Once again, just a quick post in the series of posts about “Songs I Found Last Week” and the weird ways they come into/return to my life. Again, this is just for me, because I find this metacognitive association stuff interesting, and maybe at least one of you does too. So, not a “best of” or even stuff I think everyone should be listening to, but more a biographical record.

Sway — Dean Martin

The Song: Martin recorded “Sway” in 1954. It was an English-language adaptation of the Mexican mambo “¿Quién será?” Contemporary reviews already identified it as the English version of that tune.

How I Found It: Sway played in the background of a silly coffee commercial from 35 years ago, believe it or not. At our Sunday Morning Writers’ meetup, we were discussing our favorite coffee to drink at home and somehow wandered into the Sharon Maughan/Anthony Stewart Head series of coffee commercials. You’d think the advertiser had gotten its money’s worth if we’re still talking about the commercials decades later. Unfortunately, only one of us could remember the brand name. So… fail? Well, apparently not. They were originally Nescafé Gold Blend commercials in Britain, beginning in 1987, and were later remade for America as Taster’s Choice. The campaign became a serialized romantic drama spanning years, and the British version became such a phenomenon that it spawned a novelization titled Love Over Gold.

So perhaps the lesson is that advertising works even when, thirty years later, you vividly remember Anthony Head flirting with Sharon Maughan but have absolutely no idea what they were drinking. Also, someone actually compiled the British commercials into a short indie film back in 1993. Apparently I am thirty-three years late with my brilliant idea.

So: coffee → Anthony Head → forgotten advertising → 1950s mambo. Normal Sunday morning.

Shop Vac — Jonathan Coulton

The Song: “Shop Vac” came from Coulton’s Thing a Week project, during which he forced himself to write and release one new song every week for a year. Coulton describes the project as an exercise in working quickly, taking risks, and learning to stop obsessing over details. Meanwhile, I also edited a couple of chapters of Halferne Incubus this week that were originally written during the Bush administration. So, we all have our processes.

How I Found It: A friend was telling me his own tale of middle-aged suburban woe. I commented that he sounded like a twisted version of Jonathan Coulton’s “Shop Vac.” This was a mistake, since “Shop Vac” immediately became an earworm, and I spent the rest of the conversation listening to Jonathan Coulton in my head instead of my friend. (Sorry, man.)

Intro — Incarta’95

The Song: Incarta’95 is the moniker of Canadian artist Sterling Campbell, who has been active in this particular style of music since the 90’s. He is most famous for unusual distribution media, originally starting with custom cassette production (when it was “normal” to do this) and currently running boutique shops dedicated to releasing media on VHS tapes and 3.5″ floppies. So … not just producing vaporwave, but living the lifestyle as well.

How I Found It: The actual track is only about a minute long, an intro to Incarta’95’s Foodcourt EP. It turns up frequently on the vaporwave station I listen to, and this week I finally managed to Shazam it. So, naturally, I bought the EP, but then I noticed their label, VCR, was offering a bundle of all 142 of their vaporwave/mallsoft re-releases for fourteen dollars. This posed a difficult financial question: Should I really spend 10¢ per album on 141 albums I’ve never even heard? So, anyway, I spent much of the week perusing my new vaporwave library. I believe economists call this “rational consumer behavior.”

Since “Intro” isn’t available as a video, I give you track 2 from that EP instead. Also good.

The Charmer — Toadies

The Song: The Charmer is one of the final albums recorded by Steve Albini. The Toadies had apparently wanted to record with him since signing to a major label in 1993, but the label vetoed the idea. More than thirty years later, they finally got their Albini record. They recorded much of it live together in the room at Electrical Audio with minimal overdubbing.

How I Found It: Well, we saw Toadies Saturday night. They played “The Charmer,” the title track from their new album, and I found myself enjoying it considerably more than the phrase “new Toadies album in 2026” had prepared me to expect. Sometimes you wait thirty years to make the record you wanted to make. Sometimes you wait until Tuesday and buy 142 vaporwave albums for fourteen dollars.

Wandering, I — Sunbeam Sound Machine

The Song: “Wandering, I” comes from Wonderer, released in 2014. The whole record was written, performed, and produced by Nick Sowersby, with Stu Mackenzie mixing and Jason Galea doing the artwork, which is an interesting little Australian psych-rock intersection in itself. Listening again, I can hear why I fell into it. There’s that dreamy mesh of psychedelia, shoegaze and something that, to my ears at least, points toward the same liminal atmosphere that eventually sucked me into vaporwave.

How I Came Across It: We had such a good time at Toadies that we immediately started looking for upcoming concerts. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are playing next weekend, and I immediately did the Leo Decrapio pointing meme, but I think I actually have heard of and like that band! Except I couldn’t remember why I recognized them. So, a little archaeological work on my own listening history revealed that I’d once made an entire playlist from “If you like Sunbeam Sound Machine, you might also like…” recommendations. Apparently I don’t discover new music. I just periodically rediscover rabbit holes I forgot I dug.

Bonus Noise: K-Mart Overhead Music Collection

I feel compelled to offer a historical correction to vaporwave. Commerce did not actually sound like mallsoft in the 1980s. Mallsoft and vaporwave are just how our liminal brains have decided to remember it: infinite reverb, abandoned fountains, fluorescent lights humming in C minor, and a woman from another dimension announcing a sale on bath towels. Actual stores sounded considerably more mundane. So, if you’d like the authentic experience, here’s a surviving collection of K-Mart overhead music. Put it on in the background, turn your thermostat to 68 degrees, and wander around your house for twenty minutes trying to remember where your mother went. For added authenticity, buy yourself an Orange Julius and then separate from your family near Automotive and wander the toy aisle.