Monthly Archives: January 2023

Yo La Tengo comes up on my Spotify home page pretty regularly due to my listening habits and the era in which they gained notoriety. I already knew a little bit of their catalog in passing, but never took the time to check them out. Now I’m just hoping I’ll be able to see themContinue reading “#986 – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out by Yo La Tengo”

This group describes their music as “black metal sparkle folk.” I defy you to read that genre descriptor and then move on without playing so much as a single song from their album.

Stanley Clarke is one of the inspirations of one of my favorite musicians of all time, Les Claypool. His catalog is extremely eclectic and features collaborations with some of the most celebrated musicians in the world. In the case of this live recording, the legendary Al DiMeola. I always like a good live album, andContinue reading “#984 – Live At Montreaux 1994 by Al DiMeola, Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke”

I heard Hugo’s great cover of Jay-Z’s 99 Problems recently and had to check out the rest of the album. I would never have guessed that this Portuguese-born artist performed as a one man band, which makes this cover all the cooler.

I’ve known about and listened to Cat Stevens, now going by Yusuf, for my whole life, which makes it all the more improbable that I haven’t heard an entire album of his until now. I guess it’s always been radio play or a few selections of his that have been used repeatedly in film andContinue reading “#982 – Tea For the Tillerman by Cat Stevens”

I heard a song from this album at work a few weeks ago. It was played by the house DJ on a tv show I’ve been working on, which has always been a great avenue for song discoveries.

I’ve always said that my favorite app is Shazam, which is one of the best, most useful apps of all time, and one that I use constantly. This album came to my attention because the song ALIVE was featured in a recent Apple commercial. Another connection made by Shazam.

I came across this album in a column from Spin where different artists list their “Top 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without.” This installment featured Dave Rowntree of Blur, who called this his favorite album of all time.

The more I learn about country music, I find more and more artists that I really enjoy. Ramsey has to date released only this one album, with a cult following that has led most of these songs to be covered by a variety of artists. His long-awaited second album has been rumored to be onContinue reading “#978 – self-titled by Willis Alan Ramsey”

Somebody sent me a YouTube video of some School of Rock kids doing a really great cover of Waiting Room, fronted by three female singers. They totally nailed it.