\u00a0Not exactly the most promising start to the 2019 winter season. Yesterday morning we had an ice storm roll in at just the wrong\/perfect time (depending on your perspective) and had a snow day because the roads were just bad enough to force our principal\u2019s hand. We went four years without a snow day; now we\u2019ve had two this calendar year and the earliest one in the season since M started kindergarten. Throw in how we went from the 90s to the 40s in about 48 hours back in October, and a November that has been running 10-15 degrees cooler than normal, and this winter is already looking like a beast.<\/p>\n
Here are some tunes to help ease you into the pre-holiday weekend.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y\/playlist\/1bBr1mQ90os3OjwoFbYRPQ?si=eebCev8KSsyjUBtmtM3vBg<\/p>\n
\u201cStay With Me\u201d – Longwave. These cats have been making enjoyable indie rock for a long time now. They were kind of second-tier staples of my mid-\u201800s listening. Glad that they\u2019re still at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome Back (Left Behind)\u201d – Palace Winter. This Danish group (shout out to my paternal grandmother\u2019s ancestors!) sounds like someone else, but I\u2019m not exactly sure who. So I was surprised to learn that they\u2019re not some side project or supergroup of people I already know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSunshine Rock\u201d – Bob Mould. Is there a more reliable artist in music for fast-charging, power-pop tunes like this than Mould? The lead single off his up-coming LP, this refers both to his recent years living in Berlin (celebrating the explosion of the sun after Germany\u2019s long, dark winters) and his desire to find the bright in the world, despite our political landscape or personal issues, like the loss of Mould\u2019s two parents. This is a song better suited for spring. But as we slip into what appears to be an epic winter, it is just the jolt that I needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Jude\u201d – Wilson Pickett. Good Lord, how had I never heard this until this week? I discovered it via Tom Breihan’s columns on Stereogum where he is running through every song that has hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This week he hit The Beatles\u2019 \u201cHey Jude.\u201d<\/a> Breihan always tries to share significant cover versions of the song he\u2019s writing about. In this case, he was unapologetic about his belief that Pickett\u2019s version far outshines the original. I\u2019m not sure I would go that far – It\u2019s Hey Fucking Jude after all – but I love the swing to it, Pickett\u2019s wail, and the epic closing solo by a (then) young and unknown Duane Allman.\u00a0<\/p>\n