I’m putting this list together late Thursday, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, so it could take some weird turns.
“Summer Girl” – HAIM
Yep.
“Save It For Later” – Eddie Vedder
We were busy with the last night of summer league ball Thursday, so I couldn’t give any attention to the biggest event on TV: season three of The Bear. There’s been a lot of Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder through the show’s first two seasons. EV recorded this, a song often added on to “Better Man” at Pearl Jam shows, for season three. I’m looking forward to seeing how it is used over the weekend.
“Homesick” – Glimmer
These kids call their sound “grungegaze,” which seems about perfect.
“Everything At Once” – Bleach Lab
I quite like this song, which comes from Beach Lab’s debut album that was released last year but was in my Discovery Weekly playlist this week. I just came across a totally fawning review of the album and may need to check out the whole thing.
“The Last Words Of Sam Cooke” – Barry Adamson
Interesting subject for a song. I could not dig its groovy, 60s vibe more.
“Return Of The Grievous Angel” – The Raveonettes
I first discovered these Danes 20 or 21 years ago. Seems like I was listening to them right before M was born. Their sound hasn’t changed much over the years. That’s not a bad thing when they still sound this good.
“Just for Once” – The Building
Spotify spit this out for me the other day. It had been awhile. So long, in fact, that I forgot that this band is the side project of The War on Drugs multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca. It sounds like a mid-point between TWOD and Wilco.
“Theologians” – Wilco
Speaking of Wilco, I know I was listening to this around the time M was born, because A Ghost Is Born came out 20 years ago this week.
“Blood” – Pearl Jam
I had to slap this together late Thursday because I’m off Friday morning to do some bloodwork in preparation for my annual checkup next week. Because I have to fast for it, I scheduled it super early, and look forward to eating an unhealthy breakfast immediately after. Then maybe coming home and napping. Anyway, I’m also thinking about screaming “IT’S. MY. BLOOOOOOOOOOOOD.” when the tech jabs me.
“That Summer Feeling” – Jonathan Richman
A reminder that one of my favorite music days of the year is coming up next week. This song is to summer what my Independence Day playlist is to the Fourth of July.
“Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker Jr.
Another big one! Cracking the Top 40 at #29 in just its third week in the Hot 100, it was on its way to #1 for three weeks at the end of the summer. An iconic song from the greatest summer for music ever. Of course, things got messy when Huey Lewis sued Parker for ripping off “I Want A New Drug.” They settled, and a confidentiality agreement was included in the settlement. Fifteen years later Parker sued Lewis for breaking that agreement in a VH1 Behind the Music episode and won his own settlement. Life takes weird turns sometimes. The movie was better than the song.