#ska 22 my beloved

[rnoonsetter]

[fuckyeahqueermusic]

FY!QM’s Favorite Albums of 2019 Part 2

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, here have a list of my favorite albums of 2019. You can click here to read part 1 if you missed it, but part 2 is all my absolute favorite releases from the year. Two of them aren’t even EPs, let alone full albums, but it is my list and I am the boss so I can do what I want!!

Obviously a ton of great music was released this year, but I think compared to 2018 it was a little lacking. Which is understandable, that was a bonkers killer year for new music, but I’m already psyched for all that’s coming out in 2020, and I have a feeling I am going to have a hard time doing a round up of everything I loved come next December (or January....or February, who’s to say!)

Anyways, onto my favs of 2019!

Carly Rae Jepsen — Dedicated Okay, so first off we have to talk about how one of the first working titles for this album was “Songs To Clean Your House To”, and how it is a CRIME we were deprived of that. Well, it will always be the real title in my heart.

So, Dedicated is not Emotion. It was never going to be Emotion, and that is okay. It is still an absolutely meticulously crafted, nearly perfect pop record. One that’s not only is full of great singles and individual certified bops (”Julien” anyone????), but actually works as a whole record, an increasing rarity in the mainstream pop landscape. But you can feel how much CRJ cares about what she puts out, and while some songs are weaker than others, there is no filler, and every track has something to enjoy on it. She is still the QUEEN of mid-tempo jams, with “No Drug Like Me,” “Too Much,” and “Automatically In Love” already up in the pantheon of all time mid-tempo jams. Some folks might have been disappointed we didn’t get Emotion 2.0, but I am thrilled CRJ wants to keep growing as an artist, and that she isn’t content to keep releasing the same thing over and over again, even though she very easily could.

Telethon — Hard Pop Telethon is hands down one of the best rock bands in the game right now, and I am thrilled they finally seem to be gaining a bit of traction outside the extremely cult following they’ve been building over the past five years. They have hooks for days, their music a master class in power pop song writing, combined with some of the densest lyric writing I have ever seen. Lead singer and lyricist Kevin Tully crafts each song like a short story about millennial mundanity and quarter life crises: using the exhaustion of finding a new apartment to examine long simmering anxiety, or trying to figure out if contentment is settling, and being too tired to know if you can tell the difference, while getting asked if you have weed at a terrible house party. It’s an album that feels like your late 20’s and early 30’s, with just enough optimism from a synth line to let you know that maybe everything will be okay in the end, maybe not, but it’s not stupid to hope.

Also they are not afraid of a ska influenced breakdown, and for that I must salute them.

Great Grandpa — Four of Arrows This is far and away my most listened to album of the year, and it only came out in October. Every song is masterfully crafted to stick in your head, and whenever I put on “Bloom,” “Rosalie,” or “Treat Jar,” I HAVE to listen to it at least three times in a row. The songwriting on this album is just fucking astonishing, and it completely runs the gamut from acoustic driven indie to 80’s big power chord pop rock, without feeling incongruent at all. It is incredible that this is the same band that made Plastic Cough only two years ago. Not that their debut was bad, but this album is just such a massive leap in skill and sound that it is truly amazing. Just a completely beautiful record from front to back, and I am so excited to see where this band goes next.

that dog — Old LP For the last 3 years that dog’s one semi-hit from 1997, “Never Say Never,” has been in my top 5 played songs of the year on Spotify (it currently has 186,000 plays. I would wager about 100,000 of those are me). I would argue it is the catchiest song ever written. It was on an album, Retreat From The Sun, that is back to back to back catchy jams. that dog should’ve been one of the most famous bands in the world, and I have been lamenting hard for some time that we never got more music from them. They broke up in 1997, scattering to the winds to be involved in making some of your favorite music (Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack anyone???)

Until last year. Anna Waronker got the band back together and that dog released their first album in 22 years, Old LP. And it’s like barely any time has passed. Old LP is practically perfect 90’s pop-rock, insanely catchy with enough of an edge and interesting flourishes (they credit basically a whole orchestra in the liner notes) to make you want to put the whole thing on repeat for a few hours. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way, I am so happy that dog is back in some capacity, and here’s hoping this is not the last we hear of them. 

(Also I picked this live performance of “Bird On A Wire” cause Allison Crutchfield from Swearin’ is there???)

Fireworks — Demitasse single This is not an album, or even an EP, but this is my list and I can do what I want and that includes fawning over a single from what is sure to be one of my top albums of 2020. Fireworks’ reunion was my biggest surprise of the year. They are a band that defined the last decade for me, their lifespan cut too short due to a crowded market and evolving too fast for their audience (they should be The Wonder Years level of famous and beloved, as they were, no offense to Soupy and the boys, the superior band). But after four years away they returned with a 6 minute slow burn of a song, solemn and sparse, until the full band crashes in more than ¾ of the way through. The first time I got to 5:08 in the song, the mix of pure catharsis and active anger that they disbanded in 2015 and we were denied new material from them until now I felt guaranteed Higher Lonely Power will almost certainly be THE album of 2020.

Team Dresch — Your Hands My Pocket “7 Perhaps even more important than Fireworks comeback, the biggest music news of 2019 for me was Team Dresch’s reunion. They are a band that I trace pretty much all my modern musical tastes to, and they are hugely influential to me and so many others in what they proved was possible for queer music to be. When that reunion ALSO came with new music, I about lost my mind. “Your Hands My Pocket” sounds like no time has passed since Captain My Captain came out: perfect hooks, heartfelt earnest lyrics, the vocal trade off between Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson, and all the queer pop-punk jubilation I want. The b-side “Baskets,” is classic Team Dresch emo (and yes I will argue to the ends of the earth that Team Dresch is one of the best emo bands of the 90s), with big volume shifts and longing vocals (and that bridge!). The only bad thing about this release is that there’s not more! Maybe if we all beg hard enough, they’ll make one more album.

[maureenmc1]

Vote for Your Life

I remember when La Cage Aux Folles came to the Beechwood Cinema back in the seventies, mainly because I saw it three times in one week.  Three of my closest friends, two of whom I was living with at the time, took the opportunity of inviting me to join them to see the movie.  Afterwards, they each came out to me.I already knew they were gay, but it meant so much that they made the extra effort to "break the news" to me in such an understanding way.  I assured them all that I supported them in voicing who they are, and since that time, I have widened that acceptance to include all LBGTQ+ people.  

I have never understood why some people make it their business to pass judgment on their fellow humans because of how they choose to identify themselves, whom they choose to love, or a panoply of other individual characteristics.  Maybe because I am a Libra and fairness and justice are so important to me, or maybe just because I am a rational person, I have always believed that people should be free to live their lives as see they fit.  

Because I have chosen that stance, I have been belittled in a variety of ways.  Luckily, from childhood I got a head start on most people in developing a thick skin because of my views on the civil rights movement, I have not had a damn to give about any detractors.  When it comes to being an ally to my incredibly diverse group of friends, I have done my best to walk the walk.  

At one point not that many years ago, that meant breaking with the church which I had been affiliated with all of my life.  When the church celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, I wrote a book on the history of the church.  While going through piles and piles of documents, I learned that at one point the Methodist Episcopal Church divided into two parts over the issue of slavery.  The church which I attended became a part of the pro-slavery wing, the Methodist Episcopal Church South.   It wasn't until the 1950's (I think) that the two factions joined back together.I used to teach Sunday School in the church.  Once a month, I stood in front of a group of people who were older than me and considerably more well-schooled in the Bible than me and delivered a lesson based on scripture.  One of the last lessons I delivered was based on Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."  Being me, of course, I had to play The Melodians version of Rivers of Babylon.  After blowing their minds with the first ska most of the class had ever heard, I went on the excoriate the United Methodist on its stand against homosexuality.  I told them about the racist history of our own church and then said, "The church was wrong about civil rights and it is wrong about gay people. The Methodist Church is standing on the wrong side of history."  That was my swan song to organized religion.  

