Sunday, October 24, 2021

Cool, New Music: November 2021 Indie Music Playlist

 


Cool, New Music: November 2021 Indie Music Playlist

SINGLES

Jack White. "Taking Me Back (Gently)"

Courtney Barnett. "Smile Real Nice" (The Theme From "Harriet The Spy"). Catchiest song in the world.

Courtney Barnett. "Write A List Of Things To Look Forward To". From her new album Things Take Time, Take Time (Mom + Pop/Nov. 12). The newest single is "If I Don't Hear From You Tonight":

Spiritualized. "Always Together With You". New album Everything Was Beautiful coming that you can pre-order/pre-save here. It's out on Fat Possum on February 25, 2022.

Paul McCartney. "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey". Whimsical 1971 song. McCartney at his weirdest.

Tim Heidecker. "Dark Days". Actor/comedian/singer, this Allentown native can do no wrong.

Big Thief. "Time Escaping". This song sounds very different from their others. It's from their new double album, coming out early next year. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (Feb 11/4AD), is going to put Big Thief over the top as a major rock band worth listening to.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Bill Callahan. "Kidnapped By Neptune" (feat. Hamerkop)(Scout Niblett cover)

Foals. "Wake Me Up"

Cassandra Jenkins. "American Spirits"


ALBUMS

Parquet Courts. Sympathy For Life. Best new album by America's best indie band.

Lana Del Rey. Blue Bannisters.

John Coltrane. A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle. Recorded in 1965. New, expanded version.

Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead. Honky Tonk Lagoon (Live Bootleg, July 19, 1987, Autzen Stadium, Eugene, Oregon)

The Doors. Critique 1969. Recorded for a PBS TV show in 1969.

Jarvis Cocker. Chansons D'ennui Tip-Top. French language companion album to the new Wes Anderson film The French Dispatch:


 

Wye Oak. Cut All The Wires: 2009-2011

Bartees Strange. Live At Studio 4.

Hand Habits. Fun House. Heard her do Tom Petty's "Walls" with Angel Olsen and wanted to check her out. She's pretty good!

Johnny Marr. Fever Dreams, Parts I - IV. Part I is out now, Part II on December 17. Part III is out in January. Part IV is out February 25, 2022. A cool single from Part II is out now: "Sensory Street".

Richard Ashcroft. Acoustic Hymns, Vol. 1. Acoustic re-workings of his hits, with strings, most notably "Bittersweet Symphony", especially since Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have waived their "rights" to the song.





COMING SOON...


Four Cool Videos: Faye Webster live at Pitchfork 2021, Iron & Wine with Andrew Bird live at Yosemite, followed by Andrew Bird with Iron & Wine live at Yosemite, and, finally, "Like Wolf", Sonny Boy Williamson II's parody of the style of his friend Howlin' Wolf:






You may also be interested in: Cool, New Music: October 2021 Playlist

All Rights Reserved for Original Uncredited Photos by MD & JB for ThisSmallPlanet.com



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Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Cool, New Jack White Song: "Taking Me Back (Gently)"

 

UPDATE NOVEMBER 13: Jack White has a new song and here it is. Twice, actually. The first is an Americana version called "Taking Me Back (Gently)", and the second a more metal, White Stripes-type version. The official video for the metal version of "Taking Me Back" is now out (see second video above) and it's MUCH better than the Call Of Duty-themed video we had seen previously, and which I went into great detail on how much I hated it and its association with the game Call Of Duty (see below).


BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST: The heavy metal version of "Taking Me Back", the theme for Call Of Duty: Vanguard, the latest installment of the popular first-person shooter video game, can be found on You Tube. I'm not interested in posting it here.

I like the "Gently" version of this song, but the heavy metal version? Not so much. And Call Of Duty? One of the worst things that ever happened to humanity. Can we replace video games where it's all about catching and killing to games where the goal is to hug instead of kill, cooperate instead of compete, inspire instead of destroy? Too much to ask???

I'll never forget my introduction to Call Of Duty. I rented a room in a house and the guy in the next room was drowning his sorrows (breaking up with his wife and sharing custody of the kids) in numbing alcohol and video games (all day). All I would hear is characters from the game yelling and shooting and killing and dying at top volume. 

One night, the woman who lived in the house next door came over and begged him to turn it down or use headphones or curtail his nighttime playing or... something! She was practically in tears, telling him her child couldn't sleep with all the yelling and shooting. He just thought this woman was being a bit**.

Anyway the point is, video games are huge. Many people spend many hours playing them (time they could use instead to be with friends, hike in the woods, read a book, write a book, etc.) - but video games are basically a waste of time. Not only that, their content cheapens our culture. The lesson a youth takes from Call Of Duty is that the world is a violent place - it's either kill or be killed. Needless to say, someone with this mentality is far less likely to believe it was possible to work with other people on climate change (or to support health care for all, build homes for the homeless, or welcome refugees fleeing tragedy...). And much more likely to be a paranoid misanthrope.

That brings us back to Jack White. Not to be rude, but does he really need Call Of Duty money at this point? I mean, a gig is a gig, but you would think that at this point, Jack White can pick and choose his projects. Why choose this one? Why not something more uplifting?

The heavy metal video consists entirely of violent images from the game - the "hero" is trying to kill as many "bad guys" as possible, as they try to kill him. Wonderful.

A few years ago, I posted something online that I thought the most creative guitarists in the world currently were Tom Morello, Jack White, and Richard Thompson. 

I guess I wouldn't say that today. 

I appreciate Jack White's homages to classic blues and other old timey music, but I definitely have more mixed feelings about him these days. He seems to repeat a lot of the types of vocals and guitar that made him famous. We haven't heard him for a while, so it's curious for him to return with such a song and video. Perhaps he will gain some new, young, pimply fans, but at the cost of losing more mature long-term fans.

