As I write this playlist post, my friend’s wife we’re on vacation with has COVID, and I have a fever, chills, and chest congestion so bad I might as well have COVID (I tested negative…for now). All that aside, it beats being at work, and we’re making the best of it with great food, lots of beach time, and a ton of books and music. I’m currently going through the standalone Alan Grofield books from Richard Stark, the man behind the incredible Parker series of crime novels. As for the music? Well, sure I set out to mirror approximately what I planned to listen to in last week’s playlist, but since the theme of this vacation has been things not going as planned, of course the music changed. Lots of changes for lots of reasons, so let get right to it.

• Anders Osborne – “Send Me A Friend”
• Aerosmith – “Rats In The Cellar”
• David Bowie – “Moonage Daydream (Sounds of the 70s John Peel 5/16/72)”
• Yes – “Siberian Khatru”

I can’t remember how it happened, but sometimes the algorithm works. I had finished listening to some album and it went to random picks, and the electric punch of Anders Osborne hit me square between the eyes, His voice and guitar are both electric, and this track off of Black Eye Galaxy felt like the perfect way to open this playlist and hopefully introduce you to a new voice…Not so new is the work of Aerosmith, but they’re a band that beyond a few singles I never really cared for. One of the books I’ve been working through is Martin Popoff’s reviews for the “500 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time” as voted by what I can assume are a bunch of Gen X and Boomer dads. Nonetheless, Rocks came up and for some reason the album really clicked with me. I wanted to go with “Nobody’s Fault” here but that seemed too heavy…I’m constantly on a David Bowie kick, and having recently picked up his posthumous Rock -n- Roll Star! single vinyl compilation I’ve been enamored with some of the alternate version of the Ziggy tracks. This John Peel recorded version of “Moonage Daydream” is the bee’s knees…Is there ever a bad time to listen to classic Yes? I don’t think so, and even though if pressed I think I prefer Fragile overall to Close To The Edge, you simply can’t beat that album’s closing track…

• The Cult – “Big Neon Glitter”
• Judas Priest – “The Serpent And The King”
• Patti Smith – “Redondo Beach”
• Baroness – “Beneath The Rose”

As a result of the interviews in the Popoff book (and that’s a post for another day) I was talking to my friend Erik about Rick Rubin and the albums he produced for The Cult. I admitted I could never get into them, and Erik suggested Love, which was his favorite. This works much better for me than the drier, more up front rock albums that came later. “Big Neon Glitter” was an instant favorite…My son and I bonded over Judas Priest and Firepower when that came out, his 11-year old mind blown by Halford’s shriek and the the band’s rifftastic guitar attack. Now 17, he’s harder to reach for a lot of reasons, but when we’re alone in the car and I play the new album that smile can light world…I plan to keep my film writing over at Cinema Dual, but allow me a quick recommendation since I watched Perfect Days by Wim Wenders on the flight down: my god. Had I seen this in 2023 it would have made my Top three films of the year easily. Patti Smith and her iconic Horses album is a major part of the film (as is Lou Reed) and I’ve been playing it non-stop since I landed…I have many feelings about Baroness, a band whose first two album I adored and slowly drowned in clipped, terrible David Friedman production over their last few albums, even as the songwriting got better and better. Latest album Stone is a breath of fresh air, one I’m still absorbing even thought it’s been out for nearly a year. I love Baizley’s vocal attack on this song, and I saw someone on the beach that was the spitting image of him, so I put this album on this morning.

• Wheel – “Submission”
• The Red Clay Strays – “Devil In My Ear”
• Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention – “I’m Not Satisfied”

I’ve been re-listening to a lot of 2024 progressive rock and metal, seeing what sticks. Wheel is a Finnish prog metal band with strands of Tool in their DNA, but with a more traditional European progressive metal core. Repeated listens have stripped the obvious djent-isms and I’m really digging what I’m hearing…Likewise the new album from The Red Clay Strays, an alt-country band my wife discovered on our local college radio station and fell in love with. Their debut was fine, but new album Made By These Moments has much more punch and roar, perhaps because it’s produced by Dave Cobb who did my favorite albums by Jason Isbell and Stugill Simpson. This just came out today (July 26) and hits all the right notes…Finally, a little doo-wop never did anyone any harm, and Frank Zappa was a master of injecting his signature into the form. This version of “I’m Not Satisfied” is re-worked from the Mothers’ debut Freak Out and is part of the remastered Greasy Love Songs compilation.

Be safe, and see you next week.