NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS #80
Chock full of muse juice
Greetings, faithful readers. Welcome to another installment of NEW MUSIC FOR OLDS. Your Good Friday just got gooder. Let’s celebrate!
On the agenda:
High quality rip-offs
Musical gabagool
Refugees of the Hipsterzoic Era
Cherubic tedium
And, the world debut of my new hit single, “Catwalk Fart”
Here we go, yo.
GOOD STUFF
Curious what “Voltage” means, in this context? Or “Pairing Suggestion” mean? Check out this handy-dandy Glossary of Terms.
Djo, “Link”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: The Crux
Nutshell: Early 80’s radio rock (but, like, now)
Voltage: 6
Thoughts: “Djo” is the musical alias of Joe Keery, aka Steve on Stranger Things. I have no particular affection for the guy, as a screen presence—he was Fargo S5’s weak link, in my weighty opinion. But Djo, the musical artist? Good stuff! Keery’s pop smarts are prodigious and in another world he’d likely find success as a hired-gun Jack Antonoff type. Oddly, the two official singles leave me cold, but the rest The Crux plays like a guided tour through the 70s-80s AOR canon. In one song Keery embodies Tom Petty, in the next he’s McCartney at his Wings-iest. There’s a Todd Rundgren pastiche, and also a blatant Thin Lizzy rip-off. I realize none of this sounds like praise, but here’s the thing: they’re all kinda great. I’d call “Link” Djo’s Rick Springfield song and I’m highlighting it because you’ll never feel about anything the way 8yo Chris Finnegan felt about “Love is Alright Tonite”.
Pairing Suggestion: If you’re me, third grade
The Mars Volta, “Cue the sun”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacio
Nutshell: Eerie synth-prog
Voltage: 5
Thoughts: When we left The Mars Volta, the mercurial El Paso duo had returned from an extended hiatus with a new sound, abandoning their traditional psych-rock freakouts for subtle synth textures and something approaching a pop sensibility. Lucro Sucio continues in that vein, but they’ve reintroduced some expansive prog elements, with reprises and many of the songs bleeding into on another. Overall, it doesn’t offer the sheer “WTF?” of the 2022 reunion album, but “Cue the sun” is a goddamn keeper. The mix of sounds is evocative and that chorus1 is so catchy, you can mostly ignore that the opening verse sounds like the Sopranos theme. Or at least you could have ignored it, if I hadn’t just brought it up.
Pairing Suggestion: Waking up this morning, getting yourself a gun.
Note: Wait wait wait, I typed that as a lazy joke, but it actually tracks. This song is how you’d feel the morning you knew you had to kill someone. Frazzled, nervous, but determined. Bro, I just blew my own mind.
Sleigh Bells, “Pulse Drips Quiet”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: Bunky Becky Birthday Boy
Nutshell: Noise pop, semi-earnestly
Nutshell: 7
Thoughts: I never bought into Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells, back when they were icons of the Hipsterzoic Era. I found them schticky and self-impressed. ”Aren;t we whimsical, dumping metal guitars on nursury rhymes and cheerleader chants? Look at us, we’re doing a THING!” Granted, this was the early 2010’s, when I struggled mightily to accept that Indie Rock might be moving on without me. Now that I’m a few more cycles removed from cultural relevance, I’m better able to judge the music on its own terms. I haven’t exactly kept up, so maybe Sleigh Bells has been headed this way for a while, but there’s a level of emotional investment here that I wouldn’t have expected from this artist. I mean, it’s still the same general Noise Pop sound, but you can’t get more sincere than “I’LL BE TRUE TIL DEATH!”. You know what, Sleigh Bells lady? After all these years, I’m buying it!
Pairing Suggestion: Saving the day. Any day, really.
Archival photo of Neocolonial Williamsburg
Jadu Heart, “Mild to Moderate Pain”
Listen on Apple Music // Listen on Amazon Music
Album: POST HEAVEN
Nutshell: Shoegaze-y trip hop
Voltage: 5
Thoughts: I’ve been thinking a lot about this album’s title, POST HEAVEN. It’s an evocative concept, that there would be something awaiting us beyond eternity. Or that we’d hope there might be. Maybe Heaven will eventually wear out its welcome and we’ll be itching to move on to somewhere else. I have no idea if this British duo had any of this front of mind, but “Post Heaven” is also a solid description of Jadu Heart’s music—ethereal, but also jaded and slightly restless. Congratulations Jadu Heart, you just named your own micro-genre! Other tracks on POST HEAVEN aren’t quite this Thom Yorke-y, but since when has sounding like “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” been a bad thing?
Pairing Suggestion: Feeling your way through a darkened maze
Time to render judgment.
Every installment of NMFO includes a ham-handed plea for engagement, and this week is no different. Tell me why today’s songs rule/suck! Or, tell me how much I rule/suck! Or you! The possibilities are endless.
SOME BULLSHIT
I had grand intentions for today’s Bullshit. Something meaty. Writerly, even! I parked my ass at the Queens Public Library yesterday morning, chock full of muse juice, set to write the Great American Newsletter. Unfortunately, the Roland50 Studio had other ideas.
Back in 2022, the electronic music giant released this “professional sounding online musical interface” to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary. Basically, it’s a free desktop version of Roland’s most iconic synthesizers and drum machines. This allows tech dummies like me (and you?) to waste away an entire afternoon creating goofy little musical loops.
Here’s a short tutorial by some random dude. The interface takes a bit of getting used to, but you can make a simple melody:
Or a beat.
Or you can combine up to three different digital instruments to create something that sound like actual music! For a few bars, at least.
Eat your heart out, Trent Reznor. We’ll see who gets to fuck who like an animal!
If you’re precise with your touchpad clicking, you can even finesse something with a rudimentary beginning/middle/end. I kinda gave up in the middle, but you get the idea. Plus…drum fills!
Fuck it, an NMFO contest: I will compile a personalized playlist for whomever creates the most interesting piece of “music” using the Roland50 Studio. I’ll also include it in NMFO #81. HOW EXCITING FOR YOU!
Drop a link in the comments or email it to newmusicforolds@gmail.com.
To be clear, no one is paying me for all this free PR. I simply appreciate a good timewaster! That said, Roland…make me an offer.
Alright, it’s a beautiful Friday and my now-unemployed wife is demanding I cease this nonsense so we can take our dogs to the park. I hope you found something in this week’s NMFO to give your ears that new car smell for a few days. Happy listening!
To the extent that any Mars Volta song has an obvious “chorus”
Here is my submission:
https://roland50.studio/shared/y1RLAPrUU