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new Parannoul single 'Gold River' goes hard. Didn't this guy announce that he's retiring or something like that after 'After The Magic' or am I completely misremembering? If so, he changed his mind hard because apparently we're getting TWO new albums in 2024. Good for us, I guess. I'll take it, I really enjoyed 'After The Magic', went back to 'Next Part of the Dream' afterwards and dug that a lot too. Something about the vibe of the music this guy makes. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside, even though I have no idea what he's singing about (but that was never an issue between me and shoegaze lmao).
new beabadoobee single 'Take A Bite' has nice very nice vibe, very 'turn of the millennium' kind of post-britpoppy rock music, in the vein of Natalie Imbruglia's 'Torn'. New album coming this year, apparently produced by Rick Rubin? So, it's either gonna be great or a stinking pile of garbage.
new Hinds single 'Boom Boom Back' is fine. Nothing special. They do here what they do well and surprise, it works again. I did expect a bit of a shakeup after half their members left but the fact that very little changed might say something about the influence and input the bass player and drummer had on their music and why they may have decided to leave. No idea, pure speculation.
new Wand single 'Smile'. I think I need to get into this band. I've been fucking with 'Flying Golem' and 'Melted Rope' for years but never found the time to really get deeper into their discography (I mean it never really occurred to me that that's something I could do lmao). Really loving this very gazy new single, that noodly lead guitar with that chunky tone especially (as a fellow noodler, I was won over quickly). Idk, I love me a 7 minute long subdued shoegaze odyssey through the night. Vibe gives 'The Bear season 3 soundtrack'.
new Our Girl single 'Relief'. These guys dropped one of my fav albums of the past 10 years in 2018 with 'Stranger Today' and then disappeared (listen to 'Two Life' or 'Josephine' or 'Level' or the whole album while you're at it). Lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Soph Nathan is the guitarist of The Big Moon and I'm guessing that band actually pays the bills, so I get it but oh man, I'm so hyped to have this band back! This new single is not quite blowing my mind (it's good but it's a bit too clean) but either way I'm so excited for this long overdue 2nd album.
new PRONOUN single 'i haven't felt like me' is fine. Cute lyrics but production is a bit bland. Song gives 'if post-Heartthrob Tegan & Sara were British'. I really liked their debut from 2019 but most of what I have heard since has left me somewhat unimpressed. Not necessarily bad, just very shrug inducing.
been listening to the St. Vincent album on repeat. The few songs I wasn't quite vibing with I've come around to. Wasn't digging that pacific island vibe on 'So Many Planets' for example and 'Sweetest Fruit' was definitely a bit too goofy for my taste but nah, I was stupid, these are great. That Scooby Doo af guitar solo on the former especially is so unhinged in the best possible way. Like, that's a guitar solo only someone like Annie has the balls to actually use in a song lmao. Still on the fence re: 'The Power's Out'. Idk, it's just way too long and feels way longer than it is. Otherwise, no notes. That run from the opener all the way up to and including 'Violent Times' is incredible. 8,5 burn victims out of 10.
I definitely recommend getting more into Wand! They're so good. I'm super excited for the new album!
I'm also with you on the new St. Vincent. I've been playing it a ton ever since it came out!
pacific island vibe, like Island In The Sun?
more like Disney's Talespin
I've been digging the new St Vincent too, lotta great guitar moments on it.
Looks like Sharon Van Etten is doing something for Are We There’s 10th anniversary
holy shit I love that album. Maybe it's a covers thing with other artists covering her songs, like she did for 'Epic' a few years back.