When Occupy started, I thought about whether I wanted to be a part of it, and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my days serving the future, the world that my grandkids Felix and Evelyn are going to inherit.  Part of serving the future is working to make the world a more accepting place, where all kids can embrace whatever identity they wish without fear of judgment or reprisal.  I got to witness that freedom in my own two daughters, both of whom stood with gay classmates who were being bullied in high school.  

I watched the senators' opening statements today in the Senate Judiciary Committee for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.  I had to stop listening because the Republicans were making me so upset.  Setting up a straw man that has to do with Barrett's religious beliefs, even though not one word has been uttered by a Democrat about religion.  Democrats are bringing up example after example of how overturning Affordable Care Act would negatively affect all Americans.  I understand why they are taking this tack, but at the same time, it would also be nice to hear about how overturning Roe v. Wade or Obergefell v. Hodge, which affirmed gay marriage, would affect people's lives. I

 remember the days before Roe v. Wade.  I went to New York City to get an abortion when I was 22 because the option was not available in Georgia.  I also remember the days before Obergefell v. Hodge, when partners who could not legally marry could not join their beloved in a hospital room because they were not considered family.  I think about all the same sex families I know and how much they contribute to this society.  They are artisans and musicians, nurses and doctors, police officers and social workers.  These are people who make a difference in the world every day and they should not have their rights abridged and their families put at risk.

I fear that if the Supreme Court has a six-three conservative/liberal split that sanctimonious decisions directly affecting people's lives are going to start coming thick and fast.  I don't know what to say to all of you whom I stand with - you know who you are - except that I love you and somehow we will find our way through this hateful miasma together.  We will win back our rights through more legislation once the kleptocrats are all voted out of office.  We will make sure that all of our children are aware that they have dominion over their bodies and that they should respect the same right in other people.  We will generate a spirit of joyful celebration that we are all so different and yet the same.  

At this point, all of our lives are on the line.  Four more years of 45 would bring us closer to and closer to a form of totalitarianism that is antithetical to the the principles upon which this this country was founded.  As Kamala Harris said, "They are coming for you."  

They are coming for me.  They are coming for all of us.  

Vote for your life.

[danmacrae]

Surge® Presents: The It’s Dan MacRae’s Top 97 Tracks Of 1997 (30-21)

30. Counting Crows - A Long December: I can generally tell how sleep deprived I am by how much I “get into” a Counting Crows song at the supermarket.

29. Ma$e - Feel So Good: The look of confusion on my face as my grandma compared me to Li’l Abner will be the same look kids will give me when I make a big fuss about how Aries Spears got a lot of mileage out of his MadTV Ma$e impression.

28. Dance Hall Crashers - Lost Again: Pseudo-stoned ska-pop for people that fear that sort of thing.

27. Next - Too Close: Confidence really does work wonders. That’s how a song about uncontrollable boner problem can be beloved as an R&B classic for (ideally) centuries to come. “Too Close” isn’t all that different than a song a teen sitcom character would come up with to cover up an embarrassing moment.

26. Wu-Tang Clan featuring Cappadonna - Triumph: For what it’s worth, I’d be there opening night for Brett Ratner’s spinoff movie about Method Man’s flaming bee motorcycle adventures. I’m willing to take PG-13 if that’s what makes this happen.

25. that dog. - Never Say Never: I enjoy this the exact same way The Young Pope enjoys a Cherry Coke Zero. *mugs broadly, poses for a photo with today’s newspaper* Gooey power pop thrills for this dingus!

24. The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin’ Beats: Many a Canadian young’un got buckwild to this in a basement, bedroom or abandoned 4-H hall in the late ‘90s. Granted, said buckwildness would immediately halt when Big Shiny Tunes 2 follows up with Wide Mouth Mason, but that’s beside the point. 

