Month: June 2025

Rewind Review: Elephant Stone – Back into the Dream (2024)

I’m late to Elephant Stone‘s last album, Back into the Dream, but they’re certainly not late to their always sharp psychedelic grooves and uplifting lyrics on it.

Robbie MacArthur‘s guitar work on opening track “Lost in a Dream” is outstanding, reaching shining heights above sparkling clouds at some points as even shinier synths bounce like sunlight off a warm lake. “The Spark” features more great guitar work, and “Going Underground” has hints of the band’s love of The Rolling Stones (check out that drum beat by Miles Dupire-Gagnon), with Jason Kent‘s Hammond organ taking a full step forward on the track.

“History Repeating” is almost a shoegaze track with those background guitars and Rishi Dhir‘s smooth bass line throughout it, and “bae” is a shoegaze track with its distorted vocals and enough layers of reverb to make a birthday cake for Roky Erickson. If that track doesn’t take you out of your body, then “Godstar” will as Dhir’s sitar and Shawn Mativetsky‘s tabla pretty much levitate your speakers off the floor, desk, or car doors.

“The Imajinary, Nameless Everybody in the World” is the kind of song that only Elephant Stone can seem to pull off – psychedelic, spiritual, lovely, rocking, and multi-layered without coming off as noodling or tying to force some kind of sound or reaction. It starts off almost meditative and then floats into cosmic jam territory. It’s the rightful centerpiece of the album and is over seven minutes of psych-bliss (and check out that Adam Kinner sax solo!).

“Pilgrimage” is another lovely one, with the band’s synths, piano, and saxophone putting down perfect sounds for a late night trip that’s taking you to a sunrise you’ve wanted to see for quite some time. “On Our Own” has the band embracing their admitted love of The Beatles, and album closes with the soft, short, subtle “Another Year Gone” as Dhir reminisces about past prophets, past choices, past loves, and future joys and mysteries to come.

Elephant Stone have another gem in their catalog with Back into the Dream. It’s both another fun record for us long-time fans and a good entry point if you’re new to them. Sit back and enjoy it.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel lost if you don’t subscribe.]

Rewind Review: Mavis Staples – Only for the Lonely (1970)

Mavis Staples‘ second solo album, Only for the Lonely, is a heartfelt, heartbreaking, and heart-lifting record, with the songs expressing a lot of emotions and moments Staples was living through at the time.

“I Have Learned to Do Without You,” with its slow-dance guitar and drums and soulful string arrangements, automatically lets you know this album is going to be full of songs to which anyone who’s been through heartbreak can relate. Staples sings, “I got over you!”, but you’re not sure if that’s 100% accurate. “How much water can you pour in a boat before that boat begins to sink?” Staples asks on “How Many Times” – in which her exasperation with a lover comes through in every note.

She finds better times on “Endlessly,” as she sings, “You were made for my arms to surround.” to a lover to whom she’ll be “as faithful as the sunrise.” The horn section on “You’re the Fool” is a great backup to Staples’ powerful and soulful voice. On “Since I Fell for You,” her gospel vocal training shines and makes you pay attention.

“What Happened to the Real Me” is a powerful anthem for jilted lovers everywhere, with Staples’ backing band putting down a solid groove while horns and strings charge behind her voice. “Since You Became a Part of My Life” and “It Makes Me Wanna Cry” are back-to-back, going from praise of a lover and how they changed Staples’ outlook on life to Staples being crushed after his departure. It shows how well she can sing either type and make you feel all those emotions. The closer, “Don’t Change Me Now” has Staples thanking her lover for taking the time to build the love they have, and pleading that he doesn’t screw it up. You’ll think, “Yep. That guy’s an idiot if he thinks he’ll find better.”

Only for the Lonely is a perfect title for the record, as Staples sings to those of us (all of us?) who have felt that emptiness and hope cycle of love again and again.

Keep your mind open.

[I haven’t learned to do without your subscription.]

