Scotch Sampler

2018 brought us another newcomer: pop-rock singer Alice Merton. As her big hit implies, she's European born (Germany I think), and I believe she's the daughter of an Ambassador, so she lived all over, including Canada and the US.

Alice Merton – No Roots



This hit of hers has a funky groove

Alice Merton – Lash Out
 
2019 was another big year for Vampire Weekend. Father of the Bride was the 3rd album of theirs to reach #1 on the Billboard 200, and the song Harmony Hall was their first song to reach #1 on the Adult Alternative Songs Airplay chart. To put it in simpler terms, if you listened to either AC or Alt rock radio, you heard that song a lot. But the album has several good songs

starting with the big hit

Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hall



this was another radio hit

Vampire Weekend – This Life (live)



and finally, this fun, funky little ditty; first with the Jonah Hill directed video, and a cameo by a well-known New Yorker

Vampire Weekend – Sunflower ft. Steve Lacy



and again in this awesome long-form Austin City Limits performance, featuring Steve Lacy on guitar

Vampire Weekend – Sunflower ft. Steve Lacy (live extended)
 
Don't get me wrong. they're good, but something about their sound catches me that way.
I'll listen to the Lacy track later.
 
IdRatherBeSkiing said:
Their music sounds ok but I don't like the guys voice.
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It's funny. I don't dislike his voice, or anything specifically about the music. They are good musicians, the songs are tight, cheerful, and fun. It's an image that popped into my head and got stuck there. Maybe I'd like to hear them play something angry.
 
Moving on, in 2019 we also got another album from everybody's favorite rockers, The Black Keys. And as usual, it supplied us with a number of solid rock tunes, starting with this dance-rock ditty

Black Keys – Go (live)



This one has a decidedly retro sound

Black Keys – Lo/Hi (live)



But what most people don't realize is that it's a cover. Here's the original

Lo/Hi (original)



And finally, an epically serious rocker

Black Keys – Shine a Little Light
 
scotchandcigar said:
Moving on, in 2019 we also got another album from everybody's favorite rockers, The Black Keys. And as usual, it supplied us with a number of solid rock tunes, starting with this dance-rock ditty

Black Keys – Go (live)



This one has a decidedly retro sound

Black Keys – Lo/Hi (live)



But what most people don't realize is that it's a cover. Here's the original

Lo/Hi (original)



And finally, an epically serious rocker

Black Keys – Shine a Little Light
Click to expand...

I like those guys. Saw them in Detroit a few years ago. Good stuff.
 
If you look at some of my more recent posts, I included not only the chronological entry (such as 2015 if I was up to 2015), but often a follow-up, that might have been released in 2018 or 2019; which means I've already covered many of my favorites from the past few years. And so, it's time for another (last) installment of one-offs!

The band Phosphorescent is basically Matthew Houck. He had a hit back in 2013, with the atmospheric ballad Song for Zula. But in 2018, he released C'est La Vie, which contained this very different sounding (Knopfler-esque) tune, and it became a radio hit

Phosphorescent – New Birth in New England (live)



I've featured Brandi Carlile's earlier work, and she spent a few years going deeper into the world of country. But she came back to adult contemporary with a few songs in the later twenty-teens, and struck it big with this widely played ballad containing powerful lyrics. Here she is, playing it for Howard Stern

Brandi Carlile – The Joke (live acoustic on the Howard Stern show)



In 2019, ahead of their next album release, Modest Mouse released this song as a single. Funny thing is, they had been performing it live since 2011, which might explain why it sounds so much like a vintage MM tune

Modest Mouse – Poison the Well



HAIM (pronounced Hi-um) is everybody's favorite trio of Californian Jewish sisters. They've been getting alt-rock airplay for a long time, but they're more of a pop act. However, in 2019 - just in time for summer - they released this awesomely cool song, which is really perfect for days at the beach

HAIM – Summer Girl
 
Jack White's Raconteurs put out another album in 2019, Help Us Stranger. I like a few songs from it, but this is by far my favorite

Raconteurs – Sunday Driver



Of course, listening to the indie stations, you come across a lot of stuff that's "different". Under the genre of Alt-Country comes a guy who goes by the stage name Orville Peck. He performs with a fringed hat covering his face, and the music has a definite Twin Peaks vibe. Plus his voice can get into Elvis Presley territory. But it all comes together to make some really mesmerizingly catchy music. From his 2019 debut album Pony, here's the big hit

Orville Peck – Turn to Hate (live)



Prior to the release of their decidedly soft-rock album The Slow Rush, Tame Impala released this single in 2019, which has a nice groove

Tame Impala – Patience (live on SNL)



Sadly, this beautiful cover of the Guns & Roses tune was released in 2020, 3 years after his death

Chris Cornell – Patience
 
Here's a taste of some of the stuff that's come out more recently. Here's a quarantine performance of a hit for the artist Arlo Parks

Arlo Parks – Green Eyes (live)



And if there's a current darling of the indie scene, she may be it

Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto (live on SNL)



Finally, yet another great album from St. Vincent, 2021's Daddy's Home, with this cool retro hit

St. Vincent, Daddy’s Home – Down (live on Fallon)
 
It turns out that Einstein never said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results". But it's still a true statement.

When I started Scotch Sampler in 2015, I used it to post about my new music discoveries. Sometime in 2017, I felt that I wasn't getting much interest anymore. So you'll notice that my thread stops there. Flash forward to June 2020, when I embarked upon my chronological listing of favorites. Once again, I pretty much lost everyone around 2017, but, I made it through the list, so I'm done with that.

However, as I was making the list, I would realize here and there that I missed an artist - but I had advanced way past the time period to go and rectify it. So now I'm going to entertain you with a second sweep; favorite artists that I skipped over, for no damned good reason whatsoever.

I'll start with an artist I had absolutely no business skipping: The Moody Blues. Beginning in 1967, I loved Nights in White Satin, an absolute classic. Other favorites include Ride My See-Saw, and these

Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon (live)



Moody Blues - Question (live)



Moody Blues - The Story in Your Eyes (live)



A bit later on, I liked I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) from 1973. Then there was a gap in time, where I wasn't into their newer stuff, but in 1981 they made a big return with Long Distance Voyager. Hits included Gemini Dream, Talking Out of Turn, and this big single

Moody Blues - The Voice (live)



Another big song of theirs was Your Wildest Dreams from 1986.
 
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