Lambchop recently announced their latest album This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) and released the first single “The December-ish You” as a preview of what to expect. The album is due March 22nd, 2019 and is, by and large, a collaboration between frontman Kurt Wagner and Matthew McCaughan (of Bon Iver and Hiss Golden Messenger). Wagner’s output being fueled by collaboration is par for the course given his previous output fueled by insights form the likes of William Tyler or Ryan Norris (Coupler). On the latest collaboration, the official press statement says:

“They became instant musical pen pals, with Wagner sending him a cappella takes of new song ideas and McCaughan dispatching long-form synthesizer pieces for inspiration. McCaughan eventually headed to Nashville, where, together, they put a band behind the songs, using pedal steel and piano and the harmonica of Nashville legend Charlie McCoy to color in the spaces of these black-and-white sketches.”

The lead single gives hints of that sound, with pedal steel and piano flourishes emerging from the soundscape of programmed beats and altered vocal lines. The jury is still out on what the full record will sound like but, based on this one peek, it’s a sensible progression from the previous full-length FLOTUS and the work done in HeCTA.

Released in late November, the latest from Gummy Soul, bananas., is self-described as “some groovy shit to rock out to.” It serves as an excellent respite amidst all the holiday and Christmas music, to say the very least.

Unsurprisingly, the album covers plenty of ground stylistically. There’s “groovy shit” like “Blast Off”, Pink Floyd style space-out tracks like “Out Ya Face” and total psych-freak out tracks like “Cult Leader.” Most fascinating, there are a handful of tracks (“Innerview”, “Tape Deck”) laden with mysterious samples of an out-of-context interview which really lends itself well to the title of Bananas. because the subject sounds like a total loon.

The album also comes with a small note of something else to expect in the future from Gummy Soul:

This is an instrumental album of beats I made while finishing my Psychedelic Rock opus, Bad Trip.

Assuming that’s no joke, bananas. may well serve as an excellent teaser for something even further afield coming soon.

Waaay back in 2015, we made note of the utterly enjoyable Quichenight EP War on Christmas in which Brett Rosenberg waxed eloquently about a “Gentrifyin’ Santa,” among other topics.

What we failed to mention is that there’s an even earlier Quichenight ode to Christmas in the form of 2011’s A Very Quichey Christmas. The recording quality is definitively more DIY than more current offerings but the ramshackle delivery of songs like “O’ Frosty” are actually refreshing this time of year. The highlight of the EP is “Rocknroll Christmas” as it rolls along pleasantly with a perfectly balanced dose of guitar noodling, fun backing vocals and general goodtime vibes.

Never let them tell you that Christmas songs can’t be fun. Quichenight may be the exception to the rule but that exception is.. exceptional!

Back in February, Joe Pisapia released his latest album Connection and we liked it. He’s now followed up on that with a collection of holiday appropriate tunes entitled Cosmic Christmas. We played the appropriately melancholy “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” on Volume 122 of the MUSIC podcast but the album is deserving of a full listen.

While we would have been pretty satisfied with a straightforward batch of songs of acoustic guitar paired with Pisapia’s distinctive voice, he delivers something much more enjoyably unique than that. Tracks like “My Little Drum” make great use of handclapping percussion and some spacey guitar. “I’d Like You For Christmas” leverages layered harmonies, female vocals from Jennie Okon and some lulling mellotron. Even the previously mentioned “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” is peppered with a snowfall like composition that lends itself perfectly to the melancholy longing of Christmas. There’s even “Alfie the Christmas Tree” – a John Denver ditty that feels decidedly like it’s lost narration from Nilsson’s The Point.

These songs probably won’t find their way into your non-holiday playlists during the rest of the year but they’re great candidates for heavy rotation right up until December 26th.

Don’t be fooled by the location tag on the Sugadaisy Bandcamp profile labeled Kentucky, the whole band has relocated to Nashville. My Facebook feed tells me that local Nashville natives hate this kind of behavior but fuck that, the more the merrier.

Speaking of merriment, the latest EP from the band, entitled Come Together, Pretend Whatever​.​.​.​Celebration, is a collection of feel-good tracks overflowing with sweet little grooves, fun vocal lines and general goodheartedness. I’d go as far as to call this hippie music – not because it’s filled with meandering solos (it’s not) but because of that good natured delivery of every song. There’s something definitively delightful in every song. The horns on “Dusk vs Dawn”, the baritone refrain on “Throw It All Away”, the backing vocal flourishes on “Pretend” and the myriad of layered everything on “Suzii” make for a fun listen.

Unfortunately, labeling a band as “feel good” comes across as a pejorative. Music that instills a feeling of optimism and positivity is often not taken as seriously as dark or brooding music. That’s unfortunate because Sugadaisy’s EP provides an excellent dose of relief; something we could all benefit from in a time of relenting news updates.