Jeffrey Lewis (New York); Sour Blue (Los Angeles); Rick Treffers (Netherlands); Gasp (Sweden); and Last Wars (New Jersey)

Working on an interview with The Mangfather Bob Katz. Bob turned me on to an artist I'd never heard of before, Jeffrey Lewis, and I have just been blown away listening to him all day. The latest thing on his Bandcamp page is The Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band: Both Ways (The Great Lost 2017 Double Album!). Lewis is a New York boy, and a cult figure at this point, who also does comic books. When I see a guy my age doing what I'd like to do, in this instance making great tunes and creating comic books, I'm always a little jealous. But these songs I've heard of his today are so great, my jealousy is overshadowed by the joy his off-kilter songs immedietly brought me. Weird, unique, utterly listenable:

Schema EP is a 7 track digital release from LA band Sour Blue. Their introductory e-mail describes them as "dream pop melted into...IDM, shoegaze, (and) ambient...(with) lots of tape experiments, warping, (and) sound design." I'm not as hip as I used to be, if I ever even was, and had to look up IDM -- "intelligent dance music." At any rate, it's cool stuff, worth checking out:

Rick Treffers' final single, "The Earth is Turning Round the Sun," from his digital album, Looking for a Place to Stay, is good stuff. Indie pop from the Netherlands:

The new Gasp video is cool. Gasp is from Sweden:

Last Wars' latest two song digital release is bitchin'. The first song, "Pale Fire," is Tubeway Army meets the Wipers, I'm super into it. Last Wars is from New Jersey: