Q#138 - June to July 2021

 

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

 Download mix from https://www.mediafire.com/file/umt89os4r0kix46/Q%2523138.zip/file

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Please note that Bennio Qwerty are not available on spotify, check their bandcamp page.

Q's Compilations

Vol #138 – June to July 2021

 

Greetings and happy, hope everyone is staying healthy and doing well… Anyway, most of this mix as usual is all brand-new, and I’ve gotten over the line thanks to a couple of friends and having to completely rebuild my itunes library from scratch, a clean start has ultimately been quite liberating. While I still had all my files intact, and my ipod classic still going strong after 12 years, it was nice to throw together what I considered essential and then adding anything recent, or things that I didn’t give enough time of day originally. After running an “if I need to add something I have to delete something first” operation for a number of years to the ipod being full, it’s exciting to have a bit of space for a while (and yes I still use my ipod classic a lot!).

01) All Dogs - That Kind of Girl: A beneficiary of my fresh-itunes-start, I thought this was a new record I just didn’t get round to listening, but Kicking Every Day is the band’s only album which came out in 2015. I was trying to figure out how I had this but going through my gig-history it all made sense, they opened for Superchunk when I saw them in 2015. The band is fronted by Maryn Jones who I also like a lot as her pseudonym, Yowler.

02) Guided By Voices - Trust Them Now: Earthman Blues, the zillionth GBV album released since you started reading this sentence (ok it was released at the end of April). There’s nothing new I can write about Bob Pollard and whoever is in his band, the man is a machine.

03) Snarls - Walk in the Woods: I closed Q#136 with Burst, the title track of their record released in March 2020 and I had a hard time picking between that song and this one, so much that I couldn’t get it out of my head recently so here it is. This is the kind of song I love to listen to while walking around the city on a nice day.

04) Bad Bad Hats - Detroit Basketball: Back in normal times, I saw Bad Bad Hats open for The Beths and enjoyed them a lot, but their between-song demeanour really kept them in my thoughts, and now they’ve just signed to one of my favourite labels, Don Giovanni Records. This is the first single from Walkman, that will come out in September.

05) Smile Machine - Pretty Today: Jordyn Blakely has been a mainstay in Brooklyn for some time now as the drummer in many a band you’ll have seen at a DIY venue (Stove, Night Manager, Butter the Children, etc), this is at least to my knowledge the first time she’s fronted a band. Bye for Now is Smile Machine’s debut EP that came out on the 16^th of July and this song and every song is like being in a warm, fuzzy 90s-alt-rock-inspired hug.

06) Bennio Qwerty - The Spell: I could say that this song is on the mix as a result of my itunes reshuffle, but Bennio Qwerty are one of the bands I think about the most who released the least amount of music and seemingly disappeared without a trace. In a list of bands I would put back together, Bennio Qwerty would be up there.

07) Fuzz - The Returning: On a recent trip to Portland (Oregon), it transpired that there was something out on Record Store Day that I felt strongly enough to endure waiting in line over an hour for on holiday (Nada Surf’s Cycle Through EP). Having made everyone else wait for this nonsense, I felt like I should buy a few more things to make it seem more worthwhile, one purchase was the latest Fuzz record, which came out last year.

08) Hovvdy - True Love: A welcome return to Hovvdy, who last appeared on Q#119 back in April/May 2018. This song is the title-track to their new album which comes out in October. There’s something unashamedly radio-friendly about this song, maybe it’s the backing vocals, feels like it should be a low-key summer hit.

09) Bleachers - Stop Making This Hurt: I was struggling to put this mix together for a while, landing a good 20 minutes short when I ran out of steam/influence, but thanks to Adrianna for sending this song, it really tied the mix together (tracks 8-13 almost immediately all fell in place shortly after). Despite Jack Antonoff being one of the most in-demand pop producers over the last decade, and Bleachers themselves being popular, I’d never heard of him or them until now. Their third album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, comes out on the 30^th of July (hopefully I’ve finished these notes by then…), but you probably already know that. Anyway, intensely catchy and the type of unabashed pop that I very rarely have or make time for in my life.  

10) Vundabar - Out of It: One of the records that passed me by in 2020 was Vundabar’s Either Light, which had the misfortune of coming out in the middle of March when something else was dominating everyone’s thoughts. Anyway, they released two new songs in May which I like but I’m mostly grateful that it made me go back and listen the Either Light (which this song opens).

11) Lucy Dacus - Hot & Heavy: I bought tickets to see Bright Eyes for a show in June 2020, which fairly swiftly got rescheduled to July 31^st 2021, even as the numbers were going down in May and even early June, I was still wondering if the show would happen since there was no news aside from the original rescheduled date… but towards the end of June they announced yes, the show will go ahead, it’ll be my first concert since March 2020… I’m sure it’ll be great. Oh yeah, why am I mentioning this now, Lucy Dacus is opening the show! One of the indie-darlings of 2021, she just released new album Home Video in June on Matador Records.

12) Riddy Arman - Half a Heart Keychain: Montana-based singer-songwriter Riddy Arman’s debut album (self-titled) comes out in September and this is the lead-single and if you like this you’ll probably like the 9-track/29-minute offering.

13) Dark Tea - Highway Mile: Dark Tea’s second-self-titled album (for clarity, the band’s second album, both albums are self-titled) was released in April and it’s a low-key delightful album, the kind of record you listen to and maybe move on to other things for a few weeks but before you know it you keep coming back for more.

14) Courtney Barnett - Rae Street: like every man and his dog, I loved (and still play) 2015’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, and enjoyed 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel without ever going back to it. I’m looking forward to new album, Things Take Time, Take Time, which comes out in November. This song opens the album and I got tickets to see her at Radio City in February, which has the, dare I say, even greater benefit of featuring Julia Jacklin as opener.

15) Del Amitri - I'm So Scared of Dying: It’s a failure of mine to be able to put into adequate words the feeling of your favourite band releasing their first album in almost 20 years, is it an excellent album or am I just unable to be objective about such things? I think I’m a pretty rational person, and I love Fatal Mistakes, with this song perhaps being my favourite, there’s an unabashed Neil Young Everybody Knows This is Knowhere vide to this song. I do have tickets to see them on tour in the UK in October but I fear the UK government’s decision to fully re-open the country will result in that not happening, guess I can’t do anything but wait.

16) The Connells - Really Great: Speaking of bands who haven’t released anything in a while, I’ve always had a soft spot for their album Ring which came out in 1993 (casual music fans of the era may remember the minor-hit song 74-75 reached the heady heights of 36 in the UK singles chart). Anyway, this track opens Steadman’s Wake, which is due out in September, their first album since 2001’s Old School Dropouts.

