Listen to these 22 essential alternative songs in 2022. Because 2,022 songs will take way too much time

old people dancing

A bit more than a baker’s dozen, here are 22 alternative songs in 2022 out of a few thousand that I listened to this year. Most have streams of the full songs that you can play right from your phone. I hope you fall in love with them and buy them!

First things first, these are in no real order other than what I can readily find on my Best Songs list on Evernote and scrolling through downloads or discs I’ve already bought. It’s a mess, frankly, but I’m going to try and bring some order to the chaos. And for you, that means curated top shelf listening. Most, not all, are not from albums that will end up on my Top 10 or 20 list. But they’re all amaze.

These 22 alternative songs in 2022 are numbered, but just help me keep track of when I get to 22 tunes. They are not in order of preference or awesomeness!

1. “Wild” – Spoon (Lucifer on the Sofa)

Alternative songs in 2022: Spoon delivers one of the best with "Wild"

How many bands can compare to Spoon, album for album, for almost 30 years? It’s rarified air. Having said that I liked, didn’t love, Lucifer on the Sofa. Several bangers, and Spoon remain an American original. Here is early single “Wild,” which I cannot be on drugs, is an absolute straight-up tribute to INXS.

I can’t imagine a better way to start a list of the best alternative songs in 2022.

Buy Lucifer on the Moon from Spoon’s website.

HOLD ON A SECOND BUSTER! Check out these top songs already out in the New Year…you’ll love them!

2. “(Wishing I Had) Tickets for Saint Etienne” – The Photocopies (Holiday Romance EP)

Listen to (Wishing I Had) Tickets for Saint Etienne by The Photocopies

Michigan-by-London songwriter Sean Turner has released probably 100 songs as The Photocopies since the start of the year. They come in batches of singles, b-sides, EP’s, full-lengths and remixes.

I’m feeling guilty enough not including the Holiday Romance EP among my favorite EP’s of 2022 — an oversight — that I want to highlight “Saint Etienne” from that EP. Fuzzy jangle pop without fuss or needless ambition. Just a perfect pop song, like almost everything Turner does.

Have a listen to everything The Photocopies have published in 2022!

3. “Wrong Side of the Sun” – Best Bets (On An Unhistoric Night)

Alternative songs in 2022:  Best Bets' "Wrong Side of the Sun" may be the most catchy song of the year

Voted by me the #1 song to see live in 2022, I present Best Bets‘ “Wrong Side of the Sun.” They must call the riot police and water cannons when the kids hear this insanely catchy chorus. Growing out of New Zealands’ Transistors, Best Bets rockin’ On An Unhistoric Night belongs on the shelf of every post punk fan of The Ramones or Replacements.

Has to be one of the catchiest alternative songs in 2022. Hit play and rock.

Release your inner 19-year-old with Meritorio Records’ “On An Unhistoric Night.

4. “Dressed in Black” – Ezra Furman (All of Us Flames)

Transgender artist Ezra Furman

I ultimately didn’t put All of Us Flames on my list of records to buy this year. You can’t own everything.

But I love this musky 60’s love song, “Dressed in Black.” Transgender woman Ezra Furman’s lyrics throughout reflect darker tensions of love, sex and gender. The album is sometimes distorted and menacing but still frequently reinterprets AOR.

You can buy All of Flames and Ezra Furman T’s at her website.

5. “End of the Empire IV (Sagittarius)” – Arcade Fire (WE)

Arcade Fire delivers in 2022 again with the song "End of the Empire" from WE

Arcade Fire’s 6th album WE adds to the Montreal legends’ nearly 20-year legacy since the influential Funeral, Neon Bible and The Suburbs. It will also inevitably be conflated with the allegations of sexual misconduct by founder Win Butler. When looking for top alternative songs in 2022, WE has moments, if not the consistency of their early records.

The instrumentation and art rock arrangements, like the 4-part “End of the Empire” sound very much like The Flaming Lips here.

“End of the Empire IV (Sagittarius)” – Arcade Fire (WE)

Get your copy of Arcade Fire’s WE.

OBVIOUSLY you need to critique my Top 20 albums of 2022. Listen, comment and disagree!

6. “Old Picture of Ourselves” – The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness (The Third Wave of…)

The band you've never heard of and need to know about.  The Boys With the Perpetual Nervousness

Next, a multi-continent jangle pop supergroup of sorts, The Boys With the Perpetual Nervousness may actually end up on my best album list. But I had to share one of their songs from The Third Wave of… TBWTPN are Scotland’s Andrew Taylor, also in Dropkick…and Spain’s Gonzalo Marcos, who plays in El Palacio de Linares. (Note to self: check out El Palacio de Linares.!)

