Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who have recently upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
On to the music:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what’s been in heavy rotation for me. Maybe it’s the changing weather, or just wanderlust creeping in, but I’ve been thinking a lot about road trips lately. If you know me in IRL, you know this is an exercise in contrasts; I hate to drive, but love the open road. I contain multitudes, I guess. I dunno. Mostly, I just like seeing new places, especially in the part of the world I now call home.
Side A kicks off with a group that reminds me of a trip I took with my family down the length of I-5 as a kid. YGSF still reminds me of Southern California and AM Gold. They also remind me of an old friend. He’s no longer with us, but what they taught me- that music discovery is possible in the digital age- still very much is. From there, it’s a quick stop back in the Dairyland before a little globetrotting with Kinky and RBCF, then back to I-5 for a bit of the Dead. Side one winds out with a new one from our pals at Big Stir Records, a trip to the Great Lakes and Ex-Pilots, a fave from the Steel City. They’ve been teasing some new stuff, and I can’t wait.
Side B: We start the 2nd half the way we ended the first, with some stuff from the Smoking Room label, and new ones from Preoccupations and Lane. Cate Le Bon shows up again (what a great record!) before coming back to Madison for the latest from our friends in Spiral ISland. Then we turn the car around and head south to visit The Best around, and check out the latest from The Mountain Goats’ concept record. The record ends with my favorite track from one of my favorite bands. The record turns 40 tomorrow. Oof. Everything’s alright when you’re down, and time flies when you‘re having fun.
Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Great Lakes, Mavis Staples, and Lush.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at the latest from Great Lakes mavis Staples, and Lush.
The boilerplate intro: Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try to put up.
In other words, a ton of good stuff is still coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. These are another batch that caught my attention recently.
Hard to believe that it’s almost AOTY season, but here we are. I’ll be posting through it, discussing what’s on my list, what isn’t, how I try to winnow things down, etc., over the coming weeks.
In the meantime, the records keep coming. There are always a few that get in under the wire, and ones from earlier in the year that might’ve been missed. Below are a few quick field reports from right between the sound machine.
Let’s get into it!
Great Lakes- Don’t Swim Too Close
Cover art courtesy of Elephant 6/HHBTM Records
Fair warning: I’m gonna go full “suburban dad” here. I don’t know what it is about hitting middle age, but this brand of cynical Americana has really started resonating with me in the last 4–5 years. It’s a sound that feels as lived-in and comfy as my worn-out Sambas and favorite pair of cargo shorts (I know! I know!). I’m not quite in sad-dad territory, but I can see it on the horizon. Distilled down, it feels relatable.
Frontman Ben Crum is wrestling with a lot of the same things we all are right now, noting:
Releasing music right now feels a bit like fiddling while Rome burns. While my new Great Lakes album, ‘Don’t Swim Too Close,’ is a personal and inward-focused record, once it was finished I was surprised to realize it also feels like a slow-burn meditation on whatever it is America means.
Same, Ben. SAME.
Of course, it helps that the record is good. After eight records and 25 years, Crum knows his way around a lyric and writes the sort that tell entire stories in a paragraph. These are character-driven tales that make you wince and smirk in equal measure. And even when the words get heavy, the music is there to lighten things up. The title track will get you moving… and it’s about him suffering a concussion.
I wrote it while recovering from a severe concussion that left me depressed and questioning my future. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to come back from it, and it scared me. Luckily, I did get better, and the song ended up being an ironically uplifting country/rock toe-tapper, with heavy lyrics (“I was feeling hopeless, but also helpless and alone / and more than a little dangerous to my soul”) set to a groove reminiscent of Doug Sahm, Jerry Jeff Walker, or CCR.
It’s worth repeating that while it may be topically heavy, this isn’t a bleak record. On the contrary, the irony and dark humor make a good thing better. As a Gen Xer, being a fan of irony isn’t a learned behavior; it’s encoded in our DNA. More so, it makes for a compelling listen, whether he’s singing about klaxon horns (“Another Klaxon Sounds”), or regret and anxiety (“Like an Open Grave”), or sharing so much of your idea for a book that you no longer want to actually write it (“On the Way Back”).
