Alternative Top 5 List, October 25, 2020

Some refreshing breaths of fresh air this week - we have a new No. 1, and this time it doesn't suck. Julien Baker's Faith Healer debuts on the charts at the No. 1 spot and Arlo Parks, who debuted on this blog last week, lands on the chart at the No. 2 spot with Green Eyes.  

Lana Del Rey's pop song Let Me Love You Like A Woman falls from No. 1 to No. 3.  If you don't have anything nice to say . . . 

Gorillaz' The Pink Phantom, a collaboration with Elton John sounding exactly what you'd think Elton John singing with Gorillaz would sound like, is like a booger that you just can't shake off your finger.  It remains in the Top 5 for its fourth straight week, its second at the No. 4 spot. 

Sharon Van Etten manages to make it onto the Top 5 by singing with Local Natives on their No. 5 song, Lemon.  Her Let Go from the Pepe The Frog documentary is still on the chart as No. 22.  

Looking down the list, Fleet Foxes continue their improbable journey through the chart.  Can I Believe You was No. 19 two weeks ago, moved up to No. 4 and then dropped to No. 9, is still on the charts for a fifth straight week at a respectable No. 17.  Where it goes next is anyone's guess. 

Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief) now has two songs in the Top 40 - Zombie Girl debuts at No. 23, right behind Sharon Van Etten, and her Dragon Eyes is at No. 40.  

No more Julia Holter or The Antlers gracing these charts.  The rest you can hear for yourself on the radio.  

List compiled "from over 70 alt and new release sources" by alt.nwmsc.com   Enjoy!

Alternative Top 5 List, October 18, 2020

We have a new No. 1 - Lana Del Rey's pop song, Let Me Love You Like A Woman.  A Polydor/Inerscope records release, I fail to see how this is "indie," and there's little "alternative" to the generic pop sound. If anyone can find anything interesting in this song, please let me know what it is.  I guess it's just too deep for me.

With Del Rey snagging the No. 1 spot, our 1-2-3 of last week in now 4-3-2.  Last week's No. 3, an electro-pop number by Romy titled Lifetime, is now No. 2 and last week's No. 2, Californian Soil by London Grammar, is now No. 3.  Gorillaz' The Pink Phantom falls to No. 4 from it's two-week perch at the No. 1 spot.  The Elton John collaboration sounds exactly what you'd think Elton John singing with Gorillaz would sound like.

Hit factory beabadoobee has another one out - Together debuts on the list at No. 5.  Her How Was Your Day? is still on the list (third week) at No. 24.  Her radio-friendly rock songs aren't bad and sound pretty good in a playlist, but I hope for her sake that she doesn't over-saturate the market and become a short-lived phenomenon.

Looking down the list, Fleet Foxes continue their improbable journey through the chart.  Can I Believe You was No. 19 two weeks ago, moved up to No. 4 last week, and is now No. 9.  Where it goes from there is anyone's guess. 

Further down the list, Sharon Van Etten's Let Go, which has been posted on these pages, debuts on the chart at No. 12.  Julia Holter's sublime So Humble the Afternoon, which was also posted here, debuts at No. 36. And The Antlers' Wheels Roll Home is still in the Top 40 but just barely - it dropped from No. 32 to the No. 40 spot.

The rest you can hear for yourself on the radio.  

List compiled "from over 70 alt and new release sources" by alt.nwmsc.com   Enjoy!

Sharon Van Etten

A new SVE song from, of all places, a new documentary film about how the creator of Pepe the Frog got really upset when a bunch of neo-nazi whack-jobs starting using his cartoon as their symbol.  He actually managed to sue some of them. 

Anyway, a new song from SVE.

Alternative Top 5 Chart, September 27, 2020

Gorillaz are continuing to hang in there. Strange Timez, which debuted at No. 1 two weeks ago and hung in at the top spot last week, drops one spot to No. 2 this week for it's third straight week in the Top 3.  The song features Robert Smith of the Cure sounding exactly what you'd think Robert Smith singing with Gorillaz would sound like.

Our new No 1 champion is a debut by England's Royal Blood, who, frankly, I had never heard of before.  They have a Jack White, White Stripes/Raconteurs kind of sound, which is very popular in some circles and very radio friendly, so it's no surprise that they're at No. 1.

Here's a neat trick - Tame Impala are back in the Top 5, this time with a remix of a song that previously made the Top 5.  Blood Orange's remix of Borderline is enough to land them the No. 3 spot.  It's a nice, long, sexy, slow jam, bringing out the best in both the original artist and the remix artist.  It should also be noted that Blood Orange also has a song, a collaboration with 박혜진 Park Hye Jin, called Call Me (Freestyle) currently at the No. 29 spot.

