Monthly Archives: May 2019

Song of the Week – Talking Straight, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

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Ignored           Obscured            Restored

The Melbourne, Australia based Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever had a good 2018.  They released an album, Hope Downs, that found its way onto many “best of” lists last year and also played to huge American audiences at the 2018 Coachella Festival.

I like their sound.  It reminds me a little of early R.E.M.  Take, for instance, “Talking Straight,” today’s SotW.

Jangly guitars provide a galloping rhythm that evokes mid-‘80s modern rock.  The vocals are like The Only Ones’ Peter Perrett.  (Remember “Another Girl, Another Planet?”)

The song’s writer, singer/guitarist Joe White, has been quoted suggesting that the track is about loneliness.

I’m hopeless, no embrace
I wanna know
I wanna know where the silence comes from
Where space originates

“The idea in this song is that we might be lonely, but we could be lonely together.”

Enjoy… until next week.

The Dixie Cups, Ain’t That Nice and Thank You Mama, Thank You Papa

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When I worked in midtown in the early 80s I’d visit the various discount record stores and buy cut out records for a buck or two based on a track or a name that I recognized from something I’d read or heard about on the radio. That’s how I found the Dixie Cups Chapel of Love and Iko Iko. Two of the great cuts of the 60s. Today I found on Google Music an album called the Dixie Cups versus the Shangri Las. Now, apart from the fact that this is a bogus contest, because of it I found a bunch of Dixie Cups songs I don’t think I’d ever heard before. Are the Dixie Cups greater than the Shangri Las? Here’re two songs to go with their big hits that make me say, maybe!