#also the white album one was so hard. had to leave out so many bangers

[midchelle]

what are your top 3 songs from each beatles album?

put it under the cut because it' a bit long. get ready to see some bad opinions 👍

Please Please Me:

Please Please Me

Baby, It's You

Twist and Shout

With The Beatles:

All My Loving

Till There Was You

You Really Got A Hold On Me

A Hard Day's Night:

A Hard Day's Night

Can't Buy Me Love

Tell Me Why

Beatles for Sale:

No Reply

I'll Follow The Sun

Eight Days A Week

Help!:

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

You're Going To Lose That Girl

Ticket To Ride

Rubber Soul:

Norwegian Wood

Michelle

Girl

Revolver:

Here, There And Everywhere

She Said She Said

Tomorrow Never Knows

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

A Day In The Life

Within You Without You

Magical Mystery Tour:

Strawberry Fields Forever

I Am The Walrus

Blue Jay Way

Selt-Titled:

Helter Skelter

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Abbey Road:

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Come Together

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Let It Be:

Across The Universe

The Long And Winding Road

I Me Mine

[Honorary mention for Don't Let Me Down -- would go here if it wasn't left off the album]

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Thoughts on Long Lost that no one asked for, but I’m sharing them anyway

Or, In Which Annie Pretends To Be A Music Critic Because Why Not. I wrote these up as I listened to the album, so they’re my first impressions (except for Not Dead Yet, Mine Forever, and Long Lost, which I’d already heard).

The Moon Doesn’t Mind: An interesting little song, but there’s not much to say about it given it’s only 1 minute and 10 seconds long. I like it. I wish it was longer.

Rating: 7/10.

Favourite lyrics: N/A, because it’s too short to pick any, lol.

Mine Forever: This song was a banger when they put it out as a single, and it’s a banger now. I LOVE it. Songs about unhealthy, obsessive love are like, my favourite thing.

Also, not to bring my favourite unhealthy pairing of two fictional queer neurodivergent middle-aged doctors from a semi-obscure medical soap opera into this, but this song is still incredibly Johnrik vibes.

Rating: 10/10.

Favourite lyrics: “Love is strange, I can’t sleep without you / maybe in the grave I can dream about you / Everybody lies, but I’ll never doubt you / I don’t wanna die, but I can’t live without you”

(One Helluva Performer): A fun vocal interlude track. Not much to be said for it.

N/A for both rating and favourite lyrics.

Love Me Like You Used To: The moment the lyrics started, I immediately decided I loved this song. It’s great. If there’s any justice in the world, they’ll put it out as a single and it’ll go mainstream.

It’s also vaguely Johnrik vibes, though not as much as Mine Forever.

Rating: 8/10.

Favourite lyrics: “I’ve been lost before / and I’m lost again, I guess / but I never lost this feeling / or this pounding in my chest / I have travelled many miles, I don’t want to walk no more / every road and every highway led me right back to your door”

Meet Me In The City: The title immediately brings to mind Strange Trails’ ‘Meet Me In The Woods’, so I was very intrigued to hear what this song was going to be like. I like it. I think it’ll take me a few listens to fully appreciate it, but I like it.

I like the Strange Trails callback - “put on the dress you wore the night we met”.

And the reveal in the second verse that the narrator and his lover are actually having an affair was very clever. I love LH’s way of telling stories through their songs.

Rating: 7/10.

Favourite lyrics: “Forget the life you had and don’t look back / Get your courage up and drink this down / If our love is so wrong / tell me, why does it feel so right?”

This is getting a bit long now, so I’ll put the rest of my thoughts under the ‘keep reading’ button...

(Sing For Us Tonight): Such a brief interlude I have no opinion on it.

Long Lost: I wasn’t a big fan of this song when they released it as a single - I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t do much for me. In the context of the album, though, it’s fantastic! I can see why they picked it as the title track now.

Also, more Strange Trails callbacks - “out in the night all alone in the way out there...”

Rating: 9/10.

Favourite lyrics: “For a while I was held in the myth of the lost highway / In the spell of the night and the lights of the great white way”, and “Send me to the mountains / let me go free forever”.

Twenty Long Years: A melancholy song about the perils of addiction, and another example of Ben Schneider’s gift for storytelling. Just an absolutely brilliant song. I love it.

And I love the outro, with the crowd singing the song. It really adds to the atmosphere of the album.

Rating: 10/10.

Favourite lyrics: “I destroyed my health searching for myself / but there ain’t nothing there to find”, “I made a life out of chasing a ghost / twenty years takes its toll”.

Drops in the Lake: I thought from the title that this would be Johnrik vibes. I was not disappointed. I fucking love this song, oh my god. It’s perfect. It has me lost for words.

Rating: 10/10.

Favourite lyrics: Can I say the whole song? But especially “I go down to the edge of the lake / where I wait through the night for the dawn light to break / Memories of old crash like waves on the shore of my mind / And I pray that the stars will align / I just want us to be like we were long ago”, and “I look up at the uncaring sky / with a prayer on my lips and a tear in my eye”.

Where Did The Time Go: Another short but sweet song. It’s good.

Rating: 7/10.

Favourite lyrics: “May you laugh and sing your life full / may you learn the reasons why / may you live until you die”.

Not Dead Yet: This song got me hyped up for the album when they released it as a single in February, and I still love it now. It’s just so good, catchy, and danceable. I hope I get to go to another LH concert soon (I saw them in 2018, it was fantastic) just so I can rock out to this there. It’s one of those songs of theirs that feels downright magical.

Rating: 8/10. It’s just a damn good song.

Favourite lyrics: “There’s a stranger in my eyes again / I swear to God I don’t know him”.

(Deep Down Inside Ya): Another vocal interlude to add to the atmosphere of the album. It works for its purpose.

I Lied: I know they released this one as a single, but I’m only just now listening to it for the first time, because having already heard NDY, MF, and LL, I decided I could wait to hear this one. I think I made the right choice – it really works with the rest of the album. It’s a beautiful and bittersweet song, with some more great storytelling.

I love the idea of this song – a relationship where both partners are falling out of love, but they think the other one still loves them, until eventually one partner gives up and leaves, thinking they’ll be breaking the other’s heart… only for the other partner to be relieved the relationship is finally over. Good god, it’s like the definition of bittersweet. I love it. I’m a sucker for a good tragic love story.

Rating: 9.5/10.

Favourite lyrics: “I told you I’d be coming back again for you but I’m not / I’m going way out where the world will never find me / I made a claim that I would dance until we’re bones with my bride / I told you I would never leave you all alone, but I lied”

At Sea: Another shorter song. It’s pretty good, I like it. Gives me Lonesome Dreams vibes (as in the album, not necessarily the specific song). Indeed, you could easily read it as being from the POV of the narrator in Ghost of the Shore.

Rating: 7/10.

Favourite lyrics: N/A. It’s too short for me to pick any.

What Do It Mean: This sounds like a perfect mix of Lonesome Dreams, Strange Trails, and Vide Noir. It feels like a mix of all three albums, too, in terms of the themes. I am in love with it. It’s beautiful, and the lyrics resonate with me a lot. It might actually be my new favourite Lord Huron song ever – and that’s saying something, because it’s very hard for anything to overtake ‘Hurricane (Johnnie’s Theme)’, ‘Moonbeam’, or ‘The Balancer’s Eye’ for me.

Rating: 11/10.

Favourite lyrics: The entire first verse. “So much to say, but my words mean nothing / A life spent talking when my epitaph would do / Wasting my days with my mind on the future / And my past like a chain that won’t ever let me go / Where would I go, and would a lone soul miss me? / If I leave in the night, I’ll only be running / With the weight of the world at the tips of my fingers / A long lost soul in the wilderness alone”

Time’s Blur: LH’s longest song ever – and I’m pretty sure it’s their first wholly instrumental piece, too. Sonically, it reminds me a lot of the songs on Vide Noir. It’s a gorgeous piece of music. Gives me chills. The first few and last few minutes especially just feel downright otherworldly, and I mean that as a compliment.

Rating: 10/10.

Overall, I give Long Lost a 10/10. It’s a masterpiece, just like the rest of LH’s albums. Lord Huron are geniuses and I will die protecting their vision. (Kudos to you if you get what that’s a reference to, lol.)

[flowerslut]

TWILIGHT

an updated, slightly more modern take on the original soundtrack.

note: I’ve been casually working on this playlist series for most of the year, analyzing thousands of songs, and then sorting through hundreds after that. I mainly focused on finding modern, beat-for-beat replacements of each song, with exceptions here and there. This has been tons of fun and I hope you enjoy! (I’ll be posting New Moon’s playlist later this week.)

(NEW MOON) (ECLIPSE) (BREAKING DAWN)

spotify link

[track list and commentary under the cut:]

Supermassive Black Hole — Muse ➼ ➼ ➼ Machine — Imagine Dragons

Machine was the only song I even considered for this. There aren’t many songs that you can hear and think “vampire baseball”, but I think Machine is one of them. And let’s be real, if Imagine Dragons had been putting out music between 2008-12, they would’ve absolutely ended up on one of these soundtracks.

Decode — Paramore ➼ ➼ ➼ Out of My Head — Digital Daggers

Decode was easily the most difficult song to duplicate on this soundtrack, and probably on all five of them put together. I’m still not 100% content with this choice, but it was still the best contender. (It was between Out of My Head and seven other songs.) Decode is an impossible song to duplicate, but Digital Daggers has the high energy rock-like, ‘fuck with me’ attitude to their music that late aughties Paramore encapsulated.

Full Moon — The Black Ghosts ➼ ➼ ➼ Free at Dawn — Small Black

This replacement speaks for itself once you give it a listen. Just visualize panning over those foggy mountains as you listen to Free at Dawn. Go ahead. It just works.

Leave Out All The Rest — Linkin Park ➼ ➼ ➼ One More Light — Linkin Park

Okay, listen. Even if I had wanted to I would’ve never been able to replace with Linkin Park with anything other than Linkin Park. Call me a sentimental fool, but I’m still sore over Chester’s passing. I don’t care if it’s too sad of a song. I don’t care if, lyrically, it doesn’t really work. This was my #selfishchoice of the soundtrack. Linkin Park stays.

Spotlight — Mutemath ➼ ➼ ➼ The Deadroads — The Rural Alberta Advantage

Fun upbeat poppy guitar strumming? Sign us the fuck up. Another song that just works.

Go All the Way (Into the Twilight) — Perry Farrell ➼ ➼ ➼ Bright Whites — Kishi Bashi

No offense, Perry Farrell, but I never liked Go All the Way. It was always the main one on the soundtrack that I skipped when I was younger. Now, Bright Whites? Try putting that as your soundtrack’s orchestral banger, and now we’re talking.

Tremble For My Beloved — Collective Soul ➼ ➼ ➼ Song For Zula — Phosphorescent

Both songs here have a great otherworldly love song feeling to them. This was another fairly easy choice. Song For Zula is a little more upbeat and happy sounding than Tremble For My Beloved, but eh. It’s fine.

I Caught Myself — Paramore ➼ ➼ ➼ Mind over Matter (Acoustic) — PVRIS

Replacing Paramore was hard, and having to do it twice seemed like some sick joke I was playing on myself. But not many artists out there can replicate or even match the power of Hayley William’s vocals. Well, I’ve apparently been sleeping on PVRIS, because those vocals? Top tier, y’all. Once I heard Mind over Matter, it was clear it was the winner.

Eyes on Fire — Blue Foundation ➼ ➼ ➼ Unfair — The Neighbourhood

Eyes on Fire is another song nearly impossible to duplicate. I stuck with a moody The Neighbourhood instrumental to keep things dramatic without messing up the mood of that tense scene.

Never Think — Robert Pattinson ➼ ➼ ➼ I Take All the Blame — Vivek Shraya

Don’t worry. I have another Robert song on a later soundtrack replication. (I won’t tell which one.) This Tegan and Sara cover by Vivek Shraya was the obvious choice to replicate Pattinson’s acoustic hit that I still listen and fight back tears to all these years later.

Flightless Bird, American Mouth — Iron & Wine ➼ ➼ ➼ New American Classic — Taking Back Sunday

And behold, (what I believe is) the biggest change made to the soundtrack. And also an older song than anyone probably expected. (The album Where You Want To Be came out in 2004.) I tried other modern-day acoustic dudes. Sorry, but they don’t match up to Iron & Wine. (And don’t freak out about lack of Hozier, he’s coming. Be patient.) A classic was the obvious choice, and a New American Classic ended up winning this one. I think it’s perfect, but that might just be my high school emo phase acting up again. Doesn’t matter if that phase ended up overlapping with my introduction to Twilight...

Bella’s Lullaby — Carter Burwell ➼ ➼ ➼ Rêves — Nuit Pluie

Not much of a reason for this. I wanted a lullaby-esque piano melody. That’s what we’ve got with this one.

Now, a lot of the time the soundtracks for the Twilight Saga would add a song or three to their lists depending on the country, the edition, the purchase location, etc. (This is my own version of giving myself a Free Space.) For Twilight, I gift you two bonus tracks:

This Is For Keeps — The Spill Canvas

The One Fell Swoop album by The Spill Canvas was a Twilight-era staple for myself and a lot of people who were in their mid-to-late teens during Twilight’s release. I mean, listen to the song. The lyrics, the melody, the mood. It’s like the song was a collab with Stephenie Meyer herself. (And with it’s release in 2005, the same year of Twilight’s publication, who really knows...)

Monsters — Matchbook Romance

I know it’s another mid-00 song. I know this is supposed to be a ‘modern take’ on the soundtrack. I know, I get it. This song is only added just because I was really bummed about 15 Step by Radiohead being left out of the actual Twilight Soundtrack back in the day. Like, how are you going to have them play during the credits and not supply us with it on the soundtrack? So here’s a slightly-harder rock jam that, lyrically, just screams paranormal banger.

[prettylikeadevil-swift]

Hey Taylor!

We wanted to put together a project to show you how much we love you and your songs! We’re all so so so excited for Lover and all the new songs, the memories made listening to the album, at tour and making and meeting heaps of new friends!!

So here’s a bunch of incredible people’s stan songs and why the love them so much! @taylorswift

Debut

Harishita (ig, @tayalisonswift) - I love this song because the lyrics are so relatable with me sometimes; especially when I am sad

Heidi (@heidilovestay137) - Tim McGraw has been my Stan song ever since I was 8 years old! It has helped me through all my rough patches in life and has just always been the song I go to when I’m feeling sad or happy!! The song brings back so many precious memories and it will always hold a special place in my heart! So thank you so much Taylor, for writing the song that made my life complete💖

Marta (@mlswiftie) - I’ve never really had a favourite Taylor Swift song mainly due to the fact that every single one of them is a masterpiece. However I feel like I relate to Invisible the most… every time I hear this song it somehow makes me feel less lonely cause other people are going through the same thing as me.

Sarah (@sarah-adores-swift) - this song has helped me through basically everything bad in my life. no matter what is happening, its relevant. the emotion is completely raw and just gets out the tears so you can heal :)

Haley Grace (@stateofhaleygrace) - I relate to every single word of this song and it has helped me a lot throughout my life, especially as a teenager. It is very empowering and I love to sing it at the top of my lungs!

Fearless

Rachel (@happy-for-swift) - Forever and always has always been by my side through those tough times by reminding me that the hard times will pass.

Alina (@itsaswiftstory) - Love Story means so much to me because it is such a happy song and it always makes me smile while listening to it! It was one of the first Taylor songs I was listening to and it just amazes me because it is so beautifully written! I don't even know why I love it so much but it always lifts up my mood!💗💗💗

Emilee (@emileelovestaylor) - Change is my Stan because it is just a strong message, and as someone with white skin (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) I want to work with the privilege I have to shine light on marginalized communities. This song pumps me up to do just that, and the melody is gorgeous.

Febe (@13taylorswift13ts) - Love Story was the first song that I heard of Taylor. That was the moment I knew that she was going to be a special person for me

Sammy (@sammylovestay13) - The song Fifteen has always been special to me because I’m always nervous on the first day of school and it’s reminder that I’m not the only one who feels this way. The song Out Of The Woods has always been a special song for me and the fact that Taylor chose New Zealand to do her music video makes me even more grateful that this song is in my life.

Jane (@janeheartstaylor) - I love forever and always because it’s not only was the first song by Taylor that I heard but it also helped me when one of my closest friends and I parted ways. even though the scenarios are different, it felt really nice knowing that I could turn to Taylor and this song and having someone who understood what was going on.

Sarah (@theirgetawaycar) - Change means the absolute world to me. It’s a song that’s been there comforting me in my times of need. When things get tough, it’s a source of hope and reminder things will get better. No matter what happens in life and what struggles I face these things will change.

Speak Now

Bella (ig, @tayobsession13) - This song means a lot to me because it describes my relationship with my best friend. I have the time of my life fighting dragons with her

Clara (@claraisreadyforit) - I love this song because i can really relate with the lyrics, they make me feel better when i’m down, and i always sing along!

Sarah (@theswiftiesarah) - The story of us means the absolute world to em. It’s such a fun, uplifting song with such emotional lyrics. I can’t thank you enough for writing it T, it’s helped me through so much and always puts a smile on my face 💞

Kat (@tookapxlaroidofus) - Haunted is such a powerful song, and it’s one of those that you can sing your heart out to and it will get you out of any bad mood you were in! The violins! The bells! The whole production of the song, and the tour version! It’s also a song I listened to a lot with my mum when I was younger because we loved to sing it together! It’s a beautiful and powerful song that I’ll forever love!

