Category: Music

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“Now and Then,” the last (?) Beatles single drops

AI-generated image of an illustration of a mixtape type thing. It looks like an unholy combination of a mixtape and boombox.

I’ve been a Beatles fan since I was 7, nearly 50 years now. There’s only two Beatles songs I that I actively don’t like* and then the rest of the catalog I love.

Sometimes it takes me a few listens to get into a song, even some of my favorite artists. I love Aimee Mann, but I had to come back to The Forgotten Arm for a few extra listens before it really grabbed me. It’s never been that way with The Beatles. Maybe because I got into them so young, but they’ve always just felt like home.

When they released “Free As A Bird,” and “Real Love” in the 90s, they instantly grabbed me and felt like Beatles songs. I had a frisson of joy the first time I heard them, the same tingles I got the first time I heard “Help!” when I was 7 and was an instant fan.

“Now and Then” … didn’t do that. I was open and hoping, but to my aging ears it just doesn’t sound like The Beatles.

But I’m glad they tried. I’m not cynical about it. Better, IMO, that they tried and if it does give other fans the same joy as other Beatles songs then that’s awesome.

* (“Revolution 9” which IMO doesn’t even count as a song, and “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” because it’s just so low-effort and dumb.)

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“Major Tom (Coming Home)” – Peter Schilling

Still from Major Tom (Coming Home) video by Peter Schilling

I get songs stuck in my head all the time, but usually it’s because I heard a snippet of the song or something that reminded me of the song recently. Other times, a song pops into my head for no reason I can fathom and demands that I give it a few spins before my brain moves on to the next earworm. Such is the case with this cut from Peter Schilling, “Major Tom (Coming Home).”

Yesterday I was minding my own business and it just wedged itself into my my head. Clearly that means I should share it on my blog so that it can go on to infect others.

It’s hard to believe, and perhaps a bit unsettling, that “Major Tom” was released more than 40 years ago. Despite its age, it sounds just as fresh and exciting to me today as it did the first time I stumbled on the video on MTV. Score one for the Internet that you can just dial up the video any time you want rather than waiting around for it to show up again on MTV or pop up on the radio.

If we haven’t put this one on a gold disc on its way out of the solar system, we really ought to get to it.

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Quick links: Middle Ages cat names, Turkish Funk, Java price increases…

AI-generated picture of a cat staring at a computer, in a woodcut / watercolor style.

A couple of quick links today for your enjoyment:

That’s it for today, we now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet.

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“Con Todo El Mundo” – Khruangbin

Album cover, "Con Todo El Mundo" by Khruangbin. Features a beige cover with a small photo of cows standing in a field with the title of the album underneath.

Took a little detour on revisiting my top 100 albums but we’re back with Con Todo El Mundo by Khruangbin. It’s easy to see why this album didn’t make the cut in 2016: It wasn’t released until 2018.

I think I stumbled on Khruangbin via an NPR Tiny Desk concert. It was an instant click, love at first sound.

The band’s sound is a fusion of influences from around the world. Largely instrumental, you’ll be able to pick out a lot of pop, funk, surf guitar, psychedelic and other influences that all come together to form something really special.

Con Todo El Mundo is still my favorite Khruangbin album, though they’ve been quite prolific since its release with Mordechai, Mordechai Remixes, Texas Moon, and last year’s Ali. (Plus a few singles thrown in and contributing to Paul McCartney’s McCartney III Imagined with a remix of his “Pretty Boys.”

But this album just has that extra something that puts it over the top. Listen to “Lady and Man” for example. It’s got a monster funk groove, some vintage 70s guitar work, with a background chorus that you’ll be singing to yourself long after the album ends.

“Maria Tambien,” is a slinky number that always has me dancing or tapping my feet. Such solid percussion and bass work, it’s deceptively simple and draws you right in.

My favorite track, though, has to be “Evan Finds the Third Room.” Yes, this is the Third Room. Yes. Mark Speer’s guitar is nimble and perfect, Laura Lee’s bass and DJ’s drumming plus a little spoken word chorus make for an instant classic.

They’ve had quite a bit of attention since 2018, but if you haven’t caught up with Khruangbin yet, start with this album. I had the good fortune to snag tickets to see them at The Lincoln in Raleigh at the tail end of 2018 before they really took off and started doing much bigger shows. They’re just as good live as they are on record, which is to say amazing.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=906393946 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

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Coming soon: Instrumental album from Robyn Hitchcock

Cover of "Life After Infinity" by Robyn Hitchcock. It features the title in cursive, with a fish on a blue background with a rose superimposed on top of the fish.

