An effortlessly funky soulful rootsy bluesy mix to kick off the weekend? Don’t mind if we do. “For Free” by alliteration lover Emily Elbert is such an easy, unforced, natural feeling groove that it almost feels like something that was found in nature. A perfectly cool woodland stream bubbling and dancing through a remote forest on a hot day and also the stream gets you tipsy. How good is this song? So good that we’re writing a bad fantasy short story about it. Come, gather your allies around and drink from the magical musical stream that will make you drop your chainmail and shake a tail feather (figuratively for the humanoids, literally for bird people in your group).
July 29, 2022
Week Ender – Emily Elbert
July 29, 2022
Friday 5×5
Today we keep it tight for you (daddy) with the briefest of reviews of songs so good they don’t need a lot of blah blah blah, they just need you to spank that play button (daddy). Check out the newest from Stephen Peter Rodgers, Zack Keim, Phil Bourne, Post Drive and Jones Carwash after the jump.
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July 28, 2022
The B-Side: Jimmy Joyride
From Lithuania we get “Expire” from Jimmy Joyride, a mishmash of shoegaze, jangly driving indie and fuzzed out alternative rock that somehow manages to feel both audacious and natural at the same time. On first listen the skipping through styles felt a bit disjointed, but now that we’ve spun it a few times we realize we were the ones out of sync. This is a banger of a song if you can get on it’s level of stitched together beauty. They got chocolate in the peanut butter and we’re all the better for it.
July 26, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: Susie Suh
The best voices don’t need much in the way of support, and in fact too many layers of beats and bloops, guitars and gang vocals will often just get in the way for diminishing returns. Susie Suh has one of those best voices and is smart enough to let it shine on “Blood Moon,” with only a simple, sparse piano progression throughout and the faintest of synth pad and backing vocals on the choruses for dynamics. . It’s a breathy and intimate ballad that finds its power in laying everything bare and hanging the song on Suh’s vulnerable, perfect performance.
July 25, 2022
Week Starter – Crooner
There are opening lines that grab you and then there are opening lines that not only grab you but make you go “damn, now THAT is an opening line.” Such is “Voice of God” by Crooner, which starts with some simple acoustic guitar strumming before evocatively dropping “Woke up this morning to the voice of God / It sounded just like my neighbor’s shotgun.” Similar lyrics of ominousness are dropped throughout the song, balanced by the gentle melodic indie folk sounds of the group and a recurring line of “I think we’ll be alright.” It’s an enticing mix of light and dark tones, the sound of shrugging ones way through the end times, something we’ve all become too familiar with of late.
July 22, 2022
Week Ender – Higher Selves Playdate
The Omega to the Week Starter Alpha, Week Ender is the song we want to send you into the weekend with.
A simple scratchy acoustic guitar progression kicks off “Coming Up Roses” by Higher Selves Playdate but it’s not long before things have built into a glitchy, fuzzed out, synth laced noisy and melodic and glorious anthem to uncertainty. Even though the song never really strays from that original scratchy progression, a multitude of instruments are dug out of HSP’s toy chest to make an appearance, giving the song not only a sense of movement and change but also one of lo-fi epic-ness. Repetitive lyrics add a level of pop hookiness to the whole affair to make one of the unlikeliest catchy ear worms of the year.
July 22, 2022
Friday 5×5
Today we let the music do most of the talking with new songs from Das Phaedrus, Quinton Barnes, Thundermother, Jack Keyes and Taxes.
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July 21, 2022
The B-Side: Jenny Mayhem
One of the things we look for in a song to be considered for the blog is the instantaneously, undeniable, home run on a gut level reaction. “Karma Tattoo” by Jenny Mayhem is the most instantaneous “of course, duh, yeah” submission we’ve received in a hot minute. A shimmering, hazy, timeless slice of vibes n’ groove that falls neatly between indie pop and indie rock – it’ll make you want to get up and post modern hippie chick dance in a room by yourself. This is the home run that not only escapes the ballpark, but the entire county.
July 20, 2022
Wordless Wednesdays
Today we let the music do the talking with the very best in instrumental tracks from Betweenness and Anthony Menzia.
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July 19, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: Joe Friend Band
“It’s a hot one, that’s for sure” we say in a folksy manner about both the weather and “Walking On The Sun” by Joe Friend Band. Not to be confused with the song of a similar name by official-soundtrack-of-bowling-shirts-with-flames-and-or-dice-on-them group Smash Mouth, JFB’s ode to celestial strolling instead gives us classic Matthew Sweet on dark mode vibes. It’s a steady fuzzed out guitar march with the hint of a dirge to it, but with sunshine melodies poking through lighting the way.