RED

Mika (@handstiedtaylor) - all too well means so much to me because of how powerful the lyrics are. it really showcases taylor's talent as a songwriter and her voice sounds so so beautiful in it. i was lucky enough to hear it on the red tour & again as a surprise song on the reputation stadium tour, so this song also had some incredible memories attached to it💗

Nina (@ninaheartstaylor) - I love that song because it always cheers me up when I'm sad or in a bad mood! I relate to the lyrics a lot because I basically did exactly the things you (Taylor) are singing about. It means A LOT to me because I love the line "like we're made of starlight"! when I'm in a bad mood I just think of that lyric and I'm happy again because it reminds me of how everyone matters and is important.

Abby (@cleanspeech) - i love this song so much. it is a deep song about how fame can really be and it is important to taylor. i love this song because as soon as i heard it, i kept it on repeat for hours when red came out. this song is so glamorous and beautiful and the beat and lyrics are amazing. i love this song so much!

Jasmine (@alltootwell) - All too well means so much to me because the story and emotions behind it are so raw and real. It was one of the first songs I heard from the Red album and it has always been one of my favourite songs since then. This song has showed Taylor’s growth the most in that we’ve seen Taylor’s most vulnerable moments when singing the song and Taylor’s happiest moments when singing the song and realising that millions of people know all the words to the song 💓

Chloe (@thechainonyourneck) - sad beautiful tragic means the world to me because of the depth of the lyrics and melody. this song has gotten me through so much shit and it's just so so beautiful I stg. headphones in and rain outside, it's just perfect. and onto dbm. I listened to reputation and fell in love with this song. the vocals and the prospect of seeing it live just made me fall in love. and when I finally did see it live it literally took me to church in a crying emotional state 💀 will be forever grateful to you @taylorswift for writing these two masterpieces and for not losing the ability to hit home with your lyrics over time. I love you and much you love writing, forever and always 💓💖💕💞💗

1989

Lola (me!! @lolaheartstay) - hey Taylor!! i love ootw so much because it’s such a banger and it never ever gets old,, it was also rep tour auckland’s surprise song which was so special, it was the best day of my life! I remember when Taylor was in New Zealand filming the music video and I was so excited that she was actually in my country, like for real. when I went to australia in 2015 i listened to out of the woods on the plane, it was the first time i’d heard it and i literally listened to it on repeat for the full four hour flight, i was obsessed! one of my favourite lyrics is ‘two paper aeroplanes flying’ and i’ve always planned to get a tattoo of a paper aeroplane for this song! i really hope one day we can hug and i can tell you in real life how much i love out of the woods and you! love love love, lola!! <3

Brittany (ig, @awesomeswifties13) - This song means so much to me because at the time it came out I was in a very bad/abusive relationship and was dealing with an addict. This song gave me the strength to get CLEAN and leave the relationship. I’m now 3 years sober!mI hope can hug taylor someday and just say thank you!

Joji (@youfeltenough) - Clean means so much to me because it really helped me let go of things that kept me from being happy, thank you Taylor 💓

Priscila (@newromanticsss89) - The reason why I love New Romantics is because I can dance to it like no one is watching. It really makes me feel good about myself. My favourite lyric is “the best people in life are free” and I 100% agree with that! 🌼💗

Georgia (@celebrationofswifties) - new romantics is such a beautiful song & it makes me so so happy, it is the BEST song to dance like crazy to!!

Lauren (@thenameofbeinghonest13) - Out of the woods is a song that I’ve been obsessed with since Oct. 27, 2014, when 1989 came out. This song was so meaningful to me because I would listen to it every day in the car on the way to school with my Dad. I love the lyric, “the rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color” and am so happy that Taylor wrote this song!

Gabriella (@ycuareinlove) - you are in love was instantly one of my favourites from 1989 but after seeing it live I became obsessed. I think getting to sing it with Taylor felt so special and every time I hear it I just think of us doing the echo part with her. I’ve always been a daydreamer and thinking about love and having that for myself one day has always comforted me, and the song just explains everything I ever want in future relationships. it’s the dreamiest, most beautiful song and I can’t explain how magical it is to me. it just feels like home every time I listen to it. 💗

Liv (@longlivthemagic) - This song has a special place in my heart, because i used to always play it whenever i was having a panic attack to calm me down <3

Jaimie (@taylorswiftlet13-hk) - I love the song New Romatics because it reflects ME! As a person. The song is extremely catchy and the lyricism is amazing. Throughout my life, I have been bullied and in the end, I built a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me, and became a stronger person overall. Thank you so much for everything you do Taylor. I love you so much.

Sanya (@delicateswift1989) - Blank Space was the first song that I heard and I loved it immediately.It always cheers me up and will always be a special song for me

Bella (@bellaheartstay) - clean means so much to me, as it’s helped me through the toughest times and has inspired me to keep going :)

Reputation

Lydia (@yourmarkonswift) - I love Dress so so so so much because the kind of the detail of storytelling in the song is just so heart touching. The bridge is one of the best bridges Taylor has ever written and makes me emotional all the time.

Alexander (@alexanderadorestay) - King of my heart is my favourite Taylor song because I have made many memories while listening to the song plus the chorus 😍

Ginger (@gingeryswift) - I love New Year’s Day because the reputation album came out right when I was going through a fallout with an old friends and NYD hit me hard. The lyrics were everything I needed and more and overall, the line “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” resonated with me so much because it was exactly how I felt at the time. 💗💗

Kendall (@kendallovestay) - I love getaway car because it has such incredibly written lyrics and it just makes me feel so nostalgic and happy 💓

Naomi (@naomilovestay) - At my reputation concert, metlife n1, i was in the front row of the b-stage where you sang dress. In that moment, i felt like it was just you & me in the room. I will forever be thankful for that experience. I love you so so much & i hope we can hug soon!! xoxo naomi!!

Hunter (@tayloroftodayy) - my stan song is getaway car because it has such an interesting and powerful storyline and always cheers me up and puts me in the best mood. you can listen to it when you’re feeling any emotion and it’s the best thing EVER 💗

Hayley (@delicate-stan13) - Delicate is my stan song because it helps me get through all my rough days. And it’s really fun to sing and dance to!!

Olivia (ig, @olivialovestaylor7) - hi I’m olivia and gorgeous is my favorite song of taylor’s because it is such a beautiful and happy song!! it captures the way you feel when you start liking someone perfectly and it’s just SO soft🥺🥺along with that it’s just a fun bop that you can literally listen to whenever! thank you so much taylor for writing gorgeous💕 

Emily Grace (@longlivetaysxift89) - I love CIWYW because I can personally relate to the lyric “I’m doing better than I ever was” because I’ve had to deal with a lot of mental health problems and right now I’m truly doing better than I ever was

Ella (@taylorsoldbluejeans) - i love delicate because it is such a beautiful song that can cheer me up no matter what! 🌈💓

Bessie (@flyawayswift) - Hey my name’s Bessie and New Year’s Day is my favourite song because it NEVER fails to make me cry, and it’s the most beautiful and delicate song in the world!! I’m so grateful to Taylor for writing such a masterpiece

Alexa (@kingsofmyyheartt) - I love king of my heart because it’s a pretty, happy, calm song that has a beautiful bridge and has such pretty lyrics! No matter what it’s sure to put a smile on my face!

Mia (@thisloveisdelicate) - I love the song delicate because is shows how your friends have to like you for who you are and that they aren’t gonna change you!!

Tayla (ig, @islandbreezeswift) - this is why we can't have nice things is my favourite song by Taylor because it helped me in a rough time when one of my friends kept stabbing me in the back while shaking my hand. the lyrics to tiwwchnt were extremely relatable, it felt like it was written for me. even though i'm no longer going through problems like this, this song is a bop and makes me dance!! thank you Tay for this song, ily from Tayla xoxo

Kartik (ig, @indianswifty) - On New Year’s Day I proposed to my girlfriend and this is our favourite rep song

Lena (@the-swiftie-scientist) - Call it What You Want reminds me how much Taylor had to struggle to find someone who stood by her no matter what 💫 it shows how important it is when you find someone who loves you for the things you are and doesn't care about rumors and gossip, someone who will stand by your side even when 'they took the crown' ... Also, it has a personal significance for me as it reminds me of how someone I love literally runaway with me on late November flying above the whole scene 💗 It's definitely Taylor's softest and most precious song, I will love it forever 💕

Sveva (@newtaylor89) - I was going through some bad times at school when i first heard this song. I was starting to have anxiety attacks, I started to avoid my friends hangs out and started pushing everyone away. Luckily my real friends stayed with me and helped me through that dark period of my life and so did this song. Now every time i listen to it i remember that my friends and Taylor will stay with me "when it's hard or it's wrong or I'm making mistakes". THANK U TAYLOR, FOR WRITING THIS EMOTIONAL SONGS, I'LL NEVER THANK U ENOUGH FOR WHAT U HAVE DONE TO ME! ILY

Mikayla (@weweredxncing) - The reason why i love this song so much is because whenever I listen to it, I just feel happy. It gives me hope that in the future I might find as love like that.

Lover

Laura (ig, @frenchbabytay) - I love ME! Because Taylor talked in my language with Brendon, she’s feeling better after her bad moments and the music video is like Shake It Off!!! It’s so funny and she makes me dance!!!!

Anne (@annewantstomeettaylor) - Me - ee - ee, ooh - ooh - , ohh - ooh - ooh ! This song really means to me because every time my anxiety and depression attacks me this song gives me light and joy. And every time I feel conscious about myself this song makes me realize that I'm the one of me ! I can't explain the happiness I feel every time I hear this song. ILY T !  ♡♡♡

Olivia (@so-ready-for-it) - I love the song ME! So much because it’s all about embracing your individuality, and I’ve struggled with my low self esteem for such a long time, and the positive message of the song reminds me that I’m unique and perfect in my own way 💓

[miki-agrawal]

From Carole Baskin to Leslie Jordan, the Unlikely Stars of the Quarantine

A look at the people and products who captured our imaginations (and, in some cases, our hearts) during a strange moment in history

Originally Posted On lamag.com By Paul Schrodt On May 17, 2020

It’s hard to think of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact as anything other than a series of downturns: in global health, the economy, our cultural lifeblood, and moods. But as in any crisis, there are positives deserving praise. Dr. Anthony Fauci, unknown to many of us months ago, now has his own bobblehead—and deservedly so. But other experts and personalities—some with direct ties to the novel coronavirus, others who are delightful distractions—have captured our collective imagination. Here are 20.

Carole Baskin

Netflix’s zeitgeist-defining docuseries Tiger King is teeming with wilder-than-the-last characters, but one rises above the rest. Baskin—the 58-year-old former big-cat breeder turned conservationist and archrival/attempted murder victim of central subject Joe Exotic—sports an enviable feline-inspired wardrobe; coos her memed-around-the-world tagline, “Hey all you cool cats and kittens”; and prefers not to answer questions about her mysteriously missing ex-husband. A morally ambiguous figure for our uncertain times, she’s also sure to be one of Halloween’s most popular costumes—so stock up now on the fiercest tiger prints you can find.

Dua Lipa

The British singer, 24, didn’t want to release her second album, Future Nostalgia, into a pandemic—she announced its arrival with tears on social media. But its neo-disco bangers are exactly what a lockdown dance party demands, and the release is her first Top 10 LP in the U.S. She’s liberated the masses to move while (fabulously) self-quarantining with her model-celebrity-spawn boyfriend Anwar Hadid. But how hard is that?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAayNagnmHF/

Ryan Heffington

Heffington, 46, had already been motivating Angelenos to hone their hip shaking 
at his Silver Lake dance studio, the Sweat Spot, but the Grammy-nominated choreographer has turned his Joshua Tree house into a makeshift gym space. For his five-day-a-week Sweatfest cardio class on Instagram Live, he coaches around 8,000 viewers at a time through unique moves. Fans are known to end sessions with a cathartic cry.

D-Nice

Born Derrick Jones, 
D-Nice had a moment as a hip-hop
 artist in the ’90s that
 quickly faded. But 
the 49-year-old DJ 
reached newfound fame streaming his live Club Quarantine sets from his downtown L.A. apartment, drawing hundreds of thousands of stay-at-home revelers, including Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Michelle Obama. The funk-and-soul-heavy playlists are more than a sonic escape—they’re an act of communal transcendence against all odds.

Zack Fox

A previously undersung L.A. comedian and internet provocateur, Fox, 29, racked up more than 300,000 views with a stone-faced parody—which made perfect use of Three 6 Mafia’s “Slob on My Knob”—of Gal Gadot’s viral-for-all-the-wrong-reasons “Imagine” sing-along.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B98XjQ7AK9X/

Juan Delcan and
 Valentina Izaguirre


The local artist couple, based in View Park-Windsor Hills, illuminated the power of social distancing with their “Safety Match” viral video, in which animated matches light up in a row until one of them steps out of the way. Viewed roughly a million times, the contemporary art piece achieved what no government PSA could.

Alison Roman

The New York Times cooking writer (and native Angeleno), 34, had already achieved food-world stardom with two best-selling books before lockdown. Under quarantine, Roman’s simple yet flavor-packed recipes for dishes like caramelized shallot pasta—and her unfussy-but-particular Brooklyn boho banter—have become required reading and eating. Roman went from darling to pariah in May when controversial comments she made about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo went viral. If only shallots made you immune to Twitter backlash.

Ina Garten

More than 3 million people on Instagram watched the tranquil Barefoot Contessa, 72, demonstrate how she keeps her “favorite tradition,” the cocktail hour, alive under desperate conditions. The Food Network star has been a rightfully beloved figure for nearly two decades, but her mixing a gigantic cosmo was a hilariously refreshing reminder of what a true treasure she is.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cJUwUpxbM/

L.A. tap water

You’re not good, we never loved you, and yet without gallons of overpriced filtered alkaline H2O, we’re suddenly overjoyed to guzzle you.

Bidet attachments

After hoarders cleared out the toilet paper aisles, the makers of bidet products began cleaning up with their water-jet-shooting self-cleaning devices. The brand Brondell saw a 300 percent spike in sales, while the cleverly marketed Tushy sold out entirely. The future may be wipe free.

Zoom

The video-conferencing platform—which has raised security concerns and provides the same service as FaceTime, Google Hangouts, and Facebook Messenger—has become a key part of life under quarantine. Zoom stock has jumped more than 100 percent since January.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAAihoslm_O/

The brothers Cuomo

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 62, has been lionized for leading his state through the darkness. But his cute younger brother, 49-year-old CNN anchor Chris, stole plenty of shine when he 
tested positive for 
COVID-19 and 
without missing a
 beat continued hosting 
his show in self-isolation
from his basement. Despite regular potshots from 
right-wing critics, the younger Cuomo managed to come off 
as more sincere and urgent than ever. One NYC matchmaker says the duo are topping her “most wanted” list, beating out even the Jonas brothers.

Reply All’s “The Case
of the Missing Hit”


Podcast Reply All delivered a blockbuster with a mind-bending search for a song—which might not exist—that a man says got stuck in his head in the ’90s. A reflection of the unanswered questions inundating our lives, except with far lower stakes, the March episode has sparked a 35 percent increase in the show’s listenership.

Trolls World Tour

Universal’s Trolls sequel, with a bizarre rock-versus-pop premise and a message about cultural appropriation that will likely go over the heads of its intended audience (and perhaps that of star Justin Timberlake), set a record for the biggest debut for a digital release, topping every relevant platform during its opening weekend in April. The $20 two-day rental price seemed steep to some, but to parents with stir-crazy kids it was a bargain.

The Womanizer vibrator

With Tinder hookups on hold, we’re turning inward—and reaching for sex toys. This cheekily marketed device has seen
 a 152 percent year-over-year rise in U.S. sales thanks to quarantine orders. Its resonant new slogan for those hungry for pleasure: Stay home.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAp1cWNpQz6/

Sourdough
bread


It’s a cliche at
 this point, but
 making it ourselves is truly com
forting, if not always Tartine level. No wonder more than 100,000 posts have been tagged with #crumbshot on Instagram.

The new class of badass reporters

Journalism is never more important than during a national emergency or the mass dissemination of misinformation. We happen to be living through both. A young crop of reporters in the White House briefing room—including Weijia Jiang of CBS, Kaitlan Collins and Jeremy Diamond of CNN, Yamiche Alcindor of PBS, and Kristin Fisher of Fox News—has resisted President Trump’s theatrical boasting and mugging, pressing for straightforward information and fact-checking on the spot.

Leslie Jordan

The 64-year-old veteran actor from Will
 & Grace and American Horror Story has amassed more than 3 million Instagram followers since March as a result of absurdist check-in videos in which he appears to be either very bored or very stoned. Pointing to his DIY painted toenails, he shares: “I messed this one up.” Relatable.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtA9Nfhat7/

My Year of Rest
 and Relaxation


Ottessa Moshfegh’s
 2018 best-selling novel, about a beautiful, lazy, pill-popping
 young woman who attempts a yearlong 
hibernation in a Manhattan apartment, had
 been celebrated at the time of its publication for its dark humor. Now its wit is hailed as beautifully horrific, as evidenced by the literary critics who are circling back to it. Vice declared of the book in one recent headline: “Blacking Out in a Juicy Couture Tracksuit Is a Lockdown Mood.”

The smart bike

Already a cult obsession, Peloton’s $2,245 souped-up stationary bike has never been more covetable as gyms lie dormant. The company’s stock bounced 50 percent in March, leaving an offensive Christmas-ad debacle in the dust. Cheaper competitors are also racing ahead. Echelon, whose bikes start at $839, reported a tenfold increase in sales the same month.

Tushy is a bidet startup which aims to replace toilet paper, Tushy was founded by Miki Agrawal.

