Men I Trust has a new video for a track called “Ring of Past.” The video consists of clips from the 1979 National Film Board of Canada vignette Love on Wheels and the way the footage is cut reveals a budding teenage love story. Watching the skating action made me seriously pine for the days of roller rinks and adolescent hang outs.
I generally don’t do year-end lists, but I like to share a couple of my favorites things from the past year. In this interstitial time between Christmas and New Year’s, I get a chance to reflect back on what I’ve enjoyed, while having very few demands on my time.
This week’s Friday Night Video is a bit of a departure from other recent entries in the series. There’s no electroclash or spunky cover reworkings. It’s a new track from Welcome Wagon. Welcome Wagon are label mates of Sufjan Stevens and purveyors of a similar religiously-tinged folky aesthetic. With lyrics taken mostly from the gospel of Matthew and featuring comforting additions like “God holds your hand,” the song centers around the passage in Matthew in which Jesus assures us that God knows how to give good gifts to His children. The text comes a chapter after Jesus tells his followers not to be anxious about anything, that God will provide for our needs. The title of the track specifically references the verse in Matthew that implores us to pray.
I feel blessed to have come across a clean recording of Chvrches' version of Prince’s messianic “I Would Die 4 You.” I was blown away the first time I heard this cover years ago on Soundcloud. It’s such a perfect rendition of a groundbreaking song. There is no video of the actual in-studio performance of this track, so the YouTuber who posted this substituted a montage of concert footage. It is heavily centered on front woman Lauren Mayberry (I barely saw the dudes in the band), but it’s a nice collection of clips and syncs up pretty well with the audio.
Men I Trust return with a new single to accompany their tour of the states. This one surprised me by beginning with a Factory Records sound and progressing into a chugging, propulsive post-punk ripper. A new wave guitar line comes up about a minute and a half into the track. Keyboard flourishes show up later on to add a bit more to the era-specific sounds. The video features lead singer Emma Proulx swinging in front of an intentionally crummy video backdrop with some haunting vibes.
Frank Yang commemorates the 20th anniversary of Ladytron’s Light & Magic LP in a post on Space Echo. Completely unaware of the significance of the date, I was listening to the album the other day. My favorite song remains the track in the pole position, “True Mathematics.” I’m excited to see a newly produced video for the song. I’m even happier that the video version of the song is different from the album version and has a bit more punch. The vocals are still in Bulgarian, which gives them a certain edge.
Last week, Frosted Echoes featured a Breeders cover as the Friday Night Video and this week, we’re following closely behind with a song by the band Helium. “Pat’s Trick” is the opening track off the debut record from the band. It has the buzziness of “Cannonball” and that mid-nineties Big Muff grunginess. Indie rockers during this period had no problems mimicking the catchy chorus technique of their major label cousins and this track showcases that dynamic.
If you look back at the music I’ve shared on this blog, you wouldn’t doubt my devotion to nostalgic 80s retro-inspired sounds. Bring on the sports cars, sunglasses, synthesizers, and neon signs. Lately, though, I’ve been wishing for a 90s resurgence. Let’s have some flannel and baby doll dresses. In that spirit, I wanted to share this dead-on, straight cover of “Cannonball” by the Breeders performed by Courtney Barnett. Barnett has been on my radar for a while, but now I have a reason to check out her stuff. She and her band nail this track. It’s hard to believe that it is just the three of them because the sound feels so full.
I love how Hollie Cook is able to blend reggae and dream pop vibes on “Full Moon Baby.” I enjoyed Cook’s first album, Vessel of Love when it came out in 2018, but there’s something unique about this track.
This is how you do crossover. It feels like the way forward when even pioneering genres are beginning to retread the same ground over and over again. Almost no stone has been left unturned in even some of my favorite musical styles. I’ll always enjoy the familiar, but I’m eager to hear new ways to blend styles and create something that speaks of novelty.
Captured Tracks recording artist Scout Gillett covers the standout Broadcast track “Come On Let’s Go” on her newest covers EP, One To Ten. I liked the original version of this song, despite the fact that I am always feeling like I’m going to get Broadcast mixed up with Stereolab (it’s the same sixties space age bachelor pad vibe). It’s an interesting choice for for Gillett, who also covers Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” on the EP — which sounds completely fitting for her retro country-pop feel.
People tend to think of Morrissey as an overwrought melancholic (and not without some reason). I’ve seen multiple late-night talk show hosts and comedians poke fun at his persona, satirizing the sadness of his music. It’s not all rainy days and Mondays in Morrissey’s catalog, though. “Now My Heart Is Full” represents a period in his life where the Mozzer actually became content. He had moved to the sunshine of L.A. and away from the gray skies of London. Life was bright, settled and even domestic.
This cover of a Paul Simon song by The Bangles achieved more popularity than the original. The clips show the band fake playing live in front of walls of tube TV’s setup to look futuristic, interspersed with scenes from the film Less Than Zero. Most of the movie clips involve Andrew McCarthy and Jamie Gertz making out, though we do get to see Robert Downey Jr. and his cocaine-fueled antics. For a while there, it looked like Downey Jr. would end up like his character Julien in the movie. Thank goodness he got clean and flipped the script.
