The Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music

1. I lost my notes on last week, so no recap of last week. And yes, handwritten notes. I also own two typewriters.

2. Bizarro world. I started this project listening and compiling the week's new music because I wasn't satisfied with what I found when searching out new music. I didn't want to click through to every single post or article on each individual album or single. I was becoming dissatisfied with the musical tastes of my former favorite go-to spots. And to be honest, to me the whole "my opinion is gold" or "check out this cool thing because I'm cool" vibe gets old fast. And so ta da - Friday Refrain was begun out of curiosity and impatience. A concise list of releases mostly without the reissues, live and best-of albums (though I will include some today and have before when I find it interesting or something I'm excited about) plus some recommendations on where to start therein. And while I bend some of my initial rules sometimes, maybe being a bit judgy or including a best of, I definitely do not think my opinion is gold and I am anything but cool.

Did I just write my origin story? That's creepy. Anyway, so why the origin story? Because for the most part, I feel like my taste in music might sit outside of the normal stream. However this week, I'm really into a lot of the things it seems other people are into. And it's kind of weirding me out. But hey, it happens. Stars and planets sometimes line up, I guess.

Oh hey - It's The List.

All right, let's delve into this a little concisely, shall we?

One Pick Wonder

Country: Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music - His voice is amazing.

Dance: Chromeo, White Women

Glam Rockish Throwback: The Last Vegas, Sweet Salvation

Children's Album: Walter Martin, We're All Young Together - it's been a bit since an alt-rocker took on the almighty children's genre and The Walkmen's Walter Martin does it superbly.

Sunny Day Rock: La Sera, Hour of the Dawn

Cover Art: Cosines, Commuter Love - I want this framed and on my wall.

Oddball Things I Like:

Django Django, Late Night Tales - Especially the final track... (I'm still a little sore that wasn't the actual track on the Record Store Day release though)

I Saved Latin! A Tribute to Wes Anderson, Various Artists

Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, Are We Not Men? We Are Divas! - It opens with "I Will Survive"

Two Things That Were Not As I Thought They'd Be:

Dawn Golden, Still Life - I was thinking curly haired hippie singer-songwriter. Not Bon Iverish chill out music.

Little Dragon, Nabuma Rubberband - Okay, I've listened to the singles, so I had already had this happen. But I seriously listen to some of the tracks and have to relisten to their previous work to make sure I'm thinking of the correct band. So don't go into this thinking, "This will sound like Little Dragon." Because it doesn't. They did new stuff.

Light Chill Out

Mimicking Birds, Eons

Amen Dunes, Love

To-Listen List: Things I want to delve into a bit more

Joseph Arthur, Lou

Crobot, Crobot

Kris Delmhorst, Blood Test

Incognito, Amplified Soul

Mirah, Changing Light

Kishi Bashi, Lighght

Caterina Zapponi, Romantica

BOYTOY, Boytoy

Flesh Wounds, Bitter Boy

All right, so there you have it. A little bit to get you started on this week's music. The recap! Just in case you haven't heard, there's a new (kind of?) Blondie album, plus Tori Amos, Rascal Flatts, Dolly Parton, The Black Keys, Michael Jackson, and Guided By Voices (yes a new one even though it's only been 2 months).

Happy listening!

 Friday Refrain is a weekly post regarding what new releases have caught my ear for the week. I try to compile a pretty comprehensive list of releases of the week and see what is available for me to listen to on the web. This is just my non-scientific, highly-subjective, randomly-listened-to list of stuff from the week. Oh, and I don’t always listen to lyrics or look at album art/music videos, so appropriateness is left up to the listener

The Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music

Man what a week. It became a week of introspection, questions and a lot more playing than listening of music. It left me a little light on the listening end of this week's releases, to be honest. So I've got the List. I'll let you all just kind of sus it out for this week and next week I'll come back with a double whammy. Cool? Cool.

So give a random few a listen (like Barrow or Morning Parade), stick with the ones that get all the headlines this week (Lykke Li, Atmosphere), or maybe just go make some music yourself. Happy listening and/or playing!

The Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music

Hey there! What a great week. Damon Albarn's Everyday Robots is definitely worth a good listen or two, or three. But I'll warn you, it's not one to put on and get motivated. Ray Lamontagne released Supernova this week. I haven't kept up with him in the last few years, but I did a full listen to this one and really enjoyed the entire album. The songs cross subgenres and keep it interesting without being too scatterbrained.

Without further adieu, The List

I'm going to do something different this week. No clever themes or random lists. It's just...

Things I Listened to and Liked after listening to a 3 song set. (Besides the aforementioned Damon Albarn and Ray Lamontagne)

A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Atomos VII - Slowly unfurling into a beautiful soundscape. Lovely lovely music.

