Saturday, December 21, 2024

Best of 2024 - EPs of the Year

My short list of best EPs of 2024!

Amber Mark - "Loosies"!


Beauty Queen - "Low Life"!


Mini Trees - "Burn Out"!



Ibibio Sound Machine - "The Black Notes EP"!


Amor Butano - "Te noto cambiada"!


Primer - "Round and Round"!



Friday, December 20, 2024

Ooberman - Mary Grows Old

One of my favorites off the final Ooberman album "Carried Away", this song has been stuck in my head for days! Features one of my life mantras: "If life and precious time is gone so quickly / Find love in every day before you die"

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Haute & Freddy - Scantily Clad

Youtube suggestions doing it right! I can dig this VERY much! New song from Haute & Freddy ... clicking the FOLLOW button NOW! Their track "Anti-Superstar" is also fantastic!

Monday, December 16, 2024

Double Mixte & Farah - Witchcraft

Nothing better than some witchcraft to bring in the holiday spirit! New collab single from Double Mixte & Farah!

Sunday, December 15, 2024

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Club 8 - Nervous at Heart

Club 8 have been dropping monthly tracks (just like other faves Red Sleeping Beauty) and it has finally culminated in their new album "A Year With Club 8"!

Friday, December 13, 2024

Other People's Children - On a Clear Day

Just because they popped in my mind today...a delicious slice of indie synthy pop from Other People's Children!

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Monday, December 9, 2024

The Cure - Wrong Number

I realized I didn't post anything today and I heard this song on my way home from the airport and it brought me such joy!

Sunday, December 8, 2024

The Shortwave Set - Is It Any Wonder?

The Shortwave Set released two wonderful albums of psych pop goodness. Their debut, "The Debt Collection", from 2005 featured this awesome track!

Saturday, December 7, 2024

See Venus - Each and Every Word

Here's a lovely little song by See Venus from Miami. To my knowledge, they only released one album "Hard Times for Dreamers" in 2004.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Miss Lily Banquette - My Secret Love

Amazing song from Combustible Edison songstress Miss Lily Banquette off the soundtrack for 1996 film "Grace of My Heart". The track was co-written by Lesley Gore! I need to watch this film again as I haven't seen it in years!

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Marine Research - Chucking Out Time

I've given so much love to Heavenly over the years here but never given any attention to their short-lived, post-Heavenly project Marine Research! They only released one excellent album in 1999, "Sounds From the Gulf Stream" and it features this excellent track along with so many other goodies!



Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Yah-Yah Littleman - All Over the World

Yah-Yah Littleman was a band from San Francisco who released the gem of an album known as "The Orange Album" in 1994. I picked it up randomly at a small record shop in Davis in 1997 and fell immediately in love with its energy. This wonderful album closer was featured on one of my earliest compilation cassettes "The Tape of Love".

Monday, December 2, 2024

A Smile and a Ribbon - Bobby Pin

Here's a 2007 classic from short-lived Swedish indie popsters A Smile and a Ribbon! They only released on album, "The Boy I Wish I Never Met", and it is wonderful!

Sunday, December 1, 2024

Superheroes - Someone Else

Just playing some random tracks in my library and heard this gem from 2003. Superheroes' self-titled final album is a pure joy!

Friday, November 29, 2024

The Golden Filter - Black Monday

It may be Black Friday to most of you but I'm going to plug this awesomeness from The Golden Filter off their 2013 release "Unselected Works Vol. 1"!

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Perfume Genius & Alan Sparhawk - Point of Disgust

Beautiful cover of a beautiful song! Perfume Genius collaborating with Alan Sparhawk of Low to cover "Point of Disgust" for the TRAИƧA compilation. The compilation features a wealth of awesome artists paying tribute to trans artists & bringing light to trans rights. Only heard a few tracks so far and they'll all been great!

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

And One - Driving With My Darling

I just got tickets for And One next year and I'm excited! First time I'll be seeing them and their first time playing LA in 17 years! Doubt they'll play this, but I'd absolutely go crazy if they do!

Monday, November 25, 2024

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Sassyhiya - Thank You and Goodbye

The latest single/video from Sassyhiya off their debut album "Take You Somewhere"! The chorus on this track is truly infectious and pure indie POP!

Friday, November 22, 2024

Amber Mark - Won't Cry

Amber Mark released this awesome single back in September. It's now featured on her new EP "Loosies"! I'm hearing the track for the first time and I absolutely love it!

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Alpaca Sports - Autograph

Alpaca Sports' new album "Another Day" will be out in January! Here's the 2nd single from the album!

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Friday, November 15, 2024

Orbital - Belfast

Rockyboo is taking me to see Orbital tonight. Can't tell you much about them but I am familiar with this gem! Hopefully they'll be distributing glowsticks and E at the door.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Red Sleeping Beauty - This Heart’s Now Yours

Red Sleeping Beauty's final monthly single before they release their album "Diary" which includes ALL the 2024 monthly singles...and MORE! "Diary" is out on Friday and you can get the CD version from Matinée !!

Monday, November 11, 2024

The Presets - This Boy's in Love

An "oldie but goodie" that just popped up on a random playlist of mine. Give me more Presets! Now dance!

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Pet Shop Boys - Beauty Has Laid Siege to the City

Another excellent b-side from Pet Shop Boys! This time off their double A-side single "New London Boy / All the Young Dudes"!

Friday, November 8, 2024

Thursday, November 7, 2024

The Gentle Spring - Sugartown

The Gentle Spring is the new project from Michael Hiscock (The Field Mice / Trembling Blue Stars) & Émilie Guillaumot. They release their debut album "Looking Back at the World" on January 17th via Skep Wax. From all we've heard so far, should be a beauty!

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Allie X - Our Lady of Sorrows

Last week Allie X released the deluxe version of her latest album "Girl With No Face". It features a bunch of reworked versions of album tracks w/ other artists like TR/ST and Empress Of. It also features some bonus tracks like this awesomeness!

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Juno Francis - All I Need

New track from Juno Francis off album "Melancholia", which who knows when it will be released!

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Get Well Soon - Psycho Killer

Get Well Soon has created a delicious cover of the Talking Heads' hit "Psycho Killer" for new Netflix show, "Murder Mindfully". Konstantin of Get Well Soon and Ziggy Has Ardeur were commissioned to create the soundtrack/score for the show and this is one of the results!

Friday, November 1, 2024

Daphne Guinness x Hercules & Love Affair - Burn

One of my fave songs of the year by Daphne Guinness gets a great remix by Hercules & Love Affair for the deluxe edition of her excellent album "Sleep"! And we get a fun video too!!

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Monday, October 28, 2024

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Geoffrey O'Connor - I Love What We Do

New Geoffrey O'Connor! Awesome song with an equally awesome video! It's the title track from his upcoming new album out Feb 14th!

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Friday, October 18, 2024

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Freedom Of The Night

New POP! awesomeness from Sophie Ellis-Bextor to lead us dancing into this weekend! New Sophie, New Kylie...what a glorious POP! Friday!

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

The Dears - Don't Lose the Faith

One of my favorites from one of the best albums EVER! I should be receiving my "No Cities Left" 20th anniversary edition this week and I'm so excited! This is one of my all-time faves by the band.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Swansea Sound - Toxic Energy

Great new single from Swansea Sound! Screw you AmelElon! 😜
Catch Swansea Sound opening for Heavenly this week on their West Coast tour!

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Allie X - Bon Voyage

New song from the upcoming deluxe version of Allie X's latest, excellent album "Girl With No Face"!

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Scott Matthew - All the Lovers

Much love for this cover of the Kylie classic by one of my favorite vocalists, Scott Matthew! That voice can sing me anything!!

Monday, October 7, 2024

Friday, October 4, 2024

Red Sleeping Beauty - Could Have Been Me

Sometimes you hear a song for the first time and you immediately say, "Add it to my Best of the Year list!" Red Sleeping Beauty's October song of the month is Perfection! I only want it to be longer so I can dance longer! Synth punches straight to my heart! REPEAT!! Featuring vocal duties from Acid House Kings' Julia Lannerheim. My new favorite of the bunch!

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Fotonovela - Justice (feat. Sarah Blackwood)

It's been over 10 years since Fotonovela's excellent album "A Ton of Love" was released. I still love hearing tracks from it pop up on my randomizer. This one played a few days ago when I was preparing dinner and made me very happy! Featuring the lovely vocals of Dubstar/CLIENT's Sarah Blackwood!

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Sassyhiya - Boat Called Predator

Sassyhiya is the latest addition to Skep Wax Records and are set to release their debut full-length on November 8th! The album is called "Take You Somewhere" and based on the couple tracks we've heard so far, it's going to be a jangly, indie pop dream!



And here's info the the album's press release!

