Big Dope P – FDBU Monster 160 g-tech tune from longtime Palms Out favorite Big Dope P, the prolific French producer based in London. This man is the definition of grind–he seems to produce and release nonstop and runs one of the most stylistically consistent labels of the past two decades (next year is the 20-year anniversary of this classic). I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing him DJ, but I imagine he brings a lot of fun to the floor. This is from his upcoming six-track EP, Life Hits Hard…
Well this is a fan made music video I did not expect. The track is “Heaven On The Seventh Floor” by Paul Nicholas. These folks look like they had fun.
Fundido featuring Emma Dufaux “Get A Grip” This is a new single out on DFA, which is a good thing, as it would be extremely weird if any other label released it. Like, in genre terms, this is a DFA song. Everything about this song is dialed in precisely to “DFA.” You like the particular snap of a DFA records beat? You like a tasteful yet caustic DFA synth tone? You like a cool, disaffected DFA type singer? You’ll like “Get A Grip.” Simple as that. As much as this conforms to expectations, it’s…
Isle Of Jura’s latest is a special release, the first solo outing from 72-year old pedal steel virtuoso “Evil” Graham Lee. The Western Australian, Perth and now Melbourne-based maestro has been recording and performing since the early 1980s. First as a member of The Triffids, then the Blackeyed Susans, while continuing to collaborate on countless sessions and projects. The most famous of these being with Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s KLF and Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu. Plaintive, peaceful…
Best Record of 2001: Day 42 Cover art courtesy of Elektra/Duophonic records. Hello there! Today we’re taking a look at Stereolab’s Sound-Dust LP. I came to Sound-Dust long after hearing other Sterolab records on either side of the catalog, which probably changed the way I hear it. By the time I got to it, I already knew a few of the albums that came before, and a few that came after, so I had at least a little context. What stood out right away was how complete(?) it felt. Stereolab is still…
Confuzzled 2026 is around the corner. For Confuzzled 2022, which was the first post-COVID convention I attended, I created a little mix CD which featured songs that for me celebrated being together with others - I handed them out at the con and left some in public spaces for strangers to grab. I've been wanting to revisit the idea for a few years now but things have been getting in the way. The same happened with CFz 2026 as well - I just ran out of time and focus to actually make this into a…
"Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. The last song you heard on the radio - Sweet Caroline b y Neil Diamond In my dad's car on my Dad's SIrius oldies station. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
Some time ago, I was reading an American friend’s Facebook post. He was remembering when, decades back, “I was at my folks’ apartment and put on [the album] Blonde on Blonde. My father said, ‘Take off that garbage.’ I stared at him, utterly stonkered.” For such a productive group of words, “stonkered” and its variants are quite new. The OED‘s first citation is for the verb “stonker,” meaning to kill or destroy a person or thing. The quote is from the Anzac Bulletin in 1917: “Without a gun in…
The 75th anniversary celebration of Guaraldi's professional career continues with the debut soundtrack release of It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown: the 11th Peanuts TV special, which debuted February 1, 1974.The show was written by Charles Schulz, produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, and directed by Phil Roman. Guaraldi is joined by Tom Harrell, trumpet; Seward McCain, bass; and Mike Clark and Eliot Zigmund, drums. The combo took its time laying down this score, with six sessions at San…
You can feel it all over by Dr. Ethan HeinYou can feel it all over peopleRead on Substack We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Songs in the Key of Life’s release, and I plan to put in some quality musicology on it. I’m starting now, with a look at a single chord in “Sir Duke”, the one that first appears at 0:48 in the chorus: The song is in B major. The chorus goes like this: “(B) You can feel it all (???) over, (Emaj7) you can feel it all (C#m7) over (F#7sus4) people.” All of this except…
Kodak Pro Image 100 / Nikon Coolscan / SmartConvert / Zeiss 21mm EF I was in a funk. Locked out of BIG EGO with an ongoing lawsuit and Max kept talking about some old building in Northern California that he liked. I said, "Let's record an album there." Eventually "there" turned into the room above Michael Krassner's restaurant Cibo, in Phoenix, Arizona. I called up Ben Lumsdaine and we drove out from Long Beach together. It was my first time using a Cooper Sound 208D console and I fell in love…
There’s an art to making a great cover of a song, and one of my favorites is the Supersuckers’ version of Jerry Reed’s “East Bound and Down” from Smokey and the Bandit. It stays completely true to the spirit of the original, so it’s not a jokey take like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes or anything. But it still gives everything a much-needed update, and it’s my favorite version of a song that’s too good to get lumped in with all the corniest parts of the late 1970s. Something that hasn’t changed…
Bob Dylan - Tour 1966Just about 60 years ago, Bob Dylan and the Hawks were hurtling towards the end of a legendarily stormy spring tour, which took them from Australia to various countries spread across Europe and the UK. “Every night was like goin’ for broke, like the end of the world,” Dylan would remember a couple decades later. And yeah, that’s what it often sounds like, now that we can fully immerse ourselves in those shows, hearing the performer and his audience clash in ways that are…
Hey people! For today’s “Bibiel Hears Things” feature, I thought we could stay in Swedish vispop territory a little bit longer, after having featured Melina Borglowe several days ago, and chose a song by a very popular Swedish singer-songwriter called Melissa Horn. I believe she’s not all that popular outside of Sweden, since the absolute vast majority of her lyrics are in Swedish, but in Sweden she’s very well-known, and was one of the first artists I came across when I started getting into…
Here’s a teaser. I bought a box of records recently. A single box of records. Nineteen records in all. Here is a picture of the records. I will tell the story. Stay tuned. The post Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting first appeared on jazzcollector.com.