23. Busta Rhymes - Dangerous: The bulk of Busta’s best work sounds like it was designed with a labor intensive Hype Williams video in mind. Spliff Starr deserves a Peabody for his work as Max Remo in the promo.

22. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get: 1997: The year where a driving ska anthem about assessing your mortality sung by Jimmy Kimmel’s announcer was desperately needed.

21. The Philosopher Kings - Hurts To Love You: I’ve always found the bit about making out while watching All In The Family somewhat troubling. To be fair, I also would love unearned applause breaks while genitaling it up. BOOM! DAN’S COMING FOR YOU, TELEVISION SHOW FROM THE PAST!

[sinceileftyoublog]

Live Picks: 2/16-2/22

Brockhampton

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Here are our live picks for the week ahead, starting with the weekend and ending just before the next one!

2/16: Little Big Town & Kacey Musgraves, Allstate Arena

It’s hard for non- or casual country fans to remember that Alabama’s Little Big Town were around before they were singing about girl crushes on the Grammy Awards. Sure, their breakout and by my ears best album Pain Killer skyrocketed them into the mainstream, but they released five albums before then and have been around since the late 90′s. Though live they certainly play hits from Pain Killer and last year’s even more popular The Breakers, they often throw bones to fans that have been with them since even before 2012′s Tornado, especially when playing songs like Southern anthem “Boondocks”.

A woman deserving of a headlining slot, Texas country star Kacey Musgraves is the second of three acts on this tour (she’ll be opening for Harry Styles in June). She’s released two really good studio albums (2015′s Pageant Material landed in our top 40 albums of that year) and one surprisingly good Christmas album, and she’s planning to release a new record, Golden Hour, early this year. Expect to hear plenty of new songs during her set.

Breakout Texas country band Midland opens.

2/17 & 2/18: Oh Sees, Empty Bottle

Music Frozen Dancing, the Empty Bottle’s annual free winter outdoor concert, always seems to nab a great lineup, and this year’s no different, mostly due to the headliners: Oh Sees/OCS (formerly known as Thee Oh Sees and about a million different other names), whose devoted fan base makes sure they sell out every Chicago show. Memory of a Cut Off Head, their latest album as OCS, is a little different from their raucous punk and sounds like the band’s early stages. It’s a 60′s-indebted, mostly acoustic psychedelic collection of songs from founding member John Dwyer and former member Brigid Dawson. (It notably features horn arrangements and saxophone from Mikal Cronin.) Just before Memory but also released in 2017 came their first album as Oh Sees, their supposed new moniker for the near future, Orc, which is more consistent with the pummeling sound they’ve been known for over the past 10 or so years. (It notably features co-production from Cronin buddy Ty Segall). Live, though, they could play literally anything from their 20+ album discography, even new songs, considering the rate at which they put out music. Of their recent records, I’m a fan of 2016′s A Weird Exits as well as 2009′s Help, 2011′s Carrion Crawler/The Dream, 2013′s Floating Coffin, and 2015′s Mutilator Defeated At Last. And for a nice document of what they sound like live, check out their stellar Live in San Francisco album from a couple years back. Like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, they’re simply nonstop in their distorted riffing, chaotic drumming, and yelping.

Co-headlining Music Frozen Dancing are Detroit electropunks ADULT. Rounding out the lineup are Brooklyn rockers B Boys, DJ Taye of local footwork behemoth Teklife, and local hardcore band C.H.E.W.

The band is also playing a Music Frozen Dancing after party, a ticketed (and already sold out, of course) club show at the Bottle itself. Opening the show are local noise rockers Rash and garage punks Skip Church.

