🎵Fine, "Portal" (2025) There's some vague connection with Mazzy Star that I don't feel like looking up, but the main connection is "Is...this Mazzy Star?!"

🎵Disclosure feat. Lorde, "Magnets" (2015) I still like Lorde, but there was a period there where she could do no wrong. Just absolutely floating on another level.

🎵Joan Shelley, "Give It Up, It's Too Much" (2025) She'll never let you down. Ever.

🎵Sam Cooke, "Bring It On Home to Me" (1963) Hey, this Sam Cooke guy is pretty good.

🎵Jens Lekman, "For Skye" (2025) "Do the world a favor and come out tonight" is one of the most heart-melting compliments I've heard. Imagine someone saying that to you!

Beautiful one

🎵Rab Noakes, "Same Old Place (1979 version)" (1979) How is this just on an album called Demos and Rarities and not on an album called Greatest Hits?

🎵Cass McCombs, "Missionary Bell" (2025) Don't tell him I said this, but Cass McCombs is always a welcome addition to anyone's chill playlist.

🎵Sofie Royer, "Auto" (2025) I love catchy songs in languages I don't speak because then I don't have to worry about whether the lyrics are good or not.

🎵Water From Your Eyes, "Playing Classics" (2025) I can't really put my finger on why I find them equal parts intriguing and annoying. But there's no denying my excitement when this song comes on.

First listen to #LifeofaShowgirl with my 9 y.o. over breakfast. Production is, of course, the first thing to catch me. Still pretty safe, but I'm glad to have much harder beats and dropping the weirdly muted beats that dominated so much of TTPD and 2024 pop music in general.

🎵John Cale, "Gideon's Bible" (2025) Teach your children well! Which is to say that your children should know at least some John Cale songs.

🎵Julian Cubillos, "Flesh & Blood" (2025) Fine at the start, fabulous by the end.

🎵Cate Le Bon, "About Time" (2025) Didn't think I would be excited about a new Cate Le Bon album, but here we are.

🎵Peach Pit, "Your Long Black Hair (Full Band)" (2025) I don't normally go in for the qualified versions of songs: your "acoustic version" and whatnot. But this is one of the rare occasions when said qualified version is the superior one.

🎵TOLEDO, "Amends" (2025) God, I'm such a sucker for the trumpet-swollen emotional climax.

🎵Lush, "500" (1995) A subset of the sellout single is the "make it sound like Britpop" sound of the mid 90s. And as with the sellout single, nailing it is an art. Which, obviously, this does.

🎵Perfume Genius, "Me & Angel" (2025) Stating again for the record that Mike Hadreas has one button in my heart that only he can push. And he does. Like, every time.

🎵My Morning Jacket, "Half a Lifetime" (2025) I am decidedly not the world's foremost My Morning Jacket expert, but even I know them nailing their own sound when I hear it.

🎵Lack of Afro, "Heart & Soul" (2025) I am SO tired of acts with stupid jokey names, but...I can't deny what I like. Don't make me deny that! It will kill me! www.tunemine.com/post/7953912...

🎵The Meters, "Live Wire" (1969) Hey. You. Want to feel good? Want to be happy for a few minutes? No? Oh. Okay. Don't listen to this, then.

Music streaming services (Apple Music especially) have an extreme problem with people uploading AI garbage under the band names of established but inactive bands. Last week there was a new, horrifically awful song by the "Smith Westerns" and this week it's "Elastica". They've got to fix this. Now.

🎵Home Counties, "New Best Thing" (2025) You can take your "just because it has an insanely catchy chorus doesn't make it a great song" negativity right on out of here.

🎵Elastica, "Nothing Stays The Same" (2000) Woah woah woah. Hold on. For the last 25 years, I've been operating under the memory that the second Elastica album was bad. But this is good! Did they change it? One of those digital switcheroos?

The new Led Zeppelin doc starts with a warning that it contains "some drug use" and my reaction was: "SOME drug use?! How do you do a Led Zeppelin doc without containing boatloads of drug use?!"

🎵Jon Hopkins, "RITUAL (Nothing Is Lost)" (2025) How Jon Hopkins can keep conjuring up so much beauty is a wonderful mystery.

🎵Sharp Pins, "(I Wanna) Be Your Girl" (2025) People making music in 2025 have been listening to Guided By Voices. This is not a complaint. The exact opposite, in fact.

🎵Dave Barker, "Do Your Thing" (1972) One of my favorite genres is "when ska and reggae still showed their American soul music influences".

🎵Sean Lennon, "Into The Sun" (1998) His first foray into the family business mostly went right by me...except for this song. I still love it.

🎵Grimes, "Flesh Without Blood" (2015) I know, I know. But this album is really good!

🎵The Innocence Mission, "St. Paul" (2025) Q: When, in the last three and a half decades, have the Innocence Mission not delivered? A: Never.

🎵The Go! Team, "The Scene Between" (2015) Even I have a tendency to classify The Go! Team with the lazy "Saturday morning cartoons sugar high", so it's always a pleasant surprise when I'm reminded how tuneful they can be.

🎵Anna Tivel, "White Goose" (2025) I'm about to let loose with one of my favorite compliments: this is lovely.

🎵DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ, "Will My Love" (2025) Sometimes, I need to be comfortable with the fact that I can't explain why I like I song. I mean, I'm not going to be, but I need to be.

🎵Supertramp, "Goodbye Stranger" (1979) RIP Rick Davies. What a legacy on this one song alone.

RIP Rick Davies youtu.be/9aykOwwRf-Q?...

🎵Beach Bunny, "Year of the Optimist" (2025) One of my favorite new trends in music releases is when bands release a really good album and then follow that up a few months later with a new song/single that's even better.

Pulp @ Anthem Sat. sept 6

The Pulp show at the Anthem last night was absolutely amazing, reinvigorating, heart-filling. It's such a great feeling to be reminded of why and how much you love one particular band. Full setlist in a playlist:

I tried to capture this pose, but didn't get it fast enough. Glad that Fritz shared it! My friend caught this awesome spot in "Sunrise".

Best part of the Pulp show at @theanthemdc.bsky.social tonight was Candida Doyle’s “Hands Off DC” shirt that she wore during the encore! Noticed that Nick Banks had a @freedcproject.bsky.social shirt on as well after he came out from behind his kit. ✊🏻

Common People…like you?

Pulp. Jarvis. The Anthem. F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.

Mark Volman, 1947-2025 A founding member of the 1960s rock band the Turtles and beloved being half of Flo & Eddie and a Mother of Invention, Volman will be remembered as long as "Happy Together" remains on the airwaves.

🎵Sondre Lerche, "Suffused With Love" (2002) I loved this album when it came out, and when I listen again, I think maybe I didn't love it enough at the time.

🎵Tommy WÁ, "God Loves When You're Dancing" (2025) This sounds like something special.

The Devo doc is a must-watch. It's an okay doc, but such an amazing story. This is a band and a sound that could have only happened at one very precise moment in musical history. I'm on a kick now.

Real pastoral vibe in the artist names in my current listening history.

🎵INXS, "Burn For You" (1984) Is The Swing INXS's most underrated album, or does this album simply play an important part of my musical taste development? Yes.

Can anyone make sense of this? Attention grab, I guess?