• The Replacements - Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
  There are 54 (!) songs in this release: two full versions of the album (a full remix and the 2023 remaster), 15 demos and alternative versions, and then 28 live tracks. Whew. So far, I have only listened to the first of the two new versions of the album: the Ed Stasium remixes. I heard two tracks of this on Spotify and knew I had to get the rest. It's amazing. The original, like a lot of mid-80s indie records (the other Replacements' records, Sonic Youth's "Sister", Dino Jr's early albums, etc.), always sounded a bit muffled to me. But this is the complete opposite of muffled. Everything is crisp and loud. More than just a remaster (which is like adjusting brightness or color balance of a picture after you've taken it), this is a full remix (which is more like rearranging the objects and lighting and taking the photo again); instrument levels and their stereo positioning are different, effects applied in the original version weren't applied here, and different editing choices were made. The drums and bass are way up front, the guitars are sharp but pushed back in the mix and the vocals are incredibly clear. Tons of things that the original recordings buried or outright muted were left in: little guitar frills everywhere, Paul Westerberg's vocal interjections, background vocals(!). The way various parts are raised or lowered vs the original gives many of the songs very different vibes. Which I find fascinating. I had to listen very closely at first to make sure they weren't entirely new versions that Westerberg had recorded (pulling a Taylor Swift move or something). A couple of songs are even longer: "Little Mascara" is almost a minute longer (the original faded out long before the band stopped) and "Here Comes A Regular" has a few extra seconds (including a line that was dropped) near the end. What a great thing. I wish more bands would do this. (Just found out that Robyn Hitchcock is doing this with "Globe Of Frogs", yay).
  

• Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On. A couple of months ago I didn't know I wanted to hear anything that sounded like a mixture of Stereolab's vocals, early Pavement's guitars all in something like The Vaselines' or Beat Happening's general sunny but happily-primitive vibe. Now I realize I did. And I'm better for it. Great album. Very catchy.
  

• The Sorcerers - Other Worlds And Habits. This modern British trio specializes in exploring the sounds of 1960's Ethiopian jazz. And they do it very well. The only thing that would cause one to mistake this for original 60's Ethiopian jazz is the fact that it doesn't sound like it was recorded on sketchy gear, 60 years ago. Fun.
  

• Shellac - To All Trains. Losing Steve Albini last year was a huge blow to the indie music scene in general. He was a giant. And specifically, it means this was Shellac's last album. And it's a good one. Shellac had a very specific sound: very clean production of very loud instruments with a lot of empty space for contrast. They got a lot of mileage out of it, and yet it always sounded fresh. I would have kept buying these records forever. Alas. Fittingly, the last song is named "I Don't Fear Hell" ("If there's a heaven, I hope they're having fun / because if there's a hell I'm gonna know everyone!").
  

Fuck the world. Music time.

• Fontaines DC - Romance. 2024. Their sound gets bigger and bigger with every album. Their first record was raw brutal minimalism. But, three albums later, they're doing interesting dynamic and harmonic changes, layers of sound, and vocal melodies (!). Which is all great. As electric as that first record was, it was obvious even then that there was only so much they could do with that sound; expanding their palette is working-out for them.

  »»»

• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Endless Rooms. 2022. Not a huge change from their previous two, but that's fine! They have a great sound and they know how to work it. I can listen to them do their thing all day (and have, many times).

  »»»

• XTC - Drums And Wires. 1979. I bought "Oranges And Lemons" back in college, when "Mayor Of Simpleton" and "King For A Day" came out. I liked it, but it was a little too fussy for my tastes at the time and I didn't explore them any further. A few years ago I picked up their giant collection of singles from 1977-1992, "Fossil Fuel". That introduced me to some of their earlier stuff, which I didn't know aside from "Making Plans For Nigel", "Senses Working Overtime" and "Dear God". And last month, on a whim while driving somewhere, I asked Spotify to play this album. I was shocked. And I bought it as soon as I got home. So much energy, so many ideas, so clever, so catchy, so much of that restless 1979 nervousness. I wish I'd bought this in 1989, instead of "Oranges and Lemons"!

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• The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World. 2024. While they remain a top-3 favorite band, I haven't really listened to a new Cure album since 1992's "Wish". They've tried a few sounds, but none have really grabbed me. But this one is somewhat of return to 1989's epic "Disintegration", or the slower songs on "Wish" - sonically enormous, slow but majestic, with Smith's vocals pleading over it all. So, that's nice. Robert Smith's voice sounds just as it has since the early 1990s, amazingly. There are some nice guitar freakouts. The bass is huge and growly. All good. The songs are pretty good, too. But... I'm just not in the mood for this stuff these days. I don't even listen to "Disintegration" anymore.