Yumi Zouma has a new full-length, Present Tense, coming out March 18th on Polyvinyl. As is the fashion now, they are releasing singles before the album drops, and “In The Eyes Of Our Love” is the third such single from the upcoming record. For this song, Yumi Zouma ditches their normally breezy, understated yet catchy, “this band could only come from New Zealand” sound. It comes across as something more like traditional indie pop a la The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. For reference, check out the Pains “Summer Of Dreams,” a b-side from their Days Of Abandon LP, or really, many of their other tracks. Yumi Zouma calls this the introduction to the Present Tense era, so it’s evident that their change in sound is intentional.
Barrie is another band that was recommended to me by the Apple Music algorithm. I immediately checked out their back catalog and noticed that they had a video for the song, "Darjeeling," that I had discovered. I was particularly drawn to the video because it is set mostly at The Crane Estate. The Crane Estate is a sprawling piece of property in Ipswich, MA, where a young Cornelius Crane (AKA, Chevy Chase) spent his childhood summers.
Last week, I wrote about some musical favorites from 2021. This week, I’m posting the video from one of my favorite songs that isn’t from last year, but that I discovered last year. I think this one surfaced due to the Apple Music recommendation algorithm, which has gotten really good. I ask Siri to play a song on the diminutive but fairly powerful HomePod Mini, then, once the song is done, the device magically plays other music that I like. The hit to miss ratio is high these days, and I’m finding out about a lot of bands that sound similar to the ones I already enjoy.1 Since several music blogs that I used to follow have now become celebrity gossip sites (ahem, cough, Stereogum, Consequence), I need a sonic buddy in the form of a solid recommendation engine.
For this Friday Night Video, Spectres comes your way with some powerful, muscular post-punk. At first, I thought this was a fan-made video with the traditional fuzzy retro found footage. It wasn’t until the band was shown in the same style that I realized it was a legit official video for the song. This one has been in heavy rotation as part of my The Noise That I Loved Best 2021 playlist.
Last week I featured an important song in the Japanese city pop genre and made the comparison to sophisti-pop, which came from the UK. This week I wanted to feature some sophisti-pop for comparison, but didn't want to go straight at it. So what we have here is Hoops covering Prefab Sprout (one of the more influential bands in sophisti-pop) staple "Cars and Girls."
Work Drugs bring their smooth yacht rock to this video of a girl wandering around a city. There are trips to the zoo, rides on public transport and shopping excursions. The full city tour culminates in a pleasant snow as the subject walks around with headphones on. She's in her own world with so many people around. It's the perfect picture of how everyone being lost in their heads makes a city so open to unimpeded ambulatory exploration. Pedestrians are just going about their business.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about Quebec artist MUNYA and her upcoming album, Voyage to Mars. MUNYA just released a new track off the album, the disco-inflected “Voyage” and filmed a video to go with it. In the video, lots of construction is going on, but the viewer is never really given a total picture of what is being built. It’s almost as if she’s creating something that can never be completed. The lyrics repeated over and over in the chorus may speak something to this.
I realize that I posted a video from Colatura not long ago, but the second single off of their debut is as winsome as the first and it seemed like an opportunity wasted not to share it.
“Some days, crowded spaces feel lonely, some days they feel okay.” It may not be the most profound lyric ever written, but it carries with it some truth that all of us have felt.
This week's Friday Night Video is a bit older but it's one that reminds me of how Jack Tatum can step outside of the usual Roxy Music joins the Cure playing Fleetwood Mac sound. I haven't heard anything from Tatum in a while, and, while this isn't a particularly representative sample of his work, it feels good to boost Wild Nothing anyway. When I first listened to this tune, I thought Talking Heads, and I wasn't the only one.
Rick Astley and the Blossoms have been on a nostalgia trip lately. They’re not reminiscing about old Astley tunes, though. They’ve dug into the Smiths catalog for what amounts to the creation of a tribute band to the Morrissey/Marr collaboration. The Guardian has details on the collaborative effort, which is appropriately reverent. I love this cover of “Well I Wonder,” a sort of deep cut from Meat Is Murder and what is one of my favorite songs by the Smiths.
Jenn Champion first came to my attention when she covered Weezer’s blue album in full for the now seemingly abandoned Turntable Kitchen project Sounds Delicious. Turning the guitar-based record into a synthesizer journey, she remade the songs in her own image.
“In Camera” is just one of the many Balearic, breezy Yumi Zouma songs worthy of the single/video treatment. Boy, does it get it. This story of a square (by retro standards) boy who goes to a girl’s house for a date and gets treated to a dance routine is well choreographed. The dance itself involves a little Flashdance, a little Steve Martin King Tut and just a splash of Chris Farley as a Chipendale’s dancer.