Monday, June 30, 2025: The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Anemone

Apparently, the Glastonbury Music Festival happened this weekend in the UK.

The final night, Pyramid Stage headliner was Olivia Rodrigo.  The BBC said, "It was, hands down, the best (and best-attended) headline set of the weekend."  I swear, before I researched her, I couldn't name one Olivia Rodrigo song if you paid me. I briefly glimpsed through some of her Glastonbury set.  I'm sure there are some cool songs in there, somewhere.

I've been speed-running through a lot of this weekends material, including Franz Ferdinand being joined by "fellow Glaswegian" Peter Capaldi for a hearty rendition of Take Me Out, The 1975 putting on an actual hell of a show (I need to feature them asap), one of my personal favorite bands The Maccabees, and these guys, the guys with one of my favorite band names ever: The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Here's a low fi slow jam of a cool song for your murky, muddy, Monday morning.  In fact, just put it on repeat and play it through the whole day.  Then get more into TBJM, and blast even more of their tracks.

You will not be disappointed, I promise you.  

Sunday, June 29, 2025

No blogging on a Sunday.

See you Monday!

Saturday, June 28, 2025: Jon Anderson with Tangerine Dream - Loved By The Sun

You young kids think "1980s Movies" and think it was all just cheesy space movies, or futuristic computer stuff like Wargames, Tron or Terminator. But a huge section of movies from the 1980s were "Sword and Sorcery" films like Excalibur, Ladyhawke, and this epic slice of cinema, 1985's "Legend", starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, and Tim Curry, with a soundtrack by Tangerine dream. 

Children, I promise you, it honestly doesn't get much more 80s than this.

Friday, June 27, 2025: Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music

DISCO FRIDAY!

DISCO FRIDAY!

DISCO FRIDAY!

It's been a heavy week, man.

How about we turn that frown upside down and dance our way into the weekend, ok?

Thursday, June 26, 2025: Jim Lord - You Are My Sunshine

The earliest known recorded version of this melancholy American classic was released in 1939, recorded by The Rice Brothers Gang.  However, it is Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell’s version, recorded in 1939 and released in 1940, which was the first widely successful recording. Their version made the song a national hit and firmly tied it to Davis, who would later use it as a campaign song when running for governor of Louisiana.

The authorship of "You Are My Sunshine", however, is contested. Jimmie Davis, a country singer and later governor of Louisiana, is most often credited as a co-writer, with Charles Mitchell, Davis’s songwriting partner, is also listed as a co-author.  However, it is widely believed that the song was originally written by Paul Rice of the Rice Brothers Gang in 1937. Paul reportedly sold the song to Davis and Mitchell in 1939 due to financial hardship.

"You Are My Sunshine" was declared one of the official state songs of Louisiana in 1977, largely due to Davis’s association with it. Its blend of sweetness and sadness, simplicity and emotional depth, has made it one of America's most cherished and frequently sung standards.

"Sunshine" has been recorded by over 350 artists, across multiple genres. Some of the most well-known artists who covered it are Gene Autry (1941), Bing Crosby (1941), Ray Charles (1962), Johnny Cash (1970), Ike & Tina Turner (1970), Aretha Franklin (1962), and Brian Wilson (2008).

That all said, I think Jim Lord here does it justice, I love his take on it.   

 

Wednesday, June 25, 2025: Muni Long - Made For Me

It's 1993.  It's just after 1am in the morning.  I make a left from Southbound Azusa Ave, and now I'm driving Eastbound on Colima Ave.  Walnut, California.

I look over to my left at the Puente Hills Mall parking lot, because that's what I always do, and even though nobody else is in the car, I still say out loud, "That's where they filmed Back To The Future."

The streetlights run over my windshield left right left right, the signs on the stores turn from Chinese to Korean to Japanese, with some Spanish signs popping up for good measure.  Nobody else on the road, except for a smattering of other lonely, lost spirits, some police, and if I'm lucky, I'll catch the quick glimpse of a street racer on their way to ply their trade.  We're all looking for our Springsteen moment, except this is suburban Southern California, not the swamps of New Jersey.

Suburbia, wherever it is, hits different at night.  Especially deep into the night, that grey area between top dead center of the middle of the night, and that slow decent into dawn.  Into the light.  The buildings both lose their shape, and somehow become more intimidating, more ominous.  You're mind can understand why they are there in the daytime; open for trade, serving a purpose.  They make less sense at night.  Parking lots become oceans of darkness dimpled with simple lightpoles pouring out concentric circles of hideous yellow light.  Cross traffic becomes just as dangerous as a serial killer.  

And this song comes on the radio.

Why?  Because it fits.  It sounds as much 1993 as it does 2024, when it was released. 

Muni Long started her career under her birth name Priscilla Renea Hamilton, and found success penning hits for Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey, and more.

She reinvented herself in 2019 as Muni Long—a move driven by a desire for creative autonomy.

I don't know much about R&B, whether or not it needs a savior or not, but if it does, then it's Muni Long to the rescue.   

Here's to those long night drives.  May we never stop taking that journey. 

 

Tuesday, June 24, 2025: TWOfer Tuesday - The "Songs Of Summer" Edition

The summer solstice took place Friday, June 20, and was both the longest day and shortest night of 2025.  It's officially summer.

I know it doesn't really feel like "summer", not in the terms of weather, but, well, with everything going on right now.  But, still, the cold hard reality is that there are only 93 days of summer, and when the Autumnal Equinox rolls through on September 22nd, by then it will all be over.  You would have squandered yet another summer.

Don't do that.  Crank up some fun, summer themed songs.  Here's two, to get you started.

Laugh, travel, hang out with friends, have a BBQ, travel to the beach.  

There will only ever be one Summer of 2025.  Make it count.