The Fresh Five: Being Dead, Caribou, Porridge Radio, Dua Saleh, and Adrienne Lenker

For the Fresh Five we pick out five great new(ish) jams that we’re currently obsessing over.

Last year’s When Horses Would Run ended up being one of my favorite albums of the year. So I was pretty psyched to hear that Texas’s Being Dead would already be releasing another this year. EELS came out a couple weeks back and it’s fantastic. Album opener “Godzilla Rises” wasn’t one of the singles per se but it’s one of my favorites – a rollicking combination of garage rock and guy/gal vocal harmonies. Purchase the record here.

Caribou’s 2010 show at the 7th St Entry may go down as one of my top ten of all time. Dan Snaith has stayed pretty busy in the years since but (I think) a little bit more under the radar than that mid-oughts heydey. He’s still making great music as evidenced by this year’s Honey, his latest record. You can stream/purchase the whole thing here. Sadly his tour only comes as close as Chicago this time around. 

London’s Porridge Radio have been making music for a number of years now. Their recent record Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me has really left its mark on me in the week since it came out. It’s a collection of intense, slow-burning rock/post punk songs, notably accompanied by violin. It’s one of those albums that feels like emotional self immolation as art – a catharsis of acute emotions. Porridge Radio are slated to visit First Avenue this January (tix). 

I am not sure we can rightly call Dua Saleh “local” anymore given that they seem to call Los Angeles home these days. That doesn’t change anything the way that we feel about the talented Sudanese American’s music – the latest of which came out last week.  Given Saleh’s presence and output over the years, it’s hard to believe I Should Call Them is actually their debut album. The whole thing is great but I particularly love this single “Want.”

Adrienne Lenker’s latest solo record Bright Future came out earlier this spring, but a single that was recorded at the same time “Once A Bunch” just came out a couple of months ago and is well worth checking out. It’s a jaunty folk song that wouldn’t be out of place in either a Lenker album or one by her band, Big Thief.