Hey buddy,
I’m going to pick two tracks from each of the top 40 albums and add them to this playlist for you.
- Amanda Shires – most modern Country music is garbage but I really love the good stuff that sneaks through, the Josh Ritters and the Lucinda Williams, etc. Amanda Shires fits with that, she was a fiddle playing prodigy as a young woman in Texas and even played fiddle for The Texas Playboys, a legendary Texas big-band country group dating back to the 1940s. She’s currently married to Jason Isobell, another great modern country artist and plays in his band, this is her first album of her own material.
- Amy Shark – I think you might know her already 😉 . Here’s two songs you might not know as well.
- Bob Moses – See! You already know 2 of the first 3 artists!
- boygenius – the teaming of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, three singers I like very much, the album is beautiful and soft and painful, the album isn’t on Google Music so here they are live, watch at home when you are quiet TinyDesk
- Car Seat Headrest – look at that! you know three of the first five! yay! I mentioned before, a dozen times or more, that this album is a rerecording of an album he did in 2011 when he was 15/16, it’s ten times better this time.
- Cat Power – I don’t think you know her, there is one or two songs of hers on your playlist, she’s amazing, Rae loves her but she’s usually pretty low energy for the regular playlist, I’ll be interested to hear what you think.
- Colleen Green – ah-hem! four of the first seven…. the new CG is a collection of extra songs, I like it a lot but am really waiting for a proper new album.
- Confidence Man – you know ALL these albums already! We are SO going to see them if they tour.
- Dream Wife – British punk with a singer from Iceland, I can’t remember where I found this but it’s great, it’s raw and polished at the same time. They’ve had an amazing amount of positive press written about them despite not really selling any albums yet “In 2018 they released their self-titled debut album to positive reviews: Joe Goggins of The Independent gave it 4 out of 5 stars and noted that “they released a self-titled debut record that doesn’t for a second sound like a DIY endeavour; it’s a polished, assured slice of melodic punk.” Leonie Cooper of NME gave the album a a 10 out of 10 and wrote: “God damn have we been waiting a long time for a band like Dream Wife.” Emma Swann of DIY gave the album a 4 out of 5 rating and said: “Sometimes we get the bands we want: sometimes – like in the case of Dream Wife – they’re also the bands we need. The band was included on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 13 Best Things We Saw” at that year’s Lollapalooza music festival. Kev Geoghegan and Paul Glynn of BBC Music called Dream Wife “a jaw-dropping live act and one of the most talked-about new bands of 2018.” Joe Lynch of Billboard wrote “Dream Wife are inarguably one of the most exhilarating live rock bands to emerge within the last few years.”
- Gaz Coombs – there’s two of Gaz’s songs on our main playlist, he’s the singer for Supergrass who also have a couple songs on the playlist.
- Habibi – ha! it’s Habibi!, yay. I really hope they keep moving in the direction they are going, adding middle eastern sounds into their surf style. You know all the songs from the new album so I’ve added two from the older album though you might know those too.
- Johnny Marr – Marr was the guitarist and music writer for The Smiths, who I love, this is a rare solo album for him, usually he just moves from city to city recording with young hip bands, I like it, and him, a lot.
- Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers – LJG is mostly known as the singer for Against Me!, a band I like a fair bit. This is her doing songs she felt didn’t fit with Against Me!, it’s not perfect but there’s at least 4-5 great songs on it. The opening notes and words and singing to The Airplane Song is the best distillation of my musical tastes that I think I can think of.
- Low – yeah… uh… you will not like Low. They’re from the middle of nowhere in Minnesota, they make music unlike anyone else and have been doing it for 30 years. Slow, loud, low, distorted, throbbing, take drugs and go to a Low show… you will have a reaaction. It makes me very happy that a band as strange as Low has been able to survive for 3 decades.
- Restorations – this is Dean music, pure and simple, a bit like Laura Jane Grace above, this is stuff I play for people and they don’t get it and that is ok, it is music of emotion and pain and struggle without ever being dramatic or maudlin or overwrought. Man I love this. Everything is perfect, the notes and words and his voice is amazing, really amazing, I have quoted you a dozen lines from him and you felt every one of them was about you, it’s his skill. I think the entire album is about taking someone you love for drug rehab, also I am pretty sure that the “he” he refers to in most of the songs is Trump. “As we’re halfway over the bridge, you’re taking a sip of your coffee, you glance at your phone and you mumble ‘I hope he dies’, yeah, I hope he dies too”. I’m pretty sure that’s Trump and I’m pretty sure the singer is driving his girlfriend to the airport so she can fly for drug treatment. It’s an amazing album. The first, second and third Restorations albums were called LP1, LP2, LP3… this is the fourth album so yeah… LP5000.
