Helloand thanks for joining us for the latest FF…This time around the Fickle Finger of musical fate has been pointing solidly in the direction of the brilliance of a few of Glenn Donaldson wonderful acts and the prettier, janglier side, of modern guitar pop…as well as the usual ‘other bits’ that have been grabbing or re-acquainting themselves with my attention, in the past month or so…I Hope you enjoy! 

Listen to each track individually or all in one go on the Mixcloud link below:

The Glenn Donaldson Appreciation Society 

For approximately the last 20 years Glenn Donaldson has been involved with numerous freeform / alternative / fractious indie projects. Over the last few years though the projects that he has profound influence have beome incrteasingly more structured and definitely more jangly in their indie-pop aesthetic. 

For your undoubted listening pleasure, these are some of my favourite Donaldson tracks from the last few years.

• The Reds, Pinks and Purples –  Marty As A Youth (2020) (from the self released I’m Sorry About Your Life (EP)  

• The Skygreen Leopards – Garden Blue (2014) (from the Family Crimes album out of Woodsist)

• The Love-Birds  –  Hit My Head (2018) (from the In The Lovers Corner album out of Trouble In Mind)

• The Telephone Numbers  –  I Took A Walk (2020) (from the self released I Took A Walk (EP) compilation)

Where the Fickle Finger has pointed recently:

For whatever reason, the Finger Fickle has been pointing at these acts / tracks over the last month or so.  There’s a couple of 2000’s acts that I got very re-acquainted with after the blog ran a feature on the best of 2000’s Jangle and the rest just struck me as all sorts of brilliant !

• Perlin Noise  –  Strangers (2019) (from the self-released Lost Generation album)

• Harrison Whitford  –  What’s Happening (2018) (from the What’s Happening single out of Screwdriver Records)

• Water From Your Eyes  –  Somebody Else’s Song (2019) (From the Somebody Else’s Song album out of Exploding In Sound Records)

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah  –  The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (2005) (from the self released Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album)

• Real Estate  –  Beach Comber (2009) (From the Real Estate album out of Woodsist Records)

• Melenas – 3 Segundos (2020) (From the forthcoming Dias Raros album – out on Trouble In Mind Records on 01 May 2020)

• Kiwi Jr  –  Leslie (2020) (From the Football Money album out of Mint Records)

The Best of Modern (jangly) Guitar Pop

Lately I have been listening to a lot of melodic, stripped back, unpretentious guitar pop. Primarily because a) I was working on a huge project that involved things like concentration and spreadsheets and as such background beauty rather than raucous attitude was needed and b) also because I was doing a lot of pre-release date listening to the new and indeed quite brilliant, Dropkick album, which inspired me to dig out similar sounds…here is a few of my more recent favourites from the genre.

• The Late Pioneers  –  Rizzo’s Booze (2020) (From the The Late Pioneers compilation album out of our very own Subjangle label)
• I Was A King  –  Bubble (2019) (From the Slow Century album out of Coastal Town Recordings)
• The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness  – Nervous Man (2019) (From the Dead Calm album out of Pretty Olivia Records)
• Peter JohnstonRVA  –  Call Me Ishmael (2019) (released as a digital single)
• Those Pretty Wrongs  –  Ain’t Nobody But Me (2019) (From the Zed The Zulu album out of Burger Records)
• Dropkick – I’m Over You Goodbye (2020) (from The Scenic Route album out of Bobo Integral)
• The Dates  –  Any Other Nite (2019) (From the Ask Again Later album out of Burger Records)
• Hanemoon – Where The Cars Collide (2020) (From the Mammals album out of Jigsaw Records)
• Teenage Fanclub  –  The Darkest Part of The Night (2016) (Form the Here album out of Merge Records)