The Friday Refrain: Your Weekly New Music Digest

It's a bit late in the game but here we go. I know you all were worried - determined that I had finally been crushed under the onslaught of releases but nope. Here I am. And oh my what a wonderful world of music:

Let's begin with April 28th. The Cranberries released an album of acoustic versions of their songs. Thurston Moore released  Rock N Roll Consciousness and it still hurts that he and Kim aren't together. Sometimes you just really root for a couple. Anyway, Trombone Shorty had Parking Lot Symphony. Sylvan Esso released the awesome What Now. New Found Glory relased Makes Me Sick. Mary J. Blige was back with Strength of a Woman. Jonathan Coulton for all you Ask Me Another fans released Solid State. John Mellencamp had Sad Clowns & Hillbillies. And let's not forget: Foster the People, III; Feist, Pleasure; Lea Michele, Places and Booka Shade, Galvany Street.

Line break because that was a lot and it's going to get crazier. Fasten your seatbelts everybody, here's what hopped up for you ears on Friday: Country singer Chris Stapleton released From A room: Vol 1. Indie Rockers At The Drive-In had In.Ter A.Li.A which is really annoying to type. Black Lips released Satan's Graffiti or God's Art? (which means we just need the Black Keys to release something so we cover that trio of bands alogng with the Black Angels in April

). Jazz Pianist and Vocalist Diana Krall with Turn Up The Quiet. Taj Mahal and Keb'Mo' teamed up for TajMo. Perfume Genius released No Shape. Patti Labelle returns with Bel Hommage. Ozomatli and Julio Iglesias released albums on Cinco de Mayo - Non-Stop: Mexico to Jamaica and Mexico & Amigos respectively. Singer-Songwriter David Bazan  released Care. Rapper Brother Ali released All The Beauty in This Whole Life. Blondie (!) released Pollinator. Pond released The Weather. Kasabian with  For Crying Out Loud. The Afghan Whigs  are back with In Spades. And for some household favorites: Amanda Palmer goes goth with I Can Spin A Rainbow, Brandi Carlile teames up with other awesome musicians for Cover Stories (I think that's half true), Ear Worm Indie Pop San Cisco have a fun album titled The Water, Slowdive released an eponymous album, Walter Martin is back again with My Kinda Music and... that's it. Finally. Phew. I'll get some aggregated lists up this week in a follow-up and hopefully a fun list but man, that was tiring. I gotta go lay down and watch some Office episodes now. I hope you find something you've been anticipating to feast your ears on and Happy Listening!

The Friday Refrain: Your Weekly New Music Digest

Welcome to Friday folks! It's a buzzing weekend with so much going on - Record Store Day, Earth Day, Science is Real Marches, and the sun is finally out again today. Thank heaven. So let's get down to brass tacks. It's Friday and our new Pint Notes Episode is up, so click through to get to that. A little later today, check out our tumblr and see the latest edition of TerraSurf: A Festival Tale.

And today, Friday the 21st, what is out today you say? Well, let me see hear. Singer-Songwriter with one hand in her pocket, Sheryl Crow returns with Be Myself. Barry Manilow collects together some standards for This Is My Town: Songs of New York. Robyn Hitchcock released an eponymous album. Country star Brad Paisley relesaed Love and War. Eric Slick of Dr. Dog released Palisades. Rapper J Dilla returns with Motor City. Rockers Incubus cleverly titled their album 8. The Black Angels released Death Song. And all the way from New Orleans, The Preservation Hall Band released So It Is.

And so it is, here is my List of albums I aggregated together and genred what I listened to.

First, kudos to Larry Wallis for his guitar punny album title, Death in the Guitarternoon. I liked that. Made me chuckle. And... man I apologize, I just don't see the funny lists this week. But I've been creating some decompression time this week and I think my creative muscles will be back in full form next week. I promise at least one fun list (which I'm currently putting together in fact - take that procrastination!) So I'm going to leave you with my Spotify list and call it a Friday. Ps. the Spotify list is going to have some explicit lyrics on it. Most of the time I keep it clean, but this week I decided to just include whatever. So there you go. In case that matters. Also, I only know it's explicit because it says so. Long-time readers and regular listeners of the show know my odd ability to not understand lyrics. So I have no clue what's going on in most songs, I just react to how it sounds. Anyway... Happy Listening!

Update on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 3:45PM by Becca Ruiz

My husband/editor/knower of real things just informed me that Alanis Morisette sang "One Hand in My Pocket." I have discovered that I was trying to think of "All I Wanna Do." So in that case, All I Wanna Do is listen to singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow's new album.

The Friday Refrain: Your Weekly New Music Digest

I am here. Holy cow it feels like a big turn about and round about to get here, but here I am. So I'm ditching my usual speech and shortening it up to get this up and do this.

"becca, what is up your bonnet?" you may be asking, "What is the hurry? It's just your music thing." And this is the thing. I have dreams about festivals. Well, there's a specific festival my subconscious has made and I decided to just write it out. Put it out into the ether and whatnot. So to celebrate the opening of festival season with Coachella opening this weekend - I am posting my first #festivalfriday edition of Terrasurf 2017. Here's the link (it's the pintnote tumblr)

So today - Kendrick Lamar, Little Dragon, John Mayer, and The String Cheese Incident released albums.

