Remember a couple weeks ago, when I said New Music for Olds would be on hiatus until after Labor Day? Well, turns out I’m a big fat liar. Hiatus, schmiatus! Sure, NMFO #38 is arriving 21 hours later than usual, but that’s just me keeping you on your toes. Underpromise, overperform—that’s what I always say.
(Psst! I don’t actually say that. My true ethos is something more along the lines of “Underpromise, overthink, undersleep, overwrite, yet still somehow underperform”.)
When I said NMFO would be taking a few weeks off, I’d pretty much exhausted my reservoir of GOOD STUFF. I can always find music to recommend, but I want to feature songs that truly, organically move me, rather than as the fulfillment of some cosmic homework assignment. I needed time to restock the cupboards.
Well wouldn’t you know it, it was at this precise moment that the good lord jeebus turned on his musical firehose and began blasting me in the face. So many great new albums have come out in the past two weeks. The cupboards are so stocked, I’m afraid to open them, lest new music will spill everywhere like one of those cereal boxes in Better Off Dead.
So I decided to whip up a newsletter after all. Here what I have to show for my efforts:
Primo car chase music
Rehearsal space vibes
A spiritual jacuzzi
And, the artistic legacy of Concrete Ron
GOOD STUFF
Hey look, it’s the Glossary of Terms!
Genesis Owusu, “Leaving the Light”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: STRUGGLER
Nutshell: Alt hip hop (?)
Voltage: 7
Thoughts: This song makes me want to fling my body around in a manner that would put me in the hospital. That opening synth riff politely (but firmly) tells my brain: “It’s go time, motherfucker”. This Australian rapper/singer seems to be getting weirder with each release and I am “here for it”, as they say. The closest analog I can come up with is that Young Fathers album I raved about back in January. Every song on STRUGGLER is sonically inventive, combining elements of hip hop, alt rock, smooth R&B, even 80’s Dark Wave. Somehow, it coheres! Oh, and attention music supervisors: some genius is eventually going to use this song for a car chase scene, so it may as well be you.
Pairing Suggestion: Diving out of the way as a muscle car plows through your street vendor booth
Margaret Glaspy, “Act Natural”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Echo the Diamond
Nutshell: Indie guitar rock
Voltage: 6
Thoughts: I'm not sure I have a "take" on this Brooklyn-based songwriter. Echo the Diamond is full of well-constructed, power pop-leaning rock tunes, played by a capable guitarist with the perfect touch of sand in her voice. The “live” production vibe makes you feel as if you’re right there in the rehearsal space. No bells, no whistles—just guitar/bass/drums, a bit of reverb and a vintage amp. In many ways, it’s the opposite of the Genesis Owuso song, which has bells and whistles to spare. There’s room for each! Well well, looks like I found a take after all…
Pairing Suggestion: Late Summer beers on the rooftop
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, “Harbour (Song For Elizabeth)”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: The Ones Ahead
Nutshell: Piano ballad
Voltage: 2
Thoughts: We're at a stage where established artists I've only recently discovered via the Paid-Only NMFO are releasing new music and making their way into the main newsletter. A couple weeks ago it was Lori McKenna, this time it’s Canadian singer-composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland. He’s known primarily as an electronic music pioneer, synthesizers, but his haunting voice and delicate spirit are best suited to organic instrumentation, in my opinion. “Harbour” may be a hair musical theatre-y for some of you, but for me, this feels like a spiritual jacuzzi. The most affecting love songs, the ones that truly elevate the soul, are direct and free of guile. We should all be so lucky to feel this way about another human being.
Pairing Suggestion: Cuddling. YEAH, I CUDDLE.
[Layne Staley voice] Down in a poll and I don't know if I can be saved…
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SOME BULLSHIT
Thinking about car chases caused my mind to drift fondly back to “Concrete TV”, one of my favorite things of all time. I refer to this long-running Manhattan public access show (1993-2007) as a “thing”, because…well, what was it, truly?
Let’s use this archived description from the show’s since-deleted Wikipedia page:
Concrete TV, is a Public-access television cable TV show in New York City that currently airs on Channel 67 public-access in Manhattan, combining violence, sex, pornography, new video, old video in a video art collage set to music. This half hour program is produced by Ron Rocheleau, known as Concrete Ron. It is shown Friday nights at 1:30 AM. Episodes are heavily thematically based in 1980s video, hearkening back to the early MTV days, in a mash-up art style.[1]
Nah, that’s not quite doing it justice. Best you just watch a few minutes. Note: There’s nothing to get here. Just let this wash over you.
WARNING: This is absolutely NSFW (unless you happen to work on an Early Nineties porn set.)
I have so many personal memories tied up with “Concrete TV”. Watching oiled-up Chippendale’s dancers gyrate to nü metal puts me squarely back in 1997. I’m in my old apartment on W. 108th street. I see the roaches crawling along the baseboard and I feel the gas heat blasting from the fully open oven door (it was the only way to heat the apartment). A terrible period of my life, financially, but no art will ever be cooler or funnier or more thought-provoking than the stuff you consume in your early 20s, fresh out of college and fully convinced of your own wonderful taste.
That said, “Concrete TV” stands the test of time, I think. Remember, this is all pre-YouTube and created without modern editing software. ”Concrete Ron” was splicing together 3-second clips from thousands of old VHS tapes. There are labors of love and then there’s…whatever Ron was stricken with. God bless that weirdo.
There are more samples on the old Concrete TV website, and you can also purchase the entire collection on DVD. Treat yourself. You’re worth it!
Hope you enjoyed this New Music for Olds sneak attack. See you in two weeks.
And now, here’s your sweaty end-of-the-newsletter plea for engagement: What’s the album/movie/TV show that immediately transports you back to 1997? Where are you and what are you doing?
Ta ta!
I remember some NYC public access programming greatness, but Concrete TV is completely new to me. After watching that whole video, I still can't tell if it is celebrating or condemning Humanity. If there is a more ultimate art form, lay it on me!
Too Far to Care by Old 97s. I was just out of college and reverse commuting out to CT for my first job. The only one of my co-workers making the same trip was an Old 97s fan, and she lent me the CD.