Something tells me, though, that we’ll hear more writing from Crum. At least I hope so. The band seems to be only getting better with age. It probably won’t be anything about cargo shorts, though…
I’m not sure I could tell you when I first heard Mavis Staples, though the smart money says it was likely as a kid, hearing her perform something like “I’ll Take You There” with her dad and siblings in the Staple Singers. Her voice is unmistakable, but there’s always been a current of determination, resolve, and hope. Whether it was the lot of them singing “The Weight” along with The Band in the Last Waltz or her take on Talking Heads’ “Slippery People” (TK LINK), her raspy voice has been soothing and consistent in a world of constant change.
And that hasn’t changed on “Sad and Beautiful World,” Staples’ latest. The record is 10 tracks- 9 covers and 1 original. Of course, Staples takes the 9 and makes them all her own, as only she can. I mean, who else could cover Tom Waits’ “Chicago” and make it sound smoother without sanding off any of the edges? No one, that’s who. It doesn’t hurt that Derek Trucks is here, along with Buddy Guy. Waits’ purists may want to skip it, but I hope you don’t; it’s chugs right along and is worth every note.
The title track was penned by Mark Linkous (RIP), and I’ll bet it’s gonna sound incredible live. Other tracks include her take on Frank Ocean’s “God Speed,” Curtis Mayfield’s “We’ve Got to Have Peace,” and the Hozier and Allison Russell-penned “Human Mind.”
The guest list reads like a who’s who of in-demand talent: Kevin Morby, Nathaniel Rateliff, Patterson Hood, and Bonnie Raitt, among others. As per federal law, MJ Lenderman also makes a guest appearance.
Producer Brad Cook does well to bring—and keep—the focus on Staples’ voice. With a roster like this, it could’ve been easy for her to get crowded out. Instead, we get some of her best work (a high vbar to be sure!), and a gorgeous record that perfectly meets the moment from someone who’s been lighting the way for decades.
Lush is forever linked with cassette tapes in my mind—or, more specifically, J-cards. In 1990, if I wasn’t listening to this on the original, I was scrawling the titles on one of the many mixtapes I included tracks like “De-Luxe,” “Down,” and “Bitter” on. These were my faves- and the titles were mercifully short. Lush was a band I was eager to share with anyone who would listen. Even the record itself is a mixtape compilation comprising the mini-album Scar, and Mad Love and Sweetness and Light EPs.
A few lifetimes later, a lot has changed. For one thing, I’m streaming an advance copy of the record online for something called a “newsletter” on a website called “Substack.” 15-year-old me would not recognize a thing in that sentence.
50 year old me recognizes a few; in the early 90s, record label 4AD never missed. That still seems to be true. The three tracks I shared so many times in high school are still the ones I’d encourage you to check out today, and I’d add “Second Sight” to the list. The harmonies of Emma Anderson and Miki Berenyi haven’t aged a day and sound better than ever here. This is a shoegaze record, but, with apologies to Kevin Shields, their sound is much sunnier and leans closer to pop than MBV. This is a genre that traffics in the abstract, but while MBV might be a blurred picture of red hues, Gala is one of yellows. It felt like a ray of sun in my teens and doubly so today.
Thankfully, no one will be subjected to my trying to squish some scrawl on a J-card, but there will be playlists. Many playlists. My handwriting may have gotten even worse, but somehow Gala has only improved.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who have recently upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what’s been in heavy rotation for me. This week kicks off an all-timer from San Fran’s Faith No More that sounds as good at 36 as it did on day one. We should all be so lucky! From there, we’re off to the Steel City for one from Ex-Pilots. They’ve got a new, limited-run release on the way, so keep an eye out for that! We’ve also got a cool take on an R.E.M. standby (a cover of a cover, if you will), and since it’s AOTY season, one from one of my top 10 of last year. We also head back to the Bay Area for a track I once eloquently described as an “absolute banger,” and a brand new one from Mountain Goats. The latest from Great Lakes (a 2025 AOTY short lister) rounds things out.
