Day: April 11, 2025

Yowza! Take a week off and not only does the music pile up, but there are also a couple large events to recognize. So this week’s list is EXTRA large for your listening pleasure. And that’s even with me probably cutting a song or two from my working list as I finalize what I share.

“catch these fists” – Wet Leg
LOOK WHO’S BACK!!! WATCH OUT, FOOLS!!!

“NW1” – Mên An Tol
Whoo, this song cooks! I assumed based on the band name they were somehow Scandinavian, or maybe Icelandic. Turns out they are just some British lads, and took their name from a small stone formation in Cornwall. Call it a JV Stonehenge.

“Rodeo” – Momma
I’ve already shared a couple songs from Momma’s latest album, which officially came out while we were breaking. The album got terrific reviews so I gave it a spin this week and this was the other song that really stuck out to me.

“Holly” – Jolie Laide
It’s been driving me crazy for a couple weeks what other band these folks sound like. There was a song a few years back that had a very similar vibe to this, including a man and woman responding to each other’s lines, the film noir-ish music, etc. It also had a lot of whistling where this does not. Anyone else remember that song?

“The Wolf” – Witch Post
Is it wrong to put two man-woman songs back-to-back?

“Backseat Banton” – Bartees Strange
Not sure how I missed including this over the past two months. It was just about to drop out of my current music playlist, so I’m glad I caught the error in time.

“Stay” – Sea Lemon
Exactly the kind of dream pop I love the most.

“Lowdown (part 1)” – Michael Kiwanuka
If this hasn’t already been used to soundtrack moments in TV shows and movies, it surely will be soon.

“A Man Needs A Vocation” – Craig Finn
Finn’s album Always Been also came out while we were away. I’ve been listening to it all week. The addition of members of The War on Drugs as his backing band refresh his sound wonderfully. Several of the songs sound 100% like TWOD songs everywhere but in his vocals. This is one of the best examples. The opening keyboards. The drums. The chiming acoustic guitars that carry the song, and the little electric guitar flourishes throughout. This easily could have been on the last Drugs album.

“Rain In The River” – Bruce Springsteen
Well now! Like Prince, Springsteen has a large vault of unreleased music. Unlike Prince, he periodically taps into it, brushing up songs that have lain fallow for decades and letting the public hear them. The biggest new music news of the past week was the announcement of The Boss’ Tracks II, a package that will include 83 songs spanning seven full length albums, containing first recorded between 193 and 2018. Most of it comes from the 1990s, a decade when he stepped back from the public eye but was still apparently working quite hard. Also included is his legendary 1983 Garage Sessions work, during which he worked alone on many of the songs that became the hits of Born in the USA after he took them to the E. Street Band.

This song comes a compilation of E. Street Band-styled songs recorded at various points during the quarter century scope of the entire boxed set.

“Dreaming” – Blondie
Ugh. Blondie drummer Clem Burke died this week. He had been sick for some time but hid his cancer diagnosis, so his passing came as a shock even to many close to him.

Blondie was always mostly about Debbie Harry. Burke’s driving beats held the whole operation together, though.

Blondie’s peak was less than four years long. Despite that they had a huge impact on music and culture, one that still influences bands trying to figure out what direction they want to go. You can argue about which Blondie single is the best. They had four number ones, which are good places to start. I’ve long leaned towards “Dreaming” though. I think some of that is because while those chart topping hits went different directions – disco, Euro-disco, Dancehall, and rap – “Dreaming” was a perfect New Wave song, the genre the band helped bring to the mainstream. Harry softened her New York hardness a bit, making it feel more like an updated, Sixties girl band tune.[1] And then there were Burke’s drums, an absolutely jaw-dropping performance. I did not know until this week that the drums you hear were his first take at the track, and he wasn’t taking it all that seriously, thus played busier and with more abandon than he normally would. Harry and Chris Stein loved how they sounded and kept them for the final mix of the song. Amazing. And RIP.

This track is, obviously, a live performance played over the recorded track. But watch Burke just beat the shit out of his kit.