It’s Music Monday featuring Kurt Vile, Meek Mill, Bob Dylan, and more

It’s Music Monday.

What that means in this space is that it’s time to highlight brand-new music with a playlist that also points ahead to recommended shows playing Philly this coming weekend.

It’s a good week for both. A pair of Philly’s most-recognizable acts returned Friday. Meek Mill has teamed up with his Maybach Music mentor, Rick Ross, following their “Shaq & Kobe” single. They seem to be enjoying themselves immensely on their new collaborative album, whose title perhaps exaggerates its excellence: Too Good to Be True.

Kurt Vile has a new EP called Back to Moon Beach. The lead single, “Another Good Year for the Roses,” is a clever spin on a George Jones classic, and it includes covers of Wilco’s “Passenger Side” and Bob Dylan’s “Must Be Santa” Christmas polka.

Three Philly bands have singles that point toward larger future projects. Tierra Whack’s typically inventive “Chanel Pit” has a video featuring the Philly rapper stuck in a car wash. Her exceptionally long-awaited debut album is targeted for 2024.

Philly hard rock quartet Sheer Mag — fronted by powerhouse singer Tina Halladay — has released “Playing Favorites,” the title cut to their album, due March 1 on Jack White’s Third Man label. The band plays Union Transfer on Dec. 1.

And veteran Philly rock quartet The Fractals — featuring former Huffamoose members, including guitarist Kevin Hanson, who also plays on the Eagles’ A Philly Special Christmas Special — have followed up on its recent “Christopher Walken” single with a new one that hits the spot: “Bullseye.”

Back in 2021, I wrote about late Philadelphia jazz pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali’s Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album, recorded in 1966 and thought lost in a fire. More material by the brilliant, esoteric musician keeps coming to light, including the new Reaching for the Stars: Trios, Duos, Solos.

More new Philly music: The Bret Tobias Set, the band led by the front man of power-pop luminaries the Bigger Lovers, is out with the satisfying five-track EP Pleaser, Vol. 1.

NonPhilly new music of note: Dance-pop star Dua Lipa begins her reentry with “Houdini,” country beardo Chris Stapleton’s new album is Higher, and Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney are on top of their game on “Say It Like You Mean It.”

This weekend, Center City live music action kicks off Friday with two excellent roots music shows within blocks of one another.

How to choose? At the Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square — where Bob Dylan played his first Philadelphia show in 1963 — Jon Langford of the Mekons and Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Billy, team up for a song-for-song face-off, with two shows in one night.

And on the other side of Broad, Philly country band John Train finishes off its free fall residency at Fergie’s with guest Tom Heyman of the late great Philly band Go to Blazes, whose fine new album is 24th St. Blues.

» READ MORE: Do ‘Cowboy Dreams’ come true? Country band John Train’s new horse opera is inspired by Philly riding culture

Also Friday, ace musicians Valerie June, Thao, Rachel Davis, and Yasmin Williams join forces at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, collaborating and telling music business war stories.

Saturday at the Fillmore, Slaughter Beach, Dog — Jake Ewald’s Philly band named after a strip of sand on the Delaware Bay — plays in support of its rock-solid, Americana-leaning Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling.

Also Saturday, Philly concert promoters Dope Shows get in on the 50 Years of Hip-Hip celebration with two breakout rappers from the ‘00s — Jeezy and Fabolous — sharing a bill at the Met.

Then, on Sunday at the Fillmore, it’s Bob Dylan himself, rolling back through on his “Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour,” six decades after he first played Philadelphia. And those seeking a Dylan fix without leaving home should check out Catpower Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, a love letter to Bob from fab song interpreter Chan Marshall. It’s a gem.