For fans of Teenage Fanclub and lovers of all things jangle.

Do you dig it?! Buy The Boys third album from Bobo Integral Records!

7. “Sick of Everything” – Gorgeous Bully (Am I Really Going to Die Here)

Gorgeous Bully song "Sick of Everything"

Daniel Johnston, exemplar of melodic sincerity to Kurt Cobain and Yo La Tengo, grew up in West Virginia and is revered in many circles as an Appalachian prodigy. An acquaintance of mine actually gave him a place to live in the late 80’s. This was either before or during some of Johnston’s drug use and increasing mental health struggles, which eventually saw him committed.

Does Manchester’s Gorgeous Bully mimic Johnston’s arch low fidelity cassette recordings? Mostly, no. GB builds more traditional song structures of bedroom pop. The lo-fi soundscapes and lyrics are relatively dynamic compared to Johnston’s arrested development.

And Thomas Crang recognizes a pop hook when he finds it. “Sick of Everything,” originally a 2021 single, is a cleaned-up version of Gorgeous Bully that leads off 2022’s Am I Really Going to Die Here. Just 90 seconds makes it one of the top alternative songs in 2022.

Johnston and GB do share a bit of the same strumming DNA that you can hear in some of Johnston’s touching live performances. Also you can watch the excellent The Devil and Daniel Johnston on Amazon.

Buy “Am I Really Going to Die Here” by Gorgeous Bully.

Okay kids HERE THEY ARE: The very best songs from summer 2022! Listen and tell me I’m wrong!

8. “Watercolours” – Neil Brogan (Things Keep Getting in the Way)

Listen to indie pop wonder Neil Brogan sing "Watercolours."  Guaranteed to make your day!

Irish musician, host of this year’s new music podcast Brogan’s Run and former Sea Pinks lead Neil Brogan writes perfect, economical guitar pop on his new album Things Keep Getting in the Way. Brogan will take you back to pristine 90’s indie pop like The Lucksmiths and Trash Can Sinatras.

Download your ray of sunshine from 2022 with Neil Brogan’s Things Getting in the Way.

9. “Our Songbird Has Gone” – The Chesterf¡elds (New Modern Homes)

Alternative songs in 2022: Possibly my favorite song of the year...The Chesterf¡elds' "Our Songbird Has Gone"

Let’s stay in this tasty indie pop space for a moment so that I can share one of my very favorite songs of the last year.

Cult favorites The Chesterf¡elds reunited in 2022, despite the untimely death of their band mate Davy Chesterfield in 2003. This delightful tribute to Chesterfield namechecks and evokes everything about C86 bands that birthed The Chesterf¡elds nearly 40 years ago.

Clearly one of the best alternative songs in 2022. I have probably sung the chorus to “Our Songbird” in my car more than any other this year.

Buy New Modern Homes by The Chesterf¡elds at Bandcamp.

10. “Pana-vision” – The Smile (A Light for Attracting Attention)

Radiohead side project The Smile kill with single Pana-vision

In the winter and spring of 2022, I bought a clutch of new releases by well-known artists sight unseen. I rarely do that — I sample almost everything. However, a few artists I will buy on faith. As it turned out, I was unimpressed by many of them…including The Smile’s A Light for Attracting Attention.

This summer, a friend persuaded me to revisit The Smile and some of my other impetuous purchases. I can report, of the 4 or 5 discs, I was most glad to return to The Smile. I had listened to Attention probably a half dozen times on earbuds. This is a terrible way to consume dense production, particularly a Radiohead side project.

In the end, however, the sum is less than the parts.

Thom Yorke is one of the two or three most influential songwriters of the last 50 years, so I think it’s fair to hold him to a high standard. Attention is front-loaded and musical ideas are hit or miss after the first five tracks. Attention reminds me of Yorke’s debut solo The Eraser in some ways. Tom Skinner’s complex syncopation is a revelation and it is rewarding to hear Jonny Greenwood playing guitar again for God’s sake.

Ironically, though, my favorite songs are keyboard numbers…”Open the Floodgates” and April single “Pana-vision.”

Add The Smile to your Radiohead collection!