This is sweet - Kurt Vile recorded a nice, Appalachian-sounding folk song, How Lucky, with the late John Prine before the latter's demise, and this simple and unassuming song debuted in the charts at the No. 4 position.

Finally, Sufjan Steven's latest, Sugar, hangs in the list at No. 5 after debuting last week at the No. 2 spot.  I may have sounded flippantly dismissive of the song last week - yes, it does sound unmistakably like Sufjan Stevens, but that's a good thing and this is a good song, a worthy addition to Steven's long discography.

Looking down the list, Porridge Radio's 7 Seconds is still in the Top 40 but just barely at No. 36. and there's no longer any sign of Deep Sea Diver and Sharon Van Etten's Impossible Weight.  Yo La Tengo's sole original composition, Bleeding, from their new album otherwise of covers, Sleepless Nights, debuts at No. 39 and probably isn't going to be in the Top 40 for very long.

List compiled "from over 70 alt and new release sources" by alt.nwmsc.com   Enjoy!

DSD Meets SVE

One of America's great but criminally overlooked rock bands, Deep Sea Diver, have a new album, Impossible Weight, coming out in October.  Today, they released the titular track, featuring none other than Sharon Van Etten on supporting vocals.  Frontwoman Jessica Dobson writes:

We are incredibly, INCREDIBLY pleased to announce to you this morning, our new single, Impossible Weight is out.  I could not be prouder to present this song that means the world to me— and features one of my favorite artists in the world, Sharon Van Etten.  It was such an absolute pleasure to work with someone that has been a true inspiration to me and specifically while writing and recording this song.   

Along with it, we are releasing a music video that is one of my proudest moments as an artist.  A moment where we can present visuals that speak to this season—a time of loneliness, of desolation, but also of beauty.  I wanted to create something very triumphant and beautiful in a year that has been the opposite of those things. 

I want to ask you, if you are willing, to come alongside of us today. This is a terribly difficult season for musicians.  Without touring, it is almost impossible to get our music out into the world. Like all bands, shows have always been the way in which we sell the majority of records and promote our albums. Right now, that is simply not an option for us. SO.. we humbly ask of you…. If you would like to help us succeed and you believe in us—SPREAD THE WORD. Post about our song / music video today. Word of mouth is ALWAYS the best way forward for us.  Follow us on Spotify, Youtube, etc..   Like our comments and comment yourself on our posts—as that alters the algorithm that can enable our music to get out to more and more people.  The more people that hear and enjoy our music, the more sustainable this can be for us.   

We love you and have been excited about this day for so long.  This song is one of my favorites, and the video is so badass.  Hope you enjoy it and we truly hope to see you soon. 

XO
Jessica and Deep Sea Diver

Jessica Dobson and Sharon Van Etten - two of my favorite women on one great new track. Hopefully, this will mark the beginning of DSD's long overdue recognition by a wider audience.

Sharon Van Etten In Quarantine

Josh Homme too, and cameos by song-writer Nick Lowe and by Josh Dawes because why not?  Sweet, sweet harmonies and a touching behind-the-scenes view of the musicians' home life.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself unexpectedly crying for some reason.

Sharon Van Etten's New Hat

Sharon Van Etten's new hat is prominently displayed in the brand-new video for her brand-new song (released today!), Beaten Down.  As hats go, it's definitely of the floppy-brim variety, but like everything else she does, such as her stint as Rachel in The OA, Van Etten pulls it off flawlessly.

Seriously, though, it's a gorgeous new song, calmer and more serene than much of her last LP, Remind Me Tomorrow, but with an introspective and somber tone.  Like on Remind Me Tomorrow, she continues to sing over keyboards and tastefully arranged synth, rather than the strummed guitars of her folk-rock origins.

Van Etten's current tour will bring her to Atlanta's Variety Playhouse on April 28.

Sharon Van Etten Is Going Back To College, Hopes To Become A Therapist

Sharon Van Etten at Bumbershoot, 2011

Sharon Van Etten has announced that she recently got accepted to college: “I never finished school and I have had the desire to go back and challenge myself. I am so nervous,” she said, adding, 

I will be studying psychology. I only went to two years of college — and that was over ten years ago. Needless to say, I am nervous about how much things have changed with technology. But I am excited to study and learn and be around others that challenge me in a different way. I hope to become a therapist one day.

Silly singer-songwriter: doesn't she realize how therapeutic her music has been for her fans these past five or so years?

But in all seriousness, best wishes to Sharon in her next venture and thanks for the memories!

