This is not the usual post. For reasons. Mainly because Ilona usually handles the blog posts. She’s better at it. But occasionally, I pop in with a post.
Today, I just wanted to talk about an artist I found recently on Spotify and really dig. A few weeks ago, I was in the pool, enjoying a nice Shiner Bock, as one does, when a song came on that I liked immediately but didn’t recognize.
Was this a New Order song I didn’t remember? Surely not. I know I’m not a smart man but I have been gifted, or cursed, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge and or memory of 80’s alternative and new wave. Sadly, it takes up most of my brain.
A few years ago something similar happened when Ilona and I were watching Lockwood and Co when Party Fears Two by the Associates came on.
We were floored. We knew it had to be old school 2nd British Invasion but neither of us could remember having heard it before.
This was like that but it ended up being a newer artist. The song I heard was Stars (feat. The Horses) which Won released in 2016.
My favorite of his songs is probably The Night Has an Alibi which came out in 2017. All of his videos are a bit odd, in the best way but this one has, intentionally or not, a distinctly Greek myth feel to it.
He also has more recent songs like Everything Fits and Faithful Heart from 2024.
Honestly, I hate that I just now heard his music and really feel like he should be huge. I don’t know what genre he would be in other than really good music. I played some of his songs for Kid 2 who also digs that kind of stuff and she in turn shared a radio station she likes. By shared I mean she messed with the car radio and turned it from 1st Wave Channel 33 to KTSW 89.9, Texas State University’s campus radio station.
While I don’t recognize a lot of the songs KTSW plays, the DJ’s don’t always tell you name of the song or the artist, and it’s kind of fun to watch her frantically Shazam it.
I’m glad she did because it took me back to being a teen and listening to WWCU 95.3, Western Carolina University’s campus station.
I put the link there because the banner of the Smokey Mountains is really pretty and sort of how I remember it.
It was great because they played music you wouldn’t normally hear that deep in the Appalachian mountains. REM, INXS, the B-52s, Oingo Boingo. You know, 80’s college radio songs.
Oddly, enough, WCU and TX ST have basically the same mascot. Ours, I am a WCU alumni, is a catamount while theirs is a bobcat but the logo is nearly identical. I wish she’d been able to experience the beauty of WCU the way her mom and I did but I reckon TX ST is close enough.
Like many Gen Xers it’s easy for me to get stuck in the 80’s and 90’s musically, for instance, I’ve been listening to a lot of Alice in Chains, specifically their MTV unplugged gig from 96.
But do yourself a favor and give Wons a listen and maybe even give your local college station, if you have one, a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Quick edit. I wanted to share links to Wons’ Instagram. Not sure how to link to his Spotify. If you have it, just type in Wons Phreely and it should pop up.
First?❤️
Thanks! Always nice to have new things to enjoy!
Most likely.
Thanks for sharing!
I am so so sad that Lockwood & Co got cancelled.
I frickin love Lockwood and co! Its cancellation was a travesty.
At least the books and audio are all there. But it was one of the best adaptations I’ve seen for ages
I love discovering new music and as a Gen Xer admit to getting stuck on music from my time too lol. These are good songs. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, and yeah, our stuff was the best but I can’t discount some of the newer music.
My nephew and I were watching a show and a young kid was listening to some “old” music that he liked. It was Green Day. My 30-year-old nephew objected to it being called “old” music since he listened to Green Day growing up. He was a bit depressed when I mentioned I’ve heard their music on the Classic Rock station.
Green Day, 9 Inch Nails and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the high rise elevator play list…
I recently was listening to our classic rock station and said I was old as my college music was playing
I love my local college radio station. they play some really eclectic stuff and its fun to hear things that I wouldn’t normally
Gordon, you’ve taken me back to my 80s college radio days, too!
Thank you for the musical memories and the NEW recommendations!
Gordon, this is really great! It’s also very good timing (for me!) I am 66 and about a year ago, after years of not taking care of myself, I started on a get-healthy kick. To that end, I enter several 5K races a year.
My next race is in early October. About six weeks before each race, I update my playlist for inspiration. I don’t run the races (yet) but it’s hard to find songs that are both the right tempo for walking app. 3.5 -3.7 mph but are also fun to listen to and just plain sound good. I LOVE this type of music!!
Thank you VERY much for sharing!!! I am now off to listen to (and download) more! This will no doubt help push me along on my next 5K so as an added incentive, I will be thinking of my favorite authors as I try to finish faster! (I try to do better each time.😁
That’s awesome. You are proof that while we might have to get older, we don’t have to be old.