Side B: As some of you know, I was home in Oregon for a Ducks football game a couple of weeks ago. The team did a great tie-in with the Grateful Dead, and that sparked a re-listen of a few of their records for me, both on the way back and once I was home. From there. It’s a 1-2 punch from the Crutchfield sisters & MJ Lenderman—what our friend Matt Ziegler describes as a “sonic hydra”— before moving to Throwing Muses.
The home stretch is a mix of sonic comfort food and songs new enough to still have the window stickers on ‘em, featuring tracks from Smashing Pumpkins, Nightbus, and Of House.
The indie pop band stops by to talk about their latest record, what we should know about the Louisville scene, and what’s next.
Good morning!
We’re in for a treat today; Louisville’s Second Story Man stops by to talk about their latest record, how it came to be, and what’s coming next.
The pitch: A Louisville band forms in the late 90s, and over the course of the next few years, puts out several EPs and a long player. The next several years see another couple of LPs—and a comparison to Jawbreaker (!)—and more than a couple of lineup changes.
In a mark of incredible timing, the band started recording a new record in… 2020. COVID had other plans, and between that and real life, the record took five years to come to fruition. But all good things come to those who wait, and ‘Calico’ is proof positive.
With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed.
~Carrie Neumayer
Having retroactively gone back through the band’s discography, I can say that this record is a delight. Any vestigial line to Jawbreaker has been erased, replaced by a (slightly) refined sound. The best groups evolve over time, and this is no exception. And it’s a sound that really can only come from the chemistry that comes from playing together for years. If you like punchy, well-built indie pop, Calico is for you. We’ve already seen a couple of tracks featured on the weekly playlists; now the entire record is available.
I recently had a chance to chat with the band via email. In our wide-ranging discussion, we talked about where the band has been and what’s coming next. Our chat has only been lightly edited for grammar and flow.
KA—
Congrats on the new record! For those that might not know, can you walk us through the backstory of how this project came together? Carrie: Thanks! We started writing these songs sometime around 2017/2018 and finally got into the studio to record them in March 2020 with our friend Anne Gauthier. Then the world shut down, and so did we! I ended up going back to school and made a career change, Jeremy became a father, Drew was raising a young child, we grieved some very significant losses, and we all just kind of focused on other aspects of our lives until last yea,r when we decided that the record was worthy of seeing the light of day. We are extremely grateful to our longtime friends at Noise Pollution Record,s who believed in it and offered to put it out.
A previous review described the band as “…a female fronted Jawbreaker, with angular-gang-vocals in the style of Sleater-Kinney and bittersweet noise a la Superchunk for good measure.” That’s a lot to unpack, but more than anything else: Is that an accurate take?
Carrie: I think most long-term relationships inherently have many deaths and rebirths. That’s certainly been true for Second Story Man. We’ve reinvented our sound many times, so I don’t think that description accurately captures our 27 years of creative partnership. We’ve always aimed to make something that is uniquely us. Also, Evan and I sing equally on this album, so “female-fronted” is only half true!
Photo courtesy of Noise Pollution Records
Doubling clicking on that, this is the first record in several years. How is Calico different from the earlier albums?
Carrie: I had a realization recently that before this record, I’d held onto a belief that if I wasn’t singing and playing guitar at the same time 100% of the time, then I wasn’t working hard enough. So silly! With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed. In our past albums, we were much more maximalist (and neurotic!)
Louisville is a place a lot of people might not be familiar with. What should we know about the city? What’s the scene like there?
