Drakulas “Midnight City” 2026. Dirtnap Records. Green Noise Records red vinyl exclusive. DRAKULAS! I love these guys: their performance was amazing, hysterical and ass-shaking when we caught their set at last year’s Dirtnap Records fest. Midnight City is the side project of the super group’s third full length release…so not really a side project at this point. Composed of Riverboat Gamblers Savage Lord Mic (aka Mike Wiebe) and Sam Fransisco (aka Sam Keir) plus Rise Against and GWAR’s Pink Rick (aka Zach Blair), Midnight City is a rocking, tightly wound good time that mixes hard garage rock, dance rock, indie rock and new wave synthpop. The first tracks on both Side A (“Going Going Gone Gone“) and Side B (“Sex“) have shimmering synths for an updated new wave sound, the latter with a stomping early aughts indie rock beat. Other tracks rock harder, and those are my top picks: the infectious “Singin’ With My Tongue Cut Out,” the garagey “Head in the Clouds,” “Is it Enough” and the hand-clappy dancey “White Off Your Nose.” Wacky describes their live performances (well, I’ve only seen them once but guessing eccentric is generally the vibe for all shows) and that offbeat impulse appears on songs like “Morning/Night” and the insane, wild and high energy “FAFO” (another fave that also has some bleep-bloop action). The whole record is fantastic and I hope a tour is on the horizon.

There aren’t any videos for any of the tracks on Midnight City nor could I find any recent live footage so here’s a link to their set in Dallas, 2025. DRAKULAS!

Jerry Garcia “Garcia” 1972. Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia’s first solo album, some record store or distributer put a hype sticker over the not-at-all offensive breast. I spent a full day in Madison this past weekend; my time at the university there in the late 80’s/early 90’s was heavily soundtracked by the Dead so today I’m taking an aural trip to those hazy college days. While Garcia sings and plays all the instruments – except drums played by the Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann – the LP is full of classic tracks that the full Grateful Dead band would go on to perform in their non-stop touring for the subsequent 20+ years including the single “Sugaree” which went to #94 on the US charts in April 1972; it was Garcia’s only chart single. He also released “The Wheel” as a single but I’m not sure that charted – it’s a really catchy folk/country track. Other Dead show classics include the Americana styled opener “Deal” (one of my old-time faves) and “Loser.” The country twinged lament “To Lay Me Down” shows off both Garcia’s steel guitar and piano talents; I think this one was played somewhat frequently on the road as well. Other tracks have a trippier, psychedelic bent to them like “Bird Song” which was a tribute to the recently-ish deceased Janis Joplin (and was another Dead show staple) and the cosmic freakout weird “Late for Supper,” “Spidergawd” and “Eep Hour” (like during “Space/Drums” I would be taking a bathroom break if they were played at a concert).

Thompson Twins “A Product of…Participation” 1981. T Records (the band’s own label). Thompson Twins’ debut LP is way more experimental pop/post punk in sound than their later, more popular new wave synthpop releases. Some ska and African/world beat influences (see especially the opener “When I See You” for ska and both “Slave Trade” and “Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)” for the African sounds, the latter a rearrangement of a traditional Sierra Leone song). Some tracks could have been on contemporary Talking Heads or B-52 records like the weird and rhythmically driving “Make Believe” (it’s a great track). There’s even some dark jangle-pop on “The Price” that feels Cure and Smiths-esque. Thompson Twins released a couple of singles from A Product of… in the UK (there were other singles that were originally stand-alone releases but appear on later reissues of the LP): “Perfect Game,” the aforementioned “Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)” and “Make Believe.” The track “Politics” (very Talking Heads sounding) was released as a single in Germany. With most of my knowledge of Thompson Twins originating with their later, new wave/synthpop work, it’s pretty wild to hear the band’s origins with a way more challenging and experimental sound.