New Music Weekend / Friday 07-04-25
(New Music Weekend Intro)
Happy 4th of July Weekend – non-stop fireworks. Pyros are happy all across the land.
(“Pets” clip from Porno for Pyros)
That’s the only Pyros out of me – Porno for Pyros. Let’s get to New Music Weekend
Who’s coming up: Kesha, Pig Pen, G. Love & Special Sauce, Nilüfer Yanya, Dexter and The Moonrocks
(Countdown Video)
New Music Weekend:
- The new album release from Kesha is perfectly timed for Independence Day Weekend, as it truly feels like her declaration of artistic and personal freedom. (“Freedom” clip) That’s the album’s opening track – “Freedom”. However, there’s a journey felt as it takes about two and a half minutes for the song to really pick up and finally get to the naughty fun (another “Freedom” clip). .Period (show blue card of a period) is Kesha’s sixth studio album and her first release on her own independent label, Kesha Records. There are 11 Songs in all. (“Boy Crazy” clip) That song “Boy Crazy” jumped out to me – basically, a straightforward celebration of being attracted to boys, without any apology or overthinking. One side of the coin with Kesha having a good time. But if “Boy Crazy” is pure giddy infatuation, then the other side of that coin is “Red Flag” which embraces chaos and toxic attraction. (clip)
- One of my most favorite songs to run to is from the Dropkick Murphys (“The Boys are Back”) I actually play that song back-to-back within several of my running playlists, but that’s a song from 2013. I call this thing “New Music Weekend” for a reason. Their new album, For The People, is their 13th studio album, and it’s out now. The very first single they dropped from this album was “Who’ll Stand With Us?”, and it’s a powerful mission statement for the entire record. (“Who’ll Stand with Us” clip) Despite the song’s anger, the underlying message is one of unity, hope, and a “return to sanity.” For The People aligns perfectly with their themes of fighting for the common person from a working-class perspective. But there are some playful songs on the album too, like this revved-up ode to Pennywise guitarist Fletcher: this is the Dropkick Murphys singing about “The Big Man.”
- Matty Matheson portrays the handyman in the FX show – The Bear, while also being the show’s producer and culinary consultant. But – did you know that he’s also the lead singer of a band called Pig Pen? – a hardcore punk band – sometimes known as “really loud.” (“Mental Mentality” clip) The band, Pig Pen, reportedly wrote all ten songs in one day and then recorded them the very next day, which absolutely bleeds into the album’s raw, unpolished, and immediate feel (“Rabid Beach”). Their album – Mental Madness – actually dropped last week, but so did 10 episodes of The Bear. FYI – The Bear has been renewed for Season 5.//
- Several quick hits of new music: Back in 1998, the original Has Gone Country album was released by G. Love. While we often associate him with that gritty, hip-hop blues sound with Special Sauce, this album re-release gives a us a very different side of him – Country // I’ve talked about this artist before and how much I enjoy her fresh indie sound. Nilüfer Yanya just released this past week a new EP titled: Dancing Shoes. Now, it might only be a 4 track collection of songs, but it’s still a very captivating listen for the weekend. // Dexter and The Moonrocks originally recorded a cover of a song for a major motion picture. Unfortunately, the movie ended up NOT using it. But fortunately for us – Dexter and The Moonrocks did release the song – here’s a sample of their cover of Black Sabbath’s classic “Paranoid” (clip)
Thank you to Spotify, Rolling Stone, Apple Music, uDiscoverMusic, Pigeons & Planes, Pitchfork, Louder, Spill Magazine, Dan Deluca of the Philly Inquirer & I know there’s more.
I put together a Spotify playlist of the songs that I talked about and thought about today for New Music Friday. Click here for that! Anything that I really messed up and missed – well, that’s why I’ll be doing Missed Music Monday on Monday.
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