I agree and personally go with ‘I am chronologically advantaged’ but am permanently 24 in my head and heart (altho my back disagrees occasionally and reminds me that I have traveled around the sun nearly 59 times….)
Thank you for the fun post, Gordon!
Sending peace, health and safety to all!
Thank you! ☺️ I’m trying to set a good example for my 24-year-old daughter. I also want to be like the 90+ year old lady that finished dead last in one of the races I was in, the important part of that statement being that she finished! 😄
Talking Heads. You can run to them forever. Also, try Todd Rundgren’s Emperor of the Highway and Bang on the Drum All Day, from his Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect album, produced for contractual reasons.
That was fun, thanks!
Hoping this is an appropriate time to ask, but a really long time ago Ilona put a link to a song up on the blog which I’ve since lost and never been able to find again. It was sung by an American man, the chorus ended on a phrase like “silver and gold”, I think there were references to people seeking their fortune, it had a folky country stompy feel and it was fantastic. Does anyone else remember this? Maybe I dreamt it,
I know of a U2 song called Silver and Gold off the Rattle & Hum album but that’s probably not it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmuhR3gqxZM There’s also a version by Burl Ives he sang on the old Rudolf special. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yynOx8wHWAc But I doubt Ilona would be familiar with that having grown up in the USSR.
There’s also Neil Young’s Silver & Golf…
Gold, not Golf! 🤦♀️
No, neither of those! But thank you for the suggestions.
Barns Courtney : )
Yes! Thankyou so much. Glitter and gold!
Yes! Thankyou so much. That was it. Glitter and gold!
was it this one? I added this to my Playlist after ilona recommended it somehow.
Glitter & Gold https://share.google/pBcDZEH4o1kp1tMLD
Yep, that was it!
Might it be “Gold” by John Stewart? “People out there turning music into gold.” That has a stomping beat.
Stayed up all night once with a friend who dj’d for our college radio station, which was in the basement of our dorm. The late 1970’s, so very eclectic music choices, all on vinyl. We threw in some orchestral classical selections, just to see if anyone was awake and listening. Nope. But a memorable night, anyway! 🎶📻
I was assistant music director then music director of our college radio station in the late 70s. I would take some late night shows and play games like, guess who’s sleeping on the floor of the control room tonight? I was often surprised at how many folks would call in at 2 am. Got dead between 3 am to 8 am, tho. Loved listening to the new music coming out. We played an April Fools trick one year and went all bluegrass for the day – a lot of people really enjoyed it, including the DJs. Kind of backfired on us, like Hugh’s redemption, lol. There were no bluegrass or serious country stations in the Williamsburg area at that time. WCWM – great memories of great music!
Thank you, sir.
I love music but I find I do not enjoy most of the recent offerings. I started a deep clean and organization of my office yesterday. I have CDs. I popped on some of my CDs from bands of the 80’s and 90’s ( yes, I have CD’s!) in and got a lot accomplished.
Thanks for the music recommendation. I will give them a listen.
I’ve ripped all my cds so I can stream them in the car, but I’m not getting rid of them! Working on the old vinyl records now, but I do still play them too. I swear they have a better sound than the cd music. Luck with your office, I just look at mine and say “tomorrow”.
You’re right the LPs have the best sound as any audiophile will tell you. LP better than CD which is better than MPs3. The more you compress the music the less come across – you miss a lot of the detail. Neil Young is quite vocally against MP3 – as he contends that compressed digital files, such as MP3s and AACs, contain only a fraction of the data present in the original master recordings, with estimates ranging from 5% to 15% of the original information – so it sounds thin by comparison.
My husband and I are Gen X and have hundreds of CDs and won’t get rid of them 🙂
Thanks for the new music Gordon!
We’ve ripped all of our very many CDs, to FLAC files which are better than MP3. Husband’s car doesn’t have a CD player, so it’s all on a Tb card that plugs into a USB slot.
And hooray for college radio stations! Boomer here, who likes 80s-90s music in addition to roots music (blues, bluegrass, zydeco, mountain, celtic, etc)
They sound better because they are analog rather than digital. The music is all there and not chopped into bits. There was once an analog recording system, but the audiophile with money market was too small, it got outcompeted. So keep your vinyl. I have also found the CDs I made 20 years ago are blank. You can’t trust them to last forever. My entire Napster collection from dialup days. Does anyone remember when the Napster guy showed up at the MTV awards wearing a Metallica T-shirt, and they asked him if it was pirated?
My latest favorite music is the ost to the game Lumiere. Try it Alice has an amazing voice and the classical pieces are great too.
