Happy New Year! Nick kicks things off with Three For Thursday: 2024 Albums of the Year Edition. We’ve heard songs from these albums over the past year, but Nick believes they’re the cream of the crop in 2024.

Songs:

Ghost Note - “Where’s Danny?”

Vampire Weekend - “Mary Boone”

Plantoid - “Insomniac (Don’t Worry)”

Greg brings us up to speed on a documentary he’s recommending we all watch over the holiday break. Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary can be found on Max and recounts the rise in popularity of the, later dubbed, yacht rock genre that emerged from the west coast in the late 70s.

Song: Doobie Brothers - “What a Fool Believes”

Jay wraps the week (and the year) with a fantastic article in the Jan 2025 Harpers Magazine titled “The Ghosts in the Machine” [Harpers Magazine]. The article reports Spotify’s internal program aimed at filling ‘background music’ playlists with licensed sound-alike content that costs much less that the royalties paid to streaming artists. It re-raises a familiar question on the show, can the economics of the music industry ever result in a system that benefits and is fair to its artists.

Song: Frank Zappa - “Andy” (checkout Tyler Bartrem’s video about this song if you’re interested -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Jq0DX0bfc )

Jay is out this week rehearsing with the Ken Demith Collection so friend of the show Keith Grasso is sitting in, and he’s bringing a substantial amount of, much needed, holiday cheer. Last year Keith decided to record his own rendition of “Blue Christmas” and he enjoyed the process so much that he’s done it again this year.

Songs:

Keith Grasso - “Christmastime is Here”

Keith Grasso & John Rossman - “Hard Candy Christmas”

In lieu of actual presents, Nick found some feel good news story to share via “News with Nick.” Notre Dame’s organist returns for the grand opening, Pearl Jam announces a tour, as does the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band.

Song: Barenaked Ladies - “Deck the Stills”

Greg wraps up our show this week with a Three for Thursday. New music from Opeth & Kelsey Shell, and a classic Christmas Carol by Bill Evans.

Songs:

Opeth - “§3”

Kelsey Shell (album - sleepwalker) - “When You’re Lying There”

Bill Evans - “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone, thanks so much for listening!

Greg brings some news & a guest this week. Friend of the show and Greg’s little brother, Austin Loman is back on the show this week! Greg & Austin usually jam over the holidays and decided to book a show this year. If you’re in or around DC on Saturday, December 28, you can catch The Loman Brothers at Bossa Bistro + Lounge from 7:30pm-9:30pm (all ages welcome).

Songs:

Austin Loman Band - “After Image”

Jeff Beck (Live at Ronnie Scotts) - “Angel (Footsteps)”

Alan Holdsworth - “Looking Glass”

Taylor Swift has just concluded her twenty-one month, 149 show, worldwide Eras Tour, which is on record as the highest grossing tour of all time. Jay brings us all the stats on Tay Tay Today.

Song: Bill Evans Trio - “Nardis (Live, 1970, Norway)”

Finally, Nick came across a Top 50 Albums of the 21st Century post on a spammy looking website. The post relied entirely on Metacritic to determine the albums and rankings. Metacritic is an aggregator of music reviews, weighted based on the critic and/or publication’s reputation. The resulting list is quite interesting. (https://stacker.com/music/50-best-albums-21st-century-according-critics).

Song: Wadada Lee Smith - “Dred Scott, 1857”