Hello there, I am more home bound than usual for the next few weeks, so hopefully I can use that opportunity to stay may current with these posts. Meanwhile, let's plunge into my show for March.
The show begins with two really good cover songs. The first is by one of the few current artists who can do everything and do it well, Ty Segall. What a talent. Here he does a wild take on the old Doors classic. Then we have Dwarves, who I don't honestly follow very closely, putting forth an amazing cover of AC/DC's "Big Balls." I love it when an artist really reimagines a cover song into something really new, and Dwarves definitely do that here.
Varna GL is a singer from Greenland, and I really enjoy her music. Over the past year or so I've slowly gotten into some indigenous music from Northern Canada (Nunavut and northern Quebec mostly), and this rabbit hole of Greenlandic and Canadian music has been a lot of fun.
I've had this CD from Iceland's Utopia for quite a while- I picked it up in Reykjavik during one of my visits in the early 2000s. The vocals and music really put me in the mind of early Radiohead B-sides.
Continuing a wave of several Icelandic bands is the group Þausk, who I just recently discovered. There is definitely a 90's sort of classic grunge sound and vibe to this song, but I really like it.
Next up is Fufanu, who I've known about for a few years. They have a modern post-punk sound that is fun.
#4 in my run of Iceland songs is one from Haugar, another band that I only recently discovered (though I don't recall how). Their new album is really good and I hope it catches on.
I should take a moment and thank my friend Dru for bringing me back a bag full (12 or so) of CDs from Luky Record Store in Reykjavik a few weeks ago. I haven't been to Iceland since the end of 2016/first of 2017 so it was nice to get my hands on some physical media from Iceland.
Fen Fen, from my hometown of Detroit! Apparently they are named after a weight loss drug that came and went in the 1990s.
I first heard Novalima at a Spanish tapas restaurant in Washington, DC in 2013, not long after I returned from a work trip to Peru where I bought a large stack of CDs. Luckily Novalima CDs were pretty easy to get in the U.S. at the time, though I confess I haven't kept up with this artist since then (makes note to go back and catch up on any post-2013 releases).
Dezerter has always been one of my favorite groups and their first LP, Underground Out Of Poland, is probably my favorite album of all time.
Next up is my favorite song by Deerhoof. I think I have all of their records, though I can't say I have totally verified that (they do have a long discography with a lot of label switches). This was the first Deerhoof song I ever heard, on some long gone music podcast. The opening riff reminds me a bit of "All Right Now" by Free, which doesn't mean a whole lot, but I enjoy making musical connections any chance I get.
I love this record from Kilynn Lunsford. Great post-punk music, cool vocals, and just enough weirdness to give it a unique vibe. Really good stuff.
I don't know much about Welt Star yet (sorry, I'll work on that) but I love the late 1980s-early 1990s indie rock sort of approach.
The Frenz Experiment is one of my two or three favorite albums by The Fall. Every song is a winner. It seems so tight, so well crafted, yet playful. Unfortunately the expanded edition did not have a whole lot of bonus material, though these Janice Long sessions are great to have.
Maddie Ashman is in the same awesome category as Kilynn Lunsford above. Fantastic songwriting, vocals, and music.
The General Speech label is putting out all kinds of great punk and hardcore, including domestic releases of otherwise expensive foreign records (I also have to give a shout out to Sorry State, Total Punk, Iron Lung, Slovenly, Feel It, and Beach Impediment for doing the same). There is so much great punk coming out of the Spanish speaking world right now (including from the USA, but don't tell ICE) that I can barely keep up. This great song by Disket has a cool 1977-1978 vibe.
Up next I have three songs in honor of great musicians who died earlier this year: Billy "Bass" Nelson from Funkadelic, reggae great Sly Dunbar, and Ghana Highlife star Ebo Taylor. All three were stellar musicians with an amazing legacy.
This Histamine track almost sounds like Osees when they go all-out punk. So, if you like the harder, faster moments of Osees, definitely check out this stuff from Histamine. They are from Sydney, Australia.
Up next we have a cover of a Les Thugs song. La Phaze brings a bit of Prodigy or Crystal Method to this version, which makes for a cool cover.
I've really been enjoying Gaudi's various projects over the past couple of years, though this record goes back to 2007. Here Gaudi gives the dub/remix treatment to the master of Qawwali music, sort of like when Bill Laswell did his famous remix/dub album of Bob Marley music back in the 1990s. I actually think this album works better than Mr. Laswell's (though I do own that one and I do like it).
There are a large number of great bands and musicians in and around Washington, DC that seem to fly under the radar, which is too bad. I love Ekko Astral, and hopefully I can catch them live soon.
I've been fascinated with Polish punk, post-punk and just about everything else ever since I bought my first Dezerter record back in the 1980s. Seks W Czasach Wojny doesn't have a huge catalog yet (just eleven songs on Bandcamp) but I'm hopeful they will have some more material soon. Go buy some of their music to encourage them.
