What MUSIC are you listening to?

Since the advent of YouTube, one way that I have pushed myself to explore music is by making music mixes for everything, especially my favorite board games and my rpg sessions. While the rest of the world has recently become obsessed with Wordle, my jam has been the Oddly Specific Playlist group on Facebook. Someone posts an oddly specific playlist that they are working on, and requests other members make relevant suggestions. Sometimes it just jogs my memory of a song that I have enjoyed, sometimes I get to evangelize about a favorite song, and sometimes it introduces me to music I hadn't heard before. Today, someone wanted songs for a mix about VIllanelle of Killing Eve, and briefly described her as a deadly assassin who appreciates luxury. I responded with Killer Queen/Queen and Big Gun/Ice-T. Yesterday, Spotify was out of commission for a while, and someone requested songs they could listen to while Spotify was down. I responded with Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)/Neil Young.

I wanted to cheer up a friend facing an impending birthday, and volunteered to make her a mix. She requested new wave plus glam rock plus dub. Although dub spans a greater time frame than either new wave or glam rock, I decided to focus my attention on dub from the mid '70s thru early '80s in order to better match up with the rest of the music. So I have been spending some time lately re-visiting Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo, Scientist, King Tubby, and Burning Spear.

I can't stop watching this.

Subhumans will always trump Citizen Fish for me, but two of the most memorable shows I've ever seen were Citizen Fish gigs. Once with Avail at the old Black Cat in DC (probably '93 as well) and once at ABC No Rio in the Lower East Side. The energy at the latter gig was unlike anything else I've ever experienced. Ironically, the band was staying at my buddy Simon's place in Brooklyn that night but the teenager at the door wouldn't let him in because it was sold out!

In other music I've been listening to news, I randomly wound up at a Ministry/Melvins show on Long Island last night at the last minute. Corrosion of Conformity opened but we hit crazy traffic on the LIE and missed them. I've probably seen The Melvins more than any other band and they've never once disappointed, but Ministry just blew me away. They played every song I could have hoped for off of Land and Rape and Honey and A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and fucking crushed them. They even did the 1000 Homo DJs version of Supernaut and two Pailhead songs! I hadn't seen them in more than 25 years and didn't know what to expect but man, Al and company did not dissapoint.

Check out The Restarts as well. Great (somewhat) newer UK punk band that throw some high energy reggae riffs in from time to time.

The Restarts- Big Rock Candy Mountains / JohnnySunday

Shellhead wrote: I wanted to cheer up a friend facing an impending birthday, and volunteered to make her a mix. She requested new wave plus glam rock plus dub. Although dub spans a greater time frame than either new wave or glam rock, I decided to focus my attention on dub from the mid '70s thru early '80s in order to better match up with the rest of the music. So I have been spending some time lately re-visiting Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo, Scientist, King Tubby, and Burning Spear.

I would be hard pressed not to put Shinehead's version of Billie Jean on such a playlist. Seems like good segue for somewhere on it.



(there are dub versions too. such a great bassline. I think bad brains used it).

But that stuff is my jam. For 80s dub sounds you should hit up the Volcano/Greensleeves record label, Junjo Lawes I think was the name of the producer. Some great sounds there. A search of your streaming service should yield some things. Again, just that hint of electronica 80s thing going on before going full automated.

Scientist good for the glam crossover, I guess, with that horror themed stuff I seem to recall he did.

Dub is my jam.

mc wrote: Dub is my jam.

Yeah, same. I do like stuff from all genres but every time I come back to real dub music, I'm like "yes, that's how it should be done."

There's a neat version of a Scientist tune from the 90s:

I appreciate the dub recommendations. This will be a challenging mix to make, for a couple of reasons. First, new wave and glam rock have some compatibility, but dub is more distinct. Second, glam rock is one of the smaller sub-genres. I will put an early Police song in the mix to help bridge between new wave and dub tracks. That Billie Jean cover will also work well for that purpose. The Magnificent Seven by The Clash is definitely going in. Since most of the great glam rock was done by T Rex, David Bowie, and Mott the Hoople, I'm going to stretch it a little and thrown in Killer Queen by Queen and Philadelphia Freedom (written about Billie Jean btw) by Elton John. And also Love is Like Oxygen by Sweet, for a less common Sweet track for the glam rock. There is so much new wave in my collection that it will be the easy part of this mix, filling in wherever needed between the dub and glam rock.

mc wrote: Scientist good for the glam crossover, I guess, with that horror themed stuff I seem to recall he did.

I am definitely including Your Teeth In My Neck, from Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires.

While I wait for new albums by Jack White and Arcade Fire to drop, I've been committing myself to a full discography review of David Bowie's work. I was pretty familiar with most of his "great" albums, but I had never really committed myself to digging into every release. My favorite album so far is I think Station To Station. (I'm currently spinning Heroes over and over again.)

Station to Station is fantastic -- one of my favourite Bowie albums.

As for newer stuff... I just discovered Khruangbin. They're almost entirely instrumental (although their latest album features vocals much more prominently), simple bass and drum beats beneath guitar virtuosity that doesn't devolve into wankery. They're not easy to categorize, but I approach them in a rather ambient manner -- music that sets a background mood rather than something you actively listen to.

I saw Sparks last weekend and it was just an incredible show, so I've been rocking a bunch of Sparks lately. Those guys are in their mid70s and they absolutely crushed it live. I need to watch that Edgar Wright documentary one of these days.


Here's a couple bangers

My oldest son is pretty good at sending me Youtubecore--stuff that bubbles algorithmically to the surface that everyone has forgotten. The latest is HandsomeBoy Technique's Adelie Land.

I mentioned a few months ago that I've been listening to The War on Drugs a lot, "dad rock" fan that I am. Lately I've really been focusing in on their newest album, I Don't Live Here Anymore. It's a much more immediate album, in that the songs seem a little less fussy and a little more designed for casual listening. It's still got all of the guitar noodling and atmosphere, but it's just a little more accessible.

Particularly loving this song, which has vibes from, of all people, Phil Collins.

Cranberries wrote: My oldest son is pretty good at sending me Youtubecore--stuff that bubbles algorithmically to the surface that everyone has forgotten. The latest is HandsomeBoy Technique's Adelie Land.

Thought this was gonna be a spinoff of Handsome Boy Modeling School and was like whoa those guys are still a thing? Sadly it's not though

Oh me? Just listening to Sparks...


"I may be ugly as sin but at least now I'm tan"

I've been very into the new Linda Lindas album lately.



They are a group of 11-17yos who went viral with a video playing a song in a library and have opened for Bikini Kill etc. Super catchy pop punk with a great vibe.