Pickled Priest Mixtape: Our Favorite New Songs of 2024, Volume #6 - "Plug Your Headphones Straight Into My Heart"

Crafted by hand from organically sourced cassette tape, housed in a case manufactured from 100% recycled Bon Jovi records, and delivered to your door by a cage-free Pickled Priest, we present our sixth mixtape of new music from 2024 alone. In their heyday, the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx topped out at four max, and they repeated artists from one mixtape to the next, which we don't. You'll never see the same artist twice. We don't believe in second comings and neither should you.

Depiction of cassette blessing ceremony held at Our Lady of the Perpetual Rewind

PICKLED PRIEST'S FAVORITE NEW SONGS OF 2024, VOLUME 6

SIDE A

Intro: "Headphones" | The Softies

Plug your headphones

Straight into my heart

Listen

Listen

What better way to usher in another Pickled Priest New Music Mixtape than this short little invitation from this Portland duo's charming new record, and their first in 24 years, The Bed I Made.

01 "Favourite Songs" | Maxïmo Park

Tell me your favourite songs

And I'll tell you mine and we'll sing along

And all of our troubles will fade away

How meta. A song about listening to other people's favorite songs on a mixtape of another person's favorite songs. It was too perfect to be true, mainly because the likelihood of a favorite song being titled as such is a long shot—almost too much to ask. But the song, I am pleased to announce, is great, which is why it formally kicks off our sixth new music mix of 2024. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Newcastle's Maxïmo Park have always written great songs bursting with passion and energy even though many people moved on to the next big thing a long while back. But Paul Smith and the boys never went away and now they've lasted a full quarter-century, which doesn't usually happen if you're not consistently writing killer songs (such as our "Ardour," our #3 song of 2021). Here's another one, taken from Stream of Life, a new record that has a few other songs of like kind and quality in store for you. I think it's time for a "Best Of" collection, too, working title Maxïmum Park, that will prove once and for all what a power set these blokes have accumulated over the years.

02 "Walk Through Fire" | Yannis & the Yaw ft. Tony Allen

After Tony Allen died in 2020, I lamented the loss of one of the world's Top 10 drummers, likely Top 5, hoping there was some completed work in the can that could be released later. Thankfully, the co-creator of Afrobeat was a major collaborator to the end, so we've been blessed with albums and songs featuring Allen's distinctive sound for the past three years. Just when I thought the tank was finally empty comes this collab with Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis, which was on the shelf, thanks to COVID, since 2020. Yannis has finally completed work on the sessions which have yielded a fierce EP, Lagos Paris London, that crackles with a raw energy I wasn't quite expecting. Much of the credit, of course, goes to Allen's timeless rhythms, which are worth isolating on. If this record reaffirms anything, it's that Allen wasn't a showboat—he gave the songs exactly what they needed—and this is even more evidence that his brilliance was in his ability to adapt to almost any style of music effortlessly.

03 "Gotta Meet You" | Fake Fruit

Quite the skronk 'n' honk fest this track out of Oakland, CA, and I like that it sounds a little like the first day of Freshman band practice. Sometimes a little freeform cacophony is just the ticket to breaking free of convention. Wanna bang on that cowbell? Have at it. Wanna howl like an alley cat in heat until real lyrics come to you? Go right ahead. The song didn't even need to be about anything to work, but it still manages to send a positive message about being ready for love at all times even if you haven't met that special person yet. That a conventional theme presents itself from within the spontaneity is both unexpected and appreciated.

04 "Give Your Heart Away" | Chime School

A good year for the jangle is 2024. First, Toronto's Ducks Ltd., and now San Francisco power-pop tunesmiths Chime School—the name a blatant giveaway—have checked in with an album's worth of Rickenbacker and tambourine gems, not the least of which is "Give Your Heart Away" from the band's new record The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel. And if that title doesn't give you another clue as to what you're in for, you probably didn't spend much time in L.A. in the mid-80s.