Surf this list - it's last week's aggregated by me list of releases

And no fun lists, hopefully I get a Spotify up but it's Easter weekend, we got the taxes done and then I am biting my nails over deciding to posit my writings to the world. So we'll see. But Hoppy Listening everyone!

The Friday Refrain: Your Weekly New Music Digest

It's Friday. It's Gorgeous. It's time to talk music. Toniht we'll be recording Pint Notes so look for that over at csicon.fm at the end of the weekend. And oh my goodness I NEED to talk today's releases:

Of course, everyone else is talking about Father John Misty and Pure Comedy. I listened to the first 4 tracks, it's good. If you like him, I'm sure you'll love it. If you dont' like him, there's a review on Stereogum you should check out. Singer Karen Elson is out with Double Roses. Rockers White Reaper return with The World's Best American Band. Guided By Voices return with August By Cake.  Future Islands released The Far Field and Diet Cig released Swear I'm Good At This. Deep Purple return with Infinite. Oh wait, back to singer-songwriters Michelle Branch released Hopeless Romantic today. Tech N9ne has Dominion. Popular duo The Chainsmokers released Memories... Do Not Open. Back to rock, Cold War Kids released La Divine and Fujiya & Miyagi with EP3. And then to my list: The New Pornographers are back with Whiteout Conditions (but man Brill Bruisers is going to be very hard to equal or surpass); K.Flay (!!!!!!!!!) has a full release that is as rough and heavy as ever with more rapping on Every Where Is Some Where; The Octopus Project (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) also are back with Memory Mirror which is great because I've really listened their other albums through and through. Also, Kevin Eubanks, East West Time Line, and Pentatonix, Vol IV, have albums.

There you are. You should be set. Which is great because my note taking this week was disrupted. I went to my computer last night to start on this post, only to find  my file for 3/31 was gone on Spotify. I don't take written notes, I have playlists I sort the week into and go from there. Except that was all gone. So... The Little Fingers Got To It List.

Which means my making lists of things from last week won't work but I do have one list up my sleeve:

Sometimes you just gotta punch spring in the face

You see, for some reason, it gets warmer and I get spunky. So here are my recommendations for bands to listen to now that the weather is taking a turn for sure.

The Ramones - nothing screams spring more than windows down, and The Ramones up in the car

Dismemberment Plan

The Kinks

"My Sharona" by The Knack

Art Brut

Mudhoney

The Presidents of the United States of America

So it's short, but it's good. That's what spring sounds like to me. Also, a friendly reminder that it's time to change Radiohead albums again. This season is usually best accompanied by Amnesiac, especially in the rain. Anyway, that's about all I've got this week. Time for coffee and some review for this evening. I hope you all enjoy the sunshine and get out there to feel its rays on your skin. Happy Listening!

The Friday Refrain: Your Weekly New Music Digest

Hi ho hi ho I'm here to tell you what's new. Pretty busy last week - piano workshop for my younger students, pint notes week, and I guess that was it but it felt like a lot. Anyway. Here we are now and I have a puzzle that I want to finish so let's do this thing.

Last week was a pretty amazing Friday release day - RuPaul, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Raekwon, Mount Eerie, Craig Finn, Jethro Tull, Tuxedo, and Passion Pit sent you a free copy of their album if you retweeted the science post they had up. But that was then and this is now, so let's hit up today. Mr. Bob Dylansir released Triplicate today which is an album of folk/americana songs I believe. Get your country fix with Trace Adkins and Something's Going On. For a heavier groove, Mastodon is here with Emperor of the Sand. Dave Davies teams up with son Russ Davies to produce Open Road. Speaking of teaming up G-Eazy & DJ Carnage put Step Brothers together. Jackie Evancho returns with Two Hearts. George Winston released Spring Carousel. Nelly Furtado is back with The Ride. And rounding out our list today, Aimee Mann has another solid album with Mental Illness. Oh wait, British Sea Power and Let the Dancers Inherit the Party. Okay now I'm done.

Oh but I'm not done with the List(s)! Here's the releases I compiled for two weeks ago and Friday last.

And finally time to concoct a few lists based purely on a random commonality

Space. The Final Frontier

David Douglas, Spectators of the Universe - some trippy electronica

Los Planetas, Zona Temporalmenta Autónoma - this is some good trippy rock

Kingston All-Stars, Presenting Kingston All-Stars - some great reggae

Tonstartssbandht, Sorcerer - 3 songs and the album is 34 minutes, so it's a bit jammy but "Sorcerer" is an amazing journey with beautiful tinges of The Who.

Sera Cahoone, From Where I Started - I love this album, and not just because this is what I happend to have on the first night I started my secret project, but it's just a good singer-songwriter album.

The Moonlandingz, Interplanetary Class Classics - this pretty much sounds as I figured it would.

The Bug Vs. Earth, Concrete Desert - some more electronica

Seasurfer, Under the Milkyway... who cares - this is laid back ethereal rock

Okay, so that's just in the last couple weeks, if I included the entire month, this list would get ridiculous. Anyway, my day ended up being spent in the sun so that's that. I'll work on a Spotify list this weekend and post it later. Really, I'd just put on Red Baraat if I were you and get my weekend on track. Happy Listening!