You can shit talk radiohead for days, very easy band to bully
But you gotta give them a tip of the hat for having song lengths that dont piss you off. The fab five (and clive) really do love the 4 minute arena. This is perhaps why the Smile having cuts that repeatedly go over 5 minutes to do some wankery edging gtr noodling feels actively detrimental. Also, it does not help that the decision to sound "like dry cleaning or an NBA act but smellier" truly embellishes a level of "british grey" that while Radiohead could succeeded in wearing as a suit of armor, the Smile simply succumbs to. Incredibly gorgeous sounding stuff on Side A that repeatedly misses the mark. Listening to this makes me feel like (cope) there is an active desire to save good cuts, arrangements, and psych prog for Radiohead LP10 if/when the day comes
My Radiohead hot take is that The Bends is their best record
I could not agree more. It's perfection
Thank you for saying something that doesn't even register as debatable to me but just a general truth that all lads should hold in their heart
The Bends is a very close second to this! (Lewis (Mistreated)) makes all the difference
Even Radiohead's longer songs (thinking Ful Stop) are more engaging than some of the songs on Wall of Eyes. I don't think Thom's giving it his best with the Smile and I'm totally fine with that if he's saving his best for LP10. Fwiw I loved the first Smile album and I'm not really sure what changed between then and now but they went in a super weird direction and killed any hype I had for the band
Ful Stop is a great example of a cut that also could fit into the larger The Smile world and yet...it's just a better overall jam. There's an anger and a precision in the build up that especially makes the back half actually feel rewarding, like somthing just slipped out of thom's reach. brilliant simmering end!
I find both albums to generally be "listenable and doing a fine job" but when Radiohead is basically my bible that means this is sacrilege so I have to get the dump truck out on 'em! First album genuinely felt like Radiohead LP 9.5 with some 00s rock winks that this album is leaning into more...but in a way that implies "we can only get to doing 00s rock if we keep jamming like we're making Dollars and Cents in '99" and oh lordy it feels weird after stumping for like 6+ years on TKOL to have an album doing THIS kind of jam is somehow a monkey paw moment; like genuinely this is R&D instead of the avant-jam TKOL mumbled its way thru to great affect. shit makes me truly thankful for the abstract pissery of Feral and how much of a monster they can make it in an arena. there is nothing here like that god lordy
I saw so many people saying that they preferred Wall of Eyes to A Light for Attracting Attention, and I just could not agree at all! I was so into the first Smile album: I listened to it regularly, played certain songs on repeat, saw them live and had a blast, etc. For some reason Wall of Eyes just didn't grab me like that, sadly. I like some of the songs, but as a whole I ended up feeling unexpectedly disappointed. I don't even know what my problem is, but I agree that there's just something not as engaging about it.
this is the other thing...like I've yet to genuinely hear an Ingenuine, Harrowdown Hill, Not the News, Hearing Damage, even a Dawn Chorus level solo cut on the album that makes me go "thom's falsetto and this batch of lyrics mends perfectly to the sound". the sound on this album is wonderful, I think these guys are recording solid instrumentals, but Radiohead is one of the few acts where I actually cared about lyrics in the song and it just feels so grey, so sullen.
Yes, I definitely hear ya! Pana-vision did that for me on the first album, but really nothing on WoE even came close to hitting that. I do like the songs enough for the most part, but they just kind of went in one ear and out the other. Maybe I need to listen to it more. I'm just not used to not having an instant favorite song on a Radiohead-related release!
Too ballad-y, the whole thing is slow cuts except 3 songs. I agree, I love the first album.
Yeah, there definitely was a lot more variety on the first album, which really worked for me. I'm glad to find at least a couple other people who feel the same way -- I was having that "what am I missing here?!" feeling in a big way when Wall of Eyes was released!
anybody got recs for some gooey raunchy glazed smelly funky guitar pop?
like SWV mixed david sylvian mixed with prefab sprout mixed with d’angelo
Beck - Hollywood Freaks
Prince - P. Control
Suzie Thundertussy
Beat Detectives - New Sex Tape (Vocal)
Parliment - Supergroovalisticprosifunktification (prolly spelled this wrong)
oddball > Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls (Fila Brazillia Mix)
have no idea if these qualify but here's some you might like:
Betty Davis - Nasty Gal
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Mambo Nassau
Fernanda Abreu - SLA Radical Dance Disco Club
Seratones - Power
Seratones - nice!
lizzy is such a good call here i feel
The Last Dinner Party - Portrait Of A Dead Girl
golly I like the guitar sounds in this thing
Chocolate Genius Inc - Black Music perhaps?