05 "Get It In the End" | Benny Trokan

Ah, the benefits of a great record collection, when will they ever end? Benny Trokan is proof that growing up around the good stuff can have profound downstream effects. One listen to "Get It In the End" is all you'll need to understand why he was asked to join Spoon as permanent bassist back in 2021. He'd already been a touring member a couple years prior to that and Do You Still Think of Me? shows why he was a perfect fit for the band. He provides the veteran band a knowledgeable, like-minded musical foil to play with who fully understands how complex minimalism can be and the value of adding just the right touches of musicianship or production without suffocating a track. He seems built from the ground up on the 1960's rock his parents played around the house when he was a boy. On his own, he has a pleasingly shaggy voice (like Britt Daniel, but without a head cold) that adds just the right level of unpolished, soulful grit to a bunch of 60's-styled garage rock nuggets on his first full-length solo record. Just like Spoon, it's the little things that mean a lot in this music— tasteful strings, Farfisa organs, tympani, harmonica, to name only a few. As you can tell, there's more to this simple music than meets the ear, much like I've said about every Spoon record ever released.

06 "Also the Gorilla..." | Osees

From the seemingly bottomless pit of demented inspiration that is the mind of John Dwyer comes another Osees album, this time ditching the guitars in favor of synths and more synths. But don't worry, it's still a freak-out session, so that acid tab won't go unused.

07 "Turn to Love" | Parsnip

Frank: You had sexual intercourse with a co-worker on top of the produce that we sell to the public.

Ted: I fucked her with a parsnip last week. And I sold the parsnip to a family with four small children.

-Ted

If you don't find that exchange from Ted funny, you may be on the wrong music blog. It's not everyday I get to trot that one out, but it's also not everyday a band named Parsnip (what you get when a carrot and a stalk of parsley have an albino child) comes along. Thank goodness they did, too. I've become slowly but surely enamored with the Australian band. Why? Because of songs like "Turn to Love" that hearken back to the late-60's flower-power era and 90's indie-rock in equal measures. And good news, there's a whole album of similar delights to behold on their new album titled, uh, Behold.

08 "Nancy Dearest" | Hamish Hawk

Where do guys like Hamish Hawk come from? Well, technically, Scotland. But I mean theoretically. Why does the US not breed similar artists? You know the type: rich, deep-throated, introverted crooners with a profoundly dark poetic sensibility, putting their hearts and minds on display for all to hear. Perhaps we've dumbed shit down too far once and for all over here. I don't know if it's the climate, the history, the genetics, the culture, the food, the economy, or whatever, but from Morrissey to Richard Hawley to Ian Curtis and beyond, I see a darkness across the pond, and I like it. It might be all of those factors and no matter how much of the pie chart you assign to each, there's a strangely attractive miserabilist tendency in Hawk's vibrant creations, one that dashes off lines like Who needs heaven? From my ivory tower the view is crystal clear like there's nothing to it. Import all of this you've got, I say.

09 "Midas" | Wunderhorse

London's Wunderhorse, a name absolutely begging for an umlaut somewhere, get so worked up on their new album, Midas, that sometimes their lead singer, Jacob Slater, defaults to a breathless scatting, as if so enraptured by the song's forward momentum that he gets sucked into its undertow, barely able to tread water. I'm not a lover of comparing one band to another—that's always seemed a bit lazy to me—but sometimes it can't be avoided. In this case, I am instantly reminded of Hothouse Flowers' lead singer Liam O'Maonlaí, also prone to lose his sanity when a song gets lathered up just so. While that is not normally something I like, in both cases mentioned here, the journey into the mystic makes sense to me. I might do the same under similar circumstances.

10 "Books in Bed" | Queen of Jeans

Build a wall of books

Between us in our bed

-Tegan and Sara

I don't pay attention to charts, but I assume "Books in Bed," by Philly's Queen of Jeans, is a big smash already and I'm the last one to find out about it. It has surely been licensed to some TV show already to soundtrack the tearful breakup of two main characters, only heightening the drama with a majestic, soaring chorus that's better than anything I've heard lately from Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. Rarely has a breakup sounded so exhilarating, the process of packing up your shit so triumphant. Take it from me, who has moved box after box of records from location to location, it might be better to stay together than throw out your back hauling ass up and down stairs all day. Book, records, same thing. Heavy stuff.

