Monday, November 18, 2024

ThisSmallPlanet.com Cool New Music Winter Playlist: 2024 End of Year Wrap-Up (October, November & December releases)

UPDATED: December 7, 2024

Cool New Singles (with links to YouTube videos)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy. "London May" (feat Brit Taylor). Highly anticipated cool new album out in January.

Waxahatchee. "Abandoned" (feat MJ Lenderman)(Lucinda Williams cover). Apple Music Nashville Sessions,

Conor Oberst & Craig Wedren. "Justice To A Scream". The artists behind Bright Eyes & Shudder To Think unite for a cool new song from the soundtrack of a documentary about a trans artist called Alok.

PJ Harvey. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division cover feat Tim Phillips)(Apple TV's "Big Sister" Season 2 soundtrack)

Bob Dylan. "Don't Fence Me In"  (Cole Porter & Robert Fletcher cover) from the soundtrack for Reagan, a new film starring Dennis Quaid about the troubled former president.

Kim Gordon. 'Bangin' On The Freeway"  & "ECRP". Bonus tracks from her 2024 release The Collective.

                      Rev. Gary Davis: "Samson & Deliah", "Baby Let Me Follow You Down", "Cocaine"

Cool New Albums

St. Vincent. Todos Nacen Gritando. Spanish version of her 2024 release All Born Screaming. "A" for effort, "A" for execution.

The Cure. Songs Of A Lost World.

Tinariwen. Idrache (Traces Of The Past).

Talib Kweli & J. Rawls. The Confidence Of Knowing.

Kendrick Lamar. GNX.

Tyler, The Creator. Chromakopia.

Dwight Yoakam. Brighter Days.

Kim Deal. Nobody Loves You More.

Father John Misty. Mahashmashana.

The Coward Brothers (Elvis Costello & T Bone Burnett).The Coward Brothers. Elvis Costello & T Bone Burnett collection.

Joan Armatrading. How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean.

Seckou Keita. Homeland - Chapter 1. Master kora player Seckou Keita from Senegal offers an interesting album of spoken word pieces with kora backing, or perhaps the voices are backing the kora. Either way.

The Last Poets and Tony Allen feat Egypt 80. Africanism.



Cool Archival Releases


George Harrison. Living In The Material World (50th anniversary 2 CD). A joy to listen to.

Talking Heads. Talking Heads:77 (Super Deluxe Edition 3 CD). Never sounded better.

Stevie Wonder.The Wonder Of Stevie (Audible). Always works.

The Beatles. Beatles '64. To accompany the new Martin Scorsese-produced documentary.

Buckingham Nicks. Buckingham Nicks (1973). Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, at the time a couple and partners in a duo, released this album which so impressed Mick Fleetwood that he invited them to join Fleetwood Mac and the rest is pop history. Hadn't really heard this album before, but inspired by Andrew Bird's 2024 re-interpretation of the album, I decided to give  botha listen. Bird, along with his collaborator Madison Cunningham, brings new life to the old album, inspiring looking back while at the same time looking forward.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore & The Flatlanders. All American Music. A 1972 classic also featuring Joe Ely and Butch Hancock.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Four Way Harmonies. Early demos and outtakes.




Highly Anticipated New Releases


Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The Purple Bird. [Drag City]. January 31, 2025. 



MUSICAL NOTES:

Our sky lost a bright light this year, Barbara Dane (1927 - 2024), who sang folk and jazz with Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, and The Chambers Brothers... Her presence was a blessing for many years... And her memory is already a blessing going forward...









Nice to see that Ireland honors her artists... Shane & Sinead... 

These are official 2024 postage stamps from Ireland...



Earlier stamps honored Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and guitar great Rory Gallagher...



Cool New Music Best of 2024

Top Twenty Singles of 2024

Iron & Wine. Light Verse. Featuring folky Americanish goodness, like "All In Good Time", a duet with Fiona Apple.

Top Twenty Albums of 2024




Fontaines D.C. Romance. Ireland's best band's fourth album takes 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.

                                             MJ Lenderman "She's Leaving You" (live feat Waxahatchee)

MJ Lenderman. Manning Fireworks. Anticipation couldn't be higher for this album from this rising Americana star, who has a solo career, plays guitar for Wednesday with his ex-partner Karly Hartzman, and recently was a prominent guest artist on the new Waxahatchee album Tigers Blood. And in his spare time... This guy is going to be a huge star after this. 




Bright Eyes. Five Dice, All Threes. New release from Conor Oberst & Friends sounds good, a return to form. Candidate for The Best Rock Album Of 2024.


The Hard Quartet. The Hard Quartet. Fantastic debut from the latest indie supergroup to grace our shores, The Hard Quartet, featuring Stephen Malkmus (from Pavement), as well as Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly, and Jim White, who have played with musicians such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ty Segall, and The Dirty Three. They've released three videos and announced three shows so far: October 10 in L.A. at The Belasco, October 17 at New York's Webster Hall, and October 22 in London at The Electric Ballroom. Candidate for The Best Rock Album Of 2024.

