New songs for June 9th, 2021

 here they are:


"Making a Fire" by Foo Fighters: If "Shame Shame" and "Waiting on a War" felt too lightweight for you, then "Making a Fire" might be more up your alley! The song rocks pretty hard from the start, although not without enough melodic vocals to buoy it over and prevent it from becoming too edgy for adult alt radio stations to consider playing. True to its title, "Making a Fire" is a pretty explosive song about wanting to live life to the fullest no matter what obstacles might be in the way! Quite a far cry from the plaintive melancholia of their last single, "Waiting on a War," but after a particularly harsh winter and questionable spring, perhaps this song is just what we need to have a rockin' summer this year! 

"My Cleveland Heart" by Jackson Browne: 1970's rock fave, Jackson Browne, might be getting old, but his spirit still sounds as young as ever in his latest song, "My Cleveland Heart." Aside from the rootsy rock and roll guitar sound Jackson has on this song, another thing he has kept intact is his sense of humor. For instance, the word "heart" might sound like it's supposed to mean something sentimental, but it actually isn't, in this case. It refers to an actual human heart, or at least to a hospital in Cleveland that specializes in cardiology which is called (I kid you not) Cleveland Heart. Browne is aware of how his time is slipping away, so when him and a friend were driving by the place and he found out what it specialized in, he got the idea for his latest song, given the benefits that having an artificial heart from such a place could provide him! He is also very well aware of new talent on the horizon, which is why current indie-folk sensation, Phoebe Bridgers, appears in the video for the song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gWWzLph24) dressed as a nurse (for all you Phoebe fanboys - no, she is not a "sexy nurse" in this video), adding to the song's already tongue-in-cheek humor (or should I say "heart-in-cheek") by eating his "heart"! There's heartbreaking and there's...ummm...whatever this is! Jackson, when I said some of your songs were "heartbreakers," I didn't mean that literally, ya know!

"Wolves" by Garbage: Utilizing the same combo of goth-rock and grunge that made them so big in the '90s, Shirley Manson and co are at it again for the first time in almost a decade with "Wolves"! The lyrics to the song are just as venomous, if not more so, than the song itself! It's a song about inner conflict, about how chaotic the world has gotten lately, and about regrets Shirley has had about her past self. No wonder the song sounds so...well...angry! Probably more so than Garbage typically is already! In the parts between the verses and chorus of the song, chord changes are used that often sound too dissonant for most pop and rock stars to feel comfortable putting into their music. Even Shirley Manson herself has questioned the notion of whether she wants to put out another song like this one, but has also concluded that she is more adept at writing songs fit for the spooky underbelly of pop/rock music, and not more upbeat and happy material. The song could possibly serve as a reminder to some as to why Garbage were called "Garbage" in the first place. Apparently, someone heard them rehearsing in their garage and, as a response to how noisy they were, said their music sounded like...well...garbage! Hence the name of the group. This might just be the noisiest and darkest song yet in Garbage's catalog...but what would you expect from an already jaded band heading into what is shaping to be an even more doomed decade than the one they started out in?! 

New songs for April 11th, 2012

here they are:

“April Fool” by Patti Smith: It’s no joke! Patti Smith decided to release her latest CD right around April Fool’s Day, with a fitting song to go with it! Those expecting something punk-y but free-spirited along the lines of Patti’s charmingly bizarre cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” might be a bit disappointed since this a “softer” song of hers. That’s not to say that Patti’s mellower material is bad (“People Have the Power” and “Dancing Barefoot”, for instance, are both absolute classics!) However, “April Fool” brings nothing new to the table in terms of passion or musical innovation. It is a sweet, bouncy, almost naïve sounding song. However, Patti revealed that even back in her punk rock days she was a big softie (in a good way) underneath it all in her recent autobiography, “Just Kids”, so “April Fool” is an apt song for her in that aspect.

“Blood For Poppies” by Garbage: Hmmmm…don’t exactly know what qualifies this song as “adult alternative” since it’s a rather dark song that combines grunge with techno, but for some weird reason it’s gotten airplay on so many adult alt stations by now, that I thought I’d give it a go and review this one! For old school Garbage fans, this has gotta be quite a treat! “Blood For Poppies” doesn’t have the techno-pop sound of “Stupid Girl” or the bittersweet alt-pop sound of their biggest hit, “Special”, but rather the angst-ridden, Nirvana-goes-dance-pop sound of songs like “Only Happy When It Rains” and “I Think I’m Paranoid”, and it seems like that is the sound Garbage’s fans like the most from their catalog. The lyrics seem rather haphazardly thrown together, and the song itself does too, to a certain extent, but it’s things like that which prove that Garbage’s music…wel…ISN’T “garbage”!!

“Settle Down” by Kimbra: Now that Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” has become such a huge hit, there are probably enough people who know that the song featured a “guest” female vocalist during the last verse. This, ladies and gentlemen, is that very female vocalist, and this time without the aid of Gotye! So how does Kimbra fare on her own?! She does so quite well, if I do say so myself. “Settle Down” comes off as a song with a minor key “alternative” take on contemporary female R & B musicians (mixed with Bobby McFerrin-style “instruments” at the beginning). The video for “Settle Down” is also very inventive and quirky. It appears to take place in a fake “dollhouse” of sorts. It also shows what a cutie (and good dancer) Kimbra is! The video for “Settle Down” can be viewed here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHV04eSGzAA)

“The Wolves” by Ben Howard: The latest in a long line of people that could be considered the “new Nick Drake” (Damien Rice, Iron & Wine, and Jose Gonzalez among them), Ben Howard’s debut song fits only two verses (with a six-line chorus between each verse) into a nearly 5 minute space, with a “running” drumbeat accompanying urgent acoustic guitar strumming. “The Wolves”’ urgency peaks once Ben’s vocals quiver into an unusual yet memorable trill in the middle, and towards the end of the song. Like many songs of the “singer/songwriter” subgenre, “The Wolves”’ lyrical content can be interpreted in multiple ways. In particular, the song’s refrain of “We lost faith, in the arms of love”, could be about struggles with religion just as much as it could be about struggles with a relationship.

“Tongue Tied” by Grouplove: A growing trend in indie/alt music seems to be combining the singsong melodies and technology used in dance-pop with rock attitude and instrumentation. Few songs today illustrate this trend better than Grouplove’s song “Tongue Tied”, with its almost bubble-gum-y, stick-in-your-head chorus that hides a capoed acoustic guitar beneath all its glitz and glamour. It’s easy to mistake this song for just another Top 40 hit at first (in fact I’m surprised it hasn’t even made the “Hot Adult Contemporary” charts yet!) but there does seem to be SOMETHING “indie” about it nonetheless (perhaps the similarity it bears to an indie/dance-pop crossover from around 5 years earlier, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” by Scissor Sisters). I guess if you want to impress people both on the dance floor and at coffeehouses, playing Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied” would be a good way to do so!