Shooflypie

This past Friday was a big release day, with 4 new albums that I will probably be listening to over and over again. That means it's probably time to write about what I've been into over the last month-and-a-half or so. Sound good? Phoebe Bridgers/Stranger in the Alps - Before last fall, I hadn't listened to any of Bridgers' music. Sure, I knew of her, but that was it. It wasn't until Boygenius (the group she's in with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus) that I really heard anything she'd done. Their EP is great, so I thought it was time to expand my horizons and give this one a listen. Better late than never is a cliche for a reason, right? Anyway, the album starts off very strong with "Smoke Signals" and "Motion Sickness." The former is contemplative and moody and lovely with killer lyrics while the latter is more prickly and up-tempo with (again) killer lyrics. It's a strong start to the album. If I had to pick one track to get someon...

I spent a large part of January just listening to one thing after another and not getting into any sort of groove. That changed toward the end of the month (and into the start of this month), when a handful of albums started getting more spins. These are those albums (CLUNG CLUNG): Bonny Doon/Longwave - This album and band have been championed by an fellow listener of the Rockin' the Suburbs podcast, so I decided to check it out. Their sound is all jangle and chime, the pace is almost languid at times, and the lyrics have a lot of repetition. The more you listen, the more is just gets lodged in your head. Take, for instance, the way the guitar solo blossoms out of the steady pace of "A Lotta Things," which is all acoustic guitar to that point. "Saved" reminds me of Pavement, with its loping beat and repeating "Are you a believer or not?," but it has some subtle notes on its way out like the one ringing chord on the guitar that just changes the overal...

School has started back up and my glorious endless summer days are now ended and gone until next June. Fortunately, this shift in free time hasn't affected my ability to listen to music too much, because I can still listen any time my kids aren't in my room and I'm not in a meeting or making copies or collaborating or what have you. This edition of Heavy Rotation features the albums I listened to over and over again in August and the early part of this month. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires/Youth Detention - I should have listened to Patrick Foster (one of the co-hosts of the podcast, Rockin' the Suburbs). He touted this album as one of the best of 2017, but it wasn't until the podcast ran an interview with Lee Bains that I gave it a try. Yup, I should have listened. It's a rock album that has 17 songs and 6 of those have exclamation points in the title...and the music matches that enthusiastic punctuation. I love "Whitewash," which starts out a...

I ran 4 miles this morning, my 50th run of the year. I managed to average 8:18 a mile, which is basically my average for the year so far (8:19). So far, I've run once every 2.26 days and averaged 3.48 miles a run. Pretty good. The rest of my day will be busy with chores both inside and out, getting more schoolwork done, and hopefully squeezing in 2 episodes of Supergirl before they disappear from the CW app. Luckily, it should be a beautiful day and I do have some endorphins going, so I think I'm ready for it. I hope you enjoy your day and accomplish as much or as little as you want/need to! 1. Feral/Radiohead (12) - last played on 1/12/13 2. The Queen's Approach/The Decemberists (5) - last played on 11/20/14 3. Fangless/Sleater-Kinney (13) - last played on 2/28/16 4. Written Invitation/The Whigs (8) - last played on 2/14/16 5. Demons Are Real/Guided By Voices (10) - last played on 4/21/17 6. The Geese Of Beverly Road/The National (7) - last played on 7/31/16 7....

I had a great time at the Sloan show Friday night. They played all of One Chord To Another , took a break, and then came back to play songs from all over the catalog. Chris Murphy has a ton of charisma and led us in clapping and singing along, usually abetted by Patrick Pentland. Patrick had some guitar issues at the start of both sets, but once they were sorted out he ripped off some nifty guitar solos. Jay Ferguson charmingly forgot the lyrics to one of his songs and Andrew Scott was fantastic behind the drum kit. When it was Andrew's turn to sing, he would come up front and put on a guitar, Jay would switch from guitar to bass, and Chris would go from bass to drums. Gregory Macdonald played all the keys and contributed harmonies. The harmonies were stellar throughout and the band sounded great. I've already started listening through their catalog again and seriously thought about doing another Sunday Sloan...but that would be overkill. So, here are today's ten from my ...