Spencer Griffin's New Music Mondays

 here they are: "Beaches" by beabadoobee:  I thought beabadoobee wouldn't achieve mainstream success again after the bubbly, Regina Spektor-esque song, "The Perfect Pair," made it onto both my local alternative station and  my local smooth jazz station about two years ago, but the eclectic indie sensation made huge waves yet again this year with her summer smash, "Take a Bite," which might mark the first time that she topped the adult alt radio charts, even though she has been featured on said charts many times before. beabadoobee seems to have a fondness for '90s alt-rock, and it shows on her latest song, "Beaches," which has echoes of some of the softer No Doubt songs like "Don't Speak" and "Simple Kind of Life." "Beaches" tries to rock out with its grungy distortion and its electric guitar solo towards the end, but it still very much a breezy, post-summer soft rock tune for the indie generation. The ly...

 here they are: "Baby Blue Movie" by Cigarettes After Sex:  A song like this one really emphasizes the "sex" part of "Cigarettes After Sex"! What, you may ask, is a "baby blue movie," and what does it have to do with sex? A "blue movie" is slang for...well...one of those kinds of movies. So a "baby" version would simply be a softer version, but still one where the intent is to produce lewd, lascivious, lustful, lurid longings in lads and ladies. The sweet, buoyant music goes right along with that theme...ummm...kind of. What I'd actually expect is more "wah-wah" sax-laden funk music, but I suppose something of a sweeter nature can also go along with it. CAS also make us wonder, just what is this "always4tuesdays" that Greg Gonzalez refers to in the song? As it turns out, that has varying definitions! The version Greg probably meant is the one that refers to someone viewed as the most beautiful person in...

 here they are:  "Habits" by Gary Clark Jr.:  Known for being the 21st-century answer to Jimi Hendrix for some people, Gary Clark Jr. rarely presents a vulnerable, sensitive side to his material, but with Gary's latest song, "Habits," we get to see a poignant side to the blues-rocker extraordinaire. It's a heartbreaker of a song that could be about many things. He never says just what the "habits" are in his song, but it's implied that they're something of a personal nature, perhaps either drug related or anxiety related. Either way, "Habits" hits hard, in the best of ways! "Kinky" by BBY:  Not sure how to pronounce this performer's name ("Baby"? "Bee-bee"? "Buh-bee"? "Bee-bee-why"?!), but man, their song sure is catchy! Driven by a flange-y guitar riff and a fast, danceable beat, "Kinky" has become a big hit on alt-rock radio, and adult alt radio is slowly but surely...

 here they are: "Empty Trainload of Sky" by Gillian Welch:  Sighing combos of banjo and guitar and bittersweet Southern female vocals can only mean one thing. Gillian Welch has come out with a new song! Her latest number, "Empty Trainload of Sky," is a lovely bluegrass-folk-rock song in G minor with a blues-y D7 to punctuate the first two verses midway through. I'm not exactly sure what "Empty Trainload of Sky" is supposed to mean, but chances are it's a metaphor for some difficult experience(s) in her life. As she states in the second verse, "Well, it hit me and it hurt me/Made my good humor desert me." Fitting to her Tennessee roots, Gillian's comparison of hardships to empty trains really evokes "traveling down a lonesome highway" imagery to me.  "Paranoid" by by Hippo Campus:  Not to be confused with the (much) heavier Black Sabbath song of the same name, Hippo Campus' "Paranoid" is more impassion...