Hello all, and welcome to The Rinse for this week. I haven’t kept up with the news so much. Is it bad out there this week? I only kid. It’s only five dumpsters on fire, so it’s comparatively quiet. Luckily, that does not affect this enterprise, so let’s get into some recommendations and some things that I’ve spent far too long thinking about this week.

Johnnie Taylor has an excellent voice and was successful releasing records for Stax Records, hitting the R&B charts and gaining popularity. But, that’s not why I think about him today. I think about him because of “Disco Lady.”

I have had this song lodged in my head since the last Spins. It’s a consummate disco track. The slick bass line, the horns, and the honey-toned backup singers all combine with the smooth, slightly horny vocals of Taylor to make an excellent track. One day, I listened to this track five times in a row because I couldn’t tolerate the idea of it being over. If—by some grand misfortune—you are not familiar with this track, watch the video above and enjoy the added feature of the dancers getting into a call and response with him.

I spent some time over the last couple of days thinking about Rick James. Sure, he gained a new celebrity before his passing due to the Chappelle’s Show sketches, but I want to go back to the time when those stories occurred. Rick James was a bona fide star. This man had so much pull, he got his backup singers on.

Not only did he get them releasing music, they were popular because they had bangers. There is the absolute jam “In My House.”

This is a song so dope that they got targeted by the Parents Music Resource Council, ending up on that group’s Filthy Fifteen with such classics as Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” Prince’s “Darling Nikki,” Madonna’s “Dress You Up,” and Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” If you are getting that kind of attention, you are clearly doing something right, which the Mary Jane Girls were. Everything about this song works. Zero notes.

The other song that they are well known for (maybe primarily among Black people) is “All Night Long.”

Rick James’s bass line combined with their vocals has made this a classic of Black family outings for generations. If you get a bunch of Black people of a certain vintage together and put on this song, they will be grooving, especially if the drinks have been flowing slightly.

Did they last for a long time? No, they sure didn’t, but they left us with two straight bangers, and that’s the far more important part.

I am pretty confident that I’ve written about this song before on this newsletter, but I’ll expound slightly anyway. If you asked me to write a list of ten perfect indie pop songs, some of the songs would change depending on my mood that day. However, I can assure you of three things. The first is that one of them would be a Smiths song. The second is that one of those songs would be a Go-Betweens song. The third is that one of them would be this song.

The Cat’s Miaow accomplish so much in the space of 83 seconds, and it blows my mind every time.

While I can’t openly recommend everything else they wrote unless you want to be excruciatingly sad, this song is a masterful piece of jangle pop. It’s very lovely lyrics combined with a Wedding Present-style guitar charge that drive the song. And even though the song is only 83 seconds, it does absolutely everything it needs to and nothing more.

I listen to music according to a vaguely defined internal vibe. For example, there are days went I want to chill out but in an extremely specific manner. So, I’ll listen to a bunch of ambient music and my body will know that it is the correct sound. There was a day this past week when I was struggling to match the sound in my head. It took an hour or so, but I eventually did, and it was extremely fast. However, I had to figure out what kind of fast.

I tried listening to some speed metal, but it was too technical. I needed it to be simpler. I tried some faster pop music. Nope. I went to hardcore, and I unlocked it. In particular, I listened to Atari Teenage Riot, a German digital hardcore band. The video below is for “Speed,” one of their first tracks and one that got them on the radar of many people, myself included.

I also listened to Negative Approach, the legendary 80s hardcore crew running out the midwest. The video is of the band playing on a public access show called Why Be Something You’re Not, a title that is one word away from the title of a Negative Approach song.

If you ever find yourself at a loss to match the sound in your head, I recommend thinking about fast music. It might just get you over that hump, and it can be that release your body needs in that moment. Now, with all that done, let’s get into actual recommendations.

Actress & Suzanne Ciani - Concrète Waves

In a pairing that I never would have envisioned, industrial/dark house producer Actress pairs with Buchla wizard and New Age goddess Suzanne Ciani for a set of compositions. Actress’s glitchy, dark sound fits perfectly with Ciani’s ethereal, otherworldly synths. This album is made up of two improvised performances done in London and Barcelona. I was absolutely floored by this. I think it is an engaging and truly intriguing listen because of who is doing it and what they are doing together. They feel like a singular whole, with their styles fitting together so seamlessly. It is a lot of listening for 90 straight minutes, but the tracks are broken up by location, so listening to it in parts may be more practical.