17) The New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno: I try never to re-use songs and I know I used Twin Cinema at some point in 2005… it’s my favourite album from the band and they just announced an anniversary tour that rolls into Webster Hall in December, hence another track from the record. They’re also doing another night where they’re playing Mass Romantic but while that’s a good record, it’s just not as satisfying overall.

18) The Ganjas – Revelate: I try to be reasonable with my vinyl-purchasing, it takes up far too much room for an NYC apartment, but I have my (all-too-frequent) weak moments, and if I find an album on Blow Your Mind Records then it’s hard to resist and I managed to come across both Loose (where this track appears) and Daybreak recently. Chilean psyche rock has gotten a lot of praise over the last decade (and it deserves even more!), but we wouldn’t have some of the great bands of today were it now for The Ganjas who have been doing it for over 20 years at this point.

19) Caution - Supplemental Supplement: I’m a digital subscriber to Born Yesterday Records on bandcamp and it’s an excellent way to make you listen to a bunch of new releases as they get delivered to you instantly on release. Caution are a duo from Baltimore and this self-titled EP was released in February of this year, I was randomly flicking through my bandcamp library and this song just jumped out.

20) FCKR JR - Next Best Friends: Another Born Yesterday Records random-listen, FCKR JR are a quartet from Chicago and this album (I’m Sorry Mom and Dad) came out in August 2019. The band is fronted by former Geronimo! bassist and keyboard player Ben Grigg (Geronimo! featured way back on Q#96 seven years ago).

21) Karate – Gasoline: This track opens Karate’s self-titled debut album from 1996, sometimes you come across an old band that really begs belief that you weren’t already a huge fan for decades. Sadly Karate had to disband in 2005 after six albums due to frontman Geoff Farina developing hearing problems after playing almost 700 shows.

22) Bnny – Sure: Another Chicago act, Bnny is signed to Fire Talk Records and debut album Everything is getting released on the 20^th of August. This is the third pre-release single from the album and has a lullaby-like quality that I love putting towards the end of a mix.

23) Yvette - B61: Eight long years after the release of debut album PROCESS, Yvette finally return in September with How the Garden Grows, B61 opens the album and maintains the industrial sound that made Process so great, but there’s a bit more control and refinement, at least on this one song, I can’t wait to hear the whole thing later in the year.

I hope there were things to enjoy on the mix, this one took a while to come together but once the songs started flowing it snowballed pretty quickly.

As always, Peace and Love - Q

Q#137 - April to May 2021

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

 Download mix from https://www.mediafire.com/file/vocrqp8yyhg05tw/Q%2523137.zip/file

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q's Compilations

Vol #137 – April to May 2021

I’m finishing these notes up at my usual time of around 1am, feeling grateful to be three-weeks past my second vaccination, but still a little apprehensive/anxious about vaccine hesitancy permeating society; just today I was walking Jackson and heard someone proudly proclaim “I will NEVER take that vaccine”, and with people like that around, I worry we’ll never quite get to the numbers we need to make this go away, and that’s without even thinking about the horrific situation in other parts of the world where covid is still raging out of control. I see achieving “herd immunity” a bit like climate change, getting a good chunk of the way there is in principle pretty easy, but getting to net zero carbon emissions / minimal covid cases in the world, is quite difficult. For climate change, we could decarbonise our grids by ramping up our only source of massive carbon-free energy, nuclear energy, for covid, we have great vaccines, the big problem in the way… people who don’t trust what the science is telling us. The cover for this month’s mix is of Indian Point, the nuclear power plant recently closed thanks to Governor Cuomo’s idiocy and corruption towards the fossil fuel industry (in this case, natural gas). Indian Point was providing a massive amount of carbon free energy for decades and it is impossible to see how the state will reach its climate change goals without it (please read more about this here: http://www.nuclearny.org/indian-point/). Anyway, everything on this latest mix is either brand new, from last year that I had missed out on at the time, and one ancient track all the way back from 2018. I hope you can enjoy it.

 

01) Remember Sports - Pinky Ring: Formerly known as just Sports, the Philly quartet released their fourth album, Like a Stone, in April. This track opens the record and seemed like a typical Q-comp opener! They last appeared on Q#128.

02) Momma – Biohazard: My buddy Felix probably sends me more music recommendations than anyone I know, sometimes so many at once I can’t keep up! He hit a home-run with this LA trio’s second album, Two of Me, which came out in June 2020 and would certainly have been one of my favourite albums if I’d heard it. 

03) Hannah Jadagu - Think Too Much: Recently signed to Sub Pop, who just released her EP What Is Going On, this NYC resident is originally from Mesquite, Texas, and produces some lovely bedroom pop. This is the kind of song that’s perfect to walk around in a daydream on a sunny day in Prospect Park.

04) Hurry - It's Dangerous: Hurry’s latest album (their sixth, I think) is called Fake Ideas and will come out in June, this is the lead single from the album (I’ve pre-ordered it). I saw the band opening for Nada Surf a few years ago and have loved their jangle-indie since, somewhat fittingly, every time I play their records, without fail Emily asks “Is this Nada Surf?”.

05) JayWood - Some Days: Winnipeg, Manitoba, the city of greats such as Crash Test Dummies (I do actually love CTD unashamedly) and  Captured Tracks’ latest signing, JayWood, who just put out his EP, Some Days, when I first heard the noodley guitar intro and that drum shuffle I knew it would be a winner.

06) Molly Burch – Control: I remember falling in love with Molly Burch’s debut album Please be Mine in 2017 but seeing her perform that year, she had the voice but an awkward lack of confidence, when I saw her a year and another album later, she was transformed. Now about to release her third album (I won’t apologise for ignoring a christmas album), Romantic Images is being released by Captured Tracks in July and based on the two singles so far, it should be excellent.

07) Squirrel Flower - Hurt a Fly: Of all the albums released last year that I didn’t hear until now, Squirrel Flower’s I Was Born Swimming might be the one I feel like I missed out on the most (I realise I’ve said similar about Momma above), thankfully Ella Williams has been prolific enough to have another record coming out this year, Planet (i), coming out on the 25^th of June and this is the lead single from it which cropped up in my press releases. I’ve since bought I Was Born Swimming and pre-ordered Planet (i) 

08) Dusted - Little More Time: You wouldn’t know it from the Dusted tracks I’ve used from time to time, but Brian Borcherdt is a founding member of one of my favourite acts of the last fifteen years, Holy Fuck. Whilst his main band is an electronic but fairly organic dance act, his solo output is a brand of much more sombre, traditional songwriting. This is the lead single from his upcoming record, III, (which you might guess, is his third album), the one striking thing about this song is the vocals are much more confident, I’m not saying he’s channelling Jeff Buckley or anything here, but there’s definitely a step up in the delivery.

