I’ve already written about the impact of Covid on our lives here and here, so I won’t belabor the obvious. While we did get watch some pretty good live show simulacra (the Hives FTW, along with Robbie Fulks at-home confessionals) there’s no replacement for feeling that floor shake underneath you as concertgoers dance their asses off.
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I think most music diehards make mixes. They’re more than just convenient arrangements of favorite songs. They’re extensions of identity, audible introductions that represent who we think are or who we hope to be. They are deeply personal, even the fun ones (especially the fun ones).
If you’re of an age you might have painstakingly recorded vinyl tracks or radio singles to a cassette tape. Being of that age, I made mixtapes for all occasions: meeting a new friend, meeting a new friend friend, random gifts, work soundtracks, exercise pacemakers, or for no reason other than fun.
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Of late it feels like music was slumped over the wheel, exhausted from years of struggle against a cruel pandemic and concert grift. It’s not like we didn’t find great songs, but the contenders’ list was often short. Even favorites didn’t always come to the table with winners.
Then comes 2022, swinging in like an exuberant toddler who is way ready for nap time to be over. We had around 150 albums in the evaluation queue, dwarfing lists from recent years. Most albums had more than a few banger tracks which made picking the shortlist pretty tough.
Read MoreActors and Leathers (fronting for Bootblacks) team up to do a goth-wave take on Bowie’s Boys Keep Swinging from Lodger (third in the Berlin trilogy). I’m not always a fan of covers – especially Bowie covers – but this collaboration establishes it’s own voice while respecting the brilliance of the original. Plus cool visuals!
31 Songs isn’t super formal but we do use guidelines to help us wrangle all the music we could include into a list we can process. Here’s the criteria we use to create our playlists:
Read MoreKnown for epic soundtracks and the seminal post-punk ska-pop masterwork, Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman knocked me dumbstruck with his single Happy. That, alone, was a gift but it was just a first offering. Elfman’s got a full album out now and, while it pulls from every aspect of his career, it showcases his moody angst perfectly. Neither pop nor inaccessible artsturbation, this new work comes from a space only Elman occupies. Glad he let us in.
Discovered PONCTUATION via Letterkenny: French garage-punk sitting adjacent to White Denim and The Lovely Eggs, all wild-haired great-grandchildren of The Sonics
The Other Liverpudians, the Wombats, roar back with one of the best singles of 2022!
45 years of the Specials and they’re still bringing joy to protest.
Read MoreWe first heard Simple Kid open for Suede at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire way back in 2002. It’s rare for us to get excited by an opening act but Simple Kid defied history and won us over. I’d thought he’d long since vanished but I was very wrong – and happily so. Love the new tracks!
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31 Songs 