11. “No End to Love” – Orlando Weeks (Hop Up)

Why haven't you listened to Orlando Weeks' alternative album Hop up and the song "No End to Love?!" You can hear it here

Don’t let the absence of blog coverage of Maccabee’s singer Orlando Weeks dissuade you from buying his second solo, Hop Up. Brimming with the joys of fatherhood and watching his young son emerge as a new personality, it is far too loving and un-ironic for beat hipsters to tolerate. The album has been criminally ignored.

Light as air and irrepressible with new life, it is impossible not to hear Roxy Music’s Avalon on songs like “No End to Love.”

“No End to Love” – Orlando Weeks (Hop Up)

You can buy Hop Up from large retailers worldwide.

12. “I Wish I” – Arlo McKinley (This Mess We’re In)

Listen to a song from my favorite concert of the year.  "I Wish I" from Arlo Mckinley's This Mess We're In

It has been a damn fine year for alternative country. New music by Wilco and genre-defining releases by Big Thief and Angel Olsen…what a time to be alive!

My favorite show of the year, not even close, was Cincinnati’s Arlo McKinley playing This Mess We’re In at Salt Lake City’s Urban Lounge. One of several highlights was “I Wish I,” as McKinley narrated the eternal tension between the comfort of known things and the progress of growing old.

“I Wish I” lyrics

Thinking about settling up,
Kicking off the dust,
Removing all the rust that keeps me still.
I think it’s my time to go.
Say goodbye to everyone I know
And I hope someday I’ll be forgiven
For the bonds that I broke
.

I wish I could take you with me,
But this road I must walk alone.
I gotta get out of the city.
Good God,
I gotta lose myself just to find my way back home
.

Every song, like “I Wish I,” on This Mess We’re In is genuine and moving.

This may be another album that creeps into my Top 20 of the year. Indulge your inner Southerner this Christmas with This Mess We’re In.

SPOILER ALERT! Arlo McKinley (above) gets more love in my top 7 alt country albums of 2022 (:

13. “Teeth” – Perfume Genius (Ugly Season)

Alternative songs in 2022: Perfume Genius song "Teeth" from Ugly Season

I’m a little late to the Perfume Genius party but was quite enthralled by his 5th album, 2020’s Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. For fans looking for relatively simple song structures after that album, Ugly Season may not satisfy. The album is a score to the dance performance The Sun Still Burns Here. Much of it reflects the abstraction of dance.

I try to post only audio streams but here you’ll need to rely on the video. The brittle melody and especially Mike Hadreas’ delicate falsetto are a marvel that place it among the top alternative songs in 2022.

Ugly Season, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately and other Perfume Genius items are available to buy at his website.

14. “Windowpane” – Aluminum (Windowpane EP)

Some shoegaze for your 2022.  Aluminum sing "Windowpane"

San Francisco’s gazey power pop outfit Aluminum released the Windowpane EP about two months ago. Their guitar pop and electronica is smartly interspersed with pedals worthy of My Bloody Valentine. For examples, listen to “Solar” and early single, “Windowpane.”

Get a vinyl version of the Windowpane EP from Oakland’s Dandy Boy Records.
You can buy the cassette from SF’s Discontinuous Innovations.

15. “Celebran Por Nosotros” – Mañana el Espacio (Casi Nada es Para Siempre)

Don't miss out on some of the best alternative songs in 2022 because you don't speak Spanish.  Listen to "Celebran Por Nosotros" by Mañana el Espacio

How have I gotten this far into my list of alternative songs in 2022 without a Spanish language tune? This is like my signature thing now, and I speak barely a word of Spanish beyond “carnita.” Stupid American.

This year I’ve absolutely fallen in love with bands like Mañana el Espacio (South America) and Torres Satélite (Spain). It is so connecting and universal — and something needed right now — to know that Mañana singer Ricardo José Vergara is creating these pop gems, possibly raised on the same Sonic Youth records as you and me.

“Celebran Por Nosotros” lyrics

Ricardo is a gifted lyricist and has been kind enough to send the translation for his lovely album Casi Nada es Para Siempre. He plans to post them on Musixmatch and Spotify as well. The translated opening of “Celebran Por Nosotros”…

We watch the stars mutliply.
The city looks peaceful from here.
The moment is unforgettable
But I’ll have to wake up.

Color gets all over our faces.
I’m sure better times will come
And meanwhile,
I ask myself,

Do they celebrate for us?
Is that why they’re lighting the city up?
Or is it my imagination?
Is that why they’re lighting the city up?
Or is it my imagination?

