Sunday, April 13, 2025

ThisSmallPlanet.com Cool New Music Playlist Spring 2025 (April, May, June)


 
Janis Ian & Joan Baez: "One In A Million": A New Protest Anthem


Sleater-Kinney: "Kids In America" (Kim Wilde cover live on John Mulaney)


Suede. "Disintegrated" (2025). New album in September 2025. The Revenge of Brit Pop! New music in 2025 from Suede, Pulp, Richard Ashcroft, Paul Weller, and Peter Doherty.


Wilco & Waxahatchee do Woody Guthrie's "California Stars" live, Asheville, May 16, 2025

I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I’d give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars
They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass like friendly wine
So, I’d give this world just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars




UPDATED JUNE 13, 2025

I live in a car and listen to music and world news. I would write more if I had a house.

Cool New Singles (with links to YouTube)


Alex Orange Drink. "Everything Is Broken"

The Beths."Metal".

Brian Jonestown Massacre. "Makes Me Great" & "Out Of Body".

Bright Eyes & Cursive. "Recluse I Don't Have To Love"

Brittany Howard. "Pale, Pale Moon". (from the Sinners soundtrack)

David Byrne. "Everybody Laughs"

Dropkick Murphys. "Who Will Stand With Us" (Unreleased Live) & "Sirens" & "Who Will Stand With Us"

Elias Ronnenfelt. "Carry-On Bag".

Fiona Apple. "Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)" & "Heart Of Gold" (Neil Young cover)

Fontaines D.C. "It's Amazing To Be Young" & "Before You I Just Forget" & "In Heaven"

The Hard Quartet. "Lies (Something You Can Do)" (feat Pavement's Stephen Malkmus)

Hurray For The Riff Raff. "Pyramid Scheme"

Janie Ian & Joan Baez. "One In A Million". Cool, new protest anthem.

Jill Sobule. "Underdog Victorious" (from a musical F*ck 7th Grade being developed by the late singer/songwriter, who died recently in a tragic house fire)

Juan Wauters. "If It's Not Luv"

Kim Gordon. "Bye Bye 25!"

Kinky Friedman. "Poet Of Motel 6"

Lana Del Rey. "Henry, Come On" & "Bluebird"

The Lemonheads. "Deep End".

MJ Lenderman. "Dancing In The Club" (This Is Lorelei cover)

Manu Chao & Juliana Linhares. "Melo Do Bode" (Mestre Vieira cover)

Mavis Staples. "Godspeed" (Frank Ocean cover).

The Minus 5. "Blow In My Bag" & "Let the Rope Hold, Cassie Lee"

The Molotovs. "More More More"

Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts. "Let's Roll Again"

The New Pornographers. "Ballad Of The Last Payphone"

Paul Weller. "Lady Rolla".

Pulp. "Got To Have Love".

Pup. "Get Dumber" (feat Jeff Rosenstock)

Richard Ashcroft. "Lover". Inspired by Joan Armatrading's "Love And Affection".

Shame. "Cutthroat".

Sleater-Kinney. "Kids In America" (Kim Wilde cover, live on John Mulaney)

Sparks. "Drowned In A Sea Of Tears"

St. Vincent. "DOA" (Death Of A Unicorn soundtrack)

Suede. "Disintegrate".

Ty Segall. "Fantastic Tomb" & "Possession"

Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill. "A Thousand Times" 

Wavves. "Goner" & "Lucky Stars"

Wednesday. "Elderberry Wine". (feat MJ Lenderman on backing vocals & guitar)

Wet Leg. "Catch These Fists" & "CPR"



Cool New Albums

Aesop Rock. Black Hole Superette. Something different and interesting and cool.

Alan Sparhawk. With Trampled By Turtles. Former Low frontman collab with Trampled By Turtles works on many levels.

Alpha Blondy. Rise. From Africa's Ivory Coast. He's the best. Loved his 1986 "Jerusalem" and love his 2025 iteration too.

Aterciopelados. Genes Rebeldes.

Bells Larsen. Blurring Time. Extraordinary document. Larsen is a trans male artist who recorded these songs once before hormone therapy, and once after, then mixed the two versions together. The gender-affirming treatment caused Larsen's voice to deepen considerably, so he is essentially duetting with his former self. The effect is mesmerizing.

Ben Kweller. Cover the Mirrors.

Bill Medley. Straight From The Heart. (The iconic vocalist from The Righteous Brothers

Bob Mould. Here We Go Crazy. Former Husker Du frontman back with a solid album.

Butler, Blake And Grant. Butler, Blake And Grant. Three Britpop legends hook up.

Car Seat Headrest. The Scholars.

Charlie Musselwhite. Look Out Highway. Legendary blues harmonica player still going strong.

Elbow. Audio Vertigo Echo (Elbow EP 5).

Elton John & Brandi Carlile. Who Believes In Angels?

Ezra Furman. Goodbye Small Head.

Femi Kuti. Journey Through Life. Another classic from Nigerian musical royalty, Femi Kuti, the son of Fela Kuti, featuring fresh, vibrant re-workings of previously released songs.

Garbage. Let All That We Imagine Be the Light.

Jenny Hval. Iris Silver Mist. Beautiful singing.

Julien Baker & Torres. Send A Prayer My Way. Best damned singin' lesbian cowgirls out there.

Lucy Dacus. Forever Is A Feeling.

Lyle Workman. Fight For Freedom. One of the most creative guitarists out there. I know him best from Frank Black's Teenager Of The Year, which had a wonderful reunion tour recently.

The Mars Volta. Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos Del Vacío. Cool, spacey.

Marianne Faithfull. Burning Moonlight [EP]

Martha Wainwright. 6 Songs.

The Minus 5. Oar On, Penelope! Love it!

Morcheeba. Escape The Chaos. British trip-hoppers are not my usual fare but this is cool.

Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts. Talkin To The Trees.

Pavement. Pavements. (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Peggy Seeger. Teleology. The 89-year-old legend returns with a strong new album.

Peter Doherty. Felt Better Alive. A Libertine goes solo with some cool new songs.

Pulp. More. Jarvis Cocker, Graham Coxon, and crew are back with a super strong album.

Queens Of The Stone Age. Alive In The Catacombs. Dramatic music, check it out.

Sarah Mary Chadwick. Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby?

Sparks. Mad! The Brothers Are Back.

Suzanne VegaFlying With Angels. Vincent Vega's folk-singing cousin. 

Tune-Yards. Better Dreaming.

Ty Segall. Possession. Very good album from the master.

Valerie June. Owls, Omens, and Oracles

Various Artists. Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 1. Fiona Apple, Eddie Vedder, Courtney Barnett, Steve Earle are amongst the good sports that have a go at some Neil Young classics with good results. They are great songs and some of them sound better than the original. Well, if not better, at least different. And cool.

Various Artists. Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Trying to evoke the country blues of the 1930s for the film, the soundtrack boasts cool songs featuring Cedric Burnside, Rhiannon Giddens, Jerry Cantrell, Brittany Howard, and others.

The Waterboys. Life, Death And Dennis Hopper.

Youssou N'Dour. Eclairer Le Monde (Light The World). Senegal's finest.





Musical Notes

Bob Dylan's Neverending Tour 2025: The Outlaw Tour with Willie Nelson

Kyle Meredith writes: #BobDylan opened the Outlaw Tour by dusting off Mr Tambourine Man for the first time in 15 years, picking up a guitar like it’s 1964, and closing with a funeral-soaked mic drop: #ThePogues’ “A Rainy Night In Soho.” The set also featured three live debuts, deep cuts, and a cover of “Route 66,” last heard from him during the Reagan administration. Somewhere, #ShaneMacGowan is grinning with a cigarette and a pint. As #WillieNelson’s outlaw caravan rolls on, Dylan proves once again that he's a master of keeping us glued to the setlist.
Bob Dylan, 5/13/25, Phoenix, Arizona Set List:

1. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"
2. "It Ain't Me, Babe" (Bob on guitar)
3. "Forgetful Heart" (first time since 2015)
4. "Axe and the Wind" (George “Wild Child” Butler cover) (Live debut)
5. "To Ramona" (first time since 2017)
6. "Route 66" (Bobby Troup cover) (first time since 1986)
7. "All Along the Watchtower"
8. "I'll Make It All Up To You" (Charlie Rich cover) (Live debut)
9. "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"
10. "Mr. Tambourine Man" (first time since 2010)
11. "Under the Red Sky"
12. "Scarlet Town"
13. "A Rainy Night in Soho" (The Pogues cover) (Live debut)

    Bob Dylan  5/13/25, Phoenix, Arizona
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Brother and sister team Mathew Cartlidge and Issey Cartlidge make up The Molotovs, who are capturing a lot of attention in the UK and beyond with their electrifying retro take on rock. This is their debut single "More More More".

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Pavement on Colbert: "Harness Your Hopes"

Indie favorites Pavement played on Colbert and released a film, Pavements:


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       Amyl And The Sniffers Live On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon: "Tiny Bikini"


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Saw Bob Mould perform with Husker Du at UCLA in 1984 and been a fan ever since. His new album rocks. Here he is doing one of the new songs on "The Tonight Show".

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Fontaines D.C. just released a mash-up of their song "Starburster" with "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)", written by the late, great filmmaker David Lynch for his 1977 film Eraserhead. 

Here's The Pixies deconstructing it in 1988 at a Peel Session:

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"If you're a fascist, get a Tesla ...", says Neil Young in his new song about electric cars, "Let's Roll Again". The song's live debut was April 26, 2025 at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles at the Autism Speaks: "Light Up The Blues" benefit show, which also featured Stephen Stills, Chris Stills, Nathaniel Ratliff, Billy Idol, Steve Stevens, Linda Perry, and Cat Power.

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Kneecap ignited some controversy at Coachella 2025 with several highly-charged political statements in support of Palestinian rights, culminating with a screen projection behind them which read: "F--- Israel... Free Palestine". Soon, Sharon Osbourne was calling for their U.S. work visas to be revoked (they have a sold-out U.S. tour scheduled for Fall 2025). Kneecap's Mo Chara is now facing support of terrorism charges from a concert in London in November 2024. See Kneecap Court Controversy for more.


Random & Reissued

The Beach Boys. "All I Wanna Do"

Jeff Bridges. Slow Magic, 1977-1978. The actor, best known as "The Big Lebowski", recorded this in 1977-1978 with some friends (including actor Burgess Meredith) and it's pretty good.

The Hollies. "Stop Stop Stop".

The Roches. The Roches.

Sly & The Family Stone. Sly Lives! (AKA The Burden Of Black Genius). Mega-Classics.

Ted Lucas. Ted Lucas. Interesting folkish album from back in the day, rediscovered.

The Who. The Best Of & Greatest Hits Live Broadcast Collection. The Best.

Highly Anticipated Cool New Releases


Wavves. Spun [Ghost Ramp]. June 27, 2025.

Barbra Streisand.The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2  [Columbia]. June 27, 2025. Wondering what the duet with Bob Dylan on "The Very Thought Of You" is going to be like.

Dropkick Murphys. For The People. July 4, 2025 (Digital), October 10, 2025 (CD/LP)

Wet Leg. Moisturizer [Domino]. July 11, 2025.

Paul Weller. Find El Dorado. July 25, 2025.

Suede.  Antidepressants. September 5, 2025.

ShameCutthroat [Dead Oceans] September 5, 2025.

Lana Del Rey. Classic (originally The Right Person Will Stay) [Interscope] Release date: Delayed, To Be Announced


You May Also Be Interested In:

Kneecap Court Controversy With Their Pro-Palestine Stance



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