I continued delving into recent releases from Sofia Kourtesis, ML Buch, Sleater-Kinney and Wishy on the show this week, while the retro alternative set headed back to the turn of the millennium for a block of great tunes from 1999, with alt-rock classics from Beck and Pavement, dance bangers from Everything But The Girl, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers and international gems from Japan (Ringo Sheena, Miki Nakatani), China (Faye Wong) and Italy (Scisma).

I continued exploring recent releases from Sleater-Kinney, Bar Italia, Health, The Kills and Peter Gabriel on the show this week, while the retro alternative set focused on great tunes from 2014 as we roll into another new year and those songs become “eligible” for the retro set (according to my own made-up rules!). I also threw in a couple bonus “mini retro sets” of ’80s Japanese city pop/New Wave tunes and songs that reemerged as hits after appearing in movies, TV shows or commercials (in honor of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” becoming a belated U.S. hit 20 years after its release thanks to “Saltburn”.)

In 2021, I kicked off a new tradition for the show: a countdown of my favorite older songs that I discovered for the first time that year, as I began doing deep dives into ’80s Japanese city pop and Italo disco, coming across tons of fantastic tunes I had never heard before. I continued the “top discoveries” countdown for 2022 and now into 2023. This year’s list features more city pop (Yukako Hayase) and Italo (Sylvi Foster, The Voyagers), but also ventures into new areas like China (Faye Wong) and Brazil (May East), along with classic pop from France’s ’60s yé-yé era (Jacqueline Taieb), forgotten shoegaze bangers (Swallow) and a whole bunch of Serge Gainsbourg and Franco Battiato. I hope you find some buried gems here that inspire you to investigate many of these artists further!

Take a look back at another exciting year in alternative, indie rock and electronic music with my countdown of the top 50 tracks of 2023!

I continued exploring recent releases from Bar Italia, Health, Peter Gabriel, The Kills, Sofia Kourtesis, Crosses and Hotline TNT on the show this week, while the retro alternative set featured great tunes from the year 1981, in honor of Pitchfork’s Sunday Review of the perpetually underrated English post-punk band Au Pairs’ debut album, “Playing With a Different Sex.”

I continued delving into recent releases from Peter Gabriel, Bar Italia, Hotline TNT, The Kills, Health and Sofia Kourtesis on the show this week, while the retro alternative set ventured back again to the early ’80s for another block of Italo disco gems, this time focusing more on the “dark side” of Italo.

I continued exploring recent releases from Yeule, Peter Gabriel, a.s.o., Sofia Kourtesis, Metric, Wild Nothing, The Kills, Pip Blom and Hotline TNT on the show this week, while the retro alternative went back to the early days of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart for a set of mostly forgotten hits from around 1989 to 1991. I also included a pair of short tribute sets to the late, great Shane MacGowan, frontman for the legendary Celtic punk band The Pogues, and Geordie Walker, guitarist and co-founder of the influential post-punk band Killing Joke.

I continued delving into recent releases from Wild Nothing, Bar Italia, Health, Sofia Kourtesis, Pip Blom, The Kills, Slow Pulp and Jacknife Lee, Budgie and Lol Tolhurst on the show this week, while the retro alternative set focused on music from 1982, in honor of the recent Pitchfork Sunday Review of Fun Boy Three’s self-titled debut album from that year.

I continued exploring recent releases from Sofia Kourtesis, Hotline TNT, Bar Italia, Melenas, Mitski, Pip Blom, Wild Nothing, Yeule and Jockstrap on the show this week, while the retro alternative set focused on sophistipop, that uniquely ’80s brand of super-polished New Wave that incorporated smooth sounds from jazz and R&B. I played a bunch of classics from the genre by Spandau Ballet, The Blue Nile, Level 42 and more, as well as more recent acts influenced by the genre, like The 1975, Destroyer and Rhye.

I continued delving into recent releases from Blonde Redhead, Sofia Kourtesis, Hotline TNT, Pip Blom, The National, Slow Pulp, Bar Italia, Wild Nothing and Crosses on the show this week, while the retro alternative set focused on some forgotten gems from the early days of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, which originally debuted in the fall of 1988.