New songs for August 12th, 2020

 here they are:

"Burn Too Bright" by Laura Veirs: It's been 7 years since we last heard from indie-folk-rocker, Laura Veirs (by herself, at least - she was also part of indie-folk supergroup, case, lang, and veirs, back in 2016), and it feels like it's been even longer ago than that. I was not expecting to hear new material from her any time soon, yet here it is. Underneath the quirky upbeat vibes of her latest song, "Burn Too Bright", there lies an undercurrent of darkness, perhaps because the song is essentially a eulogy to Richard Swift, one of Laura's record producers and a member of indie-pop sensations, The Shins, for 6 years. Swift died two years ago from alcohol complications when he was only a year past 40. I had no idea until today that Laura has been a mother for about a decade now, but she has, and that probably just makes matters worse for her in light of both losing a close friend two years ago and losing her marriage just one year later. Here's hoping Laura continues to burn brightly in this world, but not too bright!

"Club Zero" by The Go-Go's: As both a Southern California native and as someone whose father has connections to the L.A. punk scene, it makes me proud that 2020 has been a great year for members of that very scene. In spring of this year, Los Angelean punk rock poets, X, made a surprise splash onto the fringes of adult alt radio with the spiky yet catchy "Alphabetland." Now it's The Go-Go's turn at bat. Both X and The Go-Go's moved away from punk later on, branching out into folk-rock and pop/rock respectively, yet 2020 has found both groups returning to their punk roots. With The Go-Go's being the flashy, bubbly group they are, there's a bit of a pop influence to their latest song, "Club Zero", but it's also the band's hardest rocking song since "We Got the Beat", perhaps even a little harder edged than that one was! You might be wondering why the song is called what it's called. There is no actual location known as Club Zero (that I know of), but there was the Zero Zero Club in Hollywood that existed during The Go-Go's heyday, which is how the song derived its name. There might also be an undercurrent of nihilism to the title of the song, as well as a sense of rebellion of, to quote the group's Jane Wiedlin, "zero f**ks given", the unapologetically brash attitude of both this song and the era it was created in!

"Double Denim Hop" by Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard: Here's another rock and roll throwback, this time more evocative of the swingin' sounds of the early to mid-1970's. Groups like Sweet, Foghat, Steve Miller Band, and Thin Lizzy seemed to influence the retro sounds of this song with an equally retro title. The title of the song was just thought up on a whim when the lead singer happened to be wearing double denim (which all four members sport in the song's music video). He posted his trendy look on Instagram, referred to it as, "that double denim hop", and thus, a new rock song with an old rock sound was born! One more thing. The band's name IS "Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard". Is that anything like "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"?! WHOA, holy cow, there he is! How'd Beetlejuice get here?!

"Just Because I Can" by Lissie: It has now been a decade since indie-folk-rocker, Lissie, first graced adult alt radio with her debut record, and its Triple A radio hits, "In Sleep", and "When I'm Alone." Her latest track, "Just Because I Can", is meant to be a retrospective to the year she debuted on the music scene. A bittersweet indie-folk ballad, "Just Because I Can" illustrates the struggle Lissie went through and eventually achieved to gain both recognition and independence as a musician. 2010 seems a little soon to be nostalgic for, but Lissie has already developed a nostalgia for that year and the importance it played in helping her break through to a small yet very dedicated audience that seems to have grown bigger every year since. I love how moving this song is, and how much strength and dedication was put into it!

"What You Gonna Do?" by Bastille (featuring Blur's Graham Coxon): It may be Bastille's Dan Smith on lead vocals here, but "What You Gonna Do?" is clearly a Graham Coxon song as far as its instrumentation is concerned! The song contains far more guitar licks than pretty much any Bastille song I've heard so far! I must say, I'm pretty impressed by the punchy power pop vibes this song has. Its brief, two-and-a-half minute length also distinguishes it from other Bastille songs, which often run roughly between three-and-a-half to four minutes. Both the length and sound of "What You Gonna Do?" were intentionally meant to be different from most of Bastille's other material. Dan Smith has acknowledged just what a chaotic year this has been so far, and "What You Gonna Do?" was meant to be a quick moment of fun, goofy escapism from an otherwise troubled world. So what you gonna do? Rock out and dance my butt off, that's what! 

