Fruitful month! School’s started for me, with travel embedded in that process, so I’m scramblin’, BUT…
SPOTLIGHT ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Amyl & The Sniffers: Truth or Consequence Live Album (Rough Trade UK)
Why so much jazz, dude? I simply like excellent music, and the last decade’s worth of creatively improvised music stimulates my body, exercises my mind, holds my interest, and gives me hope (a metaphor for cooperative success). A good example of what I’m speaking of is what Mahakala Music is dedicated to (no, I don’t get review copies–but I buy their physical releases reviews-unread).
What up with this month’s spotlight album? I have admired Amyl and Co.’s music in the past, but the performance captured on it is sweaty, snotty, funny, defiant–and inspiring. Gotta see the documentary…GOTTA!
1-800-Mikey...realllly? Y’know, power pop is back and this is one of the year’s finest in that subgenre. My rawkin’ pal calls it “too cute,” but I call it innocent (well, as innocent as anyone can be right now in human development) and energetic. Goner Records knows.
Biggest surprise to you? I stumbled upon Lex Walton‘s record completely randomly, was struck by the cover art, and was immediately in. My first impression was “if the early Strokes were pissed and specific.” Also, the album dovetails nicely with a freshman comp class I’m teaching built around Sasha Geffen’s Glitter Up The Dark.
From our friend Brad Luen: “Mommy, what’s a kwn“? While let’s no compare music yet–though it’s all the way there, and she plays multiple instruments–this young lady’s vision of sex makes Prince seem somewhat chaste (he WAS demure in his own way). Thank you to my student Chase Townsend, who just wrote an essay about kwn that sent me racing to the album.
Is that Margaret Glaspy THAT GOOD? Well, I had not been convinced fully by her previous albums, and I do not trust A-plusses, but the unity, specificity and emotional power of these songs and that tiny bit of corrugated texture in her throat puts this one all the way over for me.
Do I really need to buy another copy of Maggot Brain? Yes. Org Music‘s remaster is killer bee. Get some Maggot Brain Coffee Beans while you’re at it. I am a sucker, but they are actually tasty. Give your extra copy/ies to some teenagers on you block or in your house or in your classroom (I did the latter.)
Is that Modern Lovers thang a boot? No, it’s a sneaker.
What the heck does MettaSun refer to? The lady don’t take no when it comes to The Sun One’s discography–plus I was seriously convinced hearing Jimetta deliver them live with Makaya McCraven, Junius Paul, Corey Wilks, and Alex Harding backing her at the Hyde Park Jazz Fest. Thumping!
Dude! Anything else pop off at that Fest? OH YES. Marquis Hill: maybe the best trumpet I’ve heard played this year, and I saw Adam O’Farrill earlier this year; Kris Davis Trio–tele-fucking-pathic beauty; some fascinating diddley bow playing; Joshua Redman playing classic tenor solos solo in Roosevelt Chapel; Oscar Brown Jr.’s daughters Africa and Maggie doin’ him proud.
You were claiming previously here that this was a great year for rap music, but I’m still hearing mumbling–you have any more proof? Of course. Curly Castro just dropped a fresh candidate for best album of the year. Backwoodz Studios needs to be taken seriously, and, no, I don’t get review copies from ’em. Oh, um, ALSO: Dee Cee and steel-tipped dove. Annnnd: A woman named RAPSODY.
THIS MONTH’S LIST
***** = Fantastic
**** = Excellent
*** = Very Good
No stars = Good! (definitely NOT BAD!)
