Spark’s music master and contributor Nic Harcourt on the new sounds to hear this week.
New music I just added to my “Spark Radio: New Music New Artists” playlist this week includes “Take Your Time” from LA’s Pearl Charles’ sophomore album Magic Mirror.
Pearl wears her L.A. ’60s and ’70s sun-soaked influences proudly, with country-tinged pedal steel guitar subtly accompanying classic rock licks, a vintage rhythm section augmented with synth pads and her catchy vocal hooks. It’s only January but I think we have an early contender for your summer soundtrack.
For fans of: Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, EmmyLou Harris.
Chicago’s Beach Bunny’s new Blame Game EPis a follow up to 2020’s debut LP Honeymoon. That album, and its punky power-pop tunes embraced by Tik Tok creators, elevated the band above the usual mostly male emo suspects with vocalist Lili Trifilio mining toxic romances and the pain and frustration of being gaslit.
Covid has given us all plenty of time to either wallow or evolve, and the lead track of Blame Game, “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)” finds Trifilio now sitting above the fray, slaying pandemic angst and not taking any shit. With lyrics like “stop saying, ‘Its my bad’ / You’re acting like your deadbeat dad,” Beach Bunny are your Gen Z kid’s role model.
For fans of: Peach Pit, beabadoobee, Mitski, Poppy.
Nic Harcourt has been turning people onto their favorite new bands for most of his career, hosting the iconic Los Angeles KCRW radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic for nearly 10 years, which the New York Times called “appointment radio.” He’s launched the careers of many artists, including Coldplay, Adele, Sigur Ros, Sia, the Arctic Monkeys, and countless others. He also hosted the iconic Guitar Center sessions on DirecTV and currently holds down morning drive at 88.5fm out of California State University Northridge.
