Happy Memorial Day weekend! Some songs to fuel your holiday.
“Peaceful Ambassador” – The Dead Tongues
Hiss Golden Messenger has been a connecting point for me to that sub-genre of music that balances indie rock, folk, and alt country. Ryan Gustafson has played with HGM over the years, but The Dead Tongues is his personal project. He works in that same space, but this track has a dirty, early 1970s feel to it. It almost bumps into what the Rolling Stones were doing back then.
“Muted Gold” – Silverbacks
Apparently the Dublin scene is the next hot spot for indie rock. We’ll see how Covid affects that, but bands from Ireland’s capital have been getting a lot more buzz recently as the world music press seeks a new location to mine. As with the previous track, you can hear some 1970s in this, but more Bowie-influenced art rock, combined with modern indie.
“A Hero’s Death” – Fontaines D.C.
Speaking of Dublin, it was this band’s emergence a year ago that made folks start looking at that city as a location for good music.
“Hands Tied” – Scandal
Random, I know. I’ll share more in my next Reaching for the Stars entry, but I listened to a handful of Scandal songs this week and came across this, which was the follow-up to”The Warrior,” in the fall of 1984. It didn’t hit nearly as big as its predecessor – it stalled at #41 – but it’s still a pretty solid track.
“Sick of Me” – Christian Lopez
Summer’s arrival means I’m remembering spending hours at the public pool with the pop hits radio station on, listening to the bounty of music those stations offered back in the ’80s. If that kind of radio still existed, I think this song would be stuck in everyone’s head this summer.
“Summertime” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Y’all know what time it is! What better song for a summer that will be unlike any summer we’ve ever lived through?