11 "Sexy to Someone" | Clairo

There's someone for everybody goes the old saying and that's what Clairo (Claire Cottrill) is counting on in "Sexy to Someone." All it takes is one. By the looks of her album cover—sexy to almost everyone—she's not going to have much of a problem in that department. She's really come into her own on Charm, her latest, and her subtle brand of pop-soul is only that much tighter thanks to her work with the Dap-Kings of Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse fame. The song has a sultry, seductive backbeat that shuffles tastefully underneath her pure, understated vocal track. She knows exactly what she's doing and I like it.

12 "My Only Friend" | Amy Shark ft. Tom DeLonge

It’s official. Australian indie-pop star Amy Shark has completed her Blink-182 bingo card with this duet featuring the band’s Tom DeLonge (All day long / On the Tom DeLonge). In 2018, she did the same thing with Mark Hoppus on single “Psycho” and in 2020, her song “C’mon” featured Travis Barker on drums. So what do the boys in Blink know that most Americans do not? That Amy Shark is an undervalued songwriting talent, that’s what. She’s a 38-year-old pop star that has had much success in her homeland, but not enough in the States. I hope her new album changes that. This killer track, which sounds exactly like a Blink-182 song, is a logical launching pad. It’s just got to turn into a hit. How could it not? I wonder if she intentionally wrote it in Tom’s style or if he just makes everything sound like his band? Either way, killer tune on a really smashing new record from Ms. Shark, who took her pseudonym because she loved the movie Jaws. Good thing her favorite movie wasn’t Titanic.

13 "The Ins + Outs of Always Being Sad" | The Breaks, Inc.

Kudos to our favorite contributor at the Rockin' the Suburbs podcast (Paul Hayden) for unearthing this brilliant single from the poorly named The Breaks, Inc., not the parent company of Kurtis Blow Enterprises, I may add. They scan Britpop but they're from Queens, a pleasing disconnect to say the least. You don't often hear dynamic singles like this from American bands anymore. You can almost hear it echoing across the rolling hills of Glastonbury, er, I mean the Governor's Ball, now. You get the idea.

SIDE B

14 "Big Black X" | X

If only this song could talk, would it have a story to tell. Instead, we get an edited montage of the band’s glorious, forty-seven year history in episodic fragments just dying for more detail. I must say, when they sing about a big black X on a white marquee, I get a little verklempt. A favorite band is coming to an end, sniff sniff. But what a great way to go out—with the original lineup intact and all the magic of their earlier records contained herein without a noticeable drop-off in quality. The same chemistry that made them a marquee act in the first place is readily apparent and it’s a bittersweet thing, for the world is going to be a mess without them in it.

15 "Sortie" | The Effigies

Using a term like "bittersweet" (yet again) to describe the return of the Effigies, the influential Chicago punk legends, seems somehow inadequate to capture the intense feelings surrounding the band's comeback record, Burned, out later this year. It's the last record that will feature the band's singer, John Kezdy, who died in a bike accident last year at 64 (one year after getting shot during the 4th of July shootings in Highland Park, IL, no less). He's gone, but it's a great thing to have this one last blast and by the sound and intensity behind the record's first song, "Sortie," it's clear that the old vim and vigor, along with a muscular vocals and the insistent guitar chug, was still alive as recently as last year. But, sadly, this is it I assume. So revel in it. It's the real deal and always has been.

