Gray Days and Gold, December 2020
Hello, friends. Like an advent calendar for your ears*, Gray Days and Gold is a wintry mix packed with treats to surprise and delight. You’ll find highlights from a number of wonderful year-end releases, as well as a few earlier items that still deserve mention.
*An advent calendar with only sixteen days, all of which must be opened roughly four minutes apart. It’s an analogy that really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
You can listen via the embedded player just below in this post—if you don’t see it, try turning off your ad-blocker then reloading the page—or on the Mixcloud website, via the Mixcloud mobile app, on your Sonos system, etc.
For those who prefer Spotify, there’s also a more bare-bones iteration of this episode’s playlist there (minus my commentary, as well as a couple of songs that are missing from Spotify’s library).
Gray Days and Gold, December 2020
- Animali, “Genetic Bomb” (2020) • BUY
- Louis Philippe & The Night Mail, “Fall In a Daydream” (2020) • BUY
- Ana Silvera feat. Sefo Kanuteh, “Movement II: Awaiting” (2020) • BUY
- Harold Budd, “L’Enfant Perdu” (2004) • BUY
- Laure Briard, “Eu Voo” (2020) • BUY
- String Boys, “Skating” (2020) • BUY
- Farmer, “Light” (2020) • BUY
- Grand Parc, “Jai Vu La Ville” (2020) • BUY
- King Creosote, “Susie Mullen” (2020) • BUY
- Shabason, Krgovich & Harris, “Osouji” (2020) • BUY
- Chloë March, “Chroma Bather” (2020) • BUY
- The Cleaners from Venus, “Broken Dreams for Boys” (2020) • BUY
- Ryan Power, “The Lemon Tree” (2020) • BUY
- Selen Peacock, “Toutes Nos Têtes Sont Suspendues” (2017) • BUY
- Dilo Roman, “Cold Steel” (2018) • BUY
- The Magic Lantern, “Winter (Bill’s Song)” (2020) • BUY
Appendix
Louis Philippe interview (via Backseat Mafia)
Louis Philippe was never a household name, much less now that he’s spent roughly a dozen years concentrating on a second career as a European football journalist. But he remains one of the premier melodicists* of the past 30+ years, and worth getting acquainted with; every bit of his output from, say, 1993 onward is stellar—and now available on Bandcamp.
If you’re just discovering him, this recent interview (at Backseat Mafia) makes for a good introduction.
*Most likely not a word.
Matt Berninger interview (via Sodajerker)
I really enjoyed Sodajerker’s interview with The National’s Matt Berninger, not least for its mentions of 97X and the Cincinnati and Dayton music scenes during his formative years (which are roughly the same as mine).
Chris Evans’s The Curve Ball
Chris was one of my primary inspirations when creating Gray Days and Gold. His weekly show, The Curve Ball, is the only ‘appointment listening’ in my schedule. I’ve mentioned him in the last couple of episodes, but neglected to provide direct links: he broadcasts on Thursdays (9p GMT / 4p Eastern) from Cannock Chase Radio, and each episode is posted a day later to Mixcloud. If you have the time and inclination, there are years’ worth of shows there to explore.
2020 Wrap-up
The Music Fanatics Union would revoke my card if I failed to produce a list of favorite releases for 2020. Keep an eye out for that to appear before year-end.
On conclusion of the show’s first year
A year ago I decided to launch Gray Days and Gold in order to more proactively discover and amplify music that I thought was worth hearing and wasn’t receiving the attention it should. Whether this episode has been your first exposure to the show or you’ve been here for some part of the past year, and whether you’re one of the musicians I’ve featured or simply a music fan, I want to thank you for joining me and I hope that this show has helped bring you something worthwhile.
As always, thanks for listening. If you have questions, suggestions, etc. please feel free to contact me. And if you’d like to receive these posts via email, you can sign up below. Happy holidays, and best wishes for the new year! I’ll see you again soon.