New songs for April 27th, 2016

here they are:


"Best Kept Secret" by case, lang, and veirs: What happens when three solo female performers of folk-rock get together to form a group?! Well, they become case, lang, and veirs, likely written all in lowercase because k.d. lang writes her name that way (she is the "lang" in this group). The other two are Neko Case and Laura Veirs, both folk-rockers of the indie era. Case is from the state of Washington, Veirs is from the indie-nerd town of Portland, Oregon, and k.d. lang isn't even from the States, yet their song "Best Kept Secret" isn't about any of those places. Instead, it is an ode to someone who lives in none other than my hometown, Los Angeles. More specifically, it is about someone who lives in hipster haven, Silverlake, which is where my dad currently resides. Laura Veirs is the lead vocalist for this track. She projects her quirky Portlandian ways onto another city full of neo-bohemians in "Best Kept Secret" (which, I guess, is no longer a secret!)


"There Will Be Time" by Mumford and Sons (featuring Baaba Maal): This is not a song from Mumford and Sons' latest album, and is instead a song that is currently being released only as a single. Times have not been easy for M & S, for although they have been well-received by general audiences, they have not been taken very seriously by "real" rock fans who probably think that rock history ended with the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994. Thankfully, "There Will Be Time" has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response so far on YouTube. Perhaps part of the reason why is because it features Mumford and Sons going in a new direction with their music while still keeping relatively true to the sound they've become known for. In regards to how the song sounds, all I can say is that some member(s) of M & S must be big Paul Simon fans. A few years ago, they covered the Simon and Garfunkel song, "The Boxer", and this time around, they're going for a sound that is evocative of Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. "There Will Be Time" features African musician Baaba Maal on backing vocals, making it even more like a "Graceland" song than it already seems to be!


"Trouble" by Cage the Elephant: Cage got their rock 'n' roll groove back in fall of last year with "Mess Around"! It felt like that song was never gonna go away, but like all songs, its popularity eventually faded away, and a bit quicker than I thought it would, too. In its place is the much calmer, more dreamy sounding song, "Trouble". The song seems to be about the hope for love to right all the wrongs in the lead singer's romantic life. Amidst both the weariness of the lyrical theme and the lightness of its sound, though, there is still some cleverness within "Trouble" during the part when Matt Shulz says that "the wicked get no rest", a reference to CTE's first big hit, "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked".

New songs for August 14th, 2013

here they are:


"Another Is Waiting" by The Avett Brothers: Seemed like only yesterday that The Avett Brothers released a new album (though it was actually a year ago). Anyway, their latest song, "Another Is Waiting", is one that really seems to put the "rock" in "folk-rock". Part of the uniqueness of this song comes from how the instrumentation is led by a banjo (and not an acoustic guitar, as far as I can tell), but backed by an electric guitar and drums. That's right, DRUMS!! An instrument that is not typically featured on The Avetts' material, at least not prominently. Perhaps they have created a whole new subgenre with this song - "banjo rock". To accomplish all these instrumental feats in just a little over two minutes shows how amazing the band truly is to me!!


"Moving" by Travis: There's progressive rock, and there's progress-ING rock. Scottish indie-pop group, Travis, fits the latter category here. Their song "Moving" is all about...well...moving. Moving on through life, that is. Instrumentally, this song could easily be mistaken for a Radiohead or Snow Patrol song (though a lot of their material could be), but Fran Healy's distinctive vocals set Travis apart from such bands here. The recurring theme of going outside one's comfort zone becomes apparent in the ending lines of the first verse ("Home isn't where you are"), and third verse ("Home isn't where you stay"). Travis might not be "moving" from their typical sound, but they are making strides lyrically here, and that's a start!


"Shake" by The Head and The Heart: When The Head and The Heart debuted back in early 2011, their plaintive song "Lost In My Mind" won the hearts of many indie-folk fans, and the success of two more songs of theirs ("Down In the Valley" and "Ghosts") made them a household name among musically mellow twenty-somethings everywhere! So how does their newest song, "Shake", hold up in comparison?! The first few seconds of it make it sound noticeably different from most Head and The Heart songs because of the use of the electric guitar, but the piano that seems to serve as the central instrument in The Head and The Heart's music gradually makes its entrance shortly afterwards. "Shake" seems to have a similar rhythmic pattern to the band biggest hit so far, "Lost In My Mind", and perhaps The Head and The Heart purposely chose this rhythm for the song in hopes of making it another hit for them, and so far it's working! As for the use of electric guitar on the song?! Well, the band had their reasons. Though they don't mind doing folk-rock music, being likened to an "American Mumford and Sons" was not exactly what they wanted. The Head and The Heart desired to be a more musically eclectic band, and "Shake" is heading them in that direction so far!


