It’s the first day of October. Not a fan! Here are the records I listened to this week. A shorter post this time but that’s alright.
Same Eyes: Desperate Ones (2022, Bandcamp) I posted about this band before in a previous one of these. This is an Ann Arbor darkwave/new wave band and some other local folks like Warren Defever seem to be involved with the production. It’s good! It’s a little more darkwave than the previous album, which is something I like, but I found the songs to be just slightly less memorable, so they actually sorta rank at about the same level for me. I actually got this one for free when I bought the other album from them on Bandcamp, which was incredibly nice. I guess they have a 3rd album coming out soonish, or they’re at least working on it, so I’ll pick that one up too.
Sad Lovers & Giants: Feeding the Flame (1983, YouTube) Sad Lovers & Giants is a UK post-punk band that started in 1980. I’m not sure how well known they actually are, but they’re still around today and putting out new music. I don’t know them too well outside of this album and a handful of songs outside of this, but I really enjoy it and should probably listen to more of them. It’s a really strong album that maybe trails off a little towards the end but I’d recommend it to people who liked early 80s post-punk or bands like The Chameleons and Echo & The Bunnymen I guess? It’s probably not the best comparison but it’s what I can think of. I picked this one up at UHF Records in Royal Oak, probably about 12 years ago. For whatever reason I was always there and they seemed to have a great assortment of 80s post punk at the time, before record collecting picked up in popularity again to the state that it is now.
My journey to listen to every record I have continues!
Dr. Pete Larson: Field Drift 2 (2023, Bandcamp) For some reason I thought this was going to be field recordings but it’s actually minimalist electronic music. I think it’s pretty great. It was created by Dr. Pete Larson, a local musician in Ann Arbor. I got this one for free when I bought a different record and got this as an unexpected bonus.
Various Artists: Dropchord sountrack (2013, Bandcamp) Soundtrack for a now unavailable game. I remember enjoying the game and this is a nice soundtrack that fits it. It’s just a solid compilation of noisy, danceable electronic music with maybe a small dubstep influence to it as well since it was published in 2013.
Mint Mile: Roughrider (2024, Bandcamp) The latest and best (imo) album by them. Tim Midyett’s (most famous for Silkworm) current band. I think they’re great
The Fall: The Frenz Experiment (1988, YouTube) I don’t actually have that many The Fall records and this was a pickup I got about half a year ago. I really enjoyed this one. The reviews for this one were positive but I saw one or two that think the band went on autopilot for this one. I can maybe see that for one or two of the songs but it also has some of their most well known songs like Victoria and Hit the North, two of my favorites.
Various Artists, produced by Space Quest Historian: King’s Chill Vol. 2 (2021, Bandcamp) A collection of chill and electronic covers (remixes?) of songs from the King’s Quest series. To be honest, I don’t actually know a lot of songs on this one that well since a lot are from KQ 5 and 8, which I haven’t played in a long time, but I still think it’s pretty great.
Mary Timony: Untame the Tiger (2024, Bandcamp) I really only know Mary’s stuff in her heavier rock bands like Ex Hex, Wild Flag, and Helium but the songwriting in here is excellent. I’ve have one of her solo albums from 20 years ago, but even that has a very different sound. This almost has more of a country sound in parts. I think it’s cool that all of her bands and solo work are all under the Rock genre but still have very different sounds.
Inspired by the Aaron Giles page where he talks about ripping his entire cd collection, I have decided to listen to every record (and CDs and Bandcamp purchases) and give tiny blurbs on them. I’ll do these posts on a weekly basis so they won’t get overwhelming and people can just skip them. Collecting records for 15 years and marrying someone who also collects them means I have a pretty decently sized music collection in my basement, with a lot of records I haven’t heard in a long time or have never listened to. I can’t imagine this will be interesting to most people but it will be a lot of fun for me since I listen to a ton of music while programming or after work anyway. Plus maybe it will help people find new music to listen to. I actually already ripped all my CDs earlier this year so I’m not getting to those yet. Most of these reviews will have links to Bandcamp pages as well. I’m also working on a page where all of these reviews will be listed.
His Name is Alive: How Ghosts Affect Relations 1990-1993 (2024, Bandcamp) This preorder actually arrived a bit early so I got to listen to it on vinyl before I can listen my download of it. An incredible box set containing 3 albums I love, along with some bonus tracks and booklet. The remasters sound fantastic and I can’t recommend these albums enough to people who are a fan of the dream pop/shoegaze sound that a lot of 4AD bands had at the time. It will never be weird to me that these albums were being recorded almost directly behind my childhood home while I was a kid. The main person behind this band, Warren Defever, apparently lived grew up here and then bought the home from his parents to use as a studio up until the mid 90s and I was just riding my bike by it every day. Weird! All 3 albums are great but I think my ranking of them is 1. Livonia 2. Mouth by Mouth 3. Home is in Your Head. Livonia is the first album released and named after the city where I grew up. It probably has the the most experimental sound, with the albums drifting to a more radio friendly sound with Mouth by Mouth sounding the most approachable to me.
