NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #12
Live by the novelty, die by the novelty
Welcome once again to New Music for Olds, your source for half-formed musical opinion and pictures of random weirdos.
In today’s edition:
Candy-coated power pop
A singalong tribute to babes of yore
Gen Z jazz prodigies
The perils of novelty
And…buttcrack!
Before we get (butt)cracking:
Later this month, Kambri and I will be will be roadtripping to Niagara Falls, Lake Placid and points in between. We’ll be staying primarily at KOA’s, so I don’t expect much in the way of highspeed internet. This means that New Music for Olds will be taking a week off. Try to hold it together.
Paid Subscribers, you’ll still be receiving your bonus edition next Wednesday 8/17, but you Freebies are on your own until NMFO returns to light up your inbox on 8/31.
Terrified by the notion of three weeks without me? Consider joining the elite ranks of Paid Subscriberdom!
Or don’t. I mean, it’s up to you. 100% your choice.
With that out of the way, I bring you…
GOOD STUFF
As always, a Glossary of Terms.
The Lickerish Quartet, “Fortunately”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Threesome, Vol. 3 (E.P.)1
Nutshell: Former Jellyfish members doing Jellyfish things
Voltage: 4
Thoughts: If you cared about the briefly existent San Francisco power pop band Jellyfish, you likely cared a lot. Like, Jehovah’s Witness levels of caring. The band only recorded two albums, but both Bellybutton and Spilt Milk are unassailable masterpieces—don’t even think of assailing them! Following their 1994 breakup, “mercurial” (read: difficult) singer/drummer Andy Sturmer went off the grid, while songwriting partner Roger Manning Jr. became a go-to sideman and studio whiz. The Lickerish Quartet is comprised of Manning and Spilt Milk’s touring bassist and guitar player. They don’t quite achieve their former band’s rarefied air and I truly hate the word “Lickerish” (Guys, you’re solidly in your 50’s. Stop it). But the day-glo pop sensibilities of Jellyfish are instantly recognizable, along with the gorgeous harmonies and kitchen sink production. Music this sugary should be offered out of a windowless van.
Pairing Suggestion: Tuning in to Radio Gumdropland
The Dune Rats, “Pamela Aniston”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Real Rare Whale
Nutshell: Singalong party punk
Voltage: 7
Thoughts: Good god, this song is so stupid and I love it. No guile, no wit, no high art—just three cheerful dirtbags paying tribute to the TV babes of their collective youth. Even without the accents, I’d know these guys were Australian by their sheer lack of pretense. Every song on Real Rare Whale features the ‘mates’ shout-singing in unison—nary a harmony to be found. It’s defiantly unsophisticated and I bet it makes for a dynamite live experience. I can just about feel the floor bounce as the crowd sings along. Don’t overthink this one. Just turn it up loud.
Pairing Suggestion: Bellowing unintelligibly while picking the regurgitated meat pie out of your non-ironic mullet
DOMi & JD BECK, “SNiFF”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: NOT TiGHT
Nutshell: Jittery jazz, with a drum & bass influence
Voltage: 6
Thoughts: When you hear these two young savants play, you’ll wonder if your speakers of headphones have been overtaken by some sort of mutant A.I. If you’re not a fan of jazz fusion—and I’ll admit to finding some of it impenetrable—this may leave you cold. Even so, I urge you to run it through your Simone Biles Filter and marvel at the precision and virtuosity. NOT TiGHT has plenty of pop moments and cameos galore (YES to Thundercat and Herbie Hancock, NO THANKS to the charred remains of Snoop and Busta Rhymes). But I enjoy DOMi & JD BECK best when they just let it rip, commercial appeal be damned. Did I mention they’re 22 and 19? Kill me now.
Pairing Suggestion: Pouring espresso directly into your ear
Like? Don’t like? Use your words, people:
FOR FANS OF…[???]
I’ve been informed that this newsletter is “too long for email”, so I’m going to forego FOR FANS OF… this week. But I am once again soliciting suggestions. Tell me one of your all-time faves and I will (attempt to) offer a contemporary analogue. Literally, name any artist. If it’s too tough, I’ll simply ignore it—that’s my life philosophy!
