“For the First Time” – Best Coast. What a glorious day! We have new Best Coast music!
I’m deep into my Favorite Songs of the Decade research. Best Coast is on that list. On Monday I did some searching to see if BC was rumored to have any new music on the horizon but came up empty. Less than 24 hours later this dropped, with news of a new album in 2020. This is a nice track; I’m thrilled they’re back.
“Shaking” – Hazel English. It’s been the year of the Aussie female artists, at least in my play lists. English is another one, although she’s now based in Oakland. There are some hazy vibes to this that suggest she’s been influenced by Best Coast.
“This Love Is Fucking Right!” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Leader Kip Berman announced this week that TPOBPAH are no more. I can’t say I was a huge fan, although a search of my archives shows that I played three of their songs on my old podcast. This, though, is an absolute jam. Even with the somewhat troublesome lyrics.
“Brilliant Disguise” – Bruce Springsteen. Yesterday was a cold, dreary, November day. Which means I was motivated to listen to Tunnel of Love, which is kind of my cold, dreary, November day thing. After hearing “Tunnel of Love,” I decided to skip past “Two Faces,” directly to this, my favorite song on the album.
That triggered something in my memory about those advanced tape players back in the day that you could hit a special button, or combination of buttons, and it would fast forward or rewind to the next song and stop. Instead of having to guess multiple times if you had advanced or retreated far enough when you manually search for a song on cassette. If I recall correctly the one in my parents’ cars would fast forward a little too far, back up, and then start so you’d hear the final seconds of the previous song. I think I heard the final seconds of “Two Faces” about a thousand times back in ’87–88, but actually listened to the song maybe five times. Technology, kids!
“Love Rollercoaster” – The Ohio Players. My brother in music E-Bro sent this to me earlier this week. There’s a lot to unpack here. Wolfman Jack with the weird intro. The general getup of the band. (E-Bro and I both thought for a large band that probably wasn’t making much money in the 1970s, they sure spent a lot of money on rhinestones and denim.) There’s the half-hearted dance moves of the horn section. I dig the folks dancing in the audience. And then there are the dancers who pop up on stage in the middle breakdown, who are fan-freaking-tastic. I guarantee this will brighten your day. “Say what!”