NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #10
Important Artist alert!
Hello and welcome to another installment of New Music for Olds. Big Number 10!
Today:
Billy Corgan, but women!
Primo Earth Mother shit!
Topnotch elevator music!
Our very first “Important Artist alert”!
And instructional billiards!
But first…
Alright, let’s get into it.
GOOD STUFF
Momma, “Rockstar”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Household Name
Nutshell: Smashing Pumpkins, if they let D’Arcy sing all the songs
Voltage: 7
Thoughts: Okay, that nutshell description might be a bit flippant—Momma doesn’t do epic guitar solos, and this particular song isn’t quite the album’s best example. But it’s clear these two young women have listened to Siamese Dream a few thousand times, even shouting out SP’s “Hummer” by name. Momma isn’t attempting to reinvent the wheel, but for the rock-inclined, their combination of catchy hooks and fat-and-sludgy guitar (yes, that’s the technical term) feel like a rush of fresh air. The dream of the 90’s is alive.
Pairing Suggestion: Volume up, windows down.
Sun’s Signature, “Golden Air”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Sun’s Signature (E.P.)
Nutshell: Ethereal art pop
Voltage: 5
Thoughts: This is a collaboration between Elisabeth Frazer of Cocteau Twins and her partner, Massive Attack drummer Damon Reese. If you’re a fan of either of those artists, feel free to get your hopes up; it’s that good. Sun’s signature has only released three songs, but each sounds like a pagan hymn to some nature goddess. Warning: do not play this song on the Solstice or in the general vicinity of Stonehenge. “Golden Air” is a bit of a slow burn, but I encourage you to stick around until the 3-minute mark, when the song truly blossoms. Undiminished by time, Fraser’s one-in-a-million voice will make you feel like you’re floating towards the bright end of a kaleidoscope.
Pairing suggestion: Dancing around a pole meant to symbolize fertility or whatever
Delicate Steve, “Playing in a Band”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: After Hours
Nutshell: Instrumental soft rock
Voltage: 3
Thoughts: Every generation needs its Chuck Mangione. Easy Listening sounds like an insult, so I’ll simply say: this tasteful and low-key guitar-based music is extremely easy to listen to. It’s “dentist office music” that makes you want to stay in the chair. Engaging but never disruptive, it’s great for writing or housework or mere stress relief. At QED Astoria, I’ve been using a “This is Delicate Steve” playlist as the afternoon house music and it sets the perfect mood. Who knew a name as punch-able as “Delicate Steve” could inspire music so relaxing?
Pairing Suggestion: Hanging out in an elevator, just digging the vibe
Confirm for me these these songs do indeed qualify as “good stuff”.
FOR FANS OF…[Neil Young]
I do not have intense feelings about Neil Young. I mean, I admire the dude; how could you not? He’s the least embarrassing living icon of the Woodstock Era1 and an object lesson in how to split the difference between burning out and fading away. I give the guy credit for always following his muse, even when it’s taken him to some truly corny places.
There are a half dozen Neil Young songs I love (including one I referenced in last week’s paid-only NMFO) and likely a dozen more I would love if I threw my back into it. But I think I enjoy the idea of Neil Young more than I do his actual music. So why bring him up? Mostly as a backdoor way to introduce you to S.G. Goodman.
S.G. Goodman is a Kentucky-based songwriter who recently released her second album. I mention Kentucky not as biographical filler but because the rural South is an integral part of how Goodman presents herself, both lyrically and in the musical traditions that inspire her. I’m using Neil Young as a touchstone, but you’ll also hear Loretta Lynn, Brandi Carlisle, Jason Isbell, Courtney Barnett, Pete Seeger, Outlaw Country and the punk rock of X. When you add up all those influences, you get someone who doesn’t sound quite like anyone else in contemporary music.
As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time poring through music-related websites, twitter feeds. So I consider it a failure, both personal and of the Almighty Algorithm, that it was only last week that I discovered Goodman’s sophomore album Teeth Marks was released over a month ago. It’s moments like this that make me feel like the surveillance state doesn’t really get me, you know?
Whatever, all is forgiven BB. The Well I’ve been playing Teeth Marks on near-repeat for the past five days and I think I am ready to proclaim S.G. Goodman is…
…wait for it…
…wait longer for it…
…(Okay Finnegan, you’re trying our patience)…
…an “Important Artist”.
