29 June 2026 - Don't Mean Maybe - Colt 45

There was a brief time when I was a journalism major in college.

I mean, this shitty writing should tell you why that didn't stick. 

What DID stick was a lot of even more obscure music than I had ever heard before. You see, I was a college music DJ - it's where I met my former collaborator, Scott Colvin.  Our college radio station was programmed "classic rock", but during the late night, we switched to alternative music. 

Our late night director was Jonathan Falls, and he had a penchant for finding great underground music. 

This particular band and this particular song was his find.

The band hailed from Orange County, California, and were a trio that were clearly and heavily inspired by The Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Led by Mark Andrea, there were a lot of stop tempos and change-ups in their songs - and since none of them were really experienced in bands (their bassist only learned to play his instrument to play their FIRST SHOW - ironically opening for fIREHOSE), they could get inventive. 

Anyway, here's Don't Mean Maybe. 

26 June 2026 - Tiffany Day - NO LUCK

I really tried to not love Tiffany Day's new album HALO.  It's a frenetic hyperpop mess. 

But that's kind of the point.  Being a woman in her mid 20s right now is a frenetic hyperpop mess - so I hear.  I don't know, really. I'm not a woman in my mid 20s. I've never been a woman in my mid 20s. The fact that I can confidently state that is because HALO is just THAT good. 

In all seriousness, this is a woman with OCD making hyperpop about her OCD - that's precisely what this song is about - right down to the obvious overmedication and missing the days before she was medicated. 

Also, the music is just fun. 

 

Yes, she has perforned this live, and yes, the crowd knows the words, because they resonate. It's SMART hyperpop - some of the smartest made this year - and that is undeniable.

26 June 2026 - Ice Spice - Big Guy

Remember when Ice Spice did that song for the Spongebob Squarepants movie?

I frankly thought Ice Spice was done three years ago, but here we are. 

This short-ish song, which critics actually LOVED, marks a return to form - her classic simple lyrics and catchy beats.  Cowritten by Ice Spice and producer RIOTUSA ("Stop playin' with em, Riot"), it grows on you despite the song clearly being about a sea sponge's pants.  

Ice Spice also has a small part in the movie in making Spongebob into a.... big guy. 

25 June 2026 - U.S. Girls - Mad As Hell

We completely recognize the irony of a Canadian group called U.S. Girls.  

The bigger irony is that the Toronto-based project of Chicago-born-and-raised Meghan Remy - a solo project. And yes, the name of the project is in the plural. 

She moved to Canada in 2010 because she married a Canadian musician.  That's how. 

This song was a single from her 2018 album In A Poem Unlimited and, on the album (but NOT when released as a single ahead of the album), it is titled "M.A.H." but it is an identical song. Co-written with her husband, the whole album was shortlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize. 

It's also a fun as hell song.   

By the time she performed the song on KEXP in 2018, the song had been retitled but it had not lost its biting wit and Meghan had not lost her delivery. 

It's the same fun as hell song. 

24 June 2026 - Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson

This song is best known for its association with the 1967 film The Graduate.   How it came to be is interesting.  Mike Nichols really wanted the duo to write a song for his movie, but hated the ones they initially submitted.  In conversation, it turns out they were working on a song that Paul Simon had given a working title based upon a character in the film......

The working title stuck, and the song won two Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year - the first rock song to do so.  

You might hear that the version above - one of several used in the movie - is not the version you know.   That's OK.  They did the song in the version you DO know several times live, including this performance from 1968. 

Many people think their 1981 performance in front of 500,000 people in Central Park is the quintessential performance of this song. 

It's hard to argue with that.  The chemistry and the harmony is unequaled. 

23 June 2026 - lucky break - Camp Song

lucky break - the stage name of Emma Gerson - has only been releasing music under that name for about two years.  Her debut album, made it!, came out last month, and it is delightful - she's getting comparisons to Liz Phair (warranted) and Fiona Apple (I get it) but I hear a little bit of Lucinda Williams in this song - right down to the drawly alt-country cadence. 

90s-style alt-Americana?  You can give me credit for that label. 

Anyway, this song is kind of an outlier with the rest of the 90s-soaked pop-rock that dominates the record - and yet it fits in perfectly, like that long Tetris piece that comes out just in time because you have that long hole that needs to be filled. 

OK, enough weird analogies.  Just enjoy the song. 

22 June 2026 - Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun

It seems like I'm posting a lot of Zara Larsson lately.  Between almost decade-old songs and songs from other people's albums that figure skaters like, you'd be right. 

Her 2025 album Midnight Sun, however, was excellent, and with the 2026 release of the remix album Midnight Sun; Girls Trip, the songs are getting a second wind.  As of this writing, Larsson's title song from this album is her biggest hit not from a Pink Patheress album to date, and I suspect, with the Song of the Summer buzz around it, we're not done hearing it. 

Plus, the solstice was yesterday - and that's the actual peak of the.... midnight sun. 

On Girls Trip, Larsson teams up with female artists to redo all the Midnight Sun songs.  She teams up with (checks notes) PinkPantheress on this song. However, in a twist and UNLIKE "Stateside", it's the solo version that is rising the charts.

This version is still pretty solid. 

Of course she performs this great song live - but I wanted to make sure you could hear HER sing it - and she did last year on Good Morning America.

It didn't feel right to end on an American show, though.   

How about a live performance from Northern Sweden, where they ACTUALLY have a midnight sun?

It's a little more mellow, but honestly, this version gives me goosebumps.