Weekly Picks & Misc.

Here's what I'm listening to or getting excited about this week

Jan 5

Mike Borella and the team at Avant Music News have been posting weekly picks for years, so following on that I’m going to try and get out a quick update once a week on Thursdays, with a brief list of albums I’m either listening to or getting excited about.

Links will be included when possible, otherwise I hope y’all know how to hunt down anything of interest in this day and age.

Weekly Picks

GEORGE, Letters To George (Out Of Your Head, 2023) I simply cannot stop listening to this one. It’s funky and weird as hell, from the brilliant mind of John Hollenbeck.
The Necks, Travel (Northern Spy, 2023) The Necks are back, all hail The Necks. I apologize in advance if you get tired of hearing me rave about this album.
XT, Deorlaf Obrux (Tusk, 2021) XT recorded Free Jazz Blog’s album of the year, and I’ve been poring over the previous “Deorlaf” recordings for a couple of months. This one is another (re)(con)figuring of released, revisited, and related material, performed virtual/live in summer 2021 at Café OTO, with Seymour Wright in London and Paul Abbott in Brussels.
Tom Waits, Heartattack and Vine (Elektra/Asylum, 1980) Maybe it’s the rain in LA, but I’ve been listening to a ton of Tom Waits this week, especially the final Elektra/Asylum stretch.

Misc.

I have no skills to do so, but I can’t get out of my head the idea of a trailer for Babylon recut to David Gray’s “Babylon.” Someone please make this, I promise it will be great.

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