2/18 & 2/19: BROCKHAMPTON, House of Blues

They call themselves the world’s first Internet boy band, but that’s misleading in more ways than one. BROCKHAMPTON aren’t the first boy band to benefit from the viral tendencies of the web, for one. More importantly, they’re not what you think of when you think boy band. A giant hip-hop, pop, and R & B collective, the band is more freewheeling and prolific than heavily and carefully curated, releasing three albums in 2017, culminating in SATURATION III, the most realized of the three that found a way to be experimental, catchy, and cohesive. Their fourth studio album, Team Effort, is set to be released this year, but you can expect them to perform SATURATION songs almost entirely. 

2/20: Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters, Riviera

At this point, pretty much anybody who vaguely pays attention to guitar music knows about Robert Plant’s full-fledged transition from classic rocker to old folk fogey--Raising Sand, his collaboration with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, won them Album of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. But lesser known and just as solid are Plant’s two albums with his new-ish band The Sensational Space Shifters, 2014′s Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar and last year’s Carry Fire, which allowed Plant to bend beyond the traditions of rock, bluegrass, or folk, incorporating elements of Arabic and North African influence into his arsenal. Luckily, however, for Zeppelin fans, Plant tends to mix beloved rock radio classics in with his newer material, overall making for a set that exudes old school songwriting, familiarity, and warmth whether you’ve heard the new songs or not.

Sensational Space Shifters band member and English folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman opens with a solo set.

2/21: Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn, SPACE

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn are both prominent musicians in their own name, two of the most proficient banjo players ever, Washburn’s clawhammer composition skills unrivaled, just like Fleck’s technical prowess. Together, the two are more than just husband and wife--they’re natural musical collaborators, having released two albums and an EP of both traditional and original material. They’ll be playing two shows Wednesday at SPACE, but if you miss that, you can catch them at two more shows next Saturday at Old Town School of Folk Music.

2/21: Adam Torres, Empty Bottle

Singer-songwriter and former Southeast Engine member Adam Torres finally released Pearls To Swine two years ago, 10 years after self-releasing cult classic Nostra Nova. He’s a folk singer with an otherworldly voice, his ability to reach high notes and wail with yearning rivaling Jeff Buckley, and his band--consisting of violinist Aisha Burns, bassist/pianist/Molly Burch collaborator Dailey Tolliver, and Swans percussionist Thor Harris. Thankfully, it didn’t take Torres long to reach the follow-up to Pearls; granted, it was a 4-song EP recorded at the same time, entitled I Came To Sing The Song. But it felt different, its songs notably more insular than the expansive, epic Pearls. I can only imagine a Torres live set achieves both ends admirably.

Indie pop band Wild Pink co-headline. Rock band Minor Characters opens.

2/22: Architects, House of Blues

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a tour named after a non-album single, but Brighton metalcore band Architects are doing it anyway. Their “Doomsday” tour, named after, yes, a non-album single that followed their 2016 album All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, the heaviest, darkest, and perhaps best album the band has ever released. They know it, too; in recent live sets, the band has heavily favored that record, even in favor of recent beloved releases like Lost Forever // Lost Together and Daybreaker.

Hardcore punks Stick To Your Guns and Counterparts open.

2/22: Shame, Schubas

Songs of Praise is the debut album from London post-punks Shame that came out just a month ago and is already seeming like it’s going to be one of the best debuts of the year. The band tackles serious subjects with dark humor over pummeling guitars and drums and, when they feel like it, melodies that could rival peak Britpop.

Pittsburgh post-punk revivalists The Gotobeds open.

2/22: Four Year Strong, Concord Music Hall

Worcester pop punk band Four Year Strong just released Some of You Will Like This, Some of You Won't, a collection of unplugged rarities. For hardcore fans, it was perhaps welcome. But for casual fans and in comparison to their Go Down in History EP and especially raw 2015 self-titled record, the latter of which was produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, it came across as too soft and tender for a band who proved to be so good at eliciting sore neck headbanging. Lucky for us, live, the band who has been playing 2007 album Rise or Die Trying in full every night should bring the same level of energy they had 10 years younger to a co-headlining set at Concord Music Hall.

Gainesville ska punks Less Than Jake co-headline. Pop punk bands Direct Hit! and Bearings open.