https://youtu.be/1goWQhEgb4E
3. Party Dozen – "The Big Man Upstairs". Sydney, Australia improve-based duo with a catchy tune based on asymmetrical guitar strumming and saxophone that gives it a no-wave flavor. #music

https://youtu.be/aNOEs-fwzUs
2. DIIV – "Raining On Your Pillow". Third pool of dreamy, druggy melancholia from the Brooklyn shoegazers' new album. Dive in and float away. #music

My Top 3 Songs of the Week (2024 Week 27):
https://youtu.be/6pfGWw4Rjrk
1. Wilco – "Annihilation". Tweedy & Co. are back with a new album, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, and this single, which characteristically balances pretty moments with noisy ones to produce an effect you might call "hangdog optimism". #music

My best of 2024 (so far) playlist is updated regularly and can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDJeO4dNUaIn2mN9hFpBK1szGAA07d8pq&si=ZVqklnxTIwkgAQKq
#music

https://youtu.be/gN3tuitU3ac
5. Peel Dream Magazine – "Lie in the Gutter". With this song, Peel Dream Magazine hits that same sweet spot that Stereolab used to be able to reach back in the '90s. If you were there, you know the one. #music

https://youtu.be/t9TbTMrr6JY
4. Allegra Krieger – "Never Arriving". I keep picturing a scenario involving Allegra Krieger, a lost track by members of Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and possibly a time machine, to explain the felicitous existence of this song. #music

https://youtu.be/MFUMy1hwdwg
3. Local Natives – "Camera Shy". This song hooked me with that flanged guitar that pulses through it (much like "Help You Ann" by The Lyres hooked me with it 40 years ago), and the rest of the package delivers on that promise. #music

https://youtu.be/UWgA0HVs2Ys
2. Lutalo – "Ocean Swallows Him Whole". Lutalo is a Vermont-based indie folkie; here he picks up the hypnotic sonics of UK indie rock for this slinky, stuttering track. "Ocean's going to see who you were all along". #music

My Top 5 Songs of the Week (2024 Week 25):
https://youtu.be/0rFVVzavii0
1. MJ Lenderman – "She's Leaving You". I love Lenderman's melodic hooks and his laconic singing. Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield sings harmony and, as on her song "Right Back To It", they sound amazing together. "It falls apart / we all got work to do." #music

My best of 2024 (so far) playlist is updated regularly and can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDJeO4dNUaIn2mN9hFpBK1szGAA07d8pq&si=ZVqklnxTIwkgAQKq
#music

https://youtu.be/5S36zqxAmAg
5. Ed Schrader's Music Beat – "Daylight Commander". Somehow this mashes several '80s UK indie, goth, postpunk and synthpop buttons simultaneously without me being able to quite pinpoint who it sounds like. It'll probably hit me at 3 in the morning. And they're from Baltimore! #music

https://youtu.be/tbxV0-yg_tU
4. King Krule – "Time for Slurp". From KK's new EP "Shhhhhhh!" comes this 2 and a quarter minute, take-no-prisoners darkwave basher. #music

https://youtu.be/Av440J3y_z0
3. Horse Jumper of Love – "Snow Angel". Leaning into the louder regions of shoegaze, this track from Boston's HJOL almost strays into Nirvana territory. #music

https://youtu.be/XlqC2UfD4hM
2. Mavis Staples – "Worthy". Staples brings her legendary R&B/gospel chops to meet MNDR's neo-soul club beat in this feel-good throwback to her '80s Prince collaborations. #music

My Top 5 Songs of the Week (2024 Week 25):
https://youtu.be/zim5t0hMiZ4
1. Bootsy Collins – "Album of the Year #1 Funkateer". In some cases, "indistinguishable from his other stuff" would be a negative, but when it's Bootsy and his other stuff is stone classic funk from his 1970s heyday, it's a good thing indeed. #music

My playlist of all the songs I can remember hearing on top 40 radio in 1970 when I was three can be found here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDJeO4dNUaIl9uZo19LQmDLH0eCGDNM0s&si=98Yn0-7VCfLUeSv0
#music

https://youtu.be/Yp1GRJIEaPU
5. Eric Burdon and War – "Spill the Wine". A gem produced by the collaboration of ex-Animal Burdon and East L.A.'s War. Burdon talk-sings a fascinating dream story in which he's in a movie, then he's naked in front of a crowd, then a woman appears and gives him some cryptic advice and you're just like, what the hell is he talking about? But it's super funky, so you keep listening even though it never does make a whole lot of sense. #music

https://youtu.be/3r_qd2yxIsM
4. The Guess Who – "American Woman". Much as with "25 or 6 to 4", "American Woman" had me at the hard-rock guitar intro and the strident singing, which seemed like overkill for rejecting a woman but makes more sense when rejecting a country with both a war machine and a ghetto scene. #music

https://youtu.be/lGlXLPsxAAY
3. Santana – "Evil Ways". I was hooked by the funky groove with its distinctive percussion and keyboard sounds. But I always wanted to hear more about Jean and Joan—the mention of their names is oddly specific but we're never given any details about why they're so objectionable. #music

https://youtu.be/D6FNJS23vkU
2. The Spinners – "It's A Shame". Quintessential Seventies soul from the tail end of The Spinners' tenure on Motown (they would have many more hits after jumping to Atlantic). The guitar intro has the "wet" reverb sound common in surf music. I was initially confused by the line "It's a shame the way you mess around with your man", thinking the man he's referring to is someone other than himself, which the next line makes clear isn't the case. #music