THE MOMMYHEADS, CONEY ISLAND KID

Every few years I 'discover' a band that seems to have been around for decades and I'm left scratching my head wondering how I'd never heard of them or heard their music. Such is the case with The Mommyheads. Reading reviews of the band's many albums, the common theme is that this is a band that has been getting better and better with time and age. I can't yet speak to that since I haven't listened to their back catalog of 14 albums that span 34 years going back to 1989. What I can say is that their 15th album, Coney Island Kid, is absolutely fantastic. 

Fusing pop, prog, indie and psychedelic rock, into a swirling kaleidoscope of curious and slightly idiosyncratic music, The Mommheads have similar underpinnings to XTC and Motorpycho (especially 2020's The All Is One). I was drawn into Coney Island Kid right from the ambient synth opening of title track which uses Coney Island as a backdrop to convey 'themes of desperation and soul-searching'. Honestly, it's been a minute since I was this intrigued with a band or album. 

BRUNO MAJOR, COLUMBO

There once was an old ivory white 1981 Mercedes Benz 280sl named Columbo. Columbo was named after the 70's TV character. The car and character's trench coat were the same color. Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bruno Major loved Columbo...the car. 

After being locked down at his parents house in Northampton, England during COVID, where he felt starved of life and experience, Major hopped a plane to LA. There he would drive around in Columbo. The car became a symbol of his renewed autonomy, being able to go wherever he wanted to go and do what he wanted to do once more. In an interview, Major said that this was the most prolific period of writing in his life with songs exploded out of him. Those songs became his third album, Columbo.

Columbo the character was eventually retired. Columbo the car met a different ending in a car crash. While major may have have lost Columbo, he found a new place of creativity from those drives in his 'nuts and bolts' traveling partner. And it has produced Major's best album to date, so it's fitting that he would sing fondly of Columbo on its title track and of a time when they can ride together again.

"Columbo, Columbo, I'll see you on the other side. We'll go for a sunset ride. You wait, someday, we’ll drive the world away. On the Pacific Coast Highway"

GRETA VAN FLEET, STARCATCHER

When Greta Van Fleet arrived on the scene in 2017 with their debut album From the Fires, they were hailed and celebrated as a hard-rocking, Led Zeppelin-esk sounding band that was here to save rock music. I thought that the album and the band were fine. But to me, lead singer Josh Kiszka had not yet figured out what to do with his voice. And twin brother Jake (guitar), younger brother Sam (bass), and Danny Wagner (drums), as good as they were as musicians, had not landed on a signature sound. They sounded too much like a Zeppelin knock-off and lacked originality.

2021's The Battle At Garden's Gate, their follow up album, found the band stretching in new directions while toning down the Zeppelin influences. The results were mixed. There were moments of brilliance, exemplified best on the album's closing, The Weight Of Dreams, a monster of a song with one of the greatest guitar solos of the past decade. But there were others that fell short.

All of this brings us to Starcatcher, the Band's third album. In a press release, brother Sam, said that with this album they wanted something 'raw around the edges'. Something that represents them going 'back to their roots' while also moving them forward at the same time. I think that the band realized that they will never out run their Led Zeppelin influences and that 'going back' was a decision to embrace it. It was the right move. Taking this and a decade's worth of playing together and growing as a band, as song-writers, and as musicians, Greta Van Fleet has finally landed on something that successfully fuses it all together. For me, Starcatcher is their most successful and best album to date. 

Mr. Bennett, You'll Be Missed

You were one of a kind. 

BONNY DOON, LET THERE BE MUSIC

There is nothing flashy or fast moving when it comes to Bonny Doon. They are a band that lives in a perpetual laid-back and relaxed state where their music, as self described, is understated, simple, humane, and thoughtful. The band has said that they have always tried to get at the 'essence of things.'On their latest album, Let There Be Music, they take this idea to a different level. With a new focus on their songwriting and trying to have it be as strong as it can be 'without too much accoutrements,' the band has landed on a cleaner and simpler sound that is light, breezy, and sunny. All things that I want right about now.  Let There Be Music indeed.  

JENNY LEWIS, JOY'ALL

A showbiz kid and life-long musician and performer, Jenny Lewis has led the kind of life that at first glance seems a little fantastical and definitely not the norm. But like the rest of us, Lewis has had her share of ups and downs, wins and losses, happy moments and sad ones. And through it all, she has kept her wits about her. Now, as she hits middle age, Lewis is on a quest to find the kind of joy and happiness that has escaped her. And it is her wit...and witty lyrics on her fifth and latest album, Joy'All, that shine as she waxes poetically about it all. Shining too are the catchy sing-along melodies and choruses and the warm glow of 1970's FM yacht rock, folk rock, and country that cloak the whole album. Lewis has never sounded better and everything here combines to make Joy'All irresistible and one of the stand out albums of the year so far.