09) Fog Lake – Jitterbug: It can be a little hard to keep on top of Fog Lake’s discography, especially since I bought all thirteen of his releases on bandcamp earlier in the year, but his latest album, Tragedy Reel, came out in April this year and is another fine addition of his bedroom-slowcore. 

10) Silver Synthetic - In the Beginning: There’s something about this self-titled debut record that seems perfect for ushering summer into our lives. The whole album is like a cool summer breeze, occasions I tend to reach for a Luna album. The record came out in April, following an EP the previous October.

11) The Natvral - Why Don't You Come Out Anymore: Kip Bermen had a great run as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart from 2007 to 2019, and it was a shame when they disbanded, but his new project The Natvral is certainly different enough to justify a rebranding. This song opens new album Tethers and has strong Dylan/Petty vibes.

12) Julianna Hatfield - Moutful of Blood: Blood is set to be Julianna Hatfield’s nineteenth studio album on the 14^th of May, which was recorded mostly at home due to the pandemic, this is the lead single from the album.

13) Pet Fox - Imagine Why: Pet Fox have been kicking around for a few years now, releasing a couple of full length albums but having signed to Exploding In Sound Records, they’ll hopefully get on more people’s radars. Their new three-song EP, More than Anything is excellent and hopefully a new album won’t be too far away. The band consists of Theo Hartlett (Ovlov), Morgan Luzzi (Ovlov), and Jesse Weiss (ex-Palehound, Grass Is Green), if you know those bands already then you won’t be surprised at how Pet Fox sound.

14) Blessed - Structure: One of my favourite albums of 2019 was Salt by this Vancouver quartet, and their four-track follow-up, iii, was released in February.

15) Squid – Pamphlets: It’s always heartening to hear a British band seemingly step-up and do something really great, I thought we’d already gotten the outstanding British record for the year in the bag already with Black Country New Road, but Bright Green Field by Squid might have taken the lead. Records that are hard to sum up are always going to pique my interest, it’s really all over the place and if anything, this might be the most normal song on the album.

16) La Cienca Simple – Distancia: I can never go too long without using a band from Chile on a Q Comp (this act first appeared on Q#119 in April/May 2018), this Santiago-based post-rock squintet have released three records, and this track opens the most recent (2018’s III V VII).

17) Mia Joy - Ye Old Man: I’ll pretty much buy anything that Fire Talk Records put out (indeed, I’m not a monthly subscriber), Spirit Tamer was released on the 7^th May and is a very chill record.

18) Moontype – Ferry: I remember bookmarking this song back in December and falling in love with it pretty instantly, but it’s easy to lose track of bandcamp pages that are single tracks when an album is coming out (with the same song on) months later, so when I listened to Bodies of Water in April it almost took me by surprise when this song appeared late on the record. One of the reasons for that perhaps is that this song is a bit of an oddity on a mostly indie-pop record with a few more BPM than this tune would suggest, but there’s something really whimsical about this song that I can’t escape 

19) Cory Hanson - Another Story from the Center of the Earth: Cory Hanson is the main-man of LA psyche rock band Wand (who have appeared many times over the years on this series), but for his solo records he tames things down a few notches to a mostly acoustic and at times country vibe. There’s some great pedal steel throughout the record that really elevates it, and this song has some serious Neil Young Everybody Knows This is Nowhere nods, including the raging guitar solos.

I’m pretty happy with this mix overall and I hope you’ve found something new and enjoyable as well, we’ll be back in June/July. In the meantime, I hope you’re able to get vaccinated if you aren’t already and who knows, maybe we’ll be able to see each other at a show or three before the year is out.

 

As always, Peace and Love - Q

Q#136 - February to March 2021

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

 Download mix from https://www.mediafire.com/file/lr4o7ux9jiu8fnb/Q%2523136.zip/file

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q's Compilations

Vol #136 – February to March 2021

 

Happy Spring (or nearly-Spring)! There have already been a lot of good new releases in 2021 so between that and hopeful news of vaccine roll-outs, we just need to hunker down and be responsible a little longer. As is usual for the Feb/March mix in a year, there are some songs that didn’t make the cut for the best-of, or songs that would have if only I’d heard them before now, and all the best new things I’ve heard. I hope there’s something for you to enjoy.

01) The Dirty Nil – Doom Boy: Canadian trio The Dirty Nil released Fuck Art, their third studio album, on the 8^th of January via Dine Alone Records. The record has felt like a long time coming, not uncommon given many bands have delayed releases during the pandemic, though Done With Drugs, the lead single for the album, came out in June (and was on Q#133). The album is another excellent collection of catchy power pop, this song opens the record which rarely relents. “Do you delight in rule breaking? Dancing to thrash and hailing satan?”

02) Ratboys – Alien With a Sleep Mask On: Chicago quartet Ratboys released Printer’s Devil in February 2020, pre-pandemic! I only just recently heard of them, however, and this was a recent bandcamp purchase. They just put out country-twinged single so hopefully there’ll be a follow-up in due course.

03) Jetstream Pony – It’s Fine: I do find that going down a Bandcamp rabbit-hole can often yield pretty good results – at this point I can’t remember how I ended up on this Brighton-based band, but it was a “you just purchased xxxxx perhaps you’d like Jetsream Pony”, and they weren’t wrong. Their self-titled album was released in May 2020 and this opens the record.

04) Rat Columns – It’s Your Time (to Suffer): Perth’s Rat Columns just released their fourth album, Pacific Kiss in February (mostly recorded in East Williamsburg). I just love the sound and arrangements of the whole album, which lands fairly close to the middle of my venn diagram.

05) Kiwi Jr – Undecided Voters: Another jangle-heavy release already in the bag for 2021, Toronto’s Kiwi Jr just put out their second album, Cooler Returns, which is being released by Sub Pop. The comparisons to Pavement may be a little boringly obvious, but the record does certainly sound a lot like them at times.

06) The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Record Player and the Damage Done: Those that know their record labels will not be surprised to hear that Uncommon Weather is being released by Slumberland Records, it comes out in April but this is one of the singles. I guess 2021 really is the year of jangle so far (at least in my universe). The Reds, Pinks and Purples is a DIY project from Glenn Donaldson in San Francisco. “I don’t wanna join your revolution, so leave me alone. No spiritual journeys for me, I’ll stay home. Use your breakthroughs for something worthwhile for once. And save the human race, haven’t we suffered enough?”

