The almost-goodbye-to-Glono what are you listening to thread

[jonas]

At the (roughly) half-year anniversary of Jake's last article I came back to start a goodbye and what's up? thread, but lo and behold, there's Jake posting his Lollapalooza experience. But fuck it, it still feels like mostly goodbye, and anyway it's time for some updates. Here's what I've been listening to obsessively lately:

1. Nick Cave, The Boatman's Call. On the way to Germany via Iceland Air I was surprised to find this (as well as PJ Harvey's latest) on the playlist. I wasn't familiar with it, but I ended up listening to it non-stop both on the way there and coming back. It's Nick being Leonard Cohen, which is in his wheelhouse, and lots of this is wonderful.
2. Wir Sind Helden, Reklamation. It's German pop. It might not be as appealing if it were in English, but I love it, and Judith Holofernes the lead singer. Even if you don't speak German, a song like this is endlessly appealing.
3. Joe Jackson, Look Sharp!. Back-filling my collection. The extras suck, but the originals are still pretty good.
4. Flaming Lips, Embryonic. WtF!? Wayne Coyne is crazy, but I love the bass so much.
5. LCD Soundsystem, 45:33. James Murphy's Nike throwaway. Workable background listening.
6. Wrens, Meadowlands. I bought this because of you guys, and I completely love the lyrics. "She Sends Kisses" is so smart and painful.
7. Paul McCartney, RAM. Never heard it before, just the singles. There's some real crap on this album, and a lot of overtones of fuck you John, but there's also some excellent stuff. If this were on 8-track, I'd probably be cycling from track to track and skipping a lot of it.

So what about you guys?

[Jake]

Ram is tied with Plastic Ono Band as my favorite solo Beatle albums.

[jonas]

Ram is tied with Plastic Ono Band as my favorite solo Beatle albums.

Okay, good to know. Now give us one thing you've been listening to lately!

[Jake]

The new Malkmus sounds really good!

Two fairly recent things I've been digging are the solo J Mascis album and Kurt Vile's Smoke Ring For My Halo.

[D. Phillips]

Been listening to the Kanye-Jay-Z thing a fair amount
Lots of Dawes all summer long
Digging Portugal, The Man a LOT more than I expected
New Wilco single has me cautiously excited for the new album
The Ettes' album Wicked Will is dark, spooky shit with creepy female vocals - SCORE!

Spotify is fulfilling its promise to bring me new music and I am loving it.

[DJMurphy]

I'm digging on the final Material Issue album, Telecommando Americano, which I finally got last week. For years, I'd been irrationally avoiding picking this up, even though I'm a big MI fan. I guess I was turned off by the whole idea of a posthumous release, "Let's put bass and drums on Jim Ellison's songwriting demos" kind of thing. I was only partly right to be worried; there's about half great tunes, and the inclusion of their pre-major label EP is awesome.

It's good to see GloNo peeking its head out of hibernation, much like a groundhog seeing if winter's over!

[Mixmaster Shecky]

I've been listening to The Godfather's Birth, School, Work, Death just lately. I'm surprised how well it's held up.
Also been digging the Jim Jones Revue and the entire Husker Du/Sugar back catalog a lot.

GloNo don't tell me what's cool anymore.

[Tim]

Been a good summer of muisc for me:

Dawes, The Moondoggies, Frank Turner, The Donkeys, Seasick Steve, Kingsley Flood

Good to see you guys again!

[Dreamin]

Disco Dan Bejar! I haven't paid much attention to Destroyer since This Night, but I've been listening to Kaputt obsessively. Who knew?

[miss carol]

Picked up Wilco's Sky Blue Sky and (the album) at their recent show in Toronto. They're sounding more like late-era Beatles more and more. Love it!