Twilight Override, Jeff Tweedy’s quietly majestic triple album, gives us Love Is For Love, today’s A Song For Friday. Also: Geese, HUMAN ERROR CLUB, Mulatu Astatke, MICHELLE, Automatic, Misha Salkind-Pearl, Gideon Broshy, Chris Williams, and Cristina Lord. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Straight fire on the horizon - including incendiary guitar work from Pete Cosey - in a multilayered homage to Miles, Macero, and Agharta. Get ready for Melvin Gibbs - Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2, coming out October 14th from @hausumountain.bsky.social. youtu.be/6QnoeMKN-VQ?...

UnArchived: Double Bass, How Low Can You Go? On John Coltrane's 99th birthday, I've refurbished a piece about an amazing moment he made possible, with Jimmy Garrison in the spotlight. #jazz anearful.substack.com/p/unarchived...

Christopher Stark’s Fire Ecologies gets a dazzling recording from Unheard-of//Ensemble. Also: Weston Olencki, Arid Landscapes, Nine Inch Nails, Nation Of Language, Golden Apples, NewDad, John Calvin Abney, Lera Lynn, and Wednesday. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Wet Leg at Brooklyn Paramount: BangerBangerBangerBangerBangerBangerBangerBALLADBangerBangerBangerBanger…you get the idea! Fantastic show, the perfect expression of the ideals they’ve set for themselves. See them!

Fantastic opening set from Mary In The Junkyard. The songs were dynamic, fun, and shaded with complexity. Wet Leg on next at the Brooklyn Paramount! #livemusic

I’ve been to Oregon…it was nothing like this! Set your itinerary for this antastic new song from Anastasia Coope. youtu.be/qHsufmUsSY8?...

Dave Mason, one of the ultimate rock'n'roll road warriors (also a great songwriter and killer guitarist), has announced his retirement from touring. Let's celebrate him now while he's around to enjoy it! Here's a fun performance from 1975. www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolC...

Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain (Mute, 2000) Atmospheric as heck, with Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory finding the links between Kurt Weill and trip hop. Lavished with horns and strings and loaded with melodies and that marvelous voice! #5debutalbums0004 open.spotify.com/album/6cJfHi...

Alrighty, Mr. Shaw! Marching orders acknowledged and accepted. Here’s what I’m working with for the first tranche of the hunt for the five best debut albums of all time. @richards7370.bsky.social #5debutalbums0004 open.spotify.com/playlist/2lF...

Rich arrangements honor Emma Swift's hard-earned wisdom on The Resurrection Game, which gives us Going Where The Lonely Go, this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: Fruit Bats, Mei Ehara, Led Zeppelin, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Eli Keszler, and Lawrence English. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Here for it: Night One of TAK Ensemble’s Swoonfest 2025 at the DiMenna Center, including Gushes, Rage Thormbones, Tak & Levi Lu, and Blasé. Sure to be a great night! #livemusic #newmusic

Arrival, a brilliant new track from H. Pruz has, er, ARRIVED! Even better, it heralds a new album, Red Sky At Morning, coming 11/7 from Mtn Laurel Recording Co.! youtu.be/4MIfOkKgzdc?...

“Magpie” is a good description for Alexei Shishkin’s approach - and it’s also today’s A Song For Friday. Also: Tchotchke, Shame, Fan Club, Baileyrp, Dim Wizard with Katie Dey, Daniel Wohl, Laura Cannell, and Gayle Young & Robert Wheeler. open.substack.com/pub/anearful... #newmusicfriday

Sō Percussion takes their art to another level in this interpretation of claire rousay's "in places" from their 8-CD, 500-minute box set, 25x25, coming September 26 from Cantaloupe - incredible! youtu.be/kMHZN8s3x1A?...