[jezfletcher]

1000 Albums, 2020: Top Tracks #50-26

Hey folks! After the fun and excitement of counting down my top albums of 2020, I'm launching straight into my top tracks. Today, we're counting down numbers 50-26, which will leave the Top 25 as a Christmas present from me to you tomorrow. I don't know exactly how many tracks I've listened to this year, but I conservatively estimate more than 12,000, which puts these tracks in the top 0.4% of all the music I've heard this year. YouTube versions of the songs are included where possible. I belatedly discovered that I can also embed Bandcamp links as well, which is probably a better option, from a "supporting artists" perspective. If you stumble upon something you like, go buy it on Bandcamp. Apologies if the video clips for any of these are wildly offensive—I have not at all vetted them before embedding them. Enjoy!

50. L.E.J. - Pas Peur (French chamber folk)

I’m starting off this write-up with this excellent bit of folk—a sultry chanson, backed with low strings that develop into a full little chamber ensemble. I’m perhaps demoting this down to a fairly low position because I heard this track as a single, and was thrilling in excitement for the release of their album, which consisted of this song, and a whole bunch of songs that sounded nothing like this song. So it’s a standout, but it’s not necessarily a sign that L.E.J. is an artist I want to follow in general.

49. Avec Sans - Altitude (vapor pop)

When I first heard this track, I loved it a lot, especially the contrast between the restrained, almost plinky verses, and the smash of drums and synths which mark the start of the chorus. The rolls of the hihat and the fuzzy synth bass are overt and intense and I love it. Overall, it ended up not quite being of the same depth and character as many of the tracks above it though.

48. Trixie Mattel - Malibu (pop rock)

Trixie Mattel is such a fascinating artist, and she’s a genuinely great songwriter too—far outstripping most (all?) of her RuPaul’s Drag Race cohort. This is a great bit of pop rock, the kind of thing I absolutely groove along to and sing at the top of my lungs (at least until we get to the falsetto swoop in the chorus). I will absolutely keep following Trixie Mattel’s career as long as she’s producing music.

47. Beans on Toast - Logic Bomb (jazz folk)

The top track from Beans on Toast this year is this jazzy number, performed with his new full band, and filled with pessimistic predictions about the fall of the world through the computers we depend on. I’m far more sanguine about the world he describes, so I’m left to enjoy the groove and the gentle horn riff which launches each new doomsaying verse.

46. Nelson Kempf - Family Dollar (art folk)

A long, slightly meandering adventure in avant-garde folk, with Kempf’s conversational lyrics, found sound recordings like announcements at an airport, and the persistent presence of gently struck marimba or xylophone. It’s a great piece of music, although it’s also one which is hard to think about as a catchy tune—it’s certainly not something that gets in my head all that much, which is probably why it’s languishing a bit in the 40s. But every time I’m reminded of it, and listen to it, I do enjoy going through it again.

45. Marcelyn - Guilloteens (experimental folk rock)

I switched from Google Play Music (shutting down, of course) to Spotify about half way through this year, and as a result, my Spotify end-of-year list was jank, missing anything from the first half of the year, and lacking much of my revision listening. I say all of this because of all the songs I’d heard since switching, this was apparently my most listened-to on Spotify. It’s certainly not a bad song, and it’s a song which won Track of the Week the week it came out—but it’s also languishing in the mid-40s on my end of the year list, so it’s not genuinely a standout. But it is very solid, especially the shifting vocal harmonies from an evocative chorus. It’s certainly a song which makes me keep an eye on Marcelyn in the future.

44. Little Big - Hypnodancer (funeral rave)

It’s one of the great tragedies of 2020 (you know, along with all the sickness and dying) that there was no 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, because Little Big, progenitors of the hardstyle analog “funeral rave” were going to represent Russia. Which possibly would have been one of the only times I would have been cheering for that country come voting time. Anyway, the song they were taking to the competition was not this one, but another called UNO. But this is better, capturing the pop aesthetic into a hard 90s underground techno beat. Maybe we’ll get to see them again in 2021.

43. Walk Off The Earth feat. Harm & Ease - Toxic (eclectic pop cover)

Prolific indie pop coverers Walk Off The Earth have seemingly come up with a neverending stream of singles this year, none of which seem to be obviously pointing to a new album—especially given that their last album (my #2 album of 2019) was released towards the end of last year. But I keep listening to and enjoying their fun cover versions. This one, done with philosophical stablemates Harm & Ease builds into a great, raucous singalong version of one of the millennium’s pop classics.

42. Stormzy feat. Aitch - Pop Boy (grime)

I’m very conscious of the general lack of hip hop on my end of year list. It’s a genre that I think is ill-served by its most prominent examples currently. Kanye, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake—all have an extremely thin production quality and a drawly delivery that lacks the rhythm that really helps the style. But grime (and UK rap more generally) seems to get the point of what makes the style worthwhile. With a kicking beat, rhythmic delivery that lands its rhymes beautifully, Pop Boy is probably the best bit of grime this year. Stormzy and Aitch trading flows is genuinely fun to watch. I’m also glad that I have a new grime favourite after its Godfather outed himself as a raging anti-Semite earlier in the year. Stormzy seems pretty chill by comparison.

41. The Fratellis - Six Days in June (pop rock)

The Fratellis are a band who are absolutely rocking the late era of their career. Their 2018 album In Your Own Sweet Time was an absolutely cracking set of music, and if this lead single is anything to go by, their 2021 album is going to be similar. Swinging in 6/8, and with a horn section to add something of an orchestral sound to their accessible pop rock, this is a great track.

40. MOBS - Big World (80s pastiche pop)

These guys did an amazingly fun album this year, taking a broad kind of funky electropop and embracing all of the biggest 80s tropes. This one leans on the synth horns, and some working synths that you just know have the black and white keys reversed. It’s a jumpy, poppy, danceable track—one of the ones this year that’s most likely to get me grooving.

39. The Lemon Twigs - The One (alt rock)

A great piece of music (albeit one from an even better album), this is almost a kind of throwback alt rock—it has elements of the 80s to it, more poppy than the Cure, but maybe containing a similar kind of theatricality to it. It’s very happy to swing between high tenor vocals and squealing guitars for its drama. But on top of everything, it’s just a great bit of pop rock.

38. The Cuckoos - Weekend Lover (glam rock)

There’s something that you’ll likely see over and over again in this list, especially if you listen to the tracks and look for similarities. And it’s a driving, perhaps slightly repetitive riff in a pop rock song. This has a great one, incorporating bass and synths, and working in counterpoint to the straight up percussion line. It’s something of a formula that works really well for me, and you’ll see it a number of times on this list.

37. MisterWives - It’s My Turn (indie pop)

MisterWives are absolute stars of the music project. In 2017, the last time they really released much music, they had my #1 song of the year for Machine, and also took out #3 on my albums list. This year’s album didn’t do quite as well, but it’s hard to deny there are some pop bangers on it, like this one, their top entry this year. It’s a lot of fun, with manic, colourful energy. Sure, it’s not a #1 track of the year this time around, but I defy you not to have some fun with it.

36. Sammy Brue - Pendulum Thieves (alt country)

A fabulous piece of country rock, about stealing a bit of time back—maybe you want an extra minute with a lover in a perfect moment, or maybe you want to take back a fight. It’s nicely done with an anthemic chorus and some harmonic slide guitar in the background. Great piece of music.

35. TheFatRat feat. Laura Brehm - We’ll Meet Again (pop EDM)

Just a great piece of dance music. It has a great riff that evokes other classic dance numbers from the past 10 years like Clean Bandit’s Rather Be, throwing in a bit of grunty wobble bass for good measure. It’s short and sweet and catchy, and I like it for that.

34. Starbenders - Holy Mother (glam rock)

A track that came out of nowhere the week it was released, because I didn’t overly love the album. But this is just a full-throated bit of stomping glam rock that I couldn’t go past it for song of the week. Incidentally, Sam liked the album a whole bunch more than me and we ended up both giving this particular song a nod. It’s just a raucous, fun bit of music with a singalong chorus I often find myself headbanging along with.

33. Minh Beta - Let’s Fight COVID! (Vietnamese coronavirus pop)

Absolutely one of my iconic songs of 2020, this is a straight up pop banger released as a PSA by Minh Beta about the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19 in his home country of Vietnam. It also has an excellent video clip[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSiK7U46PfA] with anthropomorphised superhero versions of things like “Wear a Mask”, “Don’t spread Facebook conspiracy theories” and “Don’t share your ice cream cone with your mates”. It’s apparently a re-skin of Minh Beta’s previous track “Viet Nam Oi!”, but we’ll forgive it for being a timely readjustment for a good reason (personally, I credit about 90% of the success that Vietnam has had containing Covid to this song). And also, it just absolutely slaps.

32. Kiesza feat. Lick Drop, Cocanina & Shan Vincent De Paul - Dance With Your Best Friend (pop)

You know this might be the highest track of pure unadulterated pop. There’s nothing subversive or quirky about this—this is just a catchy pop track. It’s helped along its path by some great rapping from Cocanina, and a bit of that laddish vocal quality from Shan Vincent De Paul with the London accent of Rat Boy and Yungblud. Just a fun bit of music.

31. Ultrahappyalarm - Messy Gyaru (happy hardcore)

CRITICAL DAYDREAM by ULTRA HAPPY ALARM

It has been so many years since I’ve heard a true bit of happy hardcore like this. It has all the things I loved about the style in the 90s, but it brings with it a complexity to the production which ensures that you can’t just immediately pick apart the tracks. This was the standout on a great set of variegated techno in Ultrahappyalarm’s EP Critical Daydream. More happy hardcore for 2021, please.

30. Saint Saviour - Taurus (chamber folk)

Instrumentally, this is such a beautiful combination of piano and strings, with cello dominant, and a set of beautifully blending folk voices over the top. Later, it brings in some soft percussion to bring it home. Hauntingly though, the repeated piano ostinato is layered with a counterpoint of vocals in the final section. It gives me chills.

29. Kate Rusby - Love of the Common People (indie folk cover)

I clearly love this song, originally a standard, but most famously recorded by Paul Young, because there were two separate covers this year which reached my end-of-the-week list of best tracks. This, however, is the better of the two. It has a soft kind of electronic folk quality to it, and Rusby’s sweet, unaffected vocals perfectly fit into the mix. I’ll admit that much of the credit for this being so high has to go to the original songwriters—the team that also wrote “Son of a Preacher Man”. TIL.

28. Seazoo - Honey Bee (indie pop rock)

A lovely bit of pop rock, clearly a genre I like, especially when it has a catchy, slightly unusual riff to it. In this case, it’s a repeated rhythmic guitar stab that plays against the snare backbeat, creating this persistent sense of rocking back and forward. The rest of the song is solid enough to keep it moving, and a late guitar solo kicks it into another geat.

27. City Mouth - Sanity For Summer (indie pop rock)

A fantastic bit of upbeat pop rock. It starts with a melodic theme, then absolutely blasts out a manic piano riff which becomes the energetic motor of the track. Mostly, it’s just catchy, energetic music that makes you want to get up and dance. We need tracks like that this year.

26. Cory Wong & Chris Thile - Bluebird (jazz-bluegrass crossover)

Cory Wong has had a really strong year this year, releasing a full album, a live album, and two paired EPs. This comes from Dawn, the lighter, brighter of the EPs, and pairs his excellent guitar work with the sublime mandolin of every one’s favourite mandolinist. This is just exceptionally virtuosic work from both of these guys, and the combination just ratchets up the quality.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Tomberlin has shared 'Wasted,' a lullaby-esque stunner about secrets that are hard to keep. Tomberlin engages in some clever wordplay as the song ambles along, each line bleeding into the next: “Can you tell the difference?/ I can tell the difference,” she sings. “Maybe you’re the difference/ Please don’t be indifferent/ I could make it different. "'Wasted’ was the most fun song to record. I brought the song with the guitar part and knew I wanted drums, but wasn’t sure what kind of beat I wanted,” Tomberlin said in a statement, continuing: "Alex played this drum beat for me and was all ‘kinda left field but maybe this would be cool.’ It took the song to a whole new level. Sad song or summer banger? You tell me. The video was made with the help of Busy Philipps (who directed) and Marc Silverstein (who shot it), who are more like family then friends at this point. I was quarantined with them and their girls in South Carolina and we came up with the idea and shot it in about 4 days on an iPhone." [via Stereogum]

With their debut EP Tell U set to land on October 30 via House Arrest, New Yorks’ Couch Prints - aka Jayanna Roberts, Brandon Tong, and Jacob Truax - have shared the video for the title track. “I wrote the first iteration of this track while living in Denver - I was working this job I hated and had this feeling that life was speeding by,” Brandon says of the new track. “I ended up moving to New York a few months later, and shortly after Jake came out from Paris to record some of the music we’d been collaborating on the past year. While he was [In Paris] he had worked on music with Jayanna, so he called her to come sing on the tracks. We showed her the tracks and immediately she was humming along and had this incredible tone and way of singing, so we started recording for ‘Tell U’ and finished it that night. With so many moving pieces coming together so serendipitously, the final song came to celebrate this feeling of transience and movement and leaving the past behind. When we gave the song to Mayachka for the music video, she took that wistful feeling and our experiences, and created a story about a supposed three-way love triangle between us - with all the romance and nostalgia of a 2000’s soap opera. It perfectly captured the melancholy and strangeness of our first year coming together.” [via DIY]

Setting her art rock-inspired single 'Battleship' against a stunning clip directed by Pete Majarich, the new one from Jordan Laser deserves all your attention. [via Happy Mag]

New Jersey-based artist PYNKIE releases lead single 'Personality' from her sophomore album #37 out October 16 via House Arrest. A self-proclaimed ode to divorce (more specifically Radice’s parents divorce), the track is as sharp and witty as you’d expect from PYNKIE. It possesses this off-kilter touch that we’ve seen her adopt since her self-released 2018 debut album neoteny. The track references specific interactions between PYNKIE’s parents as they fight over possessions in the messy divorce. Lines such as “Furniture, Furniture/Over my dead body” are sung with a delightfully naïve charm, effectively capturing the sometimes obliviousness or misunderstanding that children have when it comes to events of such grandeur. With its buoyant bassline, jangly guitars, stoic percussion and perfectly imperfect slacker vocals, 'Personality' is musically a raw joy to behold. It’s flawless in its mixture of the known and the unknown, expected and unexpected. Skilfully wrong-footing the listener by setting up expectations of direction and then changing at the last minute is something that PYNKIE excels at. Lo-fi ethics and embedded nostalgia have become a staple of her music. This 90s nostalgia also takes the main role in the accompanying Kelli McGuire-directed visuals. We see Radice with her hair in bunches, wearing chokers, double denim that’s been scrawled on in felt tip pen and jelly sandals. The lighting is soft yet colourful with a light fuzz that gives it a retro warmth to it, casting our minds back to childhood. With vibrant graphics breaking up the video, topped off with the karaoke-style lyrics at the bottom of the video, the effect is one of wistful fondness. With its combination of unadulterated playfulness, darker tones and gleefully childish sensibilities, 'Personality' speaks to a larger theme that will carry through the upcoming album #37. [via High Clouds]

No Joy releases the official music video for 'Dream Rats' from their album Motherhood which is out out. The video and track features frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz’s sister, Alissa, of deathcore supergroup Arch Enemy. The video also features an amazing duck named Success who is somewhat of a local celebrity in Montreal. The White-Gluz sisters want to take this opportunity to spotlight the Le Nichoir Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre, a non-profit organization located in Hudson, Quebec. Their mission is to conserve wild birds as part of our natural heritage.

