Welcome back! https://trouserpress.com/forum/index.php Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:55:26 +0000 Phorum 5.2.23 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70941,70941#msg-70941 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70941,70941#msg-70941 https://www.mixcloud.com/callinamagician/442026-radio-not-radio]My latest show[/url] is available on Mixcloud.

Neo Geodesia-“Phalanx Dreams”
Serokolo 7-“Naba Ba Papedi”
Fire-Toolz-“Balam Cat Says IPv09082024 Strawberry Head”
Laibach featuring Wiyaala-“Allgorhythm”
Yonu-“Sacrifice”
Underscores-“The Peace”
Googly Eyes-“Feel Like I Died”
Cabaret Voltaire-“Menace”
Maurice-“This Is Acid”
Phuture-“Slam”
Pan Sonic-“Vapina”
VV Pete, Deela, Lisha G, Utility-“Toss It”
Yeat & Swizz Beatz-“My Time”
Lifeguard-“Blatant (Dub) I”
Harriet Tubman & Georgia Anne Muldrow-“Insisting”
This House-“Oh My Butterfly”
Irreversible Entaglements featuring MOTHERBOARD-“Vibrate Higher”
Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash-“Deerhoof Is God”
Leila Abdul-Rauf-“Andros Insidium”
Marilyn Crispell & Anders Jormin-“Memento”
Gregory Uhlmann-“Pocket Snail”
Ashra-“Deep Distance”
Peter Baumann-“Chasing the Dream”
Larrison-“Swarm”
If Not Then-“Hey Big Oil”
Neurosis-“In the Waiting Hours”
Leila Boudreil & Kali Malone-“Intersecting Planes II”]]> steevee Trouser Press Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:32:51 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70940,70940#msg-70940 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70940,70940#msg-70940
"Dancing with the Band" - Cheap Trick
"Let's Spend the Night Together" [live] - David Bowie
"Straight Line Was a Lie" - The Beths
"Ms. America" - Bully

"Why Don't You Do It for Me?" - 22-20s
"One of the Boys" - Roger Daltrey
"Faster and Louder" - The Dictators (R.I.P. Ross "The Boss" Friedman)
"My World" - Descendents

"Burning Red" - Exploding White Mice
"Uniforms & Insignias" - The Neighborhoods
"Nights with You" - The Heats
"Ghost on the Beach" - The Insiders

"Rhythm of Cruelty" - Magazine
"Modern Disappearing Man" - The Kamikazi Klones
"Man in Need" - Richard & Linda Thompson (for Richard's birthday)
"Sevier" - The Joy Formidable

"Cities in Dust" - Garbage
"Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown" - Social Distortion (for Mike Ness' birthday)
"Funnel of Love" - Mike Ness (see above)
"Fever Dream" - Linda from Work

"Slow Motion" - Ultravox
"My Mistake" - The Kingbees (by request)
"Hard Times in the Land of Plenty" - Omar & the Howlers
"Feeling" - The Roxies

"Rock 'n' Roll Is Our Communication" - The Styros (by request)
"Tips for Teens" - Sparks
"Power Lies" - The Thermals
"Never Let Me Down" - The Auto-No (by request)

"All of My Thoughts" - Spiritualized
"Drive Me to the Park" - The Embarrassment
"Summertime Blues " - Blue Cheer
"Long Live Rock" - The Who]]> Delvin Trouser Press Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:38:53 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70937,70937#msg-70937 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70937,70937#msg-70937 a new single, "No Kings Here." Hugo Burnham is back, which is cause for celebration.]]> steevee Trouser Press Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:19:25 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70930,70930#msg-70930 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70930,70930#msg-70930 wpts.pitt.edu]

Southern Culture on the Skids - Freak Flag
Kero Kero Bonito - Only Acting
Mary’s Danish - Tracy’s in the Bathroom Killing Thrills
Snocaps - Cherry Hard Candy

Bad Moves - Working for Free
Pizzicato Five - Happy Sad
Grenadine - Hell over Hickory Dew
Chaos 8 - 4 minutes

Essential Logic - Sky Rocket
Piper & the Hard Times - Keep it to Yourself
Turn, Turn, Turn - Powder

HAIM - Don’t Save Me
Brian Ellis - Freak-O-Holic (Esco Funk Re-freak)
Rainbow Team - Bite the Apple
Sofee - Thursday Night
Jordana - Still Do
Magdelena Bay - Image