Sassyhiya want to take you somewhere. The journey starts in Kathy and Helen’s flat in South London. Sit down, close your eyes, and immerse yourself... You are on your way to a musical rainforest a long way from Camberwell.

Explore your new surroundings, and you will find beautiful pop blooms like Let’s See What We Can Find, as bright and vibrant as The Sundays, thrusting their colourful faces up from the forest floor. You’ll find tangles of sharp-edged guitar, as if Swiss she-punks Kleenex had been left to evolve here in the rich fertile soil (I Had A Thought). You’ll find dark pools full of lyrical complexity, deceptively deep and immersive, with shimmering reflections of The Go-Betweens (Perennial). And you’ll come across delicate love songs, creeping up the trunks and branches of the bass and drums, displaying their fragile beauty (Thank You And Goodbye). And what’s that exotic striped animal prowling through the undergrowth? Actually, it’s Crayon Potato, Sassyhiya’s pet cat, the other resident of their flat in South London, taking up her role as the feline star of a lilting, singalong anthem written in her honour.

That’s what is so great about this album. You are somehow, simultaneously, exploring the most exotic forest in the world while also sitting in a flat in an ordinary, familiar English street with Sassyhiya and their cat. This album transports you without pretending the real world doesn’t exist: it doesn’t get all mystical on you (Take You Somewhere is as unlike Enya as anything you’ve heard). Sometimes you might be reminded of Girls At Our Best, and then Delta 5. You might even, on occasion, think of Echo and the Bunnymen.

The album opens with their single, Boat Called Predator: an appropriate start, inviting you to embark: insistent, almost ominous, but with a siren call of a chorus that means you can’t go back. The first single, Kristen Stewart, is here too: a bold love song to a queer icon, affirming Sassyhiya’s status as the queens (and kings) of a thriving queer indiepop scene. It’s joyous and it’s life-affirming. There are other love songs here too, like the jokey, wonkily flirtatious Puppet Museum. The album ends with You Can Give It (But You Can’t Take It) - a proper anthem of defiance, gently but insistently taking down the bullies and reactionaries who trample over beauty and diversity: the kind of people you might, unfortunately, bump into as you make your way back onto the streets of South London.

Monday, September 30, 2024

Friday, September 27, 2024

The Cure - Alone

This is pretty...and pretty depressing!! The Cure's "Songs of a Lost World" is FINALLY coming, Nov 1st!!

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Blossoms - Gary

Title track from Blossoms' recently released new album "Gary"! And look, it's Rick Astley!

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The Tamperer (feat Maya) - Feel It

No idea why this randomly appeared in my feed a couple weeks ago but I'm so glad it did! Top of the Pops awesomeness! When Toto goes flying, I die!

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Saturday, September 21, 2024

ionnalee - the end of every song

I almost forgot a post for today so let's just post my favorite track from ionnalee's latest album "CLOSE YOUR EYES"!

Friday, September 20, 2024

GRAZER - I Always Follow

GRAZER released their sophomore album "I Always Follow" today and here's the title track!

Thursday, September 19, 2024

ALEXANDERPLATZ.- Oración

New lyric video from ALEXANDERPLATZ off their 2023 album "Noches blancas, mañanas negras".

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Pulp - Sorted for E's and Wizz

Today is the mid-point of my PULP concert week! I get to hear this gem 3 more times!! Always a joy to hear live! GEEZER! JUST KEEP ON MOVIN'!!

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Lia Pamina - Love Lies

"New", old song by Lia Pamina from her early collaborations with indie pop royalty, Roger Gunnarson (Nixon, Free Loan Investments, Cloetta Paris, etc etc)! Indie POP! magic!

Monday, September 16, 2024

Sunday, September 15, 2024

The Dears - We Can Have It

Seeing one of your desert island albums performed in its entirety is a dream come true. I already did that this year with The Magnetic Fields "69 Love Songs" 25th Anniversary.
Tonight, I will see another of my desert island albums performed as The Dears celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2003 masterpierce "No Cities Left"! When this album was released, I was in one of the darker stages of my life. What I wrote about the album back in in 2007 still rings true today:
"Back in a time when I was losing all my faith in life and love, The Dears released this work of art. Right from the opening track, Murray's lyrics gave me someone to relate to on a level that I desperately needed. "No Cities Left" was released the same year as Ooberman's "Hey Petrunko!". Both albums tackle issues of love/loss/loneliness/finding one's self/etc., but they both come at it from different angles. Ooberman chose the more magical, other-worldly approach, whereas The Dears keep it more down to earth. Both are extremely successful and they stood far above any other releases in 2003.
This album helped me remember what I once felt so strongly about and how much I needed to strive for that again.
"

Tears may flow when the opening moments of this song start. I am so happy I get to experience this!

