Rejoice! The Most Important Song is back! Ok, that’s minor news compared to this: The Hold Stead has some new music out, it’s great, and there is quite a lot of it. Over the last month or so they’ve had a steady (heh) stream of singles coming out and they’re all really great. My favorite, so far, is “The Stove & The Toaster” a song that I think is best described as “classic The Hold Steady”.
Young the Giant - Simplify
For Valentine's Day 2017, Keith surprised me with tickets to see YtG at Stubb's that night - a show that had sold out fast and to my great disappointment. Yay I have a fantastic boyfriend and that's just a tiny bit of the evidence! Also, it was a great show. For this new single, I feel like the band has taken their style slightly closer to the kind of soft rock power balladeers I grew up hearing as credits rolled on the VHS. Maybe I'm just thinking that as I've been listening to a lot of 80s lately, including some of those soundtracks. Or maybe it's the romance of this song making me feel nostalgic for those movies, as well as grateful for what I have.
Upcoming Shows
Parquet Courts - Total Football
Parquet Courts' new album, Wide Awake!, is fantastic, with many tracks worthy of a Most Important choice. I decided to go with "Total Football" because I feel like it captures what makes them great and because it feels a bit timely with World Cup coming up next week. If you've not had a listen to the album, do yourself a favor and cue it up, it's a gem.
Upcoming Shows
We Are Scientists - No Wait at Five Leaves
We Are Scientists are one of my favorites, and while I've not really been hooked by their last couple releases, I've always enjoyed them. Their latest album, Megaplex, is a little bit of a throwback to either earlier sound and, as such, I'm hooked.
Upcoming Shows
Unlikely Friends - All the Cameras in Japan
We're still getting into the swing of regular life after SXSW. It was terrific, as per the usual, and we'll have some tuff to share soon. In the meantime, enjoy this peppy, poppy, summery cut from Unlikely Friends, a PacNW band who reminds me of Library Voices and Seattle summers.
RIYL: Library Voices, A Certain Smile, Pugwash, Said The Whale, Sloan