Category: 80s-music

70s 80s-music Dream Pop Indie New Music Pop retro
December 2, 2022

Weyes Blood Makes My Heart Glow

Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) is hard to categorize. The closest I can come is 70s soft rock, like Bread, but without the schlock. Perhaps, she can be compared to 70s and 80s singer-songwriters. She certainly structures her songs like Aimee Man or Jenny Lewis might; Or is she more like Sandy Denny? I sit here listening to her latest album, And in The Darkness, […]

80s-music Dance Music Euro French New Music
November 17, 2022

Christine and the Queens Reaches for the Stars

The latest album from Héloïse Letissier, a.k.a Christine and the Queens just dropped. Called Redcar les adorable etoiles (prologue), which translates to Redcar, the adorable star (prolog), it is one of the best albums of the year. A mix of europop dance music, dream pop, 80s new wave, David Bowie, and even progressive rock, Christine and the Queens has created a marvelous album. What could […]

80s-music Dream Pop New Wave Prog rock
October 13, 2022

Broken Bells Bring Me Back To My Roots

Broken Bells are an unlikely group. It consists of James Mercer, former lead singer of The Shins, and underground DJ, producer, and Hip Hop artist, Danger Mouse. Given their backgrounds and musical range, Broken Bells albums don’t follow a defined modern style. Previous albums have explored 80s sounds, especially late-stage new wave. The latest album, Into the Blue, is completely different. Listening to Into the […]

80s-music Dance Music Modern Rock New Music New Wave
July 19, 2022

Does The New Metric Album Measure Up?

It’s almost embarrassing how long it took me to discover Metric. First off, they’re from Toronto, which is practically in my backyard. They also create 80s inspired dance pop and techno, two of my favorite genres. I suspect that they aren’t better known just because they seem so retro. It wasn’t until 2012 that that I ran into them through their near perfect techno song, […]

70s 80s-music 90s Dance Music Indie Modern Rock New Music
May 16, 2022

White, Lizard, Fire, and the Bastille

The idea behind Tunes Past to Present is to talk about new music that might appeal to us, well, older folks. After you reach a certain age, it’s easy to exist in a music echo chamber. You listen to the tunes that you are most familiar with as do your friends. After a while it becomes easy to miss great bands that you would certainly […]

80s-music 90s Dance Music Electronic retro soul
February 1, 2022

Bits of Bonobos

Electronic music artist Simon Green’s, Bonobos project is modern twist on classic electronica. Bonobos is retro dance in some ways. For example, it uses classic sequencers and samples more than is typical in modern electronic music. This gives an overall analog sound to the music that is often lacking in modern electronica, especially EDM. In addition to the use of retro techniques, the structure of […]

80s-music Alt folk Dance Music Indie New Music Roots soul
January 4, 2022

Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

In 1967, Sandy Denny, then with the band The Strawbs, asked the question “Who Knows Where the Time Goes? ” Certainly not me. Just in the last year, I recovered from brain surgery and retired from the computer tech world. I then started the podcast “Tunes Past to Present”, with the working title of “New Music for Old Farts.” That project was abandoned a few […]

80s-music 90s Alternative Dream Pop Goth
October 26, 2021

Kaelan Mikla Under the Cold Icelandic Northern Lights

How does one describe Kaelan Mikla? 80s inspired synth pop? Yep, there’s that. Atmospheric dance music? Certainly. Goth? Very much so. Proving once again that weird but great music comes out of Iceland (remember The Sugarcubes?), Kaelan Mikla, produces an amazing mix of dark, strange, and mysterious music that can best be likened to the most goth elements of Siouxsie and Banshees, Bauhaus, and Nine […]

80s-music 90s Alternative
September 29, 2021

Remembering Kirsty MacColl

I first heard Kirsty MacColl in the mid-1980s. She had recorded a very synthpop version of Billy Bragg’s “New England” and it was making the rounds of metro New York City clubs as well as the local new music station WLIR. Kirsty’s version was different enough that it was hard to tell if it was the same song. She had a voice that was as, […]