Memorial Day Weekend and the (un)official start to summer has arrived. As we close out May and hopefully move towards a safer new world, we are a little low on new releases. The big highlight this week is the avant-punk of black midi’s sophomore record. Like their peers in Black Country, New Road and Squid, this group is part of an incredible scene that is combining free-jazz, post-punk, and hardcore elements to create a new kind of guitar-driven rock music. Their latest isn’t one to miss.
Only a few weeks after Dinosaur Jr. dropped their excellent new record, bassist Lou Barlow is back with a solo record that is more on the mellow side, much like his counter-part J Mascis’ solo albums. We also have the new collaboration from Jay Som and Palehound known as Bachelor which will scratch the itch for back-to-basics indie rock, much like you’d expect from their solo works.
Sleater-Kinney and Modest Mouse both shared new singles from their respective albums which are both out in June and Shabazz Palaces also shared a new one from an upcoming rarities record.
This week also featured Bob Dylan’s 80th Birthday (more below), what would’ve been Miles Davis’ 95th Birthday, and the 25 year anniversary of Brad Nowell of Sublime’s death.
Finally, following last week’s buzz and their viral video for “Racist Sexist Boy,” the Linda Lindas have signed with Epitaph(!!) and will make their first national television appearance next week on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Girls to front, indeed!
Albums:
black midi | Cavalcade
Lou Barlow | Reason to Live
Bachelor | Doomin’ Sun
Poolside | High Season [remixes]
GWAR | The Disc With No Name EP
David Bowie | The Width of a Circle
Can | Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975
Songs:
Sleater-Kinney | “High in the Grass”
Shabazz Palaces | “20 Gear Science”
Modest Mouse | “Leave A Light On”
Turnstile | “MYSTERY”
Julia Jacklin / RVG | “Army of Me” [Björk cover]
Alessandro Cortini | “VERDE”
박혜진 Park Hye Jin / Clams Casino | “Y DON’T U”
Soccer96 / Nuha Ruby Ra | “Dopamine”
If you’re a Spotify user, you can listen to these songs (and more from 2021) here!
Bob Dylan turned 80 this week and it feels wrong to not say something about perhaps the most important songwriter of the past century. Like many classic artists, I haven’t written much about Bob other than a lone review for last year’s stunning “Murder Most Foul” which ended up being one of my top ten songs of the year (the record was also one of Dylan’s best in quite some time). In the past fifteen years I’ve been blogging, Bob’s output hasn’t been worth writing about (IMO) and I’ve actually never caught him live, which is something I am sure I’ll later regret despite his less than positive reviews. There is no cultural equivalent to Dylan. No one who has had a great impact on songwriting and no one with such a fabled discography. Sure, the Beatles changed Pop music forever the same way that the Stones and Zeppelin shaped Rock and Heavy Metal. Bowie went on a space odyssey blurring Pop, Rock, and other new experimental sounds, and while I’ll still always claim Neil Young to be my personal favorite, Folk and American songwriting would look widely different without the influence of Robert Allen Zimmerman.
There isn’t much I can say to about his illustrious career that hasn’t already been said and I’m not even sure there are new thoughts I can add to compliment his seismic history, but writing a tribute nonetheless felt important for Bob. When it comes to popular music, I don’t know if there is anyone who laid the groundwork for songwriting better than Dylan. Taking cues from his Folk heroes, he came into the ‘60s as a voice of change, a thought leader unafraid to speak out for what was right and inspired an entire generation in the process. His influence throughout the last sixty years is uncanny and even as others began to fad from memory or lose touch, Dylan remained a staple. From countless hits and timeless records, he had a way with words that so many would try to replicate, but only flounder in comparison. Of course there are some who think his voice casts some shadows on what would otherwise be flawless tracks, but to me his words are of the people and his voice reflected it. He was speaking and singing from his soul and the common-person, not an untouchable god living for the rock and roll dream.
Earlier this week, Stereogum asked 80 artists to write about their favorite Dylan song and I tried to think of what my answer to this would’ve been and what I would’ve said. “Blowin in the Wind,” “Girl From the North Country,” “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” “With God on Our Side,” “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” “Desolation Row,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Maggie’s Farm,” “Visions of Johanna,” “I Want You,” “Just Like a Woman,” “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Low Land,” “Tangled Up in Blue,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Idiot Wind,” “Shelter from the Storm,” “Buckets of Rain,” “Hurricane,” and “One More Cup of Coffee” all make the cut and those are all songs that any real Dylan fan would probably laugh about if pegged for a favorite. Still for me, it comes down to the rather left-field choice of “Wigwam,” which is used masterfully in Wes Anderson’s iconic The Royal Tenenbaums (it’s a mostly instrumental song that features basic strums and some Latin-esque horns from a person usually regarded for his lyrics), and “Like a Rolling Stone” which feels basic beyond compare, but to me, captures Dylan at his most essential and is the song that will forever pop into my head immediately upon hearing his name. From the opening jumble of piano and the instantaneous stomp-forward motion that carries the track along its epic journey, few songs can even compare. “How does it feel?” he asks and it’s a timeless question that generations would contemplate for decades to come. It’s the most popular, generic, and easiest answer to such an important question, but for me it’s no question that it’s not only his greatest creation, but the ultimate achievement of ‘60s Folk and modern Pop.
His body of work from the first two decades of his recorded history remains some of the strongest of all time as he led the spirit of the Village out of New York and into the mainstream. He embodied cool and has been a timeless influence since his first album back in 1962. I’m by no means a Dylan historian and even as a massive music fan, I still find myself learning more and more about his storied legacy, but one thing keeps coming back to me no matter how much I learn or through countless listens to his records. There was no one else comparable to him in his prime and even in the future, there never will be another Bob Dylan.