So-called Mud Season winds to a close, not that there was much mud this year due to dearth of snow. And now a dearth of tunes, causing us to have to dig into back catalog for music to play for y’all.
In the process, we discovered that some artists have disappeared while others are still lurking about. The vicissitudes of the indie genre are such that a band can release a great single to marginal acclaim and then soon after vanish as if they never were.
For instance, fine. — a duo associated with Kid Chameleon, who we also like — continue to put out a song a year, as if to say, yes, we’re still here but barely. G Flip had a great tune called “About You” a few years back, and they/she had a new record as recently as last year. Alvvays, a Toronto group we really liked, gave us “After the Earthquake” in 2022, but nothing since.
In the newer (or at least new to us) music department, Swae Lee’s hip hop pop confection “Sunflower” (featuring Post Malone) was a pleasure. The Speed of Sound re-release includes a great rocker in “West Wind,” as well as the VU-inflected “SS-100-X.” And our favorite cover of the week was Pert Near Sandstone’s version of the Replacements “Can’t Hardly Wait,” featuring both the usual string band arrangement with less typical horn section, a la the Mats original.
Read on for the full Bubble Wrap agenda, such as it was…
April 24, 2024
Age of Lighter Days
Space Ghost – What Day Is It?
Bill Cox – Trial of Richard Hauptman Pt 2
Tex Ritters – Blood in the Saddle
The Stewart Bros – The Rat
Spear Flowers – Intro / This Message Will Repeat Until There’s No One Left To Read It
G Flip – About You
fine. – Should I
Alvvays – After The Earthquake
Grace Jones – Comme Un Oiseau Qui S’Envole
Divine – Native Love (Step by Step)
Acid Arab – A wa gul labi
Plastilina Mosh – Pervert Pop Song (feat. Ximena Sariñana and Patricia Lynn)
Aceyalone & RJD2 – Fire
The Last Poets – The White Man’s Got a God Complex
Joan Osborne – War
New Dreams – Age of Days
Luke and the Lonely – The Age of Enlightenment
Chopper One – Touch My Fuzz
Ohio Players – What The Hell
The Stewart Bros – Ra Ra Roo
The Speed of Sound – West Wind
Nicky North and the Cardinal Directions – Fight Song
Pert Near Sandstone – Can’t Hardly Wait
The Speed of Sound – SS-100-X
Funkadelic – The Electric Spanking of War Babies
As The Flowers Fall – Your Grace & Magic
Layla May – Eternal
Swae Lee – Sunflower (feat. Post Malone)
Pebbles – Girlfriend
Photo credit: Dr. Hans-Günter Wagner, CC BY-SA 2.0