singedsun

A misnomer.

Would people be interested in tiktok music links? I am unsurprisingly (probably) in mash-up/cover song tiktok's algorithm, so I come across of a lot of really good music there. If people are interested in that kind of thing, I'd be happy to drop a few links in these posts when I make them.

I don't have much in the way of "new" music this week, I've been revisiting a lot of old stuff and also just tossing things the YT algorithm thinks I'll enjoy in a playlist and then ignoring what I'm actually listening to the rest of the day, it just plays and nothing very much has stuck out to me really. During work these days, I tend to get very tunnel-focused on work and just whatever I have in the background can't be anything other than background noise. It has to be something REALLY interesting/different to make me break focus and look up the song or artist. Part of why some of it's just been old playlists I know really are just great for background sounds.

Background music for me is usually not like orchestral or lyric-less like I know a lot of people consider background music. I still need lyrics, talking, something for that little needy, hungry part of my brain to be distracted by so the rest of me can actually get shit done. It's why I like ASMR so much, I don't zone out or fall asleep to most types of ASMR. I just put it on and let it run and then it basically feels like nuanced white noise.

I digress. Just to say that I have to be actively listening to music to really appreciate it, or find something that breaks my true focus long enough for me to take an interest.

But how about something a little different (at least from my usual music posts). Here's a performance by H.E.R. (feat. Chris Stapleton) from the CMT Awards show. (It feels dumb to call it the CMT Country Music Awards -- I know they do, but CMT is literally Country Music Television...so it's the Country Music Television Country Music Awards?)> Anyway. Chris Stapleton's deep soulful voice is a wonderful counterpoint to H.E.R.'s bluesy riffs. It's real good.

Watch on YouTube

(another CS listen if you want one is this live performance of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2U" here.)

I have not traditionally been an Andrew W.K. person, but this new "Everybody Sins" video/song is pretty great? I like it. This is like the one new thing on this post probably, but I liked it enough to share. I know that he is popular in like the alt rock space or whatever you call it? He's been around for so long, I was honestly surprised to see new stuff from him, and especially a song I liked. Anyway. TL;DR here, I'm not a fan, but I like this.

Watch on YouTube

This is 'new-ish' as a song but the video itself is new this week. It's a song from RA (one of my favorite metal bands from like 20 years ago that just started making music again), "Enough". It features Dustin Bates from the band Starset (which is a metal band who doesn't get the attention they probably deserve).

Watch on YouTube

And for something completely different. Here's a little short story playlist I made last September and continue to enjoy. It's just six songs and maybe if you need a little something to listen to for a bit, maybe you'll like it too. What's even worse is I don't know what the story is I created it for?? The title means nothing to me. But I also created a pinterest board for it too, so I had a plan I guess? Maybe it'll come back to me. The playlist is good though.

I just finished day two of the Futurescapes writing workshop, which has been great and exhausting. I normally get tired at conventions because so many people and interactions and having to feel 'on' but I didn't quite think it would feel the same way to do a convention/workshop virtually? But both yesterday and today as soon as my session were over I was wiped out. I'm really glad I took these days off work so I didn't have to multi-task I'm not sure I could've done it.

I do have some music for you this week (finally). I think we're starting to actually get some of the first really big/good albums for the year out too, so we should be seeing more drops in the next few weeks. I know I'm excited. Here's a few new rock albums [Spotify] I've been enjoying so far. I know there's also a new Pretty Reckless and Chevelle albums out too, but I haven't listened to them too much yet.

Echoing by Kings of Leon
Heat Above by Greta Van Fleet
For Those That Wish To Exist by Architects

AND a bonus new Lake Street Dive album, Obviously - I love Rachael's voice so much. If you don't know Lake Street Dive but you're a fan of old school, like late 70s early 80s like Hall & Oats or Lionel Richie, then you should give this group a listen. They get paired with idk alt-rock/folk a lot now I think like Nathaniel Rateliff and Amos Lee or Leon Bridges, but I think it's because they really don't stand in a single current genre. I like them for the same reason I like the band Lawrence, they've got an old 'soul' late 70s kind of vibe that just makes you want to dance or sing along.