  »»

• Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas. 1990. Swirling, vibrating guitars, layers upon layers of vocals that might be singing in actual English, or at least English words, or possibly whatever sounds Elizabeth Frazier thought would work at the time. It's all very disorienting. That's any Cocteau Twins album. But this one does it perfectly. I can't think of an album, from anyone, that shimmers as much this one. On many songs, there's a high-pitched part that just sits and scintillates while everything else pulses and bounces around it. Quite magical. And, of course it would be nothing without the great songs.

  They're yet another band that I've listened to for a long time, but somehow I missed their best work. I've had a couple of their earlier records since the early 90s. I like them, but I've listened to them enough that I somehow thought I had the band all figured out, that their other records couldn't possibly have anything else to say. It's a dumb way of thinking.

  »»»»

• Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll. 1988. No matter how many times I play it, my brain simply refuses to engage with this. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. My brain just refuses to latch on. I think the problem is that it's clearly the album before "Heaven Or Las Vegas" - you can hear them heading in that direction - and I just want to hear HoLV over and over instead.

• Mount Eerie - Night Palace. 2024 A guy is softly singing while a hypnotic tremolo vibrates the sound around your head. And sometimes a building falls on him. Or he's the building, mid-crash. Another fine entry in the list of sludgy psychedelic bands that I love from the past 35 years (Bardo Pond, Dino Jr, Sebadoh, Codeine, Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead, Holy Sons, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, so many more).

  »»»

• Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us. 2024. Looking for intelligent lyrics and extravagantly-orchestrated melodies? For four albums, Vampire Weekend has been eager to provide. Number five is more. They even work in motifs from, and references to, their previous songs. And miraculously, rather than seeming cheap and lazy, the references make this album feel like a reflection on, and a continuation of, a bigger project.

  »»»

• Robyn Hitchcock - 1967: Vacations In The Past. 2024. In 2014, Robyn put out "The Man Upstairs", which was half covers. He also had an outtakes album from that, which was 40% covers. He also has a whole double album of Dylan covers. (Next to Miles Davis, he's the most prolific of anyone in my music library. I count 49 albums (some partial) from him and his projects, in my collection.) This one is almost entirely covers, and all from 1967: Procul Harem, Small Faces, Hendrix, Kinks, Floyd, Beatles, Incredible String Band and more. The sole original here is the title track. Most of the songs are him and a guitar, with piano, second guitars, vocal harmonies on a few - a mode he's been in and out of since 1984.

  »»»

• All Them Witches - Live In Brussels - Heavy and hypnotic, this is throwback stoner rock for sure, but it's also great anytime! Lots of long, slowly pulsing songs with a lovely Rhodes piano or wailing Les Paul for color. The full show is available on YouTube (though I always buy the album).

  Elk.Blood.Heart.
  

• Newen Afrobeat - Curiche Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat, with influences from their native Chile. Tremendously groovy.

  Voráz
  

• Robyn Hitchcock - Life After Infinity. An instrumental record: guitars with occasional bass. Robyn's distinctive improvisational style is free-flowing on several pieces, and you can't mistake his melodies.

  Celestial Transgression
  

• Wilco - Cruel Country. They're getting sleepier with each record. And at 21 songs, this takes a while to get through. It's mostly very mellow country rock, recorded live in the studio. But, I saw them a couple of weeks ago, and the songs sound great, live!

  Cruel Country
  

• Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses - This is deep, heavy, atmospheric rock, also in the stoner rock category.

  Darkhorse
  

• boygenius - the record. I hate the word "supergroup". Phoebe Bridgers has a band with two other women, called "boygenius". I am not (yet) familiar with the other two women's other work. If you like Phoebe Bridgers, as I do, you'll probably like this, as I do - all the same descriptors apply to this as apply to her eponymous output.

  Not Strong Enough
  

• Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I. I missed this record when it came out in 1999. Situation remedied.

  Back and Forth.
  

And you?

• King Krule - Man Alive!. Even for King Krule, this feels very unstructured and mumbly. Full of slowly pulsing chords and mumbled lyrics backed by occasional percussion and wobbly melodic lines. I do like it, a lot actually, but I need to be in a very particular mood before I'll put it on.
  
• King Crimson - Beat. One of those albums I think I must have owned and then lost (or sold). I know it front to back, but I didn't have a copy in my collection until this month. This is the second of the classic Fripp, Belew, Levin, Bruford -era trilogy. It's not as great as Discipline (few things are), but it's still pretty good.
  
• Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher. Understated whispery pop. She has a lovely voice, and her songs are wistful and very delicately melodic. I don't have many reference points for this kind of music these days, so it's hard to come up with comparable artists. I could say something like "a more introspective and sad Taylor Swift", but that's because Taylor Swift is literally the only young female pop singer I know anything by anymore (because Mrs likes her). And really, Bridgers doesn't like anything Taylor Swift so I'll quit bring her up. She's playing here on the 21st, but sadly I can't bring myself to go to shows anymore - and frankly, as a soon-to-be-51-year-old, I'd feel a little creepery going to that show. I do like this record quite a lot though.
  
• Ryley Walker - Course In Fable. I play this one daily. It continues his unique experimental jazzy folk sound but, as with each of his albums, takes things in a somewhat different direction. Thanks to a lot of warm strings, this one is a fuller and sunnier record than some of his others; Deafman Glance sounds harder and more minimal by comparison. The lyrics are as abstract and intriguing as ever:
  

  Uncanny
  Weeds begat a mandolin strung out on faith-works
  Splintered into seeds are showing under tongue
  Patterns upchucked from downstream
  A pack-a-day throat that sinks the blues I sing
  Transactions cashless, its collection call rings
  On the other end, I’m shaking shivers
  Taking requests from a queue of givers

• Herbie Nichols - The Complete Blue Note Recordings. I recently finished The History of Jazz, which chronicles, in pretty much a continuous narrative, all of the big (and many of the lesser-known) movements, sub-movements and musicians in jazz. Pianist Herbie Nichols appears when the author reaches Thelonious Monk, with whom Nichols shares a style of playing (those big, clanging, block chords and a way of phrasing melodies). But Nichols was more of a conventional player: a bit less jagged in his melodies, a bit less likely to repeat a phrase for four bars (or let bars go by with just one or two dissonant spikes), and a bit less likely to slam a one of those big block chords in the middle of a melodic line for for the fun of it. There's a ton of material here - three and a half hours worth - including a lot of alternate takes. Good stuff, a bit much to digest all at once!
  
• Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona. Are they the most underrated band of their time ? I don't know, I can think of a few other bands of the late 80s/early 90s that didn't get the props I think they deserved. But, they're on the list. At this point in their career, Throwing Muses had two songwriters and lead singers: Kristen Hersh and her stepsister Tanya Donnely. And so this record has some Donnely-style melodic guitar pop. And it has a lot of nervous, discordant, Hersh-style rockers - some of the guitar in Ellen West sounds like Gang Of Four. And then one or two sound like collaborations, despite what the writing credits say. After this, Donnely and the bassist would leave to form one of my favorite (and also underrated) bands ever, Belly. It's a good record, and a nice reminder of how big and weird the "alternative" universe was back in the final days before Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (and the long list of sound-alikes) took over the phrase and the entire indie music world for a decade.
  

You?

• Madlib - Shades Of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note. Hip hop producer Madlib was allowed to run through the entire catalog of legendary jazz label, Blue Note records; and he put his remixing skills to work. So we have remixes of tunes by the likes of Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, and others. The result is a lot of 'chill' hip-hop, mostly instrumental, very groovy. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with most of the source material, so I can't say how they compare to the originals. I do know this one, though, and it is pretty great.
  Madlib - Song for my father

• Sumer Is Icumen In : The Pagan Sound Of British And Irish Folk 1966-75. Thirty (!!) songs from the folk music explosion. The quality varies, and the styles range from rough recordings of people sawing away on their fiddles to well-produced psychedelic folk (ex The Strawbs - the only of these bands that I'd heard of). It's ... interesting.
  Mad Tom of Bedlam

• Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times. I think this is the first of their records where they both sing. It's always been Gillian sings on "Gillian Welch" albums and David sings on "David Rawlings [+/- Machine]" albums. This is a mix of both; and there's even one tune where they trade verses (Johnny and June's version of "Jackson", which they've been doing live for a while). Not my favorite collection of tunes, but it's nice to get new stuff from either of them.
  Jackson

• Low - Things We Lost In The Fire / Double Negative. I'm late to Low. They been around for a while, doing their low-key indie stuff, but I didn't catch on till 2018's (awesome) Double Negative. Things We Lost In The Fire is older, but newer to me. And it's more organic and more delicate, without the electronics and extensive sonic manipulations that Double Negative has. But, they're both full of beautiful, slow, droning songs that ebb and flow around you. Great in headphones.
  Low - Fly [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

You?