The Pixies. The Night The Zombies Came. Return to form with a new bass player.

Elias Rønnenfelt. Heavy Glory. [Escho]. October 25, 2024. Iceage frontman's cool solo project.

Amyl And The Sniffers. Cartoon Darkness. [B2B/Virgin]. October 25, 2024. Amazing tough love from Australia. Be careful! She might bite your tongue while you're kissing!

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. Compare and contrast with The Felice Brothers. Valley Of Abandoned Songs. Very good.

Diiv. Frog in Boiling Water. .

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

Shellac. To All Trains. Very strong album, featuring the late, great super-producer Steve Albin 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.

St. Vincent. All Born Screaming. Sometimes she is a bit much, but I am grateful for her role in saving the guitar and rock n roll. (Check out the wild title song, feat Cate Le Bon...)

The Libertines. All Quiet.

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.

Blur. Live At Wembley Stadium. Recorded in London in July 2023. Serves as a live greatest hits collection, as well as providing lively versions of some of the better newer songs, such as 2023's "St. Charles Square".

David Rawlings & Gillian Welch

Liam Gallagher & John Squire

Hurray For The Riff Raff!


Top Twenty Archival Albums of 2024
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Thursday, August 29, 2024

Jack White says, "Hell No!" to Trump using "Seven Nation Army"

Trump aide Margo Martin posted a pro-Trump video online using The White Stripes' song without permission. She deleted it after Jack White objected.

I shot the video above for ThisSmallPlanet.com in 2014. It's Jack White performing "Death Letter" and "Seven Nation Army" at a show in San Francisco.

P.S. I second Jack's emotion on Cadet Bonespur Von Trump's (illegal and inappropriate) Arlington Cemetery Campaign Photo Op... Disgraceful...



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Friday, August 23, 2024

"A Brave and Startling Truth" by Maya Angelou




A Brave and Startling Truth

by Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2024

ThisSmallPlanet.com Cool New Music Fall Into Autumn Playlist (August - September - October 2024)


          James Baldwin and Marlon Brando at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.

                                               Stevie Wonder, "Higher Ground" at the 2024 DNC, Chicago


                     Stevie Wonder "Can We Fix Our Nations Broken Heart" (2024)

           Fontaines D.C. at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge: "Say Yes To Heaven" (Lana Del Rey cover) & "Favourite"

Cool New Singles 
(With Links to YouTube Videos)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy. "Our Home". One of my favorite artists. New album in January.
Sleater-Kinney. "This Time". An out-take feat on Little Rope (Deluxe), out Nov. 1
Waxahatchee. "Much Ado About Nothing". Americana swaying in the summer breeze...
Kaktus Einarsson & Damon Albarn. "Gumbri".
St. Vincent. "Hombre Roto". All Born Screaming now in Spanish as Todos Nacen Gritando.
Suzanne Vega. "Rats". Vincent Vega's cousin returns with a punk rock song about urban rats.
The Pixies. "Motoroller". Return to form.Totally. New bassist Emma Richardson sings here too. 
Talking Heads. "Psycho Killer" (previously unreleased 1977 take feat Arthur Russell on cello). 
Fontaines D.C. "Let's Get Lost". (Chet Baker) & "Say Yes To Heaven" (Lana Del Rey cover)
Carla Olson & Tall Poppy Syndrome. "Is It True" (Brenda Lee cover) 
Justin Townes Earle. "Graceland".
Mark Lanegan & Beck. "Union Tombstone". Previously unreleased instant classic. RIP Mark.
Amyl & The Sniffers. "Chewing Gum".
Bright Eyes (feat Conor Oberst). "Bells And Whistles" &  "Rainbow Overpass"
Elvin Bishop & Los Lobos. "What The Hell Is Going On" (anti-Trump song)
The Hard Quartet (feat Stephen Malkmus). "Earth Hater" & "Rio's Song"
Geordie Greep. "Holy, Holy" (Ex-Black Midi solo launch)
MJ Lenderman. "Joker Lips" & "Wristwatch"
Christopher Owens. "I Think About Heaven" & "No Good" (live) & "No Good" (album)
Adrianne Lenker. "Once A Bunch"
Orville Peck. "Death Valley High" (feat Beck)
Elias Ronnenfelt. "No One Else" & "Like Lovers Do" & "Worm Grew A Spine". Iceage frontman goes solo.... and you're telling me the singer from that trendy Danish metal band is going solo and playing Americana, or something like that??? Reminds me of Conor Oberst's Mystic Valley Band (who I loved). We saw Iceage was going in this direction (softer acoustic music), as in this Bob Dylan cover, "I'll Keep It with Mine", but it's a little surprising to see Elias go all the way on his solo record... Sounds great.

