But also, this is my blog, and when a new artist releases a new album and one of their songs gets into heavy rotation for me, I'm gonna post about it.
And Shhugar, Baby Nova's fantastic debut album that was released in January of this year, is a good album to talk up. After toiling in the industry for a decade and a half, Kayleigh O'Connor finally has an album getting its due.
This song, its lead single released in 2025, was co-written by Baby Nova, Lowell and Gus Van Go. It should be giving you Lana Del Rey vibes.
It came from Sick of it All's 2018 album Wake The Sleeping Dragon. It was a comeback of sorts, and it was met with universal critical acclaim.
Pretty impressive for a hardcore band that was formed in 1986 by Lou and Pete Koller to still be making music that aggressive and that poignant more than 30 years later. And that's what Sick of it All's music is - aggressive, poignant, and in your face.
But you all see that Special Edition label. You know I ain't here with good news.
Lou Koller, primary vocalist for the band, had been suffering with esophageal cancer. Yesterday, the band announced his passing. Now, at this point, I always say "he will be missed" and that's true but this is different.
You see, Lou knew he was one of the elder statesmen of hardcore, and he took that seriously. He famously mentored and befriended other up-and-coming musicians. There are hardcore bands that exist and thrived largely because Lou was their mentor and partner. Lou was one of the good guys in a rough industry.
So yeah, I feature a song with a funny title.
They kept releasing singles from the album through 2020. This video, which might not exist if not for the pandemic, featured videos of the band's fans, singing the song.
The band loved and respected their fans, and that started and ended with Lou.
Now, normally, I wouldn't be talking up so much a band in a genre of music I'm not generally all that into. It's not generally for me.
Sick of it All were talented enough and nice enough and resonated enough that I did like them. In fact, I was fortunate enough to see them live in 1995, on the first Warped Tour. I saw them at the Northampton Airport in Massachusetts, but the show I'm posting here is literally from two days before that.
Lou opened that show the same way he opened ours: by inviting fans closer and telling them to "watch out for each other and respect each other."
So today, when I say he'll be missed, it ain't a platitude. It's that a true pioneer and a nice person has passed, and he WILL be actively missed.
Well, this was not the route this post was going to go.
It started off with me hearing a Whitney Houston song earlier that I had not heard in several years, but found myself enjoying (I didn't particularly when it was new).
I decided I would do a post about it this week.
So I started looking for the song on YouTube and I found THIS first.
This was produced by Kygo and featured Whitney Houston doing a Steve Winwood cover - in addition to originating the song, he co-wrote it with Will Jennings.
The song was released in 2019.
Seven years after Houston's death.
And was a huge hit in the UK and elsewhere,
So this got me thinking - she must have done this during her life, right?
Turns out, she DID. The song appeared on Japanese pressings of her 1990 album I'm Your Baby Tonight, and she performed it live during the Japanese dates on her tour supporting that album.
Of course, then I had to dig, and it turns out that James Vincent McMorrow - an Irish singer - had a hit in the UK and Ireland with his very quiet and chilling version of the song.
Of course, nothing tops the 1986 version that marked Winwood's first trip to #1 on the US Charts. It's exciting. It gives that mid-80s feel. But also, the song endures.
Now, I could show you a live version from 1986 - I found a great one.
I am instead choosing his 2023 version from King Charles's Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle. He performed a pretty spry and solid cross-Commonwealth performance of the song.
Woefully under-appreciated in the rest of the world because it's in French?
Also yes.
Going to get more attention on here because French posts do about 5% better than any others?
Strangely, yes.
Unapologetically, Noor's album 1900 jours is one of my favorite of the year, and I encourage you to seek it out. It is a very quiet album. It's absolutely sublime.
Even though she's an obscure French artist, she does live versions of her music?
Last week, news spread that Jennifer Finch, bassist for L7, had an agressive form of brain cancer. Last night, she succumbed to that. She was the bassist for the band for most of its tenure, right up until July 13th. The band was planning a tour this coming October (I'm not sure they won't still do that), but Finch, who was originally supposed to perform, was forced to back out this week due to her cancer.
This song was from their 1992 breakthrough Bricks are Heavy, and was co-written by Finch and Daniel Rey. Even though she wasn't the primary vocalist for the band (that would be Donita Sparks), Finch also took lead vocals on the song.
Yes, Jennifer Finch will be missed.
Finch did leave the band for a bit, but she came back and performed with them again, to the delight of fans.
Here they are performing the song live in 2024 and they still sound just as good!