"Sun Song" by Laura Veirs: Already, we have seen The Avett Brothers and The Head & The Heart leaning more towards the electric guitar than the acoustic for this week's reviews. Laura Veirs seems to have been the opposite. Her breakthrough song was the bubbly, neo-psychedelic pop song, "Galaxies", but every song since seems to have focused more on acoustic guitar than electric for her. Many of Laura's songs deal with an almost Neo-Paganistic view of nature and the universe, and her latest song, "Sun Song", is no exception to the rule (though the title of the song should make that obvious). This song "revolves" around the sun, so to speak, with every verse leading up to a chorus that praises how the sun makes many things possible. Neko Case also lends backing vocals to "Sun Song", which is interesting considering how defiant her song, "Man", from earlier this year was.

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bono? (and three other songs)

Thought this would be a clever silly title for my latest blog entry since U2's latest release is titled "Blow Your House Down". Anyway, here are this week's songs:

"Blow Your House Down" by U2: 1991 was an amazing year in music (if only I wasn't a toddler back then so I could appreciate how great the music was then)!! Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Pearl Jam's "Ten" were both released back then, as was U2's "Achtung Baby", of which "Blow Your House Down" is now a previously unreleased "outtake" of. And what an amazing song it is!! At seven and a half minutes, "Blow Your House Down" is certainly an epic among U2's already adventurous, innovative catalog of music! Its sound combines the best legendary, arena-rock worthy sound of The Rolling Stones with the experimental electro-funk-rock that David Bowie experimented with midway through his career. If Pearl Jam could make 5 and a half minute songs like "Jeremy" and "Alive" into the big hits they were back in '91, why couldn't U2 have been daring enough to release a 7 and a half minute song like "Blow Your House Down" back then?!? Oh well, better late than never, right?!

"Holy Moses" by Washington: With a name like "Washington", you wouldn't expect hypnotic but danceable alt-pop from an arty female performer, would you?! Surprise!! Whoever "Washington" is (perhaps the last name of the singer?), she must have been into more forms of expressive art than just music! The video for "Holy Moses" functions almost like an exotic performance art piece that's part circus act, part music video, and part musical! The lead singer's face makeup and somewhat seductive outfits seem to be drawing comparisons to Lady Gaga on YouTube, though I would say David Bowie might be a better comparison (at one point, the lead singer has red and blue face makeup, reminiscent of the cover of Bowie's "Aladdin Sane"). If you're looking for a catchy piece of music with flashy imagery, then I highly recommend "Holy Moses"!

"So American" by Portugal. The Man: Of the three songs Portugal. The Man have gotten attention on adult alt radio so far (including this one), I've started to notice they all have a similar mid-tempo-ish beat and they all have either a violin or a cello (hard to tell which, though probably the latter) in the background. Though "So American" uses the same structure as most Portugal. The Man songs, I still like it. The melody is fun and bouncy, and, though the lyrics of "So American" express political and religious dissatisfaction, Portugal. The Man do so here in their own original, quirky way, particularly in the opening lines ("If pain was a color to paint on you, your heart would be the color blue").

"Tumblebee" by Laura Veirs: With acts like Feist and Tilly and The Wall having both made appearances on "Sesame Street", it only seems fitting that the bouncy-sounding indie-folk-pop-ster Laura Veirs' latest release just happens to be a children's album!! "Tumblebee", then, might mark a first in adult alt radio - the first time a children's song is gaining airplay on stations that would normally play bands like R.E.M., Counting Crows, and Coldplay in heavy rotation!! Unfortunately, the whole song isn't available yet, but a 50-second sample is currently available, so I got a good impression of what the song was like. Though the lyrics might be simplistic (and somewhat "cutesy"), "Tumblebee"'s sound is pure indie, almost like a song off the "Juno" soundtrack. Now, if only people like Ben Folds, Belle and Sebastian, The Decemberists, and Mumford and Sons could all release songs on a Joe Raposo (songwriter of "Sesame Street" fame) tribute album, THAT would be amazing!! In the meantime, though, "Tumblebee" satisfies the kid in me just fine!!

New songs - Wednesday Feb. 10th, 2010 (sorry it's a day late folks...)

