Wand Magic Got Our Head Floating

A Wand wand*** (That wand looks awfully familiar.)

We've been enjoying and buying L.A. band Wand's conjurations for a couple of years now and were entranced/blown away by their four-song performance posted at KEXP last week. Here's our favorite, but all of them did the trick. Go to the KEXP post to see the rest.

***See Amber Knecht's excellent Flickrpics here.

Music of the Sphere: Alvvays, Tristen, Shake Some Action!, Superchunk, White Reaper, Faith Healer, Langhorne Slim, Ages & Ages, Pinact, together PANGEA, Wand, Wyatt Blair, Basketball Shorts, Soaked, Warm Soda, TH da Freak

It's been awhile since we've done one of these MotS things, which makes this an almost optimal time to do so. We like some of these songs so much they made it onto our 2017 Powerpopulist Faves playlist. Many thanks to the two blogging entities for making them available.

Alvvays - In Undertow - The KEXP Blog
Tristen - Glass Jar (feat. Jenny Lewis) - The KEXP Blog
Shake Some Action! - Waiting for the Sun - The KEXP Blog
Superchunk - What A Time To Be Alive - The KEXP Blog
White Reaper - The Stack - The KEXP Blog
Faith Healer - Light Of Loving - The KEXP Blog
Langhorne Slim - Zombie - The KEXP Blog
Ages & Ages - How It Feels - The KEXP Blog

Pinact - Oh & Separate Ways - Still in Rock
together PANGEA - Friend of Nothing - Still in Rock

The following are from SiR's 100 Best Songs of 2017 post. The numbers indicate rank and are proffered to facilitate quickfind.
54 - Wand - Bee Karma - Still in Rock
52 - Wyatt Blair - Jesse's On Fire Again - Still in Rock
38 - Basketball Shorts - This Summer - Still in Rock
24 - Soaked - Backseat Heat - Still in Rock
23 - Warm Soda - I Don't Wanna Grow Up - Still in Rock
09 - TH da Freak - Morphing - Still in Rock

Music of the Sphere: The New P's, Flesh Lights, B. Mould, W. Blair, B. Francis, Wand, Western Medication, I. Dhaaf, Twerps

Pure pop pic.

R&G have been quite on a tear lately, not to slight the other fabbloggers, of course, oh, no no no no no. We thank them all.

The New Pornographers - Dancehall Domine - Fluxblog - our favorite from their new Brill Bruisers

Flesh Lights - Just About Due - Side One Track One

Bob Mould - Hey Mr. Grey - Indie Rock Cafe

Wyatt Blair - Ba Ba Ba (Life's a Bitch) - Rollo & Grady
Black Francis - When They Come to Murder Me - Rollo & Grady
Wand - Generator Larping - Rollo & Grady (pic)
Western Medication - Reflections (Demo) - Rollo & Grady
Iska Dhaaf - Everybody Knows - Rollo & Grady
Twerps - Raft - Rollo & Grady

Music of the Sphere, Emergency Rollo & Grady SXSW Edition: Cloud Nothings, Gap Dream, Holy Wave, Jacco Gardner, JEFF the Brotherhood, The Memories, Moon Duo, Tweens, Wand-, Warm Soda, Will Butler

We visit L.A. bloggers Rollo & Grady pretty much every day and were getting kind of worried by their more-than-one-month hiatus from posting (February 15, 2015-March 16, 2015, to be exact (and a 15-day lacuna BEFORE THAT!!!)). But, phwewwwww ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '*, they're back, and with a copacetic vengeance, a 120+-song SXSW playlist replete with muchos downloadables.

Our faves are below, and they're all at the same post. We omitted a few we've recently posted, but by all means, go and draw deeply from the well of delight they've dug and we dig. And, OF COURSE, thanks, Rollo. You, too, Grady. Glad to see youse're back.





Again, click here to go to the post. The songs are posted at R&G in alpha order by artiste.

Cloud Nothings - Didn't You
Gap Dream - 58th Street Fingers
Holy Wave - Albuquerque Freakout
Jacco Gardner - Clear the Air
JEFF the Brotherhood - Bone Jam - the first one we ever posted by the Bros. Sigh. Oh, wow, it still lives.

The Memories - Dancing In My Dreams
Moon Duo - Sleepwalker
Tweens - Be Mean
Wand- - Flying Golem - one of our favorite songs of recent memory
Warm Soda - Someone for You - another faveband/man
Will Butler - What I Want

Their Spotify playlist of the songs is here. We don't really like Spotify all that much, but so what?