this is tasty
can we just give a blanket rec to RevCo? Or Thrill Kill Kult? Neither of these are the correct answer rlly, even slyvian's the first day sorta feels like an almost-right but wrong answer, but the funk bone, the ass-shaking mentality, its all there
Brainiac's Hissing Prigs? Thomas Dolby's solo albums for EMI?
yes yes looking for dolby-esque, love brainiac but too noisy
a better description: TOPS but consistent and made by take-your-pick-of-80s-pop-studio-savant-producers
what if the answer is just Helmet's Meantime? "raunchy glazed smelly funky guitar pop" BARELY fits here
More likely: damn im not entirely stumped but I am stumped bc I know this particular thing yr looking for is an extension of scritti (and sophistipop) tendencies sorta. a lot of electric funk MIGHT work here but isn't quite the call (Mirda Rock in particular is real glazed and smelly)
honestly? what about stevie ray vaughn? i feel like texas flood is also a close "but not quite" necessary answer here
🚨yup yup
i feel like there’s gotta be something out there that’s got the presicion of scritti, depth of sophistipop sonics but with guitars, it’s such an obvious formula! it’s like you either get pure jangle with aztec or felt or whoever OR you get the folks who tossed their guitars either to the back of the mix or out the window
Low are so so so so great. Great band.
Listened to mewithoutYou's Brother, Sister - I really like how this band sounds. Very moody. Generally lyrics don't catch on for me during a first listen of an album but this was definitely an exception. Very vocals-forward and I think the lyricism is pretty compelling. Looking forward to their other albums, that I will get to, at some point.
Yea
Listen to Catch For Us the Foxes when you can, it’s my favorite album of all time and more explicitly post hardcore and moody than Brother, Sister
I can talk about mewithoutYou for days. I have a Brother, Sister tattoo! It's All Crazy... is an interesting outlier but really solid. Ten Stories is definitely their most conceptual. I mean I recommend all of their stuff really. Bummer they're no more cause they're also amazing live.
I'm not religious but I always get fascinated by religious imagery and Aaron's lyrics I think are some of the most poetic and profound stuff. Hope you enjoy digging through their stuff.
Also, Low, is indeed amazing.
Went to see Sweet Pill last night, with Equipment and Taking Meds.
● Taking Meds hit the stage first. They played about a half an hour of straight ahead super catchy earworms. Emo sure, but really just a rock band with hooks galore. I really dig the Dial M For Meds album, and they played the bulk of it. I love how straightforward the songwriting is here, just good songs. Sound was ok...guitars too low in the mix and the whole thing too fuzzy, so the vocals were fairly buried. Still lots to like about this set.
● Equipment was up next. I hadn't gotten around to listening to them before the show, so I had no expectations. They were fun. The most Emo of the Emo bands of the night. These guys make me feel like it's 1999 and I'm listening to an opener for The Promise Ring. Energetic, big hooks, occasional finger tapping guitar work. Sound was ok, the lead guitar mostly buried in the mix unfortunately. They played about 45 minutes. I enjoyed it.
● After a bit of technical difficulty, Sweet Pill hit the stage opening with their best song - Where The Heart Is.
●If you know these guys and their music, you know it is big and bombastic. They hit the stage with big, big energy and damn, they are TIGHT. The 2 guitarists make the mathy intricacies look easy. The rhythm section is locked in. Zayna is dynamic and engaging, but struggles with hitting the notes. She's totally in it. Loves the scream sing but loses her breath at times. I wouldn't say her performance was lacking, but the voice is an instrument - she hasn't mastered hers the way the rest of the band has.
●Zayna is chatty, and she loves engaging with the crowd. A lot of bands talk about their connection with their fans, the kinship they feel, the love and acceptance. You get the feeling she really means it. There was maybe a little too much, as the set was short and a lot of it was talking and not playing, but I also get the feeling this was a way of recovering before singing the next one.
●Soundman was spot on for this band. No notes.
● All in all, they were pretty great. They only played about 45 minutes, no encore which was a bit of a bummer. They didn't play the newest song. But what we did get was a blast of loud, dynamic, catchy, energetic, tight, fun music.
● The Emo journey continues on Sunday when I go see pioneers of the genre Sunny Day Real Estate play Diary.