                                  Elias Rønnenfelt - Tapetown Sessions [SPOT FESTIVAL 2024]


                     Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) and Jason Isbell campaign for Kamala Harris

                                      Hurrah For The Riff Raff "Buffalo" (live on the Kelly Clarkson Show)



Cool New Albums Out October 25th:

The Pixies. The Night The Zombies Came. Return to form with a new bass player.

Elias Rønnenfelt. Heavy Glory. [Escho]. October 25, 2024. Iceage frontman's cool solo project.

Amyl And The Sniffers. Cartoon Darkness. [B2B/Virgin]. October 25, 2024. Amazing tough love from Australia. Be careful! She might bite your tongue while you're kissing!



Cool New Albums Out Now



Fontaines D.C. Romance. Ireland's best band's fourth album takes 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.

                                             MJ Lenderman "She's Leaving You" (live feat Waxahatchee)

MJ Lenderman. Manning Fireworks. Anticipation couldn't be higher for this album from this rising Americana star, who has a solo career, plays guitar for Wednesday with his ex-partner Karly Hartzman, and recently was a prominent guest artist on the new Waxahatchee album Tigers Blood. And in his spare time... This guy is going to be a huge star after this. Candidate for The Best Rock Album Of 2024.

Bright Eyes. Five Dice, All Threes. New release from Conor Oberst & Friends sounds good, a return to form. Candidate for The Best Rock Album Of 2024.


The Hard Quartet. The Hard Quartet. Fantastic debut from the latest indie supergroup to grace our shores, The Hard Quartet, featuring Stephen Malkmus (from Pavement), as well as Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly, and Jim White, who have played with musicians such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Ty Segall, and The Dirty Three. They've released three videos and announced three shows so far: October 10 in L.A. at The Belasco, October 17 at New York's Webster Hall, and October 22 in London at The Electric Ballroom. Candidate for The Best Rock Album Of 2024.

Christopher Owens. I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair. [True Panther]. Formerly the frontperson of Girls, Owens returns with a solo album. Sounds good.

Jon Spencer. Sick Of Being Sick! The Blues Explosion guy is rocking on. I like it.

The Linda Lindas. No Obligation. We loved "Racist, Sexist Boy" but wondered if they'd grow. They did!

The Chesterfield Kings. We're Still All The Same. Singer/bassist Andy Babiuk has been at it since 1979 with The Kings. They're back with very solid album of 60s retro bliss.

Dawes. Oh Brother. Pretty good.

Geordie Greep. The New Sound. Ex-Black Midi singer solo. Avant jazz at its best.

The Smile. Cutouts. Radiohead side project feat Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood releases their second album of 2024, which are actually more songs from the sessions for the first album Wall of Eyes. I'm not much of a Radiohead fan, but I liked Wall of Eyes, so I'll give this a listen.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80. Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head). Fela's youngest son. Yes.

Leon Bridges. Leon. Cool 70s style sounds. Check it out.

X. Smoke & Fiction. I'm still mad at Exene and Billy Zoom for being into right-wing bs and conspiracy theories but this does sound a lot the old X, who I loved, and I'm enjoying listening to this.I credit John Doe with keeping this going with dignity and style (and energy!).

Jack White. No Name. Very good.

Ray LaMontagne. Long Way Home. Pretty good. Nice songs. Some of them sound like classics we've already known forever.

Maya de Vitry. The Only Moment.

Serj Tankian. Foundations. Lead singer of System Of A Down excellent solo effort.

The Jesus Lizard. Rack. Good stuff. Aggressive.

Jesse Malin. Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin. With alotta help from his friends...

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets. Indoor Safari. *Very* strong effort from this iconic rocker.

Mano Chao. Viva Tu. English, Spanish, French, Portuguese... It's all here. Check out the title song "Viva Tu".

David Gilmour. Luck And Strange. Pink Floyd's guitarist/singer has a new album out. It's good.

Robyn Hitchcock. 1967: Vacations In The Past. Robyn's salute to the 60s has a lot of heart.

Jeff Tweedy. Starship Casual: Orbit Two. Wilco frontman steps out to do some solo acoustic demos, covers, etc. Great for fans and pretty good for not-yet-fans too. Nice cover of Paul Simon's "America".

Steve Wynn. Make It Right. Veteran rocker returns with some solid new songs.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. Woodland. Modern Alternative Country Americana roots twang at its best.

Susanna. Meditations On Love. Powerful.

Toro Y Moi. Hole Erth. Always creative and engaging. But less auto-tune next time, ok?

Justin Townes Earle. ALL IN: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years). Very cool. A tragic loss.