Okay I’m going to cheat on my 22 songs and drop an extra Mañana song here, because they range way outside of shoegaze to the most delightful indie pop. Check out the crazy flanged guitar at the end of “Yo No Ma Haces Falta,” (“I Don’t Need You Anymore.”)

Buy Manan’s Casi Nada es Para Siempre from Bandcamp. ¡Es excelente!

Did you love that jangle from Mañana el Espacio?! WHO WOULDN’T?! Click here for more Spanish indie pop!

16. “Dreamin of the Past” – Pusha T (It’s Almost Dry)

Alternative songs in 2022 include Pusha T's "Dreamin of the Past"

Kids I have to tell you.

As I wind into my 50’s, it is harder to find hardcore bands or rap music that I authentically connect with. Possibly, just possibly, I’m not the target audience. But I did find a few hip hop releases that I liked which specifically DID NOT include Kendrick Lamar. Both Radiohead and Lamar could publish 50 minutes of fax noise and the bloggers swoon.

I did super enjoy Pusha T’s “Dreamin of the Past,” which he did on Fallon in the spring. Hiphopdx recounts Pusha T’s story to Charlamagne Tha God about how he persuaded Kanye West to let him release Ye’s beat on King Push’s It’s Almost Dry instead of last year’s Donda.

“I begged for the beat,” he said. “It was just one of those ones that I kept going back to and was like, ‘Listen, man, I need this. I need this record.’ And I was like, ‘You know what? You should be on the record too.’ That’s the compromise.”

Here is “Dreamin of the Past” featuring a few bars of Kanye at the end as “the compromise.”

You can buy “It’s Almost Dry” from just about any store on Earth.

17. “Coke Jaw” – Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals (King Cobra)

Listen to Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals on this list of 22 top alternative songs in 2022

Let’s establish up front that by posting two hip hop songs in a row, I am in no way implying I have street cred in urban music. But I really did sample a good bit of rap this year. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals is one I want to spend a little more time with before the end of the year for my favorite albums list.

These guys have all the buzzy descriptions, experimental hip hop…fusion. It’s a bit hard to categorize but I kind of dig it. Infinity Knives (NPR’s Tariq Ravelomanana) provides the electronics and Baltimore’s Brian Ennals brings the rhymes. If there is a bridge too far, it is incorporating Infinity Knives’ orchestration into the album and not hearing them simply as interludes.

“Coke Jaw” is a good example of the mashup that makes them so different.

Get a digital copy of King Cobra and learn more about Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals from the Phantom Limb label.

18. “Doers” – Bodega (Broken Equipment)

Brooklyn's Bodega sings "Doers" from 2022's Broken Equipment

“Doers” is the maddeningly catchy portrait of modern life by Brooklyn punks Bodega. I bought Broken Equipment early in 2022. It was such a joy to come back to it tonight and hear the ramped intensity in “Doers,” the extension beyond sprechgesang.

If “this “Doers” doesn’t encapsulate work life in 2022, I don’t know what does:

“Doers” lyrics

Ten minutes : calendar
10 minutes : Bandcamp
Ten minutes : wiki browse
10 minutes: planning my next ten minutes
It’s all about auto bio of Benjamin.

Ten minutes: Ted talk
10 minutes: Notepad
Ten minutes: Amazon
10 minutes : planning my next ten minutes
To thine own shelf be true.

This city’s made for the doers. The movers. shakers. Non-connoisseurs.
This city’s made for the doers. The humors. Tubers. entrepreneurs.

You didn’t know you needed Bodega until you heard “Doers.” An angry song for angry times, as we explore the best alternative songs in 2022.

Finish your fiscal year working for the man listening to Bodega’s Broken Equipment.

19. “Backseat Politic” – Eades (Delusion Spree)

A little-heard gem...Eades post punk "Backseat Politic" from Delusion Spree

Can we give a song one minute to build in 2022?

Look, I’m not entirely crazy about the arrangement on “Backseat Politic” but behold Mike Ness fans, the locomotive of fun that Leeds’ post punk bank Eades creates on Delusion Spree. Give them just. one. minute. and dig the groove. More mathy than Social Distortion but HOLY CATS what a churning beat on that chorus!

Buy Delusion Spree at Bandcamp!

It is a CRIME AGAINST MUSIC if you haven’t checked out these songs! Hear some music I bet you missed!

20. “Shotgun” – Soccer Mommy (Sometimes, Forever)

The best alternative songs in 2022 include Soccer Mommy's "Shotgun" from Sometimes, Forever

Sophie Allison checks all the boxes.