I do have a few tentative notions. Any leap out at you?
(Look, I know nobody’s picking Todd Rundgren. But boy oh boy do I have a good one. I may not be able to resist forever!)
SOME BULLSHIT
Further musings, inspired by today’s GOOD STUFF artists.
MUSING #1
Whenever Jellyfish comes up, I find myself tumbling down a YouTube rabbit hole. There are scores of old interviews, live clips and amateur covers—what a lovely way to waste an evening! And underneath every such clip, you will find comments like “Greatest band of all time!” and “These guys should have been huge!!” and “I WILL MURDER THE WORLD FOR NOT HAVING LOVED JELLYFISH!!!!”
And I get it. In a perfect world, every early 90’s Kenwood all-in-one stereo system would have had Bellybutton and Spilt Milk taking up two of its 6-CD changer slots. Even today, both albums hold up beautifully. But it was never a mystery to me why Jellyfish never got big big. I mean…
When you find yourself asking, “Has anyone seem my mushroom parasol?”, you are perhaps taking your visual presentation too seriously. I mean, good for them for swimming against the flannel tide, but they had to know the emergent Grunge culture might resist falling in behind Sid & Marty Krofft’s house band.
You can say these things shouldn’t matter, but we’re only human. An overt ‘look’ might get attention, but it’s as likely to lose you fans as it is to win them. Live by the novelty, die by the novelty. For example, there’s a contemporary artist named Oliver Tree who’s putting out not-terrible music. But it’s not quite not-terrible enough for me to get past this:
All things considered, Jellyfish had about as much commercial success as any defiantly backwards-looking artist could reasonably expect. They were on MTV! Semi-often! After all, my old boss Ken Ober (RIP), didn’t welcome just anybody to Daytona Beach…
MUSING #2
This Dune Rats album is taking back to 2010, when I spent six mostly glorious weeks in Australia. The first two were for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. I did (and saw) a ton of great shows and Kambri and I spent our days traipsing around the beautiful and rather cosmopolitan city of Melbourne. After a few weeks back in the States, I got invited back to participate in the MICF Roadshow, where they send small groups of intrepid comedians out into the no-so-cosmopolitan Aussie countryside.
Thanks to a pre-Cloud stolen phone, most of my Oz photos have vanished, including my photo essay on “Plumber’s Butt’, which is such abundance in Western Australia they may as well put it on the territorial flag. But evidence of my Down Underism does exist.
We started off with a few shows in Darwin, where the local customs include sweating, sweltering, perspiring, and watching some dude feed pig parts to crocodiles.
We spent the bulk of the month touring W.A., performing in places large (Perth: 2mil), small (Bunberry: 90G) and really fucking small (Port Hedland: 40 some-odd miners and a wisecracking cockatoo).
Shitty beer, unsolicited male buttcrack and mounds of red dirt as far as the eye can see. Helluva place, Australia.
In NMFO #1 I mentioned The Beths, who hail from neighboring New Zealand. The contrast between that band (clever, restrained) and The Dune Rats (dumb bawdy fun) brings to mind one of my favorite scenes from “Flight of the Conchords”:
MUSING #3
Finally, assuming you weren’t turned off by DOMi & JD Beck, I highly recommend watching them pull it off live. It’s mesmerizing. Note that DOMi is playing this with a small dog in her lap. I love that George Bernard Shaw quote “Youth is wasted on the young,” but these kids seem to be making the most of theirs. I need a nap, man…
Okay, we’re done here. As always, thanks for your support. Fee free to share New Music for Olds with friends, family, co-workers, therapists and childhood bullies.
Don’t make me re-post the Billy Joel GIF.
See you in three weeks!
This came out in May, but I only just learned of its existence
Whelp, I’m now fan of DOMi & JD Beck, thank you.
And jump off on Bjork for sure, or just Icelandic music. I seek to learn more of it.
Every scene in Flight of the Conchords is my favorite scene. And yes this is one of them too.