Périsélène and Mégadef prove that French people can rock. Mycatisgreen (from Belgium) gave us another ep of life-inspired ditties. Our favorite, “Bicycle,” features the inimitable Eric in the kitchen. Fontaines DC shock and amaze with — sung vocals! Could the British talk rock trend be on its way out? Ned Risely proves folk doesn’t have to be hokey. And bufflehead is fun to say (their songs are pretty good too).
Transfixed as we are by war and mass shootings, it’s not always easy to keep your chin up. But we try. Notable new music: The Happy Somethings’s “New Life,” a sweet and, yes, happy boy/girl duet about starting a new life. The Garden Folk: and their new collection entitled, appropriately enough, Spring ’22. It’s what […]
This is the Bubble Wrap radio playlist from January 12, 2022. We’re just getting started, folks… Space Ghost What Day Is It? ZAPP Radio People Prince Elephants and Flowers Danny Wilkerson Enough for Somebody Fort Worth cool cousins second song Portland, OR Advertisement The Matador Seattle WDW Mad Tea Party Area Music King Crimson […]
It’s that time of the year when people trot out their best of lists, and we’re no exception to the rule. In contrast to 2020 when everyone was sadly recording alone in their bedrooms, 2021 was a bit more upbeat. The first 6 months of the year saw a lot of new releases, including some backlog from 2020. The result — a bumper crop of great new tunes.
The work don’t quit, as they say. It’s August, when everyone gets back to the old routine, and life starts anew. We aren’t sure how that works. Distracting us from intermittent anxiety were the hushed ambient waves of Bartosz Lugowski, the mixed media adventures of Zach Promesa, and the romantic swirl of Veronique Bilodeau. Big Rips (yes, that’s their name) wowed with a from-the-heart rock epic appropriately entitled “Everything Has Sucked Lately.” Jonas & I, Finland’s entry onto the indie-pop world stage, sound lonely and northern on their latest track “Yellow Walls.” A bit like Simon & Garfunkel if it was just Garfunkel…
ummer went fast, didn’t it? It seemed extraordinarily action-packed to the team tasked with keeping Bubble Wrap on the air every week. People came and went, the weather did odd things, we didn’t get to stop working our day jobs… But still Bubble Wrap played on except for a couple unavoidable absences for which we can be forgiven.
So to catch everybody up, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to post miserable underwritten show lists for the last couple months, and then this article will say a few words about the more memorable tunes of the summer that at this very moment is fast fleeing into a haze of forest fire smoke and hurricane mist…
We took a two week semi-hiatus to celebrate the fact that no one else was doing anything so why should we? Hey, you know what they say about absence. In the meantime, the rain let up and we enjoyed some summer weather, which we deserve, dammit. Fortunately, by early August, there was starting to be music again, so we played some. For instance, the new old Prince album Welcome 2 America was released, courtesy of the Prince Estate, and yeah, it’s good. There’s even a summer song – “Hot Summer.” So what if it’s a decade old? Also awesome this week was Zella Day, who knocked listeners hand knit socks off with the southern-sky slippity-slide of “Girls.” “Storm” by Shad also rocks, if you care, and you should about this one.
The summer lull continued and so did the rain but the fireflies provided nightly light shows all the same. Favorite song of this week was “A Bee Without its Sting” by The Go! Team from Brighton, UK, because sometimes you just want some pop. Also enjoyed the dreamy sounds of Lightning Bug (“The right Thing Is Hard To Do”) and the stripped-down piano-driven sound of Clairo’s “Amoeba.” Fortunately, Desperate Journalist was on hand to wake us up with the dark, urgent gothiness of “Fault.”
Right after the Fourth of July, our region in the northern northeast entered an unexpected rainy season where we’ve been on and off ever since. This prompted us to wonder what was up with the sun which just days before had been baking us in (nearly) 100 degree heat. We especially liked “LMK” by Caribbean artist Navy. Panache! amused with their very French “Paradis,” and who wouldn’t be amused by Cheekface’s “Listen to your heart — No!”
Daudane are an accomplished indie rock band from Bayonne, France — guitar-driven, choral rather than vocal, and with enough little extras to keep the sound interesting. The new album is called Colchique, “crocus” in English, and for the most part, it’s a light trip — jammy in a good way, inspired one guesses by late 60s psychedelia filtered through late 90s indie.
Half the theme of this week’s Bubble Wrap show was The World. The other half was No Theme At All. Always good to include the random element. Picks of the week include Thee Brinks, Daudane, Sorry, and Jessie Ware, whose dance hit “Please” pleased us. Thee Brinks are a French band, reminding us that French […]