BEST NEW ALBUM (TIE): PJ Harvey. I Inside The Old Year Dying.
BEST NEW ALBUM (TIE): Blur. The Ballad Of Darren. Out-takes "Sticks And Stones", "The Rabbi" & "The Swan" also out now.
Grian Chatten. Chaos For The Fly. Fontaines D.C. frontman's debut solo album. Change of pace from the band's heavy sound. One of the surprise hits of summer.
Paul Simon. Seven Psalms. Very good.
Bully. Lucky For You. Rock n roll. Female singer.
Ben Harper. Wide Open Light. Calm and calming.
Bob Dylan. Shadow Kingdom. The soundtrack of last year's concert film of the same name. Dylan reworks some of his all-time classics.
Queens Of The Stone Age. In Times New Roman... Another classic from QOTSA....
Tinariwen. Amatssou. Sahel desert revolution.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You. Soothing acoustic sounds.
Kevin Morby. More Photographs: A Continuum. Good stuff!
Sparks. The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. Pure Pop Classic!
The Hives. The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons. Sweden's finest hard rockers are back.
Toro Y Moi. Mahal (Live From Big Sur). Sounds of the 70s but today.
Bush Tetras. They Live In My Head. Punk vets reunite for very decent album.
Juan Wauters. Wandering Rebel.
Wye Oak. Every Day Like the Last.
Bonny Doon. Let There Be Music. Former backing band for Waxahatchee steps out on their own.
M. Ward. Supernatural Thing.
Andrew Bird. Outside Problems. An album of instrumentals.
Rancid. Tomorrow Never Comes.
Rufus Wainwright. Folkocracy. Surprisingly good take on some cool classics. Unexpected.
Bonny Doon. Let There Be Music.
Witch. Zango. Cool sounds from Zambia.
Various Artists. The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs of Nick Drake. Covers of Nick Drake songs by Fontaines D.C., Ben Harper, Liz Phair, and others.
Various Artists. Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings From Mack McCormick, 1958-1971. Feat. Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and other classic recordings by the infamous late blues documentarian Mack McCormick, who had a hellhound on his trail.
Mississippi Fred McDowell. Jesus On The Mainline. Two live shows: April 14, 1971 in Tacoma and November 5, 1971 at the Gaslight in New York City (Fred's final recording).
Billie Holiday. Live in Los Angeles 1946. Simply great.
Kak. Kak-Ola (1968). Psychedelic classic. Gary Lee Yoder went on to play with Blue Cheer.
The Who. Back At The Fillmore. (1969). Great.
The Who. Who's Next: Life House. Not sure when I'll get to hear the entire 11-disc box set of Who's Next-era demos, out-takes, and live cuts (1970-1972) since it costs $300, but I'm sure it's great. I've only heard the first disc and a few other songs so far.
Nina Simone. You've Got To Learn. (Live Newport Jazz Festival 1966)
Neil Young. Chrome Dreams.
Iggy Pop. Rare Trax. Alternate versions of some the classics including "China Girl" and "Lust For Life".
The Clash. London Calling (Expanded Edition). A good excuse to go back and listen to this classic album, along with the rehearsal recording The Vanilla Tapes (1979).
Big Joe Williams. Back To The Roots. Big Joe Got The Blues. And he wants to give them to you.
Sister O.M. Terrell. Sister O.M. Terrell. Reminds me of Memphis Minnie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Michael Bloomfield. Living In The Fast Lane (Expanded Edition)(1981). One of the best guitarists ever just hanging out and playing songs.
John Coltrane. Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy. (1961)
HIGHLY ANTICIPATED LATE SUMMER/EARLY FALL RELEASES
Hiss Golden Messenger. Jump For Joy [Merge] August 25
Buck Meek. Haunted Mountain. Big Thief's guitarist solo debut. [4AD] August 25
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Cool New Music Playlist: Almost Summer 2023
ALBUMS
BEST NEW ALBUM: Dropkick Murphys. Okemah Rising. Follow-up to last year's This Machine Still Kills Fascists, this also uses archival Woody Guthrie lyrics matched with contemporary tunes by Dropkicks Murphys. Besides the killer single "Gotta Get To Peekskill" (feat. The Violent Femmes), there's a re-working (the "Tulsa Version") of Dropkick Murphys' original "collaboration" with Woody Guthrie's archives, "I'm Shipping Up To Boston", as first seen in Martin Scorsese's 2002 film "Gangs Of New York".
Ian Hunter. Defiance Part 1. Mott The Hoople frontman Ian Hunter has still got it!
The Mars Volta. Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon. Acoustic versions of songs from last year's The Mars Volta album.
Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives. Altitude. He played on the recent tour of The Byrds' Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and this album seems to be a reflection on The Byrds' legacy.
Y La Bamba. Lucha. Gorgeous soundscapes, mostly en Espanol.
Garbage. Witness To Your Love (EP). A Record Store Day release feat the single "Witness To Your Love", "Cities in Dust" (a Siouxsie cover), and two out-takes from No Gods No Masters (2021).
Kanaan. Downpour. Norwegian psychedelia at its best.
Robyn Hitchcock. Life After Infinity. Another instant classic.
