Between the holiday weekend and me spending mornings watching the Tour de France, I’ve been a little slower on getting through the music this week. I think I can still come up with a few decent ones to share with y’all.
“Summertime” – The Sundays
Pure pop genius.
“Paint A Picture” – The Hives
Yes, it is those Hives, back for more nonsense.
“Stay Out Of Place” – Idlewild
Speaking of bands that first broke out in the early part of the new millennium, these Scots are also back with new music. No where near their best, but I will always give them music a chance.
“All The World” – Pale Fire
Holy crap, these guys sound like classic Idlewild! And they are Scottish, too! This is from their 2020 album Husbands.
“Bag of Bones” – Lord Huron
Steven Hyden has a great piece on Uproxx about how Lord Huron might be the best example of a “popular but not famous” band at the moment. They sure don’t drift from the sound that made them famous.
“Insulin” – Black Honey
In addition to the latest shoegaze revival, can we also admit there’s a strong ‘90s alt rock revival thing going on? It seems like I’m playing a song that could easily be from 1995 every couple of weeks.
“Lonely Town” – Steve Queralt & Emma Anderson
Queralt is in Ride. Anderson was in Lush. This track manages to sound like both bands, which isn’t that big of a stretch since both were among the giants of the original British shoegaze movement.
“Cropduster” – Pearl Jam
The old joke about Pearl Jam was that they couldn’t keep a drummer. Over their first eight years, they had four official drummers and two unofficial, temporary ones.[1] Then in 1998, when Soundgarden was on hiatus, Matt Cameron filled in on tour when Jack Irons was unable to play. When Irons decided he did not want to tour anymore, Cameron became a permanent member of Pearl Jam.
As I stood in line to get lunch at IU orientation on Monday, I received an email from the band saying that Cameron was leaving. Reasons were not given. There was speculation he had tired of the band’s touring cycle, or that he was just interested in working on his own projects while staying close to home. Chris Cornell’s widow finally reached an agreement with his former bandmates and there is expected to be a new album of leftover Soundgarden songs, so perhaps he is focused on that. He gave Pearl Jam 27 years. I think he’s earned the right to do what he wants. Like so many fans, I hope Cameron isn’t facing some kind of major health issue.
He wasn’t my favorite drummer; I’ve said many times I found his style too clinical and precise, and I thought his best playing was on their last album when he seemed to let loose more. But if he was the big brother they needed to get out of the Nineties alive, it was worth it. I don’t think rest of the band are ready to stop touring, so it will be interesting to see who they bring in next.
Props to Matt. He had several writing credits, this is my favorite of them.
“Sunchaser” – Arc de Soleil
This cat is Swedish. His music is very reminiscent of Khruangbin’s.
“Atlas Drowned” – Gang of Youths
I was listening to some GoY this week and wondered what they were up to. My internet sleuthing suggests they may be taking a long sabbatical before they begin work on their next album. And then they are infamous for taking a long time once they get into the studio. That’s a bummer. To you bells in the curve, I will love you but love not the powers you serve.
Matt Cameron played on some of the early demos that were sent to Eddie Vedder by Jack Irons before Eddie was invited to join the band. And Dave Grohl filled in temporarily during a set of dates in Australia in the ’96–97 range when Irons had some health issues and Foo Fighters were serving as the opening act. That would have been a hell of a show! ↩