I'll Come Up With A Title For This Thing One Day

I wasn't sure whether I was going to do a "What I've Been Listening To Lately" post this week because

1. I don't have that many songs put by yet.
   
2. I don't want to get into a "listen to new stuff just so I have new stuff to post" death loop.
3. If it's going to be a regular feature, which it looks like it already is, I really need to come up with a better name for the damn thing.

I left it brewing for a bit, played some Noah's Heart, took Beryl for a walk, made a cup of tea, sat down and thought about it some more and what I decided was

1. I have seven or eight songs earmarked for posting already. How many more do I need?
2. Searching out new songs and artists is at least half the point, isn't it? 
3. Why does it have to have a name? Nothing else here ever does.

So, I talked myself into it once again. It's pushing at an open door, really. I love doing these things. Let's see what's in the locker this week...

Soccer Mommy - Shalom

Can't really fault a song that sounds like it was recorded down a tunnel and opens with "I did a bunch of drugs before I turned 21". I'm also partial to the bit that goes "I own a denim jacket now". Hey, I do too! And I was so pleased with myself when I got it! Denim jackets never go out of style, do they?

Happenstance - Shalom

Oh, look! It's Shalom again! Full name Shalom Obisie-Orlu. Remember it. Pretty sure this won't be the last time you read it here.

Luv Like - Nia Archives

Okay, first off, what is it with all these people calling themselves "Archives"? Well, at least two of them. First Sudan Archives and now Nia. Second, how come I didn't really like drum 'n' bass back in the '90s, when I was thirty years younger, yet now it's back and I'm old, I love it? Also, don't you really hate rhetorical questions? And how would I manage if they ever banned the word "really"? Whoever "they" are...

I heard that one first on 6 Music, while I was in the bath. I don't listen to music radio very often, only when something I can't stand comes on my usual speech station. It's not because I don't want to. It's because it feels like cheating. If I listened to 6 Music all the time I'd have fifty new songs to put in these posts every week but that really would be missing the point, wouldn't it? Please don't ask why. Or what the point is.

Supermoon - Garden Center

Is that his real voice? (Yes, it is.) Sounds like David Byrne on helium. I was going to ask who names their band Garden Center but then I saw on their Bandcamp that some of their stuff is "based on the experiences and memories of a group of people who used to hang out in an abandoned plant nursery". Well, I guess that explains it. 

They're a supergroup, apparently. A supergroup of people you never heard of from bands you never heard of either. They've been described as "Los Campesinos for people with short attention spans". I know at least one person who reads this blog knows who Los Campesinos are because that's how I found out about them.

Treasure - Freak Slug

I've said it before: sometimes you have to wonder if these people even want to be successful. If you were laying down louche, woozy, super chill vibes like this, would you put the result out under a name like Freak Slug? It's like Corpsegrinder calling themselves Fluffy Bunny Cuddles. (I'm not going to link to Corpsegrinder, by the way. If you don't know what they sound like you can find out for yourself. I'm not taking responsibility) 

Still, at least she didn't call herself Shitkid.

Nothing Left To Lose - Everything But The Girl

Hey! Someone we've heard of! I'm not normally big on legacy acts but quality is quality. I heard this on Radio 6 as well, a while ago now, but I only got around to checking it out on YouTube today, after I heard the follow-up, which is great, too. I've always loved Tracey Thorne's voice, all the way back to Marine Girls. Forty years on it sounds the same but better. It's that submarine bass that sells it, though.

We have three Tracey Thorne memoirs in our bathroom, by the way. She's written four. The only one I've read is the first, which is excellent. Mrs Bhagpuss is the big fan. She's read them all. 

Supergirl - Stereo Total

I do like a bit of French post-structuralist pop now and again. I could have sworn I'd linked this lot before but search says no. I came across them while researching that other music post I was talking about yesterday. They have a song that's going to feature in that one, if I ever get around to writing it. I suspect they're going to crop up elsewhere, too. They do a great version of Heroes that makes it sound like Suicide, which it always did, a bit. I'm not going to waste it in a link, though. I can already think of a post it would go nicely with. 

Burnt Pictures - audiobooks

Another band determined to make it as difficult as possible to find them in a search. This is their latest and the first thing I ever heard by them but it isn't actually the track I wanted to use. That would be the one that inspired this post I keep referring to so mysteriously and annoyingly. If I use it now, though, I won't be able to use it then, so we'll just have to wait.

Don't worry. It won't be worth it.

Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd - Lana del Rey

I can't believe I haven't featured this already. What the hell is wrong with me? It was the lead single off the upcoming album of the same name, creating, along with the second, A&W, a hellacious deja vu. Remember Norman Fucking Rockwell's opening twin salvo of Mariners Apartment Complex and Venice Bitch?  Of course you do. Anticipation through. the. fucking. roof. now, it goes without saying.

I just noticed there's no question mark at the end of the title of either the song or the album. I don't know what to think about that.

Anyway, there's no following Lana so I guess that's it. I'm off to try and think up a snappy name for this and all my other regular features, which it seems I have several now. Maybe I'll get an AI to do it for me. That's what they're for. Isn't it?