I was listening to a rebroadcast of an old recording of American Top Forty with the legendary Casey Kasem on my second-favorite SiriusXM channel — 70s on 7 — the other day when this oldie by the musical duo Pratt & McClain popped up. Their hit song, which peaked at No. 5 on the AT40 in 1976, is still one of my favorites from my childhood days!

Playing StarGrave with my friends.

[1966]Classic supremely melodic moody and broody garage from one and done group The Wonders outa Omaha Nebraska. Soaring harmonies in slightly disorientating arrangement.

Share a song that perfectly captures longing. The early days of relationships are wonderful things, all that new relationship energy in your system, spending as much time soaking up this new person, learning them, hearing them, feeling them, touching them, and all the time just wanting more and more and more. But life continues, jobs are needed, so you have hours without them and, from the exalted high you are experiencing with them, the crashing low when they aren’t around can feel so deep…

This is a fun album! It not only boasts that great album cover with the director's clapboard and all the titles listed, but the sound is fantastic - Rene Touzet mixes the musical style of Les Baxter with Peter Nero to get a uniquely Touzet sound. Rene Touzet was a Cuban bandleader and pianist so these covers of popular movie themes of the early 1960s definitely have a Latin rhythm to them. Can you imagine "Small World" in the style of Perez Prado's "Patricia"? That's what it does sound like.…

A terrific remix here from Todmorden’s Tom Sharkett, commissioned for the “Deluxe” repress of Maribou State’s 2025 album “Hallucinating Love”. The original “II Remember” is a sort of twisted folk, falsetto number. All funky syncopation, tricky picking and strumming. Sharkett, though, totally transforms the track, turning it into stadium-sized, rocky dance. Rhythmically spinning, racing, rotating, and anchored by insistent percussion loops. With bleeps for a breakdown, bits of guitar are…

Simon and Garfunkel released their first album, 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.', in 1964 but at the time this did not generate a lot of interest. While Art Garfunkel went off to college, Paul Simon came to the UK and honed his craft on the folk music scene, playing in folk clubs all over the country.One of the places he played was at the folk club at the Railway Tavern in Catford, on Friday 20 August 1965 (source: Melody Maker, 21/8/1965). I believe that at one time he also played at the Green Man…

This is an EP with a set of rare mid-10s-era remixes of k.h.d.n. tracks; some very dark techno, definitely among their darkest sound. These are rare enough I didn't have an easy time finding a version of the music I could share here as an example! There is a video of it on Niconico Video, but Bearblog doesn't let me embed that right now so you'll have to click through to play: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm33078801

Anyone who knows me, follows me on social media or reads this blog knows how much I love metal. Like everyone however, I have diverse musical interests and cannot live on death metal alone. For that reason every weekend I like to sit down and catch up with the Funk and Soul Show from the BBC. Three hours of Craig Charles playing me funky tunes from a world of music I know nothing much about. I think the show would be great on Saturday evening with a beer in the kitchen or the following morning…

"Faithless Street" by Whiskeytown Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. What's a song you associate with your biggest mistake? - Faithless Street by Whiskeytown No, I'm not telling that story on the Internet. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

Hey people! Today I thought I’d really like to share with you a piece by a harpist whose music I’ve only recently discovered, but whose work I find very interesting. I’ve said it several times here before that I love to hear the harp in more experimental, unobvious settings, and this is precisely what this Netherlands-based Italian artist does on her album “Harposphera”. Every sound on it, including the percussive elements, is produced from the harp, even though it doesn’t necessarily…

Album of the Week, August 22, 2026 Sheila Chandra had a career arc: actress on the BBC drama series Grange Hill, lead singer in the band Monsoon, top 20 UK hit with “Ever So Lonely.” Then her label wanted her band to drop its Indian influences. She quit the band, went deep into traditional music until she came out the other side, blending influences from traditional British folk music—or, as she notes, “many of the vocal ornaments that are used in British folk are also used in Indian music… And…

Ayumi TanakaWindflower Ayumi Tanaka pianoThomas Morgan double bassThomas Strønen drumsRecorded May 2025, Studios La BuissonneEngineer: Gérard de HaroMixed by Manfred Eicher and Michael Hinreiner (engineer)in Munich, 2026Cover photo: Nadia F. RomaniniProduced by Manfred EicherRelease date: August 21, 2026 The central tension on Windflower arises from our instinct to separate composition from improvisation, a distinction the music quietly renders distant. Japanese pianist Ayumi Tanaka is joined…

Put together a fun promotional page for Backchannel.