Italics = Excavation from the Past
1-800-MIKEY: In Yun (Goner) ****
Florian Arbenz / Greg Osby / Bill Frissell: Quiet Lights (Hammer)
Curly Castro: yaphet (Backwoodz Studios)
Def Cee and steel-tipped dove: We Will be Brief (Fused Arrow) ****
Sylvia Courvoisier: Amalthea (Pyroclastic) *Out 10/12 *****
Czarface: Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer (Silver Age All)
Kris Davis Trio: Lost in Geneva (4166 Records) ****
Dinner Party: Whatchu Bringing? (Empire)
Firelife Trio: The Space Around the Sound Resounds (Sonic Transmissions)
Chad Fowler & Eri Yamamoto: Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Mahakala Music) ****
Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (Org Music Remaster) *****
Margaret Glaspy: I Am Both (ATO) *****
Nathan Hanson & Steve Hirsch: Memory is Subjective (Mahakala Music) ****
Marquis Hill: (Beautifulism) Sweet Surrender (Black Unlimited Music Group) ***
Abdullah “Dollar Brand” Ibrahim / Carlos Ward / Don Cherry: The Third World Underground (We Want Sounds) ****
Elvin Jones: Revival—Live at Pookie’s Pub (Blue Note)
Jin Hi Kim: The Jin Hi Kim Collection (Neuma Records)
kwn: all pride aside (RCA) ****
Rocio Jimenez Lopez Quinteto: Primeros Auxilios (Blue Art)
Modern Lovers: After Hours with the Modern Lovers—Live at the Mercer Arts Center New Year’s Eve 3:00 A.M. January 1st 1973
Miles Okazaki: WORK—The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk (Cygnus) *Out 10/10
Marek Pospieszalski Octet: EVER (self-released)
Rapsody: God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops (We Each Other) ***
Ishmael Reed: Every Time I Feel the Spirit (Reading Group)
Marc Ribot Quartet: Hurry Red Telephone (Pi Recordings) *10/30—worth the wait! ****
Jimetta Rose: MettaSun (Night Dreamer)
Brandon Seabrook: Utility Modern (Out of Your Head)
Ty Segall: Chrome (Drag City)
Shabaka: Of The Earth (Shabaka Records) ****
Sharp Pins: Mod Mayday 23 (perennial)
Wadada Leo Smith: Constellations and Hemispheres (Burning Ambulance)
Craig Taborn / Tomeka Reid / Chas Smith: Dream Archives (ECM) ****
Henry Threadgill / Vijay Iyer / Dafnis Prieto: Fifteen (Nonesuch)
Tinashe: Pop Star (A Nice Life Recording Company) ****
Lex Walton: Ultimate Love Forever (Sub Pop) *****
ALSO…
Sample Living to Listen’s “Best of 2026” Bandcamp Playlist
My mid-year best-of, drawn from my previous ’26 posts. (Add any of the 5- and 4-stars above!)
The ballot I submitted for The Francis Davis Memorial Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll
If it be your will, follow me on Instagram ( “Good to My Earhole”: daily album cover quadrant), Substack (“The Overeem Failed Farewell Tour”: reflections on my ongoing teaching career with frequent lacing-throughs of music experience), and elsewhere on WordPress (“The Overeem Farewell Tour—Dispatches from The Public School Trenches”: a much deeper dive into pub-ed, featuring a “final” year day-by-day verbal highlight reel and a Covid diary, 3/3/2020 to 3/3/2021 – it is very disorganized but, hey, so were the times).
Vintage Albums I Deeply Enjoyed This Month
The Abyssinians: Satta in Dub
The Clash: Black Market Clash (original 10” version)
Elizabeth Cook: Welder
Kidd Jordan / Alvin Fielder / Peter Kowald: Duo and Trio in New Orleans
The MC5: The Big Bang!
Fred McDowell: Amazing Grace
Minutemen: Project Mersh
Moon Mullican: Moonshine Jamboree
Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra: Rachmaninoff—The Bells / Isle of the Dead
The Rascals: Anthology
Lou Reed: New York
Ed Sanders: Sanders’ Truckstop
Sonic Youth: Evol
Sonic Youth: Sister
John Tchicai: Tribal Ghost
Johnny Thunders: So Alone
Various Artists: Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection 1960-2000
Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents… Junglist—Old Skool Ragga, D&B, Jungle 1993-1995
Fay Victor: Darker Than Blue
Hey! I Read, Too, and So Should You!
Louise Erdrich: Python’s Kiss
Jonathan Gould: Burning Down the House—Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock
Annie Jacobsen: Nuclear War—A Scenario
John Kruth: Rhapsody in Black—The Life and Music of Roy Orbison
Wright Thompson: The Barn—The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
Brad Tolinski, Ben Edmonds, and Jaan Uhelszki: MC5—An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band
