Features / The Weekend Stream

Welcome to 2025’s first edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts! We’re catching up on some of our favorite artists adding albums to stream and download, plus country soul and remixes aplenty – as well as a list of resources to help our friends and family in the music business affected by the California wildfires.

The Damnwells, One Last Century / No One Listens to the Band Anymore (Poor Man)

Century: iTunes / Amazon
No One: iTunes / Amazon

Last month, Brooklyn-born band The Damnwells made the rarity “Xmas Eve” available on major digital partners for the first time and promised something special coming closer to Christmas. That turned out to be a double surprise, with not one but two of the band’s self-owned albums gaining solid, worldwide digital distribution. Third album One Last Century (2009) was released as a free download through Paste after a slow-motion dissolution of a contract with Epic Records and features winning tunes like “Bastard of Midnight,” “55 Pictures” and “Everything.” It was also the first to feature a rotating band line-up around frontman/songwriter Alex Dezen, a formula that continued on 2011’s No One Listens to the Band Anymore, which was successfully funded through PledgeMusic and features some of the band’s best songs, including “Werewolves,” “She Goes Around” and “The Great Unknown.” (No One Listens came into my life at a personally affecting time, and comes with my highest recommendation.) Dezen and original band members Ted Hudson (bass), David Chernis (guitar) and Steven Terry (drums) collaborated on at least one track on each record, but reunited for a self-titled effort in 2015 and last year’s Bad At Beautiful.

Dobie Gray, Drift Away / Loving Arms / Hey Dixie (MCA/Geffen)

Drift Away: iTunes / Amazon
Loving Arms: iTunes / Amazon
Hey Dixie: iTunes / Amazon

Believe it or not, these three albums by soul hero Dobie Gray – including Drift Away, whose Mentor Williams-penned title track became his biggest hit in 1973, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 – were not streaming until recently! What a find! Thanks to our pal Tim Dillinger for the tip.

Brownstone, Pass the Lovin’ / If You Love Me / Grapevyne / I Can’t Tell You Why (MJJ/Epic)

Pass the Lovin‘: iTunes / Amazon
If You Love Me: iTunes / Amazon
Grapevyne: iTunes / Amazon
I Can’t Tell You Why: iTunes / Amazon

For a brief period in the mid-’90s, Michael Jackson parlayed his long and prolific tenure with Epic Records into a vanity label capable of signing new talent. The most famous signing was probably 3T, a trio comprised of Tito Jackson’s sons whose “Why,” a No. 1 hit on the R&B charts, was co-written and produced by their uncle. While the King of Pop didn’t work with most of the other signees, vocal trio Brownstone had perhaps the next-biggest wave of success with the platinum seller From the Bottom Up. Remixes to all the singles from that album are now digitally available, including the Top 10 hit “If You Love Me” and a soulful take on the Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

INXS, The One Thing (12″ Mix) / Cut Your Roses Down (Sure is Pure Remix) / Disappear (David Morales 12″ Remix) (Petrol/Atlantic)

The One Thing: iTunes / Amazon
Cut Your Roses Down: iTunes / Amazon
Disappear: iTunes / Amazon

More vintage 12″ mixes from All Juiced Up Part 2! First, an extension of “The One Thing,” the band’s breakthrough U.S. Top 40 hit from 1982. The extension of “The One Thing” was already digitally available as a bonus track on an expanded edition of the track’s parent album, Shabooh Shoobah. Then it’s onto another cut from 1993’s Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, in a mix that was on the original All Juiced Up. Finally, there’s a remix of X standout “Disappear” by David Morales, which is different from his Red Zone mix from the last batch (as well as the original Juiced compilation).

Nathan Cavaleri Band, Nathan (MJJ/Epic) (iTunes / Amazon)

One of MJJ’s more unusual signings was Nathan Cavaleri, a prodigious blues guitarist from Australia. Only 12 when second album Nathan was released, he’d already rubbed elbows with the likes of Mark Knopfler (whom he met through a charity event during an ultimately successful battle with leukemia) and B.B. King (who’d take him on the road shortly after the album’s release). Nathan features some head-snapping leads from the young Cavaleri, on a platter of mostly originals and a few covers (Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” the searing Stax standard “(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right”); he’s aided by shared vocal duties from Andrew Strong (best known as the lead vocalist in the Irish cult classic film The Commitments) and Was (Not Was)’ Sweet Pea Atkinson.

Infamous Syndicate, Changing the Game (Relativity) (iTunes / Amazon)

The sole album from this short-lived Chicago hip-hop duo – Shawna Guy, the daughter of Buddy, and street poet Teefa Harland, neither of whom had even turned 20 years old – earned some critical praise upon release in 1999, but it’s probably more famous for the resumes of the people working on it. Local producer No I.D., then best-known as a close collaborator of Common, produced four tracks on the album (including single “Here I Go”); a young up-and-comer named Kanye West produced three including “What You Do to Me,” which he also contributed a verse to). Shawna, for her part, later signed with Ludacris’ label Disturbing tha Peace, and guested on his breakthrough “What’s Your Fantasy” and the chart-topping “Stand Up.”

Finally, here are some resources for aid during the ongoing California wildfires. As you’ve no doubt seen this week, California is enduring massive wildfires spread by significant wind conditions that have killed 11 and displaced countless more, with many businesses and homes evacuated or destroyed. Of course, a lot of people in the music and media businesses make their living there; many have been beset by difficult economic conditions (particularly the studios’ sluggish return to production after the SAG and WGA strikes in 2023), and the scenes are simply devastating. I’ve grimly joked that the last four or five years of mutual aid and financial activism feel like passing the same dollar bills around between various people who need it, but any contribution you can make (or, frankly, anyone you can share these resources with) could offer major relief to people in need. Here are a few links we’ve gathered.

• Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network: some of the best on-the-ground aid work is being done by MALAN – plenty of ways to donate or even volunteer if you’ve the ability.
• Pasadena Humane Society: the Pasadena area is one of the most affected by the fires – and it’s not just people who’ve been affected. The local Humane Society has ongoing information about donating money and supplies to displaced pets.
• Help a music worker: this Google spreadsheet has dozens of links for GoFundMe pages and other resources to directly help people in the music business – producers, managers, art directors and plenty of other non-marquee names – who’ve been affected.
• MusiCares relief: the Recording Academy is taking donations for aid and relief; additionally, the foundation posted on LinkedIn about direct financial assistance for music industry professionals affected by the fires, “related to evacuation and relocation costs, instrument replacement/repair, home damage, medical care, mental health services, & other essential living needs.”
• Finally, a personal appeal: There’s a chance you may know someone directly affected by these fires. It’s no different here, and I have no problem using this modest platform to appeal on behalf of those friends in need. My friend and co-worker Lawrence Gjurgevich, a local DJ, and his family are such people: though safely evacuated, they lost their home in the Eaton fire. This GoFundMe link is taking donations for his family: including his wife, their young daughter and a very cute dog. Please take care of yourselves and each other – we’re all we’ve got.