Music for 2/22/19!!! Ladytron, Yann Tiersen, Maren Morris

@@@ Ladytron: Ladytron (Ladytron Recordings, 2019) Some mainstream electronic pop rock I got to via last week’s All Music notable release email. The opener, Until the Fire, is a rocker while the second tune (clipped below!) is a midtempo ballad. The singer is meaningful and the lyrics impart a futuristic and artistic intention. The sounds are updated ’80s synth pop rock sounds. This isn’t really for folks like me. I’m not really sure who this is for — maybe thirteen old fantasy fiction loving tweens. As music outside of its intended demographic it’s pretty overwrought drama pop but folks love that. I don’t want to get all judgy and shit.

@@@ Yann Tiersen: All (Mute, 2019) If it’s on Mute it’s gonna be aspirationally sophisticated music. It opens up with the sounds of children playing and some New Age piano with electronic garnish. Lord help us all for we need tough jackets to withstand all the cheese that rains down over us. I couldn’t get to the meat of the song, it was really too much for my fragile sensibilities. The second tune, Koad, keeps the piano, switches the children for bird chirps, and then introduces a multitracked female ‘choir’ with lots of ooo-ooo-ooo-oohs. It’s comforting the way a 2X4 to the back of the head is comforting. I’m on the third tune and Tiersen kept the bird chirps from the second track. I hope those birds get their royalties. I think I hear a harmonium which signifies spirituality. I can’t take it anymore, I’m out like bell bottom jeans. I hope this wasn’t aspirationally sophisticated music because if it was it did not succeed, this is undercover New Age cheese.

@@@ Maren Morris: The Bones (N/A, 2019) This tune occupies the #1 slot on Apple Music hot tracks. It uses the metaphor of ‘the bones’ of a house where the visuals may be frayed but the foundation is strong. The tune uses too sonic signifiers that I loather — first off the excessive use of finger snaps and the breathy, I’m about to cream my panties singing style that has infected modern pop. It is accompanied by a simple, clean electric guitar figure. I believe this qualifies as today’s country music — it’s not country music except in peripheral ways but it retains the earnest feelings country music goes for.

YTD recordings listened to: 104
Good music, not list worthy: 59
Not good music: 40

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan

All this Trump/Kovach horseshit about voter fraud and it’s the Repubs committing fraud! #fakenews

From Salon:

Trump takes another bigly and major league deuce in the public square.  Bitching and moaning about voter fraud and Hillary Clinton and it’s his crew committing fraud.

Fuck these assholes.

In his own mind Trump’s economy is just blazing!

From CNBC:

Man, that’s gonna make America great again.

Just to remind folks the fantastic tax cuts were supposed to stimulate the economy and make America great again.

Sounds like a bit of fake news from the collective, Republican pie hole, which is quite shocking.

Music for 2/21/19!!! Zazou Bikaye, Czarface and Ghostface

@@@ Zazou Bikaye | Na Kenda (Crammed, 2018) I got to this recording via the WRIR weekly playlist email. This is a remixed and reissued track from the late ’80s and sports all the sounds that prevailed at the time. This is a single with the A side remixed as Afro acid and the second side the same song remixed as techno dub. There are some super delicious funky squiggles going on in addition to bell sounds and African vocals/chants. The first remix is super high energy while the second brings a more laidback techno vibe but it’s a celebration of vintage sounds.

@@@ Czarface: Czarface meets Ghostface (Silver Age, 2019) A Wu Tang clan member collaboration that I got to via last week’s All Music notable release email. It’s a classic comic book/kung fu movie mash with two MCs facing off in a rap battle. The sounds are decidedly retro in the second tune, Face Off, with some arena rock vibes mixed with the ghetto heroics. The production is much thicker than what RZA would put behind this and I prefer the stripped down sound to these sounds. The rhyming is all right if pretty standard. I like the fifth tune, Powers and Stuff, the best of what I heard.

YTD recordings listened to: 101
Good music, not list worthy: 58
Not good music: 38

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan

Dear young shitbird: If you’re wearing a MAGA hat tens of millions of Americans think you’re a racist

From CNBC:

Maybe in some parts of vanilla Kentucky wearing a MAGA hat is not a racist act.  But here in New York City and to tens of millions of brown, non-white Americans, and white Americans who have half a fucking clue, that hat is fucking racist.

I don’t think you little MAGA shitbirds get that, but when you get to court I’m betting that you’re gonna be sifting all the non-white folks out of the jury cuz deep down you know you’re full of shit.

 

Right out of the gate, NY Times starts with the Sanders sniping

From the front page:

I think most people would say that $6 million in 24 hours gives you more than bragging rights.

It means that a lot of people support you and want to support you financially, which is something the New York Times doesn’t really want to get into as they have never really berned for Bernie.

Good to see them starting off right where they left off in 2016.

Music for 2/19/19!!! William Russell Wallace, Chaka Khan, Tierra Whack

@@@ Chaka Khan: Hello Happiness (Island, 2019) Chaka Khan brings the old school funk flavors on her new record. Blending aspects of disco into her funk she goes for the popping bass sounds, the string arrangements. I was thinking she had a solid comeback on her hands until she gets into super dirty funk on the third tune (clipped below). It’s guitar driven with synth sparkle and I had to swap out the title track for this funk nugget. Check this track out, it’s bumping at many levels. She continues to burn on the blues down on love track, Too Hot. Surprisingly great music from Khan.

@@@ Tierra Whack: Only Child (Tierra Whack, 2019) I liked Tierra Whack’s 2018 efforts. Maybe not as much as others who gushed but I’m interested in continuing the listening. I like that there are mad school old school doo wop vocal stylings that open the tune before the rhymes come in. A break from the trap! Also a simple but memorable guitar part ringing through the tune. I find lines like ‘you made my heart so cold I should work at Friendly’s’ and ‘money over dick, money over dick’ to be smart and creative. Tierra Whack has it going on with this track.

@@@ William Russell Wallace: San Jacinto (N/A, 2019) I got to this lonesome folk ballad (complete with harmonica solo) via a music publicisit. Wallace’s voice has desperation built into it and while an old Dylan ditty would be a touchstone the difference in vocals takes it to a different place. A little tambourine, some harmonica, a lot of acoustic guitar and his voice. Solid.

YTD recordings listened to: 99
Good music, not list worthy: 56
Not good music: 38

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan