Q#127 - August to September 2019

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Now with added Spotify playlist at end of notes.

Q's Compilations

Vol #127 – August to September 2019

Well this one is significantly late and I have some gall to call this mix August/September but here we are, three weeks late so these notes will be rushed.

01) Amyl and the Sniffers - Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled):Aussie rock band released their self-titled debut album in May, this track closes the record but it sounded like a compilation opener to me.

02) Vivian Girls – Sick: Five years after their “final” shows, I always held out hope that the trio would return and they duly did in September with new album Memory, which might just be their best record to date. I saw them play at Warsaw recently and it was like they’d never been away.

03) Katie Ellen – Lighthouse: I saw Katie Ellen open for Cayetana (more on them later) and enjoyed her set enough to check out her recorded material. This song jumped out.

04) Oso Oso - Basking in the Glow: Long Beach’s Oso Oso released Basking in the Glow in August (this is the title track) and as far as the current trend of 90s-influenced alt-rock goes, this is one of the best examples.

05) Young Guv - Patterns Prevail: I’ve been a big fan of Young Guv since debut album Ripe 4 Luv (first featured in Q#103), and new album Guv II takes him in more straight-up power-pop territory, at times bordering on a Teenage Fanclub tribute, which is no bad thing from my point of view.

06) Jay Som – Superbike: Another 90s-tinged tune here, Melina Duterte has released her second album Anak Ko in August and it’s a dreampop delight.

07) Pronoun – Run: I’ll Show You Stronger is a treble-heavy bedroom pop record of which this is probably the highlight.

08) Long Beard - Getting By: Pretty music and downbeat lyrics is the middle of the venn diagram for me so when this song turned up in a PR email I was pretty captivated instantly. I haven’t listened to the album this comes from yet, Means to Me was released on the 13^th of September.

09) Lower Dens – Galapagos: Another new album I haven’t had the chance to listen to, The Competition was also released in September, but this is a nice tune.

10) HAIM – Forever: I managed to get some free tickets to see HAIM in August, I hadn’t really listened to them prior but came out a convert, they put on one of the best shows I’ll see this year.

11)  Girl Band - Going Nowhere: Irish quartet Girl Band have been releasing intensely genre-busting records for seven years (I first heard them in 2014), and I recently described new album The Talkies as like being on a chaotic construction site, and I mean that as a huge compliment.

12) Cursive - Pick Up the Pieces: I saw Cursive band in May and I’m writing these notes having just seem them two times in a weekend opening for Against Me! at Starland Ballroom in New Jersey.

13) Cayetana - Bus Ticket: Philly trio Cayetana called it a day in August with a tour that included a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. I first saw the band in 2015 and four times in total, their second album in particular, New Kind of Normal is very good and it’s a shame they’ve called it quits.

14) Dehd – Lucky: Chicago psyche trio Dehd released Water in May on Fire Talk Records (who are celebrating a ten year anniversary). The new album is a bit more, dare I saw pop-oriented than previous efforts but does not suffer for it at all.

15) Future Teens - Emotional Bachelor: I saw Future Teens open for Oso Oso and they reminded me of the kind of band I’d see at Glasslands (RIP). Emotional Bachelor was released on the 30^th of August via Take This to Heart Records.

16) Josh Ritter - Old Black Magic: Perpetual smiler Josh Ritter released his tenth album, Fever Breaks, in April, and it’s perhaps my favourite in his discography. It’s definitely a more band-focused record and keeps a fairly steady path, sometimes it’s ok to own the middle of the road.

17) Slaughter Beach, Dog - Heart Attack: While Modern Baseball remain on hiatus, we’ve been treated to some solo/side-projects. Guitarist/vocalist Jake Ewald’s Slaughter Beach, Dog just released a delightful and breezy new album, Safe and Also No Fear on Lame-O Records.

18) The Mountain Goats - No Children: I saw the Mountain Goats play a free show at East River State Park and they played a much better set than the last time I saw them at Brooklyn Steel two years earlier. Their latest album, In League with Dragons, is a Dungeons and Dragons-influenced album, which is pretty good but I haven’t given it a whole lot of time. This is an old song though, from 2002’s Tallahassee but they played it at the show and it’s one of my favourites.

19) Withered Hand – California: I was thinking of putting together a California-based playlist for a recent trip to the state for a wedding, and I got about as far as this song and the next one…

20) The Magnetic Fields - Come Back From San Francisco: Another track from the two-minutes I spent thinking about a California playlist…

21) Built to Spill - Broken Chairs: Cult indie legends Built to Spill are celebrating the 20^th anniversary of their best album, Keep It Like a Secret (if you put a gun to my head I might say that 2006’s You in Reverse is slightly better). They played the album in full at Webster Hall recently and it was an amazing show, I don’t always love the play-an-album-in-full idea but it seemed to work great this time.

And there we go, only three weeks late. One more time before the end of the year!

As always, Peace and Love - Q

Please note that the zip file has a password: QCOMPS.BLOGSPOT  

Download mix from  http://www.mediafire.com/file/mdg9xleblx5ibbk/Q%2523127.zip/file 

Q#84 - June - July 2012

Please note that the zip file has a password: Q84
Download files here: http://www.mediafire.com/?va5q1o35i2wlx4t

Q’s Compilations

Volume #84 – June – July 2012

Greetings from sweltering New York! I had been warned about the summers here and they were not joking, at the time of writing we’ve had 14 days of over 32 degrees C (90 degrees F), apparently the average for the year is 15 days of that temperature. Yikes. Anyway, here’s some music.

