Our weekly (or however often) roundup of this week’s discoveries and old faves. Usually it’s friends of mine or just music I like. Now including “liner notes” to help guide you through this journey and hopefully introduce you to some new, great music!
RILO KILEY –PORTIONS FOR FOXES
I think I’ve been listening to this song pretty much since it came out back in 2004. I was working at CFRU 93.3 FM and I'm sure my office mate Helen (our Music Director) was playing this all the time. This is a masterclass in alternative pop songwriting. It’s got great hooks, interesting lyrics, and Jenny Lewis. That’s all I need!
THIS MAD DESIRE –FLAMING DOVES
I wrote this song during the pandemic so it mentions COVID. It also alludes to some of the rioting that had started in America after the murder of George Floyd. I tried to tap into some of the general fear and angst that was creeping across society after months of lockdown with the second verse about the wolf following me home and chasing me up onto my own roof. Some of the lines are almost directly lifted from Charles Baudelaire’s poetry book Flowers of Evil (Fleurs du Mal), which was one of the first books to write horror poetry as opposed to poetry that uplifts and presents the beautiful. Seemed to fit the times!
AMBRE MCLEAN –LITTLE STAR
I’ve known Ambre my entire adult life. For my last year of high school, my family moved from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay where I started my first band Bloodflowers. The guys in the band wound up playing with Ambre and her mother after I went to university in Guelph, and then a couple years later, they all moved to Guelph too! Anyway, Ambre has a great voice and although I haven’t seen her in a few years, I like to keep tabs on her new songs. This is her new one and I really like it. You should too!
PJ HARVEY -50 FT. QUEENIE
One of my fave songs of all time.
OL’ DIRTY BASTARD, KELIS –GOT YOUR MONEY
This song makes me laugh! An absolute classic. Killer groove too.
ALICE SMITH –THE GREATEST
This track combines so many great things! I learned about Alice Smith because Prince covered one of her songs (Anotherlove) and fell in love with her songs after that. Here she is covering a track from Cat Power (what???) and it’s on a soundtrack for the show Reasonable Doubt, which I actually do not like. But this track is, while not wildly different from the original, still a great listen.
THE PRETTY RECKLESS –LOUD LOVE
Another cover tune. The Pretty Reckless were opening for Soundgarden when Chris Cornell killed himself and they have since really immersed themselves in covering songs by Soundgarden and Chris Cornell as well as having Soundgarden members guest on their songs. This is one of my fave Soundgarden songs, and again, this version is not too far off from the original.
DOMINIQUE RUIZ –JUST FRIENDS
This is pretty stock slick LA alternapop rock. I see Dominique playing guitar in my Instagram Reels feed all the time. She can definitely play but what sucked me in was the cover of this track has her holding an old-school pink phone. I used a pink phone in my Operators Are Standing By video so I had a sympathetic eye!
KOTARAH –WITCHES BURN
REUT –THERE IS A ME
HYDESKY –FLOURISH
SKELETON OCEAN –NO TIME
These are all artists I have come across on my friend Tianda’s Discord. I always like to see what everyone’s up to.
GUNS N’ ROSES –NOVEMBER RAIN -2022 VERSION
It’s November right now. This is a pretty spectacular new version with a 50-piece orchestra replacing the original synthesized orchestra in the original recording. Sounds great! In some ways, it’s hard to imagine they did not get an orchestra in the first place given how much money they were spending at the time. The video alone for this song was over a million dollars…
MIKE TREBILCOCK –WE’RE AN ABOMINATION
I’ve been friends with Mike for around 10 or 11 years and I have mentioned that I actually prefer his horror soundtrack work to his more famous Killjoys stuff (which is also great). This track is kind of Alice Cooper-esque both from the mid-70s and the mid-80s if that makes sense. Very cool song!
DA FINGAZ –DON’T OPEN THE CLOSET
Marcus, aka Da Fngaz, is someone I’m currently co-writing a song with but he mostly focuses on writing music for movie trailers and this one is, I believe, kind of like a sample for what he would do for a horror movie. It made sense to me to place this after Mike’s horror song.
TIGER SEX –I DON’T CARE
I noticed that some of my Toronto friends went to see this band the other day so I thought I’d check them out. Pretty cool punk rock from Vegas, I believe. They have the coolest name though!
And with that, this wraps up this week’s playlist. Hope you enjoyed it!!
If you like this playlist, please share it and follow these artists. Music is the fuel that fills our soul.
If you are an artist that would like to be included in the future, reach out anywhere and I’d love to check out your tunes!
Yours in music,
Mac