Actor and singer-songwriter Maya Hawke released album opener 'Generous Heart' as the final preview of her debut LP Blush, out now. A new interview with i-D reveals that 'Generous Heart' is one of Hawke's favourites from her record, and was created from a poem about love that she wrote as a senior in high school. Hawke also revealed the inspiration behind her debut album title to i-D, "I am a person who really struggles with embarrassment and shame, but it’s such a weird thing to talk about. There’s something embarrassing about even talking about being embarrassed. And the word blush, or blushing, to me is this sort of feminised take on embarrassment. Someone will be like, 'Oh it’s so cute, you’re blushing!' But on the inside, you’re dying. I liked the idea of taking this feminised word for shame, and making it the album title - because I struggle with both the feminisation of it, and the thing itself." She adds of the album, "Something that feels really important to me - and the record is sort of all about this - is how, even as you grow up and start to go through more 'adult' experiences, you’re still a kid. You’re still the same person that you always were. And so there’s the need to remember that throughline of your own humanity. I wanted to have those children’s voices to add a reminder of 'this might sound like a woman’s voice, but this whole childhood life is connected through all these stories'." [via Line Of Best Fit]

GRETA is making waves. The Copenhagen-based German musician - real name Greta Louise Schenk - has peppered 2020 with a string of superb singles, re-casting Nordic pop in a sci-fi gaze. Working towards her debut album, GRETA has been spending time in the studio with Farao, who has been producing those enormously imaginative sessions. New album Ardent Spring Part hits home on September 4, and it's led by the drifting future-facing pop of new single 'Again'. A gorgeous return, 'Again' is GRETA at her most defiant, an attempt to break out the cycles of behaviour that define us. She comments: "It's a song about the patterns we humans keep repeating even though we would like to break them. How we spend our entire life waiting for it to happen instead of living it." Stine Thorbøll directs the video, a tour de force of female Nordic talent that features the likes of Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff (Brimheim), Julie Christiansen (We are the way for the cosmos to know itself), Mary Jean Moore (MARY JEAN) and Luna Matz (Takykardia). GRETA explains... "The video for ‘Again’ is about a transition to something new and about preparing for that change. About being afraid of uncertainty, but finding strength in each other and oneself. It is about taking its place in the world. About strength and vulnerability. It is an invitation to be with everything you are and a promise that everything is more beautiful on the other side." Bold, and hugely imaginative, 'Again' seems to exist on its own terms, a defiantly independent piece of pop music. [via Clash]

Australian pop/R&B singer Clairy Browne is making her return to 2020 with her dance-worthy hit, 'Not The Only'. Drenched in glamour and extravagance, Browne has dropped an atmospheric tune with anthemic hooks and enthralling choruses. 'Not The Only' signals a new chapter for the artist as she breaks away from her kitsch retro-pop sound and explores a new neon-tinged soundscape. The songwriter is gearing up to release her next EP ANGEL later on this year and we’re curious to see what else she’s got in store for us. [via Wonderland]

In these dark and uncertain times, there’s no arguing that we need some relief, and fast. And one act giving us an instant burst of feel-good energy and sonic elation is MRCH with their glittering electronic number 'I Like You'. Drenched in optimism and bouncing into life with retro 80s-style synths, undulating rhythms and ethereal vocal hooks, the Phoenix-hailed duo – made up of Mickey and Jesse Pangburn – are lifting spirits with the synth-pop dance floor filler. The track is the first offering from their forthcoming new EP, out later this year – and has fans excited for their usual riveting live performances when life resumes. The visuals are a trippy retro throwback with the pair bopping and jamming, and making us miss a full throttle hedonistic night out. “Making songs is how we tell ourselves we aren’t alone, and hopefully how we tell other people they aren’t alone either,” explains Mickey. “Ironically, the hardest year for us has produced perhaps the cheeriest of MRCH songs, and absolutely one of our favourites.” [via Wonderland]

The artist Elohim has been an enigma since she first broke on the scene a half decade ago. She's since stepped out from behind the anonymous persona she originally crafted, and through her tender exploration of mental illness in her art, has reached millions of fans — proving true authenticity has no labels. The Los Angeles-based artist and producer was in the midst of her headlining Group Therapy Tour when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and like so many artists, she had to step back from performing live. But she quickly recalibrated and has been performing live from her home studio — and also working on the visuals for her single, 'I'm Lost.' The supremely trippy, Chase O'Black video captures the surreal experience of dissociating — something Elohim says she's been experiencing she was 7-years-old. "A lot of the art I create is speaking about these experiences (i.e. hallucinating)," Elohim tells NYLON. "'I'm Lost' examines this part of my brain, which is something difficult to put into words, so we decided to share this experience through surreality in the desert. Creating this new music filled my life with the most freeing moments, and making this video felt similar." Take a trip with Elohim to the California desert (and the infamous Slab City — an ideal setting for any artist on an inward journey) with the 'I'm Lost' video [via NYLON]

Australian pop extroverts Confidence Man return with new single 'First Class Bitch'. The band's extra-dimensional pop activities are the stuff of legend, with their lysergic live shows infused with glorious ear-worm melodies. New single 'First Class Bitch' injects some Confidence Man energy into this quarantine summer, and it's a dazzling return. The central hook is worthy of a Charli XCX project, with the neat, acid house leaning production tapping into the buoyancy of their famed live shows. Singer Janet Planet explains that the title 'First Class Bitch' actually has its origins in London. She comments... “I'd been thinking about this for a while now... It all started in London, when I saw a pair of socks with the words 'first class bitch' embroidered on them, hanging in a shop front window. I suddenly realised, I too was a first class bitch. I rushed back to the penthouse and penned this hit. Ever wondered what you hear when you die? This is it.” [via Clash]

[gigsoupmusic]

BOOM! : FloodHounds 'Something Primeval'

"Come together, it's all or nothing now!" These are the lyrics bellowing over raw and chugging guitar riffs and pounding drum crashes on the new track 'Something Primeval', words seeming inconsequential at the time lead singer, Jack Flynn, wrote them down, but now seem more poignant than ever. Along with Jack, drummer Lauren Greaves and bassist Joel Hughes make up the rest of the trio known as FloodHounds, a band who have steadily gained a reputation for their raucous live shows as well as their undeniable ability to write blues infused indie rock bangers. The band's new single, 'Something Primeval', is the second of two tracks recorded with producer, Thomas Mitchener, an occasional member of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, and producer of two Rattlesnakes albums - an influence you can feel throughout. The first track 'Out of Time' was premiered on BBC's Introducing as their Record of The Week. Check out FloodHounds latest track 'Something Primeval' below: We had the pleasure of having a very socially distanced chat with lead singer, Jack Flynn, check it out below: What's the origin story for the band? Some mates of mine were doing Litter Picking at Glastonbury (great little life hack for guaranteed Glasto tickets) and became friends with Lauren’s mates from Leeds. We were all on a big night out in Leeds together and I was saying how our drummer had escaped to Australia and I couldn’t record, when someone said; “Lauren’s a drummer!” She subbed in so I could record a few songs, and never left. After that, we’d been planning to audition a load of bass players, when another Sheffield musician Jamie Heawood introduced us to Joel. He came along and it turned out he’d learnt a whole set of our songs in just a few days and fitted in so well that was it. Job done! Which artists would you reference as an influence on the band's sound? I was brought up on Hendrix & The White Stripes, all the classic “guitar” stuff. For ages I only seemed to like bands that had all split up or died before I had even discovered them, which was annoying. But that’s all changed, now we pretty much only listen to brand new music, because there are so many incredible bands around right now. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Kid Kapichi, The Blinders, Saint Agnes, BlackWaters, Strange Bones, Calva Louise, Demob Happy, the list is endless. Joel hops between old school punk like NOFX to Childish Gambino. Lauren loves a bit of everything from the electro swing of Dutty Moonshine to filthy blues rock like Gary Clark Jr. What was the inspiration behind the new single? I had come up with this swampy, chugging little guitar riff, which I felt had a kind of sinister tone that could soundtrack some sort of hunter moving through the jungle. I don’t know maybe I had some Attenborough on in the background or something but it just sort of set me off with a bunch of animal metaphors basically questioning how deep our primeval instincts run, and whether to trust them or not. Sort of concluding that our advantage compared to the animals is our ability to come together if you want to solve problems and survive. Not literally though! I wrote the “come together, it’s all or nothing now” lyrics way before social distancing was the new normal. What have the band been up to in quarantine? We’ve been rearranging our songs for a few live streams, like the one we did one for Jägermeister which is up on their YouTube channel now. It’s been a great opportunity for songwriting and we’ve got some feisty new tracks that I’m dying to get started on. We’ve also recorded an entire acoustic album at home. I went a bit overboard, adding strings and other instruments we’ll never be able to orchestrate in real life. But it sounds mega. Acoustic is fun but we’re a noisy rock band so now we’re recording some electric sessions individually in isolation to compile together for a ‘live’ video at some point. Other than that, Lauren is growing an avocado tree in a pint glass on her window sill, and Joel is conducting some very serious experiments combining different flavours of hot sauce for the ultimate taste sensation. What's one album or artist that you've had on repeat during the lockdown? I’ve been listening to a lot of Black Futures. They’re such a cool hybrid between electronic music and punk rock. It reminds me of The Prodigy. They build the tension like a masterful DJ, but when it gets to the drop it’s not a bleep bloopy synth line, it’s an absolutely filthy guitar riff and a monstrous drum kit with a screeching vocal thrown in for good measure, it’s great. I might even have to download a virtual drum machine and figure out how the hell to make our own remixes. I mean now is the perfect time for that sort of experiment right? Is there anything fans can do to help support young bands such as yourselves during this time? Without gigs, it’s pretty hard to raise funds to record new music, so buying a bands merch is probably a straightforward way to do it, and get something back yourself! Even if you already have the T-Shirt, buy it as a gift for someone else, the band will appreciate it big time. Other than that, if a band is releasing anything new, give it a share either publicly or just privately pass the link on to somebody you think might like it. Have you learnt anything about yourself while being stuck inside? Seems a perfect time for self-reflection. That’s a hard one. I’ve kind of just buried my head into writing, recording and keeping busy rather than stopping and reflecting too much. Maybe those reflections will come out in song form without even realising. I guess I’ve learned to enjoy the little things more, and that you can survive on a lot less than you thought you could as long as you prioritise what is really important. If you could choose any 3 musicians/artists (dead or alive) to quarantine with, who would they be and why? Well all drummers are banned. You can’t have them scratching their rhythm itch by bashing away on the walls like something out of STOMP every day. Same goes for the Iggy Pops of the world, after a week they would do your head in and I bet he’d leave the flat in a mess. So I’d probably go for some relaxed jazz or reggae musicians, maybe a couple trip hop producers who aren’t too high intensity, so let’s say Charlie Parker, Fat Freddy’s Drop, and Zero 7. Plans to tour or go back to normality have been put on hold indefinitely but does the band have anything planned going forward? After we’ve released ‘Something Primeval’ we’ve got a music video filmed in Sheffield’s gothic looking medieval bear pit in on a freezing Sunday in February to put out, then we’ll be doing a few live sessions where we can. But yep once we’re allowed out I think it’ll be back to the studio to get the next batch of tunes ready. We’ve got so many songs up our sleeve now so it’ll be tough deciding which one makes the cut for recording but that’s part of the fun.

FloodHounds Official Site - https://www.floodhounds.com/ FloodHounds Official Merch Site - https://floodhounds.bigcartel.com/products FloodHounds YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/FloodHounds FloodHounds Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/FloodHounds FloodHounds Twitter Page - @FloodHounds Read the full article

[joncrawford]

Best of COVID-2019: (Late) 2019 End of Year Wrap-up

Even though we’re well into 2020, most of us would probably swallow a pill that makes us forget the year so far. With a new job, I got too busy to do an end-of-year wrap-up of my picks for the best albums, movies and shows of 2019, so assuming you’ve swallowed your Hindsight Pill™ (get it?, cause hindsight is 20..ok, fair if you stop reading now) here’s my take on the best music, movies and shows of 2019. Maybe you’ll find something to make the rest of quarantine a little better.

ALBUMS

Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten on Spotify

It’s hard to find a better album this year. It’s heartfelt, gentle in places / wild in others, it pushes her sound forward from her more folky records of the past and gives us the opportunity to gaze into this sensitive she-hulk of an artist’s soul.

Favorite Track: Jupiter 4 - Jupiter 4, a song by Sharon Van Etten on Spotify

Lux Prima by Karen O on Spotify

This concept album by Karen O (“Yeah Yeah Yeahs”) and Danger Mouse (“Broken Bells”, “Gnarls Barkley”) can best be described as a record composed by badass feminine superhero from the future who has a nostalgic fascination with soundtracks from 70s European love story films. It’s phenomenal. The chord progressions are unusual and interesting. The vibe is consistent throughout. It’s a great record to listen to intentionally or a perfect soundtrack to a day outside with friends.

Favorite Track: Nox Lumina - Nox Lumina, a song by Karen O, Danger Mouse on Spotify

Lana Del Rey - “Norman F*ing Rockwell“ (censored for my mom)

I get it. You stopped following Lana after “Summertime Sadness”. She’s not your jam. She’s vapid. There’s something about her appearance that you don’t like (Didn’t she get her lips done?). She doesn’t make serious music. Here’s the thing though: You’re f*cking wrong (censored for mom). LDR is one of the most prolific songwriters and performers we’ve got. This artist has evolved with each album and the songwriting keeps improving. This is her best album to date. The lyrics take on deeper themes than her prior records and any ego on previous submissions seems to have been replaced by a general comfort in herself and the discomfort of her experiences and relationships (fictional or not). This is also her release with the lightest touch. She’s not pushing the LDR persona anymore, she’s being herself — take it or leave it. It’s her, your little Venice B!tch (censored for mom). Hi, mom!

Favorite song: Venice Bitch, a song by Lana Del Rey on Spotify

Phoenix by Pedro The Lion on Spotify

This is my favorite artist’s first studio album in 15 years. (!!!) It’s not technically fair to say that because he released several color records in the interim. As a largely one-man show, the DNA was very much the same. But this is a true return to form for the the man known as David Bazan that I’ve been following carefully for 20 years and have seen live too many times to count.

This is a concept album (most of them are) about his experience growing up in Phoenix, AZ. But it’s more about growing up than about Arizona. I got goosebumps and watery eyes the first time I listened carefully to the lyrics of “Yellow Bike” which tells about the experience of getting your first bicycle as a little boy around 1990. For me, this was the apex of my childhood. Absolute freedom and the ability to easily join any pack of desperado bike kids.

The album hits hard with the catchy hooks, introspective lyrics, challenging topics and excellent production & instrumental performances only using standard rock staples like guitar, bass and drums (with a couple quick appearances of an organy synth).

Lyrics, melody & a great beat. This is a fantastic rock album.

Favorite song: Yellow Bike, a song by Pedro The Lion on Spotify

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish on Spotify

Much has been written about this wunderkind. You know her. It’s a great album. She has a promising career ahead of her.

Favorite song: when the party’s over, a song by Billie Eilish on Spotify

SOUND & FURY by Sturgill Simpson on Spotify

This album slays. It’s a badass rock album. If you don’t know Sturgill Simpson, he’s technically a country act… BUT! He’s entirely rejected the conventions of modern country with its shallow lyrical content, right-wing dog whistling and computer-assisted faux harmonies. He sings about psychedelics, his problems with religion and also covers 80s synth-pop in country ballad fashion. Well, forget all that for this record. It’s a banger. This record sounds like Waylon Jennings was cloned 100 years in the future and brought back just to record a ZZ Top album. Major leap for this artist. One of the best of the year.

Favorite song: Make Art Not Friends, a song by Sturgill Simpson on Spotify

ANIMA by Thom Yorke on Spotify

We’ve had a complicated relationship with Thom Yorke’s solo work. As the lead singer of Radiohead, we’ve had to give deference to literally anything with his name on it. But his prior solo works have waded into the avant-garde and we’re entirely listenable in a casual way throughout. This has changed. This record is a masterwork. In fact, it demanded a beautiful short film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (“The Master”, “There Will Be Blood”) released on Netflix earlier in the year featuring no dialogue and Thom and his wife is choreographed love affair starting during a mundane commute. My favorite track is the most peaceful and introspective on the album.

Favorite song: Dawn Chorus, a song by Thom Yorke on Spotify

Fear Inoculum by TOOL on Spotify

It’s TOOL’s first album in 13 years. WHAT. It’s fantastic. Worth the wait? Hell no because that’s too long to wait for almost anything. There are people with Snapchat accounts that weren’t alive when “10,000 Days” came out (2006). 728,000,000 people (presumably, all TOOL fans) died since their last album. I can’t, in good conscience, condone the deprivation of 3/4 of a billion people like that. But it’s SO good. This is metal for people that don’t like metal (I don’t really like metal).

Favorite song: Pneuma, a song by TOOL on Spotify

Screamer by Third Eye Blind on Spotify

I may be literally this bands only fan still paying attention, but I don’t care. They’re still writing fantastic tracks. This was one of my heavy-hitter bands in high school. I learned every song from their first two albums on the guitar. Then I stopped paying attention for like 13 years. In 2016, I ran across a new single by the band and went in with a lot of trepidation. Most bands from your high school years should probably leave it there. There's nothing worse than a band desperately trying to stay relevant with weak ass releases well beyond their shelf life (cough Goo Goo Dolls –– They've put out 4 albums in the last 10 years. 🤦‍♂️) But then I heard Third Eye Blind's pro-Black Lives Matter track “Cop vs. Phone Girl, a song by Third Eye Blind on Spotify” released in 2016. Go back and listen to that one. It's not only catchy as hell, but it's got a gut punch of a message about how shitty is it to be a well-meaning black student in a white-dominated power structure that's supposed to be a safe place like school.

Well 2019’s “Screamer” doesn’t disappoint either. It’s all the same energy and hooks of the band’s early sound with an updated feel and sensibility that still feels like a relevant rock album. All the same things you came to Third Eye for in the past is right here waiting for you on “Screamer”. I know I’m gonna get some flack for this one, but…shut up.

Favorite song: Ways, a song by Third Eye Blind on Spotify Bonus points if you catch the “Outside Lands” ref.

i,i by Bon Iver on Spotify

Short review for people who know how to pronounce the name correctly: It’s a Bon Iver record. Listen to it.

Longer review: It’s pronounced “Bone ee-VAIR” based on the French bon hiver, meaning “good winter”. If this is news to you, here’s a nugget from an interview where the main figure in the band explains it:

When I was living up north I wrote a letter. I’d come across a story about this Alaskan town that the people, the first snow of every year, they come out of their houses and gather in town square. They hug and kiss each other and they say “Bon Iver.” I was like, “whatever that is, that’s cool!” … Then I found out how it’s spelled and it was sort of disappointing. I didn’t like how it looked. It didn’t have any emotion. Looking at it didn’t make any sense. I wanted to look at it and feel something. It was sort of a compromise. I sorta wanted it to be like “Bon Iverre,” sort of like how I saw it, but that didn’t look good either, so I just decided to chop off the “h.” Bon Iver | Pitchfork

OK, now that you’re caught up. I guess you haven’t been paying attention, but Justin Vernon or Bon Iver (DBA) is one of the luminaries of the music industry. This grammy-winning dude-band has collaborated with Kanye, Jay-Z, James Blake, Travis $cott, Poliça, Ani DiFranco, Vince Staples, Eminem, Bruce Hornsby and more. But if you need me to explain any of this to you, do yourself a favor and go back and listen to his other 3 studio albums. Every one of them is treasure.

Favorite Song: Hey, Ma, a song by Bon Iver on Spotify This song makes the top 5 of all the tracks he’s released.