07) Horsees – Overdry: Paris quartet Horsees released their self-titled debut album last month and it’s a delightful collection of songs that would all sound at home on the Children of Nuggets compilation.

08) Ron Gallo – Hide (Myself Behind You): Peacemeal is Ron Gallo’s third full length album and was released by New West Records on the 5^th of March. The album is a departure from his first two records, which were a little more traditional garage/indie, there’s certainly a more poppy vibe on songs like this one, but the album is a bit of a kaleidoscope for the most part that I’m still digesting.

09) Fruit Bats – Balcony: Celebrating Fruit Bats’ 20^th anniversary, The Pet Parade is Eric D Johnson’s ninth release under the Fruit Bats moniker. The album came out on the 5^th of March and it’s another find addition to the discography, for this song in particular there’s something about the way that bass comes in at around the 40-second mark that gets me every time.

10) Bright Eyes – Flirted With You All My Life: One of my favourite songs of all time is Vic Chesnutt’s Flirting With You All My Life (which was used on a very, very old Q-Comp back in 2009 when At the Cut was released), it has been covered many times often badly and should probably be left well alone. However, I did hear Bright Eyes version recently and think it’s probably the best of the covers I’ve heard. Technically I have rescheduled tickets to see Bright Eyes this summer, which I assume will get rescheduled again at this point!

11) Del Amitri – It’s Feelings: I typically describe Del Amitri as my first love, and the band are set to release their first album since 2002’s Can You Do Me Good in May (unless the release gets pushed back again), recording of Fatal Mistakes was finished the day before the first lockdown in the UK, which was good timing… this is the second single from the album. It’s hard to describe the feeling of your favourite band releasing an album for the first time in almost 20 years. “All the sickness, all the bruises, All the shit that no one chooses, Bring it on in its disguises, I'll take the knockouts with the prizes”

12) Semisonic – You’re Not Alone: Speaking of bands who haven’t released anything in 19 years… Semisonic’s last album was 2001’s All About Chemistry but they released an EP last year. Dan Wilson has had a pretty successful career writing for/with other artists in the ensuing years, indeed the idea to finally record some new Semisonic tunes came after he tried to write some material for Liam Gallagher, I’m certainly glad he decided to take the inspiration for himself.

13) Black Country New Road – Sunglasses: London septet Black Country New Road released their debut album, For the First Time in February and it’s certainly the front-runner for most critically acclaimed album of the year to date. The record runs the gamut of art-and-post-rock, having saxophone and violin throughout is always going to bring something else to the table and the musicianship is first rate. Clocking in at almost 10 minutes, Sunglasses is probably as good a summation of the record as possible, but you should really listen to the whole thing. I’d love to see what they’re like live.

14) Mogwai – Pet Stains: In probably the most surprising charting achievement I can perhaps think of, Mogwai’s tenth album, released on the 19^th of February to mark the 25^th anniversary of their first single, actually got to number 1 on the UK album charts. As someone who has been a fan since their 1997 debut album, Young Team, it’s gratifying to see them do so well.

15) Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – New York Miracle: I saw Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe open for Fuck Buttons in 2013 and he had me in the palm of his hand. Using a modular synth and sipping tea, he looked like some kind of magician controlling the room. Notes Above Land was released in February though a lot of it was recorded in 2015.

16) Ronnie Vega – Lieutenant Dan: Another somewhat random recent bandcamp purchase was Two Eps by Ronnie Vega who was from Philly and sadly died last year. Two Eps collates his entire discography and it’s a huge shame there isn’t more of it as it really is outstanding.

17) Lilys – Accepting Applications at University: Lily’s re-issued their 1999 album, The 3-Way recently and while I prefer them in a more shoegazy mood, there are some pretty enchanting songs on this record, which wears its 60s Kinks/The Zombies influences proudly.

18) Beach Bunny – Blame Game: At this point I shouldn’t need to say that Beach Bunny released my favourite album of last year (Honeymoon), but I do need to tell you that they just put out a new EP, of which this is the title track, that came out in January. My in-general-hot-take in music is that I think EPs are a little silly and that bands should just wait a bit longer to have enough material for an LP, but I’m of the CD-single generation where bands like Del Amitri would put out 2-CDs with 6 excellent b-sides that were basically Eps. Anyway, I digress, the EP is of course excellent and I hope they have a new record in the works.

19) Snarls – Burst: Every once in a while I’ll hear Emily playing her Spotify recommended/daily playlist and something will prick my ears, the best recent example is this Columbus, Ohio quartet who released Burst in March 2020 and would certainly have made the previous best-of-that-year mix if I’d have heard it at the time. “When I die, May I burst, With a crack of thunder, And a lot of glitter”

I know as the weather starts getting better there’s a temptation to put our guards down but hopefully we can start seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, even if we’re still a long way off normality. Keep being safe!

As always, Peace and Love - Q

Q#135 - December 2020 to January 2021

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

 Download mix from https://www.mediafire.com/file/chi7s158l7rmthz/Q#135.zip/file

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q's Compilations

Vol #135 – December 2020 to January 2021

 

Where to start? As usual, the first mix of the year is a round-up of my favourite releases from the last 12 months. It obviously wasn’t a normal year on any metric, but there was still a lot of excellent music to absorb, though aside from a select few records, I found that while I enjoyed a lot, I didn’t listen to many albums repeatedly and I think the main reason for that is there were no concerts to go to for almost 80% of the year. Gigs not only give me a lot of exposure to new music but ultimately an extra connection to the band/artist themselves, if I’ve enjoyed a live set, I’m much more likely to keep going back. Since these are most of my favourites from the year, I may have used my #1 songs from these artists on mixes throughout the year.

 

01) Beach Bunny – Ms California: I’m kicking things off with the one 2020 record I could not stop playing, Honeymoon was released in February and I’m aghast that it didn’t register on more end-of-year lists. It’s a fairly short and sweet album with 9 songs in 25 minutes, but if you want pop hooks and huge choruses, then this Chicago band is for you. I want to be clear here, I have barely stopped playing this record since I first heard it.

02) Supercrush – On the Telephone: I used Get It Right on Q#134 which also appears on their debut album, SODO Pop that came out in October; it’s about as classic a power-pop record as you could find in 2020. The whole record is a joy so if you like this tune you’ll dig all the ten tracks.

