We hope you’re enjoying a fantastic Labor Day, and regardless of whether you took the opportunity to stay in your PJ’s all day or if it was business as usual, allow KXT’s New Music Monday picks for the semi-official last day of summer satisfy your hankering for songwriting legends from across the spectrum, pop punk confectionery and a star on the rise:
Our fall forecast calls for a cool front ushered in by Abraham Alexander, an R&B artist on the rise from Cowtown, and whose timely and straight-for-the-jugular track “America” gives us the kind of chills indicating something extraordinary is about to hit. After moving to the States from his birthplace in Greece, the passing of his mother, a strained relationship with his father, and the rampant racial divisiveness in his adopted homeland led him to find solace in his faith and making music. Already at work on his next single, Abraham Alexander is primed and ready to take on the world. Read Eric Griffey’s recent interview with him in Fort Worth Weekly, and savor this stripped-down, early-stages version of “America.”
Los Angeles in the late 70’s and early 80’s spawned a number of bands who’d go on to record some of the most iconic and seminal albums in the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon. Morrison Hotel. X’s Los Angeles. Fire Of Love from the Gun Club. Add to that the Dream Syndicate‘s debut The Days Of Wine And Roses, which came along in the fall of 1982. Even after the Velvet Underground comparisons were a speck in the rear view mirror and the band fell apart in 1989, Steve Wynn emerged as one of the most unsung and celebrated heroes of American songwriting, launching full steam ahead with a successful solo career. A 2012 festival reunion in Spain sparked a new flurry of other reunion shows, and five years later, this Friday, we’re being gifted with the Dream Syndicate’s first album in nearly 30 years – How Did I Find Myself Here? We don’t know, but we’re sure glad you did. Dive in with “Filter Me Through You”:
We’ve got another legend delivering a new release on October 13. This leonine golden god spent a few years in Texas, but returned to his native UK to record Lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar with the Sensational Space Shifters. And the multinational group of players are backing him up once again on the new album, Carry Fire. Enter Robert Plant, who still leaves us breathless after all these years, and who’ll hopefully grace us with a North American tour sometime in 2018. Lead single “Bones Of Saints” should help carry you through until October.
Confectionery vocals + coming of age angst + loud, hard and fast = perfection. Especially when Alex Luciano’s at the mic, and Noah Bowman on drums. We couldn’t have said it any better than their promo tagline: “Diet Cig make it okay to be the hot mess that you are.” That’s all the encouragement we need. And clocking in at just under three minutes, “Maid of The Mist” is a punk-pop delight, which can be found on their newest release, Swear I’m Good At This.
XOXO
Gini.