01) Seapony – Dreaming: I can’t remember where I found this from, I think it might have been a last.fm recommendation. It is, however, perfect summer pop and the album, Go With Me, is generally delightful. “I don't wanna be like everybody else, I don't wanna be stuck on another shelf”

02) Mrs Magician – There Is No God: Atheism has never sounded so sunny! My wife and I have been fighting over who was going to buy their record, even though I obviously like them better, and heard of them first :o) regardless, it’s a wonderful debut (Strange Heaven). “There’s no god la la la there’s no god la la la”

03) Pond – Dig Brother: I didn’t realise when I bought this record (Beard, Wives, Denim) the other week that it’s a side-project of Australian band, Tame Impala. I first heard of them thanks for a compilation that friend, Felix, sent to me recently. The album is heavily influenced by those old Nuggets-style bands.

04) Chelsea Light Moving - Burroughs: This is Thurston Moore’s new project sounds like… Sonic Youth! I had the pleasure of seeing Thurston perform an improvised set a couple of months ago where he basically abused his guitar, a great watch! On the basis of this track I’m looking forward to the record. http://chelsealightmoving.blogspot.com/

05) The Corin Tucker Band – Doubt: Corin Tucker is set to release her second solo album, which reminded me that I actually needed to hear the first (which is called 1000 Years)! Corin is of course, best known for being in Sleater Kinney, and this material is no departure. She’s playing a couple of shows here in September which I’m tempted by.

06) Guided By Voices – No Transmission: I had the pleasure of seeing GBV for free in Central Park recently and they played a great set (whilst also helping me tick off seeing one of my favourite bands that I didn’t think I’d ever get to see). While it was heavy on recent material and very light on classics (although hearing Game of Pricks, I Am a Scientist and Echos Myron will forever be gig-going highlights), new album Class Clown Spots a UFO is actually rather fine and dandy. As Pollard said at the gig, “we had to show them how it was done back then, and we had to come back to show them how to do it again”.

07) Smashing Pumpkins – Quasar: Another band with a recent return to form, Smashing Pumpkins seemed to disappear with a bit of a wimper a few years ago, but new album, Oceania, is an ambitious and varied record.

08) Roomrunner – Spinning: I saw Roomrunner’s first ever gig (or at least that’s what they said, a freebie at Hudson River Rocks) recently and despite a catalogue of technical problems they played a blistering set, check them out! http://roomrunner.tumblr.com/

09) Heavy Blanket – Spit in the Eye: This project is basically an excuse for J.Mascis to guitar solo constantly, which is fine because there are fewer aural delights than a Mascis guitar solo!

10) Superchunk – Why Do You Have To Put A Date On Everything (live): Although I owned the original CD, I love Foolish so purchased the remastered CD that was released last year. The album comes with a download code with a raft of bonus material, which includes a concert recording. I was a bit bummed out recently because they played a free show in Times Square that I had to miss (it clashed with Guided By Voices, all the more annoying that they were supposed to play the day before but had to change venue and day).

11) Built to Spill – Car: I love Built to Spill, but until recently had never gotten round to purchasing There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, which has now been rectified. Car is one of their most well-known songs, of course, but I felt like throwing it on anyway.

12) Diiv – Follow: The band have just released their debut album, Oshin, which is a lovely and dreamy swirl of guitars and this song is pretty representative of the album as a whole. Planning on catching them in August at one of the Hudson River Rocks shows.

13) Blouse – Into Black: From Portland, Oregon, Blouse released a haunting self-titled debut album last year which is well worth a listen.

14) Blood Orange – Sutphin Boulevard: Blood Orange is another alias of Devonté Hynes also known as Lightspeed Champion and member of the now defunct Test Icicles (I always saw their name but never checked them out). I have Felix to thank for recommending this to me.

15) Fanfarlo – Lenslife: On their second album (debut album Resevoir was very promising) the band seem to have ventured into Talking Heads territory, not that that’s a bad thing! It seems a less coherent record (Rooms Filled With Light) but does have some highlights, this was my favourite.

16) Chromatics – The River: The band have just released new album, Kill For Love, on their Italians Do It Better label, all of their music is very reasonably priced (most albums are $5 and they send you a download while you wait for the physical copy). I love the vibe of this song, so simple but effective. “l Watch The Moon Hang In The Air, l Feel The Cold Breeze Through My Hair, My Eyes Blind By Headlights Glare, I'm Still Here Waiting For You”

17) The Flaming Lips – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face: The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends was released on CD recently and is a schizophrenic mishmash of collaborations, this one features Erika Badu and is a cover version, most famously known as a cover version itself by Roberta Flack. The Flips’ version features their typical sonic bombast but still manages to retain a sense of longing for which the song is known. “The first time ever I kissed your mouth, And felt your heart beat close to mine, Like the trembling heart of a captive bird, That was there at my command, my love“

18) Exitmusic – Sparks of Light: I’d heard the name of this band for some time but never got round to listening to them, I don’t know why but I just assumed they would sound completely different to this.

And there you have it!

Until next time

Peace and love

Q