Lou Reed - Giardini Centro Allende, La Spezia, Italy, June 1, 2006My heroic attempt to get #Mistrial40 going last week has yet to deliver any meaningful results. Don’t worry, I’ll keep fighting the good fight — but I worry that not enough people care about what Lou Reed was up to in 1986. But do even less people care about what Lou Reed was up to in 2006?! Maybe! But that’s not going to stop me. Obviously. Twenty years ago, Lou was actually still playing Mistrial’s “Tell It To Your Heart” — and…
Well, I got the punchline for the song, but the song itself only lasts one minute and forty seconds. Is that OK, d'you think?
Thinking about Johnny Cash this morning brought to mind this from Over the Rhine: “Earthbound Love Song.” 🎵
Best Record of 2001: Day 24- Basement Jaxx vs. Sophie Ellis-Bextor Good morning! Today we’re taking a look at Rooty by Basement Jaxx as it faces off against Read My Lips from Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Note: As many of you saw, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challengeand 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.…
"Get Back" by The Beatles A song with a memorable video or TV performance - Get Back by The Beatles The Fab Four played for 42 minutes on the roof of Apple Studio on January 26, 1969. It was their last performance together. Thank god, it was recorded for posterity. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
Johnny Cash, “Satisfied Mind” 🎵
In what should go down as an all-time classic edition of Pressing Concerns, we have new albums from The Blackburns, Doug Gillard, and My Wife’s an Angel, plus a mini-album from The Chop, for you below. Check them out, and if you missed Monday’s blog post (featuring Winston Hightower, Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death, The Clearwater Swimmers, and FakeYou), check that out too. If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If…
Last Sunday I went to a concert with my brother and his wife, starring a celebrity that everyone in Italy born in the 90s knows: Max Pezzali of 883 fame. My brother was a huge fan, and me being the little sister I was spoon fed all his major successes until the age of 18 (and at that point, both me and my brother stopped following recent releases). 883 songs are an incredibly telling product of their time, and while Max and Mauro Repetto (the other member of 883) were in their mid-twenties when…
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align. Tracks are added to…
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My first answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was film composer. I think that’s still my answer. That’s why, since the age of five, I would play music every single day. That’s why I would write songs and compose music at any opportunity. That’s why I learned to play as many different instruments as possible. That’s why I performed in orchestras, wind bands, jazz ensembles and folk bands and rock bands and choirs. That’s why, in 2004, I went to music college to study…
I would like to direct your attention, dear reader, to three excellent electronic drum pieces, the first of which you’ll know for sure. “Shout” by Tears for Fears, which is largely the Linn drum. You have really done something if you have a distinguished rhythmic opening to your song, which everyone can recognize, and everyone can recognize this instantly. It’s such at the heart of anyone who grew up in that time. I honestly could put it on a loop and mow the yard to it. I think I…
This paragraph appears in the Disquiet Junto email newsletter that will go out shortly after midnight, Pacific time, via juntoletter.disquiet.com The short version of this is that if you have subscribed to this email list for some time and have yet to do a Disquiet Junto project, then this one, the one starting on April 23, 2023, is one to consider doing. The gist is this: this week you record a solo piece of music, not a complete piece, but a piece that will be added to, potentially, by other…
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Bonnie Friedman’s novel Don’t Stop is a vividly told and moving debut. Booklist wrote of the book: “This coming-of-middle-age story explores a woman’s obsessive affair and the unraveling of her life… A…
Belfast-based label, Mystic Arts, continue their mission to champion the music of local electronic artists. While previous releases have focused on luminaries such as Black Bones and David Holmes, their latest 12 shines a light on the largely unsung Gary Irwin. Working for decades as an engineer, ably assisting everyone, including the aforementioned Mr. Holmes, Irwin stepped out of the studio shadows, assuming the alias The Vendetta Suite, in 2017. In the process cementing a successful…
I let my mind wander a little bit today, and it got me to thinking about my favorite songs of all time. Being a former radio and club DJ, you’d think I’d be into a bunch of bubbly gummy, four on the floor, beat bangers, but no, that’s not the case. I mean, four on the floor can be fun, but it’s been a long while since I’ve found something I played back in the day to be particularly moving. However, these three specific tracks bring a tear to my eye every time I hear them. Here’s my top three…
# In a post on Bluesky, I wrote: Sometimes, I overcomplicate things and lose the vibe. I've decided not to rerecord "After the tears" but use the live jam as the base and just make tweaks. I know a new version just won't sound the same. As with All raw sound and emotion, I want // need to get away from trying to get everything just so. What's the saying? Perfect is the enemy of good. So true. It's also the enemy of "done" or "finished". I was tidying the desktop on my Mac and saw it was…
It was sixty years ago today that The Troggs hit no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Wild Thing." The song would become the band's signature tune, and would have a lasting impact on rock music. It is a prime example of proto-punk and I think a good argument could be made that it is outright punk. It would be covered by artists from The Jimi Hendrix Experience to The Runaways to Cheap Trick to X. Given the song is the signature song of The Troggs, it may surprise many that it was not written…
