Category Archives: new music

What I’m Listening to: February 2024 Edition

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Wait, it’s already the end of February? It’s been a busy month at work and I’ve also been working hard with finishing off the latest go-round with Queen Ophelia’s War (and prepping myself for the new version of Theadia), so it’s a miracle that I’ve also been able to keep up with the new releases dropping lately! But I’ve been making an effort to connect with these new releases (and occasionally revisit some old ones). This month has given us some surprises!

Billy Joel, “Turn the Lights Back On” single, 1 February. His first new song in forever, and he hasn’t lost his musical touch at all. A stirring ballad of wondering whether or not you’ve been away from the spotlight for too long, what you’ve missed, and what you remember with older and more mature eyes and heart. A lovely surprise.

Paul McCartney & Wings, Band On the Run Underdubbed Mixes, 2 February. These were the rough mixes created before the orchestra and final overdubs had been added, and it’s a fascinating listen. Some tracks (like “Jet”) reveal only minimal differences, while album closer “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” really spotlight Paul’s masterful piano playing and the sheer oddness of the track.

Kula Shaker, Natural Magick, 2 February. After the wild psych-folk (and the welcome return) of their previous album, the band chooses to return to what they’ve always done extremely well: a hybrid of British pop influenced by India grooves. It’s a fun album that doesn’t set out to prove anything other than to have fun and occasionally say what might be on their minds.

Ducks Ltd, Harm’s Way, 9 February. This band follows in the path of twee pop like Belle and Sebastian with a little bit of early Cure as a secondary influence, which makes them sound unique and a little bit unsettled, but it’s a super fun listen.

Brittany Howard, What Now, 9 February. The Alabama Shakes singer has always been fearless in her loud, funky and bluesy style, and this new solo record is full of all of that. Definitely worth checking out.

Omni, Souvenir, 16 February. I mentioned this trio just recently, and yes, I do love that they’ve fully embraced that Wire-influenced ‘angular’ post-punk sound, and they pull it off really well without sounding like copycats. Even their songs embrace that tight late 70s/early 80s style, right down to the lengths, most of which are under three minutes. An intriguing listen.

IDLES, TANGK, 16 February. I’ve been a fan of this punk band for quite a few years now, and I love that they are not afraid to try out different styles, even when they veer perilously towards pop. Nor are they afraid to touch on different subjects and say what’s on their mind. Always a fun band to listen to loud.

Geographer, Got It Wrong, 23 February. We saw this local singer at Outside Lands once and I’ve been a fan ever since. His music tends to be calming and warm, but it can often go in really interesting directions, sometimes dark and sometimes light.

Real Estate, Daniel, 23 February. This Jersey indie band has been around for ages but I’ve only recently gotten around to paying attention to them, and I’m sold on this new one. It reminds me of the meandering laid back college rock I used to listen to back in the day!

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Coming soon in March: new tunes by Yard Act, Liam Gallagher & John Squire, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elbow, and Ride!

Someone’s been listening to Wire…

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[CW: this video, while a hilarious nod to the old Windows maze screen saver, uses multiple lenses and quick cuts.]

Specifically, the early ’77-’79 post-punk era of the band. I’m really digging this album by Omni, an indie band from Atlanta, who I’d almost forgotten about (I also own a previous record from 2017 that I haven’t listened to in awhile). I do love that a lot of indie bands are completely embracing that twitchy post-punk sounds of tight Tom Verlaine guitars, odd chord changes, heightened tension, and crisp production.

The new album Souvenir came out last Friday and it’s worth checking out!

What I’m Listening to: January 2024 Edition

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Okay, I’m going to return to this theme for a bit to see if it sticks. I’ve been doing a lot more connecting with the music I’ve been acquiring, and so far it’s been working well. I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff from the latter half of 2023 and what’s new this past month, and there’s a lot of good stuff out there. So without further ado…

SPRINTS, Letter to Self, 5 January. I’m digging the old-school punk sound of this band — they remind me a lot of IDLES, another all-caps punk band I love. You don’t always need to play fast to play messy and gritty.

Lemongrass, Mirror of Life, 5 January. This one-man project has been around since the mid-90s playing essentially low-key ambient electronic music, and I stumbled upon them a few years back and find them fascinating. He’s constantly putting out albums (he’ll do like three or four a year like Guided By Voices) and they’re always a pleasure to listen to.

