24 August 2026 - Shelly Fabares - Johnny Angel

This was almost a Special Edition, and it really should be. 

You see, Shelly Fabares, a musician who was best known as an actress - most notably on The Donna Reed Show - passed away yesterday.  She was 82, and her acting career was long, with starring roles on several shows.  

Her debut single was "Johnny Angel", and it actually debuted on The Donna Reed Show. It reached #1 in 1962, and did spark a sequel single, "Johnny Loves Me", a lesser hit in its own right. But this, her first single, was her biggest. 

By the way, Glen Campbell is the guitarist on this song.  Just thought you might like knowing that. 

21 August 2026 - Kim Petras - Brutalist

This year has been coming up Kim Petras. 

Her newest album, Detour, has been called her debut album.  It's not - but that's the level of step forward this album is for the Grammy Award winning artist.

It took a long time for Republic Records to release this album (allegedly) but it was worth the wait because it was SO GOOD. 

This is one of my favorite songs from this album. 

This was a theme week.  Did you guess the theme?

If you did, you can listen to this "Brutalist" demo version which is really great.  If you didn't, go back and listen again. 

20 August 2026 - Ethel Cain - American Teenager

Since well before her 2022 debut album Preacher's Daughter, Ethel Cain has been a fast-rising songwriting star.  This song, from that album, is a fiercely anti-war song....

19 August 2026 - Jane Remover - Dreamflasher

There's very little I can say about Jane Remover that hasn't been assumed already. 

Born as a twin in 2003, they really loved Mario Kart growing up.  I hear they are also avid watchers of Family Guy. 

Yes, that is their preferred pronoun, and we're going to respect that here.  Deal with it. 

They are also a quickly-growing prolific musician who releases albums under many names - including leroy, under which they released an album this year. 

This song is from the Jane Remover 2025 album Revengeseekerz, which is really good. I hope you will enjoy it. 

Despite being so heavily electronic, they do perform live, and are touring this year.  Here's a great performance of this song from this year in New York. I always like pointing out when the audience is singing along, and this is one of those times. 

18 August 2026 - Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Laughter In Summer

At age 82, Beverly Glenn-Copeland released his latest album, Laughter In Summer, which was recorded by him and his wife (who is singing here) as he was dealing with a dementia diagnosis.  As someone in the YouTube comments of this video said far better than I ever could, "I'm sad for his diagnosis but so very happy for him being able to still enjoy his moment like this."

I chose a live performance of this song, which I also hope to see at the Polaris Gala in September, because I wanted to show the raw emotion and the love between this man and his wife. 

17 August 2026 - underscores - Do It

Let's talk about April Harper Grey.

It's what she calls a stage name - but it's who the songwriting credits on this song.  So it's her name.

April is underscores, a persona she's been releasing music under since 2013 (it's still on Soundcloud if you're interested.  I was).  She was doing dubstep back then - and she was 13.  It is absolutely crazy to me that someone so young could have been making such rich music by herself back then. 

Well, she's still underscores, and in 2026, she released her 3rd album, U.  Honestly, I didn't quite get it at first - but critics loved it from the start, and it grew on me hard.  This was one of the singles from that album, and it is an energetic masterpiece. 

underscores is also brilliant at marketing.  Her lyric video for this song doubled as a choreography version.  Her music is tailor-made for TikTok and she wisely positioned it as such. 

And this is why she is on the verge of emerging from the underground and hitting the mainstream.

Lest you think a dubstep artist can't BRING IT live.  She does. 

15 August 2026 (Special Edition) - EMF - Unbelievable

EMF stood for "Epsom Mad Funkers"