“Favourite Songs” – Maximo Park
This was the week I learned that MP and bands like them – The Kooks, The Futureheads, Editors, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club – were lumped into a sub-genre called “Landfill Indie” by some critics. That was not considered a term of endearment. Which bummed me out because I liked a lot of those bands in the stretch during the early 2000s when they were popular. MP is still around, and while this won’t challenge for my favorite song of the year like “Going Missing” did in 2005, I do enjoy this track. Screw the critics!

“D&T” – Japandroids
Further proof there will be no re-invention of the Japandroids wheel on their final album.

“Cut and Run” – Jessica Boudreaux
Boudreaux wrote this for an un-named Apple TV+ show, but the producers ended up passing on it. Their loss. Actually, probably her loss, because it would have gotten a lot more exposure had it landed on the show. But you get what I’m saying.

“I Got Views” – Getdown Services
This band describes their music as “post-Brexit apocalypse disco,” which is awesome. Twat is such a good word. I might start using it to see how it goes over.

“Starting Again” – The Sluts
I’ve been listening to The Bridge, the public radio station in Kansas City that plays music right up my alley, more over the past several weeks. I’ve heard this track a few times, always identified as a local song. Turns out the band is from Lawrence, and maybe the biggest thing in that scene these days. Appropriate that this has a very turn-of-the-millennium sound given that’s about the time the classic Lawrence scene fell apart. I dig.

“Too Much” – Nectar
Speaking of the classic Lawrence scene, this band sounds similar to Frogpond, one of the most successful bands of the Nineties KC/Lawrence scene. But they are from Champaign, IL and very much a current group, not one that faded away 25 years ago.

“High” – The Cure
This week’s The Alternative Number Ones entry (subscription required) was this track from 1992, which topped the Alt chart for four weeks. I had forgotten what a joyous, delightful, silly song it is. Tom Breihan gave it a much-deserved 8/10.

“Come To The City (Live…Again)” – The War on Drugs
TWOD released another live album today. This time rather than picking his favorites from their last tour, Adam Granduciel took individual parts of different performances and stitched them together into new tracks. Which seems like a lot of work. But makes sense if you know how he makes music. This is the song that utterly blew me away when I last saw them. You don’t get the full sense of its power here – I’m convinced anyone with long hair had it blow backwards by the sheer force of the music that night – but I’ll still listen to this a dozen times, cranked all the way today.

“Are We Ourselves?” – The Fixx
Another week with fairly slim pickings from the bottom of the 1984 chart. Don’t get me wrong: I love The Fixx. They are underrated, and this song is super solid. But it doesn’t qualify as a classic of ’84. That said, I do have a vivid memory of hearing it while enjoying the final weekend that Worlds of Fun was open for the year, a balmy, breezy October afternoon. At #32 this week, on its way to #15.