Tuesday, June 21, 2022

There's Always Time For A Tune Or Two

I had every intention today of writing a lengthy post about two more of the Steam Next Fest demos, Brok the Investigator and Hill Agency: PURITY&Decay. I played Hill Agency yesterday and my plan was to play Brok this morning, then post about both, since I could see some correlations between them.

It's eight in the evening and I have just finished the Brok demo. It didn't take me all day - I did other things, too -  but it did take  a hair under four hours, all of it solid gameplay. It may be the longest demo I've ever played. 

As a consequence, I don't have nearly enough time to finish the post I wanted to write. There's no point even starting. 

I don't even have time to write a shorter post focusing on just one of the demos. I'm working tomorrow so it's going to have to wait until later in the week and now that I think about it, the last remaining demo, Yoko Redux: Dreams of a Blue Planet, looks like it might factor into the conversation too, so I probably ought to play that first as well.

Even though I broke the posting every day streak, I don't want to get into the habit of missing days when i intended to post, so I thought I'd just share a few tunes I've enjoyed over the last week. I can get that done in the half hour or so before we take the dog for a walk. Or I could if I stopped rambling.

Eat Slay Chardonnay - NOBRO - I heard this on Radio 6 the other day, while I was chopping up vegetables. It's a wonder I have any fingers left. It was chosen by someone out of PUP. Didn't catch his name. Ninety-seven seconds of pure exhilaration. It's not often I think a song could be longer but I could do two and a half minutes of that.

Destination Boyfriend - Slagheap - If NOBRO are the Ramones, who are Slagheap? The Desperate Bicycles? Swell Maps? We've Got A Fuzzbox?Yeah, probably Fuzzbox.

Remember when people would go around wearing those passive-aggressive "Punk's Not Dead" buttons? I bet no-one's doing that any more.

I Was Neon - Julia Jacklin - I've been digging into Julia's back catalog since I heard her previous single, Lydia Wears A Cross, kicking myself for not discovering her sooner. This is her latest, a mesmeric motorik meditation that reminds me very much of my long-time favorite, Jane Weaver

I have a post in mind that's a kind of follow-up to the one that mentioned Dad Rock. It's going to feed off this article in The Atlantic, which I came to by way of this post at Stereogum. By all means, read up in advance. Then if I never get around to writing the post it won't really matter. 

I mention it because its not just old bands hanging on forever that's the problem. It's styles, too. 

Not Harry. I don't mean him. Although...

Wet Dream - Harry Styles - Wet Leg are opening for Harry Styles on his Australian tour. The world can be such a strange place, can't it? Rhian and Hester have already finished their second album, too. Is that even weirder? I think it might be. I like Harry Styles, by the way. I think everyone does, now.

Dolly - Kevin Morby - While we're on the subject of weird covers, try this. An Americana version of a Tierra Whack tune. Although, when you hear the original, it's really not that big a leap. Tierra's something special, alright. In fact, let's have her as well, live from the dollhouse.

And finally...


CanciĆ³n De Entretiempo - Lisasinson - If that doesn't make you smile, nothing will. I believe I may have said that about Lisasinson before but that's what they do, isn't it? Make people smile.

It helps if the mere sight of those Spanish Don & Miki books give you an instant nostalgia hit, of course. I used to buy them when I went to Spain or France in the hope of finding some Carl Barks reprints. Sometimes I thought I had. Of course, the artists were never credited so I was never sure.

And now it's time to walk the dog. Next time - demo time! 

Maybe...

2 comments:

  1. I continue to be impressed at the musicality of Harry Styles' band. When I first encountered them, in their Channel 1 remake of The Chain, I was really surprised at how integrated Harry was into the band. I've seen plenty of bands for a singer basically act as a karaoke machine rather than have the singer be truly a part of the band. But the looks in their eyes as they faced each other in that small studio told me a lot about how they work together. And that respect has only grown with other times I've seen them play around the net or on television (such as Saturday Night Live). I may not be the target audience of Harry's music, but I can certainly respect the quality of their work.

    And damn is that drummer good.

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    1. I get the feeling he really wanted to be a rock star all along and the boy band career was just the dues he paid to make it happen. I actually missed One Direction altogether, the arc of their career falling largely across the period when I was just learning to pay attention to music again after a decade spending all my free time on mmorpgs. Consequently I don't really have much of an opinion on him outside of what I've seen him do solo, most of which has been very enjoyable.

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