NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #41
As good a time as can be had by a long-married couple drinking non-alcoholic beers
Good day, friendlies. It’s time for your bi-weekly dose of NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS. I know you’re thrilled. I can sense it.
On the docket today:
Discodelic delights
Blast-off music
Splashdown music
An extraordinarily half-assed concert review
And proof, through the ba-ni-ight.
Apologies for all the typos and syntax errors I didn’t bother to correct. Release the hounds!
GOOD STUFF
Say She She, “Forget Me Not”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Silver
Nutshell: Neo disco-soul
Voltage: 5
Thoughts: “Forget Me Not” will take you to the days when 70s dance club music was still grimy and weird, before the word “disco” became a national punching bag. Technically, Say She She refers to their sound as “discodelic”, which is an apt description, despite giving off slight “Stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen” vibes. This multiracial, binational trio of vocalists has a clear artistic vision, and it’s a lane they have pretty much all to themselves. They draw not just from Donna Summer and Minnie Ripperton, but also early 80s R&B and classic “girl groups”, with a dash of Kate Bush art-pop mixed in. “Forget Me Not’s” arch falsetto chorus is an inspired hook and the backing band is, as my grandma used to say, tight as fuck. I’m not sure how large an audience there is for a band this anachronistic. Discodelia ain’t where the kids are at these days, and the people to whom this would appeal (me) aren’t exactly flocking to dance clubs. In fact, Say She She feels like a fictional band in a cult movie, like Blacula or The Mack. Whatever, man—it works for me!
Pairing Suggestion: Aggressively sauntering
NOTE: “Forget Me Not” was released as a single last year, but I only became aware of it via the album, which came out last week. I am therefore declaring it “new”. I hope that satisfies all you would-be ombudsmen!
Descartes A Kant, “After Destruction”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: After Destruction
Nutshell: Propulsive indie rock
Voltage: 8
Thoughts: You know how that current trend in Bro Culture, where dudes shout “LET’S FUCKING GO” for no reason in particular? I hate it. With the fire of a thousand suns, I loathe it. So don’t take it lightly when I say that this song brings out my inner LFG. Descartes A Kant is an experimental rock band from Guadalajara, Mexico. They seem to have gone through a variety of sounds and styles over the years, but I hope they stay put where they are on “After Destruction”, which will make you want to strap a rocket to your back and blast off into the atmosphere. It’s already firmly ensconced in my personal “get hyped” hall of fame (along with “Kicking” by Torche and “Thorn in My Side” by Quicksand). I could do without the dirge-y final section, but it’s super easy to bump it back and play the first three minutes over again (and again).
Pairing Suggestion: Mashing the buttons on your pleasure center
Golden Brown, “Raspberry Cloud”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Wide Ranging Rider
Nutshell: Instrumental cowboy music
Voltage: 2
Thoughts: Stefan Beck (aka Golden Brown) makes some durn good thinkin’ music. It’s diaphanous but also cinematic, evoking majestic Western landscapes at sunrise. Think Brokeback Mountain or A River Runs Through It. I don’t want to oversell this as “epic”—ultimately, Wide Ranging Rider is background music. But passive music can often rejigger the mind in a way that songs requiring more active listening do not. If you find “Raspberry Cloud” boring—a perfectly defensible position—see how you feel the next time you’re too wired and you need something bring you gently back to earth. Like, maybe you spent the last hour blasting “After Destruction” and you just realized it’s almost 3am and you should be in bed, you absolute fucking child. You know, as a hypothetical.
Pairing Suggestion: Figuring out the meaning of life right as you’re drifting off to sleep. You should get up and write it down, but surely you’ll remember it when you wake up, right? Right?
You were saying…?
Explain yourself.
SOME BULLSHIT
I have some non-tragic “life shit” to attend to this week, so we’ll be keeping things brief (“Like Bill Clinton’s underwear,” adds my subconscious, reliably). But I wanted to mention that Kambri and I saw Princess on Saturday and it was as good a time as can be had by a long-married couple drinking non-alcoholic beers!
If you’re unaware, Princess is the staggeringly good Prince cover band fronted by SNL’s Maya Rudolph and jazz vocalist Gretchen Lieberum. As you might expect, there were a few (genuinely funny) comedic elements, but nothing that risked upstaging the music. Rudolph and Lieberum focus almost exclusively on Prince’s first four albums—the “Minneapolis funk” era. Accordingly, they come off like a real band with an identifiable sound, rather than some corny brewpub tribute act. And Princess’ setlist isn’t some predictable hit parade. Sure, you’ve got your “Little Red Corvette” and your “Let’s Go Crazy”, but they also rip through deep cuts like “Let’s Work” and “Lady Cab Driver”. A bit of Vanity 6 here, some Morris Day there—it’s a show conceived by Prince fans for Prince fans.
There are dozens of great live Princess clips on YouTube, or you may have even seen them on that shockingly good “Salute to Prince” that aired on CBS back in 2020. But ignore all that and marvel at the visually stunning clip of “Darling Nikki” I captured on my iPhone from the very back of The Rooftop at Pier 17.1
Roger Deakins, eat your heart out.
Princess is a side gig for Rudolph and Lieberum, so gigs are infrequent and mostly confined to LA and NYC. But don’t pass up a chance to see the band live, should the opportunity present itself. It’s a surefire date night success!
Oh, and a little bit of NMFO kismet: Remember, way back in GOOD STUFF, when I referenced 70’s soul singer Minnie Ripperton in my writeup of Say She She? Well Ripperton and her husband Richard Rudolph just so happened to have a baby girl named Maya…
Fuck it, this week’s newsletter has officially turned into a Maya Rudolph tribute newsletter, so close out today’s NMFO with one of my SNL faves.
And with that, your lust for new music and assorted bullshit has been temporarily sated. Thanks for reading and please share NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS with your friends, neighbors and work spouses.
See you in two weeks, dinguses!
NYC’s finest, least stressful concert venue, for the record
Thank you for "Raspberry Brown" - how did you know that I listened to no less than 10 different Spotify playlists each called CALM THE FUCK DOWN this week. Needed this one today....
Ingesting piece. Descartes Kant is not a proper name for a band.
Anyway, I'm a music writer myself. Let's collaborate or subscribe to each other's newsletters.