03) Bloody Your Hands – Weird Winter: I opened Q#133 with Checked Out and this is another anthemic pop-punk tune from their album Sunday Scaries that came out in August. What a great fist-pumping chorus this has.

04) Latitude – Thursday is the New Sunday: I honestly don’t remember how I cam across this quintet from San Francisco, but Mystic Hotline was released in October and this song in particular immediately took my fancy and made me buy the record. Effortlessly breezy. “Thursday’s the new Sunday, Cuz all I wanna do, Is lay around with you, Call me up honey, This dirty old city, It’ll grind us to the bone, And all I seem to wanna do, Is lay around”

05) Pure X – Middle America: If Beach Bunny released my favourite album of the year, the Pure X probably take the runner up spot with their self-titled release back in May, their first record in six years. I even ended up buying it more than once (first I got a promo copy, liked it enough to buy it digitally, then I realised I really wanted it on vinyl). I used Fantasy back on Q#131, and I just love that desert guitar, I’m not sure fuzz has ever sounded so easy going.

06) METZ – The Mirror: Contenders for best live act over the last decade, METZ aren’t the most prolific studio artists, Atlas Vending came out in October and is their fourth studio album. Their last couple of records have tweaked their tried and tested formula just enough to make for albums that are distinct but undeniably them, it’s hard not to love everything they touch. I started running this year and always had a hard time slowing down while listening to this record (managed a 23-minute lap around Prospect Park once which is about 5.5k, which I was happy with but my knees were not).

07) Moor Jewelry – Eugenics: It’s hard to categorise True Opera by Moor Jewelery, which is a collaboration between Moor Mother and Mental Jewelry, but the reference point I tend to give people is if the Beastie Boys did a record where every song was like Sabotage. Obviously that does a disservice to this frankly outstanding record which you should all listen to if you’re in something of a post-hardcore mood. I also used Look Alive on Q#132.

08) Shell of a Shell – Knock: Records that get released at the start of the year tend to get a raw deal on end-of-year lists and that certainly seemed to be the case for Shell of a Shell’s album Away Team (I closed Q#130 with Don’t Expect), listening to this song as I write the notes is maybe the most profound pang of sadness I’ve had of not being able to see concerts in a while.

09) Flower – Annihilation Time: No big deal but cult NYC band Flower released their first album in thirty years, None Is (But Once Was) came out in July and is a bit of a departure from their original sound, most songs have a lovely jangle to them, though this is one of the more aggressive tunes on the album.

10) Nation of Language – Tournament: There’s usually a rush of records I find at the very end of the year through recommendations, and I have to thank Robert for turning me onto this band recently. Indie-darlings Future Islands released a new record this year, and I have to admit despite loving their other work, it didn’t grab me, so this synth-pop record from a Brooklyn band was just what I needed to hear. The record is called Introduction, Presence.

11) Sweeping Promises – Falling Forward: I used the title track of this Boston act’s record, Hunger For a Way Out on Q#133, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the album was released in Northern England in 1979 with that wirey-punk-twang and punchy bass.

12) Deeper – This Heat: Chicago-act Deeper released their second album (Auto Pain) in March and were one of the last bands I got to see live this year (on the 3^rd of March, I went to my final concert of 2020 the day after). I used Lake Song on Q#130 and I have to say, this record is another sleeper hit that did not get enough love from critics.

13) DEHD – Nobody: Speaking of Chicago bands, I used Loner on Q#132 and Flower of Devotion is another one of those records I did keep coming back to this year. I think words like sexy and erotic are often overused in music journalism but there is something undeniably raunchy about their last couple of albums, they truly stand out.

14) Nada Surf – Come Get Me: Another band I actually got to see this year (for the 20^th and 21^st time)! Any year with a Nada Surf album can’t be bad. Never Not Together was released in February and was dedicated to Ric Ocasek (who produced their first album) and there is more than a hint of The Cars throughout the record. I’ve loved this band for 25 years now. “I don't feel grown up, Maybe nobody did, I was always on my guard, Since I was a kid, But I'm so, so ready, Come get me, come get me" 

15) The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers: The one album I got obsessed with in 2018 (and still am) was Future Me Hates Me, so it was always going to be a tough act to follow, but Jump Rope Gazers is another triumph, I used I’m Not Getting Excited on Q#132. I deliberated over a few tracks to use but kept coming back to this one.

16) Eyelids – The Minutes: Another early release, The Accidental Falls was released back in February (and I used the title track on Q#130). I ended up using this track mostly for time constraints but it’s still a cracker. The record was produced by Peter Buck.

17) Mint Field – Nadie Te Esta Persiguiendo: Mexico’s Mint Field released their second album, Sentimiento Mundial in September, it’s a little less lush than debut Pasar de las Luces (which was maybe the prettiest sounding album of 2018) but there’s no second album slump here at all.

18) bdrmm – Happy: I hadn’t heard of this band until they ranked pretty highly on Rough Trade’s best of 2020 list (one of the first to come out, I think), but I was instantly drawn to it. This song sounds a lot like The Cure (or more recently, Diiv), and the record as a whole runs the gamut of post-punk, it knows when to be minimal and when to turn the volume up. Regular listeners should remember Is That What You Wanted to Hear? from Q#134. 

19) Clearbody – Scratch the Color: A late release of the year, One More Day came out in December and nails that heavy shoegaze sound, I had a hard time picking which track to use for this.

20) Sprain – Slant: I’ve got to thank Pete for turning me on to As Lost Through Collision, he knows I’m a sucker for some good slowcore and it’s a wonder this LA quartet weren’t on my radar sooner. This is probably the most “normal” track on the record and there wasn’t time to fit any of the longer tunes on, I’d love to hear this live.  

21) Fake Eyes – Illuminate: I used Demonstrations on Q#132 so I’ll have used half of the band’s EP A Drip Is All We Know, I tend to ignore EPs and singles when it comes to year-end-lists but I liked this one too much. It’s perhaps a little rich of me to use this instead of a track on the Hum record from this year (which I also did like a lot) since it’s clearly a huge influence, but here we are.

22) Jonathan Fitoussi – Total Eclipse: I opened Q#134 with Oceans from this album, Plein Soleil so it seems fitting to end this mix with a song from it. By far my favourite ambient album I heard in 2020, it’s about as classic-sounding as you can get in the genre.

Keep being safe!