Carrie: All four of us were born and raised in Louisville. Our drummer Drew and I even went to first grade together! Louisville is not quite southern and not quite northern. It’s a small city/big town. It lives in the in-between. I think the Ohio River plays a big role in the collective unconscious and shows up a lot in the music that gets made here in ways that are difficult to put into words. The scene is both robust and fragmented— there are multiple scenes, many of which do not overlap. For example, the Black gospel music scene in Louisville is legendary. There’s a thriving intergenerational hardcore/punk scene that can draw like 800 people to some of its shows! Then there’s the ever-evolving indie/art rock scene that all of us grew up in. It has splintered out in a lot of directions over time but has always had a moody, dynamic, cerebral, psych/experimental sort of flavor (e.g. Slint, Rodan, Rachel’s, Shipping News, Evergreen, Parlour, Wombo, and a hundred others I could name here) or channeled that sensibility through more of a literary and folk/country lens (e.g. Will Oldham, Catherine Irwin, Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, Grace Rogers, etc.) The older I get, the more deeply I appreciate what we’ve got here.
For anyone new to Second Story Man, what’s the one thing you hope they walk away with?
Evan: Our record!
What’s next for the band? What do the next 6-9 months look like?
Carrie: Our plan is to take things one day at a time. We all work full-time, and Jeremy and Drew are parents, so finding time to do things the way we did when we were in our 20s isn’t possible! It sure would be fun to try to get out of town and play some shows. We’ll see!
Last one, just for fun; I bump into you as you walk out of the record store. What records are you carrying?
Carrie: The most recent records by current artists that I’ve enjoyed have been Grace Rogers’ “Mad Dogs”, Michael Beach’s “Big Black Plume” Idle Ray’s “Even in the Spring”, and S.G. Goodman’s “Planting by the Signs”
Jeremy: Some recent favorites have been Ghost Woman’s S/T album, Wand’s “1000 Days”, and Richard Swift’s “Walt Wolfman”
Drew: I’ve been listening to Tangerine Dream’s “Thief” soundtrack, the “K Pop Demonhunters” soundtrack, and covers by The Middle Age Dad Jam Band.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
On to the music:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. And welcome to November. Hard to believe 2025 is already rounding third and heading for home, but here we are. Is it obvious that I’ve still got baseball on my brain? Trust your gut. Someday—in like, 10 years—I might be able to enjoy last night’s Game 7. Not yet, though. If you’re a Dodger fan, enjoy your time in the sun! You’ve earned it. To everyone else: spring’s comin’!
Anyway, like last week, this week’s listening cleaves closer to the fall weather than anything. Acapulco Lips are back to kick things off, followed by a 1–2 punch of fresh tracks from Joyer and The Convenience, before going back in time. Can you name-check the ’80s sitcom that referenced Scritti Politti in an episode and why it might (or how?) be relevant to the paragraph above?
Side B takes us to the Windy City and a new one from Ratboys. It’s a good day any time they gift us some new sounds! We’ve also got one from Cate Le Bon, thanks to Austin Kleon talking it up in a guest post for Jacqui Devaney . You never know where a new favorite might come from! This side also overindexes on sonic comfort food with The Fall, JAMC, and my all-time fave GBV track. They have a brand-new one out as well—because of course they do—but I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet.
There’s a common idea that “good” music—and the joy of discovering it—is a thing of the past. A relic from a bygone era that fits in with memes about drinking water from a garden hose. People like Dan Gorman prove that’s simply not true.
I first connected with Dan through the Rosy Overdrive community, and now we’re lucky to have his newsletter, The Discover Tab. If you’re someone who’s always chasing new sounds—and I’m guessing you are—it’ll check a lot of boxes for you. It’s a “never miss” for me.
Dan recently launched a series called Digging for Something, where fellow writers highlight underrated records that deserve more time in the spotlight. I was excited to be included, and I hope one of my picks becomes your next favorite.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week’s Side A kicks off with a new single from The Lemonheads. Yep, they’re back. Evan Dando’s got a new memoir out as well. That’s followed by Eleventh Dream Day—a band I missed their first time around, and Ride who luckily, I didn’t. Winged Wheel might be putting out some of the most interesting music these days; their “Sleep Training” was one of my most played tracks last year. The side’s rounded out with the latest from The New Romantics. Synthpop from Knoxville? Yes please!
