Friday Playlist

Hoping this gets out to you in a timely manner, as things are shuffling behind the scenes with the blog setup.

“Who’s That” - The War On Drugs THIS IS NOT A TEST, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE NEW TWOD MUSIC!!! I would not say this is an A+ effort from them, but that won’t stop me from listening to it about a million times over the next week. Sadly, no word on a full album yet. Hopefully that news comes soon.

“Bottle” - Remi Wolf A song about struggling with sobriety should not sound this wonderful.

“Blowin’ Up” - Dinosaur Jr. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while because I’m not sure what to make of it. That’s mostly because in their story about its release, Stereogum said it had a very Pearl Jam feel to it. And I do not get that at all. I kept listening waiting to discover those similarities but have had no luck. Maybe the bass and drums sound a little like mid-90s PJ, when they were showing Neal Young’s influence the most. But J. Mascis’ lead guitar is so unique that you wouldn’t mistake him for Mike McCready. And Lou Barlow sounds nothing like Eddie Vedder. 🤷‍♂️

“Blowin’ Up” - Kiwi jr. Come on, man. How do these two songs, from these two bands, get released so near each other? Not a lot in common beyond the names of the tracks and bands, but that’s plenty.

“Billy” - Sports Team Last week Phoebe Bridgers sang about Bobby. This week it’s Sports Team singing about Billy. Can’t wait to see who we get next week!

“Love In Every Direction” - Smidley I been trying to categorize this song for a month or so. I’m getting some Gotye vibes for some reason. Is that crazy?

“Necessary” - Friko This has been around for several years, but finally gets an official release as part of the band’s expanded edition of their Something Worth Waiting For album, out today.

“Anywhere Girls” - 2nd Grade This band has a new album out in a couple months that features 20 songs, half of which are about girls, half about boys. Literally. Each track has either the word girls or boys in its title. Guess which half this falls onto.

“Drive” - Fousheé Fousheé does not let genre tags fence her in. She’s done alt R&B, provided vocals for rappers, and here slips into a cool, early Nineties space that is somewhere between pop and the emerging alt rock of that era. I’m hearing a little Sophie B. Hawkins in there.

“The Rising” - Bruce Springsteen This site has been around long enough that 23 years ago I wrote about the album this comes from and its significance on the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. My thoughts about that album have changed, quite a bit, over time. But this song remains a glorious, shining ode to both those that were lost and those who fought and survived that terrible day.

“Just Got Paid” - Johnny Kemp One of the first, big New Jack Swing hits. Teddy Riley’s original instrumental track was intended for Keith Sweat’s debut album, but Sweat decided not to use it. Kemp got the demo, wrote some lyrics, and sang placeholder vocals over it, thinking he would shop it to someone else for a song-writing credit. Riley told him to keep it for himself, with those placeholder vocals in place. Teddy knew what he was doing. This song went to #1 on both the R&B and Dance charts, and hit #10 on the Hot 100. A couple more minor hits on the R&B chart followed, but this was pretty much it for Kemp’s career.