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.

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Another eclectic journey through decades of chart hits and long time not played songs for your pleasure.

1976: Stevie Wonder

1965: Crispian St. Peters

1976: Flamin Groovies

1982: The Kinks

1984: Tears For Fears

1964: The Righteous Brothers

1966: The Monkees

1975: Bob Dylan

1975: Blues Brothers

1980: The Clash

1978: The Records

Touch

 

After almost ten years, Tortoise have recently returned with a new album. I've been a fan of this music collective ever since I saw them live 30 years ago. I was fascinated by how perfectly this instrumental band managed to integrate contradictory styles such as krautrock, dub, electronica, and even jazz into a homogeneous sound.

I admit that I lost sight of them in recent years, but with their current album Touch, they are more present than before. The influence of krautrock is unmistakable on many songs. At its best, you could be forgiven for thinking that Neu! had released a new, contemporary album. Motor-driven beats, sparkling guitar riffs, and a touch of synth are the defining elements of their sound. It's good to know they're still around.