Side B roars in with Sugar’s latest. I promise it really is 2025. Like Dando, Bob Mould is as good as ever, and this feels like the band hasn’t taken any time off at all. ‘Course when you have a blast furnace for a guitar, the rust probably comes off easy. Anyway, your neighbors will like it too. After that is some power pop from Crossword Smiles and then a 1-2 punch of faves from the Blake Babies and Paul Westerberg, before we wrap up with the latest from Winter and Billie Marten, who’s Dog Eared LP is on the AOTY leaderboard.
Today we’re talking about AI. Or rather the crossroads of AI and music with our pal Chris Dalla Riva.
You don’t have to go far to hear about AI today. There’s everything from wistful think pieces to spicy takes and everything in between. It’s an equal opportunity target. If you’re anything like me, you’ve read a million takes both for and against its use.
Consider this the millionth and one.
Most of us have a strong opinion one way or the other; we either think it’s great or hate it. I’ve yet to see anyone say they don’t much care. Those strong thoughts are particularly divided in the art world/creator economy, where consumers are being overrun with slop and artists/authors are rewarded by having their work stolen and used to “teach” machines or compose hours of mindless music to be piped into fluorescent-lit hallways and your local Anthropologie.
Before we get too far, I want to be clear: I’m all for what has been referred to as the Three C’s: Consent, Credit, and Compensation. Those are largely self-explanatory, but the short version is this: if a tech bro is gonna hoover up an original idea, they should at least be paying the person whose synapses sparked it. A little credit would go a long way, too.
What does that look like in practice? I don’t know yet, but it’s not whatever we have right now.
I also want to be clear that most of the discourse so far has been binary. A lot of bandwidth’s been used in either/or discussions when it should be more of a “yes, and” or “yes, but” dialogue. For example, should a person take a 2-line prompt, generate a 750-word article “in the style of Kevin Alexander,” and pass it off as their own? I think most reasonable people would say no. What about non-native English speakers who use Grammarly to clean up grammar errors in their own words/ideas? Is that okay? I personally think it’s in bounds.
Much of the pushback has been because it feels like we’re being taken advantage of. We want to believe the person whose work we’re reading or listening to actually hammered it out on a notepad, keyboard, or instrument. Modern life never misses a chance to take advantage of us (or sell us more shit), and this often feels like one more in a long line of slights.
But what if the builder is transparent? Does upfront disclosure change the calculus? I think it does, if only because a consumer can then make a more informed choice. Pivoting back to music, that was a huge driver in the pushback against The Velvet Sundown earlier this year. The sting of catching someone trying to pull a fast one on you doesn’t wash away easily. If a singer tells you they’re using AI to give voice to their own words—now what?
Enter
Chris Dalla Riva. Chris writes the fantastic Can’t Get Much Higher which sits at the intersection of objective data and how it relates to the almost purely subjective world of music. He’s also the author of the forthcoming book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, a data-driven history of pop music and a multi-year project that started with him listening to every number one hit in history. Put another way, he knows his stuff. I’m reading an advance copy, and can confirm it would make a great early Christmas gift.
Long-time readers may also recall Chris and me working on a project where he used Python code to extract data points from my Spotify history. He then used those to paint a picture of what I look like as a user, and share what I was “really listening to.” It was fascinating to watch come together. It’s also a situation where I think one could make a use case for using AI. After all, isn’t sifting through large data sets the sort of thing we want AI doing?
At any rate, today Chris brings us two real-world examples worth consideration. The first is an artist using AI to “sing” lyrics she herself came up with. The second is a fantastic breakdown of how it can be used to remaster/rerelease songs long thought lost to time.
Neither of us makes a declarative statement or pretends to have the answers. In my opinion, Chris’s article reinforces that more than anything, we need to collectively decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t, rather than outsourcing that to companies that only see us as data points to extract ad revenue from.