MUSIC - Honorable Mentions

Amyl and The Sniffers by Amyl and The Sniffers on Spotify

Two Hands by Big Thief on Spotify

I vs I by Alex Ebert on Spotify

Face Stabber by Thee Oh Sees on Spotify

Infest The Rats’ Nest by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Spotify

MOVIES

Hail Satan? (Hulu)

JustWatch

Hilarious look at a group trying to make Free Speech really free.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Duh. Also I got low-key obsessed with cults after I watched this.

MONOS

Incredible Spanish language drama about child soldiers in South America. Great acting by unknowns.

Green Book -Duh

Duh. Won an Best Picture.

Parasite

Duh. Won Best Picture.

Joker

Duh. Won life.

Greener Grass

JustWatch

The weirdest movie I saw all year. Bizarre and hilarious. Written by the two actresses who star.

Apollo 11

INCREDIBLE documentary about the first moon landing mission featuring a ton of footage I’d never seen and assembled into such a magnificent narrative. You feel like it’s happening in real-time today. The last time mankind was united around one hope.

SHOWS

The OA - Season 2 (Netflix)

This was one of the most beautiful creations I’ve seen. Epic followup to the first season which seemed like an impossible act to follow. Netflix canned the show, but there’s still hope it will get a resurrection through another venue.

Watchmen (HBO)

This is a sequel to the critically acclaimed graphic novel from the late 80s. You should read the novel first. As stated two sentences ago, this is a sequel set 34 years after the events of the novel.

The Boys (Amazon)

This is the first realistic superhero story. Why have we always assumed that those with superior or supernatural powers would be intrinsically good and seek to served mankind? Regular humans don’t even act like that toward each other. In this world the soops are like paid athletes and are secretly total pricks. Well made and begging for a second season.

Chernobyl (HBO)

Haven’t seen this? What is wrong with you? It’s in the top 5 highest rated shows of all time on IMDB. One thing I’ll note is that it did a good job separating the characterization of the soviet people from the soviet government. The everyday soviet people in the story came out looking like heroes while the government lived up to its reputation. It made me a lot more curious about soviet history which has led me to other movies, books and Wikipedia rabbit holes. Watch this for the historical value, at a minimum. It’s not as gory as you might be afraid it is.

Love Death + Robots (Netflix)

I love sci-fi and I love weird animation so this just brought it home for me. The episodes are often short and sort of feel like Twilight Zone episodes, each with their own mini narrative or moral lesson. Each episode is made by a different creator or team, so the variety is part of the curb appeal. Great binge material.

[misdigest]

Bandcamp Picks from the Spanish Underground

As the world continues to reel from the effects of Covid-19 its great to see Bandcamp doing their part as they get ready for the first of another 3 days where they will be waiving their revenue share in an attempt to support independent artists all over the world. The Last day was such a roaring success it saw the site experience serious lag as users rushed to support their favourite artists.  

One Great aspect of this has been the way people have been actively looking to broaden their musical horizons. So we spoke to a handful of Spains top Underground Selectors to see what they think you should have in your basket this Friday and why they think Bandcamp is such a great resource! 

Anti Drone Squad

You can dig music from a lot of places nowadays, the classic vinyls, tapes, and bootlegs in the physical sense and of course from the digital world, which is the biggest side right now. It is known that bandcamp offers the most control for independent artists - and this is the era of the artistry independence. I think it's important we take consciousness on the digital side of everything we do. There's plenty of portals where to get music from - soundcloud, beatport, the oldie but goldie soulseek... Of course, in the core of all these tools, the "sharing is caring" motto resides, but if we care about how we share, it's going to be much better for all those music makers we love out there. Also, it's full of sick music and a lot of good material that it's mind boggling.

Uknown Mobile - Daucile Moon 

This is Levi's most meditative release to date, and it's a pretty interesting sum to his whole library: the guy is a very skilled producer and covers a lot of spectrums and sounds, can be pretty aggressive or in the case of Daucile Moon, very soothing. Super talented guy that deserves more attention. He's a very nice guy, we had the chance to meet him here in Barcelona. He's also very crazy passionate about wines and he got to show us some good bottles in a cellar here, was crazy fun. 

Link: https://pacificrhythm.bandcamp.com/album/daucile-moon 

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕​)​ﾉ​*​:​･ﾟ✧ - Defled 

Very interesting release by Pere, a friend from our island, Mallorca. We really recommend taking a listen to his whole craft, he should be under the eye of more people out there, in our opinion. A lot of good, modern ambient coming out from him. 

Link: https://defled.bandcamp.com/album/--2 

Harvey Touch - Archipiélago 

Javi was one of the guys who helped us a lot when we got here to Barcelona, he made us feel very welcomed. Soothing, sweet and nice housey music to chill to we got here, overall we think is a very complete debut album, and very promising. Looking forward to listen to more stuff by him. 

Link: http://harveytouch.bandcamp.com/album/archipi-lago

and departt from mono games - AYA 

Time for some crazy stuff! This guy sounds amazing, very creative. The sound design is amazing and overall the speech is very rounded. This is the kind of release that leaves you wanting more and wondering "where has this guy come out from?". Totally recommended. 

Link: https://aya-yco.bandcamp.com/album/and-departt-from-mono-games

BadderDenDem 

Bandcamp exists as a great source to discover new music. It's always worth it to select some of your favorites labels and follow them to get new releases & info - I would say it's the only thing i'm subscribed to as It's a good way to discover new music and at the same time support independent music. Normally I explore bass music driven labels such as Rarefied, Albion Collective, White Peach, Zam Zam Sounds and Moonshine Recordings. All of them have a good curated selection and consistently keep  upload surprising stuff.

Kromestar & N-type - Nu Era Dub / Mutants [Wheel & Deal] This one is a recent release waited for long. 'Nu Era Dub' is a 140 take to an old DnB tune 'P-Funk Era' by Pascal. Second track 'Mutants' is a jazzy jungle track version. Both tracks sound reaaally smooth.

Link: https://wheelanddealrecords.bandcamp.com/album/nu-era-dub-mutants

LAS - Tigersleep / Wounded [Subroot Records]

When i first heard Tigersleep took me back to early dubstep days and felt so advanced at the same time. Hunting and home listening kind of stuff. Now I realized it was produced in 2010 and just released after ten years. Might be a very personal recommendation this one :)

Link: https://loveandsound.bandcamp.com/album/tigersleep-wounded

Glume & Phossa - Silkworm EP New EP by two of my favorites dubstep producers. Loving the grime take of their productions!

Link: https://glumephossa.bandcamp.com/album/silkworm-ep

MUHLA - Portland [SZNS7N] A leftfield bass track by Bristol producer Muhla. Don't know how i stopped into this one but I recommended it many times. 

Link: https://szns7n.bandcamp.com/track/portland

LSDXOXO - Body Mods [self released]

This whole mixtape is a dancefloor killer. This New York producer explores a large palette of sounds including lots of samples and hardcore breaks, mixing genres such as footwork, UK funky and Caribbean music between many others. I believe it can bring an unexpected sound to any set. 'Burn the Witch' track is really worth checking.

Link: https://lsdxoxo.bandcamp.com/album/body-mods

D.N.S.

I've only really started using Bandcamp in the last year and it's already saved me after losing all my music files when my bag got stolen at the beginning of the year (do not mention the word 'backup'). I like the fact you can opt in to receive info on new releases, products and nice messages from labels without getting dragged into the usual algorithmic nonsense. The editorial part of the site is well rounded and it's great to directly support friends pushing their own projects. Here are my top 5 right now: 

Null+Void - great label and new garms out this week well worth checking out

Link: https://nullandvoidrecordings.bandcamp.com

Tectonic - without a doubt has shaped the sound of my DJ bag for the last ten years

Link: https://tectonicrecordings.bandcamp.com/   Ilian Tape - my go to techno

Link: https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/

Interplanetary Criminal - nice fresh take on a 2-step / techno crossover vibe

Link: https://interplanetarycriminal.bandcamp.com  

FTP - Bootlegs Vol. 2 is on repeat at the moment

Link: https://ftp4u.bandcamp.com/album/ftp-bootlegs-vol-2-3  

Gerard Sun

Bandcamp is the new place to get lost in musical waves. For me I can do what I used to do few years ago more intensively, getting lost in an immersive jungle of music from all around the globe and find tracks that I may never have discovered on discogs. Nowadays, it’s the place most similar to a physical record store where you like to spend time listening, trying to find the best track or record; that one that will make your DJ sets more personal and melt the dance floor. 

Although I can find bangers, I use Bandcamp as a huge library for my very passionate ambient side. I love to mix non necessary rhythmic stuff with techno or bass music for instance. Textures, drones and epic sounds are in my personal palette when I prepare my monthly radio show at Dublab Barcelona and mostly with the results of founds at Bandcamp. It is definetly a great tool where you can find, with no strict algorithms, new artists in the same search results as well as known names. The simplicity of the interface makes the experience easy and you have the main information on the same screen. What’s will be the next step from Bandcamp? Hope they are working hard to keep up the good work. In no particular order, here are my top 5: 

Other People : https://otherpeople.bandcamp.com/ 

Om Unit :https://omunit.bandcamp.com/ 

Sarathy Korwar: https://sarathykorwar.bandcamp.com/ 

Matthew Bourne : https://matthewbourne.bandcamp.com/ 

R&S Records : https://randsrecords.bandcamp.com/ 

Ikram Bouloum

I’m that kind of person that buys more digital than physical stuff so I use Bandcamp as my digital library of music. It’s one of favorite playgrounds. When I’m preparing my djsets, the first thing that I do is use bandcamp to search new tracks, artist, labels or compilations.

This is my top 5 of artists, also some of my last adquisitons from bandcamp :)

Fatigado from Golden Mist Records

Link: https://goldenmistrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tou-fixe

Dj Plead - Massari for Relief 

Link: https://djplead.bandcamp.com/album/massari-for-relief

Maral from Astral Palne Recordings

Link: https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mahur-club

Leila Samir - No Music EP

Link: https://leilasamir.bandcamp.com/album/no-music-ep

Mans O - Dos Orejas

Link: https://mansomusic.bandcamp.com/album/dos-orejas-mixtape

Kodama

Bandcamp as a platform works great. Very easy to use both as an artist and a fan. It works very conveniently to sell music both digitally and physically. I also like how you can download the music you’ve bought in different formats

Rarefied EPs

Starting off with these two Rarefied EPs. I’m very proud to have signed to them. They are always putting out the most unique and interesting music. Make sure you check out both of these EPs, as they are really special. ‘No One’s Out Of Time’ EP involves a lot of talented artists and memorable music which I highly recommend, featuring my track ‘New Feeling’. ‘The sun also rises’ EP is a selection of unreleased Rarefied dubs which involve some really cool link ups of artists. Both of these can be bought from the Rarefied Bandcamp page:  Link: https://rarefied.bandcamp.com/music

IYH - Faint EP

This one is the first release from a new project started by The Greys, which really hits emotionally. This EP blew me away when I first listened to it and would advise everyone to buy it. Melodic garage vibes and smooth hip-hop. Faint is a soon to be classic. Link: https://inyourheadmusic.bandcamp.com/releases

Mungk - MUNGKDUBS001

This next EP is by Mungk entitled MUNGKDUBS001. Very exciting producer with an impressive out put of quality music. A lot of different interesting sounds from the man. Link: https://mungkdubs.bandcamp.com/album/mungkdubs001

Taiko – Honey/Cahoots

Man like Taiko always comes up with very unique productions, which is reflected in both of these tracks with Honeys funky touch and Cahoots’ melodic synthy vibe. Strongly recommend buying this one. Link: https://taikouk.bandcamp.com/album/honey-cahoots

Zygos - Pusher/Shade

Had the pleasure of mastering this one for Zygos. True carefully created and hard-hitting sound system music in both productions by the man and he never disappoints. Link: https://zygosmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pusher-ep

Manul & Energy Man

Bandcamp is one of the most artist focused platforms , where you feel that there is no intermediary between your music and audience, due to the crucial advantage of being able to take control when to change prices, sell goods or to ship at any time. Because of this global crisis we are experiencing, we believe it can be a great alternative to the major labels, which are used to taking a big piece of the pie in record sales / streaming revenue of its Artists. Which unfortunately, musicians can not afford anymore because they have been reduced to zero direct events, which is where they could make a most of their income. Despite the wide variety of musicians in Spain, we have chosen the following artists for the versatility and quality of everything they do. They are excellent references for us and for the national public scene, the musical, which always ends unfortunately underestimated.

Bandcamp es una de las plataforma más cercana al artista, donde siente que no hay intermediario entre su música y sus oyentes, una ventaja crucial para tener el control a la hora de modificar precios, vender mercancías o hacer envíos en cualquier momento. Y a causa de esta crisis global que estamos sufriendo, creemos que puede ser una gran alternativa a las grandes discográficas, las cuales están acostumbradas a llevarse un gran pedazo del pastel en la venta de discos/streamings de sus artistas. Desgraciadamente, los músicos ya no pueden permitírselo más, ya que han visto reducido a cero los eventos en directos, que es donde podían lucrarse mayormente.A pesar de la gran variedad de músicos en España, hemos elegido a los siguientes artistas por la versatilidad y calidad de todo lo que hacen. Ellos son excelentes referencias para nosotros y para el público nacional en una escena,la musical, la cual siempre acaba desafortunadamente subestimada.

BSN POSSE: Footwork with malagueño Accent Much has changed since Sergio Ruiz (aka Stay Puft) and Enrique Gervilla (aka Broken Lip) came to be known as BackStreetNoise to christen his new project in 2011 as BSN Posse. They are synonymous with soul, funk and hip hop, which have been introduced in their own way in their productions, first Dubstep, Garage and ending at the Juke / Footwork. An unusual mix in these parts, which has served to define their own jobs and the first two years of life of their label, Iberian Juke. The malagueños have represented at several editions of Sónar in Barcelona.

Review: Versatile, Creative and a Benchmark

Footwork con acento malagueño, Mucho han cambiado las cosas desde que Sergio Ruiz (aka Stay Puft) y Enrique Gervilla (aka Broken Lip) pasaron de ser conocidos como BackStreetNoise a bautizar su nuevo proyecto en 2011 como BSN Posse. Ellos son sinónimo de soul, funk y hip hop, el cual han ido introduciendo alternativente en sus producciones, primeramente el dubstep, garage y terminando en el juke/footwork. Una mezcla poco habitual por estos lares, que ha servido para definir sus propios trabajos y los dos primeros años de vida de su escudería, Iberian Juke. Los malagueños han pasado por varias ediciones del sónar en Barcelona.

Opinión: versátil, creativo y referente.

Link: https://iberianjuke.bandcamp.com

PABLO DREAD:  At the Malagueño prides himself in using a multitrack table used as an instrument using its analog effects to couple his pinpoint rhythm with the thrill of the unexpected. Much like Wizards of Reggae King Tubby or Lee Perry. It’s impossible to overlook his appearance at the legendary festival International Dub Gathering where he was able to meet and share words with the great Mad Professor. Despite his close relationship with the Dub & Reggae, do not forget that the versatility of this Andalusian artist allow him to branch out all the way into pure Electronic territory , touching on Bass music: producing to the same standard as his fellow crew BSN Posse to make Juke and Dubstep.

Review: passion, perfection and love for DUB / REGGAE 

Al malagueño se precia de usar una mesa multipistas como instrumento y emplea efectos analógicos, como los magos del reggae King Tubby o Lee Perry, para impregnar su milimétrica rítmica de la emoción de lo imprevisible. No podemos pasar por alto su aparición en el mítico festival International Dub Gathering donde pudo conocer y compartir palabras con el gran Mad Professor.A pesar de su cercana relación con el dub/reggae, no olvidemos que la versatilidad de este artista andaluz le hacen despegarse, de vez en cuando, hasta la electrónica más pura, acariciando la bass music: produciendo, al igual que sus compañeros BSN Posse, el juke o el dubstep.

Opinión: Pasión, perfección y amor por DUB / REGGAE

Link : https://music.beatmachinerecords.com/album/bmr019-burnin

Mark Dix (Radio Primavera Sound)

I love the platform as tracks are usually published in full and available for purchase immediately. Almost all the underground electronic music that I'm into is on there, plus you can get physical copies and merch too. Visca Bandcamp!

My favourite five artists on the platform:

RRUCCULLA 

Bilbao drummer, producer and designer whose music was first independently published on Bandcamp before getting noticed by Pitchfork and eventually published by Dabadaba's label, Elsa. She recently brought out a beatless album, Rincones Seguros, which is perfect to accompany a quarantine.

Link: https://rrucculla.bandcamp.com/

VOIRON

A new discovery for me. Paris based DJ and producer whose music manages to be playful and bangs at the same time. Plenty of references to UK IDM and breakbeat, presented with a lil French elegance. All the tunes have his name in the titles which I dig.

Link: https://voironmarket.bandcamp.com/

HYPHEN A homie from Barcelona who I met through Soundcloud and have kept in touch with since. He released his debut album, Psiconáutica, last year, and is a euphoric combination of weirdo trance, IDM and jungle. Graphics are wonderful too.

Link: https://akahyphen.bandcamp.com/

SHYGIRL Absolutely massive tracks, produced by Sega Bodega providing an incredible contrast with the nonchalant vocal performance of Shygirl. Head to the Cruel Practice EP to see what I'm talking about.

Link: https://0800shygirl.bandcamp.com/

PHRAN Full disclosure, Phran is one of my best pals but I have to include him in this list for the amount of projects he's involved in, most of which feature on his Bandcamp page. He put out an album of unreleased material recently which sums his tough electro sound up pretty well.

