This week’s Monday Morning Tape:

Less talk, more tunes.

Happy Monday.

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Kyle Craft – Eye of a Hurricane

With the losses of David Bowie and Prince, there’s a serious dearth of glammy, other-worldly rock artists making music nowadays.

Mr. Craft and his debut album, Dolls of Highland, might help fill a smart part of that void.

(Ezra Furman’s outstanding record from last year could help too.)

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Astronauts – You Can Turn It Off

Astronauts is headed by the U.K.’s Dan Carney, who humorously describes the project as “ham-fisted bleep-folk”.

Joel Frieders, writing for Syffal, had this to say about their music:

“Astronauts is the soundtrack to my life as filmed on an 8mm camera and played back at half speed, and I’ve never wanted to hug an entire band more than I do right fucking now for creating such a comfortable place to disrobe and spin in circles.  Don’t look at me like that, just spin next to me bro.”

Ha!  The new Astronauts album, End Codes, will be released on May 6th.

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Sky Chefs – MI Basements

Not all songs have to be fancy-pants stuff — sometimes all you need are a few guitar chords and a universal message about financial woes, and hiding out from said woes in subterranean Michigan dwellings.

The self-titled debut record from Sky Chefs is out now — you can check it out here.

RIYL: The Thermals, Violent Femmes, Pinkerton, despondency

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Kalispell – Windfall

Kalispell’s new album, Printer’s Son, is due out June 3rd.

RIYL: Wilco, Beta Radio, pensive walks through the wilderness, “ditch weed & loss”

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The Bones of JR Jones – Hammers and Nails

Footstomps and handclaps aplenty on this one.

Spirit’s Furnace was just released a couple weeks ago.

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Until next week, cheers.