The Weathermen - Uzi Does It (RIP Len Deighton 'The Ipcress File')
Propellerheads - Spybreak! ('Funeral in Berlin')
United Future Organization - Spy's Spice (Mon Espionne) ('Billion Dollar Brain')
Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
The Untamed Youth - Git Up & Go]]> Heff Trouser Press Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:13:11 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70924,70924#msg-70924 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70924,70924#msg-70924
[tinnitist.com]]]> BCE Trouser Press Tue, 31 Mar 2026 05:14:51 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70911,70911#msg-70911 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70911,70911#msg-70911 "Christo's Ghost" - Chico Detour
"Taste It" - INXS (for Andy Farriss' birthday)
"Let Me Entertain You" - Queen

"In the Sun" - Blondie
"My Kind of Soldier" - Guided By Voices
"It's Alright, Baby" - Komeda
"Happy Loving Couples" - Joe Jackson
"Communication Breakdown" - Led Zeppelin

"Pack It Up" - The Pretenders
"Bad Seeds" - The Melmacs
"Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)" - Thin Lizzy
"Kick It Down" - Girlschool (for guitarist Jackie Chambers' birthday)

"Diamond" - Hoarse
"Black Sky" - Caution
"Can't Hardly Wait" - The Replacements (by request)
"Editions of You" - Roxy Music

"How Soon Is Now?" - The Smiths (by request)
"Uncle Bert" - The Creation
"Bluebird" - Whisky Mountain
"Sixteen Saltines" - Jack White

"TVC 15" - David Bowie
"I Go Blind" - 54-40 (by request)
"Loco Te Patina El Coco (Wild Thing)" - Los Straitjackets with Big Sandy (R.I.P. Chip Taylor)
"Burning Too" - Fugazi

"Get Back My Name" - The Silos
"Gold Mind" - The Blue Van
"Cul-de-Sac" - Genesis (for Tony Banks' birthday)
"Supergun" - Mary Lou Lord

"It Was Fun While It Lasted" - The Sir Douglas Quintet (R.I.P. Augie Meyers)
"D.C. to Moscow" - Will & the Bushmen
"Hangin'" - Sahara Hotnights
"What a Wonderful World" - Joey Ramone]]> Delvin Trouser Press Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:40:41 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70908,70908#msg-70908 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70908,70908#msg-70908 Michael Toland Trouser Press Tue, 31 Mar 2026 21:43:19 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70907,70907#msg-70907 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70907,70907#msg-70907 breno Trouser Press Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:53:19 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70899,70899#msg-70899 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70899,70899#msg-70899
EDIT: Didn't even notice that my phone had apparently autocorrected "Dash" to "Dan." Or I may have just typed it in wrong.]]> breno Trouser Press Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:28:03 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70891,70891#msg-70891 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70891,70891#msg-70891
Sendarrubias - Little Freak
The Dollyrots - Animal
Cheer-Accident - Gilbert
The Fleshtones, Los Straitjackets and Southern Culture on the Skids - Que Monstrous Son

SPELLING - Portrait of My Heart
Phil Manzanera - Same Time Next Week
Depeche Mode - Walking in My Shoes
The B-52s - Wig

Wednesday - Townies
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
Lee Ranaldo - Last Looks (feat Sharon Van Etten)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kiss Them for Me

Silverchair - Freak
Cults - High Road
Bebel Gilberto - Aganju (Latin Project Mix)
Lunar Vacation - Gears

Jay Som - Nighttime Drive
The Go-Betweens - Spring Rain
St Etienne - Spring
Dana and Alden - Let’s Go to Trader Joe’s

Robert Fripp and the League of Gentlemen - Inductive Resonance
The Rezillos - (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (RIP Thaddeus Mosley)
The Fleshtones and Mary Huff - For a Smile
Tennis - Bad Girls]]> Heff Trouser Press Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:13:40 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70887,70887#msg-70887 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70887,70887#msg-70887 breno Trouser Press Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:03:34 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70885,70885#msg-70885 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70885,70885#msg-70885
I thought about this while answering the other thread, specifically due to Zwirnm's comment "so now my attitude is "See the show, even if it might not be good, before they're gone forever." I used to think along the same lines, but there have been times when I've made a point of seeing a legend and wishing I had my time back.

Three examples come to mind from my concert going past.

Bob Dylan at the ACL Music Festival:

I'm all for artists having the right and the wherewithal to rearrange their classics to keep them fresh. But when said rearrangements turn everything into a tuneless drone so the set sounds like one long bad tune, my faith in that idea is severely shaken. I'm also not really interested in the records he's been putting out the past couple of decades. Plus his singing was SO BAD.

My wife (who hated Dylan anyway), buddy, and I left before the show was finished. There were people in the crowd beckoning us to come back and looking at us like we were crazy. Fine - I hope they moved up to our spots.

It was really too bad. He'd recently hired Austin blues legend Denny Freeman to play in his band (replacing Freeman's mentee Charlie Sexton), and Freeman was spitting out some stinging licks. But this to me is a prime example of an audience going crazy just because their idol showed up, and not because they're still good.

The Vibrators at Room 710:

I was never much of a Vibrators fan (to me Pure Mania's always sounded like mediocre 70s hard rock), but I'd been trying to take advantage of gigs with the 70s-era punk and punk-adjacent bands whenever I could, assuming there were enough original members to keep them from being a cover act. I'd seen Eddie & the Hot Rods just a few months before, with singer Barrie Masters still there and in good voice, so I had high hopes for this. I thought maybe I'd finally get Pure Mania.

They were awful. The drummer did most of the singing (poorly), the guitarist played like a refugee from a metal band, and it just sounded bad. I held on for about 40 minutes in hopes it would get better before abandoning the field.

It turns out that Knox was having health issues and couldn't make the American tour, something that wasn't announced until said tour had already started. So I felt rooked on top of it all. It made me regret not only the time I'd spent listening to that slop, but anytime I'd ever spent on the Vibrators at all.

Paul McCartney at ACL Fest:

I know this one's gonna make everyone bristle.

He was headlining the Festival (of course). I was on assignment that day. I prefer to cover the undercard, as I usually don't care about the headliners. (Though I have covered them in the past, often as a favor to my editor.) This allows me to go home early and write, both avoiding the end-of-night crush (leaving the last ACL Fest set of the night often takes as long as the headlining set itself) and not having to stay up too late. I'd done my assigned act already, and considered leaving. But this was Paul-friggin'-McCartney, so it would be worth it.

It was not worth it. His voice was pretty much gone (I knew from watching a concert special a couple of years before that it was weak, but this was worse), the setlist was entirely predictable, right down to the between-song banter, and it was just so...dull. I stuck it out until the end, as him rallying for one kickass song would have made it all worth it. But no. It was so disappointing. And I suspected it would be - I already knew Macca's voice was gone, and I'd been warned by someone who'd seen him more than once that he'd been doing the same set for literally years. Instead of listening to my instincts, I stayed. So it was my own damn fault.

Instead of the revelatory experience I assumed would be had, it was just a checkmark on the "legends I haven't seen yet" list. No fond memory of the performance, no standout moments, no floating on air after the show. Just, "whelp, now I can say I've seen a Beatle play." Nuts to that. So fucking what?

After that show, I stopped going to see legends just because they're legends. There have been shows I've seen where the band wasn't all I hoped, but there were still enough going on for me to enjoy the shows. Keith Richards looked and played like the walking dead when I saw the Stones about twenty years ago, but Jagger and Woody were on fire (and Charlie was still alive). Bryan Ferry's voice was shot when I saw Roxy Music a couple of years ago, but the band played impeccably. Ozzy's voice couldn't sing in tune to save his life when I saw Sabbath on the 13 tour, but that was when Tony Iommi was battling cancer, and the whole show (as evidenced by the videoscreens) was oriented around the guitar work. (The assumption was it would be Iommi's final tour.) Those all worked for me, even if they weren't spectacular. But the three above made me want my hours (or minutes) back.]]> Michael Toland Trouser Press Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:34:18 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70880,70880#msg-70880 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70880,70880#msg-70880
"Hello There" – Cheap Trick
"Sister Havana" – Urge Overkill
"Hammer in My Heart" – Utopia
"The Wolf" – Witch Post

"Cherry Bomb" – The Runaways
"Holiday" – Verbow
"All the Way from Memphis" – Mott the Hoople

"Ah! Leah" – Donnie Iris & the Cruisers
"Down on the Street" – The Stooges
"Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" – The White Stripes
"Twisted on a Train" – King Tuff

"You're All I've Got Tonight" – The Cars
"Saturday Savior" – Failure
"Stuck Between Stations" – The Hold Steady
"Divine Hammer" – The Breeders

"Game of Pricks" – Guided By Voices
"A Way" – The Bolshoi
"Sucked Out" – Superdrag

"Shake Some Action" – The Flamin' Groovies
"Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair" – Arctic Monkeys
"World Shut Your Mouth" – Julian Cope

"Problem Child" – AC/DC
"Hate to Say I Told You So" – The Hives
"Billion Dollar Babies" – Alice Cooper
"You Got to Lose" – The Black Keys

"Color Me Impressed" – The Replacements
"Flaming Youth" – Kiss
"Ace of Spades" – Motörhead
"Going Mobile" – The Who]]> Delvin Trouser Press Mon, 23 Mar 2026 02:15:21 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70878,70878#msg-70878 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70878,70878#msg-70878 This show marks the one-year anniversary of "Radio Not Radio." I was in a very dark state of mind when I came up with the idea for it, as both my parents were dying. I've found it rewarding to keep going, although I wish I could find more institutional support, and I plan to hit the two-year anniversary.

DJ Medmessiah, Morobeats-“Di Papasakop”
Denzel Curry featuring Tia Corine and FERG-“The Scythe”
Chrisman & Lebon BLS-“Polizei”
dalek-“Better Than”
Quelle Chris-“Good Kids/Hope Reprise”
KJade-“boys are afraid of the dark”
Dj mitsu the beats-“One More Love Song Inst”
Da Brat featuring Krayzie Bone-“Let’s All Get High”
BunnaB-“Mind Right”
Roxanne Shante-“Queen of Rox (Shante Rox On)”
Paul Marmota-“Costeño Fantasy”
2AT & Nixss-“hpta Karranga”
Brenda-“Mutante”
Eisebelle-“Salem”
Two Daughters-“Kiss the Cloth, Part 3”
Residents-“Breath and Length”
Genre Is Death-“Cold Old Man”
Teenage Jesus & the Jerks-“Freud In Flop”
The Mon-“The Sigil”
Lard Free-“Acide Framboise”
Gnod-“All Tunnel No Light”
Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti-“El Inicio es question de suerte”
Tamikrest-“Adagh Oyantid”
Takaat-“Il’jit Nelwan 2”
Praed-“Al Maraya (excerpt)”
Radwan Ghazi Mounmeh & Frédéric D. Oberland-“A Dream That Never Arrived”
Pep Llopis-“Patatas”
Idjah Hadidjah-“Arum Bandug”]]> steevee Trouser Press Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:24:44 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70872,70872#msg-70872 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70872,70872#msg-70872 wpts.pitt.edu]

Grey Trash Alien - Freak on the Side Dip
Built to Spill - Car (Live)

Fieval is Glauque - I’m Scanning Things I Can’t See
Hazel English - Nine Stories
The B-52s - 52 Girls
Cinnamon - Missing Person File
Dear Nora - Rollercoaster
The Carrie Nations - Find it

L’Imperatrice - The Kiss (feat Jomo)
Moonpools and Caterpillars - Trampling Rose
Cheer-Accident - Done
Elle Musa - Mango Pops
Alvvays - Forget About Life
Horrorpops - Freaks in Uniform

Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl
Weyes Blood - A Lot’s Gonna Change
Big Thief - No Reason

Lunar Vacation - The Basement
Pylon - Volume
Laibach - We are Millions and Millions are One
Siouxie and the Banshees - Happy House
Ladytron - I Believe in You

Lida Husik - Fly Stereophonic
Diamante - 1987
HAIM - Don’t save me]]> Heff Trouser Press Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:10:27 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70853,70853#msg-70853 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70853,70853#msg-70853
For me, a lot of the bands that were on my long-term never-list eventually fell off during reunion tours, or sometimes late-career resurgences. I got to see Big Star once, the Chills twice, etc. so I'm grateful for those opportunities prior to their leaders' deaths. For non-American bands, sometimes the economics were never favorable to tour in America, but I did happen to see many of the core New Zealand bands in my listening, some of the Brazilian acts, etc.

So... never-seen Trouser Press bands, active in my listening eras, of which I have a significant collection of music (physical, for these discussions), in no order:

1. Squeeze
2. Jane Siberry
3. Radiohead
4. Elvis Costello
5. Need to check which others

FWIW according to setlist.fm I have seen 380 registered artists in concert, at least those of which I've recorded attendance.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:13:43 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70846,70846#msg-70846 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70846,70846#msg-70846
In the early 2000’s I picked up the book ‘all music guide to jazz’ and it totally took me from uninformed newbie to comfortable explorer with a good understanding of players both big-name and obscure… then I discovered the website. Wow.

The website All Music is something I turn to all the time. (it’s riddled with pop-ups, but so be it). Let’s say I wanted to explore the album releases by some unfamiliar act like the Byrds, or Supertramp, or Stacy Lattisaw, just some random act… for me it’s a great place to start. I don’t know any place else to look.

Yeegods when I was a devout vinyl crate-digger I used the site religiously.

My TP guides are plenty dog-eared and I’m all over this site.. But what about for more general-purpose type acts that you might want to explore…. Can anyone suggest a better place than All Music? Do YOU ever turn to it?]]> Bip Trouser Press Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:13:22 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70845,70845#msg-70845 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70845,70845#msg-70845 Freaky Friday swap last night. Here's David's setlist as guest host of "Twenty Flight Rock":

"Sound of the Suburbs" – The Members
"Between Something and Nothing" – The Ocean Blue
"Golf Girl" – Caravan

"Hertz" – Amyl & the Sniffers
"Slip Into the Crowd" – 39 Steps
"Strange Overtones" – David Byrne & Brian Eno

"Athena" – The Who
"New York Kiss" – Spoon
"Sonic Reducer" – Dead Boys

"Chamber of Hellos" – Wire Train
"Pretty Green" – The Jam
"Animate" – Rush

"First Time" – The Boys
"Echo Beach" – Martha & the Muffins
"My Paradise" – The Outfield

"Ahead" – Wire
"Moonbathing" – Sky Cries Mary
"Ten Storey Love Song" – The Stone Roses

"Jealous" – Linda from Work
"I Can't Be with You" – The Cranberries
"Time Will Come" – Tol-Puddle Martyrs

"Now It's On" – Grandaddy
"Tomorrow Never Knows" – Monsoon
"Nova Heart" – Spoons

"Blaue Augen" – Ideal
"Space Oddity" – David Bowie
"Winning" – The Sound
"Polka" – Mike Oldfield

---

And here's what I came up for David's show "Dead Electric":

"Boing Boom Tschak" - Kraftwerk
"Metal" - Gary Numan
"Genetic Engineering" - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
"Rocket USA" - Suicide

"Something in Your Picture" - Fashion
"I Love You" - Yello
"Seconds" - The Human League

"Dissidents" - Thomas Dolby
"Smalltown Boy" - Bronski Beat
"All Stood Still" - Ultravox

"Modern Love Is Automatic" - A Flock of Seagulls
"When I'm With You" - Sparks
"Swing" [live] - Japan

"Get the Balance Right" - Depeche Mode
"Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)" - Yazoo
"Just Like Eddie" - Silicon Teens
"Warm Leatherette" - The Normal

"Wrap It Up" - Eurythmics w/Green Gartside
"Small Talk" - Scritti Politti
"Straight Lines" - New Musik
"Sons of the Silent Age" - David Bowie

"The Real Adventure" - Bill Nelson
"Close to the Edit" - The Art of Noise
"Night Train" - Visage

"Pleasure Victim" - Berlin
"Doubts Even Here" - New Order
"The Garden" - John Foxx]]> Delvin Trouser Press Sun, 15 Mar 2026 02:51:05 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70844,70844#msg-70844 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70844,70844#msg-70844 here.]]> Delvin Trouser Press Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:34:29 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70824,70824#msg-70824 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70824,70824#msg-70824
What are your perceptions of them? Favorite songs / albums? Love / despise them?

I read about them incessantly before ever hearing them. They were never gonna get played on radio and I had no mtv early on. My first album purchase was ‘singles 45s and under’… had all the songs I wanted to finally hear. Eventually I got all the albums on used vinyl.

Can’t really call them under-rated because critics generally praised them. I’ll always lump them in with groups like xtc and boomtown rats from that early new wave era (magazine coverage but zero airplay). I also associate them with Elvis Costello and Rockpile for same reason.

They had keyboards but no one would call them a synth band. They are too new wave-ish to be a pub rock band, no?

To me, they came up with some pretty great melodic off-kilter pop songs. They came up with really clever lyrics sometimes. Currently listening to “labeled with love”…. He became drinker and she became mother, she knew that one day she’d be one or the other

Any fans of this band?]]> Bip Trouser Press Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:06:02 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70820,70820#msg-70820 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70820,70820#msg-70820
[www.punknews.org]]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:41:34 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70816,70816#msg-70816 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70816,70816#msg-70816 Time Out of Mind and "Love and Theft" which are still Dylan's greatest albums post-Blood on the Tracks IMHO and he was a key reason for that, especially on Time Out of Mind where he was easily THE standout player for me.

[www.rollingstone.com]]]> belfast Trouser Press Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:10:11 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70814,70814#msg-70814 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70814,70814#msg-70814
With that in mind, his most enduring contribution wasn’t on a Rascals single, it was singing lead on the greatest twist record ever, “The Peppermint Twist.”]]> belfast Trouser Press Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:55:54 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70812,70812#msg-70812 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70812,70812#msg-70812 Blossom!]]> breno Trouser Press Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:02:50 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70810,70810#msg-70810 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70810,70810#msg-70810
Started this season off with St Vitus Dance's "Love Me Love My Do gma" record. Ira described it right here, and let me, if I may be afforded the usual presumptuousness granted me on this heavenly site, my experience of listening to this record.

I dropped the needle and felt the sun's eastern rays glimmering through, filtered by delicate and newly introduced to the world leaves at the 10am position sneaking through to make contact with the turntable..
By track three or four the sun had ascended to directly above, aka the twelve O'clock position. I detected a "warped" yet magnificent sound.

Side two coincided with further arching western slant of the sun, by the time the album finished, I felt like that guy in the Hitchcock film, ("Strangers on a Train") that crawled under the out of balanced carousel. An exhilarating and extraordinary experience.

postscript: move your clock ahead and give an hour of your life forward soundtrack, MOVIOLA]]> STEVE Trouser Press Sun, 08 Mar 2026 03:16:05 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70806,70806#msg-70806 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70806,70806#msg-70806 "Hot 'n' Nasty" – Humble Pie
"When My Baby's Beside Me" – Big Star (by request)
"Bootlicker" – Pegzilla

"Restless" – Flash & the Pan
"Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?" – Arctic Monkeys (by request)
"When You Come" [live] – Crowded House

"Dear Prudence" – Siouxsie & the Banshees
"Gloomy Sunday" – The Smithereens (by request)
"If I Can't Change Your Mind" – Sugar (by request)
"What" – Broncho (by request)

"Los Angeles" – X (by request)
"A Promise" – Echo & the Bunnymen (by request)
"Water with Hands" – Failure (by request)
"Ring of Fire" – Social Distortion (by request)

"All Lovers Are Deranged" – David Gilmour (for David's birthday)
"Come Home" – Time Thieves
"5ive Gears in Reverse" – Elvis Costello & the Attractions (by request)
"Low" – Cracker (by request)

"Cuts You Up" – Peter Murphy (by request)
"M79" – Vampire Weekend (for drummer Chris Tomson's birthday)
"1984" – David Bowie

"Just Can't Get Enough" [live] – Depeche Mode
"Backwater" – Meat Puppets (by request)
"Love Will Keep Us Together" – Lazlo Bane (R.I.P. Neil Sedaka)
"Love You Madly" – Cake

"Here's the Thing" – Fontaines D.C. (by request)
"Return to the Moon" – El Vy (by request)
"Who'll Be the Next in Line?" [live] – Gary Myrick & the Figures]]> Delvin Trouser Press Sat, 07 Mar 2026 17:03:57 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70804,70804#msg-70804 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70804,70804#msg-70804 The Paranoid Style
Comet Ping Pong, Washington DC, February 28, 2026

Another DC band, another one about which I've written in the past. The Paranoid Style is a critics’ band in every sense of the word, because it is a band led by a critic, whose music is also adored by critics.

As I have written before, Elizabeth Nelson is a fantastic rock critic and commentator, and she also happens to lead a rock band. I have seen the Paranoid Style playing with fellow DC band friends and allies, but this is the first time I've actually seen them as a headlining act, such as anyone can describe a band playing at Comet Ping Pong after 11 o'clock to a group of 40 something-year-olds.

Because of Nelson’s writerly voice and resume, she gets media attention and acclaim outsized to her relative sales audience. NPR just did a seven-minute radio story about her newest album, Known Associates, which I doubt they do for most bands that can get 50 people into a ping-pong parlor on a Friday night. Bands led by music writers are always going to get attention from other music writers (hello Pet Shop Boys, Pretenders, etc.) and I think the NPR story is an exercise in hyperbole, but I agree that the Paranoid Style’s music is getting better and better.

Nelson, wearing a Conway Twitty t-shirt, leaned into semi-ironic country melody, power pop urgency, and prolix and overstuffed lyrical references. I kept thinking of songwriters whom she resembles, and while I don’t think there is a conscious linkage, it did occur to me that both Scott Miller (Game Theory/Loud Family) and Alanis Morrisette paired tuneful and catchy classic pop compositions with complex lyrical structures and sometimes oblique references, albeit with wildly different commercial outcomes.

Most of the set at Comet Ping Pong was from Known Associates, her fifth full-length (“on Bar None Records, www.bar-none.com, the place to go to buy records”) but the Paranoid Style has a pretty deep catalogue and they tapped into their older songs as well.

The tricky bit about Nelson is that she’s enormously in debt to classic pop and country song structures, where lyrical economy is prized, but her own lyrical voice is profoundly verbose. Sometimes it works fine, but (like Elvis Costello, whom she resembles quite a bit as a songwriter) sometimes she has so many ideas that she never remotely approaches scansion. And tbqh she’s just not a great singer; she gets around that with urgency and speech-singing at times, but that weak singing can undercut a classic country song, like when she does Lucinda Williams’ “Passionate Kisses,” a composition whose lyrical economy and concision can really only be carried by a great vocal (Lucinda or Mary Chapin Carpenter).

On the other hand, “Shut Up and Deal” shows that Nelson can figure out that tricky marriage of country-pop form with snark and erudition, as the NPR radio piece spotlighted.

Hey, pretty baby. Are you ready for me? I'm a Long Island girl living in D.C.
I'm a tall drink of water standing 5-foot-2. I'm an engineer's daughter. I've been peer reviewed.
Hey there coyote, do you like to wager? Do you like it in minor or do you like it in major?
They're going to make you an offer. They're going to give you a pager.
They're going to call you a doctor. You're going to owe them a favor.

Half the fun of the Paranoid Style is noting the informed allusions that run through Nelson’s songwriting, both lyrical and musical. (Count the lyrical citations starting with “Shut Up and Deal”’s opening Steve Earle rip.) She’s a critic first, and namedrops and in-jokes come through the songwriting continually, like “White Wine Whatever,” which kinda seems like a poke at upper-middle-class liberal women and their political activism but might be more generally about cultural slumming. 



Standing at the table, talkin' Cain and Abel.
Are you ready for the country? Are you fully unstable? White wine whatever.
Talking out of school about a government text. Who do you answer to?
Whatcha think's going to happen next? White wine whatever.
Keeping profits in mind, keeping working folks apart. The boot of oppression is the expression of their art.
Baby what's your name? Is that even germane? Are you Northern Virginia or “Virginia Plain”? White wine whatever.

Opening for the Paranoid Style were Dot Dash, the long-running and much-loved DC power-pop and punk-pop ensemble. I’ve seen them in a lot of contexts, mostly opening for touring bands at places like DC9 and the Black Cat. I don’t know their own work that well, but I’ve enjoyed them in concert before. There is always a lot of energy and catchy riffs in spades; I just wish most power-pop bands had better singers. These are some 50-something-year-old DC dudes whose love of the form is sincere, starting from the Wire reference in their band name, and their musical execution is good, but their singing and lyrics drag them down a bit.]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:21:53 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70800,70800#msg-70800 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70800,70800#msg-70800 This one features punk (egg, anarcho, Norwegian), jazz and soundscapes.

Poison Ruin-“Eidolon”
Crass-“I Know There Is Love”
Subhumans-“Mickey Mouse Is Dead”
Cortinas-“Television Families”
Zaviruga-“digital noise”
Settimana Mistica-“Rock 2”
Huggy Bear-“Hopscotch (Peel session)”
Anakonda-“Clever London Houses”
Jill Scott-“The Math”
Tomeka Reid-“a(ways) for CC and CeCe”
Adam O’Farrill-“Herkimer Diamond”
Alice Coltrane-“Ihs”
Grupo Um-“Festa Dos Passaros/Dois Segundo Por Segundo”
Bobo & Behaja-“handeha hihisa zaho baba”
Midori Hirano-“Blue Horizon”
Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet-“Ghosts Of Things To Come”
Eliane Radigue-“Stress-Osaka”
KMRU featuring Fennesz-“Blurred”
Negativland-“Scolding Box”
Vic Bang-“Trino”
Poppy Ackroyd-“The Unknown”
Flying Lotus-“Antelope Onigiri”
The Bug-“24 Hour Surveillance”]]> steevee Trouser Press Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:02:07 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70798,70798#msg-70798 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70798,70798#msg-70798 Broke Royals
Songbyrd, Washington DC February 21, 2026

Washington DC bands can be a lot of things. They could be raucous or political or chaotic or subdued, but Broke Royals have decided to carve out a lane for them themselves as the most professional, disciplined, mainstream pop rock band in Washington.