Link: https://phran.bandcamp.com/

Misbah

I've been using Bandcamp to empty my wallet since 2013 and I don't think I would ever want it to be another way. When it comes down to it, the service presents to the music community with the most tactile way to release your music and support yourself whilst still retaining almost all control. You only have to look at the number of artists that are able to pay their bills and sustain themselves purely from their Bandcamp profits to see that the site is clearly a public good. This is Not a Drill 2 - Big Nate Hailing from London, Big Nate is one of the voices from a new wave of of artists charting their own path within the music industry. This is Not a Drill 2 is one of those EP's where where every track slaps and if clubs / radio were open , this would be getting some serious support from me. Very much so looking forward to see what the future has to bring.

Link: http://bignate237.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-not-a-drill-2 Rural -  Jakebob Jakebob is a staple in the Grime scene and a serious triple threat as a Producer , DJ & MC. When I first heard Rural I couldn't stop smiling as you can really tell that this is a statement of intent, every track is produced and Vocalled by Jakebob an is a real Journey through his influences with the style differing from Track to Track.  

Link: https://jakebob.bandcamp.com/album/rural Self Care Volume 001 - Grace Every time I go to put together a set at the moment I find my self drawing for at least one tune from Grace. So to see he has now launched his own label is a great look. Self Care 001 showcases the R&G afficionados capacity to highlight the softer underbelly of Grime productions.

Link: http://selfcaresoundz.bandcamp.com/album/self-care-volume-001 Mmhmm / Swerv / Blitz - Wen It seems like a lifetime ago since Wen burst onto the scene. This release on south London specialist imprint GD4YA shows that his progression has not slowed. Featuring three 'trancey' 2 step Bubblers this EP hasn't really left my crate since I got it. It's a must buy for any Garage head fullstop.

Link: https://gd4ya.bandcamp.com/album/mmhmm-swerv-blitz For the NHS - Various Artists (Hundred Flower Records) Got to shout out the old Leeds crew Representing on this one. Feauring tracks by O'Flynn , Spooky-J , Ekhe & PQ this release is crazy and whats better for a good cause! All proceeds go to support Doctors and Nurses on the frontlines in the UK.  

Link:   http://hundredflowersrecords.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-nhs

Xyla - Mina & Champion 

Cant forget Big Homie Mina! She has been running her own label Earth Kicks for a year now after consistently bangers which are enjoyed all over the world, and to see her do a collaborative EP with Champion is so great! 

Link: https://earth-kicks.bandcamp.com/album/xyla

Le Ranso

If Bandcamp would be a person, he would be this quiet and shy guy always hanging out with the cool kids in the playground. He would not scream for attention very often, but if you would ask him anything about music he would always be able to reference a mental map about the countless genres and ideas that are constantly sprouting in the musical universe. That is why if you are in need of food for your ears you will always have to ask Mr. Bandcamp.

Here you can hear some of the local records that I have discovered and enjoyed during this confined times:

Nora Hayden & Baptized Lessix - HEAVEN-SENT

Two youngsters from Madrid. I don’t know much about them besides the fact that the producer is actually baptized. A trap tale that can seamlessly bring you from a pink fantasy to your darkest nightmare at any moment of the record. It seems loose and bumpy, but the intentionality behind some production choices matches perfectly with the naive and fragile tone of the vocal. 

Favorite Track: INDUSTRIAL 

Link: https://baptized.bandcamp.com/album/heaven-sent

Grim Death - You Can't Overcome Suffering If You Refuse To Look At It

Just by reading the name of the band you can start picturing what this sounds like. Having released seven references since the beginning of 2020 Grim Death has established an aggressive and unapologetic tone of voice that allows them to draw apocalyptic environments and dark fantasies. Saturation, Limiters and Overdrives always accompanied by the forever comfortable 808s and hi hats lay the perfect foundation for some screams at a microphone that by now might be probably broken. 

Favorite Track: Divine Wind 

 Link: https://grimdeath.bandcamp.com/album/you-cant-overcome-suffering-if-you-refuse-to-look-at-it

Mans O - DOS OREJAS MIXTAPE

Soul brother and favorite Barcelona producer. After a long time experimenting and expanding his scope in his studio, he has released a pack of bangers that will make you inevitably bounce your head while internalizing mantras that slip in under broken and hard percussions. Filled with details that give consistency to the piece throughout the more than 20 minutes of rhythmical tourism. 

 Favorite Track: THE NOW AGE 

Link: https://mansomusic.bandcamp.com/album/dos-orejas-mixtape

Myoboku - Myoboku

From the brains of the bassist Oscar Garrobé joined by the piano player Marina Herlop, a band recorded this masterpiece during 2019 under their careful instructions. A masterclass on intertwining melody and rhythm in a journey where every step feels unique and uncovers new hints that bring you to the end of the EP. It is short but very solid. Definitely a must listen if you love the color palette of acts like Tennyson or Hiatus Kaiyote. / 

Favorite Track: wtf cafè + 

Link: https://myoboku.bandcamp.com/releases

manul and energy man 

Rumbler

For around a decade, Bandcamp has been one of my main tools for searching new music. It is a common place where artists, DJs and listeners have a huge catalogue of independent music, no matter if they like field recording ambient cassettes or cheesy edits and mp3 bootlegs. Since I started managing a label (Iberian Juke) and getting into all the features you can use for free to promote your music, I felt it is the best option to go to release music, if you’re an independent artist or label. I think they have been true to their essence, focusing on artists first and creating a sustainable business that helps to keep going, maintaining a unique way for artists to earn a bigger profit from their work. 

beGun - Agora 

It’s nice to see that some artists are taking this quarantine to experiment and take some risks, releasing different music and stuff that may have not been ever released without all this Corona thing. Here’s an album of himself just playing piano. Relax and enjoy :)

Track: Nou

Link: https://begun.bandcamp.com/album/agora

Pépe - H0RT4 3DITS VOL. II 

I love Pépe’s sound, his mix of funky and poppy melodies with electro and rave sounds like no one else in this country. For me he’s on top 5 electronic music producers in the country right now. This edits are fire, like the ones from Vol. I, great tools for all your streaming sets!

Fav Track: N3V3R C4LL M3

Link: https://pepmanpepe.bandcamp.com/album/h0rt4-3d1ts-vol-ii

S Curro, Manul & Energyman - It’s an Andalusian ting

Breaking Bass has a really good taste when it comes to mix bass music with Spanish folklore. The combo that S Curro makes with Manul & Energy Man is powerful and fun, making their releases unique. Pure Andalusian grime!

Fav Track: Semana Santa breakbeat ft. Highkili

Link: https://breakingbassrecords.bandcamp.com/album/it-s-an-andalusian-ting

DJ Bruce Lee - Beatz 

Also myself I’ve took my time to explore a lot of music. I’ve been seeking for local record labels and artists I didn’t knew or stuff I didn’t took my time to appreciate enough. End Of Dayz is one of the labels I’ve been listening to for my mixtapes. They have some serious stuff from awesome Spanish producers. This last EP is by the boss itself, DJ Bruce Lee, a single + remixes by great artists like John Heaven or TR. 

Fav Track: Beatz (TR Remix)

Link: https://endofdayzrecords.bandcamp.com/

Hidden Jayeem - Mainline 

I don’t know why, there’s always some great artists that keep underrated for a very long time. This isn’t a recent release - even if it’s from late 2019 tho - but I wanted to include something from him in my picks, as I think he has a special sensitivity when it comes to make music that barely a few producers has in our country. Would love to hear some new hidden jayeem stuff this year. 

Fav Track: Hard to find

Link: https://hiddenjayeem.bandcamp.com/album/mainline

[obtusemedia]

Top 25 songs of 2019: Honorable Mentions

In 2019 — a commendable year to close out the decade, musically speaking — Gen Z’s budding stars fully arrived, while long-time stalwarts created some of the best work of their careers. There weren’t any albums that threatened the top of my decade-end chart, but the year still delivered a crop of solid records in a variety of genres.

This year, I’m doing my year-end list a bit early, because I plan on releasing my decade-end list around New Year’s. So before we do that, let’s kick off the celebration of 2019 with 15 great songs, listed in alphabetical order by artist, that just missed the top-25 cut off.

“People” by The 1975

Manchester pop-rock geniuses The 1975 have already dabbled in almost every genre under the sun. So a sharp pivot into near-screamo punk rock seemed inevitable.

“People” isn’t my favorite song of theirs — the best version of The 1975 is when they’re fully in ‘80s synthpop mode — but it’s still very effective. The crunchy, thrashing guitars fit perfectly with Matty Healy’s off-kilter vocals and apocalyptic lyrics. In a way, “People” is a sequel to their generation-defining 2018 single, “Love It If We Made It.” But while that song is anxious, the main emotion in “People” is fury. And it’s not hard to miss the message, as Healy screams it in the chorus: “STOP FUCKING WITH THE KIDS.”

“Baby Boy” by Kevin Abstract

BROCKHAMPTON’s boy-band/hip-hop collective is too chaotic to have a true frontman. But if there is one, it would be Kevin Abstract. And the Texan rapper/singer’s 2019 solo album, ARIZONA BABY, was a stellar showcase of his talent.

“Baby Boy,” a cooing, soft love ballad, is the record’s best track. Between the gorgeous melodies and the left-of-center production and singing, it seems destined for the soundtrack of a quirky rom-com. And it’s nice to hear Abstract flex his R&B chops.

“Everybody Here Hates You” by Courtney Barnett

This loosie single by Melbourne’s finest indie rocker is classic Courtney Barnett. All the ingredients are there: deserty guitars, a shuffling groove, and Barnett charmingly speak-singing her sardonic lyrics. Barnett’s clearly notched a lane for herself with “Everybody Here Hates You.” And frankly, if she never leaves it and keeps making solid songs like this, I wouldn’t mind.

“Twist The Knife” by Chromatics

Speaking of consistently excelling in your specific soundscape — here’s Chromatics! “Twist The Knife” has all the off-key synths, ghostly Ruth Radelet vocals and general nocturnal, cinematic sound you’d want from the mysterious group. Perhaps the one major difference is the thumping, 808-heavy disco beat. But, like with Barnett, Chromatics’ sound is solidified by this point. And luckily, they’re still the masters at soundtracking nighttime drives.

“Arabesque” by Coldplay

Coldplay returned this fall with two singles. One was “Orphans,” which had a conventional Coldplay sound (sing-along chorus! aggressive perkiness!) to contrast with an unconventional Coldplay topic (refugees). 

The other was “Arabesque,” which sounds like nothing Coldplay have ever done before. It’s got a hard-hitting Afropop beat, a French interlude, Chris Martin dropping the f-bomb, and most amazingly, a sax solo that’s nearly two minutes long. It’s a weird, jazzy detour for the group — and it’s incredible.

“Falling” by Dude York

Seattle indie rockers Dude York wrote a song about a topic you don’t hear much often in music: romantic complacency. The couple in “Falling” isn’t a bad one — lead singer Claire England makes it clear that she’s having a great time. But she also calls the relationship “practical,” and describes it as a very casual, low-stakes romance. “Falling” brings up the question many long-term couples ask themselves: Weren’t there supposed to be butterflies? Is it bad if our relationship is more cozy than passionate? It’s an intriguing subject, backed by killer rock production.

“Tough Enough” by Ex Hex

Ex Hex’s sound is knowingly old-school. The rip-roaring El Camino-rock of “Tough Enough” could’ve easily been a Pat Benatar or Joan Jett single in the early ‘80s. And that’s what makes it great — who doesn’t love Joan Jett? “Tough Enough” isn’t something you have to think too hard about; it just kicks ass.

“Summer Girl” by HAIM

Asking HAIM to give you a sleek retro-pop song is like asking Spoon to give you a nervy indie rock single: they’ll deliver the goods. But the San Fernando Valley sisters gave their formula a few tweaks with “Summer Girl,” their best single since their 2013 debut.

Instead of their typically slick production, HAIM opted for a barebone, funky ‘70s groove. The vocals rarely go above a whisper. And the most prominent element of the song is a honking sax riff, which sounds like it comes straight from A Tribe Called Quest song. But all these changes don’t erase HAIM’s strongest quality: their solid-gold hooks. And you’ll be humming that doo-doo-do-do-doo chorus for days after hearing “Summer Girl.”

“Nice To Meet Ya” by Niall Horan

I had no expectations for former One Direction member Niall Horan’s new single this year. I didn’t love his previous white-guy-with-acoustic-guitar style, so I didn’t plan on enjoying his new stuff.

But “Nice To Meet Ya” thankfully ditches the acoustic guitar. It’s an extremely late-‘90s breakbeat banger. It’s less Ed Sheeran and more classic Robbie Williams. The song it really reminds me of is Republica’s deathless jock-jam classic “Ready To Go” — all propulsive energy and power. “Nice To Meet Ya” is a bit less aggressive, but it’s still a ton of fun and shows that Harry Styles isn’t the only One Direction alum that can produce a great solo track.

“Hey, Ma” by Bon Iver

At this point, Bon Iver can write these beardy arena-folk anthems in his sleep. But that doesn’t make “Hey, Ma” any less of a great update of that song. Amidst the occasional synth bloop and awkward Boomer-esque weed references (not sure anyone’s unironically said “toking on dope” in a while), the single features one of Justin Vernon’s greatest melodies. If anyone’s wondering how Bon Iver became one of the decade’s premier indie acts, the soaring chorus and powerful melody of “Hey, Ma” is an indicative example.

“Juice” by Lizzo

If it weren’t for a certain baggy clothes-wearing teen, Lizzo would’ve easily been 2019′s biggest breakout artist. But although “Good As Hell” and “Truth Hurts” were her biggest hits, those two songs came out way before 2019. Out of the songs that the Minneapolis popstar actually released this year, “Juice” is the perfect demonstration of her irrepressible charisma.

“Juice” is the best-possible combination of Bruno Mars’ retro-funk exercises and a defiant Kelly Clarkson anthem. Lizzo sounds like the most confident, extroverted person on the planet, slyly bragging about her and her friends’ prowess. It’s not quite on the level of “Uptown Funk,” but “Juice” is still too fun to resist.

“Sucker Punch” by Sigrid

“Sucker Punch” is just the latest edition of a wonderful musical tradition: the sleek, icy Swedish pop song! Wait...*checks notes* turns out Sigrid is actually Norwegian. A country that has less ABBA-style pop and more death metal.

But regardless of what part of Scandinavia she’s from, Sigrid’s “Sucker Punch” is still a textbook-perfect bubblegum single. With its bouncy vibe and explosive chorus, it almost sounds like a lost hit from 2011 or 2012 — a golden age for pop. Sigrid’s thick accent and energy just adds to the charm. Old-school synthpop isn’t in vogue anymore, but at least Sigrid is keeping it alive for now.

“Hurry On Home” by Sleater-Kinney

2019 was not Sleater-Kinney’s best year. The Olympia indie legends’ new album, The Center Won’t Hold, received lukewarm reviews. The momentum from their 2015 reunion was mostly sapped. And most critically, longtime drummer Janet Weiss, one of the best in the biz, quit abruptly, saying she was essentially told that she was no longer a “creative equal” in the group.

But at least the trio delivered one stone-cold Sleater-Kinney classic single before they imploded. “Hurry On Home” is a sleazy, thunderous hard rock jam that would’ve snugly fit on their last album, No Cities To Love. It’s got a bit more of a robotic groove, thanks to producer St. Vincent, but the crunchy guitars are still there. Carrie Brownstein’s sardonic vocals are still there. And that trademark Sleater-Kinney intensity is absolutely still there.

“Superbike” by Jay Som

Jay Som’s stellar 2017 debut album, Everybody Works, dabbled in dream pop, but also dipped its toes into many other subgenres. But the lead single of her sophomore album, “Superbike,” is pure hazy ecstasy.

“Superbike” has a bit of Alvvays in its DNA, particularly in the atmospheric guitars and whispered vocals. But Melina Duterte added a bit more California bliss to that formula. The track sounds like the soundtrack to a tranquil jog down the beach, with the sunrise in the background.

“God Is” by Kanye West

Kanye West can’t sing. He’s warbly and incredibly off-key. And that’s why I love it when he genuinely tries to do so.

Jesus Is King is a mediocre, one-note first draft of an album, but it still has its moments. And my favorite moment on the record is when West puts his lack of vocal talent on display. “God Is” features West trying his darndest to belt over a sample of gospel composer James Cleveland’s song of the same name. And he falls pretty flat on his face. But there’s something still powerful about that, like someone badly singing in church, but with so much conviction. It humanizes West.

[mint-sm]

LOS CAMPESINOS! REVIEW/ANALYSIS: No Blues

Ugh… I’m about to do a bad thing and probably make a lot of other Los Camp fans angry. If they actually read this, that is.

Okay, I want you to take a look at this cover art for a second. This kinda lush greenery flushed out with this pink-ish mist. It’s a little funny visual pun of the title of this album (Get it? No blues? Hah), and it probably does bring some form of atmosphere and interest to someone in the right mindset or just has a different taste in visual aesthetics… but I’m sorry, personally for me, it’s kinda flat. Not only is that pink that kind of flat-looking “millennial pastel pink,” but as a whole, this cover feels like it’s lacking contrast.

Honestly, it feels like a bit of an apt summation for the album itself: I can totally see the potential appeal to a certain crowd, and there might technically be nothing much wrong with it, but honestly, I can’t get into it despite it apparently getting a lot more positive response than something like “Romance is Boring.” I’m not trying to be resentful or anything, but it’s kinda confusing because while I can find a lot of arguments as to why “Romance is Boring” is so compelling, I can’t honestly find much about “No Blues” that explains why people love it so much, and it just doesn’t do it for me. That’s basically the “No Blues” right there. It don’t do it for me.

