Tunes, or the bimonthly roundup of the music playing in my head, May/June edition.

In 2018, I've resolved to offer a musical recap every two months.

For those just tuning in, I can no longer carry a tune across the street without breaking both legs, but music's playing in my head every waking moment. I'm convinced that when the music stops playing, death will be near.

I'm old school -- no iTunes or playlists for me. Perversely, no vinyl, either; my albums are stacked over at the Public House and I don't own a turntable. As with books, each year I research and buy those CDs that seemed best suited to my tastes. They're usually augmented with impulse buys and random excursions, and of course I listen to snippets of radio, YouTube and the like.

For me, classical music is WUOL-FM and my CD collection, and the latter suffices for jazz listening and world music (internet radio helps). I've nothing bad to say about hip hop or country; they're just not my taste.

In 2018, it's looking as if live music will be restricted to the Louisville Orchestra at the Ogle Center, unless anyone has cheap seats to the Def Leppard/Journey show at Yum next week (hint).

I'd like to be more supportive of local music, and concede that this is the 800-lb chink in my armor. It's a constant struggle, but the fact is that I don't do much in the way of nightlife any longer, and when dining and drinking out, our preferences run to conversation, which is precluded by loud music.

So it goes. It's all about me, and what I like.

Following are CD purchases from May and June, 2018. They're in approximate order of preference, and I can tell you now that Marr and the Manics will be among the year's most listened for me. It cannot always be said with confidence, but verily, I've spent my money wisely these past two months.

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Johnny Marr … Call the Comet

Manic Street Preachers … Resistance is Futile

Parquet Courts … Wide Awake

Kamasi Washington … Heaven and Earth

Chvrches … Love Is Dead

Matthew Sweet … Tomorrow’s Daughter

Arctic Monkeys … Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino

Snow Patrol … Wildness

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Reviews have been chosen because they're fair and balanced according to the verdict of my ears. I typically skim reviews before making purchases, then read them voraciously afterward.

Recent archival digressions included the complete CD set of Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, acquired a few years back and filled with deliciousness, and the 1970s oeuvre of Edgar Winter, both solo and with his band at the time, via a brief free trial with an on-line music provider (I've no physical copies of his output). Winter had a spectacular run from his debut to around 1977, and no more versatile performer could be found during that period.

Through the same medium, I listened to several live performance of The Who from the pre-Tommy period. Glorious days, indeed, and a rare treat for me.

An aside: Usually Glastonbury keeps me abreast of contemporary Brit Rock, though not this summer, as it's a break year. But there's much of the recent Isle of Wight fest to be viewed on YouTube, and my friend Jerry and I continue to split the cost of a yearly subscription of Mojo magazine.

A few headlines from May and June:

Calendar check: New Albany Blues, Brews, & BBQ Festival at Bicentennial Park on Sat., Sept. 29.

The two most recent Manic Street Preachers albums, ending one era and beginning another.

ClassicX Escape radio, with new music from classic rock artists.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Moon's brandy and Lennon's Brandy Alexander, with other less interesting milkshakes and frappes.

Ten days that shook my world -- or, the albums that changed my life when I first heard them.

You keep singing "My Old Kentucky Home." I do not think it means what you think it means.

"The Smiths were only around for five years in the mid-eighties, but to this day the sentiment their music evokes is strong."

From 2016:

Meat Is Murder: Morrissey at The Palace, 09/20/2016.

Check out the set list, and join me in appreciating a man who genuinely merits the description of icon. It was money very well spent for us.

From 2013:

Johnny Marr.

The Smiths and anti-Thatcherism are so closely intertwined that even this Hoosier hick knows about it. On the other hand, I imagine few of today's know-nothing Republicans remember Maggie, anyway. They were too busy drooling over the staged blather of a trained actor, Ronnie Raygun.

And also from 2013,the video:

Not Like Any Other Love: The Smiths (The Culture Show on BBC2; May, 2013)

It's 30 years since Manchester four-piece The Smiths changed the face of British pop with their debut single Hand In Glove. In this half-hour Culture Show special, fellow Mancunian and lifelong fan Tim Samuels sets out to find out why The Smiths have such a special place in the hearts of a generation of Brits. The Smiths were only around for five years in the mid-eighties, but to this day the sentiment their music evokes is strong. Samuels pays visits to a variety of dedicated fans including fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, poet Simon Armitage, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher to analyse the look, the lyrics, the issues and the riffs that made The Smiths Britain's first, and arguably best ever, indie rock band.

Johnny Marr has given me a great campaign t-shirt idea.

Photo: Aaron Farley/NME

For added enrichment, consider the return of the protest song.

Johnny Marr urges UK election voters: 'Get rid of this lot on Thursday' at NME

Johnny Marr has spoken out about the upcoming UK general election, urging voters to oust the current Conservative and Lib Dem coalition ...

... Tory leader David Cameron previously publicly declared his love for The Smiths, which led Marr to later tweet: ""David Cameron, stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don't. I forbid you to like it."

Roger's Year in Music 2014, No. 7: Playland, by Johnny Marr.

It's an understatement of epic dimension for me to acknowledge that I'm an unapologetic Johnny Marr fan. From the Smiths through his many other projects and residencies (Electronica, Cribs, Modest Mouse), and now to a healthy and fulfilling solo career, I admire Marr's music, innate good taste and political proclivities ... in no particular order. He has featured here at the blog several times in the past.

Johnny Marr: "Propaganda, misinformation – everything is going to be about people who’ve got vast amounts of money."

Johnny Marr.

Thank you, Johnny Marr. That's electric guitar, right?

The Smiths on my birthday, and a Soviet recollection.

Back in 2003, we were fortunate to see Marr and his then-band, the Healers, at Headliners. Here's the recap, from Kathy's Zak Starkey fan site.

May 10, 2003 - Louisville, KY - Non-Comm Convention

This was a radio industry convention (for non-commercial stations), that ran from May 8-10th, and was held at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, KY. "Three days of meetings, music and networking for noncommercial Triple A radio." The many artists perform at various venues around the city, including WFPK's own state-of-the-art studios. The Healers played at the Headliners Music Hall Louisville, KY billed as Johnny Marr & the Healers with Daniel Lanois, John Hiatt & the Goners, John Eddy, and Digby. Johnny was scheduled to go onstage at 11:15pm, but did not actually hit the stage until almost 2am!!

Abbreviated set list: Long Gone, Caught Up, Down on the Corner, All Out Attack, You are the Magic, Don't Think Twice, Last Ride, Need It

Encore: In Betweens, Bangin On

Only 18 months passed between solos albums in 2013 and 2014. The Messenger was in my top five last year.

Johnny Marr … The Messenger
The songs are muscular and vibe-laden; much stylistic ground is covered, and the mastermind’s guitar goes everywhere and does everything. Ye Gods, a living, breathing rock and roll record. I’m glad it’s still possible.

The British music magazine NME picks up on this year's model, Playland.

It reads from the same classic British indie, new wave and post-punk hymn sheets as its predecessor, but coming from the guy who helped author significant swathes of those hymn sheets in the first place, it’s difficult to take umbrage. It’s a continuation in other ways, too: just as Marr’s singing voice is better than you’d suppose a lead guitarist’s to be, his lyrics are more nuanced than you’d necessarily expect from a guy who made his name writing music for others. Where most in Marr’s situation might write songs of drinking, touring, domestication and thinly veiled attacks on former bandmates, ‘The Messenger’ offered a series of wry observations on the surreal side of modern life: men falling in love with machines, the increasing mechanisation of human interaction, even the growth of European federalism. The words weren’t simply there to fill the spaces between licks.

‘Playland’, then, takes its title from Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s 1938 book ‘Homo Ludens’ - also known as ‘Man The Player’ and 'Man Player' - which imagines the concept of play as an organising principle of society, while lead single ‘Easy Money’ is a twitchy, maddeningly catchy ode to the root of all evil (and some pretty great rock’n’roll songs).

Johnny Marr: "Propaganda, misinformation – everything is going to be about people who’ve got vast amounts of money."

Listen and read.

Marr is uncommonly articulate for a pop/rock artist, and he isn't afraid to take positions; consider this 2013 posting at NAC: Johnny Marr.

