Best of What’s New

All tunes appear on albums that were released yesterday (May 13).

The Black Keys/Good Love

My first pick this week is new music by The Black Keys. While I had been aware of their name, I only started paying attention a year ago when the rock duo of high school friends Dan Auerbach (vocals, guitar) and Patrick Carney (drums) released their then-latest album Delta Kream. Now, they are back with Dropout Boogie, their 11th studio release. When they started work on the album in the summer of 2021, Auerbach and Carney first envisaged recording it as a duo but subsequently decided to collaborate with other artists. One includes Billy Gibbons, a longtime friend of the duo from Akron, Ohio. Here’s Good Love, co-written by Auerbach, Carney and Gibbons and featuring the ZZ Top guitarist. Like on predecessor Delta Kream, I dig the rawness of The Black Keys’ sound. Gibbons is a great match!

49 Winchester/All I Need

49 Winchester are a Russell County, Va.-based group who on their website describe their music as “tear-in-your-beer alt-country, sticky barroom floor rock-n-roll, and high-octane Appalachian folk.” Following is a bit more from their website: Formed eight years ago on Winchester Street in the small mountain town of Castlewood, Virginia (population: 2,045), the band started as a rag tag bunch of neighborhood teenagers who just wanted to get together for the sake of playing together. Aside from Gibson [Isaac Gibson, singer/guitarist – CMM], there’s also his childhood friend, bassist Chase Chafin, alongside other Castlewood cronies — guitarist Bus Shelton, and Noah Patrick on pedal steel. Here’s All I Need, a track from the group’s fourth and latest studio album Fortune Favors The Bold. The country rocker, credited to Blaine Gibson, reminds me a bit of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Good stuff!

State Champs/Here to Stay

Next up are Albany, N.Y.-based pop-punk band State Champs, who according to Apple Music are known for their vocal harmonies and layered guitar riffs. Here’s more from their Apple Music profile: The group’s first album, 2013’s The Finer Things, reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. They won two Alternative Press Music Awards, including Best Breakthrough Band in 2016 and Music Video of the Year in 2017, for “Losing Myself.” Both 2015’s Around the World and Back and 2018’s Living Proof include two songs cowritten with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth. “Time Machine,” from 2018’s Living Proof, featured a guest vocal appearance from blink-182’s Mark Hoppus. This brings me to the group’s new album Kings of the New Age and the opener Here to Stay. Much of contemporary pop isn’t my cup of tea, but in this case, the combination with rock works for me.

Say Sue Me/Still Here

I’m pleased to wrap up this week’s music revue with indie rock from South Korea, Say Sue Me, the first time I feature a band from that country. From their website: Cited as one of 2018’s ‘break-out bands‘, Say Sue Me are a Surf Rock inspired indie band from Busan, South Korea. Members consist of Byungkyu Kim on lead guitar, Sumi Choi on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jaeyoung Kim on Bass and Sungwan Lim on Drums. Releasing their first album “We’ve Sobered Up” in 2014, and EP “Big Summer Night” in 2015, on Korean label Electric Muse, UK label Damnably Records released a self-titled compilation that paired their first record and EP in 2017, marking the band’s first release outside of Korea, which served as their introduction to International audiences. Fast forward five years to The Last Thing Left, which appears to be their third full-length album. Here’s Still Here written by Choi, a tune with a pleasant laidback sound. Also, check out her vocals – cool!

Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist featuring all of the above tracks and a few others.

Sources: Wikipedia; 49 Winchester website; Apple Music; Say Sue Me website; YouTube; Spotify