It's Monday, and that means I've got 10 new songs for you—five from Minnesota, five from the great world beyond our state borders.
Local Picks
Taylor James Donskey, “Getya”
I’ve developed a frustrating knack for getting around to spotlighting the music of local artists only after their live shows have passed. (I swear it's not intentional.) But I’d bet that this straight up rocker, which leads off Donskey’s JoyRide, was a highlight of his set at Icehouse this weekend.
Joe Marxen's skeletal guitar lead establishes an air of foreboding on this new single from a St. Paul band that's one of my current (small "c" please) favorites, while singer Najua Saad transforms the title into “sinner man” and reports “I fell for you like a knife.”
Xavier Raif, “Regretting on This Regretevator”
All tracks on the 10" Wheelchair Threshold Ramp Bandcamp page are credited to different artists, but I suspect the whoever recorded all seven seconds of "JUmbo josh album for True Banban fanfans" and whoever uploaded "I gave this voice message to my friend Slerb" and whoever sorta raps incomprehensibly over the big whirring synths and trap beats here is the same person. And I suspect that this person is almost guaranteed to do or say something to make me regret endorsing their music. Maybe they already have.
I always like the fast ones best, and so this zippy, detailed character study is the standout from Sunde’s latest. I don't know what “You could almost find it funny if it wasn’t for the blood on the streets” is all about, but it sure adds an edge.
Guante & Big Cats, "Roguelike"
This new coda to their 2018 journey into political sci-fi, War Balloons, critiques masculinist survivalism from the inside. “The first few weeks of the apocalypse were everything I wanted,” Guante observes, but the hollowness of individualism eventually leads him to this moral: “The question was never whether this is the end or not. It's what kind of end will we make it."
Non-Local Picks
Adeem the Artist, “Fervent for the Hunger”
With an opening slot for Jason Isbell and a new single that tops most of his career-best 2022 album, White Trash Revelry, this non-binary Carolinian is ready for his moment. “I'm a holy ghost, lamp post, poet of sorts/A rain drop machine shop radio source/Sutured with lip gloss and hot sauce, Indian summers”? Motherfuckers have been called Dylanesque for a lot less than that.
Dream Wife, “Hot (Don’t Date a Musician)”
"Horny" doesn’t begin to subscribe Rakel Mjöll—you'd have to dip into the "L" section of some musty Victorian dictionary for the right word. Lubricious? Libidinous? Lewd? Here she keeps her hands to herself just long enough to dole sound relationship advice, omitting bartenders from her list of other professions that make better partners. (“They might be a musician!”) Not that she takes her own advice—what fun would that be?
Gracie’s Corner feat. Big Freedia, “Row Row Row Your Boat Remix”
This summit between the queen of bounce and the queen of kiddie YouTube is a cute as hell twist on Gracie's already cute as hell twist on the original. Not sure of the replay value—though I expect parents might unwillingly find out pretty quick.
Jenny Lewis, “Puppy and a Truck”
Lewis has such a good attitude on Joy’All that sometimes you barely realize she’s eking by on that attitude. But here, on the album’s most fully formed son, she sounds ready for her own hour-long network series where she drifts from town to town solving murders and helping orphans. Hell, I’d watch.
Monét has a sequel to 2020's Jaguar in the works (named—what else?—Jaguar II) and she's feeling herself on this comeback single, boasting that she's too fine to hit from behind and musing "I'm so deep in my bag/Like a grandma with a peppermint."
Wanna get a local song considered for the playlist? To make things easy on both of us, email keith@racketmn.com with MONDAY PLAYLIST in the subject header. (Don’t, as in do NOT, DM or text: If I’m in a good mood, I’ll just ask you to send an email; if I’m in a bad mood I’ll just ignore it.)