Her songs are indie perfect, cagey and cynical. On Sometimes, Forever she has sharpened her hooks and her knives. Both “newdemo” and “Shotgun” show off the singer-songwriter who has emerged since 2018’s Clean. “Shotgun” also displays Allison’s sweeping hooks and Soccer Mommy at her most accessible.

Your Soccer Mommy superstore is here.

21. “Fatal Folly” – The Silent Boys (Sand to Pearls, Coal to Diamonds)

Listen to the stream of Richmond, Virginia's The Silent Boys' "Fatal Folly" from "Sand to Pearls, Coal to Diamonds"

A late entrant on my best music dashboard this year, Sand to Pearls, Coal to Diamonds came out November 4. Richmond, Virginia indie pop veterans The Silent Boys’ ninth album is getting tons of recognition that it rightly deserves. A little twee, a lot of jangle, The Silent Boys hit on just about every song here.

If you don’t fall in love with the simple joy of “Fatal Folly,” then we have nothing further to discuss.

You can buy the digital release from the band or get the disc from French label Too Good to be True Records.

Listen to EVEN MORE top alternative songs from around election day! 2022 was SUCH a great year!

22. “Velvet Sun” – Semiwestern (single)

Semiwestern's remix of "Velvet Sun" is probably my #1 alternative song from 2022

Finally, my last song for you is a bit of a cheat. I found out this weekend it was originally released a decade ago.

Still, I could listen to this November single by Semiwestern 1,000 times and still feel teary about it. The haunting guitar on the chorus to “Velvet Sea” hearkens to Dean Wareham’s post-Galaxie 500 luminaries Luna. The transcendent line hits at 1:15. It is guaranteed to be the best five minutes of your 2022.

That said, I learned from The Google that this is a remix of an earlier “Velvet Sun” released in 2012 by Austin’s The Vliets. Semiwestern is the new incarnation of The Vliets (pronounced VLEETS).

I’ll touch on two things. First, by any measure this remix is a superior, more mature and elegant version of the original. BUY IT! Second, ten years later, it begs the question: Why now? Should we look forward to a longer release from Semiwestern soon? No word yet from California lo-fi label Spirit Goth but I will let you know!

A boy can dream, can’t he?

2022 best alternative EP’s

Vinyl records making comeback

Before I post some favorite songs from 2022 or rank my top albums, let’s spend some time with the little-appreciated category of EP’s. If there are too many songs for any human to listen to in the modern world, there are also too many EP’s, extended singles and “mini-albums” (WTF?). But you’ll miss some serious tunes if you don’t at least sample some of the releases on my list of 2022 best alternative EP’s.

A couple of caveats, the EP is not my preferred release — ultimately, to me, too short for a sustained musical statement. Also my batting average finding great EP’s is not great. Possibly terrible. So my list is just that, a list. Only roughly catalogued in order of badassery. There are just too, too, too many EP’s out there that I didn’t or couldn’t take the time to sample. I don’t presume here to rank the very best.

Having said that, dear reader, these EP’s are absolutely worth your music dollar this Christmas.

Shoken Boys – The Shoken Truth EP

2022 best alternative EP's include Shoken Boys from Tel Aviv

Something about Shoken Boys being an indie band from Israel seems super-exotic AMIRIGHT?!

The truth is, Tel Aviv is a city/metro of almost 4.5 million people. So rock is probably pretty urban and looks not unlike a show in LA. What are the chances Shoken Boys grace our shores playing this delicious shambolic jangle they’ve been putting out since 2019? A tour or supporting role in ‘Merica? Maybe not great. But what a treat to know kids 6,968 miles from Utah are falling in love with the same Shoken Truth EP as you and me.

Buy The Shoken Truth from Bandcamp and be someone’s Secret Santa.

CIEL – Not in the Sun, Nor in the Dark EP

CIEL Not in the Sun, Nor in the Dark EP one of 2022's best

Not a little akin to 90’s ikons Lush, CIEL crushed it with their 2022 Not in the Sun, Nor in the Light EP. From Brighton, England — but also all over Europe — CIEL mixes Michelle Hendriks’ voice with gorgeous power pop, lite shoegaze and moments of four-on-the-floor beats. Invite your friends over, crank Not in the Sun and remind yourself 2023 only gets better from here!

Here is the bangin’ title track, “Not in the Sun, Nor in the Dark.”

