TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: NEW YEAR, NEW MUSIC

Tomorrow morning on SiriusXM OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick, I'm going to be talking about some music that you may not have heard yet.  Of course, most of it sounds like it's old, even though it's new.  Larry is on the air weekdays from 7 am - 11 am ET, and he hosts a music show Feel The Spin Sundays at 2 pm.  If you don't have a SiriusXM subscription (yet), go here and get a free online trial .


First off, Vintage Trouble.  Even though they are from L.A.'s famed Laurel Canyon, their music isn't available here in the U.S. (although it is available in the U.K.).  I don't know why. They are a classic soul band.  I read about them in Mojo magazine, which is where I discover most of my music.  These guys have an amazing video for "Nancy Lee" (shot on iPhones and featuring one of the Pussycat Dolls). I really think that this band will make a lot of noise in 2012, but I don't care if they do or not: I'm buying their album and telling people about it. The singer, Ty Taylor, has a great voice (apparently, he was a contestant on the show Rock Star, which attempted to find a new lead singer for INXS).

Jonathan Wilson is also from Laurel Canyon, and seems to be the center of the new scene there.  Apparently he has built guitars for the likes of Jackson Browne, and has worked as a studio musician for Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice. He's also produced records for Dawes.  It's not just that the guy is from Laurel Canyon, he sounds like he's from the Laurel Canyon of the late '60s and early '70s: like he could have been jamming with Jackson Brown and Crosby Stills & Nash back in the day.  I "discovered" him in either Mojo or Uncut. 

Michael Kiwanuka is a British singer (but he's from Uganda).  As much as the two artists above don't sound like they're from this era, MK really doesn't sound like he's from the 2010's.  He sounds like the '60s or '70s.  I don't know how to describe him. He sounds like Bill Withers but also like Otis Redding, if they were making an album like Van Morrison's Moondance.  Another Mojo discovery.  I think he's great, but I don't know if he'll catch on here. But Adele loves him: he opened for her in the U.K.

Gary Clark Jr.  Well, if you've been following me, you know of him.  I talked about him last week on Larry's show, his Bright Lights EP was my 5th favorite release of 2011. I am really looking forward to his full length album that comes out this year.

We may also get to some other new(ish) names tomorrow, if we do, I'll write about them at a later time.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: A TRIBUTE TO POLY STYRENE, TV ON THE RADIO AND MORE

Longtime No Expiration readers know that every Wednesday morning, I am a guest contributor to OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on SiriusXM. Last week I got bumped for some women from a TV show called "Mob Wives," but better to be bumped than bumped off!  Tomorrow morning I am being moved, from my usual 9-ish time to 8-ish. I think songwriter/music exec/artist Kara DioGuardi is in the 9 am slot, I'm ok with that!

But seriously, tomorrow we're paying tribute to some artists who are no longer with us.  I got the idea for this after TV On The Radio bassist Gerard Smith passed away last week. And then today, punk rock icon Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex died.

Poly Styrene was kind an iconoclast, standing firmly against the typical sex symbol type chick. She wore braces, was of mixed nationality (British, Scottish, Irish, Somali) and grew up around hippies. She started out as a reggae artist, but when she saw The Sex Pistols, like so many others, she became a punk rocker, and one of the first female punks at that. You should check her out, the classic album is Germ Free Adolescents, and the biggest song is "Oh Bondage Up Yours!"

It is so strange that TV On The Radio released their new album, Nine Types Of Light, and less than two weeks later, Gerard Smith succumbed to lung cancer. But what better tribute to the guy than his last album with his band? Well, it's a funky album, and as bass player, he had a lot to do with that. TV On The Radio is a band I've always respected, but I never really got into. I liked them in theory, but not too many of their songs stuck with me. This album has some songs that I really dig, especially the opener, "Second Song," which reminds me of mid-90s U2. I've read that some people feel that this album is too accessible, but that's probably why I like it. Still, I think I'll check out some of their older material now.

There's a sort of weird INXS tribute album out now called Original Sin. It features the members of the band backing different singers re-doing their songs. I bought it because it has Ben Harper's "Never Tear Us Apart," which is a perfect song for him. I like his version, I don't love it. The best thing on the album, I think, is Nikka Costa's "Kick," which she really "makes her own." Tricky does a kind of predictable "Mediate," and Rob Thomas and Pat Monahan of Train are on it as well. I think INXS is totally underrated, and I don't necessarily think this tribute does them justice, but I guess it isn't hurting anyone.

I was shocked to find out that The Cars are reuniting. Ric Ocasek seemed dead set against it for years, and then when two of the guys reformed as The New Cars with Todd Rundgren singing, I figured that sealed it, Ric O wouldn't go anywhere near them. Their new album, Move Like This comes out next month, and I have a new song called "Sad Song" that I'll bring tomorrow. I guess the album is, in a way, a tribute to bassist/singer Ben Orr, who is no longer with us.  It's too bad that they didn't do this while he was still alive.  I read that keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays some of the bass on the album on a bass that Orr owned. I'm going to see The Cars at Roseland next month, I'll definitely write about them a bit more in the next few weeks.

Finally, tomorrow I'll discuss Solomon Burke's final album, recorded with Dutch band De Dijk, Hold On Tight, and also Ben Waters' tribute to founding Rolling Stones piano player Ian Stewart, Boogie 4 Stu.

INXS TO RE-RECORD CLASSICS WITH DIFFERENT SINGERS

Twenty-Four Bit reports that the surviving members of INXS are re-recording some of thier classics with different singers. Ben Harper, Rob Thomas, Nikka Costa, Tricky and that dude from The Killers are involved. Ben did "The Devil Inside," which should be awesome.