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Q's Compilations
Vol #145 – August to
September 2022
We’re officially into Autumn / fall! August and early September brought more travelling (Oregon and Pittsburgh) which was lovely but I have very much enjoyed being back in New York for a few weeks, with little intention of leaving the five boroughs any time soon. Doing my best to catch up on gigs and new records. Oh yeah, the queen died… I despise the idea of a monarchy but I found myself utterly unmoved by her death because ultimately nothing has changed, the institution is still in place. I’ll celebrate if my country of birth ever becomes a republic (and more importantly, gives up the state religion). I got the latest covid booster and flu shot, go get yours! Almost everything on the mix is entirely new bar a few songs.
01) Fritz – Sweetie: I bought Fritz’s debut album, Pastel, on a bit of a whim during the last bandcamp Friday (it was released February 2021 but it just came onto my radar recently). The record’s fuzzy dream pop vibe hit instantaneously and I think I’d purchased the album before I’d finished listening all the way through.
02) Alvvays - Easy On Your Own: It doesn’t feel like Alvvays’ previous record was five years ago, it seems like they never really went away, but maybe that’s because this track from upcoming record, Blue Rev (release date 7th October), sounds like it could have been on either of their previous records. That’s not a bad thing at all, and I have tickets to see them at Kings Theatre in November.
03) Jobber - Entrance Theme: Brooklyn quartet Jobber are about to release their debut EP, Hell in a Cell, via Exploding in Sound Records. If the rest of the EP is packed with the kind of riffs this lead single has then I will happily gobble up anything they release.
04) The Lounge Society - Bloody Money: Regional accents can sometimes be the make or break of a band, but Yorkshire act The Lounge Society don’t push it too far and seem to straddle the line perfectly on debut album Tired of Liberty. The record is busy and ambitious but all the songs are neatly wrapped up in 2-4 minute songs.
05) Plates of Cake - Everyone Got Over that Summer: Brooklyn trio Plates of Cake are releasing a farewell album on the 30th of September called Got a Feeling that I Live Here and I will certainly be sad to see them go. As far as underrated bands of the Brooklyn DIY seen over the last decade go, Plates of Cake should have had a much wider audience if you ask me. I always appreciated that they were never afraid to rattle off guitar solos to go with their catchy melodies.
06) Savak – Empathy: Speaking of underrated Brooklyn indie bands… Savak have put out consistently excellent records since 2015, including 2022’s Human Error / Human Delight that was released in April this year.
07) Cheap Star - Flower Girl: Cheap Star is pure unadulterated power pop, almost to the point of plagiarism, but makes no bones about it, most of the songs on this record, Wish I Could See, which came out this February, features some heavyweights of the genre, including this one that has Matthew Caws of Nada Surf on backing vocals and harmonies, as well as Jon Auer on bass and guitar.
08) Goat - Under No Nation: It has been six years since Sweden’s psych heavyweights released a full blown studio record of new material and they’re coming out swinging with lead single Under No Nation.
09) Thee Sacred Souls - Easier Said than Done: Few genres suffer from the ghosts of the past as soul music, where rock acts can be celebrated for sounding like classic artists, the same is rarely offered for soul and R&B. When I first heard Thee Sacred Souls, I thought it was another archival release from the 60s or 70s, but this San Diego trio just released their self-titled debut album via Daptone in August. Sometimes derivative sounds don’t work out, but the record seems to excel because of it.
10) Drugdealer – Madison: Michael Collins aka Drugdealer’s third record, Hiding in Plain Sight, comes out on the 28th of October via Mexican Summer and this is the lead single (that also opens the record). The middle of the road is a difficult vibe to really nail but this might be one of the best mid-tempo radio friendly songs I’ve heard in years. Shout out to my buddy Felix for sending me this song, I can picture him driving down route 101 blasting this. Cool.
