Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

One more round with songs that have topped the charts and some obscure titles.

1972: David Bowie

1973: Kool and the Gang

1978: Chic

1978: The Police

1965: Spencer Davis Group

1977: Sex Pistols

1968: The Move

1884: Stone Temple Pilots

1969: The Band

1966: The Royal Guardsmen

1970: Stephen Stills

1979: The B-52s

Jimmy Cliff

 

This morning, I received the sad news that Jimmy Cliff passed away yesterday at the age of 81 following a bout of pneumonia. He was the one who first got me into reggae in the mid-seventies and, over the years, led me to buy and enjoy a lot of this music.

Born in Jamaica, he set out at a young age to find his fortune as a musician in Kingston. The Harder They Come, in which he sang several songs on the soundtrack and also played the lead role of Ivan, shows that this was not something everyone was fortunate enough to achieve. I saw this film in its original version without subtitles when I was young and must admit that I often didn't understand any of the words spoken. But if ever a film has described the Jamaican music scene, it's this one.

The fact that he also denounced social injustices in numerous songs is most convincing in Vietnam, which Bob Dylan once called perhaps the best protest song ever written. Thirteen years ago, Cliff once again created a reggae album with Rebirth, which unfortunately is played far too rarely.

Rest in peace, Jimmy Cliff.

Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come

Jimmy Cliff - Vietnam

Jimmy Cliff - World Upside Down

Something New Old

 

While going through my inbox, I came across the release of an album by The Surfing Magazines. Their sound, which lies somewhere between garage and surf rock, appealed to me, but somehow seemed familiar. When I finished reading the whole article, I remembered that I had heard the album seven years ago and that it had now been re-released.

The London-based band combines British wordplay with reverb-rich guitar solos and melancholic Americana moments. This is what you get when you cross soothing indie pop with tongue-in-cheek garage folk. A good re-release and a band that covers a song by Jonathan Richman can't be bad.

Monday's Long Song

Papir, a three-piece instrumental band from Copenhagen, has been featured here several times before. That hasn't changed with the release of their latest album IX a few days ago. They remain true to their minimalism by not giving album titles and songs names and simply numbering them. 

The fact that it contains no lyrics, but thrives solely on the pulse, form, atmosphere, and texture of their instrumental collaboration, actually fits very well into the picture: a bold move in times of market saturation and thousands of bands writing all kinds of things on their gigantic sails.

They continue to move between krautrock, psychedelic rock, and instrumental jams with jazzy influences. The fact that they can't manage to write “proper” songs doesn't matter as long as they can maintain this level of quality.

 

 

New Song On Sunday

Today's song is another example of the great pop potential my neighbors from Austria have. Tamara Flores is the daughter of an Austrian father and a Mexican mother. She sings, writes songs, and occasionally plays the flute. She recently released a song called Chingona, which, with simple elements such as a deep bass, hand clapping, and light rap in Spanish, is impossible to get out of your head. The fact that she also released a superbly filmed video, which was shot in her mother's home village with the support of the villagers, makes this song far above average.

Happy Birthdays

 

Today, several artists are celebrating milestone birthdays. That's reason enough to revisit some of their songs. 

Let's start with Tina Weymouth, who turns 75 today. In 1981, she and her husband Chris Frantz took a break from Talking Heads and founded Tom Tom Club. With their unique combination of funk and spoken word, the band established themselves in the charts.

James Morrison, better known as Jim Bob, the other half of Carter USM, turns 65 today.  He gave as with punky guitars and a drum machine an incredible indie-pop sound. He returned this summer at full power with some great new songs.

Finally Jason Ringenberg turns 67 today. He brought us decades ago a cow-punk version of a Bob Dylan song.

Happy birthday to all of you!

Old Mission

 

In 2020 Johnathan Gregg, a New York based guitarist started a new project called SUSS where he could play his own kind of guitar dominated music. I featured them on the occasion of the release of their debut album Promise. At the time, I had assumed that SUSS would remain another undiscovered gem. And unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. There were a few words of praise here and there in the press, but it can't be described as an international breakthrough.

Maybe their combination of classic Americana instrumentation with pedal steel, deep tempered guitar and harmonica interwoven with loops and synthesizers. Since they moved from the east-coast to Arizona and New Mexico their sound expanded to ambient country as they say in their own words. 

Their latest collaboration was with DJ Dumser, an ambient artist who released his music as Six Missing. The result are these two ambient works that sound like a spherical trip through the desert.