Fall 2025 New Music Playlist

 Listen on Spotify, enjoy!

1. "Boundary Rider" – Tycho, Paul Banks
2. "I'm Not Ready for the Change" – Nation of Language

3. "Run Free" – Soulwax

4. "Ringing Ocean" – Brian Eno, Beatie Wolfe

5. "My Light" – Mild Orange

6. "Still See Light" – Cut Copy

7. "Something New" – Worthitpurchase

8. "Breaker" – Shaki Tavi

9. "rewind" – dayaway

10. "In My Head" – Phantogram, Whethan

11. "Everything is Coming Up Roses" – World News

12. "Tanana" – Portugal the Man

13. "Caught Up in the Past" – Jeff Tweedy

14. "Guess I'm Falling in Love" – Spoon

15. "Somebody New" – Tunde Adebimpe

16. "The Ghouls" – Midlake

17. "Deep Dream" – Solarium Recordings, Teen Daze

Here's to 2018 – New Releases Ahead by Favorite Bands (David Byrne, Franz Ferdinand, Moby & more)

What a difference a year makes... I combed through the lists of upcoming releases looking for reasons to be hopeful about 2018 and found just a few: Moby, Franz Ferdinand plus all those unreleased tracks by the Gorillaz promised ahead. Then yesterday one of my top musical heroes David Byrne not only announced a new album in 14 years (!) American Utopia but he also gave a talk in NYC entitled "Reasons to Be Cheerful." I tuned into the online stream (archived on Facebook and YouTube), hanging on every word from this wise and witty shaman. Byrne espoused about his latest project, Contemporary Colors, along with answers to world problems large and small. His talk was set to carefully chosen, although some completely random, visuals just like those at groundbreaking concerts as frontman for The Talking Heads. 

Check out the first single from the album "Everybody's Coming to My House" via the video below with fitting artwork of the artist by Doug Henders. This tune produced by longtime pal Brian Eno features danceable beats, poetic lyrics – stream of consciousness, about ordinary but which say much more – and those unmistakable vocals that have been copied, but never exactly replicated. As if 2017 wasn't awesome enough musically with a new album (after many years) from another all time fave band LCD Soundsystem, with this new music on repeat for my ears I am not only cheerful, but one extremely happy music fan. It's simply the same as it ever was!

UPCOMING NEW RELEASES IN 2018:
January 19 – De Lux, More Disco Songs About Love (Innovative Leisure)
January 19 – The Go! Team, Semicircle (Memphis Industries)
January 26 – Django Django, Marble Skies (Ribbon Music)
January 26 – Calexico, The Thread That Keeps Us (Anti-Records) 
February 9 – Franz Ferdinand, Always Ascending (Domino)
February 9 – MGMT, Little Dark Age (Columbia)
March 2 – Moby, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt (Mute)
March 9 – David Byrne, American Utopia (Todomundo/Nonesuch Records)
March 9 – of Montreal, White is Relic/Irrealis Mood
March 16 – Yo La Tengo, There's a Riot Going On (Matador Records)
March 16 – The Decemberists, I'll Be Your Girl (Columbia)
April 6 – Wye Oak, The Louder I call, The Faster It Runs (Merge)
April 27 – Dr. Dog, Critical Equation (Thirty Tigers)
April 27 – Okkervil River, Rainbow Rain (ATO) 
Gorillaz – TBD
Arctic Monkeys – TBD
Vampire Weekend  – TBD

A Playlist of Songs In Honor of Mother's Day (Bands Heard In the Background Over the Years as a Family)

With fond memories of homemade gifts...

Here's a rather personal playlist honoring the Mother's Day holiday - 22 songs encountered along the way during my own days fulfilling a maternal role in the family.  It's a nurturing list of fave bands over the years, musical accompaniment to household activities or even sing alongs, providing that collective pull of related spirits with mouths wide open.  I've especially enjoyed sharing so much new music discovery, as band names were passed about until it became not mine or yours, but simply ours. 

I've never wanted anything festooned with the "World's Best Mom" on it, but I am extremely proud of the simple fact that both of my kids value the arts as something necessary and ever evolving in their lives. You can argue the nature vs. nurture possibilities, but I'd rather think this is also the result of my own mother continuing her role as cultural ambassador. She gladly squired the grandkids to concerts, museums and plays, while having a house with a piano and other instruments at the ready, along with a personal collection of music and books everywhere (plus passing down a wonderful habit of listening to music at full volume.) These are all things I was exposed to growing up as well and continued in my own life as an adult -- taking it all for granted until I found out this was not always the case in other families. 

Link to listen here and remember you can always listen to my new music playlists here!

1. "Stay Up Late" – Talking Heads

2. "Kid"– The Pretenders

3. "Modern Art" – Art Brut

4. "The Youth" – MGMT

5. "Loser" – Beck

6. "Song 2" – Blur

7. "Dirty Harry" – Gorillaz

8. "Home" – Brian Eno & David Byrne

9. "Home" – Dan Croll

10. "The Man Who Love the World" – Nirvana (From MTV Unplugged)

11. "Life On Mars?" – Arcade Fire & David Bowie (From Fashion Rocks)

12. "The Dark of the Matineé" – Franz Ferdinand

13. "What would I want? Sky" – Animal Collective

14. "Stickshifts and Safetybealts" – CAKE

15. "Roam" – The B-52s

16. "Beautiful World" – Devo

17. "Sticks & Stone" – Jónsi

18. " The Perfect Life" (featuring Wayne Coyne) – Moby
19. "Undone (The Sweater Song)" – Weezer

20. "No Surprises"  – Radiohead

21. "Louise Louisa"  – Mew

22. "On Your Way" – The Album Leaf

Jon Hopkins Live Session on KCRW

London's electronic music producer and composer Jon Hopkins stopped by the KCRW studios this week on "Morning Becomes Eclectic." While I was unable to catch it live, the show is posted in the archives for listening on demand.

In his dreamy British accent, Hopkins says right off how he's "delighted" to have a grand piano for the session.  As I found out researching my 2010 interview with him at Moogfest in 2010, Hopkins was a child prodigy on the instrument, as the love of all things electronic would come along a bit later.  He presents several tracks off his latest album, Immunity, calling the collection" concealed experimentalism" in the interview.  (I wrote about the single, "Open Eye Signal" back in June which appeared on my Late Summer New Music Playlist.) Hopkins also talks about working with Brian Eno, who would draw a diagram for "introducing accidents" during the artistic process.  Unfortunately, time ran out before the entire set list but it's still worth visiting, along with the new album if you haven't already.  This classically trained musician has an ear for form and beauty, along with an inventive electronic wizardry.

Link to listen in the KCRW archives here and watch the performance of the first song in the video below.

Track Listing:
1. Breathe This Air, Immunity (2013)
2. We Disappear, Immunity (2013)
3. Abandon Window, Immunity (2013)
4. Nightfall, How I Live Now (2013 Movie Soundtrack)
5. Autumn Hill, Insides (2009)
6. Open Eye Signal, Immunity (2013)