The past few years I’ve been seeking out more and more instrumental music. Khruangbin, The Comet is Coming, Material, Pharoah Sanders… but I wasn’t expecting to add Robyn Hitchcock to that list!

Robyn has released a few instrumental tracks in the past. I Often Dream of Trains is bookended by two short instrumental tracks, “Nocturne (Prelude)” and “Nocturne (Demise)” that are hauntingly beautiful. But the vast majority of his catalog includes his unique vocal stylings. (If you’ve never listened to Robyn, you should correct that immediately. But if you want a description, just take equal parts John Lennon and Syd Barrett with a dollop of Bob Dylan and there ya go.)

Anyway, I was excited to see the announcement this week that he’s releasing an all-instrumental album Life After Infinity in April. Two tracks are already live on Bandcamp, and you can pre-order the album there in the format of your choice. Unless your choice is 8-track, in which case you cannot, but why would you?

“Celestial Transgression” reminds me a lot of the aforementioned Trains. “Come Here, Little Ghost” has a twangier, folkier feel than I’m used to with his music. Maybe a touch of bluegrass? That’s the genre that comes to mind, but admittedly I’m not a big bluegrass listener so I could be way off target there.

At any rate, I love both tracks and can’t wait for the full album to drop in April.

 

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“The Olympians” – The Olympians

Album Cover: The Olympians by The Olympians

The Olympians by The Olympians was released on October 28, 2016. If it’d been released a year or two earlier, there’s a better than even chance it’d have made my Top 100 list the first time around.

The Olympians is something of a throwback record, with a strong nod to 70s funk and soul. You’ve got generous helpings of horns, slick guitar, and sweet, sweet strings to soothe your mind. At the same time, there’s plenty of groove that is virtually guaranteed to put some swing in your step.

The Olympians’ 11 tracks are all instrumentals with titles that evoke Greek gods and myths, like “Sirens of Jupiter,” “Apollo’s Mood,” and “Europa and the Bull.” It’s left as an exercise to the listener to piece together a narrative that goes along with the song title.

Given the album’s cinematic feel, that’s not hard at all. You can close your eyes and just imagine some of the myths (if you’re like me) you read in middle school and summon epic action scenes on a cosmic scale. One of these days I want to sync up The Olympians with the original Clash of the Titans and see how well some of the tracks mesh with Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation creatures.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3950293300 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Every track on this album is pure gold. I don’t know that the album breaks any new ground, but it really doesn’t need to. It brings players from The Budos Band, The Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, The Arcs and more under the direction of Toby Pazner to cook up a “temple of sound.” Sign me up for the Church of The Olympians, because I’m ready to convert!

The only bummer about this album? Since 2016, the band hasn’t convened again to produce a full follow-up. (At least as far as I know.) Since its release, there’ve been two singles released via Bandcamp but still holding out hope we’ll see a full length LP sometime soon.

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“With Birds” – The Coconut Monkeyrocket

Album Cover "With Birds" by The Coconut Monkeyrocket

When describing an album, one might start with a familiar genre or reference point to help the uninitiated prepare for the experience. This approach isn’t possible with The Coconut Monkeyrocket’s only full album, With Birds.

With Birds is a one-off album by a band (or perhaps one person project) called The Coconut Monkeyrocket with very little online presence and pretty much zero backstory and damn little follow-up since its release. While I’d really love more music like this, it may be impossible to replicate. It may be that the band or artist nailed it on the first try and decided to just pack it up.

One comment on Bandcamp calls the album “uptempo cartoon funk.” I’ve also seen it connected with “loungecore” and it’s tagged with “electrokitsch” as a genre on Bandcamp. I think of it as the sound a Chuck Jones cartoon would make if it grew up and started a band.

It’s aggressively uptempo with driving funk undertones, loops, vocal samples, and a bombastic feel. Plenty of horn samples, upbeat rhythms, and goofy sounds. From the intro track “Juicy Jungle” to the closer, “Thank You” it’s an unpredictable ride. Hints of disco, polka, spoken word, 50s strings and horns, and electronic beats all co-mingle into an album that sounds effortless but is intricate and deeply weird. Whatever it is, genre-wise, it’s 100% earworm.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3240639490 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

It’s a great album to put on while you’re making dinner or doing some housework, or as a soundtrack to a party. It’s like candy for your ears.

 

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“Photographs and Memories: His Greatest Hits” – Jim Croce

The annals of music history are full of artists cut down in their prime. John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Andrew Wood, the list is entirely too long, and the world is poorer for the music they never got to make. One can only imagine what Jim Croce might have written if he hadn’t died at 30 in a plane crash, heading from one university gig to another. Continue reading ““Photographs and Memories: His Greatest Hits” – Jim Croce”