Yesterday, I posted about an artist I discovered last week.
Today, I am posting about an artist I've known about for thirty years, and that's not just Helium. It's Mary Timony, who has continually made music since the late 1980s. I rediscovered her music this year, but didn't post that here. I instead used this opportunity to throw back to an old favorite, by a band that guided a lot of my early taste - a grungy/poppy combination that works.
And, by the way, Mary Timony STILL performs her Helium catalog solo.
I want this December to be the strongest month we've had this year. You see, I have discovered a lot of new music this year. It's been one of my goals this year to do this - to listen to music that isn't just the same thing over and over.
And last week, I dove HEAD first into that with a bunch of Coachella posts - a theme I'll be revisiting through April. But as I was discovering that group of artists, I accidentally discovered a few others I had never heard of.
So, this week, I'm going to be posting songs by artists I have NEVER posted before.
The first is Soccer Mommy (real name: Sophia Regina Allison), who released her fourth album a couple of months back. Evergreen is that album, and it is a contender for my favorite of 2024. This song features heavily on that album - a "light hearted love song", according to her - and is thus far the only one from the album to chart, garnering a lot of adult alternative airplay.
Anyway, she's a revelation and you should check her out now.
Prior to the album's release, Soccer Mommy performed the songs live in a more intimate setting. Here's "Driver" in a more stripped down manner. Her performance is accessible and down to earth - which is a trait most of her music shares.
David Anthony Burke is 19. He is part of a generation that made YouTube videos and then got copyright strikes, so his mom suggested he make his own music.
Well, that worked. He's made a style of music that is a combination of funk and.... anime? Yeah. Let's go with that. This song was written for the Amazon Prime animated series Invincible, of which he was already a fan. For a song written for a streaming platform animated series, it is heartfelt and earnest - and makes me want to watch the show.
It is very much a love song, and a beautiful one at that.
d4vd will be performing at Coachella next year, and if this performance is any indication, he's going to be great.
Japanese Breakfast, who will be featured at Coachella, are from Philadelphia. They are so named because vocalist and primary songwriter (and bestselling author) Michelle Zauner thought a Japanese breakfast would be exotic to Americans.
She probably had a point.
This song was not written by Michelle Zauner. It was written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Bobby Lopez, probably best known for writing the music for Frozen and Frozen II. Disney had them write this central song for the television show Agatha All Along, now playing on Disney+ (YOU SHOULD GO WATCH THAT!).
Did this song make Japanese Breakfast a household name? No. Did it give them a bigger audience? Well, they're playing Coachella next year, aren't they? (They also played it in 2018 and 2022, so, probably a bad example....)
This is definitely the first time we've used an emoji as part of a title.
So, let's talk about horsegiirL, the German DJ and singer who will be appearing on day 2 of Coachella next year - and whose identity is unknown because, and this is real, she hides it behind a horse mask. She also leans HARD into that horse theme - even going by a "real name" of Stella Stallion. In this song, she sings about how hay is what she likes.
This is one of the weirdest songs we've ever posted. This is from a blog that posted a song about what a fox says. But still, it's a damned catchy tune.
There is a meme going around - to paraphase - "your real age is 70 minus the number of bands in the Coachella lineup you recognize."
I admit it. It's a challenge.
Most of my friends are in their upper 50s at best.
I'm 41. And that seemed high for me - I mean, I do this blog. So I wanted to make myself younger, and also do the same for you.
Moon Boots is a DJ - the stage name of Peter Dougherty. He will be appearing on Day 1 of Coachella next year. He is the guy in the video. TECHNICALLY, Cherry Glazerr is a band, but 1) their/her YouTube channel very much refers to "her", not them, which is in contrast to the Wikipedia entry for Cherry Glazerr and 2) that's absolutely Clementine Creevy singing and appearing in this video, so.... yeah, I'm not sure. I really need to dive deeper into Cherry Glazerr, but for now, I didn't see her/them in the Coachella lineup (but yeah, she/they have been there before).
Anyway, Moon Boots is a great DJ and an awesome producer, and you should know him. This song is an electronic/garage pop merger that genuinely works.
You were this close to forgetting this song, weren't you?
And yet this song was a MONSTROUS Top 5 hit worldwide.
But it almost didn't happen.
The song was originally titled "Interlude" - and I've heard the demo. It's nearly identical to this.
When it was finally relased in 2001, on the Legally Blonde soundtrack, it was titled "A Thousand Miles (Interlude)". This was not Carlton's choice - it was her record label. Such is the life of a musician.
It may have been her only hit, but it's memorable and STILL used in many commercials to this day.
And the song - about a crush on someone who is apparently now a famous actor - is esquisite.
By the way, not only does she still perform and has not turned her back on this song, she OPENS her set with it - because she does not like to make people wait.
