The mighty Tuesday Tunes is back! I heard you missed us. Summer's not over so jump into this cool pool of new songs and one older which all have the Wally stamp of approval. Life guards not on duty.
Hazel English has a new record, Real Life, out and it's got super dream pop slash jangle sounds to sooth your anxiety, plus the video for "Different Story" has 2 of my most favorite activities ever: roller skating and skateboarding. Plus the lyrics may seem simple, but they're really like the deep end of the pool.
Hazel English - Different Story
One of the things people love to write in YouTube comments after a band releases a new song is often the "the world is healing." Ugh. Stop with that crap. This phrase has become trite. A simple "this songs kicks ass" will suffice in most instances. Perhaps try "this song will fracture all reality and disintegrate the time barriers that have persisted since the original Earth Mama got drunk and knocked up." This next tune by Dinosaur Jr. isn't even the first song released off the just released new record Near There, but it's still pretty cool.....yeah isn't the world healing now. My actual favorite YouTube quote for this tune is "Unc still got it" by @AlanGPT. J, Murph, and Lou do indeed still have it.
Dinosaur Jr. - Everything at Once
The state of Michigan is producing some great rock bands lately (Liquid Mike being my faves) and The Erly have been cranking out some fine Midwestern heartland rock for years and their new album Midnight River Show continues their winning streak. Tuneful crunchy rock with a chewy center.
The Erly - Finish Line
Get in on the bottom floor of fandom with And The Bats who just put up their first video on YouTube. 12 likes as I write this with 1 being mine. More Midwest cats who are from Chicago (truly my kind of town) with a very vintage sound, but with enough original touches to win me over.
And The Bats - Long Long Gone
Another super hot unknown is Ghost Shrimp. Cool name with scant info at all. Just enjoy the music, even if their channel seems a bit jokey. I can certainly identify with wasting years. I'm hoping to have a few more to waste.
Ghost Shrimp - Another Wasted Year
5 likes, one of which is mine, 4 subscribers, one of which is me, and 47 views at the time of writing this post, if you want to get in on future megastar Owav now is the time. Plus the tune "Leaves Will Fall" may turn out to be prescient as autumn is fast approaching. I am also "nostalgic for things I don't remember and for things that don't exist." Well done.
Owav - Leaves Will Fall
It truly does amaze me as a long in the tooth Gen Xer whose primary music loves as a teenager were heavy metal and punk at how rock music genres in general keep on chugging along with no regard to time or national boundaries. Wasted Wizards come from Sweden and they are lots of fun! They won't be wannabe's for long with cool heavy metal tunes like this one.
Wasted Wizards - Wannabe Rockstar
I wrap up this Tuesday Tunes with one from the late Tim Curry who departed us last week. He was just a stone cold blast in whatever role he took, plus I've always dug his sideline as a rock singer. I really need to get cracking on his autobiography which I got earlier this year.
Yes, I'm bringing back for a limited time my reviews of The Tennessean Sunday Showcase and we begin our journey with August 30, 1981. I was 14 years old and had probably gone to the first week or so of high school by this date. It was a miserable time to be alive for me in many ways, but as always I found solace in pop culture. There will be a few of the things I loved from this era in this Sunday Showcase and lots of other things I've found interesting so many years later. Hope you get your full entertainment value from this latest installment. Don't bother calling any of the phone numbers listed in the ads though as most are probably no longer valid.
Foreigner was touring after the release of 4 and would be playing Municipal Auditorium on September 20. Billy Squier opened this tour, but the ad spells his name wrong. Don't Say No had been out since April along with the single "The Stroke", but the song was only hitting the Top Ten locally this week. And it hit with a bullet too at number 3. Maybe that's why his name was spelled correctly on it.
Foreigner - Urgent
Billy Squier - The Stroke
"The Stroke" was something to hear coming out of car stereos. It just exploded through the air. I bought the album Don't Say No and it's been a favorite ever since. I listened to it on a very cheap record player that I got when I was very young. It couldn't get super loud, but as the words in "I Need You" go, "when I feel low...my amps they blow."
