Something New (This Week)

Chicago music, London music, old westerns, and rediscovering a legend.

Welcome to Something New (This Week), where I talk about and recommend some new things that came across my path the past several days.

The boys are back, and they’re rats now

The Chicago band Ratboys, new to me as of two days ago, have released a new album (their fifth), and it is expansive and experimental and rock solid indie rock. I have ran through it twice already, and they come to town (Portland) late October and to the other town (Chicago) late December. I’ll see you there?

John Wayne, John Ford, and the staring down of Americana

After reading for the zillionth time about the deep roots of inspiration that John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS has in the generation of filmmakers that came to be known as The Brat Pack, I finally rented the dang thing from Movie Madness (a great place).

It is shocking how straight-faced and blunt the movie shows a racist character (played by real life racist John Wayne), and how unable the production is to speak with nuance or depth on the ideas it has in its mind: the American dream, what that cost us, how we “achieved” it, who it affected, who it took with it and who it left behind. It was 1956, and Hollywood’s censorship powers were still impactful. I’m still not sure what to make of it, but its impact is finally sensible. I recommend reading more about it from any film critic who has ever lived in its wake, because they’ve likely written about it.

THE SEARCHERS is not currently available on subscription streaming services. You can rent it however you rent movies, if you’d like.

bar italia

That’s it. That’s the name of the band. I will listen to this new record with a negroni in my hand, and only the dimmest lights on, with the volume 10% higher than it should be (aka heaven). I will do it many nights, until I perish. I am blessed.

The “Comeback” of Tammy Wynette

There’s an artist who’s name I can’t recall ever hearing, but one of my favorite music writers is telling me it’s time to start taking her seriously, and I’m listening. Lindsay Zoladz, who publishes many great things for the New York Times, including a new playlist every week, has just written a great asked-and-answered piece on the topic of Tammy Wynette, who’s music I am giving a run for the first time. THIS is the kind of thing I love to celebrate, and that I want to signal boost and find myself. Something new, especially in the somethings old.

You can read that piece here, and listen to Lindsay’s Wynette starter pack playlist here.

That’s it for (This Week). Join me next time for whatever it is I’ll be writing about, whenever it is I write it.

TTFN,

B