Congratulations to all the students, teachers and parents out there for making it through the first week of school – and heaps of thank-you’s and love to everyone who came out for Summer Cut this Saturday! Hard to believe that in just one more week we’ll be saying goodbye to summer and hello to autumn, although – Texas being Texas and all – it’ll probably still feel like summer all the way through October. But there’s always New Music Monday to help keep you cool and sane, and hopefully ease the sting of the week’s jump-start.
Yo La Tengo‘s Stuff Like That There will have fans ducking for cover, but in the happiest possible way. The album features standout covers of “Friday I’m In Love” from The Cure and Hank Sr.’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” along with re-imaginings of songs from The Lovin’ Spoonful and Sun Ra, and re-workings of their own material. Today’s psychedelicized New Music Monday pick, “Automatic Doom,” comes from their fellow Jersey band Special Pillow.
Destroyer‘s 2011 subversive smooth jazz masterpiece Kaputt finally has a follow-up, and for Poison Season, frontman Dan Bejar has kept in place the band’s familiar brand of lyricism and philosophical themes, bolstering it with a more Bowie-and-Reed flavored bite. “Times Square” is one of many gems on the new release. Don’t miss Destroyer when they work their magic on the Trees crowd September 24.
It’s been two years since the release of Texas & Tennessee. If anything, the endless sold-out shows and rabidly loyal fan base of Memphis-based Lucero proves that All A Man Should Do will be worth the wait when it lands September 18, via Dave Matthews’ ATO label. “Can’t You Hear Them Howl” is a thing of beauty. Check it out here:
There’s never enough Kurt Vile to go around and if you’re looking for the perfect do-your-own-thing-in-your-own time anthem, the new single “Pretty Pimpin'” delivers like a dream. His sixth studio album B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down lands September 25 on Matador.
Dallas’ Cassie Holt & The Lost Souls have been around since 2013, and their debut full-length Gritty Soul lands in December. Get cozy with the lead single “Jaded Past” and see them at the Dallas Arts District’s Fall Block Party on September 18.
Happy New Music Monday, y’all! Here’s to your keen ear, and to a boffo week ahead.
XOXO
Gini
