See You on Thursday!
Since we enthusiastically greeted fall in the last newsletter, the season has thrown a curveball with 90+ degree temperatures that melted our brains. But we still feel the refreshing energy of the season, so we are making some changes to the newsletter.
At the beginning of the year, we wanted to widen our scope and include other topics that fit our "Enjoy life..." motto. This has happened less than we wanted. That is unsurprising, as we don't follow a rigid plan and go for where inspiration strikes. But it is still hard to get out of the habits built mainly around the Song Pick of the Day.
To mix things up, we'll move the newsletter release from Monday to Thursday. That means we are closer to the big release day on Friday. It also means we have the weekend to find new topics rather than just wrap up the newsletter for Monday.
The next issue comes out this Thursday, September 14. To bridge the gap, we present only four songs today and return to regular programming on Thursday.
Thank you for reading and supporting independent new artists!
Song Pick of the Day
Listen to/watch all four songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.
Undeniably, music sounds better today than it did 40 years ago. An original recording of an 80s track today can feel dull and unexciting to contemporary ears. Fortunately, you can breathe new life into old music by remastering, and this is what New Jersey band Chemistry Set did with their album Experiments from the Lab. The first single, "Chemistry," is a bouncy synth-pop track that makes an appetite for the album.
Electronic musician Sofia Kourtesis dedicates her debut album Madres to surgeon Peter Vajkoczy, who saved her mother's life with a risky operation. The fourth single, "Vajkoczy," is an upbeat, shimmering song showing Sofia's unique production style.
Alex Winston is a singer/songwriter based in NYC, but her new song "Hot One" goes back to an experience during a heat wave in Nashville: "I remember sitting on a curb outside of the studio, feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, when a woman in a red pickup truck drove by, windows down, blasting Lucinda Williams's 'Joy' – she looked so genuinely happy, and it just snapped me back into the moment," she recalls. The track is a scorching piece of psych-pop about finding joy against the odds.
Marci Elizabeth records music with producer Jimmy Deer under the name Girl As Wave. The new song "Blind Spots" is about "the relationship between time, the dreams we have for ourselves and how life appears to be showing up in any given moment." And nothing can show the passing of time better than the track's retro synth-pop production.
Also Happening
Bruce Springsteen postponed his September shows due to medical reasons. He has been the subject of much criticism of the ticket prices before, but this serves as a reminder of the risks a 73-year-old has to take on a major tour like this.
The musician Jeff Rosenstock is unhappy with venues taking up to 25% of merch sales. Of course, he is not, but he has a good point: Since artists help sell drinks, they should get a cut from the bar. As a side note: on our glamglare showcases in 2016-2019, we gave artists a cut of the bar and did not take our share from merch sales. This probably makes us lousy business people.
We mentioned Laurence-Anne’s new album Oniromancie already. We also enjoyed the upbeat pop by Dublin band Soda Pop on their album Dream Big.