CIEL’s tremendous EP is available as a stocking stuffer at Bandcamp.

Senica – Passing Tide EP

Are Senica from Christchurch, New Zealand #1?  The 2022 best alternative EP's

Can someone help me with Theo Tudor’s exquisite voice here? I cannot quite place the Manchester band Tudor takes me back to. From Christchurch, Senica is 100% at the top of my EP list this year. I love everything about Senica’s evocative, desperate sound. And they’re shape-shifters. Although I’m dropping “Now Crystalline” here for you to sample; other songs from the Passing Tide EP are dystopian indie Radiohead.

Don’t wait for Senica’s full length debut. Tell all your friends you heard them first on the Passing Tide EP.

Healees – Healees EP

Put the Healees shoegaze at the top of your 2022 best alternative EP's list

Like almost every year since…oh, 1993 or so…2022 wasn’t a real triumph for the shoegaze movement. How about a light in the darkness, Healees from Paris, France. They’re not doing anything terrifically groundbreaking here. Just creating tight harmonies around a wall-of-sound that make you want to cry. Also I would cynically note this EP is like 33 minutes long, so basically an album.

Here is “The Garden” from the June Healees EP.

Did someone say, “2023 opening act for Ride and The Charlatans?” Yes, please! Healees, alone, are a great reminder of why you need to follow Hidden Bay Records.

The Sundries – Full of the Joys of Spring EP

The Sundries satirize the David Letterman stalker on their Full of the Joys of Spring EP

London’s indie pop The Sundries turn up the sunshine on September’s Full of the Joys of Spring EP. Full of pop nuggets and indie handclaps, The Sundries’ The Joys of Spring EP four songs burst with life. Their breakout in 2022 was the sardonic “David Letterman,” speaking to 80’s kids everywhere.

“I stopped taking my pills.
They told me I was ill.
What did they know?
They were just making me fat.
David would not like that,
He likes me just so.”

Still, the title track “Full of the Joys of Spring” best encapsulates The Sundries sound.

Enjoy The Sundries’ Full of the Joys of Spring EP this holiday season!

2022 best alternative EP’s

people at concert

Don’t be fooled by the “EP” label from a band that you’ve fallen in love with. Even if it’s not a full album, it may still top your list of 2022 best alternative EP’s. For good measure, here are three more EP’s that you can’t go wrong with!

  • The Black WatchThe Neverland of Spoken Things EP
  • The Valery TrailsThe Introvert Blues EP
  • The Death of PopFor a Minute EP

Ride on tour: Dates announced! Plus listen here to new shoegaze acts who could open!

Ride on tour with The Charlatans! Check tour dates here + new shoegaze bands that could open.  This image from London, 2019

UPDATE Monday 9:15 AM: Dates for Ride on tour here!

Here is the announcement for dates for Ride on tour with The Charlatans tour dates. These are US and Canada big city performances starting in six weeks:

  • January 30 New York City
  • January 31 Brooklyn
  • February 2 Boston
  • February 3 Montreal
  • February 4 Toronto
  • February 5 Detroit
  • February 7 Chicago
  • February 8 Madison
  • February 9 Minneapolis
  • February 11 Denver
  • February 13 Vancouver
  • February 14 Seattle
  • February 15 Portland
  • February 17 San Francisco
  • February 18 Los Angeles

Here is the post to Ride’s Facebook page from an hour or so ago.

Dates for Ride on tour announced on Facebook!  Charlatans tour dates are the same, they are co-headlining

With Ride on tour in 2023, it’s all fair game so let’s get right to it.

And KEEP READING — we’ll explore some new, gazey bands on the scene who could join the tour.

Bands opening Ride tour dates right now

Dates for Ride on tour with The Charlatans next year!  Moaning Lisa is supporting Ride right now in Australia

Melbourne’s Moaning Lisa are scheduled to open for Ride’s Australia dates. Moaning Lisa is pretty straightforward indie rock. Here is the opener on last year’s debut album, Something Like This But Not Like This. I haven’t spent much time with ML.

Here is the first single from Something Like This, “Something.”

Buy from Moaning Lisa at Bandcamp.

Similarly, in Perth, Ride tour dates are getting support from local 5-piece The Deenys. The Deenys are living the dream, already opening for The Charlatans this year. They’re obscure enough that if you don’t narrow your search correctly it literally brings up a list of Denny’s restaurants in Perth.

If you want The Deenys, and not Denny’s, this is what they sound like.

Shoegazers WE WANT opening for Ride tour dates!

