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Test Subjects at The New Method Warehouse, Emeryville, CA. Late 1985.

Photos: Murray Bowles

A show from 1985 feat Test Subjects and Short Dogs Grow. Short Dogs Grow is doing a reunion show in San Francisco on August 10, 2024. Test Subjects are still on hiatus.

UPDATED: July 26, 2024

Top Ten New Albums

Jack White. No Name. Surprise release, currently only available as a bootleg online, originally vinyl-only hand-given to customers at Third Man Records in Nashville. Many comparing it to The White Stripes and claiming a "return to form". Sounds good on first listen.

Johnny Blue Skies (AKA Sturgill Simpson). Passage Du Desir. This guy'll try anything...

Jake Xerxes Fussell. When I'm Called. Folk songs based on traditional tunes. Brilliant.

Oneida. Expensive Air. Hard rocking madness. Experi-mental. Me like.

Childish Gambino. Bando Stone And The New World. He says it's his last album. Just TV and movies from now on (this album is the soundtrack of his forthcoming film - see trailer below). Not my style but it's pretty cool, creative, and worth listening to.

Kneecap. Fine Art. Bilingual (Irish/English) rappers long awaited debut album. Their singles and forthcoming biopic have had a big impact already. This album should put them on everyone's map as well as their radar.

The Decemberists. As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. Very strong double album of Americana gypsy country magic.

The Felice Brothers. Valley Of Abandoned Songs. Very good.

Diiv. Frog in Boiling Water. Maybe the best rock album out right now.

Beth Gibbons. Lives Outgrown. Very ambitious debut solo album for the singer from Portishead. Swings for the fences. Successfully.

MUSICAL NOTES

Fontaines D.C. have a new album out in August. Sure to be huge...

They made a big impression at Glastonbury this year...

Timothee Chalamet is starring as a young Bob Dylan in the forthcoming biopic A Complete Unknown. Here's the trailer:

Guitar hero Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and The Jicks is forming a new band The Hard Quartet with Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly, and Jim White.

Malkmus doing an idiosyncratic version of "Stairway To Heaven" with The Jicks

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss recently released their version of "When The Levee Breaks", about the Great Mississippi flood of 1927, first recorded by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929, and later reworked by Plant's old band Led Zeppelin in 1971. Plant & Krauss are currently touring with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.

Best New Singles

Amyl And The Sniffers (Australia). "U Should Not Be Doing That"/"Facts"

Jay Som. "If I Could" ("I Saw The TV Glow" soundtrack)

Asian Dub Foundation. "No Fun" (feat Iggy Pop).

The Pixies. "You're So Impatient"

The Jesus Lizard. "Hide & Seek"

Toro Y Moi. "Tuesday"

Cassandra Jenkins. "Petco"

MJ Lenderman. "She's Leaving You"

Bright Eyes. "Bells And Whistles" (feat Conor Oberst)

Manu Chao. "São Paulo Motoboy".

Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Nathan Salsburg. "Hear The Children Sing"/"The Evidence".

David Bowie, "I Can't Explain". Cover of The Who's 1964 hit. Previously unreleased version from the new Rock 'n' Roll Star! boxset, recorded in 1972 during the Ziggy Stardust sessions. Bowie recorded a different version of the song for 1973's Pin Ups.

Ty Segall. "The Dance" (Edit)

Orville Peck & Beck. "Death Valley High".

Kendrick Lamar. "They Not Like Us" (Drake diss track)

Best Archival Albums

The Ramones. The 1975 Sire Demos (RSD 2024 Vinyl). Very cool. I'd never heard these demos before.

Bob Dylan. At The Bonnie Beecher's Apartment (Live) (1961). Priceless.

David Bowie.Rock 'n' Roll Star! box set (5 CD, 1 Blu-Ray Audio) Ziggy-era outtakes, alternate versions, and live performances with Bowie and Mick Ronson at their creative peak circa 1972. Mega-Classic.

Johnny Cash. Songwriter. Recorded in 1993, previously unreleased. The first single is a cool song, "Well Alright".

Aderemi Kabaka. Roots Funkadelia. (1980) Afrofunk classic - much beloved, seldom heard. Until now. Now it's on Heavy Rotation.

Paul McCartney & Wings. One Hand Clapping. Recorded live in the studio in 1974 while the band was filming a documentary. Often bootlegged, never previously released, it consists of songs by The Beatles, Wings, "Blue Moon Of Kentucky", and others. Nice.