Meshell Ndegeocello. No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin. Interesting. Different. Nice tribute to queer Black writer James Baldwin, as we note the anniversary of the March on Washington.

Orville Peck. Stampede. That gay cowboy with the sweet-ass voice...


Mdou Moctar: The Agadez Folders: Live at Sultan’s Palace (2024)(47 minutes)(Tuareg, Niger, The Sahel)

               RIP Kris Kristofferson, pictured here with Johnny Cash in 1968: "Sunday Morning Coming Down"


Best Archival

The Faces. Faces At The BBC - Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973.[Rhino]. 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.


Bob Dylan. The 1974 Live Recordings. Massive 27-CD boxset documenting each iteration of the infamous 1974 national tour of Dylan and The Band. Classic.



Talking Heads. Stop Making Sense. They've never sounded better. There's a couple of live albums out there too that are worth checking out, such as Falling Upwards (Live '79) and Live at WCOZ 77.

Neil Young. Archives Vol. 3 Takes. Worth checking out if only for the Devo collaboration on "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black).

Linda Ronstadt. Sausalito, Nov '73.

Simon & Garfunkel. Manchester, England, May '67.

Stevie Wonder. The Wonder Of Stevie. From Audible.com. Any excuse to listen to Stevie classics from the 70s is a good excuse.

Thin Lizzy. 1976. Love Phil.

Warren Zevon. Have Mercy (Live Chicago '78).

The Velvet Underground. 1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed. Need a good excuse to listen to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground? Ok, I'll give you one.

Various Artists. The Concert for Bangladesh. Many are giving this a fresh listen as it is now available on streaming services for the first time. The historic concert (later an album and a film) took place at Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971, with an afternoon show, followed by another in the evening. Featured artists included: George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jesse Ed Davis, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, and Ravi Shankar. It was the first of the big rock benefit shows for a cause.

Van Morrison. Marin, San Francisco, Sept '71. He was still good. Very, very good. Also been listening a lot to his live 1973 cover of Fred Neil's classic "Everybody's Talking". Circa 1964 - 1972, Van Morrison was on a roll, churning out classics. Since then, it's been hit or miss. I'll never quite forget the spectacle of seeing him at Glastonbury in 1982, putting on a listless, lackluster performance. He even made "Gloria" boring (compared to The Doors and Patti Smith) and he wrote it! Afterwards I saw him sitting in the back of a Mercedes being driven off the festival grounds, smirking smugly. I was struck by the old comments by manager Jerry Heller, who worked with several troublesome clients, including NWA and Easy E, who said Van was the biggest prick he ever worked with in show business. Then there's Van's COVID bullshit. I've really completely written him off at this point. I did enjoy seeing him do Astral Weeks in Berkeley in 2009, and I did like his skiffle album with Lonnie Donegan (1998's The Shuffle Sessions) but c'mon, COVID denial? And as a public figure that people listen to, all the worse to be advocating dangerous and unhealthy positions. Plus his attitude. Smugness and mediocrity make bad bedfellows and his releases since 1972 are extremely hit or miss. I am essentially boycotting Van at this point, although I might make an exception for his 1964 - 1972 period. And I guess I'd throw this song in there too, from a small club performance in Northern California (The Lion's Share, San Anselmo, California, February 15, 1973). I've always loved this song. Love Fred Neil. Love Harry Nilsson. Love Midnight Cowboy. Don't love what Jon Voight and Van Morrison have both become similar, as Ezra Pound said of Winston Churchill, to "a sputtering tank of nicotine and stake whiskey".


Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels. The Last Roundup: Live From The Bijou Cafe In Philadelphia, March 16, 1973. Been waiting for this to come out on CD or digital for a while now. Finally found a copy. Priceless.

               "Early Roman Kings" Bob Dylan feat Elvin Bishop, live August 3, 2024, Mountain View, California.


                                                          MLK, "I Have A Dream", March on Washington


Highly Anticipated New Releases

St. Vincent. Todos Nacen Gritando. [Total Pleasure]. November 15, 2024. A re-make of All Born Screaming (2024) with Spanish lyrics.

George Harrison. Living In The Material World (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe). [Dark Horse]. November 15, 2024. 2 CDs, 2 LPs, 1 Blu-Ray, and more, including a cool alternate version of “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) (Take 18)”.

Kim Deal. Nobody Love You More. [4AD]. November 22, 2024. Says here that this singer//songwriter/bass player, best known as one of the co-founders of that seminal band, The Pixies and, with her twin sister Kelley Deal, a member of the equally seminal band, The Breeders, is coming out with her DEBUT solo album this year... Intriguing...

Friko. Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here (Expanded Edition). [ATO Records]. November 22, 2024. New version has 11 bonus tracks.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The Purple Bird. [Drag City]. January 31, 2025. 

                                              Bob Dylan, "Only A Pawn In Their Game", March on Washington






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