Mind you, I don’t think an artist has to be ‘important’ to be great. I love early Aerosmith, for example, but you could zap them from existence and the general flow of music history would remain unchanged. Conversely, I can acknowledge an artist’s importance without personally being a fan. I don’t particularly care for Lady Gaga, but it’s clear to me that she has a musical and cultural heft that, say, Katy Perry does not.
So what do I mean by “Important Artist”? Basically, regardless of whether S.G. Goodman ever ‘moves units’, she’s going to matter. I’m not just talking about being a critical darling, although I certainly expect that to be the case. She’ll have a small but devoted fanbase and will inspire a generation of young songwriters. Think Nick Drake. Think Leonard Cohen. She’ll put out a half-dozen perfect albums and probably a couple of left-field experiments that weirdos like me will claim are even better. Brooding college students will use her music to exhibit their advanced taste and ‘old souls’. And then, twenty years from now, some teen idol will cover her or some music supervisor will use an S.G. Goodman tune in a popular TV show (or its 2042 equivalent) and everyone will claim to have been a fan since way-back-when.
My feeling is, why not get in on the ground floor?
The first thing you’ll notice is, S.G. Goodman sings. Not in a studied, operatic sense, but in a way that says “I have ten pounds of emotion packed into a five pound bag and this is just what happens when I open my mouth.”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
(Prediction: this is the song that someday gets used in a movie or TV show.)
But while Goodman’s singing style is often plaintive, her delivery is always assured and when she wants to rock, she rocks. I actually had to stop listening to the title track of her 2020 debut while driving. First it caused me to get a speeding ticket and then, a couple weeks later, I blew a tire driving recklessly up a narrow gravel driveway. I’ve determined it’s is too potent a tune for vehicular consumption.
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
As for Teeth Marks, it’s even better than her debut. She puts the “Southern condition” mentioned in “Old Time Feeling” fully under the microscope, taking a clear-eyed look at addiction, generational poverty and corporate servitude without an ounce of condescension.
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
You never forget that the people she’s talking about are her friends, her family. Like, imagine Hillbilly Elegy written by someone who isn’t a complete sociopath.
Look, I’m just a dumbshit standup comic with a free newsletter. But I think S.G. Goodman is the whole package—the voice, the songwriting, the gorgeous guitar tones and most certainly the lyrics. I’m not a music journalist and the point of NMFO is not necessarily to evangelize on behalf of my favorite artists—my modest goals are more along the lines of “Hey, check out this cool thing with which to amuse yourself for a few days.” But if I’m able to create five new S.G. Goodman fans, that would feel like time and energy well spent.
Yes? No?
SOME BULLSHIT
I’m still trying to track down video of my DC live-band karaoke triumph (in the sense I was able to get through the song without collapsing), so let’s keep today’s bullshit to a minimum.
First, remember up top when I said that “Rockstar” isn’t Momma’s most flagrant most Smashing Pumpkins rip? Well, that would be “Lucky”, which features a Jimmy Chamberlain shuffle and a bit of Mayonaise-y guitar dissonance. That’s all fine by me—imitation, flattery, blah blah blah.
Secondly, if you’re looking to down a fistful of magic mushrooms and bliss out to trippy nature footage, enjoy this Sun’s Signature “visualiser”, which I believe is French for “We didn’t want to shell out for an actual music video.”
And finally: Much to my surprise, “Delicate Steve” was not a horse in Van Hammersly’s re-telling of the 1974 Kentucky Derby.
This brings us to the end of another edition of New Music for Olds. This is usually the point where I would exhort you to share this with your friends. I mean, I’m not exhorting you. But if I was, this is the spot where such an exhortation would exist.
Wait, what’s this?
Sorry, I have no idea how that got there. Trying to delete. See you next time! I love you like Chuck loves this flugelhorn!
Neil rather famously wasn’t at Woodstock, but you know what I mean
I was never super into the pumpkins, but Momma certainly scratches an long unscratched itch. Also, if this were TRULY for olds, you would go so far as to post links to Napster (formerly Rhapsody, formerly Napster).
I listened to all four S.G. Goodman tracks you suggested and wasn't really feeling it until I got to the last one, Dead Soldiers. That was the entry point I needed. I have so many thoughts, too many for here. But what strikes me about her is that she's willing to take music seriously and take herself seriously and there is nothing greater than that in music. Music that winks at you can be amazing and accomplish 99% of what music can do. But that last, elusive percentage point is the sole province of the unapologetic true believer.