The Fauns, How Lost, 19 January. Echoey downtempo shoegaze? Yes please! This kind of stuff has always been my jam so I’m down with this album big time. It’s the perfect writing session music for me.

Green Day, Saviors, 19 January. Their first work with producer Rob Cavallo in ages, it really does feel like they’ve returned back to their Dookie roots, via the long route of maturity and better songwriting, heh. It’s an album where they’re once again doing what they’ve always done best: short and sharp punk.

The Umbrellas, Fairweather Friend, 26 January. This super-local band (like the Reds, Pinks and Purples, they live in my neighborhood!) once again shows they loves them some Beat Happening with summery poppy grooves and awkward-yet-perfect low-pitched vocals. The critics are eating this one up, and it’s definitely worth all the attention it’s been getting.

Future Islands, People Who Aren’t There Anymore, 26 January. I love how this band can feel both cheerful and downbeat at the same time, often within the same song. This album feels a bit quieter and more bedroom-pop than their previous work, but that’s not a minus here.

Ty Segall, Three Bells, 26 January. He’s definitely one of those musical weirdos that you either love or hate, and KEXP definitely got me hooked on him. This one actually has a lot of songs that make him sound downright normal, to be honest!

The Smile, Wall of Eyes, 26 January. The latest Thom Yorke/Jonny Greenwood/Tom Skinner release feels a bit more like a quiet Radiohead album here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I particularly like the moodiness of this album, which fits right in with my usual writing session soundtracks.

Torres, What an enormous room, 26 January. This one’s my favorite of the month! She’s a sort of mix between synthwave and 90s alt-rock but definitely new and unique. “Collect” is one of those songs that’s sort of like Phantogram meets Metric and it gets into your head and stays there for ages.

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More to come!

Two new mixtapes!

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Unlike last year, where I was just too preoccupied with Real Life and other things and hadn’t allowed myself to really get to know the new music I was acquiring, I’m making a concerted effort to pay attention to what’s coming out these days, and I’m quite happy to say that I’m finding a lot of really good stuff out there!

These two mixtapes were basically holdovers from late 2023 where I’d started a list of songs but hadn’t gotten around to completing it and arranging the tracklist flow. I’m quite happy with how they came out, however, and I hope you enjoy them as well!

From the Open Skies: In My Blue World 2, created 14 January 2024. No, I have not written the sequel to In My Blue World just yet! I only have a very rough two-page outline of an idea, but I think it’s worth working on as a future project later on in the year! All I’ll say that it involves our heroes facing off a new foe with a much stronger and creepier ability to siphon magic for their own nefarious uses! And what better way to prep for a future novel project than creating a mixtape soundtrack for it? [Note: for those of you playing along, the title here is borrowed from another ELO song, heh.]

Walk in Silence XXVIII, created 30 January 2024. First of all, I can’t believe I’m already up to twenty-eight volumes of this series!! (Then again, I’ve been making them since 1988, so…) This, Listen in Silence and Untitled have pretty much become my own NOW That’s What I Call… compilations that just won’t quit. This one came out surprisingly well and I’m finding myself returning to it more and more.

First purchase of the year goes to…

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…Idiosyncrosanct by You Shriek, which dropped right on New Year’s Day. I knew this guy in passing from my college years when he started this music project in his dorm room at Charlesgate — he was a friend of a friend so I didn’t know him too personally, but I remembered the distinctive band name and followed him since. It’s been quite a few years since his last release, but he sounds better than ever. Last year he dropped a teaser single that would be the lead-off track for this album, “Dead Pilots”. Great darkwave stuff worth checking out.

Fly-By: Now and Then

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Okay, so the brand-new ‘last’ Beatles song just dropped early this morning:

Did I sleep terrible last night in anticipation of this release at 7am PT this morning? Yes, yes I did.

I’ve only heard it twice as of this post — both times on KEXP’s morning show with John Richards, of course — so I’m still trying to process it all. I’d been familiar with the grainy bootleg version for a few years now, and I had a feeling this was the song the Threetles had been working on and abandoned back in 1995.

It was one thing to be blown away by two all-new songs back then, especially with the dreamlike “Free As a Bird”, but it’s still pretty wild to be able to witness a third new song from the band that inspired and influenced me for decades, a band that had broken up a year before I was born.