Hiya!! I decided it would be a better idea if I just reviewed the songs I liked - I'd be guaranteed to find at least one per week (at least I hope so). Anyway, since the chances of me finding a couple new faves per week seems more likely to happen than to find songs suitable for my reviewing on the Adult Alt. Top 20 at least once per week, I thought I'd change my focus a bit. Not to worry, though, I'll still be sticking to reviewing the same type o' songs. So here goes!! Also, before I begin, I realize that about half these songs came out the week before last, but I thought I'd give my opinion on 'em anyway:


"Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)" by Monsters of Folk - The alumni of My Morning Jacket and Bright Eyes have done it again! Unlike the Traveling Wilburys-ish first single, "Say Please", this one seems to have a bit more of a trip-hop influence (with some nice, lush string arrangement added in!) Lyrically, it seems like a more positive, less confrontational version of the similarly titled "Dear God" by XTC. Only instead of questioning and denouncing a belief in God, like XTC did, this song seems more fit for those who think God exists, but who just don't understand why He allows people to suffer. Kudos to the stations who have chosen this as the second Monsters of Folk single - it's a nice choice!!


"Lay There And Hate Me" by Ben Harper - Ben continues to show his diversity with this sultry funk-'n'-blues track. His backup band for his latest record, The Relentless 7, is pretty aptly named considering that that's how they seem to be in pursuing both musical talent and musical diversity - relentless!! In "White Lies For Dark Times", they've gone through Led Zeppelin-esque hard rock ("Shimmer And Shine"), tender folk-rock-y ballads ("Fly One Time"), and now, Ben Harper's funky side comes out on this song. Just like on the other two songs that became "hits" off of "White Lies For Dark Times", Ben pours all his heart and soul out into the lyrics when he sings them! Looking forward to knowing if anything else off the album will be up for grabs sometime later this year.


"Set the Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol (w/Martha Wainwright on backing vocals)-
This is actually NOT a new song (it came out back in 2006), but I guess now that Snow Patrol put out a "best of" collection and included this song as one of the songs, adult alt. stations are finally starting to pick up on how poignant this song is. Personally, I would have preferred "An Olive Grove Facing the Sea" (truly one of THE most beautiful songs I've ever heard - and that's not just counting Snow Patrol songs) to be the next single off the album, but this song's pretty cool, too. In addition to the sincerity of (lead singer) Gary Lightbody's vocals and lyrics, it also has very moving chords (perhaps because they are all major 7ths - those are the melodic 7 chords, not the "bluesy" ones), and Martha Wainwright's vocals sound beautiful and harmonize excellently with Gary Lightbody's. If only ALL of Snow Patrol's "softer" songs could be like this...


"Song Away" by Hockey: What kind of a name for a band is HOCKEY?!? Oh well, no matter - "Song Away" is still a cool song. Musically, it seems very derivative of The Killers (and a bit of the mid-2000's power pop band, Rooney), but the lead singer of Hockey's vocals seem more uneven and Dylanesque than the more straight, melodic vocals of Brandon Flowers from The Killers. Hockey's lead vocalist even "sing-speaks" the parts right before the chorus as though he WAS Bob Dylan - perhaps its even a lyrical satire on Dylan, since he keeps saying "This is (fill in random word here) music" throughout those parts of the song (my fave line - "This ain't no Roxy Music" - not that I have anything against Roxy Music, in fact I love what I've heard of theirs, but I like the line because of the potential pun involving the word "music"). All that being said, this is a pretty quirky song - so check it out!!



"Summer Is the Champion" by Laura Veirs: I was pretty excited when I heard Laura Veirs was gonna release a new album for 2010 since I loved her 2005 song, "Galaxies". It was really unique, even among the already (mostly) unique indie rock/pop categorization, because it had weird lyrics and a spaced-out (but endearing) sound. Laura continues to show what a quirky little girl (bonus points for those who get the reference) she is on her latest album, "July Flame", which I have already heard two songs off of, and this is one of them. It's kinda like Feist's "1234" meets Van Morrison's "Moondance", done with a Burt Bacharach-ish instrumental arrangement. A very charming mix of influences if you ask me. It's just too bad that so far only one station I know of (Sirius XM's The Spectrum) has bothered to play this. Oh well. Maybe soon more stations will play this one.


"Wide-Eyed, Legless" by Laura Veirs: Another example of Ms. Veirs' cutesy but cryptic brand of folk-rock. This one is a bit more melancholy than the above, but in a very sweet, precious sort of manner. The creepy, death-related lyrics create somewhat a lyrical dissonance in comparison with the bouncy (but minor key) melody and rhythm of the song. I guess sometimes the musical mood of a song can compensate for the lyrical mood of a song, and this is one of those times. I know I didn't give this one as lengthy a review as the one above, but it's pretty cool, so check it out!