As always, Peace and Love - Q

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

 Download mix from https://www.mediafire.com/file/chi7s158l7rmthz/Q#135.zip/file

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q#134 - October to November 2020

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

 Download mix from http://www.mediafire.com/file/szzgizr425oflj3/Q#134.zip/file

(not that the Fruit Bats song is not on Spotify)

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q's Compilations

Vol #134 – October to November 2020

 

Happy… lame duck season? Whilst a delusional child is still residing in the white house, there is comfort that Joe Biden ultimately won the election by a handsome margin by any metric, and this is actually the first time in 19 years that something I voted on actually went the way I wanted it to! Anyway, we’re probably in for a rough end to the year with the pandemic so please stay safe. This mix consists of mostly new music but also a few golden oldies and things that were inspired by my concert-going-otd-archives.

 

01) Jonathan Fitoussi – Oceans: Whilst browsing Bandcamp a few weeks ago an article about “best new ambient music” was on the homepage, and while I’d have loved to be able to buy the vinyl, it doesn’t seem like it’s available here so I paid for the download. I’m a sucker for analog and modular synths and his record Plein Soleil is about as classic as can get.

 

02) Lael Neale – Every Star Shivers in the Dark: Recently signed to Sub Pop who will release her upcoming album presumably next year, so far there have been two promotional singles, this tune and For No-One Now. Both songs are a bit of a departure from her sultry country-tinged debut I’ll Be Your Man from 2015 and while this song might come across as bleak to some, I find it comforting and beautiful.  

 

03) Porcupine Tree – Sleep of No Dreaming: Going through my concert spreadsheet, I noticed that I’d seen Porcupine Tree in October/November five times, so they wormed their way into the mix. Of the dozen times I saw them, I never got to hear this song live, though it was on the setlist and not played one time… I just felt like this tune flowed well between tracks. From one of their best efforts, 1996’s Signify.

 

04) Besnard Lakes – Raindrops: Another OTD mention, one of the great by-products of going through my concert spreadsheet by day is thinking about bands I otherwise hadn’t thought of for a while, and even more gratifying when it just so happens that the act in question has just put out some new music. The band will put out their first album in five years in 2021, called The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, and this is the lead single, which has all their classic elements.

 

05) Supercrush – Get It Right: I can’t resist power-pop, there’s just something irresistible about sugar-filled guitars and harmonies. Supercrush have been releasing 7” singles for a number of years now and they finally put together a full-length called SODO Pop that came out in October via Don Giovanni Records and the whole thing is hit after hit like this.

 

06) Beach Bunny – Dream Boy: If there’s a band I’ve been obsessed with in the last few months it’s Beach Bunny. Debut album Honeymoon came out back in February and I have basically played nothing else since I heard this track at the start of October.

 

07) The Posies – Sideways: The band’s first song since 2016 with a new album to come in 2021, every new Posies tune is a gift and there’s little to say other than this has their signature sound.

 

08) Teenage Fanclub – Home: Speaking of bands with new music, who also last put out a record in 2016, hitting their signature sound… yep it’s Teenage Fanclub. Endless Arcade will come out in March and this is the lead single. As someone who has reconciled to not getting home to see friends and family this year, this song has more than a tinge of sadness to it. “I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever be home again, I just don’t know when I’ll open that door again”

 

09) Riff Doctors – Say Goodbye: Captured Tracks just put out a compilation titled Strum & Thrum: the American Jangle Underground 1983-1987, and all you should need to know is in the title! Considering this is fully in my wheelhouse, I didn’t know most of the acts across the double-record, which I guess speaks volumes to the experts at Captured Tracks.

 

10) Seam – Halo Redux: Speaking of hidden gems of yesteryear, Seam were active between 1991-2000, fronted by Bitch Magnet’s Sooyoung Park, and I have to confess I only came across them recently while I was thinking about being lucky enough to see Bitch Magnet a few years ago. This track is on the band’s third album, Are You Driving Me Crazy?

 

11) Fruit Bats – Disarm: There seems to be a lot of covers that have cropped up during the pandemic, or maybe it just feels that way. Anyway, Fruit Bats covered the entire Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream, but you could only get the whole thing on vinyl, and hence a late night drunken purchase was made. It’s a pretty good low-key rendition of the album!

 

12) Fleet Foxes – A Long Way Past the Past: I loved Fleet Foxes’ debut album back in 2008 and could barely stop listening to it, felt like 2011’s Helplessness Blues was pleasant and enjoyed it at the time, but only listened a handful of times, then aside from the odd listen again to the debut, I didn’t think of them much (and possibly didn’t know 2017’s Crack Up ever existed), but I instantly enjoyed new album Shore, that just came out at the end of September. It’s possible it ends up being another Helplessness Blues in that I may not listen to it again but it was exactly what I wanted to hear when it came out.

 

13) The Flaming Lips – Flowers of Neptune 6: The Flaming Lips could do little wrong for me in their discography between 1990 – 2009, which is quite an achievement in its own right, they had been releasing decent records since then but nothing that quite captured the magic, this year they released American Head, I’m not even sure what number record this is in the discography, wiki claims 16 but that doesn’t seem right… anyway, it’s a little more together, for want of a better word, than recent records. 

 

14) Julia Jacklin – To Perth, Before the Border Closes: Crushing was one of my favourite records of 2019, and she’s released a couple of delightful singles in 2020, with this tune being the latest.

 

15) Cool Ghouls – Sundial: Another “oh I should see what they’re up to now” moment when going over my concert spreadsheet, I saw this California psych-pop band a couple of times in 2015 and loved them but had missed a couple of releases in the ensuing years. This song is from their 2016 album Animal Races, West Coast jangle doesn’t get much better.

 

16) The Appleseed Cast – Cathedral Rings: During the first Bandcamp Friday I purchased a few records by The Appleseed Cast as I’ve always loved seeing them live but didn’t really know their recorded output much, it’s been gratifying to rectify that even though I’m still missing a lot. This song instantly jumped out as one I’d heard live a handful of times.

 

17) Hypnotic Kingdom – Would You Be There For Me?: A concert-spreadsheet-adjacent act, I’ve seen British heavy-shoegaze act Cheatahs a couple of times, they last released a record in 2015 but while trying to find what they’re up to currently, it turned out that one of the band vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hewitt released a solo album under the moniker of Hypnotic Kingdom in 2018, this is the title track.

 

18) bdrmm – Is That What You Wanted to Hear?: A few “best of 2020” lists have started coming out, I think Rough Trade might have been the first and Bedroom was a record that I had no knowledge of before reading their list. Just listen to those guitars that kick in around the 2-minute mark, that’s some pure Kitchens of Distinction / Ride heavenly shit going on right there. The whole record is really great too. The band are from Hull

 

19) Fuck Buttons – Colours Move: When I opened the mix with Jonathan Fitoussi I was immediately drawn to closing out the mix with a Fuck Buttons tune, I think I just wanted to bookend the mix with two extremes of the same genre. I’ve mentioned being lucky enough to see an act elsewhere on this mix, but seeing Fuck Buttons in 2013 was definitely an all-time high. I may have even used this tune on a mix over the years, this song closes out their 2008 debut Street Horrsing. 