So, thoughts so far:
— I am now dearly hoping they play around with “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love” to make John’s voice clearer on those as well, especially the latter. I love both tracks, but the vocals on that one are extremely warbly and muddy.
— Dare I say, the ending of this track sounds a bit…Radiohead-ish? I mean, it’s a very Beatle-ish ending with a melody that’s a variation of the theme but still very different. Still, those darker chords give the song, and the band, an unexpected freshness. It’s like ‘hey, we might be a 60s band, but we still mean something in the 20s.’
— Did I immediately buy the single off Amazon? Of course I did! I’ll have to give it a few further listens, as well as its b-side — a brand new stereo mix of their first official single, “Love Me Do”.
–Did I also pre-order the new 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 CDs that are dropping next week? Of course I did! And yes, I will definitely do a post on those releases here when I have a moment.

…and on that note, I’m back to the writing mines. See you sometime soon!

Meanwhile…

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The PC has been fixed and updated (yay!) but in the meantime I’ve fallen a little behind in my writing (boo!) so I’ve been frantically trying to catch up (blerg!). Doing what I can when I can, though, and making sure I don’t stress out over it all. And I’m not stressed! Which is good, right? Even when I’m trying to squeeze some words out before or after a busy shift at the Day Job?

Anyway. Been listening to a lot of new tunes lately, such as the new boygenius record (fittingly entitled ‘the record’), and it’s quite good! It’s been getting a lot of positive press and high-grade reviews. And let’s be honest, a group with Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker in it has no business being half-assed now. Three phenomenal songwriters writing flawless alternapop. I highly recommend it.

Current Writing Session Listening: Delerium

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It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Delerium. It’s a not-quite side project of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of industrial band Front Line Assembly, leaning more towards ambient, almost new-agey electronica, quite the opposite of their harsh and twitchy main project. You might remember them from back in the 90s when they had a surprise hit with Sarah McLachlan and “Silence” — definite a song of its decade, complete with Enigma-esque Gregorian chant, grooving mid-tempo beat and dreamlike keyboards. That song and the album it came from (Karma) did in fact get a lot of play in the Belfry, and “Silence” does make an appearance on the second volume of the Songs from the Eden Cycle mixtapes.

The project is still active, sliding out an album every couple of years in between FLA releases. Their sound has definitely evolved some, but is still firmly anchored in that classic dreamlike new-age/ambient moodscape. The new album Signs, which just dropped earlier this month, is a stellar record that feels like a return to their best forms, with some quite lovely songs that fit perfectly here in Spare Oom and MU4. I’m quite happy to have them back on my Eden Cycle playlist again.

Walk in Silence XXVII

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Dang, how are we on volume 27 already? Or more to the point, how are we not at a higher volume, considering I started the series in 1988? Heh.

Either way, I’m happy to return to making mixtapes more consistently again. I’ve made it a point to give my listening habits a bit more breathing room — and paying attention once more to when a song or album catches my attention, and letting my brain latch onto it instead of just flitting onto the next shiny. I know it’s helping that I made that choice on purpose to tie in with my MU4 novel project, but the real point was to reconnect with why I love to listen to music so much. I’d lost track of that for a while.

[Note: One song is missing from this Spotify version of the mix, “Splinter” by Chatham Rise, which sits between Miss Grit and Beck as track 9.]

A Flock of Seagulls, Fortyish Years On

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Yes, folks. I am old enough that I remember the iconic and extremely low-budget (most of it seemingly spent on tinfoil) video for A Flock of Seagulls’ song “I Ran (So Far Away)” being new on MTV and loving it to bits. Never mind that the non-instrument props are from whatever they had in the studio’s back closet, this was taking the idea of music video to another level. They were part of a British wave of, well, New Wave. Distinctly pop yet heavily steeped in fashion, science fiction and even a bit of doom-and-gloom. It took Cold War darkness and tension into unexpected and highly creative directions.

This past week, the band dropped a Deluxe edition of their first album, a three-disc collection of a new album remaster, single mixes and b-sides, several BBC radio sessions, and even a short live set. The remaster itself sounds amazing, given that it’s not always easy to give a synth-heavy sound a warm feeling. The remaster gives the album plenty of breathing room and clarity for each performer. And Paul Reynolds’ distinctive guitar work, similar to that of U2’s Edge with its soaring and extremely melodic qualities, sounds crisp and clear.

The rest of the album may have its filler moments, but it also contains some bangers such as the singles “Space Age Love Song” and “Telecommunication” as well great deep cuts “DNA” and album closer “Man Made”. I highly recommend giving it a spin!