And with that, I’ll get out of the way and let Chris take the wheel.
So, who is this rising star? I’m not sure. She doesn’t exist in the traditional sense.
Xania Monet is the first AI-generated artist to land a song on one of Billboard’s charts. Unlike other AI-generated artists in the news, nobody is claiming that Monet is a real person. “Xania Monet” is a project by Telisha Jones, says Billboard, a “Mississippi woman … who writes her own lyrics but uses the AI platform Suno to make them into music.”
Scrolling through the comments on Monet’s songs, you’ll notice that people connect with it. And most have no idea that this is not a traditional artist. As someone who works in the music business, writes songs, and spends most of his free time chronicling the music industry, I’m all for songs people can connect with. Music can have power independent of the technology used to create it. Still, I think there are some looming ethical issues with fully AI-generated artists.
First, is this music copyrightable? A recent report from the US Copyright Office noted that, according to existing law, “Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.” Furthermore, “Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.” Is setting human-written lyrics to AI-generated music enough human contribution to be copyrightable? It’s unclear.
Second, even if it is copyrightable, should the artists whose music was included in Suno’s training set receive royalties when Xania Monet is streamed? Given Anthropic’s recent settlement with book authors and pendinglawsuits against Suno and Udio, it seems that the underlying music will have to be licensed in some way.
But let’s assume all of the intellectual property debates get sorted out. (They will at some point.) Then, is there an ethical issue with generating music with AI in part or in full? In the abstract, I don’t think so. Generative AI is a new musical technology in the same way that pitch correction and drum machines were once new musical technologies. As I note in my book, new musical technology always faces backlash. Still, when you think about the specific consequences of music made like this, things become dicier.
The Ethical Issues of Generative AI Music
I know next to nothing about Telisha Jones, the person behind Xania Monet. But let’s imagine for a second that I created Xania Monet. For those that don’t know, I am a 30-year-old White guy. Xania Money is presented as a Black woman. I think most people would agree that a White guy using generative AI to make music as a Black woman would be a bad thing. But I don’t see any world where that doesn’t happen without some sort of regulation around the usage of this technology.
Furthermore, generative technologies allow music to be made at an inhuman rate. Since July, Xania Money has released 44 songs. It is certainly possible for a human to release that many songs in a matter of months (see Morgan Wallen). However, products like Suno make it easy for someone to generate thousands of songs quickly. Unless it was choked off at some point in the distribution process, there’s no way streaming services don’t become flooded entirely with musical slop.
Anytime I levy these criticisms about generative music, I am often met with some claim that companies like Suno are “democratizing creation.” I’ve never bought this claim. Though you could argue that music has been democratized since the rise of upright pianos and low-cost acoustic guitars, I think it’s safe to say that true democratization came in three parts over the last 25 years.
The proliferation of digital audio workstations, like Pro Tools and GarageBand, made recording at home incredibly cheap
The rise of digital distributors, like TuneCore and Distrokid, drove the marginal cost of distributing your music around the world close to zero
Mobile recording software, like BandLab, has made it possible to create musical masterpieces with nothing more than a phone
If I am such a downer on AI being used in the music industry in this way, then am I excited by any AI-based technologies? Of course. When I last wroteon this topic, I highlighted a few exciting tools. A year later, the most exciting use case remains stem separation.
On the Joys of Separation
One of the earliest known compositions of country legend Hank Williams is “I’m Not Coming Home Anymore,” a sad tale of lost love that sounds as complete as some of his more mature classics. The problem is that you can’t really hear it. Williams’ beautiful melody barely peaks through an avalanche of static. If only we could pull The Hillbilly Shakespeare’s voice out of that static.
Because of AI, we kind of can.
AI technologies have proven very adept at taking a mixed audio file and separating out all of the instruments. In the Hank Williams case, stem splitting technologies from LALAL.AI, Deezer, Serato, and a bunch of others could almost certainly get a clean cut of Williams’ vocal separated from the static and acoustic guitar.