Catching Up On Rocktober

As promised (threatened?), here are some pictures and songs from last week's Rocktober shows that I didn't have time to post, brought to you without commercial interruption or my narrative comments (other than show titles):

Liam Finn, Variety Playhouse, Oct. 19

Warpaint, Variety Playhouse, Oct. 19

Tiny Ruins, The Earl, Oct. 20

Sharon Van Etten, The Earl, Oct. 20

Kind Cousin, Vinyl, Oct. 22

Givers, Vinyl, Oct. 22

Sharon Van Etten at The Earl, Atlanta, 10/20/2014

Another mid-Rocktober mini-post, I'm afraid.  Not that I have a show tonight to run off to, but it took me so long today to catch up on the work I've fallen behind on that I have scarcely any time left to post.  More soon (and on Warpaint, too), but here's last night's show opener, Tiny Ruins from New Zealand (we saw another Kiwi opener, Liam Finn, on Sunday night).

And here's headliner Sharon Van Etten.

Oh, yes. The show was at The Earl.

Sharon Van Etten

A new song by SVE, brilliant as always, but one of the oddest videos I've seen in a while.

New SVE

My body is ready . . . .

Salad Is Not Rock 'n' Roll: A Night at 529

Salad is not rock 'n' roll, but this car definitely is:

Last night's show at 529 featured three strong, female-fronted bands and opened with a set by Atlanta's Sex BBQ, now without former keyboardist/back-up singer Bunny McIntosh.

Their new keyboardist, the guy wearing the caprtain's wheel/mandala or whatever t-shirt above, filled in nicely for McIntosh, providing humorous dance moves and odd percussion to embellish the band's party-friendly, new wave sound.

The next band up was New York's Air Waves.  I'd heard a couple of songs from them before, including Waters (featuring Sharon Van Etten), but was still pleasantly surprised by their set last night - in fact, I think they might have stolen the show.

Like Van Etten, Air Waves singer Nicole Schneit has a certain warm gruffness to her voice, which may have been embellished to some degree last night by the fact that she was just coming back from a head cold - she said she had to cancel her performance the night before as she hadn't even been able to sing.  

They put on a great set, and I look forward to hearing more from Air Waves soon.

Headliners Hospitality took the stage at around 12:15 am.  We've seen Hospitality in this club once before, as well as down the street at The Basement at Graveyard Tavern.  Since the last time we've seen them, Hospitality has released a fine new record, Trouble, and have taken on a slightly more aggressive, harder rocking sound without losing their identity or the distinctive voice or song-writing style of frontwoman Amber Papini.  Hospitality songs still sound like Hospitality songs, only now there's even more to hear.   

The sound mix wasn't as good for Hospitality as it had been for the prior two bands, and I couldn't hear Amber's singing above the band as well as I would have liked.  This might have been due to the fact that I saw standing pretty close to the stage by the bass monitor - the mix might have sounded clearer elsewhere in the club.  Still, it was an enjoyable set, with band members moving frequently from instrument to instrument, Amber alternately playing guitar and keyboards and one guy playing drums, keyboards, and guitar at various points in the set - only the bass player stuck with his one instrument, and no one else touched the bass. 

Kudos to the members of Sex BBQ who stayed around after their set and danced at the front of the audience during Hospitality.

Somewhat non-sequiter and sounding nothing like last night's performance, but here's Amber performing a Hospitality song in a whole different context.  More salad than rock 'n' roll, but still tasty:

SVE 2014

(That awkward moment when you realize it's been over a year sine you've seen Sharon Van Etten perform.)

In one of those best-of-all-possible-worlds announcements, Sharon Van Etten has revealed that she'll have a new album coming out in May, with more goove-, soul-, and R&B-influenced tracks than before.  Even better, she's said that guest performers on the album include Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater, Mackenzie Scott of Torres, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, and Dave Harley and Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs.

This is worth watching out for, but here's an early version of one of the songs from the new album performed at the ever-blissful Pickathon festival.

Prisoners

"Prisoners" by J Mascis and Sharon Van Etten from Aimee Mann 

There's so much win here, from Sharon Van Etten and J Mascis collaborating on a John Denver tune to Aimee Mann playing a Denver wannabe geek.  

Actually, that's pretty much everything there is to like in this video.

Junip at Terminal West, Atlanta, 9-7-2013

Things change and everything's in a state of transformation. Impermanence is the only constant.  But it usually seems that when we notice change, it's usually for the worse - it's rare that we notice when things seem to get better, rarer still when good things get even better.  The reliably terrific band Junip, who last played Atlanta in a wonderful show at the Earl back in 2010, showed that they had gotten even better in the past couple years, totally mesmerizing the audience with their performance last night at Terminal West. 

Barbarosa opened.

Barbarosa is London's James Mathé, who is currently a touring member of Junip as well as their opener, too. He plays solo, bringing only a drummer on stage to join him for a couple of songs, and sings in a soulful manner somewhere between Active Child and James Blake, and not far at all from the warm croon of Junip's own Jose Gonzalez.  