11) Joseph - Green Eyes: Emily and I just had a trip out to Pittsburgh to see The Shins (we were out of town when they played NYC), and Joseph opened the show. Now, if you just see the name Joseph without knowing anything else, three sisters singing perfect harmonies is probably the last thing you’d imagine, but that’s what we were treated to. This track appears on their second record, Good Luck, Kid that came out in 2019, but their most recent release is Trio Sessions Vol 2, which consists of stripped down versions of their songs, and is how we experienced them live (basically just one guitar and three voices) and seems to be their sweet spot.
12) Paisley Fields - Jesus Loving American Guy: I’ll listen to anything that Don Giovanni records put out, even a country record like this! It would be a bit of a disservice to simply describe Limp Wrist as just a country record, though that’s the central sound, there’s a little lite electro/disco, plenty of piano ballads, and the lyrics paint a picture of growing up as a closeted queer in rural Iowa in a family of devout catholics.
13) Lee Bains III - (In Remembereance of the) 40 Hour Week: Speaking of Don Giovanni Records, they just put out Lee Bains III’s latest album, Old Time Folks (I used God’s a Workin’, Man on Q#142). The Birmingham, Alabama have produced their most “southern rock” record to date, the deep south is jammed into just about every song on the almost hour-long record.
14) The Reds, Pinks & Purples - Saw You at the Record Store Today: Glenn Donaldson only really has one vibe - forlorn, and I don’t mean that as an insult, the saddest songs are usually the most beautiful. A 7” EP on an obscure Swedish label was released in 2020 called I Should Have Helped You that is impossible (and/or expensive) to find, but that’s now been reissued and expanded to an album that includes this gem. Saw you at the record shop today. Saw your picks from far away. Love Bites and Candy Apple Grey, a tore up Only Theater of Pain. What have you done to yourself?
15) Del Amitri - Lips of London: Del Amitri are unrivalled when it comes to the art of the b-side, but we don’t really have singles anymore so there aren’t b-sides… regardless, the band just released an “Outtakes and B-Sides” companion to Fatal Mistakes which would have been a strong album in its own right. This is a fun little rocker with some infectious backing harmonies.
16) Julia Jacklin - I Was Neon: Julia Jacklin just released her third studio album, Pre Pleasure, which I’m still digesting, something I’ve appreciated about all her records to date is that they’re growers and get under your skin the more you listen. The record is mostly filled with ballads so this song is not really representative of the whole thing, but this song slotted most naturally into the mix.
17) The Shins - Caring is Creepy: As mentioned for the Joseph song, we trekked out to Pittsburgh to see The Shins since we missed their NYC show. It was a pretty good show, though it was also a smart move to bring Joseph as openers who could also come out to sing backing harmonies when they needed them to!
18) Blessed – Anything: I was a big fan of Blessed’s 2019 album Salt, that criminally didn’t get mentioned as much as it should have… hopefully they’ll find some more critical love with upcoming album Circuitous. This song features the same signature musical interplay and some Radiohead-y guitar parts, I’m eagerly awaiting the 28th of October when the record comes out.
19) Preoccupations - Death of Melody: I haven’t listened to the new Preoccupations album (Arrangements) all the way through yet, which was released on the 9th of September, but this lead single has all their signature intricacies.
20) The Dream Syndicate – Damian: I just saw The Dream Syndicate live at Bowery Ballroom the other week where they played debut album The Days of Wine and Roses in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The band had no opener and the first set of newer material was just as thrilling as hearing their classic material. They played this tune from their most recent record, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions, which was released this June.
21) Helena Deland - Someone New: I almost used the standalone track, Swimmer, that Helena put out this February, a beautiful and haunting solo acoustic tune, but something drew me back to her 2020 album, Someone New, and particularly the title track.
22) Blase - Unknown Gateway: Another tune that Felix sent me, thanks again! I think he has been paying attention to all the times I’ve told him Chicago is maybe producing the best bands these days… Vertigo Valley was released in July and I bought the record on bandcamp on the strength of hearing this song. It opens the record but it felt like a great closer for the mix as I tend to like to end up with something chill.
As
always, Peace and Love - Q
