Friday Playlist

Another week, another playlist.

“I Danced With Another Love In My Dream” – Brigitte Calls Me Baby
I’m telling you, if radio didn’t suck, this band would be on the verge of blowing up. The title of this track plays even more into their connections with The Smiths.

“Brace Yourself” – Gladie
As I said when I shared another song of theirs two weeks ago, this band sounds straight out of the Nineties. I’m awake enough this week to realize Letters To Cleo is their closest analogue from that era.

“The Bitter End” – Trashcan Sinatras
I had no idea these cats were still around. They have now been releasing music for 40 years, this being their first new song in four. And it is borderline amazing!

“Blankspace” – Whitelands
Shoegaze is definitely a thing at the moment, but it must be even more popular than I realize, because a lot of bands are being described as such even when they may not fully fit under than umbrella. This band is a good example. Definitely some shoegaze tendencies, mostly in the atmospheric guitars. But it is too melodic and bright to be true shoegaze to me.

“Heaven” – Arlo Parks
Put Arlo right at the top of the list of modern R&B artists that I have a lot of love for. Feels like someone I need to make sure my girls are listening to. This was inspired by the how Parks felt as she left a late night rave set.

“raw power” – Sloome
Funny, every time I hear this song I expect it to be a remake of The Stooges’ classic – it is not – or by the band Sloan. They definitely fall into a similar power pop sound as Sloan, but are not Canadian. Stereogum called them “uptempo Shoegaze.” Come on, are music writers even trying anymore???

“Trickle Down” – SPRINTS
Shame that between SPRINTS and IDLES, we are getting far better critiques of our global economic situation from Ireland and England than from American groups.

“Hedgesitting” – Cola
This band describes the music they have played to this point in their career as “tasteful minimalism,” which is both super accurate and awesome. You still hear some of that here, but you also hear a clear effort to move in a new direction. Way more hooks and grooves than they featured in the past.

“Choo Choo” – Friko
When we get to this time of year, I always think about back in the spring of 2005 when I launched my legendary, if mostly private, music podcast. At that time in my life I was using the term “choo choo” a lot, so this ode to Chicago’s public transit system feels appropriate to play now.

“Landline” – The Clearwater Swimmers
A slightly different video this week, one with no real visuals. I’ve been wanting to share this track for weeks, but TCS does not put their music on Spotify so I can’t cross-post it. This song is too good not to share, though, so I went with the generic album cover vid so you all can hear it.