Guilherme Coutinho- E O Groupo Stalo (Originally released 1978; 2020 Reissue on Portugal’s Mad About Records)

I decided to browse Durham, NC’s wonderful Bull City Records’s recent releases online and came across this one. The description alone sold me, but then I listened to it and immediately needed to buy it. They highlight really interesting music at their store- I strongly recommend them. I am always due for broadening my musical horizons. Look at that artwork! Amazing…the music is so upbeat, refreshing, and unique; genre-wise, it is described as Space-Age groove, lo-fi, tropical, jazz-funk, soul, fusion. I can boil it all down into one genre: Awesome. I am now curious to listen to the two other records Mr. Coutinho did.

Yo La Tengo- And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Originally released in 2000 on Matador Records)

Upon revisiting this album recently, I became absolutely bewitched. YLT are a rare band whose early output doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but since the late 90s, they have consistently put out amazing and intoxicating records. They took a bit to figure out their thing/groove, and once they did, man have they soared. This record is just about perfect; it is a mix of genres, and while it takes a more exploratory vibe (especially with the 17-minute final track, “Night Falls on Hoboken,”), it has one of their best rock songs on it- the noisy and catchy “Cherry Chapstick.” What’s particularly funny to me is I bought this not long after it came out and recall it not making a huge impression. Now, I think it easily holds a candle to I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (my favorite YLT LP).