Spencer Griffin's New Music Mondays

Hey everyone! Can you believe it?! The last blog of the year is finally here!! Counting 'em down from bottom to top, here they are!! 20. "Love is the Way" - Thee Sacred Souls 19. "For Your Soul" - Josh Ritter 18. "Go Down River" - The Heavy Heavy 17. "Tropic Morning News" - The National 16. "Good Old Days" - The Revivalists 15. "Dial Drunk" - Noah Kahan 14. "Maestro (Tears Don't Lie)" - Wilder Woods 13. "Thinking About You" - Beck 12. "More Than a Love Song" - Black Pumas 11. "Kid" - The Revivalists 10. "Evicted" - Wilco 9. "Pepper" - Death Cab for Cutie 8. "Ghosts Again" - Depeche Mode 7. "Road to Joy" - Peter Gabriel 6. "Francesca" - Hozier 5. "Hungersite" - Goose 4. "Psychos" - Jenny Lewis 3. "Say Yes to Heaven" - Lana Del Rey 2. "All I Really Wanna Do" - Devon Gilfillian annnndddd....the...

 SEVEN new songs for the month of December?! It's a Christmas miracle!! Here they are: "Agua" by Porno for Pyros:  It's been a little over a quarter century since Porno for Pyros, Perry Farrell from Jane's Addiction's side project, last released a song! Their biggest (and almost only) hit, "Pets," was released back in 1993, an unusually soft song for a band featuring a musician known mostly for doing hard and often controversial rock songs. Jane's Addiction is generally recognized as being legendary and innovative among alt-rock and hard rock fans for both their lyrical audacity and their musical audacity to combine post-punk, heavy metal, funk, psychedelic rock, and progressive rock into a single entity (and even reggae and folk with songs like "Jane Says"). Porno for Pyros tend to not receive near as much recognition as Jane's Addiction, but Perry Farrell's aggressively nasal vocals are unmistakable, and they shine through jus...

 here they are: "Can't Believe We're Here" by J. Mascis:  Like a lot of his solo stuff, the Dinosaur Jr. frontman's latest song leans more towards folk-rock than noise-rock (except maybe during the guitar solo part), but it still contains the raw, ragged sense of honesty and world weariness he is known for. The song seems to be a lament about a relationship he has gone through, with the titular "we" referring to him and his partner. Typical Dino Jr./Mascis disillusionment with life here.  "From the Start" by Laufey:  Look out, Bjork! Another eclectic Icelander is on your path, and her name is Laufey (pronounced like "lay-vay"). Laufey has earned comparisons to other charmingly weird (or would that be weirdly charming?!) women in indie-folk-pop of the 2020's such as beabadoobee and Mitski, and with her unpredictable yet super catchy combo of indie-folk and bossa nova (of all things), it's easy to see why she has been compared t...