40 Watt Gigolo

from the single Jukebox Babe / No Fun (2018)

It is Saturday Night and I'm getting started way too late.  How am I gonna ramp my buzz up quick enough to properly get down with my funky friends?

I start with espressos - four of them - to amp up.  Next stop is booze.  No time for beer or wine tonight, so it is straight to the hard liquor.  After some consternation, I settle on a double Jim Beam & Diet Coke.  It is probably not the perfect choice, but - hey - it's close enough.  After two hurried drinks in the kitchen, I enter my destination into Uber, fix a strong roadie, and head out the door.

The scene in front of the club is busy.  Ladies rummaging through purses, applying lipstick.  Lots of texting.  There are a couple of dudes in hoodies, looking suspicious.  Then, as if scripted, one of my funky friends emerges from around the corner, looking - and smelling - stoned.

We head inside.  It is crowded and loud.  I buy us a couple of drinks.  We circle the joint looking for …

from the single Baby, I Love You (2018)

You and I could have a friendly disagreement about which Ryan Adams' song is "his best."  You might say it's his cover of Wonderwall.  I might say it is either When The Stars Go Blue or Dancing With The Women At The Bar.

Yet I am certain we would both agree that Ryan Adams writes and records songs that perfectly capture how we feel towards each other, saying things that I - for one - am not elegant - or honest - enough to express.  He also has an uncanny ability to release these songs at the moments when they will hit us the hardest.  It is enough to make you shiver and shake.

He did it to us again on February 14th, with his unexpected release of the single Baby, I Love You.

However, rather than "pressing the bruise to watch it grow" with atorturous examination of the visual imagery and lyrics, I'll talk about his unexpected choice of using a Rickenbacker guitar on this song.  There is no guitar in music that crea…

from the album Cusp (2018)

My little corner of the world is a working class neighborhood on the south side of Atlanta.  The house that I live in will celebrate its centennial this year.  It is a shotgun bungalow built for soldiers returning home from World War One.

Yesterday, was a magical day; that first truly warm day of the year.  Spring.  Daffodils and redbuds open their delicate blooms.  The edges of dormant grass spontaneously turn parakeet green.  The heavenly sun soaks my face and shoulders.

I revel in this new season's arrival by taking the dogs on an extended amble.

Walking away from the town center, the bungalows give way to more impressive homes, from the 1920s, built on larger plots of land.  This abruptly ends as the neighborhood turns to simpler, box homes, constructed in the late 1940s for soldiers returning home from World War Two.

I think of these generations of homes and the souls who once occupied them.  I try to connect with their ghosts.  I think of the rings…

from the album Make Way For Love (2018)

I am really digging the tune What's Chasing You by Marlon Williams.

The vocals are crooned in a style evoking Chris Issak, Roy Orbison, and Morrissey.  Yet despite the song having the type of retro-reverb sheen and vintage melody line that you might expect from the vocal comparisons, it also has an element of campiness.  The listener can easily imagine this song in the opening credits to a John Waters film.

This is the perfect song for awkward swaying in your bedroom, surrounded by the blue hue of your lava lamp, and under the watchful eye of your giant Bona Drag poster.

Click Here to watch the official music video for What's Chasing You by Marlon Williams.  I adore this video.

from the single Feel Like New (2018)

I've been dreaming about Hernán Cortés
Sitting beside him on the deck of his great sail ship
Moored off Veracruz
Shooting local liquor
Conquistadors line the inland road
Cavalcades of horse drawn carts approach
Carrying gold
And treasure
Cortés grins tightly
Power in his pupils
We're gonna be the richest motherfuckers in Spain

So, fire up the smoke machine.  Get on the dance floor.  This is our moment.  Today is our day.

Salud y amor y tiempo para disfrutario !!!

Click Here to listen to Feel Like New by Sam Dexter.

from the single Windy City / Let's Make Love (2018)

Once upon a time, I was partying in Chicago on a frigid winter's night.  I was drinking and smoking and carrying on with some friends from my Milwaukee days who had relocated to the City of the Big Shoulders.

I remember us packed into a couple of taxi cabs, riding to a house party.  I remember someone saying, "Hey, this is the street where John Lee Hooker sings Boom Boom in The Blues Brother."  I remember getting out of the taxi in front of a three story house on a residential street.  I remember coatless people smoking cigarettes on the front porch and on a balcony.  I remember it being so cold that the inside of my nose felt itchy.  I remember a black girl in a zebra print dress drinking a green martini.  I remember lines of cocaine on a high dresser in someone's bedroom. I remember Dan telling incredible lies to excited ladies in the kitchen.  I remember Jim talking to his bookie.  I remember working my way t…

from the EP Disco Goodies (2018)

This week was a bit surreal for me.

I was in Seattle working on a project with a team of people easily a generation younger than I am.  While there is nothing new or revelatory about that, this time it felt somehow different.  There was a vibe that I've never experienced before.

Paranoia told me that they were unaccepting of me due to the age difference.  I also wondered if it was that East Coast Techie / West Coast Techie dynamic.  Either way, it was a bit awkward.

So, on my flight back to ATL, I was reveling in Phonk D's latest EP - Disco Goodies - and my favorite track on the record Darlin' Playa.

