Today, Local Spins writers and ‘New Standards’ hosts Tricia Boot Woolfenden and Troy Reimink give readers a sneak peek into new national/international tracks worth giving a listen.
Grand Rapids radio hosts and music arbiters Tricia Boot Woolfenden and Troy Reimink curate fresh collections of songs by national and international artists for WYCE (88.1 FM) as part of the Sunday night “New Standards” show.
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They also regularly give Local Spins readers a first taste of a couple of standout tracks for Periscope — today highlighting compelling new music from The Mountain Goats and Lost Horizons.
Tune in for more new, attention-worthy tracks on 88.1 FM WYCE or online at wyce.org at 6 p.m. today (Dec. 13) as part of another edition of “New Standards.”
PERISCOPE: Dec. 13, 2020
Troy’s Pick
Lost Horizons feat. Kavi Kwai, “Every Beat That Passed” – The precise distinction between shoegaze and dream-pop is something that matters only to people without real problems to occupy their attention. As such a person, it’s always seemed strange to me that the 1980s/’90s Scottish band Cocteau Twins aren’t typically mentioned in the same conversation as British shoegaze titans likes My Bloody Valentine, Ride or Slowdive — strange if only because the Twins’ guitars were more ear-splitting than any of them apart from MBV. And they fall just as decisively into the “oft-imitated, never replicated” bin of history that includes so many great bands from that era who created beautiful, powerful sounds that were utterly their own.
Anyhow, Cocteau Twins core member Simon Raymonde’s current project, Lost Horizons, achieves the same kind of cracked grandeur, if more fleetingly. The band’s second album, “In Quiet Moments,” is divided in two parts, the first of which is out now, the second in February. Tonight on New Standards (Dec. 13), we’ll spin the single “Every Beat That Passed,” which features a guest vocal from the Swedish singer Kavi Kwai — whose performance so uncannily evokes erstwhile Cocteau vocalist Elizabeth Fraser that I nearly spit out the whiskey I was swirling nostalgically in my tumbler, as I gazed out my Staring Window across the foggy moor and pondered the passing years. Enjoy!
Tricia’s Pick
The Mountain Goats, “This Year” – Speaking of gazing contemplatively out the Staring Window, this has been a year where the familiar has provided respite — syndicated TV, dog-eared books, beloved songs. So it’s no great surprise (to me at least) that my song pick of the week is The Mountain Goats’ revisit of this classic end-of-the-year selection. Taken from their recently released “Jordan Lake Sessions Volumes 1 & 2,” this version–recorded during a virtual concert, naturally — is particularly cathartic. One can sense the mix of desperation and hope as John Darnielle’s distinctive nasal voice leans into a passage that so aptly represents our collective angst: “There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year / I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.”
If ever there was a time to buck the societal pressure of cataloging one’s successes and failures in a year-end self-critique of rights and wrongs, 2020 is it. No matter what physical, financial, emotional or psychological state in which you may find yourself as the calendar flips over, if you’re still here, holding on, that was simply enough for this year.
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