Decades ago (and I’m talking slightly over 40 years ago), I started working at a local radio station. Each week, there’d be stacks of records mailed to the program director – where he hoped that in these stacks of wax, there would be two or three potential hits that we’d start spinning for the audience. Looking back now, it’s comical to note that Madonna’s “Borderline” was not one of the records that made it on the airwaves in my neck of the woods – until that damned MTV went and made her popular. After that, the song never went away.
I remember hanging out with the PD as he mercilessly judged each record. He’d drop the needle, give it 30 seconds, and either toss it like yesterday’s news or skip to the chorus and finale. Then, after a beard-stroking deliberation, he’d declare, “Let’s give it a spin!” This was for newcomers, the artists labels were desperately trying to shove into our ears. For established acts, we just checked the industry charts to see what was hot. Oh, and as far as I know, the PD was squeaky clean – no shady payola deals, even from those “indie” folks.
Nowadays, when I listen to new songs from artists I don’t know, I’m more patient than the PD I worked for fortysomething years ago. I tend to listen to the first 90 seconds of a song before deciding whether to continue or stop. So, what you have here are three songs that I not only listened to in their entirety but also songs I’ve listened to many times – and heartily recommend.
Kula Shaker, “Indian Record Player” (YouTube)
Kula Shaker’s frontman Crispin Mills (Krishna Kantha Das) could easily be Mr. Cultural Appropriation were it not for his unironic embrace of a Hindu way of life through reading parts of the Mahabharata at age 11 and finding some kind of spiritual experience while traveling in India at age 19. But wait. It gets better. According to the Wiki, he was initiated into Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition in 1997 and the band’s name is a testament to a ninth-century Indian big wig, King Kulashekhara. So, yeah, he walks the walk. Kula Shaker’s music never caught on in the United States, but their breakthrough album K in 1996 has some good tunes on it that mix Indian music with a kind of Beatles/60’s style. And so it goes with their latest single “Indian Record Player” – which is pure fun. It has some familiar power chords on the guitar that kick things off while Mills name checks some Indian artistic greats as if he grew up listening to this music. The more you spin it, the more you’ll find yourself singing along with lyrics like:
We heard RD Burman and we heard Asha
On an Indian record player, that old Indian record player
yeah yeah yeah
Ba, ba, ba-ba-ba
Dolph Chaney, “Californiagain”(YouTube)
Dolph Chaney’s latest album Mug is a treat, and the single “Californiagain” is even treatier…Wait. Is that a real word? Well, you get the point. The song chronicles his tour of, what else, California. But let’s not forget the song mentions stops in Arizona, too. When I first heard Dolph’s music, I told fellow Popdoser Keith Creighton on my podcast (Planet LP) that Dolfph’s vocal phrasing and music sounded like it would fit well into the Barenaked Ladies catalog. I meant it as a compliment because his bouncy music and smart lyrics are instantly likable. Just listen to “Californiagain” once and you’ll find that you’ll want to hear it again and again.
Ron Lazzeretti, “Count Down By Threes” (YouTube)
There’s a Dire Straits/Bob Dylan quality to Ron Lazzeretti’s voice, and you hear it on “Count Down By Threes” – a record that came out in September 2023. So, while not new as in “this came out in 2024” new, it is fresh enough that I think it deserves to be on your radar. The imagery Lazzeretti paints with the chorus’ lyric, “Count down by threes/kill all the lights/nobody died today” has a dark quality to it. And even the title of his album, Fat Head, Sunday Paper is quite evocative. So yes, this Chicago singer/songwriter does go down a dark road a times, but Lazzeretti isn’t all David Lynch here. Some of his other songs center on that universal singer-songwriter favorite, love. And that’s a theme most of us can embrace – except maybe for sociopaths.
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