Dinner Music 126: The weekly lineup
Slovak and czech 90s alt, twang sleaze, folktronica
This week we’re listening to 90s alt rock and influences, in both directions. There’s a bit of twang, a bit of punk, a lot of lofi, from all over the world.
We begin by re-visiting Mariangela Celeste’s eponymous, ethereal album (74), whose twee instrumentation and dripping adolescent melancholy feels like a precursor to shoegaze (to me). The line between sweetness and sadness here is nearly invisible, which make sense considering that Mariangela Celeste was likely in her early teenager years when she recorded it (her label signed her at 13). I think this is one of the most underrated albums I’ve had in the newsletter. We move into some nineties alt rock from Slovakia: Jana Kirschner’s breakout album V cudzom meste. After the album’s release, she was dubbed the “queen” of pop music in Slovakia and named “female singer of the year.” Kirschner still tours and just released a new album last year, which is also very good (“…a natural, acoustic sound, no big post-productions”) and led me into her early music. Tunng’s Love You All Over Again, however, is a new album from a band first active in the early 2000s, and is something of a “tribute to themselves.”1 The British “pagan folktronica” group (their words!) wanted to return to their earlier habits of genre-blending, with folk and electronicia and its core. Next, we have classic alt-rock album Beautiful Creature by Juliana Hatfield. This is the album that inspired the sounds this week — I’ve been listening to it nonstop. Plus, her most recent album is just covers of ELO, and, as you might know, Strange Magic is one of my favorite songs of all time. We end with the “first Czech hard rocker” Jiří Schelinger.
Enjoy.
The playlist: Spotify / Apple Music
Paid subscribers have access to the full Dinner Music archive (via Spotify and Apple Music), an after hours playlist, a “New York Grooves” playlist and more — hundreds of hours of groove, soul, jazz, folk, samba, hi-life, disco, electro, post-punk, funk and more, lovingly selected.
Plus, a monthly edition of the newsletter with new music (including re-issues), starting later this week (last week I also said this week, but what I meant was this week — these newsletters will come at the end of every month).
Monday
Mariangela - Mariangela Celeste (1975)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
V cudzom meste - Jana Kirschner (1999)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Love You All Over Again - Tunng (2025)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Beautiful Creature - Juliana Hatfield (2000)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Holubí Dům - Jiří Schelinger (1991)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with
Chicken Spicy Caesar Schnitzel. A very good crispy chicken recipe. Add a bit of salad on the bottom and then this is a healthy weeknight-er.
What’s up doc? cocktail. A lil carrot, a lil ginger. A very good weekend brunch drink.
Cooking from Georgia O’Keeffe’s Recipes. “She allowed herself just a few indulgences, like candied limes or fresh vanilla ice cream made with egg yolks. Otherwise, she ate to fortify, not indulge, which seems to have done her well: O’Keeffe lived to be ninety-eight.”
I spend a lot of time saving albums and tracks to various playlists and then I make a bigger playlist before winnowing down into “Dinner Music Weekly.” I’m going to start giving paid subscribers access to the messy pre-curation playlists. This week, you’ll get 3+ hours of 90s alt rock, indie sleaze, 70s twang, and more. Link below.