John Lennon. Mind Games. Nice to hear.

Georgia Sea Island Singers feat Bessie Jones, Ed Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell & Ed Young. The Complete Friend Of Old Time Music Concert hosted by Alan Lomax in 1965 featuring the unique Gullah Geechee singers as well as the guitar (and singing) of the incomparable Fred McDowell.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Early Daze. Recorded in 1969 with original guitarist Danny Whitten. I'm kind of over Neil Young, but this is some great stuff.

Gene Clark. Back Street Mirror - Revisited. Gene Clark (1944 - 1991) co-founded The Byrds, writing some of their best originals, such as "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" and "Eight Miles High", and harmonizing with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby on iconic covers like "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!", that veritably epitomize the 1960s for many. His solo career was also amazing but under-appreciated at the time.This essential collection of rarities includes songs from 1965 - 1970. Available on Bandcamp:

Gene Clark

PJ Harvey live at Primavera, Barcelona, June 1, 2024

More Great New Albums

Cassandra Jenkins. My Light, My Destroyer. More "pop" than "indie pop" like last time? Still worth it a listen... Sophisticated. Trying to be unique.

Steve Dawson. Ghosts. Fresh Americana sounds. A major talent.

Dr. Dog. Dr. Dog. Eclectic collection of some good tunes.

The Raveonettes. The Raveonettes Sing...

Wilco. Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP. Sounds interesting.

John Cale. - POPtical Illusion. Velvet Underground's cellist/bassist returns at age 82 with some cool new songs.

Redd Kross. Redd Kross. Double album from the McDonald Brothers. Single

"Candy Coloured Catastrophe" is

killer.

Linda Thompson. Proxy Music. Feat guest vocalists like Rufus Wainwright. Nice songs.

Dave Alvin. TexiCali. Worth a listen.

Kelley Stoltz. La Fleur. Complicated pop for adults.

Bonny Light Horseman. Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free. Hadn't heard them before but it's pretty good.

Seasick Steve. A Trip A Stumble A Fall Down On Your Knees. More variety musically than you might expect. Some nice surprises.

Richard Thompson. Ship To Shore. I expected a good album but it's better than that.

Maya Hawke. Chaos Angel. She sings, she acts... you know that ultimately, she's got to be a triple-, quadruple-, or perhaps even, quintuple-threat... Directing? Photography? Yoga teacher? Probably all of the above and more...

The Folk Implosion. Walk Thru Me. Lou Barlow and friends are back.

Abdoulaye Kouyate. Fefanyi. Inspired by the musical traditions of his native Guinea, Kouyate sings and plays guitar and kora.

Anna Tivel. Living Things.I liked her last album, so I gave this one a chance too. And it's good.

Various Artists. I Saw The TV Glow (Original Soundtrack). Feat artists such as Jay Som, Bartees Strange, Caroline Polachek, and Frances Quinlan

Pedro the Lion. Santa Cruz. Check it out. Pseudo-biographical? Maybe...

Willie Nelson. The Border He's an American icon. A very enjoyable listen.

Aba Diop & The Yermande Family. Revolution Sabar. Senegal's finest, traditional drumming is the foundation for these songs. Feels deep.

Richard Hawley. In This City They Call You Love. Oh, Sweet Soul Singer of Sheffield, sing us a bittersweet song...

Bernard Butler. Good Grief. Like the aforementioned Richard Hawley, BB is a giant in Britain, but little known in the U.S. outside of a few Anglophile hipsters. Both albums are superb and well-worth a listen.

Jessica Pratt. Here In The Pitch. Cool retro psychedelic sounds. Shades of Dusty Springfield. Yes.

Shellac. To All Trains. Very strong album, featuring the late, great super-producer Steve Albini on guitar and vocals. We were looking forward to the band's first new release in ten years, and were shocked by Albini's sudden death May 7, 2024, only a week before the album's scheduled release. We added this album to classics produced by Albini for The Pixies, PJ Harvey, and Nirvana to create a Steve Albini Memorial Playlist.

Aluminium. Fully Beat. You call it "dream pop", I call it "shoe gaze". Maybe we're both right.

The Avett Brothers. The Avett Brothers. Industrial strength Americana served.

Blitzen Trapper. 100's of 1000's, Millions Of Billions. Psychedelic stoned rock done right.

