2023 was a surprising year for my personal music discovery. I expected it to be a ‘normal year’. That is with the pandemic behind us, you might have expected to see a strong schedule of new music releases scattered throughout the year. That would not describe 2023, but the final months of the year delivered a bevy of gems. Not that 2023 was inconsistent or a bad year, as I’m sure there was plenty of music released in 2023 that I have yet to hear. It’s just that the low hanging fruit was not as plentiful as years before. The pandemic in some ways still inspired some of the year’s most interest ..read more

You Can Reach Me If You Try album cover They say that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That’s what comes to mind after hearing English pop-soul singer Laura Kindelan. Known as Kindelan, she rose from the indie scenes of York and Leeds where she started out as a guitar playing singer-songwriter. Heavily influenced by Lianne La Havas and Amy Winehouse, she released her debut EP You Can Reach Me if You Try in early 2023 (now available on Bandcamp). Kindelan’s initial appeal comes from her soulful vocals, a take on contemporary soul that combines elements of jazz, glitch and even mome ..read more

The Car album cover One of the great musical surprises this year has come from the Arctic Monkeys. The English band from Sheffield lead by Alex Turner is in many ways the quintessential English rock band. A pioneer in many respects (internet marketing for example), the Arctic Monkeys quickly rose to prominence with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in 2006. That album had shades of punk that reminded one of the early Jam. Eventually the band broke America with the hook heavy guitar angst of “Do I Wanna Know” in 2013. Critically and commercially, they were on top ..read more

DYKTTIATUOB CD cover (one of eight) There are artist who you may not follow closely, but somehow you can’t ignore. Lana Del Rey is one of those for me. Never one to be over exposed in traditional media circles, (the reason I can’t ignore most pop artists), she has left a trail of challenging pop albums in her wake. Part of what makes her music so challenging has been the image she has cultivated over nine LPs that puts her somewhere between Amy Winehouse and Curt Cobain from a lyrical perspective. It drives her lyrics to insightful and often spectacular heights. In many ways I equate her musi ..read more

Found Light album cover Portland, Oregon based Laura Veirs has quickly become one of my favorite contemporary artists. She was virtually unknown to me before her 2016 collaboration with k.d. Lang and Neko Case. Since then, it’s been consistently rewarding to seek out the small gems from her 12+ album catalog. Her summer 2022 release Found Light comes after a new freedom both personally and artistically. After parting with longtime collaborator and husband Tucker Martine after the excellent Lookout in 2020, Veirs has moved into new musical territory. Granted the changes are subtle where her so ..read more

1981-1988 CD cover I’m always talking about the North Carolina music scene from my youth. The ’80s and ’90s were special decades as the once isolated regional music scene in the Carolinas became a national powerhouse of new talent. Don Dixon and Mitch Easter, perhaps the two biggest names on the scene at the time initially became famous for guiding the sound of R.E.M. on their first 3 recordings (one EP and two LPs). While many would come to know R.E.M. and its famous production team, few remember the Pressure Boys – another band graced by the talents of the Dixon-Easter production team. Early ..read more

Half-Life album cover Couples often make some of the most interesting music. Acts like Wye Oak (Andy Stack/Jenn Wasner) and Tennis (Alaina Moore/Patrick Riley) are some of my favorites. They offer a unique insight between the synergy of writing and arrangements. Another couple I discovered in the fall of 2022 can be added to that list: Sub Lights. Consisting of Meredith (vocals/keyboards) and Stephen Duncan (vocals/other instruments) the pair were once Chemistry Set. That first iteration sound might be described as a mix of Polyphonic Spree and St. Vincent – all acts that were in some way or ..read more

Penny Sparkle’s unfortunate album cover Blonde Redhead might have been one of the most underrated bands to rise at the start of the Millennium. With its self-titled debut in 1995, they sounded a bit like a loud but folkie Stereolab. As they progressed the band took bold steps into shoegaze and indie rock with a critical breakthrough starting with 2000’s Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. From that point on the band continued to experiment with different styles, often successfully. Blonde Redhead started as four people. Two Japanese art students Kazu Makino and Maki Takahashi and two Itali ..read more

Protector album cover If I were to look for a common theme for 2022, it might be getting beck to nature or reconnecting to ones roots after the forced solitude of a pandemic.  Relatively new artist Aoife Nessa Frances was one of a crop of singer-songwriters exploring this trend. She escaped the hustle of Dublin, Ireland to find musical inspiration. The act of fleeing town to find an artistic muse was so common in 2022, that I expected a meme for it. In Frances’ case it meant fleeing town with her multi-instrumentalist friend Brendan Jenkinson to a small cabin in the Irish wilds to record ..read more

Reggae Film Star album cover The Seattle music scene might never get away from it’s ’90s reputation for birthing the grunge scene. The Seattle area has long since moved from it’s grunge reputation, to the point of not being particularly recognizable to the casual music fan. The region is still a mecca for hip rock on home grown labels like Sub Pop. Other labels like Burnt Toast and Secretly Canadian still draw heavily from the area today. An integral part of that scene today is Damien Jurado, who after appearing on all the labels mentioned above has become a well known local fixture. Jurado’s ..read more