Music Week (8:1)

A few select reviews from week 1 of month 8 (August).

After racking up 184 reviews in July, I'm down to 19 this week (+ 1 revisit). I knew I wasn't going to keep the pace up this week. My cousin, Max Brown, died in January. He owned a ranch near Douglass, 30-40 miles southeast of Wichita, and the estate set up an auction of his equipment, tools, furniture, guns, and so forth for August 6. His nephew and nieces were coming up for that, and I spent some time with them, taking the opportunity to rustle up a fairly substantial dinner, mostly old family favorites.

So that roughly cut my week in half. But by the time that was done, I had gotten caught up in several tech crises. Unfortunately, these are not the sort of tech crises that one can research, troubleshoot, and find technical solutions to. These are tech crises wrapped up in an oozing blanket of corporate strategy, of the sort that Cory Doctorow wrote about as Enshittification. Don't be surprised if you see that word again in a title here, specifically in reference to Toyota and Yahoo!

I've spent a bunch of time already trying to figure these things out. The Toyota case basically comes down to extorting money for a monthly fee for something I don't particularly want, and may not work anyway. In the meantime they're breaking things that I understood to be standard — but it turns out that "standard" is just a free trial subscription that sooner or later will blow up in your face. And that's on top of the more fundamental problem, which is that the new car didn't come with a CD changer, so I've been at the mercy of my phone whenever I drive. I'm so unhappy with the car, and for that matter with the dealer, that we're tempted to go shopping again.

The Yahoo! problem is more urgent: I haven't been able to POP email since Tuesday. I'm only on Yahoo! because they bought up Cox's email accounts. The only customer support I've found is a chatbot, which exists mostly to make sure no person can be disturbed by an irate customer (assuming there even are people left there). The bot makes technical suggestions with no confidence that they will work — looks like tasks to send me off, while they do nothing. Nor is it even clear that paying them extra money will help. I can still see my email (via their webpage, which also allows me to reply), so I shouldn't panic. But if I can't fix this, I'll have to abandon an email address I've had for 25 years.

I hoped to get some free time after the Mid-Year Poll, but we're off to a horrible, depressing start. With problems coming so fast, and solutions so slow, I'm starting to worry about bumping unprepared into another poll season. Or possibly finishing another year with nothing to show for it but the polls and a bunch of angry political posts.

By the way, last week's two full-A albums (Laurie Anderson: Let X = X, and Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife) are still in heavy rotation. That's another reason I've had less time for new music this week. I should also note that the main source for what I did manage to listen to last week was Phil Overeem's July list.

CS Cleaners: What's This? (2026, Wharf Cat): Brooklyn-based post-punk band, first album after a 2023 EP, claim influences from "NYC downtown music from CBGB's diverse first wave through no-wave's mutations and deconstructions," but with hooks as well as overtures. B+(***)
[Bandcamp]

Mark Lomax, II & the Urban Art Ensemble: Black Odes: A Reclamation Suite (2026, CFG Multimedia): Drummer from Columbus, Ohio, with many records since 1999, should be a major figure but few people are aware of him, or for that matter his brilliant saxophonist, Edwin Bayard. Part of the problem is that the streaming interface on his website is hard to find let alone trust. This seems to have four pieces, of indeterminate length, promising "jazz, classical, hip-hop, and poetry are brought together to imagine a world where racism never existed." Long on concept, but hard to track in this form. B+(***)

Vince Staples: Cry Baby (2026, Loma Vista): Los Angeles rapper, seventh studio album since 2015, has come up with a different sound here, thin beats, moderate speed, words basic enough for rock, a combination I find appealing, much more than anything else he's done. A−
[Bandcamp]

Twisted Teens: Florida Water Blues (2026, Going Underground): New Orleans-based post-punk band, third album in quick succession, songs written by bassist C.P.N. Hollywell, sung by guitarist Cas P. Ian, 13 songs run an unrushed 42:29. Gets more interesting when it veers into swamp rock. B+(***)

Los Orientales De Paramonga: 1972-1976 (1972-76 [2026], Analog Africa): Peruvian group, from somewhere north of Lima, recorded several albums in this time period. Really nice guitar and percussion. Vocals come and go, over 25 songs (73 minutes). Probably not major, but very pleasant. A−
[Bandcamp]

Gary Stewart: One Track Mind (1970-73 [2026], Delmore Recording Society): Country singer-songwriter (1944-2003), made a big splash with his 1975 debut album (Out of Hand), which got MCA to finally round up a bunch of older singles and miscellany as You're Not the Woman You Used to Be. The search for his juvenilia continues here, in the label's third collection of "previously unreleased, pre-RCA recordings." Starts strong, in excellent voice, but my mind slides off the track by the end. Recording dates approximate. B+(**)
[Bandcamp]

Ratboys: Singin' to an Empty Chair (2026, New West): Chicago indie rock band, Julia Steiner the singer, guitarist David Sagan the other principal, sixth studio album since 2015. Sounded fine when I gave it an initial play, but evidently not much of a listen. [was: B+(**)] A−
[Bandcamp]