Okay so first, this piece from Ezinma, "Ode to the Hustle" is Ode to Joy with an R&B vibe and these beautiful dancers. I think the whole song and video speak for themselves and I kept going back to it today while I was doing other stuff to listen to it again and again.

Watch on YouTube

Libra and Special Guests cover Depeche Mode's "It Doesn't Matter Two". The special guests in this are a combo of amazing metal musicians from Type O Negative to My Dying Bride, Anneke Van Giersbergen... just like this incredible collaboration. I don't even care so much about the song, by seeing them all come together (virtually) to do this performance is very cool.

Watch on YouTube

There's a whole new Aloe Blacc album [Spotify] out, and if you like his music you should totally be listening to it if you haven't already, it's great. But oh do I absolutely adore the black and white graphic look of this video for "Other Side". The song is good but mixed with this aesthetic is just perfect.

Watch on YouTube

OTHERS

Icon for Hire - Brittle
The Fratellis - Need a Little Love
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic - Leave the Door Open This song has STRONG 90s disco-ish skating rink party vibes

COVERS

STATE OF MINE - The Thunder Rolls feat. No Resolve (Garth Brooks) Hello metal cover! I did not know this band before this cover came across my recommended feed, but I'm SO glad it did, this is amazing! (If you're missing the iconic third verse there is a click through option at the end to see a bonus video with that verse, but I think it's just as good without.)
Halocene - Famous Last Words feat. Lollia (MCR) YES! I love a good MCR cover song, and watch through to click on the cover they did with Lollia on her page too, which is "Teenagers".

BONUS
Iggy Pop - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night just listen to his softness in reciting this poem, it's lovely.

I hope you've all had a good week. If you've been listening to something good this week or know of a good new album, let me know! I want to listen to all the new stuff!

OH I got such good news this week that I'm immediately going to post about tomorrow, but I've been working on this music post all week so I want to do it first.

I know I mentioned Soilwork's new album last week, but it wouldn't be right that I spent MOST of this week with the song "Devil Diviner" on repeat. I wrote like 1500 words of my Yuletide story to it, I seriously just stuck it on a loop and worked, or wrote or read. It's SO GOOD.

I feel like I probably don't have to mention Taylor Swift's new album, but she dropped a new one. Which I'll be listening to. But she wasn't the only one with new music today. After four years, the family of Chris Cornell has released the last album he was working on, which is No One Sings Like You Anymore [Spotify] and oh, his voice, I love it so much. There's a cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" and it's just UGH SO GOOD. Heartbreaking. And if you like dark ambient Russian music, Remember Your Name has a new album [Spotify] / [Bandcamp]. Ksenia's voice is so lovely.

Jonathan Young's metal covers are some of the best on the internet. Most especially those from Disney movies. This rendition of "Carry On My Wayward Son" with the very talented guitarist Sixteen in Mono, is really wonderful. Yes, the song is great as is, but I definitely enjoy Jonathan's take here, and how different his voice is when he's tasked with belting on ballads like this one. Also, he's a huge nerd so the instrumentals from Sixteen in Mono is just him jamming around in the background. (Also if you like Anime, Jonathan covers anime songs and themes all the time.)

Watch on YouTube

The HU, if you're unaware is this AMAZINGLY talented Mongolian metal band that blends Mongolian instruments, throat singing and a seriously badass rock sound together. This is their cover of Metallica's "Sad But True" and I love their take on it. The language, the deep sound of the throat singing and the change to the instrumentation. It's great.

Watch on YouTube

Last for videos, I want to put up this video of a recent song from Nandi Bushnell -- who has now just exploded in popularity due to her infamous music feud with Dave Grohl. She put a bit of her playing both bass and drums to Muse's "Hysteria" up on Twitter recently. And that song is really, really difficult but she killed it. If you're not following Nandi, I highly recommend it. This girl has a really amazing future ahead of her as a musician. A lot of her back and forth with Dave Grohl is on her channel too, so you can go back and see how their battles have gone.

Watch on YouTube

NPR also gave us some big name amazing Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts recently:

• Chloe x Halle
• Hayley Williams
• Dua Lipa
• Black Pumas

And just a few bonus things, because there were some GIFTS this week:

• dodie - Rainbow
• Kesha - Shadow
• Ten Second Songs - Closer (NIN cover) - but a slow jam? And it's good???

Lastly, this super grungy and wonderful song, "Hollywood" by Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou. I like it so much and I keep going back to it. I'm letting the whole tracklist link, because the EP is up for pre-order and before too long the whole thing will be available to listen too.

But also there was so much good new music this week, so tell me in the comments if there's new stuff you're listening to, or if there's something else you're currently obsessed with. Also someone else tell me their not quite ready for a lot of Christmas songs yet? Like I've been ignoring a lot of them that pop up in my feed but I could maybe just do a whole compliations of Christmas/Hannuka/winter holiday music next week if that's a thing people might like?

Oh and last, last thing. I'm still accepting questions for my end of year music post. So if you've got any pretty please leave them below.

Happy Friday folks. We might be getting out of the woods here in the US, I woke up very hopeful this morning. Although that came with 'ow my everything' because I've been so tense and stressed this week my whole body hurts. I'm growing the first migraine I've had in a couple of weeks (and my change in meds) and I'm not mad about it. I've been trying to work on my Nano project this week but with -gestures vaguely- y'know... everything, it's been hard to get words in. So I'm about a day an a half behind in words, plus today's words. I'm glad it's Friday and the weekend and hoping I can get caught up on my word count in the mean time.

I have brought you some fun songs for this week, a random selection of genres I hope you find something you enjoy. Some of them are from last week too since I skipped some stuff for spooky purposes last Friday.

First of all, let me point you to the new Nothing But Thieves album [Spotify], which is what I've been listening to on repeat this week - especially the song "Is Everybody Going Crazy?". It's just been a real reflection of my feelings this week. LOL

In case you missed the announcement last night (I know there's nothing else going on) System of a Down released a two song EP here [Spotify]. They've also released a statement about the songs that's worth reading, which is about the war in their homeland countries of Artsakh & Amemenia. You can see that on Twitter here

Lastly before the YouTube videos, if you like the Two Minutes to Late Night covers, they've got their fifth covers album up for sale on BandCamp for TODAY ONLY. You can find it here.

Okay, videos for this week. Starting with the new video for In This Moment's "As Above, So Below"> With some CWs for masks and puppets. I love Maria's voice here, it's just the best. As much as I love them though, this is a video I couldn't really watch due to the masks and puppets, so if those are things that (like me) you can't handle, the song is here on Spotify too.

Watch on YouTube

Next is this new Bishop Briggs song, "Walk You Home". I love seeing this artists making the best of what they can from home and giving us these really lovely takes of them just jamming out at home. I love that even though she's just at home singing she gave us a lot of emotion here. It's good.

Watch on YouTube

Last is this brand new one from Dua Lipa & Angèle, "Fever" giving us some good wlw representation. I'm not a real fan of the break the song for talking in the middle like a movie kind of videos, but the song is good.

Watch on YouTube

I have a whole bunch of bonus songs this week too:

• Draconian - Sleepwalkers
• dodie - Cool Girl
• First to Eleven - The Diary of Jane (Breaking Benjamin)
• HANA - So & So
• Lake Street Dive - Don't Let Me Down (The Beatles)
• GUNSHIP - Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
• Faouzia & John Legend - Minefields
• Bring Me the Horizon - Kingslayer (feat. BABYMETAL)
• Our Last Night - Fire in the Streets
• Matt Berniger - Distant Axis (Live)

I hope that despite the mess this week has been you've gotten some rest and have had something nice to listen to that's not the news. I'd love to hear about what you've been listening to this week (if anything) and if not then I'd definitely love to hear something good that's going on with you this week. I think we could all use a little good news for distraction. Happy Friday, friends.

What's this? Trying to write up parts of this post in advance -- as I'm actually listening/watching to the new music? What a concept. Actually I wanted to try and get this up early because for you metal fans that might not have seen it, there's a concert happening this afternoon on YouTube from Metal Injection called Slay at Home, streaming at night in support of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It starts at 3pm EST.

In other new music things: I saw that Joan Osborne has a new album out and my little teen heart is happy to hear her singing.

Deftones released their new album, Ohms today.

I know the news was everywhere when this happened, but you know in case you somehow didn't see it. BTS did a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR Music this week and it's great. I'm not even a huge fan of BTS, but you CANNOT deny their charm and talent.

Watch on YouTube

Man I haven't seen anything from Hands like Houses in a looooooong time so seeing them pop up BBC Radio 1's lounge made me so happy. I really like this very lowkey cover of Fuel's "Shimmer" they did. But I like hearing new stuff from them in this song The Water.

Watch on YouTube

Hyro the Hero (feat. David Draiman) "We Believe" -- Holy shit, getting to hear David screaming again! YES please and thank you I'll take 10 more. This was a pleasant surprise to see this morning.

Watch on YouTube

Other mentions:

• Smith & Myers - Bad Guy cover a stripped down rock version from the Shinedown guys. They've got a new original song here too.
• Brass Against - Sophia on vocals again for another RAtM song
• Halocene - Somebody Told Me cover apparently I only like The Killers when someone else is covering their songs :D
• Kataklysm - Cut Me Down for you real death metal fans, Kataklysm has a whole new album out today too
• San Senra - Perfecto & Euforia for something completely different, a little Spanish pop to add to your day

What about you all? What have you been listening to this week? Anything new you're excited about?

Yesterday I was feeling a very specific mood and I put together a playlist that I think at least some of you might appreciate. It's a lot of goth songs that are (mostly) vampire themed and all came out in the 1990s. This does leave out some very specific and very good vampire songs from the 70s and 80s, and of course, the mid-aughts have a very different vibe as things moved towards numetal.

ANY how, it's about 2 hours of goth vampy vibes and I hope for those of you who like that sort of thing, you enjoy it. Feel free to follow it on Spotify as I'll likely to continue to update it as I think/find more songs that apply. I had to dig out a lot of old CDs the other day and I ripped them all this morning, so I might go through more this weekend. I'm still missing my old Goth Box set and my Black Bible set, but I should be able to find those in a box downstairs. That's enough rambling about that.

Making this has certain satisfied a certain itch and it's all I listened to yesterday and today.

I might have another playlist to share next week. As part of Short Story September, I've been putting together a playlist to go with the story (and to listen to while I write).

That's not the only stuff I found this week though. Just today there was a new Halocene/Lauren Babic/Violet Orlandi video cover for "Aerials" by System of a Down. Just as Lauren's screams are super powerful, Violet has this very Amy Lee like voice and the whole collection on this song is just great. Definitely how I prefer to listen to anything from SoaD.

Watch on YouTube

Another fun cover this week from Anthony of Ten Second Songs. He did a styles video for The Weekend's "Blinding Lights" a few weeks ago. His patreon voted on the style they liked best to get a whole video for it. Happily (for me) the Depeche Mode style won. So yesterday we got this full video Depeche Mode-ified version of "Blinding Lights".

Watch on YouTube

Lastly, this isn't a new recommendation by any stretch. But I discovered a new rock band this week that I think might be to some of your interests. A female lead, a sort of classic rock with a grunge edge kind of sound and great production. They're called Royal Thunder and you can find them on Spotify or BandCamp. I spent a lot of time this week listening to this specific album. I'm saving up my time to buy it the next time I see that Bandcamp is doing one of their 'give all the profits to the musicians' days so I can maximize what the band gets when I buy it. I believe Spotify has a newer album of theirs out that's not on their Bandcamp page, but I really, really like this one specifically.

That's all from me for this week.
But, what about you all? I'm always curious to hear what you've been listening to. Share it with me!

Went and had my hair done today. The salon I visit is owned by my stylist and his husband, and they're requiring all customers and stylists to wear masks at all time while in the salon. I felt safer in those few hours there than I have anywhere else I've gone, which hasn't been but like the doctor's office and the vet's office in the last three months. New hair is like turquoise and a refresh on the purple it was before and I'm definitely digging how bright it is. Pictures at my IG for anyone interested.

This week's music post comes to you in three pop albums:

Lady Gaga - 'Chromatica'

Britney Spears - 'Glory'

Alec Benjamin - 'These Two Windows'

Feels weird to say in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty, but I think I really love the Britney album? Like unironically, just a lot. I listened to it today while I was working, multiple times.

Talking about some old school feelings, I also saw but haven't listened to yet 0 the new Indigo Girls album, the Tiffany Unplugged EP & the new song from ENYA???? Of all the things. I will have to spend some time with those over the weekend.

Also plan to put on the new From Hell album, 'Rats & Ravens' and do some cleaning tomorrow with an epic background metal soundtrack to get me through. :D

This week has been stressful at work, but better than last week. Even given the fact that I had to sit up until 4am one night to wait for some failed files to come through just in case something failed that our team had to deal with. Thank goodness everything ran through when the files were received. I've had to hope on after hours three or four of the five nights this week after hours, despite it not being my week to do so and honestly it's wearing me down.

Tonight I watched this really interesting version of The Turn of the Screw live on YouTube that was done via cellphones between two remote actors. I really enjoyed it overall and I think you can still watch it back at the link there. (Not music sure, but live theater is still worth sharing.)

It's not new music but all week to keep spirits up I've been bopping around my room to Marianas Trench on shuffle/repeat which has been a good time. If you've never heard them before, they're a P!atD/boy band-eque Canadian group that's been around since the early 00s. I highly recommend them if you like a good bop. And they've got a good humor about them as obvious from this goofy favorite of mine Pop 101.

However, we come here for new music and I do have a few of those too.

I was excited to check my email this morning and find an unexpected brand new EP from Shakey Graves on Bandcamp! Todrick Hall also put out a small Quarantine EP full of songs to make you dance in your room. I played part of the last song "Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrubs" for my coworkers this afternoon for a bit of fun. And I can't remember what day the new AWOLNation album came out in the last week, but I had that one for a full day, one of the first things to break up my streak of Fiona Apple days.

A new song from one Julia Nunes today on YouTube, "It's Easy". It's got this chill synth vibe and those good deep Julia vocals. Definitely feel like her lyrics on this are Quarantine inspired, but I'm liking it a lot. I'll need a few more listens, maybe without the video though -- the wonky small face/moving eyes thing is not my style. But I love what she does near the end with the light visuals.

Watch on YouTube

This absolutely S T U N N I N G Postmodern Jukebox version of Pearl Jam's "Black" with singer Courtnie Frazier. This is just so lovely, I love it so much. (Also, if you're the kind of person that likes Scott's piano work, follow his channel too, he's been doing these lockdown inspired themed songs like "I Think We're Alone Now", and they're great.)

Watch on YouTube

Last is this really great cover/mashup tribute to Bill Withers with "Lean on Me" with Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" by the violinst Ezinma. Oh, I love the location and her presence in this performance and her musicality is wonderful. Plus the combination of these songs is really nice together.

Watch on YouTube

To close out I'll link to this special new little version of "The Rainbow Connection" that was recently put out on The Muppets YouTube channel.

I hope you've been having a good week, or as good as can be had. Tell me what you've been listening to?

Holy fucking migraines. This week has been the worst. I had such high hopes for this week and between work stress and migraines with pretty bad auras I've literally done nothing but work, play Assassin's Creed and sleep. My sister-in-law texted Friday to ask if we could babysit my niece again this weekend and I felt awful having to say no, but I told Matt that I was in the middle of the fifth day of hour after hour of people demanding my time well into my evenings every day this week. I didn't think my poor adorable niece was going to get the best Aunt out of me this weekend I would've wanted to be, I have no patience left in me. Plus, I've been tired and nauseous all day from this migraine, so I'm glad she wasn't here for me to be in pain and annoyed about it all day.

Sorry about that, I needed a little vent. But if you wondered where New Music Friday was, it got lost in a week's worth of back to back meetings and my broken neural receptors. I do have this one video I wanted to share, from a performer I've been following a long time now, I think maybe her album was one of the first things I ever Kickstarted after that platformed launched. She recently returned to YouTube with this wonderful looped mashup of cover songs that's just a good time. And two of the goodest and most handsome backup dancers sleepers ever.

Watch on YouTube

The songs in the mash up go from Gin Wigmore's "Exs and Ohs" to Amy Winehouse's "Back in Black" with and some fun between. I think Kawehi was one of the first artists I watched build loops live as she prepared a song, which I know is like a normal thing now especially on Twitch. But at the time it was novel and I find her energy pretty engaging. Highly recommend if you like this mashup that you check out the rest of her YouTube channel which has more covers and a several of her originals. She pretty local to me too and yet I've never seen her live. Now that she's active again, when the lockdowns are lifted, I'm hoping she'll be doing shows again.

My friends and I have shifted our Bad Movie nights to Sunday nights instead of Saturday. Tonight we watched a comedy horror film from New Zealand called Killer Sofa. And it was quite the experience. If you can stand a little bit of blood that might come with your generic sort of horror movie, but you need a good laugh, I'd highly recommend this to let a bit of the giggles out. Disclaimer, it's definitely not about a sofa. It's a recliner and it honest to goodness gets up and walks around on it's footrest. It's worth the laugh.

I hope everyone else is doing okay. If you watched fun or silly movie, or listened to something good this week let me know! I'd love to hear about it.

This week has been overwhelming from a work standpoint, I had 40 hours of work done before I even started working this morning. Thankfully one of the benefits of working from home and finally not having to be on the phone training anyone anymore has mean I can listen to whatever I want throughout the day.

Bonus points for the fact that we're getting all these lovely livestreams and free releases and surprise new music drops. So instead of posting a bunch of videos today, I'm just going to post a list of the albums I've been listening to this week with links to Spotify. (Honestly, there aren't any standout single-song videos for me this week either and that could just be because there's been whole album drops, or if it's just not been where my attention has been this week. I don't know.)

New Albums:

• Ghosts V: Together & Ghosts VI: Locusts - two surprise new drops from Nine Inch Nails
• Mother, In This Moment - the album I've been most been waiting for so far this year and it has not disappointed
• Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
• 3.15.20, Childish Gambino - I was not expecting this drop this week, and it's so good
• was it not, Marian Hill - one of my fav indies coming back with a great but too short EP
• BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US, Jessie Reyez - debut album and with such a theme? yes please
• Through Water, Låpsley>/a> - chill vibes for uncertain times

Oh, and okay, maybe I lied about posting a video, one link that brought me a bunch of joy this week was this livestream Gavin Rossdale did for Global Health in which is sang two of my very favorite songs, "Glycerine" and "Letting the Cables Sleep", and a cover of "Time after Time". I loved it.

Watch on YouTube

I highly recommend looking up your favorite singer or artist right now on YouTube or Instagram and seeing what they're putting out or if they're planning to go live on one of the many streaming platforms. They're making my day for sure as they pop up.

What have you been listening to this week?