Last Week’s Jams (6.17 – 6.21)
What started off as a slow week quickly hit hard once the Softies announced their return to the scene after a few decades away. While that may have overshadowed my personal adoration, there was still plenty of cool things to jam out to, or so I thought. The Teenage Tom Petties take on a power pop version of doo-wop, while Chime School announced what seems to be the purest of jangle pop record ever to exist. We had some outsider stuff too that I was super into, like the new Robber Robber single…plus some 7 degrees of Austin made easy with new music from Blood and Lunar Vacation. And, if you need sweet pop feels, try out the new 7ebra or Emma Russack jams. All in all, some great new finds for you here, if you’ll only press play.
Consider yourselves lucky! Three of the song’s I wrote about didn’t make DSPs yet, otherwise, you’d have a two hour playlist of joy to listen through today. Luckily, Australia was keeping it real, with new stuff from The Male Gays, Pop Filter, Kosmetika and Alluvial Nuggets all gracing the site. There was some Austin show coverage too, namely Mikky & the Doom and Adrianne Lenker, so jams from those acts get included. On the personal tip, I was really pulling for the Manners Manners and Nightshift to be big hits out there in the scene, with this new Parallel tune right behind it! There’s also some expansive jams too from the likes of Immersion and Nap Eyes, if you need a tune over 5 minutes for your life. Enjoy.
After what felt like a down week, things really took off over here, with another collection of great singles and albums we were stoked to hype up on our end of things. The Austin contingent came strong, with new tunes from Genuine Leather, The Sour Notes, Holiday Music, Letting Up Despite Great Faults and Gus Baldwin/the Sketch. Some long time favorites like Club 8, Nada Surf, and Icarus Phoenix made the cut too! Our pal Michael Maly added some words and photos on Slowdive, so of course we included their classic hit. A lot of great pop stuff too from Sad Eyed Beatniks, Laughing and This Is Lorelei, thus you’ll need to keep your focus when you spend some time below!
It’s been a strange few weeks if I’m looking at the numbers on our Last Week’s Jams; we’ve run 28 songs for the last three weeks, compiling a fun playlist that runs at 1.5 hours. Well, whatever, time’s on your side my friends. We were fortunate to premiere a couple of stellar tunes this week from the Ar-Kaics and Noelle and Deserters; one offers a crackling fire of psychedelia while the other is a bit more old school western vibes. And, there was the joyous return of Bad Moves! Of course, we also filled the pages with new stuff from Lightheaded, Laughing, Luma Fade, Lunchbox and the Laughing Chimes…you know, all the big Ls! Some Austin love as always via mentions of new records from Don’t Get Lemon and Hovvdy too. Sit back and get into Monday.
For some reason or another, we were rather preoccupied with the Austin goings-on, so perhaps we didn’t cover as much as we might have liked. I’ll be circling back through this week to try and get as much of it up as I can. But, we did have some really solid jams…and a few premieres…or whatever you call it. I was definitely feeling a little electronically inclined, covering new stuff from Maria Chiara Argiro and Cong Josie. Got blown away by the new Lightheaded track, not to mention fawning over tunes from Kindsight and Mammoth Penguins. Oh, and speaking of premieres…we had a new Unwed Sailor and a live cut from The Wind-Ups. Check them below.
As we ramp up towards SXSW, things have been in full swing over at the ATH camp. We ran a bunch of our “getting-to-know-you” interviews with the Ophelias, Jess Cornelius, Tigercub and Native Harrow. But, we also covered a shit-ton of new music that’s worth revisiting, if you’re up for it. Our old friends Blushing dropped a new tune from their next LP, plus we got to hear more from Dancer and Torrey in relation to their new releases. Long time ATH faves like Mo Troper and Rosie Tucker made an appearance too, with each having their own new records on the horizon. Plus, a bunch of other greats like Red Sleeping Beauty, Klaus Johann Grobe, Non La and more…so dive on in.
If you were anywhere near the musical interwebs last week, then you were given a lot of gifts; there was new music from the likes of Six Organs of Admittance, Camera Obscura, Ducks Ltd and more…all of which feature in this rendition of Last Week’s Jams. It was a pretty solid week for the ATX too, with new music from Water Damage, Holy Wire, Broken Gold…plus a Touch Girl Apple Blossom video from their latest EP. Bonus points go to acts like Savak, Cool Sounds and Torrey for adding further joy to my listening rotation. We also mentioned some Bandcamp recommendations for True Green, Flight Mode, TVXP and Fuvk. Kick in below for all the sweet jams we’ve got in one easy listening spot.
Another busy week, and 2024 is just chock-full of really incredible tunes. Some of my favorite acts like Rosie Tucker and Red Pinks and Purples popped up with fresh tunes to warm us over, so that was a bonus. Plus, the site got to hose a bunch of premieres from Jay Alan Kay, Ryann Gonsalves and Al Harper, hopefully turning you on to what we think is cool. Bubbling under are rad tunes from from Non La, True Green and Corridor…actually every tune we ran was kick ass! Plus, ATH Records dropped Vibrations Now from Fantastic Purple Spots, so you win by streaming below to catch the title track.