What’s a song you associate with your biggest mistake? We’ve all been there. That sense of feeling stuck in a situation of our own making, of knowing that we need to change something but holding on to it with the hope of what you thought you had, what you thought you’d get. It’s easily my biggest mistake, which I’ve repeated a couple of times. I have a habit of “what if”ing. Some of the time, it’s negative, most of the time it’s positive, it’s dreaming up what my life could be like, imagining a…

My daughter released an EP today titled Crush. It’s available on all major streaming platforms and it’s pretty great. Check it out! Spotify YouTube Amazon Apple Music

Having recently released the final instalment of his Le Carousel project, Belfast born and raised DJ / producer Phil Kieran appears to be seriously reinvigorated / rejuvenated. While Le Carousel took over a decade to finally reach fruition, Kieran currently has 2, brand new releases lined-up. The “Kosmische Advice” EP – a collaboration with Roman Flugel – is still, for now, sonically, under wraps, but the single “Leave It All Behind” comes in a couple of different, dance floor flavours. One,…

Frank Beard, the drummer for rock band ZZ Top, died on August 17, 2026, at the age of 77. Frank Beard was born on June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas. He grew up in Irving, Texas. He met future ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill as teens when their bands were both playing in Fort Worth. He later played with Dusty Hill and Dusty Hill's brother Rocky Hill in the band American Blues. It following the release of ZZ Top's debut single, "Salt Lick," that Frank Beard replaced the band's original drummer, Dan…

Why isn't Remi Wolf a global superstar yet? We shouldn't compete women in music against another, the concept of a "Big Pop Girl" in 2026 is as nebulous as the metrics are, yadda yadda... but why isn't Remi Wolf's name on everyone's lips while her less interesting peers are riding similar waves with lesser tricks? In 2023 Wolf's success felt like it would have been written on the stars: "Cinderella" was released right as summer began and it sounded an easy shoe-in for the Song of the Summer, and…

Doing a set at Gilly’s Cave of Music! Come see me and a bunch of other musicians do our things. #GillysCave #VRChat

"New Madrid" by Uncle Tupelo Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. **What song makes you want to write poetry? - New Madrid by Uncle Tupelo" I love how this song conveys so much with so few words. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: The Cure (36), Placebo (34), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (18), Tackhead (18), and Kate Bush (14) [via lastweekly]

Earlier this month my blog turned 11 years old and, truth be told, I never thought in August 2015 that I would still be at it in 2026 (though admittedly, for the past year my output has diminished from 3-5 to only one post per week as I quit writing music reviews). Over the past 11 years, I’ve published 2,016 posts which have garnered 1,405,700 views from 663,374 visitors. My blog has 1,582 subscribers, though fewer than 40 ever engage with my posts. The majority of my posts receive anywhere…

Bob Marley and the Wailers with the mighty "Exodus" I have always heard the lyric as "movement culture people" which I prefer to what I have just established is the actual lyric "movement of Jah people""movement culture people" expands outwards to include Neu! and all sorts, whereas "movement of Jah people" narrows to a religious meaningUnder "movement culture people", you could also file the next song on this rather cool episode of Top of the Pops from 1977 - "Roadrunner" albeit not a mimed…

From the August 19, 2026, issue of my This Week in Sound email newsletter: ▰ In a Pickle I can hear what’s happening behind that fence long before I see it: the pops, plinks, thwacks and smacks of pickleball matches. Players say the sound is joyous. Neighbors say it’s dreadful. That’s Bishop Sand in the Washington Post writing about why pickleball noise is so annoying. . . . ▰ Novel Feature We recorded underwater sounds, winds, volcanic eruptions, rainstorms, church bells, fish markets, and…

Recorded at The Elias J. Halling Recital Hall Minnesota way back when on October 20th, 2012.Where we find ourselves trapped inside a seething throng of the Proletariat (aww Bless 'em).Confused stares abound, this sounds like the kind of sophisticated improvised Art that those outside the intelligentsia elite can only dream of understanding. OMG! They're making this up as they go along one thinks privately to one's self,without letting on that one has no explanation as to what the flying fuck is…

Prairiewolf - Summer 2026We didn’t play live nearly as much as last summer, but Prairiewolf’s 2026 gigs around Boulder County over the past couple months have been extremely fun — we’re bringing Zone Poems to the chosen few! And hey we’ve got one more summer show coming up a week from today. On Friday, August 28 at the Wax Trax Broadway Bazaar (140 S. Broadway, Denver), we’re joining an astounding Ghost Canyon fest lineup — it’s going to be a wild weekend, with such artists as Claire Rousay,…

After a somewhat lacklustre first half and a similarly underwhelming resumption, last night’s Prom concert commemorating the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis finally took wing in a sold-out Royal Albert Hall with a sultry version of “Once Upon a Summertime”, Michel Legrand’s melody delivered with understated elegance by the great trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire in front of the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Miho Hazama. Miles recorded the tune with Gil Evans in 1962 for Quiet Nights,…