New songs for June 23rd, 2025

 here they are:


"Bloodline" by Kaleo:  Perhaps one of the most guitar-forward of all the indie-folk/pop bands to come out of the past 10-ish years, Kaleo deftly weave folk-rock and blues-rock in a way that few bands do (sometimes even going for Zeppelin-esque hard blues-rock like "No Good"). Kaleo's latest song, "Bloodline," sounds like a cross between the world weary soulfulness of Hozier and the blues-y garage rock of The Black Keys! This song even has a cool (but brief) guitar solo to boot! The foreboding yet tantalizing sound of the song's title goes right along with how the song actually is! The mystery of "Bloodline" is so alluring, too! Is it about a friend, or an enemy? Both, perhaps?! The second verse of the song seems to tell all, with lines like, "There's nothin' left to hide/Now let me see your dark side/A friend is hard to find/When you're first in line." Is Jokull trying to get back at someone or trying to get them to open up to him?! We may never know!

"Blurry Lights" by Ax and The Hatchetmen:  One half techno-y new wave and the other half jagged post-punk, Ax and The Hatchetmen's "Blurry Lights" has a very interesting sound! It's one of those songs that sounds as paranoid as it is catchy! The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. as the song's special guest guitarist certainly adds to the song's post-punk-y flavor! The story behind the song gives a whole new meaning to "art rock," too. As it turns out, the song was inspired by a bad mushroom trip that the lead singer (whose name, in fact, IS Ax - well, Axel) had while seeing an exhibit on Van Gogh at a Chicago museum. Not an experience he recommends! However, I'm all for the idea of people making their own trippy images in their heads while listening to this song!

"Electric Green Lambo" by Dope Lemon:  OK...first of all, what even IS an "Electric Green Lambo"?! Is it a lamb with green wool that shocks you when you touch it?! Heck if I know! This song seems to bridge the weird titles and freeform nature of Funkadelic with the ethereal post-punk-funk sound of TV on the Radio. Then again, that guitar solo sounds a bit more Eddie Hazel than it does Kyp Malone. The title and lyrics definitely have that self-consciously weird Funkadelic vibe, though! Aside from the unexplainable title, there's also lyrics like "Old Mickey Green Eyes is flippin' drip" (Say WHAT?!) and "The wolf the long grass with a window to a dream" (Seriously, what kind of drugs was this guy taking when he wrote this?!) Weaving sex AND drugs together into a single theme is the lyric, "My skinny dippin' girl, she's a trip." This is one of those songs you want when you feel in the mood to freak out AND freak ON, if you know what I mean! Yowza!!

"Gunslinger" by Natalie Bergman:  Wild Belle (perhaps best known for the catchy indie-soul song, "Keep You")'s lead singer, Natalie Bergman, strikes out on her own here, just as sassy, sweet, and soulful as she is in Wild Belle. She certainly makes a unique impression with "Gunslinger," which sounds like The Supremes, Elle King, and a spaghetti Western had a baby! "Baby, won't you take me back?" Natalie earnestly pleads over sultry vocals and grooves in this song. Sounds like there's been a bit of trouble in paradise from those lyrics, but Natalie flips forlorn love on its head and "takes it back" herself, like a boss!

"Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)" by Lady Blackbird:  With "Like a Woman," which came out early this year, Lady Blackbird flew onto the music scene and broke barriers in genre, gender, and race all in one! With the funky, sassy, gospel-influenced "Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)," Lady Blackbird continues to save our souls this summer with this saucy yet spiritual sizzler of a song! Before you go thinking that Blackbird is the 2020's answer to Aretha Franklin, though, consider this. Lady Blackbird does have a subversive sense of humor at the beginning of this track! Just when you THINK she's being sincerely reverent, she drops this line on us: "O, Ye of little faith, remember your twisted fate. Heaven is just a game not meant to last." I don't think any sincerely religious song would say that heaven is "just a game"! But it IS a line that makes you think! Perhaps Blackbird had bad experiences at churches growing up, and she's using this song to take back those who wronged her! Could be?!

"The Other Side" by Major Spark:  The defiant garage-rock-meets-power-pop song has connections to both The Dandy Warhols AND Andy Warhol! Well, kind of. Musically, it's a cousin of The Dandys' "Bohemian Like You" (although a bit more harmonica heavy), but Major Spark themselves recorded their album with none other than The Velvet Underground's Maureen "Moe" Tucker, thus solidifying their Andy Warhol connection! Major Spark's "The Other Side" has Velvets-style defiance in both its crunchy sound and raw lyrics! Lines like "G*d d*mn this anger hiding what you see/Let it be your fuel the second you break free" are meant to spark a fire in your belly and make you wanna take risks! I mean that's what this song is all about, am I right?!

"What About Me?" by The Tano Jones Revelry:  Amongst a wave of electrifying songs for this week, it's only fitting we close with a song that has trippy, swirling guitar riffs! Right from the opening of "What About Me?" we hear riffs that feel like they stepped straight out of a 1960's rock song! "What About Me?" is a song that's meant to make people come together (which, again, seems like the lingering spirit of a '60s rock song) given how divided we have been as a culture lately. Rock, soul, and country collide in this doozy of a song, telling us to have hope through the hard times!