Arab Strap. I'm Totally Fine With It... Scottish veteran rockers back and better than ever.

Mdou Moctar. Funeral For Justice. African desert blues.

Paul Weller. 66. The Master returns.

Orville Peck. Stampede: Vol. 1. Willie Nelson, Elton John, Nathaniel Rateliff, and other friends join the masked queer cowboy crooner from South Africa (via Canada) on his debut album. Don't ask me, I just work here. Featuring the hit single (with Willie): "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other".

Heems, Lapgan. Lafandar. Hip hop from the Das Racist guy.

Sunny Day Real Estate. Diary at London Bridge Studio.

Thunderpussy. West.

Mick Harvey. Five Ways To Say Goodbye.

Garbage. Lie To Me. (EP). Originally a Record Store Day release, it contains a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren".

New albums are generally released on Fridays. Sometimes they are released on other days. Some albums are long scheduled, while others are surprise releases with little lead-up. Of the dozens of albums that are released on Fridays, I generally find one or two that I recommend. It is highly unusual to have 5 releases coming out on the same day (as was there case on June 14, 2024) that I recommend. I usually recommend albums instead of singles. Ideally an album is a collection of songs which are somewhat interrelated and indicate of the artist's current state of mind and their current reflections on the state of the world and such. But some albums are just a couple of singles surrounded by filler. For those albums, I sometimes just recommend the singles, but, overall, I prefer albums. I try to listen to pretty much everything that comes out, with a focus on indie rock, Americana, British and Irish artists, but also listening to other genres and mainstream pop. New releases that are not on the playlist are generally albums I have listened to and do not recommend.

St. Vincent. "Broken Man" live on Jimmy Kimmel

Totally Random

Sly & The Family Stone. "If You Want Me To Stay" (1973). Sly is the best.

Ken Boothe. Freedom Street. (1970). Classic reggae that hasn't been overplayed.

Daddy Dewdrop. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes Love it)". (1971). Novelty song ear candy yum.

The Yardbirds. The Ultimate Live At The BBC. Simply great.

The Chats. Get Fucked (2022), High Risk Behaviour (2020), and "Smoko" (2017). Caught their recent performance at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas on YouTube and was a good excuse to re-listen to their excellent 2022 release Get Fucked as well as their 2020 album High Risk Behaviour, and the unforgettable single "Smoko" from 2017's Get This In Ya.

Highly Anticipated Forthcoming Releases

Fontaines D.C. Romance. [XL] August 23, 2024. Ireland's best band's fourth album promises to be very different and take them to another level. This could very well be The Best Rock Album Of 2024. It's gonna be huge. Enormous. Going To Be Big.

Heems. Veena LP [Veena Sounds]. August 23, 2024. Rap album from the Das Racist guy.

Ty Segall. Love Rudiments. [Drag City]. August 30, 2024. Always good.

David Gilmour. Luck And Strange. September 6, 2024. Pink Floyd guitarist/singer has a new album coming out.

Toro Y Moi. Hole Erth. [Dead Oceans]. September 6, 2024. Should be great (but please cool it on the Auto-Tune, if you don't mind....)

MJ Lenderman. Manning Fireworks. [Anti-]. September 6, 2024. Anticipation couldn't be higher for this album from this rising Americana star, who has a solo career, plays guitar for Wednesday with his partner Karly Hartzman, and recently was a prominent guest artist on the new Waxahatchee album Tigers Blood. And in his spare time...

The Faces. Faces At The BBC - Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973.[Rhino]. September 6, 2024. Boxset comprised of 8 CDs and one Blu-ray Disc of the legendary Faces feat Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Ronnie Laine, Kenney Jones, and Ian McLagan. Perhaps the most under-appreciated of the truly great rock bands.

The Jesus Lizard. Rack [Ipecac]. September 13, 2024.

Jesse Malin. Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin [Glassnote]. September 20, 2024.

Bright Eyes. Five Dice, All Threes. [Dead Oceans] September 20, 2024. New release from Conor Oberst & Friends sounds good, a return to form.

Mano Chao. Viva Tu. [Radio Bemba/Because]. September 20, 2024. Liked the title song, which was the first single, "Viva Tu".

Bob Dylan. The 1974 Live Recordings. [Columbia/Sony]/ September 20, 2024. Massive 27-CD boxset documenting each iteration of the infamous 1974 national tour of Dylan and The Band. Classic.