2024 went by in a flash. I finished and released a solo album called Dynamite Alley (GTG Records) that came out in September (JCE’s review HERE). I toured solo-acoustic in support of that across the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, the western US, and Canada all fall (read the tour blog recaps HERE), before releasing a holiday single “Colorado Christmas” on December 6th (read about that HERE). Meeting The Romantics’ guitarist Mike Skill randomly in a Portland guitar shop, hanging in Seattle with Dave from BestKissersInTheWorld and playing with Joe from The Meices/Alien Crime Syndicate, and in Vancouver with Brock from Doughboys/SLIP-ons was surreal. Life is crazy sometimes.
Watershed and The Tucos in Hamtrack - October 1, 2024
The Tucos were in the studio all year and we’ve got a record that’s ready to mix. It’s our most ROCK release to date and the addition of Jake E Lee Riley on bass has upped our studio game significantly. We managed to get out of the control room to play shows in Columbus and Detroit/Hamtramck on back-to-back Saturdays with Watershed in the fall that were incredible.
AMERICA’S TEAM the Detroit Lions have been a blast to watch. Let’s hope they get to the next step this year. Sorry to the Pencil Storm faithful, but we were cheering our Wolverines on as they beat the Buckeyes for the 4th straight year, proving that it wasn’t cheating, luck, or any other anomaly. A friend from Columbus texted me and admitted “It wasn’t a fluke.” The TIGERS surprised everyone with a late-season run that got them to the ALDS, exceeding all expectations. It’s a good time to be a sorts fan in Michigan.
JP & TrooperGirl22 in Budapest - August, 2024
On a personal note, traveling with TrooperGirl22 to Germany, Austria, and Hungary was incredible, and to rural Illinois to see Charo for our anniversary (as we did in 2007 in New Hampshire) was a gas too. 35 years as Team-Porter and going strong, kiddo.
It was another great year for music. Here’s some things that rocked my world.
1] Ultrabomb – Dying to Smile / Sophomore effort by this post-punk supergroup. They’ve taken the next step in finding their own sound – it’s a little less Hüskery – but just a little. It still very much has all those elements. There’s not a whole lot of this kind of thing going on these days, so it’s awesome to hear. It’s great played loud when you’re getting ready to go out or transitioning from afternoon nap to party mode.
2] The Peawees – One Ride / These guys are from Italy and found their way onto my radar a couple years ago. Hard to describe their style, but elements of The Clash, Rancid, spaghetti westernish stuff, rockabilly, and pop-punk. Great raspy vocals, efficient arrangements, and fantastic production. Bands like this are a bit of a dying breed and it’s cool to see them working so hard. Hope they make it over to the states sometime.
3] Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers / One of these things is not like the others! My fav SJ release since her debut, though I’ve liked most everything she’s done. This one, though, is a giant leap into the pop-rock world with a slightly indie mentality and some great production. The songs are there for sure, and her captivating vocals of course, but it’s the production that gives them room to breathe and flow. She’s getting into some Emmylou 1990’s territory at times, with the muffled reverby percussion and sparse instrumentation, and that’s not a bad thing. Some of these tracks would be mega-hits on pop radio in a world that had any taste at all.
Standout tracks: “Jealous Moon” and “When the Lights Go Out”
4] Bottlecap Mountain – Electric Love Spree / Austin, TX pals best album to date full of soulful powerpop hooks, clever lyrics, great guitar tones, and upbeat tempos that stick with ya like the ribs at Terry Black’s and the avocado margaritas at Curra’s. I found myself going back to this pretty regularly throughout the year and used it as pre-show PA music on my solo-acoustic tour when I had the option. It’s got legs and staying power, and these guys are going strong, so the future looks bright. Read about it here!
5] A Rueful Noise – The Ashen Glow / Lansing pals first full-length of Pixies-meets-Sabbath-goth-meets-’60s-garage-psyche masterpiece songwriting and heavy production. It’s the next logical step in their journey after their debut 7” and a very easy and rewarding listen. This one got a lot of spins this year on Whiskey Wednesdays and Saturday nights and it’s still near the front of the current rotation pile.
6] The Wild Honey Collective – Volume 3 / Lansing, Michigan’s voted “Best Folk Artist/Band” continuing their prolific run of quality releases here with another great collection of originals and covers. The lineup has stabilized and gelled with the game-changing additions of Adam Aymor on pedal steel and Joel “Kernel” Kuiper on drums and the tunes and oh-so-sweet harmonies have been there from the start. These guys are better and better every time I see `em and once in a while I get to sit in on a tune or two.
Standout tracks: “Lily” and “These Old Shoes”
7] Mary Timony – Untame the Tiger / Incredible production and great songs reign supreme on this album. I became a fan of her work with Ex Hex but could never quite latch onto previous projects or solo albums. That changes here. Great melodies and energy on this one, and like the Sarah Jarosz record above, it’s that production that lets the songs breathe. I really wish she would have played Detroit.
