No sign that the current pace of new music will slacken any time soon, which means I will continue to have the pleasure of providing music to soundtrack a good chunk of your Fridays for the foreseeable future.

“People Of Substance” – Craig Finn
DAD ROCK ALERT!!!!! Craig Finn has new music out! And it is produced by Adam Granduciel! And the other members of The War On Drugs are playing on it! What a great day to be a middle aged white dude who still listens to cool music! There is no chance you can miss that TWOD presence on this track.

“Ankles” – Lucy Dacus
Less dad rocky, to be sure, but another literate artist I love with new music.

“Good Old Fashioned Fun” – WOOZE
“Hooked” – Franz Ferdinand
I heard the new WOOZE track and thought it had some serious Franz Ferdinand vibes. A couple days later I hear FF’s new song. Serendipitous!

“Together” – Blankenberge
Some tremendous Shoegaze from Russia, of all places. I’m going to assume that since these kids are cool enough to play music this good, they are anti-war, so I will not boycott their songs.

“It’s a Mirror” – Perfume Genius
Based on my inability to connect with his music before 2020, I figured my love of PG’s “On the Floor,” my #3 song of 2020, was a momentary blip. This, though, is a tremendous song as well. I am officially intrigued by what is to come.

“T&A” – Blondshell
Blondshell made my favorite tracks list last year (with some help from her friend Bully) with “Docket,” a song about the perils of hooking up while touring. Here is another powerhouse song about how sex can mess things up.

“Hazy Shade of Winter” – The Bangles
With February about to arrive, we are in the dog days of winter. That said, we have two days approaching 60 in the forecast and the last of the piles of snow in our yard and driveway should be gone by Tuesday morning. So maybe not ideal conditions to play this, but my annual reminder this is one of the greatest covers ever recorded.

“No Excuses” – Alice in Chains
I read this article earlier in the week about the 31st anniversary of AiC’s Jar of Flies EP. Which is a weird year to mark. But, still, it made me go back and listen to the EP, and then some other AiC tracks. For those who were around at the time, remember how shocking this song was because of its beauty, especially when compared to the songs from the Dirt album, which was basically 100% about heroin? Still a great song.