So remember in my first few Los Camp reviews how I said the band has 3 distinct eras? Reminder: “Hold on Now Youngster...” and about half of “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” were part of a “Twee Pop Era,” which then bled slightly into the “Noise Rock Era” with “Romance is Boring,” but it was immediately halted with “Hello Sadness,” and since then with this album and the next, “Sick Scenes,” we’ve been in a sort of “Mellow Alt Rock Era.” “No Blues” epitomizes this era very much, and it does signify a lot of the gradual changes to the band throughout the years that I can both appreciate, but also not.

On one hand, I’m really glad that Los Camp have changed their sound as pretty fluidly as they had. While I think I’ll always find their earlier works a bit more compelling, I’m glad to see that a crashing twee-rock band of college students in their 20’s is willing to grow up an adapt to something more mature-sounding and refined with a few more years to grow and personally develop, especially in a music scene that has kind of eschewed the music they had found previous success in, and have shifted to this sort of alt rock scene. One that has much cleaner production and mixing, one with slightly gentler guitars, tighter vocals, and more “grown-up,” much more self-aware themes.

I’m also glad that this was made during a point where Gareth Campesinos! finally seemed to reach a breakthrough and write lyrics and music that was especially HIM. Going once again back to “Youngster,” another reason why he’s not very fond of it was because of his lyrics, which he felt like was from a caricature of himself rather than himself-himself, and it felt rather dishonest or the like. Starting from “No Blues,” it seems Gareth has finally allowed himself to be as freely-moving and esoteric as he wanted, especially since the darkness of his 2011 personal history that resulted in “Hello Sadness” being the darkest album they’ve ever released no longer clouded him. I can totally respect that: he finally found a grip on the type of music that he wants to make, and the band was now free to reach its current goals, and that’s completely appreciable an artist.

MY PROSE IS PURPLE BUT NOT AS PRETTY AS LUCER-ER-ER-ERRRNE! / FOR SWEET NOTHINGS FROM THE LIPS OF A GARGOYLE, NOBODY EVER YEARNED /

HOWEVER... The problem that I immediately have with “No Blues” is that despite all of its admirable artistic intentions, it comes off as pretty pale and boring, to be honest. Musically and lyrically, this album just is not very compelling to me, because it honestly feels way too much of an attempt at the band going “Oh fuck yes, we’re done with being emo like in Hello Sadness, now we can actually write the music that we actually want to make!” But instead of it turning out somewhat adventurous, it feels both very crammed, rushed, and mildly inaccessible (for the band, anyway), and it’s done so in a way that it’s not only lacking diversity, but there’s almost no room for it to properly breathe, and as such just feels samey-sounding and choked a lot of the time.

Two terms I’ve used a lot regarding Los Camp’s discography are “dense” and “engaging,” and I think I need to specifically define what I mean by that. When I say “dense,” it usually means the music or the lyrics are compact with details, sometimes in like a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rate. This gives a lot of the albums a lot of their relistinability, and you’ll keep finding more and more creative and colorful little moments every time you listen to a song.

But something that you also need to tap on if you want to make them actually worth listening to again is that you have to make them “engaging,” and that comes as a result of a lot of things, such as making the music or lyrics properly digestible, building up empathy or sympathy, building up the listener’s interest in the topics you want to delve into, whether the listener is remotely interested in your topics, etc. It’s not an exact thing and it is very subjective, but unfortunately, I don’t feel that majority of “No Blues” really checks off any of those ticks.

With “No Blues,” what it often feels like is that the lyrics have become very dense, with some of the most obscure references to date -- lots of lyrics about other musicians’ lyrics, politics, obscure postmodernist novelists, constellations, Greek mythology in correlation to those constellations, and European football. Holy shit, European football is everywhere on this album -- but there’s nothing particularly engaging about it unless you actually give a damn about it, because as I mentioned with “Hello Sadness,” one of my bigger problems with it was that it lacked context.

PEOPLE LAUGH, THEY WILL CALL IT FOLLY / BUT WE CONNECTED LIKE A YEBOAH VOLLEY /

Yeah, these may be complex and esoteric metaphors, but not only do they end up being incredibly distracting for me as I have to manually figure out with almost every line what the hell emotion Gareth’s supposed to be conveying, but I have no real drive or motive to actually bother because it doesn’t really say anything as is (That “Yeboah volley” line above? Guess what that’s supposed to mean without googling it. Trust me, context doesn’t really help) In that regard, it’s actually making an even bigger flaw I had with “Hello Sadness” even worse: Los Camp’s first three albums were able to convey a smattering of different, sometimes diametrically opposing emotions. “Hello Sadness” reduced itself to be being more comfortable with trying to convey just one.

But “No Blues”? I can’t really find anything that personal or really that narrative or thematic about what’s going on here other than a really vague… I dunno, millennial liberation? Light humor? Mature upbeatness? This doesn’t feel confusing in the sense that “which one of these  many emotions should I be REALLY feeling?,” it’s more like “what is this one thing I’m supposed to latch onto? Whatever it is, it feels like I’m clutching at straws here.” Or more directly, it’s just one-half an emotion at best, and even then, there’s nothing very engaging or dynamic about it.

And that’s one of my biggest problems with the album as a whole, as well as why up to this point I really haven’t said anything about specific songs yet. It all feels rather flat and too clean for its own good, like a really sharp, hard glowing red, now being reduced into a flat, grayish pink. It might have a little bit more shine to it, but a lot of its actual vibrance has been lost, resulting in all the songs being mostly homogenous, unadventurous alternative indie rock that honestly doesn’t feel like it’s offering anything that new or unique as a now-turned alt-rock indie band. It may have shed the youthful problems that Los Camp themselves felt they were plagued with, but in the end it feels like a lot of that youthfulness is what made them so compelling, and now they’re just… boring.

THERE'S NO BOX TO TICK FOR RED, SO I PUT DOWN BLUE INSTEAD / 'CAUSE IT'S CLOSEST THERE'S TO GREY IN THE CATEGORIES / AND THE VEINS WITHIN THE WHITES ARE A STATEMENT OF DEMISE / DOE EYES, YOU SHOULD STAY AT HOME LICKING BATTERIES /

But I suppose I should get onto individual tracks. Like I said, a lot of it feels rather homogenous and unadventurous, and as such, a lot of it is pretty uninteresting to talk about since most of the tracks feel like they lack diversity, lyrically and sonically.

“What Death Leaves Behind” and “Cemetery Gaits” are I feel what are the album’s more “banger” tracks, but unfortunately, with the cleaner and more sterile production, a lot of it feels a little flaccid. Yes, Gareth’s voice is loud, the drums and guitars are wailing away, and you can totally tell when they’re trying to make the catchy standout moments, but that’s kind of the problem: I can totally expect what they’re doing at this point, and it doesn’t strike any chords for me.

They’re playing chords, they said their lines (which again, since they’re so obtuse a lot of the time, I can’t really hear them as anything except just words instead of, yknow, concepts or ideas), but it all sounds very generic and sanitized, and honestly very stuffed; since there’s not a lot of proper breathing room or actual relief, the progression of these songs are often very uneventful and unsatisfying. In these tracks especially, I don’t feel any sense of escalation, climax or relief despite SOME flatly-mixed-in additional instruments near the end; it all somehow sounds exactly the same and I’m like “Get the hell on with it already! Where’s the actual payoff?”

I feel bad drawing comparisons back to the band’s earlier works, but I kinda have to because it shows the band have been shown to be capable of definite satisfaction (hell, some tracks I’ll get to later on manage to pull this off). Those albums were messier and noisier, yes, but if I could describe them as like a texture, they would be like nice slabs of concrete pavement. Probably really gritty, but not unpleasant enough to walk on barefoot, and you’ll probably get a lot of different consistencies and feels depending on how it was paved, and overall it feels solid.

“No Blues” on the other hand just feels like a sheet of completely smooth, cheap plastic. Brittle, lacking in texture, and completely devoid of life despite it attempting to mimic a popular sound and style, but whether by design or by accident, it’s still cheap, hollow, and feels really artificial, but not even in like a PC Music/SOPHIE way where it’s also trying to be so whacked-out and alien and uncanny-valley-ish on purpose.

This trait also goes onto the slower moments, such as “A Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man” or “Glue Me” or “Selling Rope (Swan Dive to Estuary)”, which again, are not only not very musically adventurous, and they get kinda tedious and boring after a minute or so despite any sort of attempts at escalation or being dynamic, and the lyrics that could usually pick up that slack are really unengaging. I’m reading the lyrics, and I’m trying to find the many, many references in this album, but while I can understand them, I don’t “get” them, because I’m like “Okay? So?”

MAKE HIM RECITE THIS MURDER BALLAD / A SOMBRE TUNE TOLD BY A BORE / PUMP BLOOD AROUND THE LIMP AND PALLID / HARMONISING AS YOU SNORED /

However, I will say though, this album isn’t completely devoid of good ideas, because despite me saying this album doesn’t have a lot of standout moments, there are some good concepts here and there. While I think the rest of the song is kinda “meh,” “Cemetery Gaits” has a pretty neat intro, with that small swooping, kinda-windy and radio-wave-sounding soundscape matched with this little looping synth arpeggios, then gradually matched with a gradual increase instrumentation, like guitars, pianos, then finally just exploding with drums, it’s a great start to the track. It’s a shame that it doesn’t quite escalate any further than that, even with the introduction of Gareth’s vocals, multi-man chorus and that... ugh… millennial whoop near the end.

“As Lucerne/The Low” also starts of pretty well, and I think the verses actually do more in getting close to building a vibrancy that Los Camp was sorely needing, especially since the opening lines are just Gareth wailing “There is no blues that could sound quite as heartfelt as mi-i-i-iiine!”, just this wonderful bit of self-deprecating yet such sincere energy that I’ve missed for since previous albums, and is just one hell of an intro (I remember this was the first song of the concert I went to, and it was just like “Yep, that’s Los Camp!”). Unfortunately, by the time you get to the choruses, it all just slows down really awkwardly as all Gareth does is sing “Is what I came for… in the darkness I do adore… is what I came for” and it just doesn’t work, especially alongside those tropical steel drums. Yeah… I don’t really get it either.

I think one of the only tracks I love all the way through is the first one, “For Flotsam,” which admittedly does set a good first impression for the band’s new sound on the album. Refined and maybe a little too pristine, yes, but it actually covers a lot of range instrumentally and vocally, and actually feels like it has an actual atmospheric soundscape, and the mixing actually makes everything stick out a bit more.

Also, while the melody I probably should find monotonous and boring, especially with Kim’s looping vocals in the background that almost sound kinda artificial at times, it surprisingly flows really well, and it actually feels powerful and kinda… grooving at times. It’s got a really catchy hook, the melodies actually feel diverse, the lyrics are nowhere near as overly-ornate and distractingly referential as with other songs, and it provides both a satisfying rising tension AND also a satisfying climactic payoff, I love it.

FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND SPINDRIFT, ALL THE GIRLS I HAVE LOVED / DUMPED TO EARTH BY A SPENDTHRIFT, GILT ANGELS FROM ABOVE! / AND I SAW GOD IN THE BATHROOM, I BAPTISED HIM IN SICK / EMBRACED HIM AROUND HIS CISTERN, "C'EST LA MORT, ENOUGH OF THIS!" /

“Avocado Baby” is also a pretty good track, which also seemed to have a more compelling mix to it, and actually feels like a poppy “banger” track that does have more energy and a few more laughs to it that actually make sense without being a diehard football fanatic. The lyrics here feel a lot less overly-poetic than in other songs, and it manages to have a dense amount of wordplay in a way that’s both more easily digestible, but also pretty playful and kinda cute, especially for this era of Los Camp.

I HAD A FRIEND WHO HAD MADE A FLAG DAY / BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS FROM SHARDS OF A HEARTBREAK / I HAVE KNOWN FRIENDS TO CRACK FROM LOVE'S WEIGHT / BLOSSOM IN RIBCAGE, UNTIL THEIR BACKS BREAK! /

These two songs near the end, “Let It Spill” and “The Time Before the Last Time” also do manage to be a bit more accessible, and are more actually explicitly about something: Sex. Yay! But this being Los Camp, it’s played for a bit more awkwardness and comedy, one of my favorites being with this lyric in the latter song: “The shower-head moaned / and I looked down to the tray / Sons and daughters washed away.” Gross.

These actually do feel more instrumentally engaging as well. I love that descending, actually genuinely energetic and climactic chord progression for the chorus to “Let It Spill,” and that weirdly synthesized soundscape of “The Time Before the Last Time” actually feels both really refreshing, but also kinda beautiful and epic, and something that I honestly didn’t feel like I’ve heard Los Camp make before, but I’m glad they did.

LET IT SPILL, LET IT SPILL / LET IT SPILL ALL OVER US TWO / YOU'LL FIND ME UPSIDE DOWN IN THE BELFRY / 'CAUSE BABY, I'M BATS, IT IS TRUE /

I hesitate to call “No Blues” a “bad” album. I honestly do feel like I am missing something, especially when I write this among a sea of people who find that this album is one of Los Camp’s best. It has a lot of great ideas, and it even has a few really good songs, but the sum of its parts just isn’t making a compelling whole for me, and while I will still listen to those songs, there are a lot of parts of this album that don’t do it for my tastes.

I get the feeling that this really does come down to a lot of personal tastes and biases. I know that everybody has an equally valid opinion, but at the same time I kinda feel as though this album just wasn’t made for my person in mind, and in the end, it probably wasn’t. As I said earlier, this was basically Gareth deciding to go all irreverent and write the lyrics he wanted, and the band the music they wanted, and as it just so happens, it seems a lot of people genuinely appreciate it, so you know what, good for them; I’m glad they still have an appropriate audience (one that I can only assume are just as much football fanatics as most of the band is, and trust me, the football isn’t going to leave anytime soon).

Unfortunately, for me, I’m not that person. I’m less interested in Gareth’s referential humor and poetry and more for him being able to craft those conflicting mental mindscapes through standalone metaphors born from a deep sense of self-deprecating self-awareness, and in a way that anybody can really immediately sympathize with him. When he does come through with those moments in this album, I think it’s great, especially when the production becomes once again able to carry that emotion.

Sadly for me, most of the time, it does not, and what you get is like this weird plastic, beige box covered completely smoothly with a few symmetrical football-themed etchings onto it. If you have an appreciation for uniform, productive smoothness and those football-themed etchings, I won’t hold you back from appreciating it, but as for me, it’s just kinda “meh.” And that’s a shame. (2/5)

FAVES: “For Flotsam”, “Avocado, Baby”, “Let It Spill”, “The Time Before the Last Time”

[clippedwingsmusic]

Interview with The Band Camino

After the success of their latest single, “Daphne Blue”, The Band Camino have hit the road supporting Ben Rector around the US! We got the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with Graham, Spencer, and Jeffery of the band to discuss everything from new music to Halloween costumes!

You just recently released ‘Daphne Blue’, and it sounds a bit different than the rest of your catalogue, what was the main drive behind the song?

Spencer: I think we just wanted to show our versatility as a rock band because we put out “Fool of Myself” in May of this past year and that’s very heavily pop with not much guitar work. We wanted to show our diversity as a rock band that leans pop, so we really felt like we needed a rock banger.

Jeffery: It’s really hard to start a band when you’re trying to encompass a variety of sounds, but we’re not trying to paint ourselves into a corner with our sound. “Daphne Blue” worked out more rock and it’s just because that’s how we are, not that we were trying to make it that way. Spencer has been playing that guitar lick for at least over a year in soundcheck so we’ve all heard him play it a million times. We finally sat down and did a co-write with 2 of our manager’s friends, who are amazing writers, for our first ever co-write. We wrote it in about 2 hours and we were like “Cool, I guess we can record this!”.

Following the release of that single, is there another EP or possibly a full-length on the way?

All: Yes!

Graham: We’re definitely working on new music.

Jeffery: We’ve been in the studio, we’ve recorded songs this year and last year, we’ve written a ton, but we’re still a new band and we’re trying to make sure we don’t fuck anything up from the get go.

Spencer: There’s new music on the way in the next 6 months.

Jeffery: There will be new music this year.

With the cover of your latest single you’ve started introducing color into your album art. Is there a specific reason or story behind the sudden shift from black and white to color?

Jeffery: Yes. I think we don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner and think we /have/ to do black and white-and there’s also a few bands similar to us that have done the whole black and white thing then suddenly jump to color and we don’t want to one day just be like “Alright everything is in color now”.

Spencer: One of our strengths is that we march to the beat of our own drum in a way. We still obviously draw influences from a bunch of other bands but that doesn’t stop us from pushing the envelope as far as what we think we should do with our band.

Before leaving for this tour with Ben Rector, you guys were out on a headline tour in the South. What was the energy like for you being able to play some smaller rooms around where you’re from?

Graham: Oh it was hype. There were a lot of people every night even in the smaller towns we had never been to before.

Spencer: It was sick.

Jeffery: It was a breath of fresh air really. We’ve been a band for 3 years now and the first 2 years was us grinding our asses off playing headline shows where people slowly started coming to see us. Last Fall was us headlining all over the country, just the 4 of us in a van with no manager and no booking agent and sometimes there would be 10 people there and sometimes there would be 200. We were learning and figuring out what we were doing, but now in 2018 we have a manager and a booking agent and it’s become a bigger machine but now we’re opening, so those headline shows were our first ones in almost a year. Headlining is kind of a way to see where you’re at and getting to see where we are and seeing the tangible reward after working so hard and putting out songs was encouraging.