The Jacksons would play Municipal Auditorium on August 31. They were touring behind the album Triumph which was their first album since 1971's Maybe Tomorrow to go number 1 on the R&B charts. It hadn't hurt that Michael's Off the Wall had been a massive success upon its release in 1979.
The Jacksons - Can You Feel It
The Jacksons concert was the night after the mighty Van Halen as they would play this very night of August 30, 1981 on their Fair Warning Tour. You would expect an ad in Showcase for this concert, but there's an interesting reason why there was no ad, nor was there any in previous papers for this show. It's a fascinating glimpse into how much money was used to market a concert in 1981.
Van Halen - Hear About It Later
Johnny Paycheck would play 2 nights at a club called Country Showcase in September. A Google Map search showed that this place is long gone, just like Johnny.
Spanky's is another club that's no longer around, but it would have been cool to see Doc and Merle Watson one night and then the Wrong Band the next. Cantrell's building is still standing, but that whole side of Broadway is now a nightmare scape to us Generation X survivors. Find me a time machine so I can go back and see R.E.M. play with Jason and the Nashville Scorchers opening.
The biggest entertainment ad in the Showcase is for a club called Blazing Saddles out on Nolensville Road. I love that it says there would be guest appearances by country music stars and musicians. It's another in a long list of places bulldozed over.
If hedonistic rock and roll and cheating country songs wasn't your bag you had the upcoming Day of Joy to be held at Hermitage Landing on September 5th. It's billed as a day of stirring Christian song, but it looks to me to be a Benson Records promotion. I really dig that Hermitage Landing logo.
Let's take a break for a word from our sponsors: Audio Systems and Mr. Gatti's Pizza.
TV capsule summaries crack me up. The Bad News Bears is one of my favorite movies of all time so I have to snicker at this one. I wouldn't say that Amanda Whurlizer is mean and tough.
The Bad News Bears trailer
Sherlock Holmes is coming to WPLN. It was a very long running radio show which ran from 1939 to 1950 with Basil Rathbone as the titular detective.
Time for the TV Starscreen Puzzle by Al Kilgore. This was a weekly feature. Good luck.
A couple of movie ads for films I haven't seen. I need to get on that. Hell Night looks like fun and I thought I was a big fan of Linda Blair. How could have I missed this one.
Hell Night trailer
Film number 2 is one I honestly don't believe I have ever heard of (and I thought I was a big fan of Walter Matthau too) called First Monday in October. It's a fictional film about the first female Supreme Court justice named Ruth Loomis played by Jill Clayburgh, but was filmed before Sandra Day O'Connor actually became the first. So after her nomination the movie was rushed to the market. Fact trumped fiction which probably hurt the movie at the box office. I couldn't find a trailer, but here's a clip.
First Monday in October clip
Now for the interesting (at least to me), weird, and scandalous.
First up is the interesting: a Jheri Kurl hairdo sure cost some money. Which led me to muse about Jheri curls. Michael Jackson had one among other celebrities. A guy I went to high school with had one and he used to catch hell about leaving stains on the wall if he leaned on it. This led me down a rabbit hole to discover a dude named Jheri Redding (famous for Redding haircare of course) invented it. It was a way to get "wash and wear" looking curls that was easier to use than the standard relaxer method. It still involved a lot of work.
I love the Muppets. I never cared much for Miss Piggy though. Maybe I would have liked Mrs. Piggy.
Hypnotism is weird to me. I like the idea of it, but I'm such a recalcitrant rebel I don't believe I could ever be hypnotized. Hypnosis Center ads were often in the Sunday Showcase. I found after a cursory Google search that M. C. Radford lived until 2024. His obituary took no note of his hypnosis work, but only noted he was a salesman. He was an interesting guy. He claimed he had told Metro Police where Marcia Trimble's body would be found.
We end on the scandalous. Nashville has long been regarded as being the buckle of the Bible Belt. It is renowned for its many churches and being a hub of Christian publishing and music. That buckle was a little tarnished though. Take the belt off and find out some folks probably don't have on underwear. Maybe you could have met some of those folk if you had been wild enough to call the number in this ad in 1981.