When they played the Earl back in November 2010, Junip was a quartet.  They've expanded into a quintet for this tour, but the change was more than just the addition of Mathé.  With three keyboards/synths backing him (four when one member puts down his bass), their sounds is much more layered and lush than ever before, sometimes sounding light as a feather, other times heavy and ominous. At times, their electronic washes of sound brought to mind Moonface's occasional backing band Sinaii.

In any event, it was a transcendent set, with the audience - at least this member - getting swept away by the stream of music and being carried along, guided the whole time by Gonzalez' reassuring and warm voice.

It's a sign of a great performance that I can't even remember the sequence of the songs, other than they played their early hit Always near the beginning, and Line of Fire, the song featured in the series finale of Breaking Bad, toward the end (the encore?).  Back in 2010, their encore included a cover of U2's With Or Without You - with Sharon Van Etten singing no less - but as hard to believe as it is, their encore last night was every bit as good.  This was clearly one of the best shows of the season.

I know that I think that after almost every show, but this one really was something special.

Pickwick and Basia Bulat at The Earl, April 30, 2013

Seattle's Pickwick played their first-ever Atlanta show last night at The Earl, with the adorable Basia Bulat opening.

Basia is a great musician, playing at various times what looked like a twelve-string uke, an electric piano, a guitar, and an autoharp, all while singing with a terrific, strong voice to her own well-written songs.  It was also her first Atlanta show, and she was a bit of a revelation - what little I'd seen and heard from her didn't prepare me for what a complete performer she is.  

We've seen Pickwick before, at Bumbershoot 2011 in their hometown of Seattle and then MFNW in Portland that same year (same week, actually).  It's been a long wait to have them come South, but touring in support of their debut album, Can't Talk Medicine, they've finally come down.  

They sounded more energized than before, possibly due to the addition of a new drummer and possibly a new guitarist (I couldn't tell for sure - it's been over two years) and they put on a great show for a small but wildly enthusiastic audience.

Pickwick's sound revolves around the soulful singing of frontman Galen Disston.  He was in fine form last night, bringing equal parts Stax-style R&B and old-time revival fervor to the songs.  Considering the roots of the music he's singing, it's rather surprising that they haven't come South before.

Basia Bulat joined Pickwick on stage to sing the Sharon Van Etten part of their song Lady Luck.

In gratitude, Pickwick performed two covers by her apparently favorite musician, Elvis Costello, including Pump It Up for their encore.  Basia came out from backstage to listen, shouting out "Thank you!" after the song.

FWIW, here's a little video-clip digest my camera prepared last night without my even knowing it, presented in all of its unedited, random, and jumpy glory.  It still gives a fair idea of what last night was like

Dude, I Was There!

One of my favorite concerts of the year was held during MusicFest Northwest, but wasn't actually a part of MFNW, when My Morning Jacket played an outdoor show in McMenamin's Edgefield in rural Troutdale, Oregon.  Some magic combination of MMJ's epic jams, the beautiful setting, the sunset, and the fact that my being there was totally unplanned (my itinerary had me seeing Kishi Bashi in the basement Doug Fir Lounge over in Portland) all made it a very special show.  The quality of this fan video isn't professional but it isn't all that bad either, and it does give a fairly good impression of what the show was like.  As I recall, this number was about a third of the way into the set.

I don't like to rank anything as "Concert of the Year," as that's such a relative title, and many shows deserve top ranking for one aspect of the performance or another.  But, because such things are traditional at the end of the year, here in chronological order are some of my favorite concerts of 2012:

1. Akron/Family, Drunken Unicorn, January 14
2. Thurston Moore, The Goat Farm, February 8
3. Allo Darlin' & The Wave Pictures, 529, April 28
4. Damien Jurado, The Earl, May 23
5. Sonic Generator performing Steve Reich's Drumming, The Goat Farm, July 27
6. Dirty Projectors, Variety Playhouse, August 9
7. M83, Bumbershoot, Seattle, September 3
8. Low, Bumbershoot, Seattle, September 3
9. Black Mountain, Doug Fir Lounge (MFNW), Portland, Oregon, September 8
10. My Morning Jacket, McMenamin's Edgefield, Troutdale, Oregon, September 9
11. Animal Collective, The Tabernacle, September 30
12. David Byrne & St. Vincent, Cobb Energy Center, Marietta, Georgia, October 3
13. TOPS, Farm 255, Athens, Georgia, October 6
14. Sharon Van Etten, Terminal West, October 27

My Year-End 4x4

No getting around it - this is pretty much what I was listening to this year.  Here are some random clips grabbed from the above.