[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5BNb2b5g7I6bFSYG7tlMt3?si=3XXdHA0_Rqa8KzE7sy2diw) "Mariana Trench" - Bright Eyes
I've never listened to Bright Eyes, but I enjoyed Conor Oberst's collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers last year as part of Better Oblivion Community Center. As if for people like me, Bright Eyes is about to put out their first album in over a decade. Based on this track, I'll at least give it a courtesy listen.
"Country Church" - Holy Motors
If Mazzy Star made a song that had some swing to it, and it landed on the soundtrack of a mid-90s noir film, it would sound like this.
July is not over. But as we will be out-of-town next week, and I haven’t found much to write about this week, I thought I’d go ahead and share my media post for the month.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Always reliable, but never quite as great as Michael Schur’s other creations. What was strange was watching a show that was recorded before and during the Coronavirus outbreak. It was weird seeing commercials and promos from back when life was normal and then suddenly seeing them change in tone when April rolled around.
Some notes from the past few days.
Nephews We watched two of our nephews overnight Saturday. Number one just turned four, is very strong willed and stubborn, but generally a good kid. He loves to swim at our house, and spent a lot of time in the pool Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I tell you what, there’s nothing better for wiping a kid out than letting them swim for a couple hours.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ry5uT5xwwkEaixaHMnbNz?si=gBLHEzJUQ0WORZxNClIGKg) "Divine Accidents" - 5 Billion in Diamonds
This band features Butch Vig, the drummer for Garbage and producer for dozens of big 1990s alt acts, and Ebbot Lundberg of Soundtrack of Our Lives. It sounds like a mashsup of SOOL and ELO, which is not unpleasant at all.
"Destroyer" - Lala Lala
Phoebe Bridgers recently recommended Lala Lala's new album. I have only listened to this song so far, but I really like its vibe.
Chart Week: July 3, 1982
Song: “Hurts So Good” - John Cougar
Chart Position: #5, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for four weeks in August.
This entry is about how the biological information Casey Kasem shared on American Top 40 was not always accurate. John Cougar (Mellencamp) is the perfect artist to demonstrate this point, as he charted under three different versions of his last name. For simplicity, I will refer to him by the name this song charted under.
Since I’m struggling to write about current affairs at the moment, I decided I am going to try to get back to doing something I used to do a lot more often: link to interesting articles.
I can’t think of a better way to start than this piece.
The Strange Disappearance of Ed, the Great Show That Time Forgot
Old school friends will remember how much I loved Ed. Every few years something will remind me of it and I’ll sniff around a little to see if there has been any resolution to the music rights issues which have prevented it from ending up on cable or a streaming service.
Death in Her Hands - Otessa Moshfegh
I read Moshfegh’s Eileen a few years back. After I started this one I had to go back and read my summary of it to recall that it was an odd little book.
This one was odd, too.
It is the story of a Vesta Gul, a widowed, 80-something woman who lives in an old Girl Scout cabin with her dog. One morning on their daily walk through the woods she stumbles across a note that claims that the body of a dead woman named Magda is nearby.
I missed an absolutely huge anniversary over the holiday weekend and have been grievously late in finally getting to it.
Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the first American Top 40 broadcast.
If you follow here closely you know that there has likely been no bigger pop culture influence on my life than AT40.
I remember my parents and their friends listening to the show in the late 1970s.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/390x9jvTMq1fxdXLtvPNCj?si=0qjDxbMyRrK7v3uJT098Ng) “Light in the Heart of Our Town” - Joensuu 1685
This Finnish band created some buzz about 10 years ago then splintered into side projects. They are back after that long fallow period and arrive with this absolutely gorgeous song
“same mistakes” - We Were Promised Jetpacks
Along with label mates The Twilight Sad, WWPJ practice a wonderfully miserable brand of Scottish indie rock. Their songs are dark and brooding and match the weather of their homeland.
I never served up a summary of the holiday weekend.