16 "Danza de LA LOM" | LA LOM

LA LOM, an abbreviation for Los Angeles League of Musicians, is a simple instrumental trio—guitar, bass, drums—that was initially formed to play in the lobby of a swank L.A. hotel. Clearly, they've outgrown that gig and then some by the sound of their new self-titled record, which takes a little influence from each of L.A.'s culturally rich neighborhoods and distills them all into what amounts to a detective noir soundtrack set on the streets of their home city. "Danza de LA LOM" benefits greatly from a Latin vibe, but the whole record shimmers like there's a hot sun overhead and a murder taking place in the shadows.

17 "Peligro (Danger)" | Panda Bear, Sonic Boom, Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez

Talk about extending your shelf life! When Panda Bear (Noah Lennox of Animal Collective) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember of Spacemen 3) hooked up to record Reset in 2022, even they couldn't have imagined its life would extend into 2023, let alone 2024. After the initial release, they had legendary reggae producer Adrian Sherwood remix the album as Reset in Dub a year later. Now, with the album still reverberating in 2024, they've reimagined it as the EP Reset in Mariachi, with the prevailing theme obvious in the title. And if you've followed Pickled Priest for long, you know how much we love mariachi music, so this is far and away our favorite take on this material. There's nothing mariachi can't improve, from a wedding to a funeral and everything in between, and this is no different. It's one of the sleeper gems of the year and a sure-fire leader in the race for best EP of 2024. How long can this album last? What's next? Whatever it is, I doubt it tops this.

18 "New York" | Dion Lunadon

New Zealand native Dion Lunadon is more New York than most people from New York. When he joined up with New York’s loudest band, A Place to Bury Strangers, for a decade, he earned his credentials as a late night denizen of the city that never sleeps. Now, years after exiting APTBS for a solo career, he has finally written his now mandatory song about New York City, which reflects the unrelenting pulse of after-hours Manhattan nightlife. You can almost hear the speeding taxi cabs fly by as you listen. I have to think Lou Reed, Alan Vega, Martin Rev, Patti Smith, and Thurston Moore (among many others) would dig the sounds radiating from Dion's seriously raw EP, Memory Burn, yet another New York record that represents the vitality of the world's greatest city.

19 "She Don't Love Me Now" | Bruce Springsteen

If you want to know who has written better songs over the last quarter century, Jesse Malin or Bruce Springsteen, it's no contest. Malin by a landslide. No disrespect to the guy that built my love of music from the foundation up. But now Malin needs help with his medical bills after a spinal stroke left him paralyzed from the waist down (goal: walk again) so we now have proof of Malin's standing in the rock and roll community—a triple LP, star-studded tribute affair featuring Elvis Costello, Billie Joe Armstrong, Dinosaur Jr, Lucinda Williams, Spoon, Graham Parker, The Hold Steady, Rancid, and many others. The biggest name, of course, is Bruce, who delivers Malin's "She Don't Love Me Now," a song you wish Bruce could still write these days, but can't.

20 "Worthy" | Mavis Staples

If there's a song you need to hear more than this that's been released recently I'd like to hear it. Around here, Mavis beats all hands. "Worthy" is a song about self-affirmation that follows suit with the Staples Singers' "Respect Yourself" mantra, dabbles in a little 80's Prince, and then adds some modern accents to sound way more vital than an 85-year-old woman should. But this is Mavis Staples, on the National Register of Historic Voices for good reason, so if she tells you you're worthy, you are. You're fucking worthy! There's never been any doubt in anybody's mind that she is, of course, but the rest of us need all the help we can get. Courtesy of a living legend.

21 "Labour" | Paris Paloma

From Derbyshire, England, hence the British spelling of labor (a theme on this mixtape), is Paris Paloma, a singer of some Tic Toc renown thanks to the initial dropping of "Labour" back in 2022. Well, it is now out officially and some songs that go viral are worthy of such a rapid response. A pretty scathing look at a sexist society and a partner who wants to follow a strict menu of stereotypical roles, the song also has enough large scale power that it easily could've found its way onto a Florence + the Machine record at some point. It's big enough for an arena, and as it rolls downhill it gathers more and more steam, plowing over everything in its way while it lays down a wide patha ll her own. You best get on board or get out of the way.