Yaya Bey - Fidelity

If you have followed this newsletter from the beginning, you know that I’m a massive fan of Yaya Bey, a NYC-based alternative R&B artist. She has been on an absolute tear for the past three years. In 2024, she released Ten Fold, which featured the absolute banger “eric adams in the club.” She comes back in 2025 with Do It Afraid, an album that continues her streak of mixing Black music from all over the diaspora into a coherent, engaging whole. Her newest album, Fidelity, continues this style, focusing on Black community and unity while still referencing myriad musical styles (hip-hop, R&B, two-step, club music, etc.). Even though it is the newest album, I think it is maybe the best of the three most recent albums. Her lyrics on point, and the funky production (even on the slower tracks!) can even make the dead do a shimmy. As always, I cannot recommend Yaya Bey highly enough.

Wendy Eisenberg - Wendy Eisenberg

If you are like me, this album will throw you for an immediate loop—not in a bad way. If you are coming to this album from her previous one, Viewfinder, you’ll be jarred by the fact that it is far less “jazzy” than that album. In a lot of ways, this new album is far more rooted in folk/singer-songwriter norms than jazz ones. That said, it doesn’t make this album any less impressive. Eisenberg’s voice, lyrics, and guitar playing are very strong, and they are accentuated by drums, bass, a string section, synths, and a Wurlitzer. It develops a beautiful groove and goes down smoothly, but when you start digging into it a bit, there is so much going on, with so much to focus on and think about. That’s why it is such a standout.

Kathryn Mohr - Carve

Kathryn Mohr caught my attention last year with her album Waiting Room, this collection of haunting songs where the specter of early PJ Harvey lurked in every corner of a very grimy basement. I thought that album was phenomenal, and I expected a lot from this album because of that. I was not let down. Mohr continues to call upon the haunting spirit of PJ Harvey (think of Uh Huh Her and her Desert Sessions recordings) on this new set of tracks that she recorded in the southwestern United States. Mohr’s songwriting continues to explore the depraved depths of the human experience, and her sonic palette remains lo-fi through and through. This is not an easy listen, but it is one that rewards multiple listens.

La Peste - I Don’t Know Right From Wrong: Lost La Peste 1976-1979 Vol. 1

This is a compilation of music from La Peste, a punk band that worked in Boston in the late 1970s and only released a few songs officially. As soon as you start listening to it, you can hear the influence that they had on the scene. In their songs, you can hear the menacing guitars and driving rhythms of Mission of Burma as well as the jangling primitivism of the Modern Lovers. As is the case with compilations like this, not every track is fire. That said, the great majority of the songs here are fantastic, making it certainly worth your time.

Zo! and Tall Black Guy - Expansions

Zo! was half of the group The Foreign Exchange, which released several albums of absolutely phenomenal modern R&B music. Tall Black Guy was a frequent contributor to that project, and this is the second time the two of them have worked together on an entire album. The result is an R&B album that allowed me to disregard some very mid rapping because the grooves were so good. The singers that they brought in for this album—Sy Smith, Darien Brockington, BeMyFiasco, Debórah Bond—are phenomenal, bringing their own excellent vibes to these funky, progressive productions. It can get serious at times as is the case with all R&B albums, but Expansions is always engaging. If you like this album, I cannot recommend those Foreign Exchange albums enough.

The Remains - The Remains

The Remains are a band who peaked before they ever started. Hailing from Boston, the quartet released a couple of 7-inches that earned them the slot that every band wanted: opening for the Beatles in 1966. However, this did not result in any future success. Their singles did not gain any national traction, and the band fell apart before their debut dropped, dispirited by the lack of success following such a strong start. This is a real tragedy because this album, their debut album, is really strong, one of the better garage rock albums I’ve heard. The first couple of tracks are midtempo and well written, easing you into the listen. Once they start rocking, the band shows their full arsenal of talents, and it is immense. The Remains made a lovely set of hard-charging, heartfelt garage rock that sounds as good now as it would have in the 1960s.

OK, that is all for me. Please have an excellent week until the next time you hear from me. Take care of yourselves and each other. Pet a dog or cat if they are OK with it. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read here, please tell someone about it and have them subscribe. As a note to end on, don’t be a snitch.