SPEW

21.     Wire – Silver/Lead (Pink Flag)           Wire are one of my staples, consistent and consistently surprising: https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=wire 22.     John Murry – A Short History of Decay (TV)          And then I wrote … https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=john+murry 23.     Whiffs – Take a Whiff (High Dive)           I liked it then https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=whiffs … I like it now.   24.     Aldous Harding – Party (4AD) Not that anyone asked, but if Aldous Harding reminds me of any of her contemporaries, it’s Cate LeBon. They both have this striking ability to swing from the confidential to the bel canto stentorian more than once over the course of an album. Harding’s songs, mostly accompanied by her guitar and piano, are koan-like without being obscure. Harding uses space deftly, yet her spare arra...

  Let’s talk about the Dream Syndicate. They have a new album on Anti-Epitaph. You know, what gradually became viewed as Steve Wynn’s band. Until it was, well, Steve Wynn’s band and he had a solo career. Sigh. The guy has never made a shitty record. Some are better than others, but so are your mornings. Anyway, let’s talk about the Velvet Underground. You know you want to. Everybody does. They were great. Yup. They made a mindfuck of a debut album that set the template for everything left of center since. But damn it, in 2017 people get to have a variety of opinion about which of their four ( VU being almost a fifth, the others being live records) being the best Velvets album.  Among the tiny brain trust of alternative media, no such discussion is allowed when it comes to the Dream Syndicate. Nope, they made a revelatory debut (and their debut is most like the VU’s debut - not insignificant, since the Velvets were an acknowledged inspiration to the DS) - then it al...