It's been over a year since the last time I did one of these? Really?

Quasimoto - The Unseen. Quasimoto is a collaboration between hip-hop producer Madlib and his alter ego Lord Quas. It's got a strong stoner vibe, heavy on odd/kitschy spoken-word samples, smart and funny lyrics and smooth jazzy beats. It's not far from Madlib's other project, MF-Doom, which I've liked for a while. So, this was a nice discovery.

DJ Spooky - Songs Of A Dead Dreamer. Spacey, old-school record-spinning stoner hip-hop with lots of fun samples and occasional guest rappers. This and Quasimoto turned up on a few of the best-of lists I found when I was searching for 'alternative' hip-hop / turntablists.

Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters. I'm finding this much tougher to get into than her previous stuff. I think I need to sit down and really listen, because it's just not grabbing me. It's dense. There's a lot of repetition in the songs, almost mechanical. And when it's not repeating, it's taking hard, sharp turns and big leaps. So, a very up-to-date record. But, everything else she's done I've liked, so I'm going to give this some more time.

Tame Impala - The Slow Rush. Much clubbier than their [his] past records with big beats and thick, lush production. But it's still got that classic Tame Impala retro psychedelic thing. Good stuff.

The Daisy Age - Various. This is a compilation of tunes hip-hop groups from the early 90s, most of whom formed a collective called Native Tongues. It was originally centered around NYC groups like the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, etc.. But it eventually included groups from other places, including the UK. They pioneered a jazz-centered, upbeat, playful and positive (and sometimes silly) hip-hop that contrasted strongly with the macho and often violent west-coast 'gangsta' rap. The style didn't last much beyond the mid 90s, but it's the one that grabbed me.

Seinfeld's latest stand-up show has a joke about how a man's casual fashion choices stop keeping up with the times the day he gets married. I got married in 1996.

You?

• Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Further Out. This is the sequel to their incredible "Time Out" (even though there were three other Dave Brubeck Quartet albums released between the two). It has that same mix of hummable jazz tunes played in odd time signatures. It's not as great as "Time Out", but that's fine. It's still good.
  
  Dave Brubeck - Unsquare Dance

• Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be. Lo-fi pop that recalls a specific very-early-90s SubPop sound: the sweetly strange DIY sound of bands like Vaselines and Beat Happening, not the fury and thunder of Nirvana and Tad. And there's a touch of Siouxsie and Blondie, in there too. Fun stuff. 12 songs in 32 minutes.
  
  Fifa 11 Soundtrack - It Only Takes One Night

• Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is a Reptile. Raucous hypnotic NoLa street marching band Afro-Caribbean modern/old-school jazz/dub. There are so many things going on in here, it's hard to come up with a suitable description. Maybe just "funky" will do. Amazing and funky. Mostly instrumental, but when the vocals do appear, they're amazing too. I love it.
  
  Sons Of Kemet - My Queen Is Ada Eastman (Audio) ft. Joshua Idehen

• David Bowie - Station To Station. I'm taking my time going through Bowie's stuff. He was hit and miss - I love "Hunky Dory" and "Ziggy...", but "Low" and "Scary Monsters" not so much. This is a hit. It's only six songs, but lasts 38 minutes. Golden Years and TVC15 are great, as is the title track. Stay rocks a bit. The other two are good enough.
  
  DAVID BOWIE - TVC15 (Live At Musikladen 05.30.78)

• The Ventures - The Ventures In Space. Surf rock! It's the only surf rock I own, and I think this will probably be enough. But it sure is fun.
  

• Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy (remaster). I was listening to the original version a couple weeks back and decided that the sound was a bit flat and muddy. So, I picked up the remaster, and it does sound better. I hear a lot of small details in the guitar and vocals that I'd never heard before, and even the bass is audible here and there! The songs remain the same, just better. I think this might be their best overall record, even if II is still my favorite.
  
  Led Zeppelin - Over The Hills And Far Away

• FONTAINES D.C. - Dogrel The great-grandsons of Gang of Four, or the grandsons of Bloc Party, or the sons of Protomartyr? All of the above! But it's an honorable lineage and they represent it well. The tracks at the front of the album are taut and searing and angular but soften and pick up more melody as they go. I prefer the start.
  
  Fontaines D.C. - Hurricane Laughter (Darklands Version)

You?

• Nod - So Much Tonight. Nod is always hard to explain. The best I can do is: Can, Pavement's early EPs and The Stooges but without angst or ego. They're so loose and ragged it seems like they're always on the verge of falling apart. But there are enough hooks in their songs (rusty, broken, twisted hooks) to keep me listening. And, after something like 25 years, they put out this record which sounds exactly like a Nod record, but is still fresh and interesting.
  
