song for me. It is an instant mood elevator. A happy pill. From the spacey, psych-pop intro and astrology-laced verses, to the glorious mini-mantra of “let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in,” the song is a kind of elixir to my sad bastard blues. And maybe it’s a little cheesy, but goddamn it, it’s good cheese.

It makes me want to wear ill-advised and ill-fitting pants and dance shirtless in a field of poppies somewhere. It makes me realize why anyone would ever listen to a hippie in the first place*. It makes me want to tune in, turn on, and drop out…man.

But mostly, it just puts a smile on my face, and sometimes that’s all you really need, even if it’s only for a few fleeting moments, the length of a pop song.

*Author’s note: do not listen to hippies. They are usually full of shit.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - When the Fool Becomes a King

This column was originally posted in 2016 a few days after David Bowie died.

I’ve been listening to everything through a David Bowie filter this last week, which in so many ways could be unfair to the music I’m hearing, as Bowie is such an unrealistic iconic figure to try and live up to. But at the same time, his cultural influence is so prevalent in everything from music to visuals to fashion and art, that maybe in some ways, that filter was there all along. Orchestral chamber psych-choral-pop band/cult The Polyphonic Spree are hardly the first group of minstrels and troubadours I think of when scouring the audio world for Bowie affection and affectations, but listening now, it’s there indeed. It could be the sense of whimsy and star-eyed psychedelia the band trades in that can certainly be linked back to Bowie’s pre-Ziggy days. Or it could be the simple act of following your own muse, harnessing aspects of old or forgotten sounds and making them your own, or crafting something brand new in the process. Or it could be the fact that I saw Bowie and The Polyphonic Spree perform “Slip Away” together in 2004, and it was utterly transcendent. It’s all of these things.

At that same show, during the Spree’s opening set, the band unveiled a slew of new tunes from their then upcoming album Together We’re Heavy, finishing up (I believe) with the 10-minute epic “When the Fool Becomes a King.” I had been following the band since seeing them a few years prior as an opening act (their second ever show, risen from the ashes of 90’s Texas alt-rock staple Tripping Daisy) for Grandaddy, and was probably one of the few people in the large crowd who was genuinely excited to see them too. Their set was poppy and energetic and fun, a perfect aperitif to get us all ready for the main event, though as they approached their booming finale, they seemed at the ready to even eclipse it.

“When the Fool Becomes a King” feels like a grand summation for an artist’s lifetime of work, though it comes from sophomore effort. The crashing crescendos, orchestration, and choral flair lend themselves so perfectly to front man Tim DeLaughter’s gleeful vocals that the end result is intoxicating. It feels like life, like youthful exuberance and elder foreknowledge at the same time, all of the ups and downs and the good with the bad, but still smiling, a kind of melancholy positivity. It’s sonic affirmation at its finest, and it’s beautiful. And in some ways, none of this would have ever existed without David Bowie.

Under the aura of Bowie, so many artists have, and more artists will emerge from his wake in the creative ether, and that’s a fantastic thing to be able to hold on to and look forward to.

“And it makes me smile.”

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Burning Bridges

Dad songs. They’re not like dad jokes, as in sometimes they can actually be good. But, good or not, they have an uncanny ability to grab you by the heart and ears and bring you right back home. I have plenty of dad songs. Some of them I like, some of them are there strictly for nostalgia purposes, and there are a couple that I completely adore. “Burning Bridges” is one of those.

I don’t remember the first time I watched Kelly’s Heroes with my dad, though I was likely pretty young, and he showed me a lot of old war movies. I do remember being utterly transfixed by the opening credits sequence, Clint Eastwood driving an army jeep through war-torn Europe during World War II, bombs blasting, and the military beat and choral-pop of The Mike Curb Congregation playing all the while. It’s the perfect way to open a movie, a wartime comedy featuring a slew of stars all about stealing some nazi gold. It’s funny and well made, and the Lalo Schifrin score is top notch, but that opening song is the crown jewel. And it always makes me think of that movie…which in turn, always makes me think of my dad.

I’m not overly familiar with the oeuvre of The Mike Curb Congregation. They don’t necessarily have a full, extended catalog to sift through, although they did contribute a song to Richard Nixon’s election campaign…so, I guess there’s that. To put their sound in a modern context, they’re kind of like The Polyphonic Spree minus the psychedelia and cult robes. And apparently republican. “Burning Bridges” is a wonder though, a perfect pop song, a hook-laden earworm that is certainly a guilty pleasure for some, but a real pleasure for me. Chorus sung, melancholic, glorious vibes…what more could you ask for?

Before I went to college, I lifted a bunch of my dad’s old records to take with me, knowing full well that I would likely never give any of them back. That Kelly’s Heroes soundtrack was one of the only ones he ever missed or inquired about.

“Burning bridges lost forevermore.”

Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

The Polyphonic Spree

Everyone's favorite psychedelic choral pop group from Texas, The Polyphonic Spree, is back in November with new album "Salvage Enterprise."  Check out new track "Galloping Seas (Section 44)" below, download the tune here, and pre-order the LP here from Good Records.

Daily Jam - The Fragile Army

The Polyphonic Spree remain one of the best live experiences i can think of for a touring band.  I've lost count of how many times i've seen them over the years (though it's been a spell since my last), and it's always a joyous occasion.  Listen to the choral pop alt-rock of "The Fragile Army" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Move Away and Shine (In a Dream Version)

Here's a little Polyphonic Spree this morning just because.  Listen to "Move Away and Shine (In a Dream Version) below, our Daily Jam.

The Polyphonic Spree - Porpoise Song

The Polyphonic Spree are back!  This time in cover album form.  On "Afflatus," the band of merrymakers covers everyone from INXS to The Bee Gees, as well as one of my favorite weird pop tunes, "Porpoise Song" by The Monkees.  Check it out below, snag a download of the album here, or pre-order the glow-in-the-dark vinyl here from Good Records.