 

Keep being safe!

 

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/szzgizr425oflj3/Q#134.zip/file

(not that the Fruit Bats song is not on Spotify)

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q#133 - August to September 2020

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

 Download mix from http://www.mediafire.com/file/hu3gk09jd0hxrry/Q#133.zip/file

(not that Special Cases are not on Spotify)

Spotify link at end of notes, follow/subscribe to playlists here: 

Q's Compilations

Vol #133 – August to September 2020

 

Happy Autumn everyone… I hope everyone is keeping well despite continued difficult times. The music for this mix has been finished for a couple of weeks but here I am with a couple of days left in the month to finish off the notes, so this will probably be brief.

01) Bloody Your Hands – Checked Out: Sunday Scaries was released on the 28^th of August and it’s a perfect dose of 90s-alt/punk along the lines of Superchunk and hey, I hear a little Blink-182 in here too… “When will I figure this shit out?”

02) The Dirty Nil – Done With Drugs: I loved this Canadian trio’s album Master Volume from 2018 and they’ve been releasing a bunch of singles since, including this tune that came out in June. Two back-to-back pop-punk to open this mix, huh…

03) Garcia People’s – Feel So Great: This tune opens the band’s Natural Facts record that was released in March 2019, and they released another record last year (One Step Behind) and have a new one (Nightcap at Wits’ End) coming out in October, so they’re on quite a run! Anyway, I’d been meaning to buy this album for 18 months and was going to get the vinyl on one of the bandcamp Fridays until I found it for $9 and couldn’t pass it up.

04) Vuelveteloca – Calor: There weren’t any Chilean psyche bands on the last mix so we’re fixing that this time around with a hat-trick of acts, starting with Vuelveteloca, who just released their sixth record, Contra (which at six tracks and under 30 minutes could be a little more EP-esque truth be told), it’s as strong as anything the band have released, with their signature grooves to the fore.

05) The Cruel Visions – Nadie: Pablo Giadach of The Ganjas made a collection of demos between 2015-17 and decided to release them as The Cruel Visions, it should appeal to fans of treble-heavy 80s indie bands like The Sound or Modern English, it’s a really nice collection of tunes and I’d love BYM Records to press this to vinyl at some point…

06) Flower – Lost Horizon: Some bands have taken the current shit-show to make some new music for the first time in decades, thirty years in the case of New York cult-underground act Flower, who put out None Is (But Once Was) in July. It’s a surprising album in the sense that they’ve kind of reinvented themselves as a jangle-indie band, almost sounding like Teenage Fanclub at times. This song opens the record, with the latter-half of the song sounding more like their old selves.

07) Christelle Bofale – Origami Dreams: I went a little trigger happy on the first bandcamp Friday and bought things that I’d forgotten about until I sorted my purchases by date and went through them all again. I was pleasantly surprised to come back to this EP, Swim Team, by this Austin-based artist, the five tracks have a dreamy quality to them. 

08) Thurston Moore – Siren: Thurston’s latest album, By the Fire, just came out and though I haven’t listened to it yet, which I need to rectify. It’s fair to say that this 12-minute tune has more than a hint of his old band.

09) Valium Aggelein – The Clouds Will Drop Ladders: At the start of the year I was trying to make an effort to buy less physical stuff, including vinyl, and I haven’t done a very good job of it. And I’m just going to copy Numero’s re-issue blurb to explain why I couldn’t help myself on this one: Just as Duster’s landmark debut album Stratosphere was making its first orbit, Clay Parton, Dove Amber, and Jason Albertini tracked a largely improvised companion capsule under their Valium Aggelein alter ego. An ode to ’70s Kosmische, Hier Kommt Der Schwartze Mond is a skeletal space nap for the prozac generation.

10) Special Cases – Ex Oasis: After Vuelveteloca and The Cruel Visions, we complete our Chilean hat-trick with Special Cases, who released their third album, Album Name, on the 21^st of August. The band features former Follakzoid bassist Juan Pablo Rodriguez and should appeal to anyone who leans more to the repetitive space/krautrock of the earlier Follakzoid material.

11) Sweeping Promises – Hunger for a Way Out: This is the title-track to Sweeping Promises debut album. The Boston band have seemingly nailed danceable post-punk from the off. The ten-track album is finished in under thirty minutes but sometimes you have to leave them wanting more.

12) Three – Swann Street: I know my Dischord bands pretty well, but Three had skipped my attention for the most part (I did have a song of theirs on the 20 Years of Dischord boxset but it’s hard to be distinct on a 60-plus-boxset), but Numero did an “early emo 1985-1995” playlist recently which had some amazing stuff on, and this tune jumped out. I’ll have to get Dark Days Coming at some point.

13) Futurebirds – Rodeo: A friend sent me this song a few weeks ago, first of all, please send me songs to listen to for any reason! The funny thing about getting this song was that I’d just watched an episode of House Hunters a couple of days before, and singer/songwriter Thomas Johnson was the guy house hunting in Athens, Georgia, so the timing was great. Turns out I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head either. The band released a record this year called Teamwork, though this tune appears on 2015’s Hotel Parties. “and goddamn how I miss my friends”

14) Girl Friday – Public Bodies: LA-quartet Girl Friday released their debut, Androgynous Mary, in August on Sub Pop. The record is a bit over the place but that’s meant in a good way, songs

15) L.A. Witch – Fire Starter: Play With Fire, the trio’s second album, came out in August and while it still has that great desert-soaked-reverb that made the debut so great, there’s less reliance on it and a greater confidence in the songwriting.

16) Mark Lanegan – Ketamine: Mark Lanegan has been on a hot-streak lately, releasing albums in 2017, 18, 19 and this year’s Straight Songs of Sorrow. I could probably listen to him sing the Yellow Pages and find it deeply satisfying.  

17) Mikal Cronin – Guardian Well (Switched On Version): I got pretty excited when Mikal Cronin announced he was releasing a synth-reworking of his last record, Seeker, as a record-store-day release on vinyl called Switched On Seeker. I wish more artists would do stuff like this, not that it can just be bashed out…

Keep being safe!

