Today we are introducing Albuquerque Green Room’s Monthly Listening! At the end of each month, we’ll be dropping a few lines about the new stuff we listened to—new releases or new to us, and (mostly) local! This month, we have a few releases from October, some from November, and one from 1973.
1) “Burn Me Down,” single by The Ordinary Things.
The Ordinary Things’s first album - released about a year ago - leaned towards a buoyant, ‘90s alt rock sort of sound. The stuff they’ve been recording this year is darker. “Burn Me Down” has some heavy metal riffs thanks to the influence of bassist Justin McLaughlin. This single is without a doubt worth checking out and has a pretty cool video to go along with it.
This is the first chapter of L’uomo Nero’s “thriller-infused EP trilogy.” In a single word, this collection is dramatic. “Andiamo” swings and saunters, and “Afterman” contains the electrifying Bo Diddley beat. “Nel Deserto” and “Walk Away” could easily serve as someone’s anthems of defiance. L’uomo Nero has something epic in the making here and I truly enjoyed this listen.
Numbers is grimy. This electronic rock duo exists on a nonlinear timeline, serving only to deluge us with sound. The energy of The Talking hours translates so well through recording. Instead of making me sad for the absence of shows, this album got me to my feet and excited for the future of live music. Because of this, the noteworthy track for me was “Today” – that’s a song that will just make you dance.
4) “Journey on the Nile,” single by Stone Machine Electric.
This is a single off their upcoming album, The Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies within the Cosmic Netherland, which will be released on December 4, 2020. Self-proclaimed as doom jazz, the Texas-based two-piece has unleashed a monster that clocks in at just over 20 minutes long. Lay down and stare at your ceiling or reorganize your bookshelves, either way this single makes you feel like you’re frozen in time but not totally in a relaxing way—you can feel those inexplicable vibrations of frequencies within the cosmic Netherland.
This album includes three previously released songs “reimagined and remixed” by Juno6, and one cover: "My Wild Love" by the Doors (they completely reinvented the instrumental melody to this song!). Any doom fan will enjoy this for its creativity and risk-taking endeavor.
6) “Christmas in Prison” by John Prine.
I listened to this song for the first time this month, which feels like a failure on my part—but there’s never a bad time to discover music that’s new to you. “Christmas in Prison” came up during my huge John Prine dive, wherein I spent a week listening to only his entire discography. There are a lot of good and heartbreaking songwriters, but nobody writes like John Prine. "It's Christmas in prison / There'll be music tonight / I'll probably get homesick / I love you, goodnight." It's relatively straightforward, and it still tells a story. These lyrics pair with a waltz rhythm, which is so smart and so sad - he's waiting until he gets to dance again with someone he loves.
Comments