RF7 has a unique old school sound that bridges punk and late 1970s/early 1980s hardcore. I would most compare this with the first album by Toxic Reasons.
Oh, how do I love Yellow Fang. They have one full album and a handful of individual songs, and each one is just great. There is also a very good YouTube video of them in concert in their native Thailand. I would love this band no matter where they come from, but they stand out even more because modern Thai pop music is overrun with sappy ballads.
If you like the kind of angry at the world music by the likes of Shame or Idles then you should definitely check out Mini Skirt.
Years ago I spent a week or so in Zagreb for work, and luckily I found an excellent record shop. I loaded up on Croatian and older Yugoslav music, including this really cool compilation of older Yugoslav electronic music. I don't know anything about the artist, but I love that sinister melody that snakes its way behind the more generic Euro funk beat. The drums that come in around the 2:00 mark are cool too.
Discos Macarras! What a label, run by the wonderful Dani in Catalonia. Their catalog spans a wide range of metal styles, including this Motorhead approach. More! More! More!
Remind me never to get on the bad side of the singer of Cold Meat.
Yasmine Hamdan does such a beautiful job of blending traditional vocals with a unique blend of Mid East and western music. Her album Ya Nass is a stunner.
I learned about Foodman from an episode of BBC's "Late Junction" back in 2021. He's a very interesting artist. On a side note, BBC won't allow US listeners to hear some of its shows, including "Late Junction", which is really stupid.
I don't remember how I came across Tanukichan but I love that combination of fuzzy guitars and washed out vocals. The cover of the album really matches the music too- that sort of daydreaming moment that we all need more of.
There are so many cool punk/hardcore indie labels putting out tons of great records: La Vida Es Un, Goodbye Boozy, Sorry State, and of course Drunken Sailor. I subscribe to all of these labels' mailing lists or Bandcamp notices, and I generally just buy anything new that comes out, even if I don't hear it first.
Adios Cometa- really cool 2000s sounding indie pop from Costa Rica! I visited Costa Rica about twenty years ago, but it was a nature retreat kind of a trip so sadly I did not see any record shops.
Each time I visited Sydney I always spent a good amount of time and money at Red Eye Records downtown. One of the things I remember is how good and how affordable their selection of music related books was. One of the many books I bought was a book about alternative music from western Australia from the 1970s and 1980s. The book had a CD in a little envelope glued to the back of the back, and that is where this "Virus X" song comes from. Anytime you can get your hands on Australian punk or indie compilations, definitely pick it up. There is so much great music from our Australian friends that never made it to the U.S. or probably Europe either.
Cruelster are from Cleveland. You'd be angry too if you lived there.
Vikowski- a band with a name that sounds like they are from Eastern Europe, but they are actually from Italy. Anyone who likes Interpol should be big fans of Vikowski.
It's really difficult to get any information about bands from the Republic of Georgia. It's not even that easy to get alternative music from Georgia, but I try to find what I can. While I do not know anything about this band (Gerchi) I definitely love the music.
This Blouse album- which came out in 2011- is amazing. It has that gentle indie pop sound that puts me in the mind of the bands Kindest Lines and Totally Mild. Just really cool music that isn't in a hurry to go anywhere and be part of any particular sub-genre. Nice.
Black Bomber: because sometimes you really need some great hard charging Motorhead style metal. Never stop, guys!
I only learned about The Plague very recently, though they were active in the early 1980s around Athens, Georgia. The Chunklet Industries label recently offered a "box set" of four CD-Rs for a super cheap price, and of course I jumped. On this song, "Crab Water," they show an Australian post-punk sound in the ballpark of The Bad Seeds or The Cruel Sea.
Well, since we were just talking about Australia, how about 1-800 Mikey? Distorted, fuzzy, lo-fi goodness.
Hot Face seemed to come out of nowhere, and now vinyl copies of their fairly new album are going for extortionate prices online. A big Fuck You to the record flippers out there.
On the other hand, this album by Taker, which has a bit of a Ramones feel, is available for much more reasonable prices, so I recommend you go for it.
The opening of this song by Benzyna really brought me back to the opening of the song "Ants Invasion" by Adam & The Ants, even though the songs are nothing alike. Something about that squealy opening guitar lead, though.
This cool song by 86 It, "Hairy Toothpick," get my vote for song title of the month. Ottawa gets my vote for punk city of the month.
Then we have Ty, from my hometown of Detroit, a city which never stops gargling great garage, punk, and good ol' hard rock n' roll.
From Latvia, we have Karšti Klijai, who have a really good post-punk sound going for them. There is so much great punk, post-punk, alternative, and other good stuff coming from Latvia- I am doing my best to keep up. Fortunately, unlike Spain and Italy, shipping costs from Latvia to the U.S. aren't totally unreasonable, so I scoop up as many CDs and occasional vinyl that I can.
Wow, that was a lot of songs this month! Bringing up the end is a nice reflective song by Hanry, from France.
See you next month!