We have already seen this technology used to great effect. In 2023, The Beatles released “Now and Then,” often noted as their “final song.” This was created from a low-quality home recording that John Lennon had made decades before. The Beatles’ team lifted a clean vocal from the recording using AI-powered technology. The living Beatles then completed Lennon’s demo.
This technology will become ubiquitous in the coming years. Not only will it allow us to preserve the past pristinely, but it will also make it easier than ever before for artists to remix, remaster, and reimagine other musical works.
As you can tell, I am much more excited by this musical technology than the technology that just allows us to generate songs for artists like Xania Monet. This new stem separation technology uses AI to solve a very hard problem. What Suno, Udio, and other generative products do is cool, but I don’t think it fundamentally alters the music-making process.
So what do you think? Are you all in, or are you on Team No F’in Way? In your view, are there acceptable carveouts? If so, what are they? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks again to Chris for his time, and thank you for being here.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting by heading back in time (and just a little bit south of here) to Rockford Illinois, for a dose of Cheap Trick. Are they Power Pop? Maybe. Do they rock? No doubt. From there we’ve got a deeper cut from JAMC, and a brand new one from
It’s Spooky Szn, so Side 2 kicks off with a trifecta of Fever Ray’s “Shiver,” Water From Your Eyes’ “Nights In Armor,” and something from LA Witch, before ending with fresh tracks from Massage, Joel Cusumano, and Petrov, the Hero.
Broken record alert: I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band
The boilerplate intro: Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try to put up.
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are another trio that caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Automatic- Is It Now?
Cover art courtesy of Stones Throw Records
When we last heard from Los Angeles’ Automatic, they had us looking toward the stars. On this latest release, they’re looking at the world collapsing around them.
Is It Now? finds the trio deepening their sound while sharpening their focus. Formed nine years ago, the band has this time teamed with producer Loren Humphrey (Arctic Monkeys, et al.), who brings a lean precision to their already taut mix of minimalist grooves and pop-forward melodies.
When I wrote about Excess, I asked readers to “close your eyes and imagine Devo as a dance band—or a collaboration between the Go-Go’s and Wire—and you have Automatic.” That description still holds, but Is It Now? pushes further into darker territory. The group uses those perky, tightly wound rhythms as a vehicle to deliver commentary on automated warfare, mindless consumerism, and the political machinery of oil and power.
The grooves remain effortlessly cool, but the themes cut waaay deeper.
Of the single “Black Box,” Izzy Glaudini says, “The title ‘Black Box’ refers to the black box in a crashed plane. The repetitive synth is supposed to suggest a plane gliding as it crashes/ an alarm distress call. I was listening to the Leonard Cohen album The Future a lot around the time the lyrics were written. It’s a pretty straightforward critique of people that have sold out on a large scale, specifically within creative industries. Thierry Mugler said, “art used to tell money what to do, now money tells art what to do” and the world is a less interesting place because of it.”
Okay, then!
Elsewhere, the woozy synths on “Mercury” are fantastic—coming in and out of focus, staying just long enough for you to find their rhythm before disappearing again. Those fragmented textures leave you slightly off balance in the best way.
“Lazy” is a chilled-out groove that I played three times in a row, trying to place its reference point before landing on Altered Images. I’m curious to hear if you hear it, too. And I’ll tell you this: “Country Song” doesn’t refer to the genre.
Last time around, I said the band had a bass sound that felt like it “came from the same finishing school as Peter Hook.” I meant that as high praise, and I’ll happily repeat it here, doubly so on the title track. The song is the album’s centerpiece—icy, chaotic, and alive all at once. It sounds like Movement-era New Order at their most up-tempo, and it absolutely hits.
Is It Now? is a record that makes you think as much as it makes you move. The beats are irresistible, the message impossible to ignore. Unlike Excess, this isn’t about escapism—it’s about working your way through the current moment, heavy as it may be. Luckily, Automatic know how to turn reflection into rhythm.
Kevin Sent 
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