8] Jack White – No Name / I’ve been lukewarm to Jack’s post-White Stripes output. It always sounds fantastic and is never short on creativity, raw energy, and spontaneity, but it’s never quite clicked with me, never lasted too long in rotation. I never found myself walking around the house humming those tunes like I did the songs from Elephant or Blue Orchid. Well, that changes with No Name. The son of a buddy who lives around the corner from the Detroit Cass Corridor Third Man Records store grabbed me the one-day special copy and it’s been in regular rotation since. The songs have hooks & riffs, and they’re not over-worked or over-complicated. His best since he went solo, and I’m hoping the trend continues.
9] Billy Strings - Highway Prayers – I didn’t want to like this album. It was one of those “this kid is super-famous and it can’t possibly be good and I am too cool to listen to it” deals that us aging GenXers adopted sometime in the early ‘90s when our alternative music became not so alternative anymore and all of a sudden the guys who called us names I can’t repeat in high school were listening to the same albums we were now. It didn’t help that he played Detroit the same night as my only local show this fall (opening for and hosting Watershed) and almost everyone I knew went to that. He’s a Michigan guy (that’s a +1) and has songs called “Escanaba” (+1) and “Seney Stretch” (+5!) so I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about, grabbed the record, and threw it on my iPod.
On a cold Sunday morning in October, after a particularly shitty show the night before, I drove out of Salt Lake City and ascended into the Rocky Mountains east of the city towards Wyoming, and ultimately Denver. Watching the sunrise over the peaks was cathartic, and I put the new Billy Strings record on to provide the soundtrack. Welp, I was wrong about my preconceived notions. Playing that is second to none, a voice older than his years, and most of all – great songs. I was really into it that morning. I’d call it an anomaly, but I’m still going back to this record.
If I had to label it, I’d call it “Bluegrass with a slightly commercial twist.” Yea, it’s about 5 or 6 songs too long, the silly filler stuff and his occasional treading into Pink Floyd/David Gilmour territory could be dropped and it’d be a better record, but it’s an easy, enjoyable listen. Goes to show ya that what’s popular isn’t always bad and don’t write it off just because it seems like the cool thing to do. I’m a fan.
Standout tracks: “My Alice” and “Seven Weeks in County”
10] Soul Asylum – Slowly But Shirley / Soul Asylum continues the strong streak they started with 2012’s Delayed Reaction and perhaps peaked with the pandemic-era Hurry Up and Wait. My ears perked up when I heard that Steve Jordan (Rolling Stones’ current drummer, Expensive Winos’ drummer & producer) was producing, as he was at the help for one of their best - …and the Horse They Rode In On. The dude can get a good drum sound and knows how to work a tune. Slowly But Shirley doesn’t quite reach the creative heights that Hurry Up did, and I can’t say I love the mix, but it’s got a great live and raw sound that drives home the fact that these guys are not phoning it in. I’m perfectly happy that Soul Asylum is still out there and releasing albums of this caliber.
Wilderhoney S/T EP / Wild Honey Collective sub-set where they even cover one of my songs!
Narc Out The Reds – Will Strum The Bang Bloody EP / Yet another Lansing band worth your attention. Read the review HERE!
Royal Scene – Twenty Summers EP / Yet another Lansing band worth your attention. Read the review HERE!
SLIP-ons – “Grey$tone” / Ex-Dougboy Brock Pytel’s outfit. Great pop-punk, though that label doesn't do it justice. It’s incredibly well written and crafted, and the playing is TIGHT. Hooks for days. Love their 2023 EP Heavy Machinery and wish it was twice as long. Get that EP, but also check out their killer single Grey$tone about the legendary ‘80s punk club in Detroit!
Doug McKean – Enduing Freedom / Cleveland’s finest and most prolific songwriter here, with another fantastic set. Love this dude and his music. It always makes me want to work on my own songwriting and at the same time just quit. Read the review HERE!
David Picco – Until Now / My Canadian touring partner-in-crime put out a hell of an album full of songs & stories with production and playing help from Jimmy Bowskill (The Sheepdogs and Blue Rodeo). His voice will tear your heart out and his songs will make you wish you’d written them. Great stuff.
Micah Schnabel - The Clown Watches the Clock / Pencil Storm favorite and one of Columbus’ best, Micah continues his run of insanely brave, artistic, innovative, and introspective art with this album that is the companion piece to his book of the same name that came out in 2023.
Society of the Silver Cross – Festival of Invocations / Seattle-based husband & wife team of Joe Reineke and Karyn Gold-Rieneke release a fantastic collection of gothy dark and amazingly crafted songs that fill up the room. Read about it here!
The Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards / GREAT come-back record from the Robinson brothers. It’s as real as Rock and Roll gets and belongs on every turntable.