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Monday, September 9, 2024

Red Sleeping Beauty - I'm Here Tonight

Red Sleeping Beauty granted me the birthday gift of this gem for their September song of the month! One of my favorites thus far! That chorus is perfect!

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Thus Love - On the Floor

New music from Thus Love. Their new album "All Pleasure" will be out November 1st via Captured Tracks!

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

OKAYALEX - Door

Here's a cool new track from OKAYALEX! They have a new EP called "Escape" out this week!

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Allie X - Galina (feat. Empress Of)

Allie X's latest album "Girl With No Face" is one of the year's best! Here's her latest video, featuring the awesome Empress Of!

Friday, August 30, 2024

Seasurfer - A Short Term Effect

Happy Birthday RockyBoo!! Happy 1 year wedding anniversary too!
Here's a Cure cover by German shoegazers Seasurfer! Seasurfer also has an album coming entitled "Electronic Monsters"!

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Petracovich - This Is Easy, This Is Love

Petracovich just released her new album "This Is Easy, This Is Love" after a long hiatus from music. Created for her son Otto, who was taken away from her too soon, it's an absolutely beautiful, pure album.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Moto Boy - Berlin Foxes

The last single before Moto Boy gives us his next (and last?) album! It's a great one!

Monday, August 26, 2024

Pet Shop Boys - Feel

I don't know how a lot of people feel about the newest Pet Shop Boys album "Nonetheless", but I quite like it! This is one of my faves! Especially loving all the b-sides for the singles!

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Selofan - Sticky Fingers

Selofan released their latest album "Animal Mentality" back in April. Serving us more gothy, synthpop realness and I love it!

Friday, August 23, 2024

Monday, August 19, 2024

The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue - Edge of a Saturday Night

Very fun new collab from The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue! The track will be featured on The Blessed Madonna's new album "Godspeed", out Oct 11th!

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Violent Femmes - Never Tell

Violent Femmes' excellent sophomore album "Hallowed Ground" celebrates its 40th(!) anniversary this year! They've been touring their first two albums this year but sadly haven't done ANY shows in California! RUDE! Here's one of the best tracks from the album!

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Karen O & Danger Mouse - Super Breath

Lovely new track from Karen O & Danger Mouse! It will be included on a deluxe reissue of ther 2019 collab album "Lux Prima"!

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Red Sleeping Beauty - Cruising Slowly

Another perfectly dreamy number from Red Sleeping Beauty for their August release! This one features guest vocals from Jane Wildson! She's in another Ooberus-fave, Papa Topo, who I believe are also giving us a new album this year!!

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Telenova - January

Telenova's new album "Time Is a Flower" has become one of my most anticipated releases of 2024! Here's a sweet, acoustic live rendition of the latest track they've shared. Album drops on August 16th!

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Sassyhiya - Kristen Stewart

New single from Sassyhiya who are the latest band to join the Skep Wax family! Their album "Take You Somewhere" will be out in November!

Monday, July 29, 2024

Vanessa - Dynamite (2024 Version)

I SAW VANESSA LIVE!!!! It was glorious and so happy that she dropped her latest 2024 version on Friday and sang it for us at the Milkshake Opening Party! Thank you Vanessa for your amazing return and I hope this is just the beginning!

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Sonique - It Feels So Good

I found out last week that Sonique was also playing the Milkshake Festival opening party with Vanessa and as of this post, I hope I've been able to see this live!

Friday, July 26, 2024

Vanessa - I'm Getting Ready for Love

I will be living a dream tonight in Amsterdam! I'll be seeing the supreme diva goddess of Dutch POP!, VANESSA!! Since first hearing her amazing song "Upside Down", I vowed I would drop everything and see here anywhere! The time has come as Vanessa comes out of retirement tonight at the opening party of the Milkshake Festival opening party! It will be MAGIC! It will be GLORIOUS! It will be a dream come true!! I'M GETTING READY FOR LOVE, VANESSA!!

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Woog Riots - Riverboat to Amsterdam

I'm on my way to Amsterdam today and this is just perfect! Woog Riots will release their new album "Collectors of Pop" on August 23rd! Here's its first single!

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Monday, July 22, 2024