“SGL” – Now, Now. The first new music from Now, Now in five years, and it does not disappoint.
“How to Boil an Egg” – Courtney Barnett. This is a song Barnett performed when she first began playing live music, but never put to wax until now. It’s a one-off single, but she also just announced that she’s working with Kurt Vile on new music. That should be interesting.
“First High of the Morning” – Against Me! Their contribution to Record Store Day is finally available digitally. And it’s pretty solid.
“Living Like the Rest” – Thunder Dreamer. One of my disappointments of my nearly 14 years in Indiana is that I haven’t discovered a local band that I’ve really loved. There have been some songs by local bands that I’ve enjoyed, but I’ve never found a band to follow closely over a course of several albums. That may have finally changed with this band from Evansville, of all places. I’ve been listening to this song for a few weeks and finally spun the entire album this week. It’s really good, to my ear sounding very much like what a mid-90s group that discovered Neil Young through Pearl Jam might sound like. The Pitchfork review – they slapped a 7.7 on the disk – said this was the perfect summer album. I think it’s more of a fall album, with its reserve and mood. But I’m still going to listen to it like crazy for awhile.
“Don’t Dream It’s Over” – Middle Kids covering Crowded House. As we slide into June, the obligatory “Best Songs of the Year So Far” lists are popping up. I don’t usually do mid-year lists, but if I did, I would face a dilemma. I think my favorite song of this year may well be a song I’ve been listening to for over a year, and which landed on my Best of 2016 list. I’m pretty sure that would violate all my stupid, music list rules. That’s what happens when you discover a song well before it hits radio, as was the case with Middle Kids’ “Edge of Town.”
Anyway, here is their live, in-studio cover of my favorite song ever. Fortunately they do it rather well.