Lonely People With Power 2025, Deafheaven My rating: Loved it! The more I listen to this one, the more I like it. A perfect blend of everything Deafheaven, from the heavier sounds of Sunbather to the ethereal melodies of Infinite Granite, it’s all blended together masterfully here. “Heathen” and “Amethyst” are just magnificent, really. Lyrically it still feels as abstract as ever, but beautiful.
Souled American was one of the first three acts I interviewed professionally, way back in 1989 (maybe late 1988?) — that was in Manhattan, for Tower Records’ Pulse! magazine, before I moved to Sacramento to work for Pulse! full time — and tonight, May 18, 2026, I got to see them live at the 4 Star, mere blocks from where I live in San Francisco. I was stoked beyond belief, and the audience was treated to two sets, followed by two encores. They didn’t do “Soldier’s Joy,” and I wasn’t in the mood…
Chicago, 1924. Beulah Annan after her arrest. After shooting her lover, Annan was defended by William Scott Stewart who won an acquittal. The notorious trial was captured by the play (later a musical and a film) titled 𝑪𝙝𝒊𝙘𝒂𝙜𝒐.
Joe LovanoParamount Quartet Joe Lovano tenor and G mezzo soprano saxophones, tarogatoJulian Lage guitarAsante Santi Debriano double bassWill Calhoun drumsRecorded February 2025 at Studios La BuissoneEngineer: Gérard de HaroMastering: Nicolas BaillardProduced by Manfred EicherRelease date: May 29, 2026 Since making his ECM debut on Paul Motian’s Psalm in 1981, saxophonist Joe Lovano has carried himself like an artist forever standing at the threshold of another doorway, one hand still touching…
In 2023 Jimmy Cauty and Jem Finer created a one-off for Heavenly using the moniker Local Psycho. This project has since morphed into The Standing Stones, and seen the launch of the label, L-13 Light Industrial Recordings. The pair producing limited edition releases, often accompanied by bespoke art and packaging. All highly collectible, especially by KLF enthusiasts / cult members. In the fall of 2024, Cauty and Finer collaborated with the Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts for an…
Madrid, day 9.
Brushfield St 1984 by Philip Marriage Click here to book for The Gentle Author’s Tour of Spitalfields . A few years ago, photographer Chris Kelly was invited to the open day of Cable Street Community Gardens and the result was a year-long project which culminated in an exhibition and a book. Fifty-two plot holders took part, aged from seven to eighty and originating from a dozen different countries, yet all unified by a love of gardening and the need for a haven where they could cultivate…
Our new album, OXYGEN, is yours now. 🩵 From ‘Down to the Courthouse’ to ‘Dreamland’, there’s a pretty good spread of interesting sounds. It starts as you’d expect then jumps to some whimsical folk, finishing on a triumphant march with horns and stuff. We play our instruments the way they’re meant to be played and also in ways that have offended purists in the past. Jon and Clara complement each other in their lead vocals perfectly, and Ben finally gets to yell “Yeehaw!” in a song without it…
gonna rank from worst to best song ranking system 😇- need to have a looong conversation with whoever made this song 🥹- teared up a little 🥰- i love love love 😊- very good 🙂- good with some issues 🤔- i would let it play in the background ig.. 😪- not feeling it 😠- no this is bad. 😡- this is really bad. 🤬- play this around me and im taking a gun out. for both of us. do re mi 😪 i was actually rocking with this song until the autotune like why??? light a flame 😊 everyone knew what they had to do…
Just in time for NYC-based Bunny X to drop “Night Moves,” a hot new single from their upcoming album, Love on a High Floor, the duo of Abigail Gordon and Jenny Bates have had a fruitful exchange with Vehlinggo. In this Q&A we did recently, we talk about their lineup change, making music during trying times, their tour plans, and the state of live shows in general. We also tease some upcoming releases (including the album coming via Aztec Records in August) and engage in some general fun music…
Johnny Bell - Mountain StatesThis album is made out of simple, spare materials — banjo at the forefront, fiddle, acoustic guitar and synth drones filling out the backdrop. But somehow, Johnny Bell’s Mountain States manages to sound absolutely immense and sweeping, like the stark, wide-open landscapes of the musician’s home state of New Mexico. On a similar level as the great Nathan Bowles, the banjo isn’t some dusty Americana relic in Bell’s hands; it’s a living, breathing thing, resonant…
Best Record of 2001: Day 41 Good morning! Today we’re taking a look at Gorillaz’ self-titled debut as it faces off against Clearlake’s Lido. Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up. The plan is to do quick hits on each first-round matchup and post them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There’ll probably be a few typos. We’ll also have a few…
Darkthrone just released a new album, so Shelley and Jason thought they would get together with some beers and not talk about it.
Note: May 18th is a big day both in music history and for anyone who lived in the PNW in 1980. I first ran this piece when there were about 6 of us here (and 3 of them lived with me), and it’s become an annual tradition. We don’t have many musical traditions in my family. On Thanksgiving, my wife & kids have to endure “Alice’s Restaurant” at least once (or rather, my attempts to sing it). Sometime in the next few weeks after that, Otis Redding’s version of “Merry Christmas Baby” gets a spin,…
I hope I am getting the band name correct and that they weren’t called something else. I found this account by a Duncan Forgan that has 19 tracks recorded between 1995 and 1999 by what looks like a band called The Cairo Years. The quality is varied, but there are some gems not to be missed like “Summer Starts Here” or “City Sickness”. The tracks available are: “Girl You’ll Never Know”, “Telling Jokes at the Astral Flights”, “Can’t Recall”, “The Other Side of Summer”, “Over You”, “Am I Bothering…