- Marie Davidson – We listened to this, you should listen to more, it’s different, she’s French.
- Mastersystem – Restorations are from Philadelphia, Mastersystem are from Britain, other than that I think they are coming from the same place. Such Dean music. angst without drama, pain without wallowing, dark but hopeful. “licking cuts, I count the ways I’m not quite living”. Man oh man I love this.
- Matt Maltese – you know this too! It’s Ideen! I wish I loved this more, it’s ALMOST great.
- Mewithoutyou – More Dean music. Moody and subtle and strong. Reeking of authenticity. The singer also has a habit of paraphrasing Rumi into his lyrics. His father lost his mind at the same age as the singer is now and he has sung and talked a lot about how he feels his own mental health is deteriorating, when he sings “Dad tried his best but finally fell apart at just my age” it is chilling.
- Neko Case – you know Neko, lots of her on your playlist, she might have been at Emily Carr with you. She sings in lots of bands and I’ve loved her for twenty years, she’s a standby, always there and always quality.
- Parquet Courts – this is current, modern, hip rock and roll, I cannot imagine Sisi liking this but here it is.
- Public Access TV – I loved their last album, I saw them in Toronto last time I was here, again, it’s plain old rock and roll.
- Robyn – it’s taken some time but I can feel you finally connecting to Robyn, and we have tickets!
- Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – more boring Dean rock and roll, ‘talking straight’ is one of my favourite songs of the year though, it’s perfect. They sound super American but are another Australian band, I like a lot lot lot of Aussie bands.
- Ross From Friends – weird dancy pop
- Say Sue Me – Korean surf pop, like a Korean Habibi, ‘Out Town’ is a wonderful song, actually both are great.
- Shame – yeah, this pretty dark for Sisi… we’ll see though, you do surprise from time to time… sooooo British, so cool
- Sloan – uh…. it’s Sloan, it’s perfect, a Chris song and a Jay song for you
- Snail Mail – Snail Mail is one woman, Lindsay Jordan, indie-rock, good stuff.
- Soccer Mommy – Soccer Mommy fits with Snail Mail well, two young women very much doing their own thing, both albums are smart and fresh and honest and good. man these two are good, a playlist with Cat Power and Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy would probably work for you.
- The Beths – New Zealand this time, instead of Australia, lol. three guys and a girl, power-pop, good thoughtful stuff.
- The Magic Gang – this is bog-standard Britpop, in the spirit of 90’s bands like Blur and Teenage Fanclub, but a new generation doing it.
- Oh Sees – California garage-rock with bit of a punk feel, they’ve been around a long time and have dozens of albums, I always think they’re fine and good, never gone crazy over them but also I never regret listening.
- Todd Glass – lol, yup, THAT Todd Glass… remember when you first wondered if he knew what he was doing? Still one of my all time favs. This album really is honestly 12 years of voice mails from Todd to what was first a 16 year old kid named Blake who was just a fan who called and left a msg for Todd asking if him and his parents could get tickets for an upcoming Todd show, in 2005, Todd called him back about the tickets… and then never stopped calling… Blake is now 28 and a pretty good stand up comedian too and Todd’s friend, Todd kept ALL the voicemails he ever left Blake. The voicemail about his wife is funny because Todd is gay and for years pretended to have a girlfriend/wife as he wasn’t comfortable with people knowing he was gay, but Blake knew the truth of course but Todd kept up the pretending.
- Sunflower Bean – British, stylish, cool, these songs are both on our big playlist already.
- U.S. Girls – U.S. Girls is Toronto musician Meghan Remy, very Toronto, very cool.
- Viagra Boys – yay! you know this one, fun and silly and smart Swedish guys making fun of American rock and roll while doing very American rock and roll, there are layers here.
- Vince Staples – you remember Vince, rapper who sings Little Bit of This which you love.
- Wye Oak – one guy, one girl, from Baltimore, very musical, emotional, loud and powerful.
- Young Fathers – three rappers from Scotland but born in various parts of Africa, this is something different for sure, challenging and different.
A Bit Gone 