Hello, friends. I love music but my favorite artists tend to be like square pegs butting up against the round holes of the media landscape, which is why every month I assemble some recent discoveries into a fake radio show. No ads, no merch, no ask, no agenda other than uplifting music that could use a boost.

You can listen to this episode via the embedded player just below in this blog post, or on the Mixcloud website, via the Mixcloud mobile app, on your Sonos system, etc. (If you’re reading via an email digest in which the audio player isn’t embedded, please click the button below.)

There’s also a more barebones iteration of this episode’s playlist (minus my commentary, as well as songs that are missing from the streaming libraries) on Spotify and Apple Music.

If you like what you hear, please support the artists. You’ll find buy links (mostly to Bandcamp) to the tracks in the bulleted list below.

Gray Days and Gold, July 2024

1. Lorenzo & Henrietta Music, “The Bob Newhart Show (Home To Emily)” (1972) • BUY
2. Storefront Church, “The High Room” (2024) • BUY
3. The Junipers, “Annie Almond” (2024) • BUY
4. Testbild!, “The First New Years Eve” (2024) • BUY
5. Lia Kohl, “Car Alarm, Turn Signal” (2024) • BUY
6. Peel Dream Magazine, “Wish You Well” (2024) • BUY
7. Cereus Bright, “Don’t You Fake It Too?” (2024) • BUY
8. Beautify Junkyards, “Black Cape” (2024) • BUY
9. Laura Marling, “Patterns” (2024) • BUY
10. E.L. Heath, “Cambrian” (2024) • BUY
11. Daniel Zaitchik, “Switzerland (Kites)” (2024) • BUY
12. The Cleaners from Venus, “Lilli Bolero” (2024) • BUY
13. Dan Edmonds, “Always Here” (2023) • BUY
14. Nando García, “Bailar flamenco” (2024) • BUY

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Appendix

Favorite TV theme songs

I wasn’t kidding when I invited you in this episode to share your favorite TV theme songs—the best ones are really sterling examples of tuneful songwriting with all the fat removed. Now that we live in the era of skipping past the opening credits, I wonder if the theme from Game of Thrones might have been the form’s final gasp before it dies off altogether. I also find it so interesting that in decades past it seemed a somewhat common phenomenon for the show creators themselves to write their own theme songs. I’ll get us started. Naturally, most of my favorites date to the late sixties and early seventies, my childhood years.

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As always, thanks for listening. If you have questions, suggestions, etc. please feel free to contact me or join the community on Discord. And if you’d like to receive these posts via email, sign up below.