Graham: The first time we headlined it was very sporadic, but this time it was very consistent which was super encouraging.

Spencer: It’s really nice to see that there are people waiting for us to do stuff and headline shows.

You guys relocated from Memphis to Nashville a while ago. Relocation can spark a whole range of emotions in even the least creative of people. Do you think any of these emotions carried over in to the music you’ve written/recorded since?

Graham: The most basic thing is that we got to move to a bigger city with a larger industry because of what we are doing as a band, and that alone is really inspiring. Even on your days off you’re just sitting at home thinking “We’re in this house because we’re in a band!”.

Jeffery: And we’ve all lived in Memphis our whole lives, so for the first 23 years of my life that’s all i knew. It’s really surreal because even what Graham was saying, on the days that you’re not really doing anything you’re still like “......We’re here”. As far as emotions, I feel like it’s completely different because it’s harder to write when I’m happy. I feel like it’s so much easier to write when I’m upset about something. It’s nice to be able to just lay it all out and that’s made it pretty hard since moving to Nashville because it’s been up and down.

Spencer: We’re only 5 or 6 months into it (living in Nashville), but it is definitely bringing out a lot of inspiration and emotion and that’s what writers need to write.

Graham: The thing about Nashville is that you can’t go into it thinking “I’m going to be the best.” because there are always people coming and being better so you just need to hone in on being the best at your niche thing.

Over the past 3ish years of being a band, what have you learned about yourselves either as artists or as people?

Spencer: A lot. I think more than anything, I love that we’ve all found something that we’re all equally as passionate about and believe in. We’ve been through all the tough times together and all the cheesy, cliche stuff, but it’s truly changed our lives to be able to work on a passion project and also have it be your career.

Graham: These 3 years have also been the most formative as people, so that alone has had us growing together as a band and as friends. Touring is a rollercoaster of emotion so one moment you’re thinking about playing a huge room then the next you’re upset about not having a soundcheck. I guess for me I’m just learning how to stay level and push forward because we’ve been through so much together.

Jeffery: I think for me, I’ve learned to be honest with myself. Doing this has given me so much more perspective on what I want, who I want to be, and why I’ve always wanted to do this. Getting to do this and reflecting on it has just changed my perspective. When you get what you want it’s always a weird feeling. When you get to do what you love you start thinking “Why do I get to do what I want and so many other people don’t?” You kinda feel unworthy but at the same time you know you’ve worked your ass off for this. It’s a weird conundrum of feelings to be doing what you really want to do.

Do you see yourselves being a band that focuses more on their live show versus their recorded music? When you’re writing/recording are you always conscious of how things will translate on the road?

Jeffery: Definitely both, we’re really torn.

Spencer: I think we think less about the live show because it comes more naturally to us than the recording has. Before we had the recordings really solid, we always had the energy live.

Graham: Memphis is a very old school town, so we always say that you can’t suck live because people will know. In some places artists are allowed to have more substance and it can be a vibe kind of thing but we couldn’t get away with that stuff so we always had to be focused on the live show. When we record we are very much thinking about how to play the song live, but we’re not going to sacrifice something because we can’t play it live.

Jeffery: I think that “My Thoughts on You” was the first song where the first thing we said when we recorded it was “We can’t play this live, there’s only 4 of us.”, but we knew that the song needed certain things so we’re not going to short-change the song just to be able to play it live. That’s kinda when we started using tracks live but we’re also playing our asses off on stage.

Spencer: We pride ourselves in the fact that if the tracks cut out we would still sound like us.

Are there any releases this year (music or otherwise) that have made you delve deeper into your art or want to create more? If so, which ones?

Spencer: No Rome has been hot.

All: Phoebe Bridges!

Jeffery: I remember Graham calling me and being like “You need to listen to this!!”. Over the past year, I’ve listened to that album everyday. Phoebe Bridges is unbelievable.

Spencer: She’s just so believable.

Jeffery: She’s connected to the sadness, man.

Graham: I also really like 5 Seconds of Summer’s new album.

Spencer: Charlie Puth’s new record too.

This tour is going to continue through Fall and almost into Winter, so we have a very important question: What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

Graham: That’s my favorite holiday!!

Jeffery: Someone was telling me the other day that I need to be the guy from The Wild Thornberrys (Donnie Thornberry) but I could also do Shaggy.

Graham: I’d want to be Velma.

Spencer: We wanted to go as the Beach Boys last year, but in bathing suits, so it’d be really really vague Beach Boys.

Jeffrey: We’re taking suggestions so just send us an e-mail at theband@thebandcamino.com and tell us what you think we should dress up as for Halloween!!

https://thebandcamino.com

https://twitter.com/thebandcamino

Written by Ashton Carr

[subjectsilver]

my psyche and wormy be ruthless sometimes.

originally i told myself that i was only going to use tumblr every sunday to log what has happened throughout the week or anything noticeable or note worthy but i literally need to type this right now because I'm losing my goddamn mind and on the verge of a panic attack...i can feel my chest tightening and my heart has such a “funny” feeling that isn't so funny so idk why they call it that... its like a light feeling like when u get light headed - i feel light hearted rn

the absolute worst part about my depression is that it literally just comes and goes whenever it wants. obviously theres things that help trigger it, a song a picture of my ex friends snapchats, any object that i can play connect the dots with back to a single thought that can disrupt my entire mental.

and it hit me tonight and it hit me hard and tonight I'm trying not to run away from it. I'm not going to go smoke cigarettes and listen to music until 5 am I'm trying to just type what is going on instead of like holding it into my head. or type something at least. the thing about it is that whenever it hits me, i always find a way to make it so much worse.... like i see just the right combination of words or objects to sink me or look at pictures of emma and even though i know its hurting me i continue to do it anyway....maybe its because in that moment I'm actually feeling something, she is making me feel something just like she use to in the past. i really valued that until i became too grey and numb and hopeless.

i feel like throwing up

i used “ex” up there and  makes me feel really uneasy i haven't used it very much at all mainly because i have to explain myself to anyone here and I've only told a few people what is going on with me. That was good thought because i have a friend named hank who went through some shit too so he kind of connects with me but still not a person i would talk to about shit...i don't really have anyone for that so i don't really know... sometimes i type it all and erase it, sometimes i make songs, sometimes i say it out laid sometimes i just cry.

i started taking prozac 3 days ago this will be the fourth, so hopefully that'll help  me. Im still underweight as fuck but oddly I'm comfortable with it bc i like the way my shirts feel and clothes fit, unfortunately i need to gain like 20 pounds if i want to exist on this soccer team which is kinda mad. I was going to suggest leaving wake because i don't really even care to play soccer rn. and i realized a while back that all i needed was in ohio... like i had the best friends the girl of my dreams and i could've had a 1st year internship paying between 40-70k at some health company under my step dad... its kinda shitty because its something i wanted to tell everyone and i would always think about how disappointed my dad would be and how supportive my mom would be but something told me not do make moves with any of it. its like the universe knew i was going to go through some shit. like it knew i was gonna get low and the perfect image of life i had in my head up. like bitch u thought you'd plant roots,,,nahhhhhhtttt  

i keep listening to this song on repeat

https://soundcloud.com/yvpoipoi/maxence-cyrin-where-is-my-mind

but the real is back the ville is back

i fucking hated listening to cole until like 2 weeks ago. it was so annoying listening to cole bc of hani playing it literally all the time. when things like that get annoying they because white noise to me. but recently i went through his 3 most recent projects and actually listened heavily to the words and that shit is crazy.

i also have been paying a lot of attention to jay z and beyonce. i guess jay z had an affair or some shit and ten he and “once” went back and forth on songs about it... but i read this quote by him where he was like “our relationship was built on top of lies, and i had to tear it down and build it back up again and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.” thats the kind of shit that gives me hope in the world of relationships. I've accepted that its probably false hope but ill hold onto anything the keeps me going at this point...

my suicidal thoughts haven't been present the last few days but i never know if and when those will come back. to be truthful I've been stacking up on things in my camera roll that give me up for when I'm feeling low.

the light hearted feeling has subsided, i just realized it. i kinda of ignore all grammatical practices when i write freely. i just go with my own language because i feel like its more personal ya know. someone i know annotates her own letters that she use to write me and i always loved that shit because i have so many side thoughts when i write as well.

luke christophers album finally came out and what do you know 5 of the songs had already been released and some like a year ago so its barely anything knew but it still has new music and bangers so i do appreciate the legend himself. after seeing his hair blonde on the cover idk if I'm going to keep growing my hair black or re-dye it. maybe ill keep it blonde until i feel like I'm above 80% better or something  right now i feel about -7% (if i could annotate that line id tell you that i originally wrote -7 person instead of percent then i autocorrected person then backspaced it to a symbol) 

the last few days I've felt really weak though and I've been sleeping a lot like two days ago i got like 11 hours and yesterday i got like 10 and I've been taking naps during the day. but I've constantly felt like I've had low blood sugar or that I've been dehydrated or something. i can't even make a fist and squeeze that hard.

its crazy because when i type anything about myself ever i just start tearing up for no reason...happy thoughts sad thoughts dark thoughts i could be writing about my microwave and be tearing up. and i do it a lot with emma or my best friends or my ex and ex best friends idk what anyone is to me anymore. been too focussed on trying to survive, which i feel is the correct selfish thing to do for once.

“don't give a fuck and they love you do give a fuck and they hate you - I'm always gone be there for you”

this man luke in onto something

its crazy that i will leave my phone in my room from 7:30 am to 7-8 at night and the only notification that ill get is “your phone hasn't been backed up in 57 weeks” or some shit like that. occasionally ill receive a random text from someone but its funny because sometimes on the inside ill be screaming like “PLEASE SOMEONE TALK TO ME” and then it happens and its like nah.. i thought i sent out an amber alert but really I'm sending out a batman bat symbol. i thought i needed anyone to talk to, but in reality i just need one singular person to talk to. that was my mistake, will always be my mistake but at least i recognize it now...just a little late there big guy.

having so much time to myself probably too much time to myself is really interesting...if you've ever thought that you've done real reflection, submerge yourself in complete loneliness and isolation and try again because its so much deeper. you think about everything. every individual relationship, every right every wrong multiple perspectives. you think about all of your problems and the root to your problems.  all of your mistakes why u caused these mistakes or what caused these mistakes. its actually really shitty because the bad will always stick out more than the good because the good is what is suppose to happen and the bad is the variable...variables get more attention than the constants i feel. deep down i don't think I'm a shitty human being.. even though i might think that a lot or hate myself...ik I'm only human and i can't be perfect and as much as id love for everyone to love me and me to not hurt anyone its more than likely unrealistic and it'll happen to me and already has happened to me and now i understand that and i will be more forgiving as i go on in life, the same forgiveness id want people to give me.

i use to think that everything had to work in reciprocality like for some reason i always thought everything should be equal all of the time..but i was extremely wrong, some people need more some people need less some people expect things and if they mean anything to you, the extra effort should hinder you or disrupt you...every human has a different way of looking at relationships and when those ways collide and don't add up it creates problem. I'm not saying people should give up in what they believe in but people should be less harsh about it... i know people who should be less harsh on me and i know people that i will be less harsh on and who i would be less harsh on if i could go back in time.

i tried to think about why I'm so afraid of butterflies and i can't really think of what happened along the way that got me here but i think the very root is the movie “butterfly effect” I'm also pretty sure they are remaking that movie into a 2018 version and ill probably go scare the fuck out of myself while seeing it.

my anxiety was gone until thinking about butterflies 

i tried to explain a fear of butterflies to this kid named mike and i sounded like an absolute idiot and then his response was “does this scare you” and it was the close up of a butterfly from this spongebob episode and i can't get it out of my head.... i think the video is called “wormy close up”

 fuck wormy

usually id think something so symmetrical was beautiful seeing has my old tendencies make me love symmetrically and i do things in that way like when i touch my feet to surfaces and shit bc i feel all neat and organized but i don't like that every butterfly ever is symmetrical as fuck...like show why what the hell. and i want to watch a video on it but i don't want to go into shock or some shit.

and they have wings that flap which is what i hate about bugs in general.

to be fair though i do like butterflies that have bright blue or white wings cus i use to see those a lot as a kid when my backyard was a golf course. but my vision of a butterfly with like brown wings and black borders gahhhh fuck that....id weather let a centipede crawl on me from head to toe than a butterfly land on me to put in in perspective. 

idk man i think this post has done for me what i thought it would do what i intended it to do...i have to be up in like 3 and a half wish hours then run for an hour then ill take a solid nap for like 5 hours or just sleep pt.2 but i must be going... until next time or sunday.

i love you

fuck wormy

goodnight

[surge42-blog]

StereNOtype

As the world around us change from politics, fashion, social issues etc so does the music we listen to. Today my fellow followers...oh wait, I have no followers so I guess I'm talking to myself right now...oh well, I would like to talk about the impact of stereotypes on hip-hop music. NERDY GEEKS & GEEKY NERDS --- Recently during yet another hip-hop related debate I saw someone in the comment sections say he doesn't like a rapper whose name I will not disclose is only for nerds...and he meant it in a bad way, and with the ambiguity of the words nerd and geek it was safe to say he referred to both of these words. His viewpoint was rather preposterous and here is why: Nerds/Geeks that are not part of the NERDCORE rap genre have been killing it in the rap game. Let me go way back to the 90's. In the East Coast, in New York to be precise, rose a hip-hop supergroup by the name of The Wu-Tang Clan. One of rap's best hip-hop collectives if not the best, the de facto leader of the group, RZA, has made it no secret that he is a Nerd/Geek. Before some guy hits me with a "how sway?" line let me explain. RZA has another side to him, an alter ego called Bobby Digital, his geeky/nerdy persona, but aside from the Bobby Digital stuff (I love saying Bobby Digital), RZA is already am extremely smart emcee, he loves comic books and watching martial arts flicks even incorporating it into his rap collective (in true otaku/fan boy fashion). Next on the list is Kanye West, the man who paved the way for future generations of nerds and geeks in the industry. At a time when rap was all about braggadocio and that street life, Kanye on the other hand took a different approach. He wanted to be true to himself as a geek/nerd so he thought "Since I ain't a gang banger how about I go with what I have". Years later Ye has cemented his spot as a legend. Soon many followed such as Lupe Fiasco with Food & Liquor, The Cool, and Tetsuo & Youth under his belt, and Childish Gambino with Camp, Because The Internet under his. And who can leave out Tyler, the Creator out of the equation? Heck even the now popular Lil Uzi Vert is a nerd/geek as referenced by his love for anime and the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim. QUEER EYE FOR THE RAP GUY --- Sexuality is one of the more cringeworthy topics to have amongst people,a topic many shy away from. I had a chat with a friend a while back about Frank Ocean, he would listen to Blonde a lot but be confused about "certain" lines. I explained to him that Frank Ocean is and always has been gay and never his it from anyone. At this realization he said "I'm deleting this album" and I did a mental smh when he said that. As we know rap is seen as the type of music thats heavily filled with braggadocio, machismo, and whatever other masculine phrase there is. In recent years we've seen the likes of Jaden Smith wear dresses, Young Thug wearing a dress on his album cover, and now rompers are now creeping into male society. A lot of people see these things and call it "gay" and use it as a reason to belittle a rappers music. Gay has been associated with weakness or in the case of rap weakness in lyrics as well. Last year (2016) we saw the rise of Young M.A (is it em aye? Or ma?) a lesbian femcee, she came into the mainstream with OOOUUU which has been remixed left and right and we gotta admit her cypher on BET slapped. We have Chance The Rapper's younger brother and fellow rapper, Taylor Bennett, open up about his sexuality (he's bisexual just so you know, even ILoveMakonnen has admitted to being bisexual. Former Black Eyed Pea, Fergie, is also bisexual...heck Angel Haze is pansexual for crying out loud and their music is good. They are examples that there is hope in the LGBTQ society in the industry. BLACK TO THE FUTURE --- Ahh and last but not least is the topic of race. Original "rap" was a fast spoken poetry used long ago that even Shakespeare might've dropped some bars himself back in his time. Modern rap emerged from New York as a form of expression by black people. Rap was that edgy sound equivalent to rock music, it was an infectious sound, but it wasn't a white sound. When Vanilla Ice picked up the mic we were not given some country tune or any guitar riffs but were given rap's funniest figures. No one expected Mr. Ice-Ice-Baby to even reach plastic, he went as far as reaching 7x platinum with no features. But one day a boy from the motor city itself, Detroit, Michigan came up, carried on the shoulders of Dr. Dre, it was none other than Eminem. The Rap God as he is referred to, in my youth I recall seeing him and Dre dressed up as Batman and Robin, and I giggled at "Ass Like That". But he has showed us that white people go hard too, we've seen an increase in white rappers such as Machine Gun Kelly, Slim Jesus, G-Eazy, and Lil Dicky (lol he said dicky). An interesting specimen is Logic, although not many will admit it some folks harbor hatred for Logic because they see him as the white kid who so trying too hard to be black (glares at Just on Bieber), some comparing him a cheap imitation of Cole and Kendrick for various reasons. This specific hate on Logic is, dare I say, illogical. In reality Logic's mother is white while his father is black. This is the exact same thing with J.Cole and Drake, both have white and black parents but people are fine with them because their features lean more towards the black side as opposed to Logic who looks more white than black. Bottom line here is that rap music is more than just boasting about women consuming your phallic body part, how manly you are, or how gangsta you are, it's a form of expression of the individual, like interpretive dance...but for the voice instead. Scroll down my tumblr for more articles and follow me....please follow me, I can't keep talking to myself like this lol.