Jorge Espinal's Bombos Y Cencerros, pure joy from a unique guitarist with a headful of ideas, gives us this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: IDLES, The Beths, Ganser, Adrian Sherwood, Kutmah, Joey Bada$$, Darian Donovan Thomas, Scree, and Kory Reeder. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain (Columbia, 1960/97) A visionary album, with Davis’ gleaming tone riding a sublime wave of brass. The collaboration between Gil Evans and Davis feels so genuine, too, making it only seem more rarified. #5albums50s60sfinal

Water From Your Eyes shoot the moon on their new album, and Born 2 is today's A Song For Friday. Also: The Stargazer Lilies, Hand Habits, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Winter, Earl Sweatshirt, The Problem With Kids Today, and Magda Mayas & Jim Denley. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Clifford Brown and Max Roach - Study In Brown (EmArcy, 1955/9?) What a gem this album is, with everyone in top form on a balanced program of classics and originals. Astonishing how young they were, and how soon Brown and Richie Powell were gone. #5albums50s60s5

Nat ‘King’ Cole - Penthouse Serenade (Capitol, 1952/98) The first 8 songs on this fine reissue are the original album, which was recorded in one session. The combo is fab, and Cole’s restraint barely hides his virtuosity and rhythmic incisiveness. Martini anyone? #5albums50s60s4

Smart, tuneful stuff from Tchotchke! Remember, they’re only “Playin’ Dumb.” Funny as heck, too. youtu.be/XAucG-tIBVQ?...

I went all in on the Music Dance Experience @musicleague.bsky.social - and here are the songs (and stories) that helped me win! Winner Takes All: A Severance Playlist open.substack.com/pub/anearful...

Here for it. Talea Ensemble at the Time:Spans festival performing the U.S. premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s the divine thawing of the core (2025) with Claire Chase on contrabass flute. #livemusic

The #Bestof2024 series concludes with a look at reissues and archival releases, including an extraordinary Coltrane find, big boxes from Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and The Yardbirds, and other intriguing stuff from Birdie, Virgin Prunes, and more! anearful.substack.com/p/best-of-20...

Leiber-Stoller Whitfield-Strong Lennon & McCartney Hayes-Porter Jagger-Richards Badalamenti-Lynch

Cassandra Jenkins delivers another treasure with My Light, My Massage Parlor. Listen to Wormhold Music, this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: Marissa Nadler, R.J.F., Professor Girlfriend, and Translations. #newmusicfriday anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...

Led Zeppelin - s/t (Atlantic, 1969/77) One day I’ll get a better copy than this $8 beater, but it’s great proof that their baked in outrageousness and grandeur can survive much crackle and even a skip or two. Down in flames? Not a chance! #5albums50s60s5

New podcast! Discover Music With AnEarful - Monthly Listening: July 2025 is out now. Featuring recent releases from Aaron Helgeson, Molly Joyce, Patricia Wolf, Qu'ran Shaheed, Mendoza/fluke-mogul/Pérez, PARKiNG, Mike Polizze, @billiemarten, and more! creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Farewell, Bobby Whitlock! If you want to continue the party started by Derek & The Dominos, it’s his solo career you should turn to, not Eric Clapton’s. Read more about Whitlock’s remarkable career here: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Here for it. The Thing at Tompkins Square Park - another fun show organized by Show Brain! #livemusic #freeconcert #hotlivesummer

Rock & Roll and rock bands are in rude health, as proven by The Thing, whose third album gives us this weeks A Song For Friday. Also: Ethel Cain, Shakti, and Reena Esmail. open.substack.com/pub/anearful... #NewMusicFriday

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (Fantasy, 1969/71) The spectacle of this third album is in how unvarying their approach is to one spectacular song after another, esp. Wrote A Song, Bad Moon, and Lodi. And it was the second of 3 albums in 69! #5albums50s60s5

The Doors - Waiting For The Sun (Elektra, 1968) “…represents the moment where the L.A. quartet, having burned through a brilliantly sustained burst of inspiration, had to get down to the hard business of being a professional rock band.” rockandrollglobe.com/rock/the-doo...