WSND DJ set list: Manic Monday – June 09, 2025

Thanks to all the listeners and those who made requests for my latest “Manic Monday” show on WSND. Here’s the all-80s set list:

  1. Blue Murder – Blue Murder (1989) (requested)
  2. Billy Idol – Eyes without a Face (1983)
  3. New Order – Blue Monday (12″ single) (1983)
  4. Johnny Cash – The Chicken in Black (1984)
  5. Black Sabbath – The Mob Rules (1981) (requested)
  6. The Meteors – Psycho for Your Love (1981)
  7. Wham! – Everything She Wants (1984)
  8. George Michael – Father Figure (1987)
  9. Berlin – The Metro (1982) (requested)
  10. Vangelis – Tales of the Future (1982)
  11. Maxi Priest – Wild World (1987)
  12. Public Image Ltd. – 1981 (1984)
  13. Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me) (1985)
  14. The Who – Baba O’Riley (live) (1982) (requested)
  15. Romeo Void – A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing) (12″ single) (1984)
  16. Nona Hendryx – Keep It Confidential (1983)
  17. Loz Netto – Fade Away (1983)
  18. Eddie Rabbitt – You Can’t Run from Love (1982)
  19. Robert Ellis Orrall & Carlene Carter – I Couldn’t Say No (1983)
  20. Barry Manilow – Some Kind of Friend (1982)
  21. Planet P – Why Me? (1983)
  22. Walter Egan – Fool Moon Fire (1983)
  23. Neal Diamond – Front Page Story (1982)
  24. Patrick Simmons – So Wrong (1983)
  25. Kenny Loggins – Heartlight (1982)
  26. Devo – Through Being Cool (1981)
  27. U2 – With or Without You (1987)
  28. Teena Marie – Behind the Groove (M&M 12″ mix) (1980)
  29. INXS – Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain) (1985)
  30. David Bowie – Up the Hill Backwards (1980)
  31. Motörhead – Emergency (1984)
  32. Goo Goo Dolls – Sunshine of Your Love (1987)
  33. Diana Ross – That’s How You Start Over (1983)
  34. Quarterflash – Harden My Heart (1981) (requested)
  35. Alice Cooper – Clones (1980) (requested)
  36. The Cramps – I’m Cramped (1980)
  37. Alphaville – Forever Young (1984)
  38. A Flock of Seagulls – Heartbeat Like a Drum (1986)
  39. Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean (1980)

Manic Monday returns June 16th at 9pm Eastern!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Review: Lorenzo Dada & Leo Benassi – Island EP

Don’t let the cartoonish cover fool you, Lorenzo Dada and Leo Benassi‘s Island EP is a solid house record with plenty of bounce and bump in it.

The opening bass of “Midnight Piano” alone will make your head turn and your hips shake. The tapping beats of “Slow Ride” mix with subtle horns and softer bass for a smooth make-out groove.

Apparently, there are “No Flamingos in Salinas,” but there are plenty of smooth, lush beats and grooves on this track. It’s bright and bouncy and something you’ll probably slide into a dozen mixes this summer. The EP ends with the dreamy “Dream On,” bringing in bubbly beats and looping synths to create a groove that I’m sure a lot of hip hop DJs will slow down and sample.

I’m sure you’ll dig this and drop it into many sets of your own, too.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

WSND DJ set list: Deep Dive of Boz Scaggs

Thanks to all who got groovy with me on the Deep Dive of Boz Scaggs on WSND last night. Here’s the set list:

  1. Boz Scaggs – Lowdown
  2. Ray Charles – Unchain My Heart
  3. Jimmy Reed – Honest I Do
  4. Bobby “Blue” Bland – Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City
  5. Little Richard – Long Tall Sally
  6. Chuck Berry – Promised Land (live)
  7. Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds
  8. T-Bone Walker – Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong (live)
  9. Lightnin’ Hopkins – Baby Please Don’t Go (live)
  10. Boz Scaggs and Booker T and The Mrs – As the Years Go Passing By (requested) (live)
  11. The Ardells – Blues Jam / Charlena (live)
  12. Boz Scaggs – Gangster of Love
  13. Steve Miller Band – Baby’s Callin’ Me Home
  14. Steve Miller Band – My Friend
  15. Boz Scaggs – I’m Easy
  16. Allman Brothers Band – Don’t Keep Me Wondering (live)
  17. Mother Earth – Stop the Train
  18. Boz Scaggs – We Were Always Sweethearts
  19. Boz Scaggs – Monkey Time
  20. Boz Scaggs – Dinah Flo (live)
  21. Johnny Bristol – Hang on In There Baby
  22. Boz Scaggs – Let It Happen
  23. Steely Dan – Any Major Dude Will Tell You
  24. Toto – Hold the Line
  25. Boz Scaggs – It’s Over
  26. Boz Scaggs – Lido Shuffle (live)
  27. Rita Coolidge – We’re All Alone
  28. Bee Gees – Staying Alive
  29. Boz Scaggs – Hollywood
  30. Ray Parker, Jr. – A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do)
  31. Boz Scaggs – Breakdown Dead Ahead (live)
  32. Boz Scaggs – Look What You’ve Done to Me
  33. Boz Scaggs – Heart of Mine
  34. Boz Scaggs – Fly Like a Bird
  35. Boz Scaggs – T-Bone Shuffle
  36. Boz Scaggs – Vanishing Point
  37. Boz Scaggs – How Long Has This Been Going On?
  38. Boz Scaggs – Speak Low
  39. Dukes of September Rhythm Revue – Who’s That Lady? (live)
  40. Boz Scaggs – Little Miss Night

