Scotch Sampler

After an 8 year hiatus, Modest Mouse returned in 2015 with Strangers to Ourselves, which contained these two hits that can only be described as sounding "Modest Mouse-like"

This one's about humans destroying the planet

Modest Mouse – Lampshades on Fire



And this one has a video with hints of Game of Thrones

Modest Mouse – The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box



They put out two previously unreleased songs in 2019, and an album this year. I'll probably cover them down the road.
 
I haven't done a good Honorable Mention lately, so here's one. Hitting the scene in 2015, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats put out some decent retro-blues/AC music.

Nathaniel Rateliff - S.O.B.



They've been around ever since, and generated a lot of light, bluesy, easy-listening adult contemporary stuff. They're touring as we speak. But they're a little too mainstream for me.
 
Have I mentioned enough times that Beck is a genius? Well when we last left him, we had covered his output from the mid 90's to the mid aughts. Before taking a long hiatus, he put out one more album I didn't mention; 2008's Modern Guilt. Following closely after The Information, it gave us this deep, psychedelic tune

Beck – Chemtrails



And it also gave us this fun little ditty

Beck – Gamma Ray



So I guess he was living his life, and not putting out albums, and then in 2014, after the breakup of a long-time relationship, he put out the very depressing Morning Phase, which ironically won him a Grammy. Songs included Say Goodbye, Heart Is a Drum, and this award winning tune

Beck – Blue Moon (live)
 
And then it was a normal break before the next album, 2017's Colors. He was back to his usual mishmash of musical styles. In an interview, he said that sometimes, he enjoys trying to craft the perfect pop song. Here's the result

Beck - Dreams



And here, he jumps into hip-hop

Beck - Wow



And if this song wasn't written immediately after listening to Lady Madonna, then I'm the Pope (note: I'm not the Pope)

Beck – Dear Life



Following Colors was 2019's Hyperspace. The lead single was this honky-tonk number, co-written by Pharrell

Beck – Saw Lightning (live)



The rest of the album sounds a lot like this next song, which was the perfect accompaniment to our Turks & Caicos trip early last year

Beck - Uneventful Days (live on Kimmel)
 
scotchandcigar said:
I haven't done a good Honorable Mention lately, so here's one. Hitting the scene in 2015, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats put out some decent retro-blues/AC music.

Nathaniel Rateliff - S.O.B.



They've been around ever since, and generated a lot of light, bluesy, easy-listening adult contemporary stuff. They're touring as we speak. But they're a little too mainstream for me.
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Another one from my neck of the woods, and they're still huge here. They did recently release a Live album from Red Rocks with no one in the audience (during the 2020 lockdown), I've only heard one song, on the Spectrum on the way to work, but sounded interesting.
 
Jon said:
Another one from my neck of the woods, and they're still huge here. They did recently release a Live album from Red Rocks with no one in the audience (during the 2020 lockdown), I've only heard one song, on the Spectrum on the way to work, but sounded interesting.
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They're one of those groups that I'd probably like better, if they weren't so popular with the soccer mom crowd. They do have a good sound.
 
I love Beck's album Colors. It's my #2 Beck album. I haven't been hooked in by Hyperspace tho. Guero is my #3 fav. Mellow Gold is still my tops. Some of those b-sides are great like Corvette Bummer, Azzkizz Powergrudge and Fume. But I think I already talked about that a while ago...?
 
scotchandcigar said:
I haven't done a good Honorable Mention lately, so here's one. Hitting the scene in 2015, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats put out some decent retro-blues/AC music.

Nathaniel Rateliff - S.O.B.



They've been around ever since, and generated a lot of light, bluesy, easy-listening adult contemporary stuff. They're touring as we speak. But they're a little too mainstream for me.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to like them, probably for the same reasons you had, but this song and the other one they played on SXM aren't too bad. Maybe it's because they are good that they pull them off.
scotchandcigar said:
Have I mentioned enough times that Beck is a genius? Well when we last left him, we had covered his output from the mid 90's to the mid aughts. Before taking a long hiatus, he put out one more album I didn't mention; 2008's Modern Guilt. Following closely after The Information, it gave us this deep, psychedelic tune

Beck – Chemtrails



And it also gave us this fun little ditty

Beck – Gamma Ray



So I guess he was living his life, and not putting out albums, and then in 2014, after the breakup of a long-time relationship, he put out the very depressing Morning Phase, which ironically won him a Grammy. Songs included Say Goodbye, Heart Is a Drum, and this award winning tune

Beck – Blue Moon (live)
Click to expand...

He's really matured into a great songwriter & musician. When he first came out, I thought he'd disappear pretty quickly. Glad I was wrong.
 
I'm going to do a little backtracking on this one. I've long enjoyed the Scottish band Belle & Sebastian; they're a real staple of the indie music scene. But it wasn't until 2015 that I actually witnessed the release of new music from them, and bought an album. Before I get to that though, let's look at their great earlier work.

They've been around since 1996, and late in that year, they released this song from their 2nd album

Belle & Sebastian – Seeing Other People



And here's the title track to their 1998 follow-up album

Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With the Arab Strap (live)



Jumping to 2006, this was all over the radio

Belle & Sebastian – The Blues Are Still Blue (live)



Their next album, released in late 2010, gave us this absolute musical standard

Belle & Sebastian – I Want the World to Stop



And finally, I went and picked up their next album, 2015's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance; with this clever, well-crafted song

Belle & Sebastian – The Party Line
 
This next artist is about as far away from Nathaniel Rateliff and Modest Mouse as you can get. Mitski is the quintessential indie artist; she came out of nowhere, wasn't backed by any big label, and her music is pretty far off the mainstream. She takes a no-apology approach to lyrics, and puts all her emotional energy into her music. Growing up as a Japanese-American with no real home, her music is often about not fitting in.

She first received acclaim for her 2014 album Bury Me at Makeout Creek, which ends with Lasts Words of a Shooting Star, an intense and somber kind of musical suicide note. But here's the most rocking and popular track

Mitski – Townie (live)



Then in 2016, she received widespread acclaim for her album Puberty 2, which gave us the singles Happy, and this hit song, which has a style reminiscent of Radiohead's Creep

Mitski – Your Best American Girl (live)



Here's a live performance of another track from the album, showcasing her intensity

Mitski – My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars (live)



By 2018, she had become a pretty big name, and her album Be the Cowboy reflected that. It's slicker, with more professional production, and she started touring the TV talk shows. The album was voted "best of the year" by 5 music publications, including Pitchfork. She got radio airplay with the songs Nobody, and these

This is a tune with an infectious groove

Mitski – Washing Machine Heart



and this track certainly has meaning beyond the surface

Mitski – Me and My Husband



Right now, she's producing sountracks.
 
sadchild said:
All of the B&S songs except the last one sound very 60s to me. Not my thing but they do it well.

The last one is very very different, adding it to my YouTube playlist.
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I finally got to listen. I’m in the same boat. They are very good, but not my thing. The last song has a great groove though. I’ll have to try to remember what songs I heard on SXM. I think they may have been more like the latter.
 
It's time for one-offs again! And this is the biggest one yet - something for everyone! Covering 2012 to 2016 (or so), let's get started...

Cleveland's Cloud Nothings carries the torch for post-punk grunge. They had a number of radio hits, including Stay Useless, but here is their 2012 signature piece

Cloud Nothings – Wasted Days (live)



California band Foxygen is pure retro 60's psychedelia. They had 3 songs on the radio within a short period of time, but my favorite is this Dylan-esque song from 2013

Foxygen – No Destruction



Lana Del Rey is a polarizing artist. I think she's got a brilliant sense of musical style. She's got a lot of hits, but this 2014 one - in both mood and lyrics - is my favorite (and she's good live too)

Lana Del Rey – West Coast (live)



Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde released a solo album in 2014, during a long hiatus from the band, and it scored with this catchy tune

Chrissie Hynde – Dark Sunglasses



I previously featured the brilliant bluegrass band Nickel Creek in an earlier installment. After a long break, they reemerged in 2014 with the album A Dotted Line, containing this wonderful hit song

Nickel Creek – Destination
 
California's Tune-Yards, led by the famous vocal chords of Merrill Garbus, are a pretty high-profile funk-pop band, making music with social messages. This one (about the environment) from the 2014 album Nikki Nack is probably their biggest hit, prior to their current album

Tune-Yards – Water Fountain (live on Jools)



This 2014 collaboration of New York groups made my list of best bass lines

Big Data (feat. Joywave) – Dangerous



In 2014, Michael Hadreas, a Seattle performer who goes by the stage name Perfume Genius, released this timely and powerful song about gay persecution

Perfume Genius – Queen



Once I figured out that this Boston band was not Susan Tedeschi, I learned to appreciate them for what they are. They have many radio hits, and are touring now. This was an early signature song of theirs, released in 2014

Lake Street Dive – Bad Self Portraits (live in-studio)
 
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