Friday Playlist

Going back-and-forth to Bloomington twice this week cut into my new music time. As I begin this, I anticipate it being a little lighter than usual, but we’ll see where the music takes us.

“Marianne” – Fontaines D.C.
New music from Fontaines D.C.? Hell yeah! It continues on the subtler and more melodic path their last album took them down.

“Things Take Time” – Gang of Youths
New music from Gang of Youths? Oh hell yeah! A definite change in direction, although they have never been afraid to surprise us by zigging. Not as impactful as the lead single off their last album, which landed at #3 on that year’s final list. No dates yet but I’m assuming this means a new album is not too far away.

“baby” – Gabriel Jacoby
It looks like I played another Jacoby song last fall and compared his voice to Prince, DeAngelo, and Sly Stallone. (All RIP). This song came out at the same time and somehow I just heard it. Those comparisons remain apt.

“Can’t Get Over Losing You” – The Avalanches featuring Portraits of Tracy
The Avalanches rarely miss. Of course, they also take exceptionally long breaks between releasing new music, which helps with their batting average. The cover of their new album has a humanized iPod and floppy disk with their arms around each other.

“Haven’t Lived It Yet” – The Drin
I read one critic describe this Cincinnati band as being a modern version of The Beta Band. I hear that, although I also hear a lot of Brian Jonestown Massacre. So let’s call them a super druggy Beta Band?

“Dry The Rain” – The Beta Band
Hell, it’s a light musical week, might as well get nutty. Also, go buy a copy of TBB’s The Three E.P.’s.

“Anemone” – The Brian Jonestown Massacre
One of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite songs. Obviously from his heroin years.

“Martini Me Fatso” – Matt Berninger
Getting back to Cincy, Berninger always sounds way more fun when he’s working on his own or on a side project than he does in The National.

Peter Bjorn and John
PB&J’s legendary Writer’s Block came out 20 years ago last week. Chris Deville had a predictably great retrospective of it at Stereogum. There’s an obvious song that I could have played to honor it. While that is one of the most perfect pop songs of the 2000s, I’ve always loved the epic majesty of this track just as much.

“Complete Control” – The Clash
Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer, who would have turned 74 today.

“Gimme Me All Your Lovin’” – ZZ Top
Frank Beard died this week. He was the subject of one of the all-time great music trivia questions: who was the only member of ZZ Top who didn’t have a beard. I honestly thought Frank Beard was a stage name but that was actually his given name, which makes that note even better!

“Legs” and “Sleeping Bag” were their biggest hits, each reaching #8, but this was always my favorite ZZ song. And it kicked off their run of great videos. At least if you were a 12-13 year old boy.