That's My Jam! // Volume 1 (April 20th, 2020)

 

I've been inside on lockdown for three weeks as I type this introduction.  I'm listening to a lot more music now and not just for review.  So inside of "That's My Jam!" you will find little paragraphs, maybe only a few words or maybe just a photo or two of what I've been listening to without going into a full length review.   Who knows how long this will last but perhaps one day we will look back upon it fondly.


/01/ Mute Duo "Lapse In Passage" (American Dreams)
https://muteduoadr.bandcamp.com/album/lapse-in-passage

This was somewhat of my inspiration for That's My Jam!  There are really cool guitar riffs in here with percussion and though there are other sounds those are two of the main focus sounds.   It feels like we're in the desert at times and other times it just builds like post rock.   It winds and drives to where "Canopy Bells" even brings out some ideas of surf rock.   Cymbals crash and I dig the darkness on "Overland Line".   By the end of this one you'll hear some of those bells and glass sounds like Jay Peele and this is a guitar-driven instrumental adventure which you should take if you have the time.


/02/ Grouplove "Healer" (Atlantic)
https://open.spotify.com/album/1FsCJHnJORi2z5ibQs9aQI

I feel like I heard one of these songs, perhaps the first one, on the radio one morning back when I was going to work.  Still, I've been a fan of Grouplove for a while and this upbeat sound is one which we should all be playing through our speakers right now if only to pretend like we can be outside in the sun.


/03/ Peggy Sue "Vices" (Kartel Music Group)
https://peggysue.bandcamp.com/album/vices

Though country at its soul, there are blissed out rock n roll sounds within like Buddy Holly and that era of music.   "Validate Me" can kick in a little bit distorted like grunge but for the most part this has a pure country sound to it which I do not mind.   This has gone on several times before I started this grouping of tiny reviews and I will continue to listen to it after as well.


/04/ Sin City "Welcome to Sin City"
https://sincity66.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-to-sin-city

Some good old fashion rock n roll, just like Marty McFly invented.


/05/ Stabbing Westward "Dead and Gone"
https://stabbingwestward.bandcamp.com/album/dead-and-gone

I'm not sure how long it has been since I listened to new music by Stabbing Westward (their albums from my youth remain in heavy rotation) but here is an EP that came out at the beginning of 2020 and has remained heavy in my playlist because it really is on par with everything I've heard from Stabbing Westward before: heavy and electronic.   Let's thrash!


/06/ Charli Adams "Good At Being Young EP"
https://open.spotify.com/album/2kVUq4DbkaS6xA33CC6EmQ

This reminds me a little bit of Lana Del Rey and I like that.


/07/ Sega Bodega "Salvador" (Supernature)
https://segabodega.bandcamp.com/album/salvador

This is some great electronic hip hop, sort of like Twenty One Pilots at times.  I really enjoy the line: "I love when you tell me you'll change just cause I changed the locks"  This gets mixed up, chopped up, all of that and I do enjoy it but if you're looking for something like this in a more pure sense where it's not so manipulated might I suggest...


/08/ Caribou "Suddenly" (Merge Records)
https://caribouband.bandcamp.com/album/suddenly


/09/ THICK "5 Years Behind" (Epitaph)
https://thick.bandcamp.com/album/5-years-behind

Such a fun rock album and they have a song called "Your Mom"!


/10/ Puig Destroyer "S/T" (No Sleep)
https://puigdestroyer.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Because I miss baseball.


/11/ Tropical Fuck Storm "Suburbiopia b/w This Perfect Day"
https://tropicalfstorm.bandcamp.com/album/suburbiopia-b-w-this-perfect-day-2

Two songs of noisy rock with elements of punk yet also somehow they create these melodies which feel like a flower growing out of concrete. 

/12/ Good Looking Friends "The Light of the Well"
https://goodlookingfriends.bandcamp.com/album/the-light-of-the-well

A little bit of Ben Folds, a little bit of emo, a lot of what I like.