Chad VanGaalen, Shrink Dust

Ester Deen, Get My Dough [Single] - The chorus is reminiscent of Icona Pop/Charli XCX's "I Love It." Which may be why I like this too.

The Fruitful Earth, Rising Sun - There's some good in this. Giving it a second round of listens this weekend

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Midnight Sun - I don't know what this is, but I like it. It's odd, in the good way.

Harri Kuusijarvi Koutus, Koutus - Guitar and Accordion led instrumental music, do you need any other reason really?

Lindsey Stirling, Shatter Me - Good pop violin music? I don't know how to describe it except that I'm going to be listening to this for the rest of the day.

To Listen List:

(As in, I'm actively looking forward to putting on these albums so I want to mention them now)

Rodrigo y Gabriela, 9 Dead Alive

Rebecca & Fiona, Beauty is Pain

Old Smokey, Wester Easter

Wye Oak, Shriek

So there you have it, another week, another round of new music. A little heavy on the metal, a little lighter on the lead female vocalists, and some really interesting things to listen to. Happy listening!

Friday Refrain is a weekly post regarding what new releases have caught my ear for the week. I try to compile a pretty comprehensive list of releases of the week and see what is available for me to listen to on the web. This is just my non-scientific, highly-subjective, randomly-listened-to list of stuff from the week. Oh, and I don’t always listen to lyrics or look at album art/music videos, so appropriateness is left up to the listener

Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music

Happy Friday to you and yours! The list of releases this week is pretty single heavy in anticipation of all the full-lengths to come. If it's not a single, then it seems like it's hard to categorize this week. Its a good week to be Keb' Mo' with a new album out, Bluesamericana, and he's playing the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival tomorrow afternoon.

What a crazy mash-up that line-up is. Tonight Public Enemy, The Avett Brothers, Santana, Gregory Porter and Joe Louis Walker plus more close out the evening (on different stages). I wonder if there are any spontaneous moments where the sound from two or more stages will synchronize and create a natural mash-up. Those are my favorite festival moments, standing inbetween stages where the sound bleeds together and for just a few measures, two bands you would never put together match up and then it's gone. Anyway... to the releases.

Hey - it's the List!

The Sunny West Coast Playlist

Fear of Men, Loom - well kinda moody sunny rock. Just a little.

Isabelle Amé, We Are Life

The Apache Relay, Apache Relay - NW coast, that is.

The Luxembourg Signal, Distant Drive - just a 2-track single but worth a listen

Markus Krunegård, "Du Stör dig hårt på mig"

The Sunny Pop Playlist

Lovey James, "Rollercoaster" - new single that is a delicious pop treat.

Neon Trees, Pop Psychology

The Sunny Rock Pick: I mean, like you want to pump your fist in your garage while working on your Trans Am pick - Three Lions, Three Lions

Just Rock

The Whigs, Modern Creation

The Shackletons, Records - Shack-LE-tons not Shack-EL-tons. Just be sure on that

And if it's raining...

My Autumn Empire, The Visitation

Natalia M. King, Soulblazz - at least it sounded good when it was raining the other day to me.

Chill-out

Baladista, Baladista

Luluc, "Without A Face"

My Bubba, "Feverish" - bossa-like and good for dancing, dinner partying or relaxing.

A little bit for any mood I think. Some really nice releases this week, so make sure to take a listen even if there aren't any familiar names up there. Happy listening!

Friday Refrain is a weekly post regarding what new releases have caught my ear for the week. I try to compile a pretty comprehensive list of releases of the week and see what is available for me to listen to on the web. This is just my non-scientific, highly-subjective, randomly-listened-to list of stuff from the week. Oh, and I don’t always listen to lyrics or look at album art/music videos, so appropriateness is left up to the listener

Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music

So that's what happens when I go shopping after not leaving the house for 48+ hours...

My body had poor timing this week and decided to incapacitate me for two days. While I did get to catch up on a lot of television, the only music I wanted to listen to was Chumbawumba. I don't know why, but that's how it went. Anyway, tomorrow's Record Store Day and if you haven't had a chance to look at the special releases, now's the time to do so.

I did manage to get a bit of listening and compiling done before I became one with my couch. So here's a partial List.

If you're still itching for something to check out, there's the first Afghan Whigs album in forever out this week, Do To A Beast, and the new Jessica Lea Mayfield is definitely worth a listen. Ray Price's posthumous album was released this week, Beauty Is, and if you want a tear-jeaker story, read up on how it came to be.

Happy listening!

Friday Refrain is a weekly post regarding what new releases have caught my ear for the week. I try to compile a pretty comprehensive list of releases of the week and see what is available for me to listen to on the web. This is just my non-scientific, highly-subjective, randomly-listened-to list of stuff from the week. Oh, and I don’t always listen to lyrics or look at album art/music videos, so appropriateness is left up to the listener