Join me next week for a Deep Dive of Waylon Jennings!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

WSND DJ set list – Manic Monday – June 02, 2025

Thanks to all who listened to my latest all-80s music show on WSND. Here’s the set list:

  1. Julian Cope – Trampolene (1987)
  2. Roxy Music – The Main Thing (1982)
  3. Brian May – Star Fleet (1983) (requested)
  4. Thompson Twins – Don’t Mess with Dr. Dream (Smackattack mix) (1985)
  5. Soul II Soul – Back to Life (1989)
  6. Ravi Shankar – Friar Park (1987)
  7. The Clash – Know Your Rights (1982)
  8. Big Audio Dynamite – Ticket (1986)
  9. Blondie – Orchid Club (1982)
  10. The Psychedelic Furs – Soap Commercial (1980)
  11. Iron Maiden – Run to the Hills (1982)
  12. Accept – Midnight Mover (1985) (requested)
  13. Whitesnake – Fool for Your Loving (1989 version)
  14. Feelabeelia – Feel It (1984)
  15. Paul McCartney – Tug of War (1982)
  16. The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry (12″ mix) (1986)
  17. David Bowie – Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (1982)
  18. Sammy Hagar – Piece of My Heart (1982)
  19. ABBA – The Visitors (1981)
  20. John Denver – Shanghai Breezes (1982)
  21. The Go-Gos – We Got the Beat (1981)
  22. The J. Geils Band – Freeze Frame (1981)
  23. Atlantic Starr – Circles (1982)
  24. Joan Jett and The Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (1981)
  25. The Beatles – Movie Medley (1982)
  26. Smokey Robinson – Old Fashioned Love (1982)
  27. Buddy Guy and Junior Wells – The Things That I Used to Do (live) (1984) (requested)
  28. Lou Reed – Xmas in February (1989)
  29. Re-Flex – The Politics of Dancing (12″ mix) (1983)
  30. House of Large Sizes – Man Overboard (1989)
  31. Pink Floyd – Your Possible Pasts (1983) (requested)
  32. Treat Her Right – I Think She Likes Me (1986)
  33. Randy Travis – The Storms of Life (1986)
  34. Gerhard Heinz – Samba Tropical (1981)
  35. Denice Williams – Let’s Hear It For the Boy (1984)
  36. Jane’s Addiction – Jane Says (live) (1987)
  37. The Moody Blues – The Voice (1981)
  38. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Something Big (1981)
  39. Change – Paradise (1981)

I’m back with Manic Monday on June 09, 2025 at 9pm Eastern time. Don’t miss it!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

WSND DJ set list: Deep Dive of The Jesus and Mary Chain

Thanks to everyone who tuned in for my Deep Dive of The Jesus and Mary Chain on WSND last night. Here’s the shoegaze-loaded set list:

  1. The Jesus and Mary Chain – April Skies
  2. The Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting for the Man
  3. The Pastels – Million Tears
  4. The Stooges – Down on the Street
  5. New York Dolls – Personality Crisis
  6. Suicide – Ghost Rider
  7. Einstürzende Neubauten – Interim Lovers
  8. The Shangri-Las – Out in the Streets
  9. Siouxsie and The Banshees – Spellbound
  10. The Monkees – Mary, Mary
  11. Muddy Waters – Mississippi Delta Blues
  12. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Upside Down
  13. Pink Floyd – Vegetable Man
  14. Primal Scream – Movin’ on Up
  15. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Never Understand (live)
  16. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Like Honey (live)
  17. The Ronettes – Be My Baby
  18. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Kill Surf City
  19. Jan & Dean – Surf City
  20. Bo Diddley – Who Do You Love?
  21. Can – Mushroom
  22. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Happy When It Rains
  23. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Sidewalking (extended version)
  24. The Sugarcubes – Birthday (Jesus and Mary Chain remix)
  25. Erasure – Drama!
  26. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Blues from a Gun
  27. Pixies – Head On
  28. Jimmy Eat World – The Authority Song
  29. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Rollercoaster
  30. Starlings – Loch Aangeless Monster
  31. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Far Gone and Out
  32. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Sugar Ray
  33. The Jesus and Mary Chain w/ Hope Sandoval – Sometimes Always (live)
  34. Lush – For Love
  35. The Jesus and Mary Chain – I Love Rock and Roll
  36. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Cracking Up
  37. Lazycame – Unfinished Business
  38. Freeheat – The Two of Us
  39. The Jesus and Mary Chain – All Things Pass
  40. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Girl71
  41. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Silver Strings
  42. The Jesus and Mary Chain – In a Hole (live)

Be sure to tune in on June 08, 2025 for a Deep Dive of Boz Scaggs!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Mareux and Riki team up for a lush new single – Ébèné Fumé.”

Photo By Cameron McCool

Revered pop/darkwave musician and producer Mareux (Aryan Ashtiani) unites with multifaceted artist/singer Riki on his nostalgic new single “Ébèné Fumé” out today via Revolution/Warner Records. Riki’s charismatic, confessional vocal performance is met with Mareux’s intricately crafted electronics for a compelling dance-pop track. Riki’s standout presence and masterful ability to merge music, movement, and style is followed throughout “Ébèné Fumé” striking video which was created by Muted Widows (Michael E Linn, Nedda Afsari, and Michael R. Zumaya).

Watch / Share / Playlist “Ébèné Fumé”

Where most artists would double down on the sleek, smooth-as-onyx darkwave and goth-pop that landed them in the spotlight in the first place, Mareux’s sophomore album – Nonstop Romance – is rough and unmannered, completely drunk in love and refusing to walk it off. Like a frilly valentine scuffed on hard pavement, it’s simultaneously gushing and fractured, distorted into illegibility but transparent in its intentions. 

Throughout Nonstop Romance, Mareux sets up his songs like Venus fly traps, beaming romance and thumping beats underlit in a sinister red. Maintaining that balance—between the album’s obvious pleasure and the quiet threat that accompanies it—is central to its ethos. 

“I’m trying to make something that’s reflective of me getting older,” Mareux says. While that’s usually code for calmer, more intimate material, the top priority of the adult life Mareux both celebrates and questions is having fun. “Could you put it on in your house with people around and not bring the mood down?” was the question that guided him. 

“I’ve noticed that as artists get better or more seasoned, they go for a more polished, studio sound and lose their grit,” Mareux says. “I like when music sounds like found footage.” While writing and recording Nonstop Romance in his bedroom in Los Angeles’ Lincoln Heights neighborhood over the span of 2024, he’d set up an old CRT TV and watched films on mute for inspiration—anything from Andrei Tarkovsky and Alejandro Jodorowsky to Hype Williams’ Nas and DMX-starring Belly. If this sounds like an unlikely combination, Mareux fits them together naturally in Nonstop Romance, blending smeared tape-residue synths into readymade club hits. 

On Nonstop Romance, Mareux prioritizes feel and vibe over clarity. Still, anyone who fell in love with his music via his viral cover of The Cure’s “The Perfect Girl” (now certified platinum Stateside, and gold in France) or the heartfelt noir of 2023’s Lovers from the Past will find plenty to swoon over here. This is an album that wears its title on its sleeve; an earnest manifestation. Though he brings a meticulous ear to the across this album, it’s all in service to a greater goal. “I only care about one thing,” Mareux says, “and that’s being in love.” 

Pre-Order/Save Nonstop Romance

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe today?]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]