22 "Masterpiece" | Old 97's

I love a song with some perspective. The chorus, "Every day's a masterpiece, even if it crushes you" is one of those songs that make you realize that everything that happens will happen today, to quote David Byrne, and you have to take the good with the bad and realize there's beauty to be had every time you wake up. But sometimes that beauty isn't meant for you today. Maybe tomorrow, though, maybe tomorrow.

23 "I Let Him Love Me" | Laci Kaye Booth

This is one of those songs that could only be built over a long period, one filled with heartbreak, sleepless nights, regret, vulnerability, and anger. The raw vocal reflects an emotional investment that cannot be manufactured. If this was plucked from Laci Kaye Booth's imagination, I'd be surprised. It sounds like it was cut close to the bone and packs a punch as powerful as a roundhouse from a heavyweight champ. That Laci gets to come out on top, better for it but not unscathed, is solace. She deserves what she gets and so does an old lover with commitment issues who gets left behind for a man "who was ready" to love her. The song's a killer ballad and it has stuck with me like few others this year.

24 "The Price" | Abby Holliday

It's not a crime to love somebody / And let it die... Fuck, that's heavy, much like every note of this song by Abby Holliday, whose music brings a sonic weight with it that matches her dark lyrics. It's a powerful combination, to say the least, one that could cause someone to sink right to the figurative bottom if circumstances dictate. That it draws you back over and over again is a testament to its magnetic draw. You can't look away; instead you want to immerse yourself even further. One of the songs of 2024 for sure, sure to make the upper tier come list-making season.

25 "My Lady Fair" | Ray LaMontagne

Some time in 2016 Ray LaMontagne clicked for me despite all my preconceived notions that initially allowed me to dismiss him as a poser for years prior. My mistake. The album that did it was Ouroboros and it announced an artist who was set to go his own way from that point forward, critics and sales be damned. After that, the ambitious trip that was Part of the Light, which only reinforced his image as a Van Morrison-esque mountain man from New England. Now, Long Way Home finds him back in his remote cottage listening to Van's Astral Weeks and Moondance for inspiration. Their influence on this record is profound, but while not up to those standards, it does manage to channel the mystical spirit and musical invention of those records. This is the sound of someone "into the mystic" and I find myself captivated by its immersive, off-the-grid vibe. I want to go to there.

26 "The Love It Took to Leave You" | Colin Stetson

We end with an expanded piece from the brilliant and unclassifiable Colin Stetson, who gets a jazz tag affixed to his name, but is so far beyond that imposed boundary it begs to be eliminated, leaving him in a genre-less category of his own creation. The title track from his forthcoming album, The Love It Took to Leave You, is unlike anything I've heard this year or any other. Yes, he plays saxophone, but that's not always obvious. The things he can do with it are remarkable. He is without a doubt the best musician on this list and probably the most innovative. It's fitting then that we end on this note, something that hasn't been done before and can't be recreated. If it could, someone would've probably done so by now. Amazing, mind-blowing stuff.

Outro: "These Arms of Mine" | Delicate Steve

New Jersey’s Delicate Steve, led by the band’s namesake, Steve Marion, is an instrumental group despite what the album’s title might promise, a classic dangle and yank. He sings with his guitar being the logical interpretation. And that he does. The band's sixth album features several covers, including sacred Pickled Priest untouchable, “These Arms of Mine” by Otis Redding. I’ve spent most of my life captivated by the power and passion in Otis’s first-ever studio recording—so raw and convincing—that I’ve often neglected to notice the song’s melodic flow. Here, Steve dials back the song to its core elements in an almost mournful way, letting each chord hover in the air until the next one replaces it. Really simple, but also beautiful and moving. It's quite a stunning tribute.

___________________________________

Certain songs, they get scratched into our souls. That's what the Hold Steady told us years ago and that's the truth here. As I listen back now, this is one of my favourite collections so far this year. Until the next one, perhaps. Until then...

Cheers,

The Priest