Sound Check: John Lefsky’s Listening Picks | April 2023

Each month here we visit with a member of the community to find out what music they’ve been digging.

A couple of things happened in 2020: I lost my store, Jack’s Rhythms, during the first few months of COVID and I started a regular routine of five-to-eight-mile hikes. Oddly, now that I no longer was selling music I began to listen to more new stuff than ever before and long walks allowed me to absorb that music in a deeper way. Listening to WFMU and The Quietus, an online arts magazine, opened my ears to more new music than I have room to list here, so I’m just going to mention stuff from this past year and some older titles.

Some of my fave 2022 titles include Freezing Hands’ It Was a Good Run (Arizona-based power pop); Lianne Hall’s Energy Flashback (melancholy British folk with a mostly electronic backing); a couple of newer punk bands, Hurry Up, from Oregon, and Oh Boland, from Ireland. I’ve also been digging Nze Nze, a France-based band with elements of dub, punk, industrial, and influences from Central Africa. Hardly a week goes by where I don’t play the Muffs’ Blonder and Blonder and the Geraldine Fibbers’ Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home, both underrated 1995 LPs. Since the recent death of Pharoah Sanders, his Karma album has been getting constant play. I’ve also been obsessed with Utopia Parkway by Fountains of Wayne. I’m looking forward to new albums by Lankum, the Reds, Pinks & Purples, and Sparks. So much music.

This article appears in April 2023.