/13/ Moor Jewelry "True Opera" (Don Giovanni Records)
https://moorxjewelry.bandcamp.com/album/true-opera

The first run of this cassette sold out so quickly that they made a second one.  This is noisy punk and I love it.


/14/ U.S. Girls "Heavy Light"
https://open.spotify.com/album/66LP9b290P2kVNJB19Mi1C?autoplay=true&v=L

Yes, I'm listening to this, but so is everyone else, right?


/15/ Lil Dicky "Professional Rapper" (Commision Records)
https://open.spotify.com/album/5eLVoIPq7P3Bu29lVgD4x0?highlight=spotify:track:1Ysc1uDZtf430TGavoS1j4

After watching the first season of "Dave" on Hulu (and loving it) I decided to look into the music of Lil Dicky, which brought me to this album (Which is apparently from 2015) because it's on Hoopla which makes it so much easier for me to listen to it than on Spotify.   Still, as much as I enjoy this album both lyrically and musically I feel like there are a lot of parts where it had to have been compared with Eminem, right?  So I do listen to this album, waiting for that next album to come where Lil Dicky can break out and be Lil Dicky, but hey, he has five years so I'm going to use this (and "Dave") as a way to launch myself further into his library.

/16/ Kitten "Goodbye Honeymoon Phase" (The Century Family)
https://open.spotify.com/album/3xDFOpOdq1n4JwgfQa0uZs

"Memphis" is such a great way to start this EP but am I hearing the dialup connecting in the background of the chorus?   This is pop, but it's also a lot of fun.   "ME" has these guitars and just reminds me of P!nk in the best possible way.    Now, I don't want to overthink these songs (and neither should you) *but* let me overthink these songs, okay?   On the beginning of this EP one of the lyrics is about being 24 years old and then the last song is "Friday's No Fun Anymore".   First off, if you think Friday is no longer a fun day at 24 then I'm not sure what to tell you to expect for when you turn 34 (and yikes for 44) but man I'd kill to be in my 20's again (only not really because I was dumber when I was younger)  Also, there is a line where singer Chloe Chaidez says she wishes it was like 2004.  Yeah, quick Google search reveals that in 2004 she would have been 10 years old so what the hell.   I hope this has been addressed somewhere else before now but I'm not looking it up.


/17/ Cowboy Junkies "Ghosts"
https://open.spotify.com/album/6X93mLWSGOp8XzuyuWbcuJ

I really feel like I best know Cowboy Junkies for their song "Sweet Jane" (as do most) and yet I often times come through and drop them as an influence in other music I review.   "Ghosts" is one of the first times I can recall listening to an album by Cowboy Junkies more than once and from the killer-psych guitar riffs to pianos to softer folk side of the songs this is just such an excellent album through and through.  

/18/ Ryan Pollie "Live At The Grove"
https://ryanpollie.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-grove

Five live songs from Ryan Pollie (which don't really sound too live) can be just the thing to get you through an afternoon which feels particularly long.

/19/ Hey, Chels "Everything Goes"
https://heychels.bandcamp.com/album/everything-goes

When I first started listening to this my earbuds were somehow not fully plugged into my laptop and I could hear the music but the vocals were so distant in the background, like they were buried behind the rest of the sound.  I thought it was an interesting sound but also seemed a bit off.   Once I took the earbuds out and listened to this one through speakers it all changed.    In some ways, I want to hear the pop within this rock because it has such pure melodies, but at the same time it just feels too loud to be in that genre.  

/20/ Ani Glass "Mirores"
https://aniglass.bandcamp.com/album/mirores

A heavenly voice with those "Knight Rider" synths.   The first time I listened to "Peirianwaith Perffaith" I heard the talking behind it and thought an ad had opened up somewhere on my laptop and started playing.    This reminds me of Polly Scattergood at times and of No Doubt at other times.   Somewhere between pop and synthwave, the overall sound here is just one of bliss, whichever tag you prefer to put it in front of to create the appropriate genre.  

As I type this ending, I've started this a month before I'm posting it.   Started on the 20th, posted on the 20th and 20 different pieces of music.  Will I do this again?  Maybe.  Maybe I've already started it.