I just read that completely wrong, I was going to write “me too!”, then I read your post again. My mind automatically went to the OST of Clair Obscure Expedition 33 because the city in the game is called Lumiere and the soundtrack of Clair Obscure is so amazing! Freudian mistake I suppose 😂
ahhh, to discover an unlnown New Order song , that would be great.
Can relate to 80s Songs taking up lots of space in my brain and love the Songs you shared- thank you.
Also got some vibes of the early Simple Minds albums from the songs you shared.
Been tripping back to the 80s myself this weekend and listening to some Joe Jackson, Joan Armatrading and Stevie Ray Vaughn. You’ve made me wanna pull some Depeche Mode now, plus send a few cuts to my college age nephew! Danke.
I just dropped my youngest at TX St a couple of weeks ago. Thank you for sharing the station.
Hey, thanks for the recs! Nice of you to share with us.
Thank you, Gordon! All good stuff! I had the great fortune to be a Longhorn in Austin in the 80’s when the music scene (IMO) was amazing! We lived on local radio and ACL. Then I moved to CA in the Bay Area which has the best jazz station in the world- KCSM at the College of San Mateo. College radio is the best!!!
My youngest son has very eclectic musical taste, so while my go-to music style is 70s-90s I also like stuff from this century and some of it is fairly obscure (The Hu for instance).
My granddaughters try to get me to listen to what they like, but they mostly like women with high squeaky voices which give me a headache and J and K pop which is like a diet of cotton candy and Hawaiian Punch. (Their taste will evolve, they have great band and choir teachers. They’re getting exposed to a lot of music.)
WXPN out of the University of Pennsylvania. Stream then sometime. Love Funky Friday from 4-7 EST. xpn.org
Robert Drake does 80’s on Friday (Land of the Lost)
I listen to WVCR 88 The Saint our local college station, as they say they play anything. Also our local PBS station, plays lots of alternative songs, it is good to get our of my music rut.
If you like that kind of music you might like some of the Eastern European dark wave https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uDpZZ-u1zGw
Yaaaasssss
I now have a super playlist for my browsing! And my husband has just finished Kate, and all the extras, and has started on my newly printed copy of Inheritance! I thought Edge next. Thank you so much for my reading pleasure. xx
Thank you!!! I love finding new artists!
Music and books are always a welcome post, thank you!
To return the favor, there is this one song I love that came out about a decade ago that really “belonged” in the 80s new wave. Blue October, I Hope You’re Happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwZvuV79jeY
Lately, I’ve been on a Sleep Token kick. Good vocalist, solid lyrics, fantastic drummer. They go all over the place style wise. Hard to put them in any category. Maybe progressive rock? You can pretty much find a bit of everything done by them though.
A softer one from them and one of my favorites. Euclid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDdByJYUVeA
If you enjoy it, I’d start with their album Take Me Back To Eden, and then their latest, Even In Arcadia. Then work your way backwards from there. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the links! I am 61, love Blue October, and now interested in Sleep Token, the music is amazing. Thanks for this post, Gordon! I love discovering new to me music. I’ve been on a Thrice kick lately, but my oldest daughter introduced me to Bring Me the Horizon and One OK Rock, so I am having fun. I showed my spouse the Wons Phreely vids, and they really liked the music. Thank you so much!
Fellow Gen-Xer here and to be fair we do have the best music!
Recently went to one of the Oasis gigs and it bought back so many memories. Plus it helped that the concert was incredible – as was Richard Ashcroft: he absolutely killed his set.
I find myself still listening to BBC radio 1 even though I’m about 30 years older than their target demographic. 2 newer bands I’ve liked recently are Wolf Alice and Last Dinner Party
Wow, what a blast! I’m adding Won to the Playlist. Thanks for sharing.
Wow! Now I feel old. This is the kind of stuff my children listened to in their teens. (Where did the years go?)
47th post?
I’m part of the silent generation. Not much to say, so, Rhapsody in Blues.
drat. Rhapsody in Blue
Check out Rapsody in Bluegrass, Bela Fleck and a cast of young whizzes. Pretty amazing!
I’d like to hear a professional recording of that.
Thank You, Won is pretty “sick”, or is it ‘SUS’, good?!? 😉🤣🤣
‘Musical Encyclopedia Brain’ must be a predominantly male GenX thing because my husband has the same ‘brain’ power! We actually text each other song lyrics to try to stump one another. (I usually lose!) I have more of a visual/auditory memory, I never forget a face, and I recognize sounds/songs but not the name or artist, so I guess we make a great team! (Another thing we have in common with you and Ilona!)