Once the Opry moved and the major department stores and movie chains left for the suburbs, downtown Nashville was a bit tawdry. I remember even as late as the early 90's there were still lots of adult bookshops and adult movie places around. Not because I went to them, but because downtown Nashville was so deserted after dark it was a perfect place to ride a skateboard. Now you can't go 2 feet without hitting a drunk bachelorette party. I suppose it's still a bit tawdry and, let's be honest, much more stupid.
This wraps up this review of the August 30, 1981 Tennessean Sunday Showcase. I'll do my best to have another one up next week.
Most people come out with their best of lists in December, but I'm not like most people. Here's my countdown from 8 to 1 of my favorite albums of 2025.
8. Snocaps - Snocaps Katie Crutchfield has a musical reunion with her twin sister Allison with M.J. Lenderman and Brad Cook along for the ride. If you were a fan of Katie and Allison's old band P.S. Eliot this album is a must for you. I'm still waiting for the actual physical LP release which doesn't happen until April, but it was issued to streaming services on Halloween last year. What a surprise treat!
Snocaps - "Cherry Hard Candy"
7. Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override A sprawling 3 LP's or CD's worth of solo material Jeff has been making over the last several years. Much of it is mediative, but never morose. It could have been cut down to a single LP, but I dig the vibe of extra one gets from this album that is a grower and not a shower.
Jeff Tweedy - "Lou Reed Was My Babysitter"
6. Phoebe Rings - Aseurai It may be because I am a product of the Seventies, but while my first big love was of metal and punk (Kiss and Ramones were so formative for me) I'm still a massive mark for well crafted pop and New Zealander's Phoebe Rings is a delight. I got to see them open for The Beths in November and then was lucky enough to meet them and purchase their first full length record Aseurai which they autographed to me. Wish I had bought one of their lazy disco caps when I had the chance.
Phoebe Rings - "Get Up"
5. Wednesday - Bleeds You might have thought Wednesday was taking a full fledged turn into country with the initial singe "Elderberry Wine" but Bleeds turned out to be perhaps the most eclectic of the band's career. Karly Hartzman follows her muse wherever it leads. Hardcore screaming punk...you got it. Countrygaze hum and throb...sure thing. Completely strange and weird "Phish Pepsi"...let's go. I'm down for all of it.
Wednesday - "Townies"
4. Lemonheads - Love Chant 2025 went down as the year of Evan Dando's big comeback. First there was the excellent memoir Rumors of My Demise ghost written by Jim Ruland. It was quite an exhilarating read. The first new album of original Lemonheads material in 19 years came out in October. Love Chant was better than expected, a thrilling return to form for Evan. A successful U.S. tour happened in the fall and winter which was capped off with an appearance on the nationwide The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Then word came that a planed European tour was off. Then the news arrived that Evan was heading into rehab after sending lewd videos to a fan via Twitter/X direct message. It seems like Mr. Dando is really into self sabotage. I hope he finally gets free of the drugs and other demons.
Lemonheads - "The Key of Victory"
3. Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On Chicago band Horsegirl's first album Versions of Modern Performance from 2022 was a noisy classic paying homage to Sonic Youth that made me wonder how these young ladies had been exposed to such great music growing up. If you expected more of the same with the new record you might have been disappointed. They flipped the script on the new album. The noise was gone and we get an early Wire type minimalism on what I feel is an even better record.
Horsegirl - "Switch Over"
1. The Beths - Straight Line Was A Lie Oh, how I love The Beths let me count the ways. You might notice that I skipped number 2. That's because I'm only including my Top 8 and since the 2 albums at the top of my list are in a dead heat they both get number 1. The Beths just keep on putting out great records even with front woman Liz Stokes having some health issues and writer's block. Once again, I got to see them play live and meet with after the show. They are one of the greatest groups ever.
The Beths - "Metal"
1. Liquid Mike - Hell Is An Airport My old pal D.D. Blank got me into Liquid Mike. Feels like the old days when we would always be sharing the gospel of music amongst ourselves. Liquid Mike hail from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and they are pure rock 'n roll! Short sweet songs with astute creative lyrics with raging guitars. If you are seeking some throwback Nineties crunch updated to today you need this album post haste.
