Taking a short break to get away from screens and refresh our ears. See you in a few weeks.
April 22, 2022
Week Ender – LDRDO (Premier)
As often is the case, the universe conspires to send the right song to you at just the right time. We at PE are taking a well deserved vacation for a few weeks, and we are indeed out of the country, so what a gift “Sandoval” by LDRDO. Don’t worry, just because this barn burner of an instrumental jam is perfect for our bag packing, it’ll also light up your dance party, make your windows down cruising more free or just generally perk up your day. A mix of north African rhythms and Latin grooves, it feels a bit like Calexico broadening their horizons and opening up the throttle a bit. While it might be a bit premature to say this is the song of the summer, it’s definitely a solid contender.
April 22, 2022
Friday 6×6!
What madness and chaos is this? Six songs described in six words instead of the usual five and five? Well, we’re going on vacation for a few weeks starting next week and if there’s one thing Timbaland taught us it’s that we should never leave you (leave you) without a dope beat to step to (step to). So enjoy a bonus song this week and feast your ears on new tracks from The North Country, Captain Frederickson, Benlirico, Shawn Williams, Today’s Outfit and LIJO.
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April 21, 2022
The B-Side: Mal
“Oven” by Mal is a short and sweet number that occupies the same sort of melancholic and hypnotic state that Mark Linkous explored with later era Sparklehorse. Gentle vocals and acoustic guitars become enveloped in a loop of reversed sounds and a loose drum part that acts as the songs anchor, preventing it from dissolving entirely. It’s mysterious and fleeting, like a waking dream too slippery to hold onto but too beautiful to let go.
April 20, 2022
The Midweekly – Junglepussy
The Midweekly is our column from Mike Jeffers; lead singer of Chicago punk stalwarts SCRAM, music junkie and all around righteous dude.
In the rap game Junglepussy has never been afraid to push boundaries beyond the conventional. This Brooklyn queen keeps doing exactly that with JP5000, her latest EP. Even though it’s split into five tracks, it feels more like one, long composition. Each beat segues into the next seamlessly, and though these tracks are linked like a continuous thread, the music itself staggers and stutters with odd rhythm. You might be surprised to know four different producers helped accomplish the sound on this 11 minute record. JP keeps the vocals low in tone, somewhat subdued, though the dominance of her lyrics still remain. Verses about confidence in the face of criticism, an industry and culture that pits artists against other through jealousy, and the solidarity to fight back. A couple of times she dips into the realm of relationships. First, reminiscing on foolish youth and heartbreak, then back to the present and a blossoming new love. With no choruses it feels more like a stream of consciousness, although no line is frivolous, everything is poignant. Let’s just leave it in her own words: “I’m on top of the mountain, meditating topless, I transcend.”
April 19, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: Eyal Zuzman & Amir Lev
There’s a distinct pleasure in listening to music in another language, your brain and ears deprived of lyrical meaning are allowed to focus on and hear things they might otherwise not notice. The way all the other parts, including vocal melody, fit and fight with one another. The push and pull and dance of the music and voice free from the analyzation and judgement that we usually run songs through so that it rests in a very different space inside of us. “One Stork” by Eyal Zuzman and Amir Lev lands not only lands in that space, but sets up shop there. A quietly driving number that blends acoustic instruments and percussion with a restrained drum loop and female backing vocals for a vibe that feels a bit like modernized Leonard Cohen. It’s a beautiful ride, even if we don’t know what the conductor is saying.
April 18, 2022
Mike’s Monday Muse – Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder in The Irish Times: “Nobody didn’t like Brownie and Sonny. Everybody liked them, especially white people who’d never heard of the blues, didn’t know what it was, wouldn’t have wanted to know what it was.” Mahal: “The blues haven’t gone anywhere; it is the people who’ve disappeared.” Cooder and Mahal’s tribute album to McGhee and Terry called Get On Board comes out April 22 on Nonesuch Records. It’s pure greatness.
April 18, 2022
Week Starter – Pulse Park
Week Starter is our Monday column where we give you a new song to help you get on out of bed & help you power on through the working week.
The 90’s alternative movement is often remembered in broad either/or strokes. Amps to 11, hushed acoustics, mumbled personal lyrics, screamed non sequiturs, flannel this, sunflower dress that. But the reality is that a lot of bands mined the sweet spot between those extremes – noisy but melodic, loud but gentle – not alternating back and forth, but riding the line itself. It is from that tradition draws Pulse Park with their latest “Sine Wave,” a driving song that doesn’t feel so much like someone pushing you as it does someone leading you hand in hand. It feels open and airy while still being powerful and it’s that combination that had us returning to it over and over this past weekend and on through into the start of this week.
April 15, 2022
Week Ender – Billy Nomates
I know this is going to be a bad look for a music blog, whose job is to describe in words what a song sounds like in a way that is compelling enough for you, the reader (you), to go “sounds cool, I’ll check it out” but trust us – just skip the middle man (us) and click play on “Blue Bones” by Billy Nomates. We assure you, you don’t want to be wasting time reading our paltry words that cannot accurately describe how damn good this song is. Do you really need us to tell you it’s charming and wistful with a hook so sneakily sublime it will refresh your ears in a way that few things can? Is that what you need? Are you still reading this? WHY? Just click play and turn up this perfect song already and thank us later!
April 15, 2022
Friday 5×5
Today we keep the Good Friday sermon short and sweet so that you can develop your own personal relationship with these rapturous new songs from Eternal ideal diamonds for you, Family Time, The Uncle Steves, FonFon Ru and Kerin Maguire.
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