P.S.
I loved the new book/series! Adelide is a Bad A$$, and a wonderful Mom….typical Single Mom! I can’t wait to read her next adventure!!!
Thanks, Gordon! A fun post, indeed. Brings back wonderful memories of being a DJ for my college radio station in the 80s. And my classic rock intro was listening to Alan Parsons Project’s ‘Eye In the Sky’ album while I was penny-locked in a friend’s room with my future husband.
Music, books, art and food invoke the five senses for comfort in my life. I love that I get reminded of or introduced to new items for all of them here. Thanx for that!
Thanks for the memories:)
Oh the memories- college 1985-1989, making mixed tapes with my roommate: New Order, The Church, Joy Division, Roxy Music, The Cure….. Good times! Thank you for sharing!
OMGosh! You must be my evil spiritual twin (musically speaking, natch)!!!!!!
I LOVE THIS
I have eclectic music joy but New Wave is my jam. I graduated high school in 1981 in rural Oregon and our local stations are what we got unless we were lucky enough to get KZEL up in the college town. We were teased with an occasional New Wave song on the radio but mostly shared anything new and exciting we discovered.
We sat and listened to The Pretenders (PLAY THIS ALBUM LOUD), The Cure, The B-52s and, strangely late, T- Rex (Bolan was dead?). (Gateway drugs) My best friend had a thing for guys in eyeliner. I bought every Cars and Pretenders album that released. Patti Smith was my crazy brain/angry/sad listen. Later a work friend shared Joy Division and New Order (the hard stuff) I remember thinking I found out about Punk and New Wave way late. (Where have you been all my life? My brain was melting with too much Air Supply!)
Anyway, thanks for the recos, links and the connection through music.
What a fun surprise in my inbox this morning.
Love music. And boy, can it take you back, sometimes a punch to the gut, sometimes that aura that you’re there again. Thanks for sharing.
I had a friend weekend, with playlists blaring … and I share the angst of our songs being on the “oldies” stations.
Rather than being able to pinpoint artists, I was pinpointing the movies featuring those songs … Guardians of the Galaxy (of course), Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and (you know, the one with the kid in the space ship, huh – blank looks all around) Flight of the Navigator.
Great friends, time, and food.
Flight of the Navigator still feels like a fever dream to me. I’ll never forget them singing I get around by Beach Boys.
Fun post! I was 22 in 1980 so the 80s was a big decade for me musically and as a young adult. Now, I listen to a mix of music that is current and also goes back to about 500 years ago. So I do sometimes listen to 80s or even 90s music. Got back into music starting in the early 2000s after a lull in the 90s (did not like much of the 90s music). So you can detour into music posts anytime you want!
My son introduced me to a lot of the more modern heavy metal in the 2000s. I find it jives with my 80s, 90s, hair metal, dance and 80s pop. ROFL.
I once had a friend say someone could get the bends from listening to my music on random. I go from 60s-90s pop to hair metal to funk to R&B to heavy metal to euro dance without blinking an eye.
Thanks for the rec! I listened to wons on the drive into work.
Can I recommend a station too? https://www.cpr.org/indie/ is great 🙂
Thanks, I like it, I’m new to Wons, too. Also a Gen-xer. There seems to be some light hearted humour in his music and I agree it has that 80s vibe. Will check out more. I used to listen to OMD, early Simple Minds, and Strange Advance, etc, on my Walkman – the cassette version. A band I like that also gives me 80s vibes (particularly like Strange Advance) is Future Islands. Nostalgia!
I’m GenX and although I adore my 80s and 90s stuff I pretty much listen to most of everything. I haven’t heard of Wons but I definitely like their sound and it’s right up my alley. The Associates I feel like is an acquired taste and it’s not mine. he’s too pitchy for me but I like the music part. Thanks for sharing this!
That is a fair critique of Billy and his band. I tend to think of him almost as a singer’s singer. Robert Smith of the Cure was a friend of his and wrote Cut Here as a tribute to Billy after his death. Fair warning, it’s one of the saddest songs I’ve ever really listened to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sKWrpaEw0k
I listened to “the night has an alibi” and first thought was “like the Pet Shop Boys”. Ok not the same but… another along those lines I liked was Alphaville. Very much a teen of the 80’s and it’s music from them to Madonna and the Scorpions and everything in between
It’s interesting to me that when listening to Won, people who grew up in the 80’s hear echoes of different bands from our youth. A time before he himself was born. Like I said, I heard New Order, someone else hear The Church, isn’t that cool?