First, a quick reality check.

The shoegaze genre isn’t exactly producing dozens of breakout acts right now. We have some terrific, gothy bands this year like Just Mustard. But they’re not going to show up in Salt Lake City (please God please) or San Francisco supporting Ride and The Charlatans tour dates.

Here are a few up-and-comers and, by the way, WHO AM I MISSING? Would love to know.

Healees

Healees are a standout new shoegaze band from Paris, France that could support Ride with The Charlatans tour dates

Okay, can we get more serious for a moment? Hidden Bay Records’ Healees have been on my Best Of list all year.

I can still remember wandering around a grocery store this spring listening to their self-titled EP in June and wondering, how am the only person swooning over this gazey band?! Healees, based in Paris, are probably synched most closely with the Ride’s 1990 sound from Nowhere on the aching cut “The Garden.”

Also, have a listen to the blistering “Jaguarundi” from the same EP. What exactly is a Jaguarundi, anyway? You won’t care after listening to Healees‘ shimmering, 4 minute jam that would be an incredible introduction, just before Andy Bell and Mark Gardener take the stage.

Buy Healees super strong debut at Bandcamp.

Downward

Tulsa, Oklahoma's Downward could crush it as an opening act for Ride in 2023

Downward is admittedly a band I only discovered for the first time tonight. Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Downward is currently touring in support of their February Brass Tacks EP. Sometimes 90’s indie, at other times right in a gazey bullseye…”Ugly Bug” is about as perfect an opener for Ride as I can imagine — or maybe Catherine Wheel?!

Listen to the variety of sounds on Downward’s Brass Tacks EP.

LAUNDER

LAUNDER is a super dream pop act out of Los Angeles.  Could be a great warm-up for Ride on tour in 2023?

In my experience, a lot of bands described as shoegaze are in actuality loud dream pop. Google “shoegaze” all you want, mostly you’re getting metal or dream pop.

LAUNDER falls in this gap. This year’s Happening is super but it’s not gazey at all, whatever you read. The working name of LA’s John Cudlip, LAUNDER is in the same shoegaze zipcode on “Intake,” but it’s pretty atypical of the rest of the dream pop album.

This is a really nice album, an agitated dream pop record. Check it out!

Mo Dotti

Mo Dotti from Los Angeles could be a great opener for Ride on tour with The Charlatans tour dates

Hat tip to The Noise Made by People, who flagged LA’s Mo Dotti for me. Their March EP Guided Imagery falls somewhere between dream and gaze, and I have no dispute with where they land! I love to imagine a really crunchy, aggressive version of “Come on Music” before Ride hits the stage.

And here is “Loser Smile,” the opening track on Guided Imagery, with some My Bloody Valentine energy.

Ride on tour to promote re-release of Nowhere and Going Blank Again

Ride's first two albums and four EP's reissued by Wichita Recordings

It’s already been a year for Ride.

On November 4, Wichita Recordings re-issued 1990’s legendary Nowhere and 1992’s Going Blank Again, along with a collection of their first four EP’s. I only have the Today Forever EP, so I’ll be buying 4 EP’s at the band’s website. Next week, Ride begins an Australia and New Zealand tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Nowhere:

  • Nov 29 Adelaide, Australia
  • Nov 30      Melbourne, Australia
  • Dec 1        Sydney, Australia
  • Dec 2        Woolloongabba, Australia
  • Dec 4        Fremantle, Australia
  • Dec 6        Auckland, New Zealand
  • Dec 16      Athens, Greece
  • Dec 18      Paris, France (Les Inrocks festival)
Ride tour dates and Charlatans tour dates announced today!

One way or the other, let’s get Ride to Salt Lake for the #goingblankagain30 tour — and a ten-minute version of “OX4” please!

“The Neverland of Spoken Things” – The alternative Christmas song that’s not about Christmas

The Black Watch write an alternative Christmas song that's not about Christmas
The Black Watch write an alternative Christmas song that’s not about Christmas

You know you’ve found a band with a great sense of humor when their Best Of retrospective is called “31 Years of Obscurity.” And a band leader with high touch, when you get a personal e-mail thanking you for your purchase. After three plus decades, John Andrew Fredrick and The Black Watch released The Neverland of Spoken Things EP in September. The gentle shoegaze and shimmering guitars perfectly complement Fredrick’s rich baritone. Darrin at Janglepophub likens title track “Neverland” to The Lightning Seeds. That’s actually an astute catch that escaped me. However I think it gets closer to the mark when you hear “Neverland” as the alternative Christmas song that isn’t about Baby Jesus at all.

