The new year begins with all of the vibrancy of a guitar on overload! And that is because the latest full-length album from the power-pop-punk of the Joe Anderl-led The 1984 Draft arrives this week on January 19th! The Dayton quartet’s latest record will remind you that music does still matter and perhaps it means even more today. The new album combines the urgency of The Smoking Popes with the intensity of Bob Mould’s post-Husker Du project, Sugar, thrown headlong into the pure and direct heartbreak of The Replacements. The Draft plays every song like their lives depend on it.
The new record comes our way courtesy of the fine music-loving folks at Dayton, Ohio-based Poptek Records with assistance from Sell the Heart Records and Engineer Records (in the UK and EU). You can order the 12″ vinyl now or get a copy at the big record-release show in Dayton on January 20 at the legendary Yellow Cab Tavern. And we highly recommend that you go to the concert!
And speaking of that show, The Draft has invited friends and sonic heroes like Josh Caterer (Smoking Popes), Paige Beller, Shane Sweeney (Two Cow Garage), Josh Goldman (The Raging Nathans), Narrow/Arrow, Abiyah, and Josh Arnold to play the record release celebration. Best friends forever, indeed!
Time is running out to make your plans! But today is your lucky day because we are here to help! You can scoop up your advance tickets now and save $5 off the admission to the Yellow Cab Tavern in Dayton by grabbing that ticket a few days before the big show. Be a friend of The Draft and get a ticket now.
This week we take a moment and remember many of the musicians that we lost in 2022. Our good friend Tom Gilliam of the terrific Dayton band Ghost Town Silence joins Dr. J to pay tribute to those we lost last year. We will play music made, written, and produced by artists such as Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Jim Stewart (Stax Records), Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly and The Crickets), Don Wilson (The Ventures), Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac), Anita Pointer (The Pointer Sisters), Jerry Lee Lewis, Dino Danelli (The Rascals), Lamont Dozier (amazing part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team), Joe Messina (The Funk Brothers), Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode), Mimi Parker (Low), Terry Hall (The Specials, among other projects), Ronnie Spector (legendary led vocalist of The Ronnettes), Meat Loaf, Tyronne Downie (Bob Marley & The Wailers) among many others.
Cold, right now? Check. Grey skies… look outside, yup. And Winterfolk! Yeah.
Need something to do this weekend? One of our pals and the Golden Voice of Dayton Roots Music Mr. Harold Hensley has put together another blow-the-roof-off shows! If you have had the good fortune to be able to attend a past Winter Folk then you know that this is a music event that you miss at your peril. You will kick yourself for quite some time if you miss this event.
As always Winterfolk is back with an incredible collection of artists at the Yellow Cab Tavern this Saturday, January 14th! In celebration of this annual concert of Folk, Bluegrass, and Americana we will be playing music from many of the artists on Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative today — The Shady Pine, Harold Hensley & His Band, California Howdy, Cory Breth, Kyleen Downes, and Derek Gooley!
Info: The cover starts at 7pm, music starts at 8pm, and tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the doors. All ages are welcome with a guardian. Discounted presale tickets end at Midnight on January 13th so get yourself a ticket right away!
The official music video for The New Pornographers‘ new song “Really Really Light” is a return to form for them! Written by A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar (the frontman of Destroyer and a member of The New Pornographers). The shifting membership of The New Pornographers is one of the twists to their records. On this album, the band is comprised of Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, Joe Seiders and Zach Djanikian and, of course, A.C. Newman. The new single is from the forthcoming album ‘Continue as a Guest’ out at the end of March courtesy of the fine folks at Merge Records. On this song you can hear the way Newman and Bejar are combining different elements together that move the song in directions that the listener does not expect. You can pre-order the record and stream “Really Really Light” now!
Ohio rock band Smug Brothers is a collection of contradictions.
The members are neither smug nor brothers, and the caddish name poorly fits these serious, veteran musicians. Furthermore, Smug Brothers could very well be your favorite rock band, especially if you love the pop virility of the Beatles, the lyrical bafflement of Guided by Voices, and the beautiful shambles of Big Star—but you may never know, because you may never see them or hear them.
Take a nap, Schrödinger’s cat. This here is a real paradox.“We’ve been doing this for 20 years,” says Smug Brothers singer and guitarist Kyle Melton, “and no one knows who we are.”One of the reasons for this is the fact that due to real-life responsibilities and a shifting lineup on Spinal Tap proportions, the band rarely performs live.
“You have to tour to make any kind of headway [in the music business],” explains drummer Don Thrasher. “You can’t just play Dayton, Cincinnati, and a few other places and get famous. Any group that has ‘made’ it has had to hit the road and play anywhere they can.”
And then, when the group does perform live, there’s an exciting yet mystifying dimension of difference between the live sound and the recorded material.“A lot of bands today are really, really good at replicating their studio sound in a live setting,” Melton says. “That eludes us. We thrive in a more controlled environment.”
Not surprising for a group that began, way back in 2004, as a one-off studio project between Melton and Dayton musician and producer Darryl Robbins (Peopleperson, TV Queens). It was only with the addition of drummer Don Thrasher, in early 2008, that the Smug Brothers became, to paraphrase Pinocchio, a real band.
Since then, Melton and Thrasher have held down a steady center among a revolving cast of additional musicians—the current lineup includes Kyle Sowash, from Columbus indie-rock stalwarts The Kyle Sowashes, on bass—and have released a series of ever-improving singles, EPs, and LPs. The band’s most recent album, Application of the Twig, is the season of spring distilled into a porch party soundtrack. Brisk and refreshing.
“While we’re not well-known,” says Thrasher, “we make well-done records. We provide a good listening experience for people who like short, catchy songs.” Melton agrees. “A lot of care and consideration goes into our albums. They are singular experiences that you will never see duplicated live.”
All of which brings the Smug Brothers’ quandary full circle. To get a better sense of the elusive Smug Brothers sound, please visit smugbrothers.bandcamp.com! Do it!
One of our favorite discoveries of the past few years was Matt Derda & The High Watts! They released a stellar record in 2022 and so we thought what better way to celebrate an amazing year in music than to ask Matt to write about a few of his favorite releases from this past trip around the sun, and to our joy he agreed!
Thank you, Matt!
2022 was definitely the year of independent music for me. Most of the music I listened to this year was by bands that aren’t signed to a label or receiving tons of press, although they should be. As you’ll see from this list, I think they are just as good as one of the all-time greats, who also released a new, unexpected album this year.
‘Matt Moran’s Heartache Kid is what Country music is supposed to sound like. I grew up listening to Country music in the 90s and it wasn’t until the late 90s/early 2000s that mainstream country music turned south (pun intended). Until then, there were a lot of gems regularly on the radio, but occasionally they would play Travis Tritt and you’d resist the urge to jump out of the car, into traffic on the highway. Heartache Kid is reminiscent of ’90s Country music and there is not a bad track on it. I warn you if you listen to this record, songs like Palomino, Heartache Kid, and Black Sedan will be stuck in your head for weeks. But it’ll be okay because you’ll love them.
One of my favorite discoveries on social media is the Austin, TX-based band Bottlecamp Mountain. I discovered them via Twitter and we’ve since become friends. Their songs are prolifically melody, with a little bit of grit and just enough twang. It’s perfect. Their songs are catchy and sound big. They fill up the space and make you emotionally connected to the songs. The lead single from this album, “Kool,” is a song I wish I had written. It’s a fun banger that is all about what you deemed dope back in your younger days. I’ve put the song “Tin Can Belief” on many playlists. It’s got a jangly rock vibe that combines R.E.M., Big Star, The Replacements, Soul Asylum, and the Gin Blossoms. If you are a fan of 80s/90s indie rock, you’ll want to spin this record.
Now I’ll change things up with a band that is straight-up rock n roll. Elephants and Stars are based in Toronto, Canada. I don’t know what to say about them other than they are perfect. They’ve quickly become one of my favorite bands. They know how to write a chorus and I’m a sucker for a great chorus. Each song is an anthem that you picture a giant audience singing along to. I got a preview of this record before it came out and I’ll tell you what I told them, it’s everything I wanted from an E&S record. Have you ever heard a song you loved by an artist and you bought the album hoping all of the songs would sound like that only to be disappointed? Last Chance Power Drive will not disappoint. It’s all songs that are what you want to hear. To me, that is a perfect record. Also, I should note there is an amazing cover of the song “I Really Want to See You Tonight” on this album. The original song is not my jam at all. However, Elephants and Stars kick it into overdrive. Actually, power drive is the perfect term to describe not only this album but Elephants and Stars music overall.
In 1993 I received a scholastic book magazine at school. One of the items was a VHS tape of music videos set to highlight clips of NBA players. Being a huge basketball fan, I somehow talked my parents into ordering a non-book from Scholastic. One of the videos on the VHS was clips of Seattle Supersonic Shawn Kemp dunking to Pearl Jam’s song Go. I was hooked. As I grew up, Pearl Jam, and especially the lyrics of Eddie Vedder played a huge role in my life and helped me get through those terrible teenage angsty years. Now, he’s helped me get through a global pandemic.
This year Eddie Vedder released the unanticipated Earthling, partnering closely with Andrew Watt. The story behind the album is that it wasn’t really planned, they just started making it and it came together pretty fast. You can tell by the songs that Vedder had things in him that just needed to get out.
One of the critiques I’ve heard of the album is that a lot of the songs sound like other artists. Once you know the stories behind those songs, it makes a lot of sense. The Long Way sounds like it was a Tom Petty cover. In fact, Benmont Tench plays on the song and they got his organ out of the Heartbreakers clubhouse for the first time since Tom’s death for this song. Ms. Mills sounds like it could be on Sgt. Pepper. The song is about a piano at Abbey Road Studios that has been named Ms. Mills. Oh, and Ringo Starr played drums on that song.
Another standout is the song Brother Cloud, which is about dealing with the loss of a loved one. It starts off light, but quickly ascends into the stratosphere and closes with an epic fuck you to whoever left him on this earth. The album is great. I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Streaming Forward, Powered By The Past - if you love the 80s music, new music, Eurovision, cheesy pop and awesome playlists then let's get this pop party started!
your tuesday afternoon alternative 