Our family from Denver were in town and stayed with us: S’s sister, her husband, and their two kids. It was weird picking them up and dropping them off at the airport, which seemed mostly deserted, at least from the curb-view. Not that IND is often a super-busy airport, but a holiday weekend usually means you have to double- or triple-park when doing curbside drop-off/pickup.
Mystify: Michael Hutchence
What a beautiful man Michael Hutchence was. Not just physically, he had a beautiful soul, too. He wasn’t a voice of a generation - well, maybe he was in Australia - but if you came up in the late ‘80s and listened to pop music, he sang a lot of songs that were in high rotation. INXS was never my favorite group, but they were often one of my 5-10 favorites, and I owned a surprising number of their albums.
Chart Week: June 23, 1984
Song: “Obscene Phone Caller” - Rockwell
Chart Position: #39, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 the week of June 30.
I have always prided myself for knowing minor hits by artists who have been labeled as One Hit Wonders by the general public. Others find this trait annoying, but it’s kind of too late to change now. Not that I’m in-your-face about it. But I also do not hesitate to point out how Scandal or whoever actually had X other songs that cracked the top 40 in addition to their one, big, unforgettable hit.
As promised, a playlist for the holiday weekend.
This is the same PL I shared last year on July 4. I listened to it again this week and still thought it was pretty good.
I hope you enjoy it, and have a happy and safe Independence Day weekend.
I’m about to check out for the holiday weekend. I’ll post a special playlist for the weekend on Friday.
Before I step back for a few days, I thought I’d provide some more music recommendations. So here are a few good albums from the first six months of 2020. If you have free time over the next few days, open up your music streaming app and try something new!
Ratboys - Printer’s Devil
The Cold Dish - Craig Johnson
This is the time of year when I abandon my To Read list and seek out Best Summer Reads type lists online. One such list suggested this book, which was a nice spin on the detective procedural.
Walt Longmire is a sheriff in a small town in Wyoming. He is in his 50s, widowed, and spends too many nights pounding too many beers. He went to USC to play football, lost his deferment and got drafted into the Marines, who provided him with an all-expenses trip to Vietnam in the height of the war there.
Life continues to be fairly boring. Well, at least in our house. There is obviously plenty going on in the world, and I’m feeling the urge to revive my Covid posts.
This weekend was especially boring, thanks to plenty of much-needed rain most of the day Saturday and then on Sunday morning. S has been busy trying to knock out Downton Abbey before it leaves Amazon Prime this week. I finished up a show I’ll write about next week.
Another longer set of music this week.
“Find Your Way Back Home” - Neil Finn featuring Stevie Nicks and & Christine McVie The whole Neil Finn replacing Lyndsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac thing is so odd that I kind of refuse to believe that it actually happened. But Finn leveraged that to get his two most famous new bandmates to join him on his latest solo track. His music has mellowed out a lot in the last decade, but this is one of the few songs over that stretch that I’ve enjoyed.
The dishwasher is a constant source of battle in our house. As I considered it this week, while once again rearranging dishes my kids put in the wrong spots, I realized I am never more of a Dad than when I’m correcting how they put dishes into the dishwasher.
“These can’t go on the bottom rack, they stick through and hit the spray arm!”
“The good knives have to be hand-washed; the heat of the dishwasher will ruin their handles!
First off, obviously some changes to the site’s look. Big changes, for now. I know it’s a little jarring and I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it, but as I was doing some other administrative work, I figured why not throw up a theme that looks like nothing else I’ve used in my 17-year blogging career? I’m happy to read feedback, good or bad, if you want to share in the comments.
It looks like it has been nearly a month since I shared new music in a Friday post. That has left quite a backlog. So let’s get caught up with a mega-playlist to take us into Father’s Day weekend.
“Carousels” - Doves. The first new Doves song in over a decade, and it does not disappoint. Sounds mature yet maintains the energy that was present through their excellent run of albums.