It's been awhile I know. Never fear though, Wally's here once more to share what's happening in his music world. The latest thing is the younger folks have really embraced the Nineties. We're talking about grunge, indie/alternative, shoegaze, and jangle pop.....all of which really began in the Eighties, but didn't reach its full flowering until the next decade. The best of the new breed are not slavishly copying their elders, but they are taking the best parts and formulating their own spin which makes my tired old ears grin.
It's almost all newer stuff this time around. I did decide that 2026 should be the year of metal so I have included one metal adjacent song. Heavy metal and punk rock were what got me through high school (perhaps even saved my life as I went through some dark days) and I will never lose my love of it.
First up is a very new band from the UK who call themselves Tooth. There are several bands with that moniker so I wish them luck with the name. Their tune "Age of Innocence" has a good beat with some driving bright guitars, fitting for a crew that features one of them pulling out Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque album out of a record store bin. "I wonder if it will always be like this...."
Tooth - "Age of Innocence"
Next up is Seko from South Pasadena, California. "Barrel Connector" is a dream-pop jewel of a song with an incredibly cool video. All 3 of their videos available on YouTube were directed by band member Justice Vaughn Ott who is quite the filmmaker to go along with music creation. Lots of Eighties and Nineties musical reference abound in the videos themselves with Dinosaur Jr., The Swirlies, Ride, and Velocity Girl among others featured in their videos. This band has a bright future!
Seko - "Barrel Connector"
Joe Glass provides us with a video he co-directed with Owen Vaughan: "Dust on Your Halo/New Pose." He only has 86 subscribers as of the day I am writing this post so do yourself a favor and go, like, and subscribe at this lo-fi Chicago artist's video! It's really fun.
Joe Glass - "Dust on Your Halo/New Pose"
Liquid Mike, hailing from the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan is my favorite band in America. I believe Mike Maple wouldn't mind if I referred to him as an acolyte of Guided by Voices. He's almost as prolific as Robert Pollard and he certainly has a brilliant knack for writing memorable melodies. He had shown that with previous band We Should Be Laughing, but he's shortened the tunes with Liquid Mike (you rarely hit the 3 minute mark), yet packs in even catchier and heavier arrangements. They are coming to Nashville to play Jorts Fest in May. I really hope I get a chance to go see them. I'll have more from them next week as I finally get around to posting my Top Eight Albums from last year.
Here's some new music from an old artist: Steve Diggle's second Buzzcocks album, Attitude Adjustment, post the passing of Pete Shelley came out recently and it's not bad. I was one of those cynical folks thinking he should have stopped using the Buzzcocks name, but I've come around. Give the new album a chance. You might just end up humming the songs all day in your head afterwards which definitely seems apropos considering Diggle was the man who wrote "Harmony in My Head."
Buzzcocks - "Queen of the Scene"
Snail Mail is back with a new song and an album to follow in March. I got to see Snail Mail open for Dinosaur Jr. last summer and I was not disappointed. Lindsey Jordan and band were just fabulous. My takeaways that night: boy, is she tiny in person. Brilliant guitarist and ace song writer too. Most surprising to me was how much fun she had on stage. I've been a fan since the algo on YouTube sent "Thinning" my way 9 years ago and I'm so looking forward to the new album Ricochet which comes out March 27th.
Snail Mail - "Dead End"
Premiering almost at the same time as Snail Mail was a new one from Courtney Barnett called "Site Unseen" featuring another Wally favorite Katie Crutchfield AKA Waxahatchee! It's a teaser for a new album titled Creature of Habit which also comes out on March 27. Courtney is coming to the Ryman on May 5th. I wish I could see her there, but I went to so many concerts last year I'm a bit skint at this point. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will send a ticket my way haha.
Courtney Barnett ft. Waxahatchee - "Site Unseen"
We wrap up this installment of Tuesday tunes with an oldie, but goodie from Blue Öyster Cult. "Burnin' for You" was the lead single off of Fire of Unknown Origin which was released in June 1981. It hit number 1 on the mainstream rock chart and also peaked at number 40 on the pop chart. It contains the immortal lyric "time to play B sides" which was most likely written by rock critic Richard Meltzer who co-wrote the tune with Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. I really dig the song and the video. Come back next week and I'll share songs from my Top 8 albums of 2025.