Redd Kross - S/T / This belongs in my top-10 for sure. To be honest, I kinda forgot about it and wasn’t up for redoing all the images and formatting to get it up there. I am not the biggest RK fan in the world or Detroit, but this record really connected and kicks all kinds of ass. Their song “Candy Coated Catastrophe” borrows the name of the last Tucos record up to most of the last word, and that’s ok with me. They tore the roof off of the El Club in July, as you’ll read about in a minute.
Watershed - Blow it Up Before it Breaks / like Redd Kross, this belongs in the top-10 as well. Super great collection of fun, rocking songs with that Tim Patalan touch and a couple parts by me too, plus a Cheap Trick cover. Yeah, I am biased, but it’s my fav Watershed record.
Pearl Jam – Dark Matter / Admittedly I’m not the biggest PJ fan, for no reason other than that they just never really connected too deeply with me. This record ranks among my favorites from them – raw and loud and REAL. Maybe not my personal go-to, but I am glad these guys are out there and still doing their thing. Mad respect.
X – Smoke and Fiction / Farewell album from LA punk pioneers. I love this band so much. Songs are killer, playing and singing is top-notch, but I struggle with the mix and haven’t gone back as much as I did with their previous album Alphabetland.
My favorite RSD releases from April this year were first-time vinyl pressings of the Bottle Rockets - The Brooklyn Side album and the Tinted Windows (Cheap Trick/Fountains of Wayne/Smashing Pumpkins/Hanson super-group) S/T album. The Amboy Dukes - Journey to the Center of the Mind re-pressing was an unexpected surprise, and live albums from Jim Croce and Thin Lizzy were fun too.
The Black Friday list from 2024 ranks as my own personal least interesting RSD list to date. I meandered into my local store mid-morning and picked up The Doors – Live in Detroit 4xLP set, and that blew me away actually, but that was it.
The Reissued/Remixed Southern Rock Opera by Drive-By Truckers came out in July and, as usual, the packaging was awesome. Not sure the remix really added much to the experience, but it didn’t hurt. DBT is my favorite band of this century and I’ll buy just about everything they put out.
American Laundromat Records issued Juliana Hatfield’s 2008 album How to Walk Away album to vinyl for the first time, and that’s my fave from her between 1995-2017, so I snatched it up right away. Sounds awesome and it’s been fun to revisit.
The Dream Syndicate (L), Vicki Peterson w/JP (R) - The Troubadour, Hollywood, CA, January 2024
Dream Syndicate / Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill – The Troubadour – Hollywood CA – Flew out to escape the dreary Michigan winter and had an awesome weekend in LA with my pal John. Vicki and John played 10 songs, mostly written buy John’s brothers. The Dream Syndicate were a sonic wave of perfection. A Paisley Underground dream bill and a special night. So glad I went. Read about it here!
Redd Kross - El Club, Detroit, MI - July 2024
Redd Kross – El Club – Detroit, MI – Rock & roll is alive and well, and if you have any doubts about that, go see Redd Kross.
Heart / Cheap Trick – Little Caesars Arena – Detroit, MI – Heart has been on the need-to-see list for a long time and this tour was getting great reviews. The opening band was an added bonus. We had great seats and the sound was incredible. Cheap Trick was a bit on the lackluster side that night, but Heart was incredible.
Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill - Turtle House Concert, suburban Philadelphia, August 2024
Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill – House Show – Philadelphia, PA / This seemed too good to pass up, so we made a weekend out of it with a Yankees game and a couple days in NYC. It doesn’t get more intimate – 20 people +/- in a townhouse living room in suburban Philly. The support set at The Troubadour was great, but here we got several more songs, including a couple Bangles and Continental Drifters tunes. The conversation went something like this.
Me: We met at the Troubadour in January.
Vicki: Yes! I remember! I knew you looked familiar.
Me: You asked me if I was insane.
Vicki: Well, that was probably warranted.
Me. Yup.
Drive-By Truckers – Saint Andrews Hall – Detroit, MI / DBT Played Southern Rock Opera front-to-back on election night. SRO is such an incredible album, and hearing it in its entirety was awesome, despite the air of pessimism and impeding doom in the room. Best DBT show I’ve seen in a couple years.
Cheap Trick in Mount Pleasant, MI - December 2024
Cheap Trick / Blue Öyster Cult – Soaring Eagle Casino – Mount Pleasant, MI / Some friendly nudging from friends and the addition of BÖC to the bill sealed the deal. BÖC was really good, but they play some goofy lookin’ guitars. They did all the hits and that’s what I was after, but the deep cuts were just as great. Cheap Trick, however, was ON FIRE. They came out with more energy and played a more spirited set than I’ve seen in at least a couple years. (For the record, they also play some goofy lookin’ guitars.) #42 for me, and it was awesome. These guys still have some gas in the tank, folks. Always worth the effort to see them.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit, fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos, and plays acoustic shows all over the place. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.thetucos.com
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic
www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