Jean-Michel Jarre: Magnetic Fields (1981, YouTube) I’m not an expert on him by any means and he definitely has more famous albums, but this is still a good one IMO. Just some nice electronic bleeps and bloops. It sounds more poppy and dance than I would expect from him, but again, I’ve only heard a tiny bit of his work (the Oxygene albums).
Love Spirals Downwards: Flux (1998, Bandcamp) I feel like with the resurgence of Y2K nostalgia, especially among Gen Z folks, this seems like an album that they would be really into. This drum & bass and ambient album was released in 1998 but the version I listened to is the vinyl rerelease that came out in 2024. I think the rerelease sounds great. City Moon is the first song I heard by LSD so it will always have a soft spot for it, but I think all the songs on here are solid. To be honest, I don’t actually know the band’s discography that well outside of this and their compilation Temporal. I should probably listen to more of them since I like these two releases and have a lot of nostalgia for this era of music. I’m linking to the vinyl rerelease but there’s also a deluxe digital edition on Bandcamp that has a lot of bonus tracks. The vinyl release also features an essay and thoughts about the album too.
Mint Mile: The Bliss Point (2016, Bandcamp) I believe this is the first EP by Tim Midyett’s band Mint Mile. Tim is more famous for being a member of Silkworm, but I really like this band too. This was not the first album I heard by them, but I think it’s a good intro for anyone curious. It’s just a very good and straightforward rock album consisting of 4 songs, maybe with the tiniest bit of a country sound in some songs
Same Eyes: “Parties to End” (2021, Bandcamp) A synth pop/dark wave band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I think it’s an enjoyable collection of songs if you’re a fan of 80s new wave bands. I hesitate to call it synth pop since it’s a little darker, but I think there’s also an element of cheese that makes me want to associate them with that genre too. Even though it’s clearly inspired by a lot of classic new wave/dark wave bands, I still think they have their own sound. It’s not like when a vaporwave band is just copying the same sounds as many other vaporwave bands and ends up sounding like “generic 80s synth song” (I know that’s not all vaporwave btw). Lots of Michigan connections with this album too. I discovered them through my local NPR station, local musician legend Fred Thomas helped record the album, and Warren Defever from local band His Name is Alive mastered the album at Third Man Records in Detroit
One of my favorite Christmas traditions in my adult life has been tuning into Jon Solomon’s 25 hour Christmas music marathon. Jon Solomon, a DJ at WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey hosts a 25 hour every Christmas Eve where he plays a mix of random stuff including a 42 minute version of little drummer boy and 30 minute blocks of x-mas themed Ramones, Misfits, and The Fall parodies. There’s also bands that record songs for the marathon now so it’s not all cursed music. He’s been doing it about 30 years now. Here’s some of the songs from last year but there’s new ones every year
He also has a Hanukkah Show every year. This year it’s tonight on 103.3 fm WPRB from 5-8 pm ET. You can also listen online here.
If you’re looking for more stuff, here’s some of the music I’ve picked up on Bandcamp over the last few years.
Some bands have made songs for the marathon in previous years, this includes this nice song by Outer World called Arc & Bow, which kinda has a slight shoegazey sound to it.
Low’s Christmas album is an all-time classic. It’s a mix of covers and new songs that capture some of the bittersweet feelings that people can have at this time of year.
And finally, while there is a shorter version on Bandcamp, I must recommend the 42 minute version of Little Drummer Boy by Lindstrom. It’s part of the 25 hour Christmas music marathon so I listen to it every year and has also become an important part of Christmas for me.
I was listening to the University of Michigan’s radio station doing their weekly local music show last night and if you have a local college or public radio station, consider checking them out and supporting them if you don’t already. I discover so much more through the curation at radio stations I like than through algorithms.
Some of the stations I like are listed below and can be listened to online: WCBN, University of Michigan’s radio station as mentioned above. There’s a lot of great local music that’s highlighted and a nice variety of other stuff too.
WPRB-FM in Princeton, especially their yearly Christmas marathon hosted by one DJ over 25 hours. I’ve discovered a lot great music local to New Jersey as well.
KEXP in Seattle has a lot of great live performances and I like their morning show.
WFMU in New Jersey is where some of my favorite shows like The Best Show got their start.
