- Spielbergs released a new single this past May, which is a follow up to their 2019 EP that I completely missed.
- CHAI keep releasing singles, but no album on the horizon that we know of.
- Foals spent their quarantine gathering remixes of their old songs.
- Funkadelic clearly has not been up to anything recently, but Pitchfork reviewed Maggot Brain three weeks ago and gave it a 10/10, which seems a little high.
- Fontaines D.C. have a new album coming up at the end of the month! I will probably try to review it as quickly as possible so it's ineligible for Record Club! Reviewing the same band twice in Record Club is boring! (Sorry Foals!)
- You missed your chance to buy the PUP live album to support them during COVID. Don't worry, you can still buy the jigsaw puzzle!!!
- Lizzo's out there getting kicked out of rental houses.
- Jens Lekman was doing concerts over Skype... man, remember when such an idea seemed novel? Those were the days.
- I can't imagine that Harry and the Potters are planning any more music now that J.K. Rowling has revealed herself to be a pretty terrible person.
- Connie Converse remains missing.
- YBN Cordae was charged with a FELONY for PEACEFULLY PROTESTING the unjust murder of Breonna Taylor. For those keeping track, YBN Cordae and 86 others were given felony charges, and the police who MURDERED a civilian in her own home remain free. Defund the motherfucking police. (Update since I first compiled this list: the felony charges have been dropped, because they were outrageous, but then, so are many actions that the police partake in. Defund 'em.)
- Pond isn't up to anything, but another Tame Impala side project released a pretty decent album about a month ago. GUM's Out in the World. Better than Pond? Record Club may never know.
- Ashlee Simpson is pregnant.
- Hopesfall's guitarist/songwriter has a new band that's cooking up an EP as we speak, if Hopesfall was your thing (this bullet point is a personal message to Brittany I guess).
- The Beths released Jump Rope Gazers three weeks ago! It's great!
- T-Pain was a Record Club pick because of The Masked Singer, whose (hopefully soon-to-be previous) host is an anti-Semite. (Update since I first compiled this list: Doesn't look like The Masked Singer will be firing their host. You're telling me that this cheaply made trash television game show has no scruples?!?!?!)
- Jim James finally stopped dicking around and released a new My Morning Jacket album, The Waterfall II.
- MCR's Gerard Way apparently looks like Jeff Tweedy's younger brother.
- Vulfpeck's Cory Wong is releasing two acoustic guitar albums this year, which seems like that would be way less fun than Vulfpeck...
- KAYTRANADA released a new single a couple weeks ago, but no album release plans so far.
- KAYTRANADA and U.S. Girls were both shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, which is awarded to the best Canadian album each year. I had no idea that U.S. Girls was Canadian, if I'm being honest.
- Alanis Morissette, believe it or not, is releasing a new album at the end of the month. Will it be better than Jagged Little Pill? Probably not. Will it be better than her bit part in Manic? Maybe!
- Post Malone is Post Malone and will forever be Post Malone.
- 100 gecs released a remix album called 1000 gecs & the Tree of Clues. I will not be listening to it unless Nate somehow finds yet another way to force me to listen to 100 gecs.
- There's a new video for Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," a song that has to be taken literally these days.
- Perfume Genius interviewed Christine and the Queens (thanks to Rachael S. for always staying on brand and sending me this).
- Yahoo just printed an interview with Nile Rodgers about his writing Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out." Good timing, as this was right after we reviewed the album. I found it really interesting that he tries to reframe the infamous "Diana Ross hating the song at first because it would ruin her career" claim that at least two reviews for diana mentioned. Previously, Rodgers had said that it was Ross who made the assumption that it would ruin her career, but in this most recent interview, he places the blame on radio DJ Frankie Crocker, who he now says directly told Diana Ross that this song would ruin her career, and she just made the simple mistake of believing him. I don't know why I'm writing so much about this—it's a good song, it's a good LGBTQ anthem, and she's a great artist.
WEEK 78 — July 26-August 1, 2020
What we're listening to this week (Joe's pick):
ALBUM: Watermelon Man!
ARTIST: Mongo Santamaria
RELEASED: 1963 (couldn't find the exact date, though I'll be honest I didn't search all that thoroughly)
WHAT GENRE IS THIS: cha-cha / salsa / Latin jazz
WHY JOE PICKED IT: I'm gonna be down the shore for most of this week, so I wanted to pick something that wasn't going to be totally grating for a family who finds most non-country music grating. Are they going to like listening to Mongo Santamaria? Probably not! But it's different than, I dunno, if I picked a Metallica album or something. At least Watermelon Man! seems like it could be on in the background if need be. (An aside: the title of the album is printed with the exclamation point on some sites, and without it on others. I'm keeping the punctuation because it seems cooler.)
TRACKLIST:
- Watermelon Man
- Funny Money
- Cut That Cane!
- Get the Money
- The Boogie Cha Cha Blues
- Don't Bother Me No More
- Love, Oh Love
- Yeh-Yeh!
- The Peanut Vendor
- Go Git It!
- Bayou Roots
- Suavito
WHERE TO LISTEN FOR FREE: YouTube—all the songs are on there, but I can't find a playlist that compiles 'em, sorry
READING SOME SHIT: Mongo passed away in 2003, and was retired since the late 1980s, so there isn't too much reading material online except for retrospectives and what have you. Here's his NYT obituary.
Happy listening, fam! Have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment