Blondie's New Single

Blondie was one of the first groups I ever got into as a teenager. Dating myself severely, I admit this was the early 1980s... "The Tide Is High," "Rapture," and the shamefully underrated follow up album "The Hunter." I've continued to keep up with them as they've regrouped and released things sporadically. Then, today, I came across this new song on YouTube: "A Rose By Any Name." Instantly liked it. Here Debbie Harry and co. team with Beth Ditto, lead singer for the Gossip, to create a slab of nifty new new wave dance... great bassline too! Win!

GMF

"Don't forget you could be laughing 65 percent more of the time...
You could be laughing 63 percent more of the time...
You could be lauging 25 percent more of the time..."
GMF by John Grant

No Fear of Father John Misty

Recently, I discovered "Fear Fun" by Father John Misty, and it's been a welcome discovery. It's a fusion of folk, rock, and the kind of music made in the early 1970s. Yet, it's its own animal, and it is thoroughly enthralling... A standout track is "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings," which is entirely enhanced by a nifty video featuring Aubrey Plaza from the TV show Parks and Recreation, one of my favorite shows...

I love the lyrics too...

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings
by Father John Misty

Jesus Christ, girl
What are people gonna think
When I show up to one of several funerals
I've attended for grandpa this week
With you
With me

Someone's got to help me dig
Someone's got to help me dig

Jesus Christ, girl
It hasn't been long so it seems
Since I was picking out an island and a tomb for you
At the Hollywood Cemetery
You kiss
On me

We should let this dead guy sleep
We should let this dead guy sleep

Jesus Christ, girl
I laid up for hours in a daze
Retracing the expanse of your American back
With Adderall and weed in my veins
You came
I think
Cause the marble made my cheeks look pink
But I'm unsure of so many things

Someone's got to help me dig
Someone's got to help me dig
Someone's got to help me dig

The latest from the Farewell Circuit

Minneapolis-based band the Farewell Circuit just released a new EP "We Were Wolves." I'm totally enamored of the title track. It's definitely got an indie sensibility with jangly guitars and such. But the lyrics make the song for me. Maybe it's a call to break out of our lives of quiet desperation as Thoreau said... The video certainly reinforces that theme. This song definitely deserves to be big on college radio at least. This is a band that created one of my favorite songs of 2010, "Christmas Bird" -- which was a b-side that really resonated with me at the time.