This song has an old school disco thing going on, with tones and grooves sounding like something out of 1970s NYC.  There is a conga track thrown in the mix that makes the song feel somewhat foreign, in a Spanish Harlem kind of way.

The song continues to morph away from old school disco with jazz guitar elements and a heavy-handed house beat.  …

from the single YO! MY SAINT (2018)

Earlier this decade, a friend of mine with some connections at Paste Magazine scored me VIP seats for an exciting night of SXSW bands at Stubbs Bar-B-Q in Austin.

As the stage was being set for the headliner, it was interesting to gauge the excitement in the music industry muckity-mucks I was hobnobbing with; enough so that I surrendered my prime position at the bar for a stage-side spot along the balcony rail.

When theYeah Yeah Yeahs took the stage, their front woman - Karen O. - blew me away.  She was everything a rock and roll girl ought to be, and more.

Shortly after, I was in Santa Monica beach bummin', bicycle riding, and partying fairly hard.  Needing a break, I took in a matinee at movie theatre along the Third Street Promenade.  The film was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The big tune on the movie's soundtrack was a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and - once again - Karen O.

She is truly r…

from the album The Deconstruction (2018)

I always dig those days when I wake up feeling fresh and new.  Rejuvenated.  Ready to fulfill my destiny as the greatest motherfucker who ever walked in my shoes.

On these glorious mornings, I like to crank my music loud.  Not any music, but power pop.  Jangling chords from a songwriter with attitude backed by a powerhouse rhythm section.  Pete Townsend meets Alex Chilton.

On these beauteous mornings, I tell myself "Today is the Day," which just happens to be the title of the latest song by Eels; the long-running project of the immensely talented Mark Oliver Everett.

I have been an Eels fan since Novocaine For The Soul first hit the airwaves many, many moons ago.  I love the ability of Eels' songs to speak raw truths about real moments in ordinary life.  Uncomfortable topics, like being in the cancer ward with your mother.  How does he find the presence of mind to write so coherently about these moments?

Yet Today Is the Day feels…

from the single Till Tomorrow Goes Away (2018)

The tags that the band Cut Worms uses to describe themselves on their Bandcamp page include:

Brooklyn
Bedroom Pop
Garage Rock
Lo-Fi

While that was enough to catch my attention, it does not begin to capture just how glorious their music truly is.

Their latest single - Till Tomorrow Goes Away - has the power to take you back to the Rubber Soul / Revolver tunes of John Lennon.  You not only hear it in the combination of acoustic guitar hooks and circus keyboards, but literally in the warmth between the notes.  It is magical.  Timeless.

I hope you dig it.

Click Here to listen to Till Tomorrow Goes Away by Cut Worms.

from the album Little Dark Age (2018)

Death has such a negative connotation associated with it.  Nobody ever stands up at a wake and says, "Hey, there is more for us to eat."

I wonder why that is.  Religion and art are the most likely culprits.  Religion can control you by evoking fear of an unpleasant afterlife.  Art, on the other hand, mourns the absence of life and tends to paint macabre images of death and dying.  From Shakespeare saying "Out, out brief candle" to Goya's painting of Saturn Devouring His Son, artist tend to make death something depressing and ghoulish.

I think that is what draws me to happier depictions of death.  I adored Valerie June's 2017 song Astral Plane with the imagery of her grandmother dancing as she traversed the highway to heaven.  I'm also down with all the "Pearly Gates" stuff and the idea of seeing all those loved ones who died before you at a big picnic in the sky.

When I first heard the song When You Die by…

Welcome to Episode 1 of Pink Squirrel !!! This mix series is dedicated to the best new music of 2018.  Included are bands debuting their first full-length releases, like Shame and Dream Wife.  Also included are more established artists, like Johnny Marr and Jack White. The name Pink Squirrel is taken from a song by Creep Show that was released at the start of the year and appears in this mix. If January is any measure of the music yet to come in 2018, it will be quite a year. Hope you dig it...
Here is the playlist:

Friction by Shame

Pink Squirrel by Creep Show

Count To Five by Rhye

The Priest by Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake

Love You So Bad by Ezra Furman

Shadow People by The Limiñanas

Fireworks by First Aid Kit

Connected by Love by Jack White

Every 1's A Winner by Ty Segall

Hey Heartbreaker by Dream Wife

New For You by Hinds

YouTubular by Ron Gallo

I Love LA by Starcrawler

Silent Boogie by Sunwatchers


and as always, you can catch all of my mixtape on my MixCloud page.

from the album II (2018)

Sunwatchers are a Brooklyn quartet whose music straddles the line between psychedelic rock and jazz.  What I dig about this band is that they attempt to convey a strong, direct message through their music, despite the songs being instrumentals.

In political terms, their point of view leans hard to the left.  The cover of their latest album - II - proudly proclaims: We stand in solidarity with the dispossessed, impoverished, and embattled people of the world.  Within their record sleeve, you will find something of an extended manifesto, stating their beliefs, and closing with the righteous statement: If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for everything.

Based on their political sentiments, the theatre in my mind imagines I am watching them perform in a small Brooklyn coffeeshop with wooden floors and wooden walls, surrounded by comrades in dark overcoats and beards, slowly caffeinating with revolution in the air.

In my mind's eye, they are playing Silen…