The Doors - s/t (Elektra, 1967/79) At the heart of this album filled with big ideas about European art song, performance art, pop music, psych rock, and the blues is a small band, economically and passionately bashing it out. Densmore’s kit is about to fly apart! #5albums50s60s5

The Beatles - Revolver (Parlophone, 1966/2014) A leap even from Rubber Soul, not only is this a life-changing collection of songs and sounds, it’s an object lesson in artistic achievement and ambition. And only three years from Please Please Me! #5albums50s60s5

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man/Turn! Turn! Turn! (Columbia, 1965/1976) While the most unforgettable songs are by others (some cat named Dylan, etc.), the dose of California sunshine they lavish on these Greenwich village transmissions is quite effective! #5albums50s60s5

The Beatles - Please Please Me (Parlophone, 1963/76) Sharp guitars, throbbing rhythms, vocals that shout, soar, and harmonize - this is the sound of sheer desire: notice us, join us, feel us, love us, pay us. And it can still give me the chills! #5albums50s60s5

Harry Belafonte - Calypso (RCA Victor, 1956) Pure joy from start to finish. The arrangements serve the songs and Belafonte’s embrace of his Caribbean roots translated the genre for a new audience. There’s a reason it’s the first LP to sell 1M in a single year! #5albums50s60s5

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman (Impulse, 1963/MCA-Impulse, 1986) The paradigmatic jazz vocal album, with the finest players accompanying a voice of unusual gravity. Lush Life has never sounded better! #5albums50s60s5

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959/77) As elegant as chamber music and as swinging as a big band, this is sheer perfection sculpted out of sound. There are exciting live versions, too, but this is one jazz album that never needed to be performed on stage! #5albums50s60s5

Circles, from the extraordinary debut by The New Eves, is this week's A Song For Friday. Also: kuuma, Baileyrp, Josh Halper, Andrew Staniland, Caimin Gilmore, Maya Beiser, and Felipe Lara. #NewMusicFriday open.substack.com/pub/anearful...

This week's A Song For Friday comes from the Folk Bitch Trio, a new Australian group that's made one of the best debuts of the year. Also: Aaron Helgeson, Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist, Pacing, and Michael Beach. anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for... #newmusicfriday @jagjaguwar.bsky.social

When it comes to TUNE, Tchotchke’s arrows always hit their mark! Keep the party going until the album comes out September 5th. youtu.be/Bqn32Pcq8FQ?...

“Idleness is maybe a controversial word, but having the time is important...so you can pay attention to something that manifests or appears.” Andy Jenkins, dropping songwriting science in a terrific profile by Davy Jones. Late Bloomer www.styleweekly.com/late-bloomer... via @styleweekly.com

Feel the pull of Vines, as Undercurrent from the magnificent I’ll Be Here becomes this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: NODEGA, Madeline Kenney, Billie Marten, DJ Haram, Disiniblud, and Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka. #NewMusicFriday open.substack.com/pub/anearful...

That Bodega band doesn’t stand a chance with NODEGA on the scene. A REAL New York band, for a change! Well, at least for tonight at Alphaville anyway…Rot In Helvetica comes out on Friday, so you can decide for yourself. #LiveMusic #hotlivesummer #freeconcert

Consumables putting on a show at Alphaville - fun, but with some sharp edges. NODEGA on next! #LiveMusic #hotlivesummer #freeconcert

Here for it. Bodega’s alter ego, NODEGA, is releasing an album on Friday and celebrating it TONIGHT at Alphaville in Bushwick. Opening set by Consumables! #hotlivesummer #livemusic #freeconcert

Now up on the Live Log: that night in the crypt with Jonathan Biss, Tyshawn Sorey, and Franz Schubert. Another special event from Death of Classical! open.substack.com/pub/anearful... #livemusic #classicalmusic

State Change, an unflinching and often serene new album from the great Molly Joyce, gives us this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: Clipse, Wet Leg, Sister., Mike Pollizze, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Zeynep Toraman, Laura Cannell, and more! open.substack.com/pub/anearful... #newmusicfriday