This may seem like low praise, but Broke Royals are traditionalists and they do it well. I’ve seen this band probably three or four times, and they are led by a friend of a friend of mine, Philip Basnight. Philip has led the band for over 10 years and they have assuredly made themselves out as the most consistent, professional, and affable band in the Washington area.

This is mostly because of his own enthusiastic, good-natured sensibility, and the band’s undeniable democratic nature. While Philip is the leader, his wife, Rebecca on keyboards is also an able frontwoman, and their bassist, guitarist and drummer all sing competently, and several even have lead vocals in concert.

The band was playing at Songbyrd to commemorate their newest record, Campr, newly and independently released. This record has more lead vocals by Rebecca than any other previous Broke Royals record, and the band’s unflashy, but extremely professional, songwriting and arrangements lend everything an appealingly Springsteenian kind of pop-rock sheen. Philip is unabashed about his love of mainstream 80s rock, and he’s a very able commentator on that and other musical influences.

I’ve written about Broke Royals before — they are consistent and likable and exceedingly decent folks, but they’re not always a terrifically memorable band. Most of their songs are fun and not terribly heavy in subject matter, and the band has hooks in store but I don’t think they’re really power-pop; my friend (kindly) referred to them as DC’s version of Maroon Five. I personally think of them as a spiritual descendant of Huey Lewis and the News — fundamentally decent dudes and ladies doing earnest, upbeat mainstream rock, a genre that doesn’t actually exist now.

Phil led the band throughout but for the first time, I saw Rebecca on lead vocals for two of the songs, swapping out with her husband and letting him play keyboards. And I have to say, I was impressed. She always sang backup when I had seen the band play before, but she had real frontwoman energy – again nothing like punk rock but a proper 80s pop rock bandleader, maybe a Patty Smyth of Scandal circa “The Warrior.” I realize it’s mostly Phil’s band but maybe his better half is the … better half as the frontperson of the group? Seriously, listen to Rebecca’s opening vocal after the booming drums and snappy keyboards opening Campr, on “The Weather,” and you’re cast back to an imagined John Hughes soundtrack.

Opening acts were You and Me And You, a fun outfit, two men and two women. I have seen this ensemble before - The Post and the Washington City Paper put out some nice profiles when they released their debut album, Just to Keep them Happy, in 2023. I recall enjoying them then, but their professionalism has grown. The originals were all endearing country-inflected pop-rock, and they did a purely straight 90s cover of Shania Twain’s “Still the One” that had the crowd happily swaying and singing along. The band describes themselves as indie, but let’s be candid: You cannot do a Shania Twain cover with sincere affection if you don’t really love the pop-country genre without it succumbing to snideness or pastiche. You and Me and You’s members are clearly queer, or queer-friendly, and had no problems mixing up genders in their sweet and occasionally corny love songs and flirtations. Midamerican Elevator were the second opener, from Chicago, and they were also engaging, although quite different. More in the vein of slightly scuffed-up 90s alternative-pop like Blake Babies or the ilk, with two female singers in harmony, as on the catchy “Undercover.”]]> zwirnm Trouser Press Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:17:42 +0000 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70781,70781#msg-70781 https://trouserpress.com/forum/read.php?1,70781,70781#msg-70781 Bring the Family seemed like a great idea on paper, but whatever magic was conjured on that album abandoned them, with Little Village turning out to be pretty much the worst thing all involved ever did.

Likewise, the idea of making another movie with the cast of A Fish Called Wanda seemed like a great idea. Then Fierce Creatures came out and was such a huge misfire that no one ever yearned for Cleese, Curtis, Kline & Palin to work together again.

Any other examples like that, where a random group of people assembled for a project that went so well that there was demand for them to work together again, which then resulted in a demand that they never work together again?

Bands that break up and reform with less than stellar results kind of count, I guess, but not really what I'm thinking of. More just one time combinations that really hit the one time, then bombed when they tried again.]]> breno Trouser Press Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:43:22 +0000