Curated Music News

I used to just take a bunch of links to stories that interested me every day and shoot them out across my social media but I realized it didn't say anything about "why" those stories interested me. So, I recently started doing this curated music news feature.

In case you didn't know, I also do a new Spotify playlist every Tuesday. Today's playlist was something new, I tried to bridge electronic songs from the 80's through 2017 and called the end result "Sticky Warm Truth."  You can listen to it here:

Or, you can listen to it and learn more about the bands and songs by clicking HERE.

Fred Thomas (Polyvinyl Records)

I live in Ypsilanti Michigan, the same place where Fred Thomas lived for a very long time (he recently got married and moved to Canada). Mr. Thomas has been making really good music around here for a very long time (my three favorite "local" area groups are Fred, Protomartyr, and Tyvek) so I am really excited that he has a new album "Changer" coming out January 27th and you can pre-order it here:

He has released a few other singles from the album like Mallwalkers:

And also, Voiceover:

Highly recommended! Also, if you are not familiar with Mr. Thomas' work, here is a link to his last album:

Human League Release A New Retrospective

So, most people know only of the Human League that made "Fascination" and "Don't You Want Me"

But, Human League was making music, often radical music, way before they hit it big in the 80's and their influence can certainly still be felt today (not that too many have noticed).

Molly Lambert wrote an excellent article at MTV.com (she used to be at Grantland before ESPN/Disney killed it) about the new massive Human League 4-disc retrospective "A Very British Synthesizer Group." 

Her article is well worth a read, and you can really follow the progression by listening to the collection. So, here is a link to the retrospective:

Chris Morton Art Exhibit

As the designer for Stiff records, Chris Morton (under the name C-More-Tone) created the sleeve for the first UK Punk single ever (New Rose by the Damned) and for many of the most famous punk records of the early UK period. His work is getting honored by being shown at Pop Recs in the UK.  If you want to learn more about the music of the period, I would seriously suggest listening to the Action Time Vision Box Set by Cherry Red Records. I also found this blog which documents the "graphical history of punk" and also has a post category designated for Chris Thomas.

Obviously, most people reading this won't be able to see the show, but I did think it was very cool that his work was being honored and wanted to highlight his accomplishments (if you are wondering why I have not included the art, I don't have legal access to the covers (sigh). You can see the original covers on the hyperlinks (thank goodness).

Closing Time

Hope that you enjoyed the playlist and the music, I am working on the new Red Wheelbarrow piece and the new Black Mirror recap. And, of course, The Flash returns next week.

Explore, Enjoy, and Share Music!