Thank you so much for the music links. I’ve heard it said that most music today is not really meant to be listened to, it’s a soundtrack as background to the persons life; and I think it’s main function is to help you find your musically designated soundgroup for instant superficial connection. I think that is mostly true, commercial stuff is pap and laudanum, but the talented kids of the world are getting their chance on the internet, so all is not lost.
I struggle to find new music on my own, but am not in that sad category who refuse to listen to anything written after their own teen years. There is only one group from my own teen years that I still follow with eagerness. VNV Nation. If you are not familiar, I suggest watching one of their Mera Luna concerts. At the risk of sounding overblown, the man is a bard. He puts words to what people feel and gives them to the world. Enough said.
Also thanks for reminding me of the gold mine of college radio.
You’re very welcome. And you’re probably right about music being a bit of background noise to our lives but I’ve always thought of good music as being more than that. For me it’s about how a song makes me feel. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad and using the music to access emotions that I normally keep buried way down deep. As we were taught to. In a way, a good song almost gives me an excuse or permission to laugh or cry. I also listen to Irish folk music to connect to a father I never knew. It makes me miss something I never really had.
💯
I have always been an Alice in chains fan since I was 16. Good stuff
They are or were fantastic. IMO, better than almost all other grunge bands. I have to say almost because I am and will always be a huge fan of the late Chris Cornell. I hate that he’s since joined the ranks of Kurt and Layne. And Andrew Wood. And Scott Weiland. Christ, at this point Eddie Vedder is like the last man standing. I honestly think it’s because drugs, specifically heroin, were so indelibly linked to and a part of the grunge scene. With predictably tragic results. Sorry, didn’t mean to make it so heavy.
Ahhh. A boyfriend gave me the Alice in Chains unplugged CD as a present. He thought he was being cute.
I find with us Gen Xers, our view of that era is totally dependent on our birthdays. There’s a very big difference between those of us who were latch key kids in Gr 1, to those who for being online at 20 was normal.
Love music recommendations!!! Thanks!
We love student and community radio stations, WSUM is frequently on in our cars and WORT is on all weekend in the house! (Highly recommend checking out WORT if you haven’t, it amazing.) I’ll have to check out KTSW and WWCU.
thank you for the music recommendations. two of them made it past the skipping stage so off to explore a bit more 🙂
Several of the college and indie public stations in my area allow for shows to be streamed up to 2 weeks later, my favorite is KSER
https://spinitron.com/KSER/calendar
In particular The Vault on Saturday evenings is 70-80s music, some new to me and more familiar ones sometimes unfamiliar mixes. Dead Electric on Friday evenings is also 70-80s but synth/space/new wave. They have playlists…
Did anyone else see the Won video of “The Night has an Alibi” as a precursor to Orpheus in Sandman Season 2? Including being smuggled in a tote bag.
Makes me wonder who was influenced by whom: Won by the Sandman graphic novels, or the Season 2 show runners by Won’s video?
while I like a lot of the music from the 80’s and 90’s, I’m a die hard 60’s lover.
Love to hear from you! Great post.
Thanks for the introduction to Wons Phreely! I enjoyed his music and will put him on my list to watch. I played his songs for my hubby and he liked them too, and he is picky!
You just never know what the blog is going to be about on any day–it could be Wons Phreely, Maggie the Undying, or Knitting! So much fun!
“Friends don’t let friends get friends haircuts…”
Allegedly, that was a not so subtle dig at Metallica.
Enjoyed the difference in this post, thanks for the musical suggestions, the reminder about college radio stations, and the link to Cullowhee – we still have 95.3 playing often in the car when we travel to Sylva or Waynesville. I have lived several other places in my almost 64 years, but keep returning to these same mountains in the Nantahala Gorge. In fact, the first books I read by IA were KD, and I fell for your writing first, but the icing on the cake were the references to Curran’s family living in this area of western NC. Hope you and yours continue to enjoy the music!
Excellent – much needed music refresh for me today! Thank you!!!!
as a fellow GenX’er, I am glad for your musical foray. I am in Idaho, where the music from Boise State is usually classical with a little space music after I should be asleep. But I truly miss the Carnegie Mellon radio station in Pittsburgh that played anything and everything, and the New Wave show on the local PBS station. They were the ones that exposed me to Toad the Wet Sprocket and They Might Be Giants, two of my all time favorite bands from back then.
Lately I have gotten into TajMo, two of my favorite blues performers. Beautiful music, good for a difficult day.
I’ve been listening to this awful song”Ricky” by The Wolves of Glendale and honestly it might be the best/funniest thing ever. Give it a listen if you need a good chuckle.