  Go for a Ride
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs. Energetic melodic Aussie guitar rock. There's a lot in here that reminds me of a lot of great Australian rock bands from the 80s: INXS of course, but also The Church and Midnight Oil and Split Enz (OK, they were from NZ). They also do a nice Feelies-ish guitar drone/jam thing now and then. Solid record, all the way through. Definitely one of my favorites of the year.
  
  Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Time In Common [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
• Nujabes - Metaphorical Music. He was one of the originators of 'chill' hip-hop - lots of laid-back beats, smooth jazz-y samples, often with little or no vocals. It's ... exactly that. Good for layin about.
  
  Nujabes (Metaphorical Music) 07 - Letter From Yokosuka
• Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon. If you like bands like Dirty Projectors (bands who seem dead set against repeating a phrase for more than two bars without a giant jarring leap in dynamics, rhythm or tempo) and you like modern jazz and soul, you'll like this. The previous parenthetical is what kills it for me. There's a nice phrase, I'd like to hear it a... oh, here's something different, maybe I can get into ... OK, another melod... ack! They're talented players, no doubt. But why are they putting a dozen songs' worth of ideas into this verse? It made a lot of best-of lists this year, but I find it grating and nerve-wracking.
  
  Hiatus Kaiyote - Breathing Underwater

You?

• Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance - On this one, he leaves a lot of the pastoral 70s folk sound behind and takes up the more experimental sounds of John Fahey and those that followed him, like Gastr Del Sol, et al. Still great stuff.
  
  Ryley Walker - Telluride Speed (Official Audio)

• Paul Simon - In The Blue Light - He pulled some of the deep cuts from past albums and re-did them with very soft, mellow and spare instrumentation, leaving his voice and lyrics up front. I like to think of it as a recording of him doing a show at a very small club with a new band. Like, it's not the official Paul Simon show, it's just a bit of him fooling around with his songs for the fun of it.
  
  Paul Simon - Can't Run But (Official Audio)

• The J Geils Band - The Morning After. Classic 70s white-guy R&B. They were a hell of a band.
  
  J Geils Band - Looking for a Love

• The Internet - Hive Mind Overall, it's not quite as catchy as their last record, but I find myself listening to it every day anyway. I really dig that funky super-compressed guitar that shows up on most songs.
  
  The Internet - Come Over (Official Video)

• Interpol - The Marauder. Keeping up that spiky gothy thing they've always been so good at.
  

U?

New music time!

• Sea And Cake - Any Day. Feels like I could just reuse the same review I've given their last five records. I don't hate it, but I want them to mix things up a bit!
  
  Cover the Mountain

• Belly - DOVE. I didn't expect to see a new Belly record last weekend, but there it was on the iTunes front page. I had to squint to make sure that was the 90s indie rock Belly logo on the thumbnail pic, and it wasn't from the rapper who goes by "Belly". It's OK, and grows on me a bit each time I hear it. But I wish it had a bit more of that slightly off-kilter weirdness that made the first Belly records so much fun.
  
  Belly - Shiny One

• Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs. Pulls in more of that electronica that singer/guitarist Jenn Wasner used in her groovy side project, Flock Of Dimes. They've been moving in this direction for several albums now, and I'm liking it more and more each time.
  
  Wye Oak - It Was Not Natural (Official Music Video)

• The Breeders - All Nerve. Full of all that awesome, raw Breeders strangeness. I like it a bit better than some of their other recent records.
  
  The Breeders - Wait in the Car (Official Video)

• Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead. OK, not new. But new to me! A college roommate had this one, so I got to hear it a lot back in the day. Then I went 25 years without hearing anything from it except "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones". I'd convinced myself that the rest it was just filler between those two songs. Then XM played "Black Peter" last week and I decided I had to buy the album immediately. It's great!
  
  Grateful Dead - Black Peter (Studio Version)

• King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath The Moon. This is an earlier record and is a bit more lo-fi and much less produced than his latest ("The OOZ"). It's good, but I like the sound on the new one better.
  
  King Krule - Easy Easy (Official Video)

• Doc Watson - Live At Club 47. This is actually a new release, even though it was recorded Feb 1963, in Cambridge MA. It's just Doc and his guitar on 21 of the 26 tracks, and of course the playing is amazing.
  
  Doc Watson - "Train That Carried My Girl From Town" (Official Audio)

You?