*simulated sweatdrops, flicked

Dropped & Found: Faith Healer, Powder Blue, Shy Boys, Claire & The Cops, Wand-

We like to use our Songdrop lists to remind us of purchases to make at eMusic near the end of each month. During this past Thursday night's Purchasefest we couldn't find the songs below at eMusic but, lo!, found them for free download elsewhere and wanted to give you the opportunity to check them out.

Big fun but also just plain BIG  (64.2 MB, in case you need to know). Use iTunes or something to convert it to an mp3, if you like.

Mikal Cronin's Soul In Motion

We've been spurting celebratory cyber about this San Francisco rocker for several years now and were delighted to find a new release available for name-your-price download at Bandcamp. It's the latest installment in Famous Class's Less Artists More Condos (LAMC) series. "Soul In Motion" starts off kind of funky but quickly finds its groove. BTW, here's an article from SF Weekly we enjoyed reading last year and you might, too.

Faves of the Faves - May 2018: Leroy Francis, The Loons, The Essex Green, Ex-Void, Peach Kelli Pop, An Horse, The Asteroid No.4, Tancred, White Witches, SCK CHS, Wand, Sun Scream, Dream Phases

Here are our very favorite discoveries of powerpop, indiepop, psych, jangle, and other sorts of pop during the merry mo. o' May of this year. The full list of May 2018 discoveries (from which the playlist below is curated) is over at Playmoss. Hope you dig, groove, enjoy, &cetera.

Music of the Sphere: Sloan, Phantom Planet, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Baskervilles, My Bloody Valentine, et. al. . . .

Many thanks to the bloggerhosts.

Sloan - Witch's Wand - Allan's World

Phantom Planet - Do The Panic - Allan's World
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lions - Allan's World
The Academy Is. . . - About a Girl & His Girl Friday - Allan's World

Soda Fountain Rag - Monkey Girl & You Sit and Wait For Life - Allan's World
The Virgins - One Week of Danger - Allan's World
The Pomegranates - Late Night Television - Allan's World

My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow & Come In Alone - Allan's World

Baskervilles - A Little More Time & The Apartment - Coast is Clear
The Major Labels - Don't Hear a Single - Bag of Songs

The Undertones - Jump Boys - Setting the Woods on Fire
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning & Dreamworld & The Dead Heart - a PLAGUE of ANGELS - plus several more by this excellent Aussie band I had the pleasure of seeing on the Diesel and Dust tour (opening act: House of Freaks!)

It Hugs Back - Other Cars Go - Nothing But Green Lights
Screaming Tea Party - Today is the Day - Nothing But Green Lights
Hands on Heads - New Fiction - Nothing But Green Lights

Music of the Sphere, Still in Rock Edition, Installment 3: Warm Soda, Matthew Melton, Jacco Gardner, Pretty Greens, Meatbodies, Madcaps, Numb Bats, Broncho

Here's our third and final salvo of initial finds at the excellent, new-to-us blog, Still in Rock. We've already encountered a ton of great music at Thibault's lair and look forward to ever more discoveries over the days and centuries to come. You'll be seeing them in our periodic Music of the Sphere offerings. The first two posts can be found here and here. With grateful hearts do we say, "Thank you, SiR."



Warm Soda - Young Restless Hearts - Still in Rock
Warm Soda - Tell Me in a Whisper - Still in Rock
Warm Soda- Lola & Jeanie Loves Pop - Still in Rock
Warm Soda - When Your Eyes Meet Mine & The One I Need - Still in Rock - Post has an excellent interview with bandleader Matthew Melton
Matthew Melton - Outside of Paradise & Promise It to Me - Still in Rock - Our humble little Matthew Melton retrospective is here. That Snake Flowers 2 ditty is still downloadable, in case you were wondering.

Jacco Gardner - Find Yourself & Hypnophobia - Still in Rock
The Pretty Greens - First Time - Still in Rock
Meatbodies - Disorder & The Master - Still in Rock
The Madcaps - High School Trouble Maker & I Knew It All - Still in Rock
Numb Bats - To Do - Still in Rock - Scroll down to #72.
Broncho - It's On - Still in Rock - Scroll down to #52.

Those last two are from Still in Rock's Best Tracks of 2014 post. There are several more great ones we've already posted (e.g., Meatbodies' "Tremmors" and Wand's "Flying Golem"), so please do check out the entire list.