These Are My Jams, Volume Seven

This is the seventh edition of the The Barn’s These Are My Jams series, one of the ways we like to showcase artists not yet featured on the site.  To see what this is all about, check out Volume One and for more jams, check out Volume Two, Volume ThreeVolume FourVolume Five, and Volume Six.

1. You can win me over pretty fast by covering Bob Dylan.  Even faster if it's "Hurricane".  Whitewater Ramble proves they're a jamgrass contender and stretch this classic way out.  Bonus points for the sexy hooper.

2. Holy shit.  This guy won a TV talent competition in Australia.  I guess things are a bit different Down Under.  And check out the bass player! This is Joe Robinson - "Lethal Injection".

3. Ear worm quality bluegrass right here.  Pert Near Sandstone is a band out of Minneapolis, like previous TIMJammers Trampled By Turtles and "Solid Gone" is a bona fide hit.

4. What exactly is Tauk?  I'm not sure I detect any improv, so I'm not sure I can call them a jamband, and yet something about the term resonates if only because they're so hard to classify any other way.  This tune, "Dead Signal" is a nice representation of what I'm talking about.  Some moody and jazz inspired sounds, but with an accessible sheen.

5. Could the sounds of Superhuman Happiness evoke the group's name moreso than this track, "Our Favorite Part"?  From the track opening handclaps to the joyous shout-backs and chants sprinkled throughout, this is good time music, with a irresistible hook.  It feels so good that you barely notice what an intense rhythm exercise this track: brassy horn blasts floating over contrasting the synth and drum patterns.  I want to listen over and over again.

6. The spirit of James Brown is alive and well with The Heavy.  This tune, "How You Like Me Know?" starts almost like a JBs copy, but ends up going for a bit harder edged fuzz guitar bridge, while jabbing cool funk rhythms around its big sing-along chorus and rave up ending.

7. "wonder2" was my jam the week that My Bloody Valentine dropped their first release in two decades, conveniently posting each track from the mbv album on its official YouTube channel.  It picks up right where Loveless left off, awash in a see of noise that is oddly beautiful.  The buzz seems to have leveled since then and maybe it is "had to be there in the nineties" type of stuff, but for me it's warmly nostalgic  and frankly, I think I'm okay with new MBV every couple of decades.

mbv

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