As Always, Peace and Love - Q

Spotify playlist:

Q#132 - June to July 2020

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

 Download mix from: https://www.mediafire.com/file/fb2q8b91nrcp7qr/Q#132.zip/file

Now with added Spotify playlist at end of notes - NOTE that Ultra Major, Still Form, Julius Wright and Nada Surf songs are NOT on Spotify.

Q's Compilations

Vol #132 – June to July 2020

 

Well it’s almost August, football came back and went, and my beloved Oxford United managed to lose a playoff final, 2020 is the year that just keeps on giving. I completed another orbit around the sun, despite most things still being bad it’s incredibly depressing that the rest of the US didn’t seem to learn anything from what we’ve gone through in New York, I’ve got a mix of almost entirely new music. Hopefully you’ll find a smidge of joy from this.  

 

01) Bob Mould – American Crisis: Blue Hearts is the name of Bob Mould’s latest studio album, out on Merge Records on the 25^th of September, this is the lead single and it’s pretty evident that he has a lot to be angry about!

 

02) The Beths – I’m Not Getting Excited: Future Me Hates Me was my favourite album of 2018, I probably hadn’t played an album as much as that in years. Two years on from that stunning debut, the New Zealanders have just released Jump Rope Gazers which on first couple of plays has just as much charm and melody as the debut.

 

03) Silver Sun – Earth Girls are Easy: Brit power-pop act Silver Sun released two truly excellent albums in 1997 (self-titled) and 1998 (Neo Wave), and have since offered some sporadic output and are generally off the radar. I was delighted to see that they’d released a new album this April (their first in seven years) called Switzerland, and

 

04) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Falling Thunder: This Aussie band released their second album, Sideways to New Italy, in June, via Sub Pop, and it’s another pleasant jangle-fest much like their debut.

 

05) Gladie – Is That Why You’re Here: Remember concerts? The last one I went to was on the 5^th of March and happened to be Gladie, who had just released their debut album, Safe Sins. Last month they released a three-song EP called Orange Peels and this track is the opener.

 

06) Shamir – On My Own: I bought Shamir’s entire discography on bandcamp during one of their promotional Fridays, I’ve liked his music over the years without dipping in too deeply and felt like I should rectify that, specifically so after hearing this song that was released in the middle of June. I’ve still got plenty to go back and hear!

 

07) Bethany Thomas – I’m Not Sorry and I’m Not Scared: Chicago-based artist Bethany Thomas is releasing her debut album BT​/​She​/​Her on the 28^th of August, this is the first single and I liked it enough to put on! She has a great voice, though I could do without some of the extracurricular vocals as they’re a little off-putting, but I’m looking forward to hearing what the rest of the record has in store.

 

08) Moor Jewelry – Look Alive: Moor Jewelry is a collaboration between Moor Mother and Mental Jewelry and they just put out True Opera which you can get on bandcamp (or on cassette, I guess that’s still a thing), it’s one of my favourite records of the year and a little hard to pigeonhole but there’s plenty of hardcore elements which are just great.

 

09) Nnamdi – Rage: Another Chicago artist, I was tipped onto him by the Numero Group and picked up his “Black Plight” EP that he put out in June, he also plays everything to an impressive degree.

 

10) Shrapknel – Gun Metal Paint: New York hip-hop duo Shrapknel put out an excellent self-titled record on Backwoodz Studio in March, the lyrics here don’t pull any punches.

 

11) Bully – Where to Start: Grunge revivalists Bully are set to release a new record called Sugaregg in August on Sub Pop and this is the lead single.

 

12) Ultra Major – Picture Perfect: This track jumped out at me from a compilation I bought on bandcamp, which happens to be about 7 hours long, which is far, far too long to pay attention to and took me about a month to listen to everything once. This New York band have a record from 2018 and a couple of singles.

 

13) Still Form – Gums: I have been a fan of Portland band Marriage and Cancer for a few years but I think they’ve broken up now (terrible-band name, admittedly), members of that band plus a few other local acts have created Still Form, who put out a 5-track EP in April this year. Stylistically it’s in the same arty noise/punk form that Marriage and Cancer excelled at so I’ll be hoping there is more material in the future.

 

14) Look Sacre - Mal nécessaire pour un mal nécess: Four years ago I spent a long weekend in Montreal and had a lovely time. As I always try to do, I looked over concert listings and remembered that a friend recommended anyone should go to the venue Casa Del Popolo, so without knowing who was playing we went along. I remember liking Look Sacre and bookmarked their bandcamp page as soon as I got home, but didn’t spent a huge amount of time thinking about them, I should dive in a bit more after listening to this!

 

15) Julius Wright – I Pray The Things Will Change: Another tune from that 7-hour compilation I mentioned earlier, and given that all the tracks were not tagged properly, I have very little information about this artist. I can only find information about this song and another tune called Lonely Girl. Anyway, great song, if you know anything about it then let me know!

 

16) DEHD – Loner: Here’s another band from Chicago, the trio just released Flower of Devotion in the middle of July on Fire Talk. It’s an instantly accessible record filled with reverb-heavy pop hooks, very much a continuation of what they were doing with previous record, Water (from 2019).

 

17) Nada Surf – Sick Day: Fountains of Wayne were always one of those bands I always knew I would like, if I ever got round to listening to them, unfortunately Adam Schlesinger died due to Covid in April, so I’ve only gotten into his music after this death, sadly. A tribute album called Saving for a Custom Van has been raising money for MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund. There are some excellent artists on the record so head over to bandcamp and buy it.

 

18) Matt Berry – Something In My Eye: I’ve been watching What We Do in the Shadows on Hulu and just finished season one, turns out Matt Berry (Laszlo in the show) is also a pretty good musician and is about to release a new album called Phantom Birds in September.

 

19) King Tuff – I’m Free: This tune was originally written for and appeared on Ty Segall’s Freedom Goblin album, in February King Tuff decided to release his own version, and as you can imagine, it’s good!

 

20) Fake Eyes – Demonstrations: This four-piece from Charlotte, NC, had put out a couple of excellent demos in 2018 and 2019, and have just released their first official EP called A Drip Is All We Know on New Morality Zine, it’s only 4 tracks but packs a punch and if you dig the new (or old…) Hum albums (more on them imminently) or any heavy-shoegaze then you will love this.

 

21) Hum – The Summoning: Speaking of Hum and heavy shoegaze, and another Chicago band (what is it with this mix…), the band just released their first album in 22 years, though it was recorded over a period of 2017-2020. It barely gets out of second gear over the course of an hour but it doesn’t need to, the production is so great and really pulls you in.

 

Keep being safe!

 

As always, Peace and Love - Q