● also, I'm loving this Snarls album, With Love,. Produced by Chris Walla (whose last production outing was DMD fave The Ratboys The Window), it's just a little indie girl rock record.
sdre writeup better turn me into a born again christian
Church of Excellence!
Highly anticipating the SDRE write up after you see them.
Gonna try to check out Taking Meds and Equipment at some point today too.
in an effort to escape this hypnagogic singer/songwriter orbit, I put Windy & Carl Consciousness, Pixies Surfer Rosa, and Lucy Rose This Ain't The Way You Go Out in the rotation. oh yeah also the Jerry Garcia & David Grisman album So What. the song The Racket by Lucy Rose is delightful, I didn't expect an R&B album from Lucy Rose but that's what I got (I think)
Bout to spin Friko's album again. I listened to it a few times when it came out, and remember enjoying it. But this has been a high volume year for music listening for me, and I kind of forgot how good this album might be, as 2024 has had many great releases since!
Glad to hear you’re going back to Friko’s Where we’ve been, Where we go from here (out now via ATO Records!). It really is poetic, explosive and sublimely raw in feeling! My favourite song is “Crimson to Chrome” which maintains the record’s combustible energy while being an exultant yet downhearted track. It landed on Pitchfork’s “selects” playlist and held the No. 1 spot on the Sirius XMU spot for three weeks! What’s your favourite Friko song?
Out of curiosity, how's their live show?
High energy and fantastically disorienting in its emotional arc!
i like the one where he says "CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL"
By far my favorite running gag on indieheads this year lol
I'm totally out of the loop so I thought that comment was serious. But I'm glad this is some sort of gag, as the comment was off-putting and made think it was made by a Friko bot to generate interest in their album, lol.
At this point MCK_OH basically is a Friko bot designed to generate interest in their album.
God bless them for their service.
Taylor Swift has the entire media industry behind her, Friko has MCK_OH
Sharing this incredible bit starring Steve Albini I saw yesterday. RIP.
I saw somebody say that we need to do this for Albini, with Donald Fagen’s phone number
Glad to see pitchfork changed their mind on Vampire Weekend’s latest to be more in accordance with my opinion
look i don't understand what this website is or what the joke is really but vampire weekend stinks so i would like to subscribe to their newsletter if possible
what happened
perfect! for some reason, OGWAU isn't aging particularly well
How are we already talking about "aging" for an album that's barely been out for a month
ok, fair enough. will give it more time
To you
hey I really liked it on release and will give it more spins. I dunno maybe vampy weeks is just one of those bands that Doesn't Age Well For Me™️
Adrianne Lenker livestream starting in 3 hours, new Keeley Forsyth album is a stunner. Sun is shining.
Thursday the 9th of May is not a bad day!
where?
It’s a mini festival, not sure of the running order, starts in 98 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_gBOb9l2Zs
Man, the more I listen to Only God Was Above Us, the more baffling Father of the Bride becomes. FotB has its moments and some great songs, but OGWAU truly feels like it picks up right where Modern Vampires left off, both in quality and sound. FotB feels more like a creative vomit that Ezra had to get through after the band’s hiatus and the exit of Rostam.
FOTB was a much stronger record than the new one is imo
the haim features were enough to spoil it for me. It does have great singles though.
Slapping your band's name on an album that none of the other remaining members had anything to do with after a 6-year wait will always be baffling
Revisited an old favorite, Pod, in honor of Steve Albini. What a killer album. Even if I prefer Last Splash by just a hair, Pod’s rawness hits just right.
“Josephine, do you think you’re going bald?”
that cover of happiness is a warm gun is probably one of the best sounding songs ever
Up there in the elite pantheon of Beatles covers, along with Wilson Pickett’s Hey Jude and Siouxsie and the Banshees doing Dear Prudence
God bless CashOrTrade, just sold $150 worth of jam band tickets in <5min and freed up a three day weekend in a few weeks to do whatever I want. Rerouting the funds to Phish in September.
Had a spectacular album pairing w Cass McCombs' Heartmind into Destroyer's Kaputt last night. Heartmind ended with the gooey, jammy title track right as the sun sank behind the mountains only for the supreme evening vibes of Kaputt to immediately kick in as the light turned dusky purple. Legendary porch sit, outside of the wind and ~50 degree temps.
