NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #22

A lowkey attempt to monetize a debilitating habit!

Jan 11, 2023

Hello there! Welcome to the first NMFO of this wee little baby new year. It’s going out later than usual, but I have an excuse: I’ve spent the last week recovering from something called “COVID” (sp?).

Given that I’m the only person in the world to have ever contracted this strange malady, let me tell you: it has been decidedly non-fun. Zero stars. Would not recommend. Still, I soldier on, determined to bring you fine people a newsletter worthy of 2023!

(See, what’s clever about this framing is, it works regardless of how you feel about this week’s NMFO. If you find yourself marveling at my dazzling wordplay, the above statement points you toward an exciting and triumphant 2023. If, however, you find this week’s songs dull or my jokes lame, it becomes a grim warning of the dullness/lameness that awaits us all. Keep that in mind before forming a negative opinion of anything you read—you’ll only be hurting yourself.)

Today’s offerings include:

The strangest of earworms
Boogie prog
New Peter Gabriel (NOT A DRILL)
The futility of being “in the know”
And, a birthday shoutout to the late David Jones of Brixton

Let’s get cracking.

GOOD STUFF

New year, same Glossary of Terms.

Young Fathers, “I Saw”

Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music

Album: Heavy Heavy
Nutshell: Art rock for the head and the crotch
Voltage: 7
Thoughts: I’ve listened to “I Saw” roughly 80 times over the past ten days. And when not actively listening, I’ve been mostly humming it while going about my daily whatevers. Which is strange, because this is an odd piece of music. There’s no verse-chorus-verse structure and the lyrics are obscure to the point of meaninglessness. But while it doesn’t tick every traditional pop song box, “I Saw” has an internal logic that manages to feel both visceral and intellectual. As a Power Pop guy, I admire the craft that goes into composing a perfect three-and-a-half minute ditty. But it’s also cool when an artist abandons those ‘rules’ and still comes away with something not just compelling, but whole. It helps that songs rests on that familiar glam rock “schaffel beat1”. How nice to hear it and not immediately think of jock jams or child pornography!
Pairing Suggestion: Getting hyped. The fuck. Up

No snarky caption. Just the coolest album art I’ve seen in a hot minute.

Mos Generator, “Aja-Minor”

Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music

Album: Time //Wounds
Nutshell: Prog rock with a bit of Boogie
Voltage: 7
Thoughts: I’m looking at that nutshell description and thinking “Ugh, I would have zero interest in a band that was described this way. But I don’t know how else to describe Mos Generator. A heavier (and less smarmy) Phish? Black Sabbath meets Geggy Tah?? There’s definitely a jammy vibe here and you don’t need to parse this song title to know these guys own a few Steely Dan albums. As you might imagine, the musicianship is impressive—I especially dig the time change that ushers in the guitar solo. Is it all a bit passé, culturally? Sure, but so are we. Don’t fight it.
Pairing Suggestion: Getting a contact high at Wetlands in 1992

The main reason I never smoked weed in college is that I so closely associated the smell with body odor.

Peter Gabriel, “Panopticom”

Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music

Album: i/o (Release date TBD)
Nutshell: A very Peter Gabriel-ish song by Peter Gabriel
Voltage: 5
Thoughts: Yes, you read that right—there’s a new Peter Gabriel song. In related news, hell hath frozen over and the sky is rife with flying pigs. And what’s more “Panopticom” (sic) leans very heavily into its Gabriel-ness, from its players (Tony Levin! Manu Katche!) to the overall production. Even better (imho), this is “Art Weirdo Pete”, not “World Music Pete”. Not a didgeridoo to be found! I’ve only had 48 hours with “Panopticom” (again, sic) and I won’t yet call it a Top 20 PG tune, but boy does this combination of sounds take me to a specific emotional place. It makes me very excited for i/o, which is apparently being rolled out one song at a time, timed to the lunar cycle (eyeroll emoji). Whatever, man—weirdos are gonna weirdo.
Pairing Suggestion: Plotting out phases of the moon, I guess?

Okay, let’s hear it:

Any other comments, pray tell?

QUICK NOTE

If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading to Paid Subscriber-ship, now would be a good time. I have lots of Paid-Only goodies planned for 2023, including a potential “NMFO Album Club” (like a book club, but online and about albums!).

Get in on the action, people. Good seats still available!

SOME BULLSHIT

I find it strange that I’d never heard of Young Fathers. This is a decade-old band with a legit record label, television appearances and heaps of critical attention. Heck, seven of their songs were featured in a movie I definitely saw (Trainspotting 2). And yet, until ten days ago, I’d never heard of them. What kind of self-respecting “music guy” am I??

(Answer: hopefully the non-tedious kind.)

Anyway, in the past, I’d have felt a slight tweak of embarrassment that I wasn’t “in the know”. If there’s one thing I appreciate about getting older it’s that I truly no longer care about that shit. Or when do, it’s in rare, fleeting moments that I quickly recognize as absurd. I know the hours I put into this. Music is, after all, my primary life-avoidance mechanism. I love writing this newsletter, but I do wonder if NMFO isn’t a lowkey attempt to monetize a debilitating habit.

I’m off track. What I’m trying to say is, I spend a goodly amount of time listening to new music, so when it turns out one of my musical “discoveries” is actually a firmly-established artist, I feel no shame—it simply makes me marvel at the abundance of it all.

It’s almost like one of those “cash grab”money booths you see at trade shows or minor league baseball games. Musical riches abound—you simply have to catch them! Or course, for every $100 bill, there are at least ten blank pieces of paper flying around. And also a few dog turds.

Live shot of me skimming the New Release section

Alternately, I’ve never been a believer in the “completist” mentality. “Oh, you’re a fan of [INSERT LEGACY ARTIST]? Have you heard the Wichita ‘77 demoes? There’s one part during [OBSCURE DEEP CUT] where the guitar goes BLEEP when it’s supposed to go BLOOP. It’s amazing…”

Speaking of this personality type, I finally got to around to watching Juliet, Naked, the 2018 tribute to/takedown of music geekery based on Nick Hornby’s novel. I really enjoyed the book back in 2009 (it’s like High Fidelity, if Rob was actually the villain), and I’m an absolute sucker for gentle romcoms, so I’m not sure what my hesitation was. Again, this abundance!

Anyway, i’s streaming on Prime Video and is, from my personal experience, a perfectly charming way to slog through a 102 degree fever.

Mostly for fear of being “that guy”, I’ve always emphasized width over depth in my musical enthusiasms. I’d rather introduce my ears to a Young Fathers or Mos Generator than re-litigate my opinion of a song I’ve already heard 10,000 times. That said, there are a handful of artists on whom I can “go long”. None of them are terribly surprising: The Beatles, Prince, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin. These are my “50+ artists”—i.e., artists who have recorded at least fifty songs I love. A couple of these an even be extended to seventy-five.

I’m pretty sure my only “100+ artist” is David Bowie. Honestly, it’s hard to fathom that I’ve been doing NMFO for almost a full year and I’ve yet to write anything truly Bowie-centric. I even have a topic in mind: Bowie’s posthumous beatification and what it says about how cultural narratives re-write themselves over time.

Or maybe I have written about that and I can’t remember? This Covid “brain fog” shit ain’t no joke and I’m too exhausted to pore through the archives.

Anyway, this week would have been the perfect time for such a piece, given that the man’s birthday was January 8th. But that will have to wait. I did, however, find time rank my 100 favorite David Bowie songs, using the much ballyhooed (by me) Finnegan Method.