Here are some cool Jack White & Dead Weather videos I shot in the past...








You may also be interested in: Cool, New Music: October 2021 Playlist




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Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Cool, New Song by Parquet Courts: "Homo Sapien"; New Album Out Friday!


"Homo Sapien" is the third single from Parquet Court's new forthcoming album Sympathy For Life, out this Friday (Oct. 22, 2021) on Rough Trade. 



We've previously heard "Walking At A Downtown Pace" and "Black Widow Spider":


 


With this new album, Parquet Courts rightfully take their place as the Kings of Indie Rock. You can pre-order their new album on Bandcamp or pre-save it here.

1."Walking at a Downtown Pace"
2."Black Widow Spider"
3."Marathon of Anger" 
4."Just Shadows" 
5."Plant Life" 
6."Application/Apparatus" 
7."Homo Sapien" 
8."Sympathy for Life" 
9."Zoom Out" 
10."Trullo" 
11."Pulcinella"



I've been following these guys for a while now. Here's a video I shot of them in Portland in 2013 doing a blistering nine-minute version of their mega-classic "Stoned And Starving":




Here's "Yonder", "Light Up Gold", & "Sunbathing Animal" from a 2014 San Francisco show:




And here's two from 2018 in Santa Cruz, California, "Almost Had To Start A Fight" & "Master Of My Craft"...



You may also be interested in: Cool, New Music: October 2021 Playlist

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Friday, October 8, 2021

We Have To Rename "Taney Street" in Philadelphia & Eugene; Honors Dishonorable Judge Behind Racist Dred Scott Decision



In October 1864, 157 years ago, only the length of the lives of two 80-year-old men, Maryland debated a new state Constitution which abolished slavery. The day before the election, Maryland native Roger Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice who wrote the majority opinion for the racist Dred Scott decision, died. 

"In the fall of 1864, Lincoln urged Maryland voters to approve the new constitution. They did so on October 13 by the narrowest of margins, 400 votes in a turnout of 60,000.", The Fiery Trial, Eric Foner. 



Taney's death the day before the vote was taken as a sign in favor of emancipation.

The New York Times at the time said: "Two ancient abuses and evils were perishing together..."

The Dred Scott decision has been called the worst Supreme Court decision of all time. Not only did it rule against freedom for Dred Scott, Taney also wrote that African-Americans were not citizens, had no rights, and that Congress could not curtail slavery in the territories and federal districts.


Activists in Philadelphia have protested to rename Taney St. there. We call on activists in Eugene, Oregon to work to rename "Taney St." in Eugene to something more appropriate like "Dred Scott Street". (Eugene area activists should also rename Lane County, as Joseph Lane was a pro-slavery, pro-Confederate racist.)

As far as we have been able to determine, Taney St. in Philadelphia and Eugene are the only streets in the U.S. currently named for Taney.


In 2017, a statue of Taney was removed from the Maryland State House.

Taney St. and Taney Park in Philadelphia are in a predominately African-American neighborhood. To force Black kids to grow up having to utter Taney's cursed name to refer to their street and their neighborhood park is so insulting. It has to change. We propose "Dred Scott Street" and "Dred Scott Park". 

Dred Scott advocated for more freedom. Roger Taney advocated for more tyranny.

We call on authorities and activists to work on renaming or removing anything which honors Confederates who attacked the United States, such as Fort Bragg and sadly, so many other things, even at this late date. Only honorable people should be honored. If mistakes were made in honoring people or naming things in the past, we can correct those errors. Together. Moving Forward.




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Saturday, October 2, 2021

ThisSmallPlanet.com Calls For Boycott Against COVID Deniers Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Morrissey, and Joe Rogan




ThisSmallPlanet.com joins many around the world in condemning COVID denial (anti-vaxx, anti-mask, anti-lockdown, against social distancing, anti-mandates, anti-vaccine passports, anti-quarantine... but oddly pro-unproven miracle "cures"... unless they think it's all fake to take control of society... unless they think it's a foreign bio-weapon that will kill us all...etc..) by misguided politicians, and by millions on social media and on broadcast media, but feel that COVID denial is even worse in the case of "celebrities", who have no medical background, spouting conspiracy theories... influencers, podcasters and social media stars who reach millions and millions of devoted fans... and in particular, we really are disgusted by COVID denial and disinformation by artists and musicians. 

We look to artists, poets, musicians, and thinkers for clues to the future and the unknown. We look to them for solace, as a social balm, for insight, empathy, compassion, an acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of all things. When they give us hate, divisiveness, and false information, we really have to question their motives. At a certain point, some artists we formerly admired can no longer be supported. The worst are to be boycotted. To be condemned. To have people band together to protest the artists' COVID denial and boycott all recordings, performances, and podcasts by these artists. To not give a single penny to the worst offenders. Ultimately to shame them and ignore them.

Some of the worst COVID deniers are Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Morrissey, and Joe Rogan. ThisSmallPlanet.com calls for a total and complete boycott of Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Morrissey, and Joe Rogan. They may have their freedom of speech, but we have the power to use an economic boycott to protest their stand, and the free speech right to condemn them for their stances. We want to give our money and our attention to artists that reflect our values and avoid those who denigrate the things we love and value.

Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Morrissey, and Joe Rogan have also made many other questionable, offensive statements, for instance the racist, bigoted, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, pro-fascist rants by Eric Clapton and Morrissey (who appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" wearing a fascist badge).


             Clapton backstage recently with fellow COVID denier Texas Governor Greg Abbott & Jimmy Vaughan

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