Now that I’ve been name-dropped on your Substack, I guess it’s time to jump off the sidelines and comment. You are entirely correct that avoiding becoming musically stale gets harder every year. My 2025 suggestion for you is Tobacco City’s ‘Horses’ album. Stumbled on their brand of alt country via my Apple Music algorithms, and ‘Autumn’ is as beautiful a song can be that talks about huffing gas downwind from a sewage treatment plant. Not a 2025 song, but their song ‘America’ from 2023 latched onto me hard. It’s wonderfully absurd in a way that resonates with me in a world that seems frighteningly absurd most days. And to echo Chris - loved the linkage to Verve and Verve Pipe. First time I saw Geese mentioned, my first thought was it must be a Goose cover band. Gonna dive into your playlist now - so I don’t just spend the rest of my 40s listening to Jim James. 😆 Oh, and Tobacco City plays CLT with The Nude Party (another favorite) in May. See you there?
Now that I’ve been name-dropped on your Substack, I guess it’s time to jump off the sidelines and comment. You are entirely correct that avoiding becoming musically stale gets harder every year. My 2025 suggestion for you is Tobacco City’s ‘Horses’ album. Stumbled on their brand of alt country via my Apple Music algorithms, and ‘Autumn’ is as beautiful a song can be that talks about huffing gas downwind from a sewage treatment plant. Not a 2025 song, but their song ‘America’ from 2023 latched onto me hard. It’s wonderfully absurd in a way that resonates with me in a world that seems frighteningly absurd most days. And to echo Chris - loved the linkage to Verve and Verve Pipe. First time I saw Geese mentioned, my first thought was it must be a Goose cover band. Gonna dive into your playlist now - so I don’t just spend the rest of my 40s listening to Jim James. 😆 Oh, and Tobacco City plays CLT with The Nude Party (another favorite) in May. See you there?
Let’s do it!
Print footnote 3 on a banner and hang it in the Rafters, that’s high quality right there
Zane McLaughlin of Oldstar is my nephew and I stumbled on your substack because Paste had no search function. Zane says thanks!
Oh man, that’s awesome. Tell him if he plays in Charlotte any time soon to look me up! LOVE the album.
I will! He and the Band left Florida and are living in NY.