May have had one too many beers (read: two) on the porch because I sliced off the end of my finger while getting hype to Mr. J.X. Fussell's sweet potato song while prepping dinner. Good shit
nobody gets as close to the smarm line without crossing it as Dan Bejar does
Outside of Kaputt, Destroyer is largely a black box for me (even after seeing 'em on the Poison Season tour almost [FUCK] ten years ago) but given my predilection for other slightly pretentious weirdos like Bill and BPB I feel like it's only a matter of time before I take the deep dive
that BPB Lie Down In The Light is one of the best albums I've spun this year - thanks for the rec
other than Destroyers Rubies, Bejar is totally hit or miss for me. I've got Your Blues in the rotation right now and when he starts singing Mad Foxes I just wanna drive my car off a cliff ya know
Love to hear it! My favorite BPB by a clear margin, try Ease Down the Road for a similar (and even mellower, but darker) vibe.
And that's the thing re: Bejar. I've probably listened to like 7 Destroyer albums and some I like and some I find obtuse in a way that is actively disengaging. I can't keep them straight so I wind up not revisiting any of them which is obviously not any kind of recipe for success. I'll queue up Rubies for this afternoon, though.
when I heard that song live I started tearing up, like it’s just about potatoes but the way he sings it it sounds like it’s about everything
That song is full of life in a manner that I can't describe with words. Truly ecstatic music, I love it, play it at my funeral yada yada
"Take your big leg off of mine" is a dudes rock mantra
Was revisiting Priests earlier today. Really miss that band. I do dig Katie Alice Greer's solo stuff and Danielex2 band Gauche. Listened to the new live Animal Collective song and now that has me on an AnCo kick. Probably gonna just listen to Feels on repeat till I get the urge to listen to another album.
Also made a playlist yesterday for my best bud of some 2023-2024 releases I know he'd like. PAJ, I threw in Big Clown and Bluff City Vice! I think he's gonna dig them. I'm just going to keep adding music to it till he's overwhelmed. Sharing music is really one of my greatest joys. 10/10 experience.
The Gauche album from 2019 is really good. I just like that post-punk / dance punk sound they have with some sax thrown in; fav tracks were Flash, Running, Boom Hazard
lmao thank you! i am weirdly more proud of putting that BCV album into the world than i am my own music these days. but thank you for the support fr
Any time. It's fairly "punk" leaning. I know I threw in the new Omni record too. For the life of me I can't remember if he's heard them but I figured it would be a good start either way. I'll probably start throwing in some weirder stuff when they come to me. But he and I were Celebration Rock hooligans so I'm keeping it in that vein.
damn this Nolan Potter record is awesome, never heard of the dude but it rips. king gizz/congratulations-era mgmt/early tame impala psych rock vibes
Celebration Rock really is something else
i don't want to do a rate but this is the most compelled i've felt to help out an album. i don't even know why it's in the rate but it's the album that makes me feel the most emotions out of the 4 and it owns. everyone should love it. if you don't love it, you should consider looking inside yourself and doing some real soul searching
fam you know i wanna see a paula stunt ballot
skull_xbones is our only true agent of chaos
The damage it could cause always cracks me up.
The hosts love you but they hate that you like ed o brien
(Out of curiosity what letter grade, wrestling match, or numerical value would you give the woods? On my scale, it clears parklife by s point)
hey you forgot to respond to me
ed o'brien my milf beloved
i haven't listened to the woods in full in a long time but letter grade B-, wrestling match probably the zayn vs owens nxt match (a higher production value version of their indie work that is totally fine but pales in comparison to The Real Shit), numerical like a 78/100
i always feel like it’s gonna get rejected because most of the rate hosts don’t like me lmfao but it’s cool I’m vibing
... soul searching commences ...
i recommend cognitive behavioral therapy
I'm listening to S2PID three times in a row on my lunch break instead. the ultimate therapy
Ben Gibbard wishes he could write lyrics one tenth as hard hitting as “If I had all of the answers, and you had the body you wanted would we love with a legendary fire”
This!!!