And now, your irregularly-scheduled run-down of imminent Boston-area shows and recent notable announcements. Usually every Wednesday, but I make no guarantees… Greetings from scenic Burlington, Vermont, where I’m drowning in nostalgia while visiting the fam, and currently working from a coffee shop near the shores of Lake Champlain. Given where I’m at, I missed a […]
A couple of months ago, I received an email from longtime reader and sometime contributor to Jazz Collector, Stuart Levine. The email was as follows: “After decades of collecting Jazz vinyl, I made a decision to sell all my LPs with the exception of just a few. And having just moved back to Japan, I must now resist the temptation to buy over here. I’d like to write about the choices I made, which I think will be interesting to your readers. May I do so and send you my writing?” Of course. The…
Two days before his new album, The Great Divide, is released, Noah Kahan's recent performance on Tiny Desk Concert is out:The new songs here are wonderfully incisive and catchy, as they radiate empathy for loved ones and places from his past. And the older cut, "Orange Juice," showcases his skills as a tender balladeer whose songs have a way of literally and figuratively welcoming listeners inside.Direct link to the video"Empathy for loved ones and places from his past" is such a great…
I recently stumbled across an incredible video on Instagram. It was of JJ Bull in front of a synth/keyboard, shades on, wearing an old Scotland training/travel top and singing in the style of LCD Soundsystem. I became completely transfixed and must have watched it a dozen times in an hour and sent it round family and friends. Watch below, read my musings and then read on for an interview with JJ Bull.Every time I watch this, I need to watch it another 2-3 times! Bull is on fire, living out…
Been awhile since I've listened to this one, but it's a great album. Their combination of very artificial-sounding electronic instruments and the real electric guitar is pretty unusual; I appreciate what a specific sound it gives it. In truth though, I first heard Ratatat via this mashup that combines it with the melody from Cheetahmen. It works surprisingly well! The original song is melody-less in the first place, so it's ripe for combining with something else with a stronger melody line.
Hauntological pioneers, Boards of Canada, brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin, have announced their new album, 'Inferno', will be released on 29th May on Warp Records. Following a teasing, month long, campaign involving anonymous VHS tapes, enigmatic posters and, last week, an actual new piece of music, 'Tape 05', today, the band released a short video announcement of their first album release since 'Tomorrow's Harvest', 13 years…
All One Song - “Boom Boom Boom” with Scott Bunn (Recliner Notes)The concept behind All One Song couldn’t be simpler: I’m spending the spring of 2026 talking to some great musicians, writers and artists about their favorite Neil Young song. Or at least one of them. But even if the concept is simple, one thing is for sure: these conversations go all over the place, kind of like a long Old Black solo on “Like Hurricane.” And that’s how it should be, right?Now, I’ve been contributing to Aquarium…
NYC-based post-punk outfit London Plane is known around these parts for their powerful live shows and skilled songwriting. Today, in advance of their third album due sometime this year, the band has released a killer cover of Bronski Beat’s 1984 hit “Smalltown Boy (A Refugee Song).” Former Interpol member Carlos Dengler produced the song and also contributed keys and additional guitar to it. “Smalltown Boy” is from their upcoming album, Villains Heroes Ghosts, which Dengler produced in its…
Best Record of 2001: Day 23 Good morning! Today we’re taking a look at Love and Theft by Bob Dylan as it faces off against Wu Tang Clan’s Iron Flag LP. 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…
Come Closer 2026, TOMORA My rating: I like it This is not the type of music I usually listen to, but if Aurora does something, I’m gonna give it a try. Pretty enjoyable from start to finish, I can see this being perfect for dancing in a club but I really like it as high-energy background music for doing stuff in the computer. Highlights are “A Boy Like You”, “Somewhere Else”, and the extremely catchy “Ring the Alarm”.
"Blinded By the Light" by Bruce Springsteen Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Post a song you consider to be a musical masterpiece. - Blinded By the Light by Bruce Springsteen Little know fact - The Boss wrote this song in perfect iambic pentameter while seated at his kitchen table in Asbury Park, NJ in the early 70s with a paperback rhyming dictionary. BTW, the word is "deuce" not the other word. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile
Hopefully I’ll get in scans from the usually music press such as NME/Melody maker in the future when i get back up to speed with the scanning, cheers! CMJ New Music Monthly (January 1998) APHEX TWINCome To Daddy – Warp/Sire DATALOG: Released Oct 28.FILE UNDER: High concept electronicaR.I.Y.L: Photek, Luke Vibert, Land Of The Loops It’s hard to imagine what Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, was thinking when he made his perversely goof new release Come to Daddy, “I want your soul/I will eat your…
