Pickled Priest Mixtape: Our Favorite New Songs of 2024, Volume #7 - "I Made This Tape"
In what may amount to our last mixtape of 2024 before list-making season, we have put our curation skills to the test, only picking the most choice delicacies for your consumption. Actually, it's just another random pile of songs we like, discovered haphazardly, but it sounded better the other way.
SIDE A
Intro: "I Made This Beat" | Alan Sparhawk
I should've guessed that Alan Sparhawk's first album after the death of his wife and Low co-founder Mimi Parker (in 2022) would be as different and unpredictable as Low's final album, HEY WHAT, from 2021. He was fucking around with heavy distortion on that record and on White Roses, My God he's made the dubious decision to process all of his vocals through a vocoder. Not what I was hoping for, honestly. I'm pretty much done with the vocoder for the rest of my life at this point. Although as an intro track "I Made This Beat" is near perfect. It's short, minimalist, and repetitive, one of those throwaway snippets probably created to test the equipment right after firing it up. He made this the first song on his first solo album after a major loss, and it seems like he's just happy to be creating anything new at this point. For these reasons, it ushers us into our seventh new music mixtape of 2024. I made this tape. I made this tape. I made this tape.
01 "Boom Boom Back" | Hinds ft. Beck
We start our tape proper in Madrid with Hinds, a band that started raw, got a little poppier, and have now pleasingly landed somewhere in the middle, particularly with "Boom Boom Back" from Viva Hinds, their latest. It's the perfect laid-back groove backed with an airy, head-bobbing hook. Their music has drawn its fair share of high profile attention, too, for they now have the cachet to land some star cameos from the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.'s Grian Chatten on demand. Neither of those cameos is substantial enough to merit much notice and neither was really needed to make their assigned songs any better, it's just notable is all. Here, we find the girls getting loose, but not too loose (no cocaine, thank you), on what easily could've been the song of my summer had it come out a touch earlier.
02 "Some Days I Drink My Coffee By the Grave of William Blake" | The The
Is this the 80s?, Part 1. What I wasn't expecting this year was the return of Matt Johnson and The The, but I consider their new album, Ensoulment, to be one of my biggest surprises of the year so far. Uh, let's put it this way, he's back and he's got something to say. And he hasn't spent the last two decades without an album of new material with his head under a rock, disconnected from reality. He's engaged and rightfully disappointed with the state of the world, the U.S. a particularly deserving and obvious target, although his native Perfidious Albion is equally under the microscope. His deep voice (aging like wine), keen eye, sharp tongue, and poetic gift are all on display throughout, and it's no surprise he feels a kinship with 18th century British poet William Blake, a guy who also had an underappreciated take on our mad world during his time in the spotlight. Makes me wish I was a fly on the tombstone during one of their coffee talks.
03 "Loneliness" | Pet Shop Boys
Is this the 80s?, Part 2. Not an acolyte of this band for most of my life, I've grown to appreciate them more and more as time has passed. I'm not sure why I'm more open to them now, but perhaps their world view and mine have gotten a little closer together. It certainly cannot be chalked up to maturity. It really doesn't matter, because "Loneliness" proves they can still create their sophisticated dance-pop (call it whatever you please) at a high level and make an impact lyrically, too. It's a timely song about battling loneliness in an era where many people feel isolated despite living in a culture that purports on the surface to be almost sarcastically overconnected. Can you blame a person for withdrawing? That said, it's one thing to like to be alone by choice, it's another to be exiled, with no options for interaction. With "Loneliness," the Pet Shop Boys have written a song that will hopefully reach some of these lonely people and lure them out of their desolation.
Side note: At one point in the song, a reference is made to the A Hard Day's Night movie scene where Ringo is filmed walking along the Thames by himself while the others sleep in at a nearby hotel. "Like Ringo walking by the canal / Downcast and alone" immediately establishes, in just a few words, the characteristics of loneliness. No one to share things with, noone to hold hands with, noone to chat with, etc. It captures the feeling of the song in just a few choice words. Of course, soon enough, insane Beatlemaniacs pointed out that Ringo is technically walking by a river and not a canal, thereby dismissing the lyric without absorbing its true intent. Has anyone heard of artistic license?
04 "A Day in the Life" | Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding
Taking on an all time classic like "A Day in the Life" is normally a fool's errand, but this endearing collaboration between Brazilian legend Milton Nascimento (81 years and still vital) and Portland's own genius in residence, Esperanza Spalding, works because they are simply a charming pair of friends enjoying each other's company with the tape rolling. In the process, they deliver a worthy version of the Beatles' original, keeping the midday melancholic reverie intact and also managing to do something new with McCartney's bouncy mid-section (not spoiled with explanation here). The whole album, MIlton + Esperanza, is also a delight from start to finish.
05 "Oh Joan" | Joan as Police Woman
I always find myself interested in what Joan Wasser is up to. She's in her 50s now, and she's done a little bit of everything with everyone over the last two decades, never really breaking big despite putting out a formidable body of work. Her solo work as Joan as Police Woman (a tribute to the ahead-of-its-time 70s drama, Police Woman, starring ultra-sexy Angie Dickinson in the lead) has been all over the map with her soulful voice and adventurous spirit the main constants. "Oh Joan," carried along by an absolutely killer bassline by Meshell Ndegeocello, is one of those songs about trying to escape from your own darkness and features Joan trying to talk herself into doing just that.
06 "Black Code Suite" | LL Cool J
I thought he was done. Did you think he was done? He was so done in my mind I wasn't even thinking whether he was or wasn't done. Why would I waste my time? But I'm shocked to report that with The Force he shows us all that his groundbreaking career (rewarded with Kennedy Center Honors and a membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) isn't quite over yet. I was skeptical, but it's an excellent record that finds him in killer form, delivering sharp lines with casual brilliance all over the place, painting vivid pictures with his words in the process.
Look at mama, she's in the kitchen
She’s swingin' her hips and dippin' the chicken in flour
She got the music, it’s bumpin'
I smell the food in the oven while I two-step in the shower
You can almost picture the scene. "Black Code Suite" shows us these intimate moments while also reminding us that when a black kid steps through his front door, there's a code to follow in order to survive. And the last 90-seconds features an African coda, beautifully sung by Sona Jobarteh, that reminds all of us that that code dates back much further than is comfortable to admit.
07 "First Time" | Oceanator
For the first time in a long time
I didn't wake up with one of your songs in my head
This time, for the first time in a while
I woke up with this one in my head instead
The idea of writing a song that mentions the song being written isn't new. Cue "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor, "Your Song" by Elton John, and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin (I went with the first three that popped in my head, but there are many more). Oceanator is Brooklyn-based Elise Okusami, who plays almost everything on the album with some help from her brother, producer, and a few friends chipping in as needed. I must admit, I wasn't expecting a power-pop record based on her bio, but "First Time" is a top-tier power-pop love song. I'm about to dig deeper into her catalog based on this gem, one of several on her new record, Everything is Love and Death, that I totally dig.
08 "Water Underground" | Real Estate
I've not been as enamored with Real Estate as of late and that continues with their new album, Daniel, as well as its follow-up single, a relatively straight reading of Elton John's "Daniel." Cute idea fellas. Thankfully, every one of their records does have at least a couple gems to dig out of the diamond mine. This time, it's the sublime single "Water Underground." I love it, but that's all the Real Estate I'm buying this time out.
09 "Screensaver" | Quivers
Has this subject been used already? If not, how has it eluded us all? "I wanna be your screensaver" makes perfect sense for the computer age. You want that kind of prominent position in someone's life, don't you? I don't need a small 5x7 on the piano or a snapshot in a wallet. I want top billing, something to demonstrate my status in your life. And nothing is more important these days than the screensaver, no matter how pathetic that sounds. Merge Records has a pretty good eye for talent, so their signing of Melbourne's Quivers piqued my interest. Oyster Cuts (not Oyster Cults, sadly) turns out to be the band's third record, and it has an appealingly familiar sound, combining dreamy vocals, jangly guitars, and melancholy undertones all executed with precision. The whole record can flow by before you know it, which means it's non-intrusive and pleasing to the ear, willing to soundtrack your life if not dominate it.
10 "Sea or War" | Robber Robber
It's not every day we check in with a band from Vermont, so relish the moment. The state has been on top secret probation ever since Phish debuted in 1983, and this is the reason I approached their fellow Burlingtonians with skepticism. Robber-squared are driven by Nina Cates and Zack James and their main appeal to me right now is the latter's drum performance all over the record, but especially on "Sea or War." No slight to Nina, who supplies some dreamy vocals, but it's the jaw-dropping rhythms underlying the whole affair that make me want to play it over and over again.
Chicagoans On-the-Verge
Three promising artists out of our hometown of Chicago bulked together here in a mini-suite. They're not unknowns per se, each with varying degrees of critical success already, but each gets a little spotlight here just so we can do our part.
11 "Hail Mary" | Edie McKenna
First up, Edie McKenna, kind of a Lydia Loveless type with more noise injected to provide an eerie dissonance to her already oblique songs. Actually, more sketches than songs at this point. With only a cassette EP, titled For Edie, to her name so far, she's in the early stages of her career at this point, but she's already got me under her spell.
12 "Hungry" | Finom
The band in this section that has gained the most attention is definitely Finom (fka Ohmme, fka HOMME) led by Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, who have been working the Chicago scene for a while now, even managing to get Jeff Tweedy to produce their Finom debut, the humorously titled, Not God. They exude a post-rock elusiveness in almost every way, so much so they are in danger of drifting into impenetrable "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" territory. Thankfully, they hang a pretty meaty hook on "Hungry" to keep the enterprise on a navigable course that you'll want to chart over and over.
13 "Give Up" | Sima Cunningham
Whistling! If there's one way to get on one of our mixtapes, that's the ticket. You may recognize the name Sima Cunningham unless you aren't reading this post in sequential order. We just dropped her name a few minutes ago. Good for us, the co-founder of the aforementioned Finom also found time to write some more easily accessible material in her off hours touring with her main band. We like when an artist's solo material is totally different than her day job and "Give Up" has a playful, alt-country vibe while still retaining a little mystery between the lines. I vote for Sima to continue her two-pronged creative attack. Each has its own distinct merits.
SIDE B
14 "Fancy Pants" | Jon Spencer
Jon Spencer, sans his indomitable partners Judah Bauer and Russell Simins from the Blues Explosion, has been a solo concern for a minute. The only difference in sound is that he doesn't shout "Blues Explosion!" during every other song now. It's admittedly an adjustment. Sometimes I'll just add one myself where I think it would fit. For his new work, he has tapped into the younger generation by teaming up with the rhythm section of New York's smoking hot Bobby Lees, Kendall Wind on bass and Macky "Spider" Bowman on drums, which adds back just the right amount of spontaneity and youthful reckless abandon to Spencer's junkyard-Elvis schtick. As with all of his past music, you must enter with the right attitude and expectations to enjoy it fully. In other words, get the stick out of your ass. This, like the JSBX, is groove music with a charismatic carnival barker emceeing the show. It's not a think piece, it's not high concept, and Pitchfork won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. Spencer's shtick was great fun back in the 90s and it's still miraculously great fun now. Some of the best nights of my life have been at JSBX shows and this approximates the feeling of that time, if not quite reaching the blistering intensity achieved in his prime years. Very few people could pull this off at any age, let alone 59, so welcome back to the king of the mixtape. Your stomping ground is ready for you, sir.
15 "Serene King" | Guided By Voices
Song #7,324 from Robert Pollard is yet another classic Guided By Voices track and I'll take 'em as long as he's got 'em.
16 "Reason to Hide" | Oneida
This is the last of three consecutive selections courtesy of Pickled Priest's Veterans Committee whom we allow to select a few songs each year no questions asked. To qualify for consideration, your band has only to be 25 years or more past their formation. While Jon Spencer and GBV have stayed true to their original manifestos, Oneida has not, in fact they've been known for taking wild creative detours along the way. Lately, however, they've relied more and more on a guitar crunching attack which peaked with appropriately-titled Success in 2022 (which made our Top 50 Album list). If 2024's Expensive Air isn't quite as revelatory it's not the fault of "Reason to Hide," a blistering seven-minute onslaught with undertones of a UFO encounter to up the intrigue quotient a bit. The PPVC eats shit like this for breakfast.
17 "Wristwatch" | MJ Lenderman
It seems like everybody’s on the MJ Lenderman bandwagon these days, so I’ll keep my comments about this advertisement for the next iteration of the Apple Watch short. I like that he makes songs, good ones, out of things that shouldn’t really be good song topics in the first place. It’s a talent. It’s also amazing what a great guitar sound can do for you.
18 "Money & The Drugs" | Party Dozen
I hate it when a good song finds its way onto my radar by a band with a terrible name. Party Dozen is objectively a stupid band name. It's made even worse when the album from which the song comes has a cool title, one that would make a far better band name in the long run. Such is the case with Party Dozen's new album Crime in Australia. I would definitely listen to a new band named Crime in Australia just to hear what they sounded like. I know this because I initially thought it was their name. That's what lured me in in the first place. Upon realizing my error, I had already heard the song, which is spectacular. And watch the video above because if you haven't seen someone sing directly into their saxophone mic, you're about to. It's rare I see something I haven't seen yet, but Kirsty Tickle (that's her name?...for fuck's sake) does just that, and it's electric. Talk about riveting stage presence. She's got it.
19 "Versatile Switch" | BASIC
Overly simplified summary: Back in 1984, Robert Quine and Fred Maher, fresh off a stint in Lou Reed’s backing band (fun!), released an album titled Basic, an improvised, minimalist instrumental record mixing electric guitars with programmed drums. Brian Eno is often name-dropped when attempting to describe the record. Some critics claimed to like the highly experimental affair, many did not. In other words, it was either bad, ahead of its time, or both. Fast forward forty years, now we find one of the record’s acolytes, uber-guitarist Chris Forsyth, along with partner Nick Millevoi, recording a new record that draws its creative inspiration from the album. They not only named their project BASIC, they named the album This is Basic in tribute. It’s a peculiar creation, but not as out of place these days as it probably was four decades ago. It’s a fascinating exercise for guitar that involves repetition, drone, and improvisation. If you’re a fan of the long-form work of the Necks or 75 Dollar Bill, this is for you in particular, but even the novice outre-music fan might just find themselves locked in the zone as this music unfolds. “Versatile Switch” is the most accessible song on the record, so start here. It’s a fascinating work, unlike anything else released in 2024.
20 "It's Rough on Rats (If You're Asking)" | Jack White
First off, great song title. Completely consistent with past White Stripes or Jack White songs, but great nonetheless. Few do it better. Jack's new album, easily the best solo record of his career since, and maybe including, Lazaretto, works because he's got that convincing sense of reckless creative abandon back. He'll try anything and the weirder he gets the better.
Short Punk Song Twofer
Whenever we find a couple killer super-short punk songs, we give you two for the price of one. On us.
21 "Ain't No Saint" | Fan Club
21 "Tylko Przez Chwilę" | Träume
Seattle's Fan Club, formerly Lysol (you can see why that didn't work out, especially during the pandemic), hasn't changed their sound much over the years—it is thankfully still built around that raw Pacific Northwest garage-rock sound that launched the Sonics over sixty years ago and the Makers thirty years ago. They're on their third EP of the year with October's Another Demonstration 2024 EP and it's a snarling ripper as you would hope. A continent away, but no less fierce, is Warsaw's Träume (not shockingly, Polish for "trauma") and if you think you don't need your punk sung in Polish, think again. They've got more than their share of social ills to rail against and their latest album, Wrzask (Scream), it's awesome in any language, as "Tylko Przez Chwilę" ("Just for a Moment") proves definitively. The vid above includes the whole 15+ minute record and "Tylko" comes in around the 10-minute mark. Like you don't have 15 minutes to fucking spare.
22 "Rock & Roll, Hey" | Mac Leaphart
Mac is one of those guys who will be playing small clubs forever and that's exactly where he should be. There's nothing wrong with that, nor is it an insult. Which doesn't mean he doesn't write really good songs here and there. They just play better in a place where there's a little roadside ambiance and character built in. At Pickled Priest, we try to celebrate the little gal or guy, the latter in this case, those who ply their trade for the love of it, converting one small room at a time. When you start to lose that "Let's go see a band, any band" mentality, you've already lost. I guarantee you that curating your musical intake too much can make you miss out on some of the little gems out there waiting to be discovered. "Rock & Roll, Hey" is the kind of song that'll sell a bunch of CDs from a folding table in the back of the bar after the show (courtesy of Mac Leaphart, also the merch guy). I bet you'd be thrilled if you stumbled into a dive somewhere and heard Mac Leaphart onstage, slinging his songs for his local fans acquired the last time her was in town.
23 "I'm the Same" | Marina Allen
You don't come out of life, you don't get out unscathed
Haven't I paid, haven't I come clean?
I've been belly up, I've been on my knees
So true. Such realizations are hard to admit to, digest, or rationalize. When Marina Allen delivers the line in her very grounded folk style, which is perhaps redundant, she makes the moment seem so natural and in the moment, which is appreciated in these days of plastering your deepest feelings on a marquee. No wonder people always compare her to the romantic days of yore in places like 1970's Laurel Canyon. It was a time of innocence, it was a time of confidences. Here, she shares both with you.
24 "Dawning" | Yasmin Williams ft. Aoife O'Donovan
We loved Yasmin Williams' last album, Urban Driftwood, so much it made our Top 20 list in 2021. We loved Aoife O'Donovan's last album, Age of Apathy, so much it made our Top 20 list in 2022. Both returned this year with new albums and while Aoife's concept record about women's suffrage was well-intentioned and often moving, the songs weren't consistently up to the task. Yasmin Williams recently released her follow-up, Acadia, and while I've not had enough time with it to fully weigh in, I was immediately drawn to this collaboration between two of my favorite female artists of the last few years. The combination of Yasmin's instrumental virtuosity and Aoife's naturally beautiful voice (not pristine, just honest) is captivating. The common appeal of both artists is they operate with restraint, aware of their skills, but not desperate to flex them. Hence, they pull back until their songs have just the right level of genuineness. Of course, Yasmin's prowess on her instrument is jaw-dropping here, but on "Dawning," we may have reached the definitive level of restraint possible for a guest vocal. In fact, Aoife doesn't sing one word on the track, instead humming and vocalizing wordlessly throughout. I could sit across from her all evening just listening to her hum to herself.
25 "Shorn" | Anna Butterss
Yep, two t’s and two s’s. And to be thorough, two n’s as well. Anna is an amazing bassist and composer from Australia, has featured on countless records by well-known recording artists, and hangs with some high profile, cutting-edge jazz artists as well (she's also a member of the band SML). She’s signed to the nearly infallible Chicago institution, International Anthem records, and has a killer Rolodex of collaborators with whom she fleshes out her innovative jazz constructions. “Shorn” is right up my alley, driven by an incredible rhythm bed, all in service to her distinct lead throughout.
26 "The World Doesn't Need Another Band" | The Reds, Pinks & Purples
There are many ways you can take a title like this one. The first is obvious. We’re oversaturated with new bands. Hard to argue. Second, this can be taken as sarcasm. Of course we need new bands. Every new group of bands carries on the tradition of documenting a moment in time by creating a new world for the listener. Why would we want to give that up, not to mention what would I post about on this blog going forward? Just a bunch of oldies mixtapes? Not interested. The third way is biographical. Glenn Donaldson, the mastermind of the Reds, Pinks & Purples, started his career late, possibly because he was wondering if starting a band was worth the effort to begin with. How can a single person stand out in such a crowd, after all? It’s a daunting idea to put yourself out there for all, or nobody, to hear. It takes hubris to even think about it, especially for a guy who “never read the books I said I read” and only went to the places he said he went “in his head.” He clearly has feelings that he’s been a poser in the past, so why should that change now? The good news is that his music, and there's a lot of it (to the tune of multiple albums/EP/songs each year), is at your disposal and most of it is essential listening, just like this song.
Outro: "Fuck Off" | Dan Reeder
I'm gonna fuck off today
Because I feel like it
Nobody gonna tell me what to do
This 37-second mantra from this John Prine-endorsed and signed songwriter, who gives new meaning to the word “understated,” is in contention for Pickled Priest’s official office motto for 2025. We really don’t have much more time than that on our “busy” schedules. That said, we love to fuck off and listen to music more than anything else and getting permission to do so only makes it that much sweeter. Thanks, Dan.
____________________________
That's it. You want more? Fuck off.
Cheers,
The Priest