Johnny Marr: ‘A lot of people are afraid’, by John Harris (The Guardian)

With the Smiths Johnny Marr blazed a trail for music with a political conscience. Now a successful solo artist, he still thinks it’s a musician’s job to ask awkward questions. But why is he such a lone voice?

When the definitive history of David Cameron’s time in office appears – something which may happen rather sooner than he would like – a few paragraphs will surely be devoted to his self-professed love of the Smiths. The prime minister has quoted their song titles in the House of Commons, chosen their 1983 hit This Charming Man on Desert Island Discs, and even made a point of visiting the location of the photograph printed on the sleeve of their album The Queen Is Dead – and all with little apparent sense of the awful inappropriateness of it all. Who knows? When he takes the podium at next week’s Tory conference he may try something similar again: it would be nice to hear a reference to I Know It’s Over (1986), though one fears the atmosphere will be more suggestive of the 1987 stomper A Rush and a Push and The Land Is Ours.

This was a band, let us not forget, who embodied – no, led – the left-leaning 1980s counterculture that set itself against everything the Conservative party stood for, then and now. To play any of their songs is to be reminded not just of the chilly, polarised tenor of those times, but the absurdity of anyone with Tory inclinations finding something to latch on to. That point was curtly made in December 2010, when Johnny Marr – the band’s former guitarist and co-songwriter – took to Twitter to demand that the prime minister should shut up. “Stop saying that you like the Smiths, no you don’t,” he declared. “I forbid you to like it.”

Thank you, Johnny Marr. That's electric guitar, right?

Think of it: In 2013, a rock and roll album with electric guitar. The Messenger is good stuff, indeed.

Granted, Marr's a veteran even if his solo debut is brand new music. Donald Fagen's another old-timer, but his Sunken Condos album from late last year is an excellent jazzy fix.

After a January spent listening to classical music, February brought belated motivation to seek inspiration. Houndmouth has been part of it. Other albums that have scored highly thus far:

Jim James ... Regions of Light and Sound of God
Imagine Dragons … Night Visions
Foals … Holy Fire
Psychic Friend … My Rocks Are Dreams
Bryan Ferry ... The Jazz Age

Ferry's effort is noteworthy because the erstwhile Roxy Music sings nary a note. Rather, a big band performs arrangements of his music in period monaural.

Lastly, a mile marker: U2 might finally release a new album later this year.

Johnny Marr.

It seems the phenomenon of conservative politicians painfully unaware of the lyrical content in songs they promote is not reserved to America.

The Smiths and anti-Thatcherism are so closely intertwined that even this Hoosier hick knows about it. On the other hand, I imagine few of today's know-nothing Republicans remember Maggie, anyway. They were too busy drooling over the staged blather of a trained actor, Ronnie Raygun.

By the time of my introduction to the Smiths in 1988 by way of the British periodicals I was abstracting at UNI-Data Courier in Louisville, the band was finished, but the music press wasn't through with them. So it has remained.

As a latecomer, there would be no Smiths live performance for me, although I caught Johnny Marr + the Healers at a WFPK indie radio showcase at Headliners circa 2003, and Morrissey a couple years after that at the Palace. As the interview makes clear, don't look for a reunion any time soon; just invest in "The Smiths Complete" for hours of rewarding listening.

Johnny Marr on the Smiths, Morrissey and putting politics back in pop, By Dave Simpson (The Guardian)

... "We invented indie as we still know it," says Marr, the debt ceremoniously acknowledged in the 90s when Oasis's Noel Gallagher played Marr's guitar.

But the guitarist was equally taken aback by the reach of the Smiths' non-musical impact: the amount of people that turned vegetarian because of Meat is Murder, or became politically motivated through Margaret on the Guillotine. "We were of that generation that came after punk and post-punk," he explains. "We're grateful for the revolution, but there was a bit of homophobia there, and sexism. There wasn't in indie. People don't talk about it now, but it was non-macho. If you were an alternative musician, you were political, because of the times [Thatcherism and the Falklands war]. It was taken for granted that the bands you shared a stage with had the same politics. I'm not sure you could say that now."