Son Volt. Day Of The Doug (The Songs Of Doug Sahm). Record Store Day release of Jay Farrar's (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt) tribute to Doug Sahm of The Sir Douglas Quintet and The Texas Tornadoes.
Various Artists. I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100. Guests paying tribute to the late great master include Valerie June, Steve Earle, Jerry Douglas, Dolly Parton, and Rosanne Cash.
SINGLES
PJ Harvey. "A Child's Question, August" New album out in July, Here's the first single.
Tinariwen. "Kek Alghalm" New album at the end of May. This is the 2nd single.
Grian Chatten. "Fairlies". Fontaine D.C. frontman has a solo album coming out. This cool new song is the second single from the forthcoming album. The first single was "The Score".
Bush Tetras. "Things I Put Together". Punk vets reunite for cool new album. Here's the first single.
Queens Of The Stone Age. "Emotion Sickness". New album out soon.
Rob Moose feat Phoebe Bridgers. "Wasted". Phoebe's been performing this song in concert, but this is the first recorded version of it.
Sparks. "Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is" follows the first two singles, "The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte" (feat Cate Blanchett) and "Veronica Lake" taken from the forthcoming album by everyone's favorite demented genius brothers.
Peter Gabriel. "Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix)" feat Brian Eno.
ARCHIVAL
Soft Machine. The Dutch Lesson.
Faces. Sit Down, Get Up, Get Out (Live 1971) feat Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Ronnie Laine, Kenney Jones, and Ian McLagan.
Highly Anticipated Summer Releases
Tinariwen. Amatssou. [Wedge] May 19
Various Artists. A Small Light: Songs From the Limited Series. [ABC Signature] May 23. Soundtrack feat. interpretations of standards by Angel Olsen, who does "My Reverie", Weyes Blood singing "When You're Smiling", and Sharon Van Etten performing "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire", with actor Michael Imperioli contributing a spoken word segment.
Kevin Morby. More Photographs: A Continuum. [Dead Oceans] May 26
Sparks. The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. [Island] May 26. Pure Pop Classic!
Bully. Lucky For You. [Sub Pop] June 2
Ben Harper. Wide Open Light [Chrysalis] June 2
Bob Dylan. Shadow Kingdom [Columbia] June 2. The soundtrack of last year's concert film of the same name. Dylan reworks some of his all-time classics.
Queens Of The Stone Age. In Times New Roman... [Matador] June 16
Grian Chatten. Chaos For The Fly. [Partisan] June 30. Fontaines D.C. frontman's debut solo album.
PJ Harvey. I Inside The Old Year Dying. [Partisan] July 7
Bush Tetras. They Live In My Head. [Wharf Cat] July 28
Various Artists. Playing For The Man At The Door: Field Recordings From Mack McCormick, 1958-1971. Feat. Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and other classic recordings. [Smithsonian Folkways] August 4
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We all saw it at the Pro-Putin Anti-Ukraine Rally in February in DC.
It is a weird coalition, fans of people like Scott Ritter & Tara Reade - the far-right, some Libertarians, Ron Paul fans, LaRouche cultists... & some confused doctrinaire (tankie) members of the authoritarian left to form a great Red/Brown alliance of far-right & far-left. This has always been Dugin's Dream.
Sidney Blumenthal was a Clinton insider who was an early spreader of the racist birther conspiracy theory against Barrack Obama (on behalf of Hillary Clinton) in 2008. Interesting that he spread lies for money, just like his son Max Blumenthal, who lies professionally on behalf of Putin. Armchair psychologists will have to examine how the son of a Clinton insider lands up working for Putin, but, there it is. Max was at the famed RT banquet in Moscow featuring Putin, the stars of RT, Michael Flynn, and Jill Stein.
Max Blumenthal & Aaron Mate (who just got a "journalism" award from Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream) think they are leftists, but they support Assad, deny his gas attacks & support Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Their Syria position is simply to support Putin. Same as cheering for anti-Macron rioters in France - it's really support for Le Pen & Putin.
It's a real mystery why anyone who considers themselves left, progressive, or radical would support Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Some of them simply support whoever is opposed to the US, UK, and Europe. Others seem to think Putin and Assad are somehow "progressive", "populist", socialist, or anti-(((Globalist))). And there are some, like Matt Taibbi & Glenn Greenwald. It seems certain that one day we'll learn they had compromising material on them, and/or they got paid millions of dollars.
But these confused "leftists" land up supporting some really fringe characters like Gonzalo Lira aka Coach Red Pill (misogynist, anti-semite, supporter of Pinochet, Putin & Trump) & fascists like Jackson Hinkle & Chuck Johnson.
But we've been here before...
The more you hear about the 1930s Holodomor, the show trials, and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, etc., the more you have to wonder why and how The Allies thought Stalin would make a trustworthy ally in the fight against Nazism.
Some of it seems to be pro-Russian muscle memory from the old days (see Roger Waters) but the rest seems like "Blame America First" and an obsession with not having a "unipolar" world dominated by the United States. As Anarchists, we can easily criticize imperialism, whether its origin is U.S., UK, Russian, Chinese, or other. These tankies seem to only criticize Western imperialism.