Who is this Black Watch you speak of?

Fredrick hatched The Black Watch in one of my favorite American cities, Santa Barbara, CA. Since those humble beginnings in 1987-88, Fredrick has produced dozens of releases, including this year’s Neverland EP.

The EP’s three tracks kick off with the remarkable title track. “Neverland” launches as a perfectly gazey and gauzy pop gem before evoking a subtle disco underscore of strings like a Jeff Lynne composition. And from that bridge: A triumphant piccolo trumpet that cannot NOT have Mannheim Steamroller as some small inspiration.

I hope you find the same delight in “The Neverland of Spoken Things!”

I made these observations entirely to myself. Then last weekend, while picking up my 17-year-old daughter from her job, she jumps in the car while I’m listening to “Neverland.” With zero prompting or telekinetic ability that I am currently aware of she asked, “Are you listening to Christmas music?” Thus, the genesis of this post was born, like that babe in a manger on a starry night 2022 years ago.

“The Neverland of Spoken Things” – The alternative Christmas song that’s not about Christmas

So much more on The Black Watch’s Neverland

Enough silliness about my alternative Christmas song. The Black Watch fills out the Neverland EP with the driving “Precious Little” and, finally, “Living Backwards.”

Listen to an alternative Christmas song that's not about Christmas on The Neverland of Spoken Things EP

“Precious Little” rides a binary guitar line on the strength of Fredrick’s vocals; he is almost crooning here, at times sounding not unlike Morrissey. You can’t say enough about his presence and confidence. Like “Neverland,” “Precious Little” is also a marvel of arrangement. From the opening guitar line, it effortlessly introduces gentle, legato harmonies and a singing guitar solo.

I think you’ll hear that same progressive song structure in “Precious Little.”

Download your copy of The Neverland of Spoken Things EP + top moments of the 35 year catalogue of LA’s The Black Watch at Bandcamp.

Best albums of 2022 so far

rope lights on window

The sheer volume of music right now – full-lengths, EP’s, digital exclusives, singles, B-sides, remixes, extended mixes, reissues – all make it hard to keep up. How do you know if you’ve EVEN HEARD the best albums of 2022 so far with so much noise?

We’re all in this together, so let’s have a look at the best albums of 2022 so far.

Contenders

Best albums of 2022 so far: Once Twice Melody by Beach House

To start, let’s just note the year 2022 launched with the final installment and formal release of Once Twice Melody by Beach House. It is an epic dreamwork, one worth the time and scope across all 18 tracks. Once Twice Melody will likely be high on many people’s Best Of Decade lists, not just 2022. Even as I write this and listen to the song “ESP,” I question how rational I am not putting this in my top spot.

Buy this remarkable album and judge for yourself.

Other terrific works this year that will find many Top 10 lists:

Not Feeling It

basket sad clown

Next, a few albums that left me underwhelmed.

I buy very little music sight unseen — as in, almost zero. However this year several of my favorite bands released new music and I bought it on spec. Did I not give them enough of a chance? Was I in a bad mood? I don’t know…a friend is persuading me to go back and revisit them. But these albums didn’t change my life.

First among them, as reliable as rain, Spoon. Lucifer on the Sofa is Spoon’s first album since 2017’s Hot Thoughts. I’ve never NOT liked Spoon. Not ever. But this one has not cut through for me. However, I did enjoy single “Wild.” It sounds like a straight up INXS tribute, and I am here for every second of it.

Alright since I’m such a crabby pants about Spoon…a few other big name releases that fell short:

  • Animal CollectiveTime Skiffs
  • Kendrick LamarMr. Morale and the Big Steppers
  • Cate LeBonPompeii
  • A Place to Bury StrangersSee Through You
  • The SmileA Light for Attracting Attention

It’s probably me.

Best of 2022 So Far

Best albums of 2022 so far: We've Been Going About This All Wrong by Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten has been on my radar for years but We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is the first album that really took me aback. It has everything you could want…inflections of Emmylou Harris… dancier tracks… dense numbers layered like bucolic shoegaze. The thing I love most about this album is the way Van Etten starts many of her songs with the simplest musical ideas — and they grow into these epic, crashing things at the end.

Sit with “Born” for the full five minutes to hear this kind of masterful arrangement.

I think Van Etten has released one of the best albums of 2022 so far, so buy it here.