Category: Modern Rock

Alternative Jangle Pop Modern Rock New Music Roots
January 30, 2023

An Odd Little EP from Johnossi

While looking through some new music suggestions on Spotify, up popped the Swedish band Johnossi. Their music has a kind of late 80s/90s retro sound with elements of 80s roots and 90s alternative and a splash of indie rock. I was immediately reminded of some 90s Toronto bands like Lowest of the Low, Blue Rodeo (though less twangy), and Barenaked Ladies. But also, 80s jangle […]

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 […]

Americana Country Modern Rock Pop Rockabilly Western
March 11, 2022

A Quick Trip Out West with Orville Peck

Unlike rock stars, most country artists have great voices. There are outliers whose voices were more unique than great, such as Johnny Cash, but the vast majority of country artists have control, tone, and timbre that rock stars often do not. Orville Peck’s voice stands out even among the country greats. He has a warm baritone with a big range that sounds somewhere between The […]

60s 70s 90s Alt folk Classic Rock Country Modern Rock New Music Prog rock
July 16, 2021

The Heartless Bastards Are Back with Three New Songs

It’s been a while since we heard from the Heartless Bastards. Their last album was in 2015, which is far enough in the past to assume they were defunct. Then, out of nowhere, in 2020 came a new single “Revolution”. Another one came out in early 2021 and now a brand-new single just this week. The new song “Photograph” came packaged with the other two […]

Alternative grunge Modern Rock New Music Punk
June 14, 2021

Sleater-Kinney Path to Wellness is Boring for Us

So, after a month of constant new music and reviews, I took a week off from new posts. It’s summer and there is much partying to do. As such, my batteries were completely recharged when the new Sleater-Kinney album, Path to Wellness, dropped this week. Unfortunately, their path to wellness is our road to dullsville. The album lacks any of the energy we come to […]

70s Indie Modern Rock New Music St. Vincent
May 19, 2021

St. Vincent Transports Us Back To The 70s

I think of myself as a child of the 70s, musically at least. My formative music years began in the 1970s as a pre-teen and then teenager. While I was predominantly into progressive rock and then golden age punk and new wave, I feel all manner of 70s music in my bones. So, apparently, does Annie Clark a.k.a. St. Vincent. Her new album Daddy’s Home […]

Modern Rock New Music Pop
April 29, 2021

Billie Eilish – Your Power

Ok, I’m a fan. I’ll give a few minutes to get over a punk rocker/prog rock Billie Eilish fan. You all done? Good. Eilish’s new song “Your Power” dropped today. It’s a quiet, minimally orchestrated, mostly acoustic song that sounds like it was from the 70s singer songwriter era. It’s as if Bread wrote a song that was not stomach churning and then got Eartha […]