From Blown Speakers

Wednesday, July 30, 2025
i was standin' there in the morning mist/a jack and coke at the end of my wrist

If you're like me and prefer to buy your physical records from the actual record store (or if you're simply Canadian and don't want to pay roughly $1-million for shipping), here are four digital-only releases that aren't on streaming platforms that you can pick up for Bandcamp Friday tomorrow.

Go Fly a Kite: Songs for Rick

<a href="https://songsforrick.bandcamp.com/album/go-fly-a-kite">Go Fly A Kite by Waxahatchee</a>

Go Fly a Kite is "a compilation created for Rick Dirck: father; friend; DJ and long-time volunteer at the Portsmouth, NH community radio station WSCA 106.1 FM; full-hearted believer in the power of music; flyer of kites; and endlessly more."

There's an otherwise unreleased Mirah song, an unreleased All Dogs song (that's still the last thing they've ever released), some demo versions of some great tunes, and this cover where Waxahatchee sings the DIY classic, "Make a Deal With the City" by East River Pipe in appropriately ultra lo-fi fashion.

<a href="https://theconstantines.bandcamp.com/album/call-me-out">Call Me Out by Constantines</a>

The Constantines - Call Me Out

It's the very last Cons release and all the proceeds from sales go to Black Lives Matter Toronto and the Unist'ot'en Camp Legal Fund for Land Defenders.

Cardinals at the Window: A Benefit for Flood Relief in Western North Carolina

This thing has over 130 songs, so there's bound to be something you like. For awhile, it was the only way to hear SG Goodman duetting with Will Oldham on "Nature's Child". There's a live version of "How Hard is it for a Desert to Die" where Jeff Tweedy's joined by Wednesday's Karly Hartzman. And I guess if you have an indie charity comp, you're required to have a Waxahatchee exclusive, because this one has Katie covering Gillian Welch's "Wrecking Ball."

<a href="https://betteryetpodcast.bandcamp.com/album/all-of-gods-money-a-tribute-to-wilcos-yankee-hotel-foxtrot">all of god's money / a tribute to wilco's yankee hotel foxtrot by Better Yet</a>

All of God's Money/A Tribute to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

A tribute to one of the best records of the aughts from Tim Crisp's Better Yet podcast, benefiting the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and featuring Ratboys covering "Pot Kettle Black" and Laura Stevenson covering "Jesus, Etc." The latter is a song that I didn't think I could love more than I already did, but the multiple Lauras harmonizing on the last "voices whine" part is something else, man.

now playing: Mapei - Don't Wait

posted by Quinn @ 11:24 p.m. Comments:0

Monday, July 28, 2025
now I'm growling at a stranger, i am biting at their knees

I made it down to the Commodore on Thursday night to see Mannequin Pussy and Gouge Away.

If you had asked me on Wednesday, I would've told you that I like Mannequin Pussy alright, but my big motivation for getting tickets was because of how great Gouge Away were opening for Chat Pile in February.

And Gouge Away were great again last week.

The friend I was with mentioned that they reminded him of Nirvana and he's right: they sound like they're just trying write "Tourette's" over and over again and it fucking rocks.

I wasn't ready for Mannequin Pussy.

It certainly helped that the crowd were absolutely amped, but the band took all that energy and redirected it back tenfold and it was one of those rare shows nowadays where I see a band I've never seen before and end up absolutely blown away.

They front loaded their set with the more melodic songs in the catalogue, but things really picked up in the back half. They sort of sound like Celebrity Skin era Hole a lot of the time to me, except all the songs are about "I have a crush on you" (complimentary). And we got a ton of that in the first 40-minutes or so. But the back half of the set was all of the songs where they just sound like a no frills 80s hardcore band. And while I enjoy both of the bands personalities on record, it was rad to see and hear them just rock out once everyone was good and warmed up.

Missy Dabice injected a lot of politics into her stage banter (Colins Regisford did too), but there was a full on pause for a political rant near the end of the main set. And like, I share a lot of politics with a lot of bands I end up seeing, but generally that's a bit eye roll inducing for me.

This was different though. She hit all of the same beats that you'd expect (all good things: fuck Trump, free Palestine, capitalism sucks), but she also tied it all up with this quiet call to arms, encouraging people to just do something, no matter how small, to push against **gestures wildly** everything. Make music, even if it's just in your room. Give something to or do something for someone else. Do anything to carve out a little bit of beauty in this ugly world we're all stuck in.

It might seem insignificant, but it all helps.

I didn't really think that was something I needed to hear, but turns out I did.

Album of the week

Folk Bitch Trio - Now Would Be a Good Time

I spent Friday morning re-writing a bunch of ChatGPT generated garbage that someone decided to spit out at work and this stopped me from quitting my job and driving across the continent to kidnap Sam Altman and throw him off of a bridge.

Song of the week

Flock of Dimes - Long After Midnight

Sometimes songs sound effortless.

Maybe it actually takes Jenn Wasner (who you might already know from Wye Oak) ages to craft melodies, but this one feels like it appeared fully formed--like this perfect little song about deep friendship and desperation has always just been there waiting to be heard.

"Long After Midnight" is the lead single off of The Life You Save, out on October 10th on Sub Pop.

Classic of the week

The Hold Steady - We Can Get Together

Heaven is whenever we can get together

Sit down on your floor, and listen to your records

Heaven is whenever we can get together

Lock your bedroom door, and listen to your records

Yeah, it still is.

More heat

Madi Diaz - Feel Something

Every Madi Diaz song is a break up song. And look, I haven't broken up with anyone in a long time, but I still love most of them. She's at the Biltmore on November 15th.

Wednesday - Pick Up That Knife

"Elderberry Wine" let us know we're going to get some "How Can You Live If You Can't Love How Can You Live If You Do" Wednesday on this forthcoming record and this one let us know we're going to sprawling noise band Wednesday too and I'm here for both.

Tyler, the Creator - Don't You Worry Baby

I kinda wish I still went out dancing, cause I bet this one's gonna get everyone in the club moving.

Nation of Language - Under the Water

I'm not sure if I mixed this band up with a different band or if they just finally wrote a song I like, but for some reason I thought I fucking hated them and turns out I was wrong. Real New Order vibes on this one.

now playing: Elastica - Stutter

posted by Quinn @ 8:48 a.m. Comments:0

Sunday, July 20, 2025
in the stick count for the song of knowing you're gone

I’ve been thinking a bit about my relationship with streaming music. It’s so obviously different from buying CDs or records exclusively. But it's even a big change from downloading.

I caught myself thinking about the radio, something I only really hear now as background noise when I jump into an Evo car share. But the radio used to feel like a portal into a whole different universe.

I keep getting stuck on how it felt to sit poised ready to record a song off of the radio for some reason. You'd sit around waiting just to end up with this terrible quality recording, often with a commercial or the DJ’s voice bleeding over the beginning or end. But before an actual CD was out, when there was no other way to hear something on demand, it felt priceless to me--a treasure that I captured out of the air.

Don't get me wrong. Having access to almost everything on demand is incredible in a lot of ways. I certainly wouldn't be doing this every week, even if the barrier to entry was as minimal as having to torrent all the new music I end up parsing through each week. But it also makes me care a lot less about any snap judgements I make on something. Dragging a song into my trusty "temp" playlist is more or less effortless and making a song disappear into the aether is even quicker.

Eventually, I'd dub over those radio recordings with newer radio recordings, but all those songs would live at least a nominal life of re-listening.

There was a Chart Magazine (RIP) editorial that ended with a sentence that I think back to now and then and that I'm thinking about now, now that I'm contemplating all the songs I've skipped halfway through on YouTube or scrubbed forward on Spotify.

“I mourn all the songs deleted from hard drives over the last ten years that would have been tolerated and eventually, perhaps, fallen in love with if they were on cassettes or LPs or CDs”

Having most of popular music at your fingertips is a gift, but I wonder how many songs that I could have loved that I'm missing out on.

Album of the week

Alex G - Headlights

With every album release, there's always one Alex G song that I love, but I've never really been able to get into an entire full length. It's funny to say this, because I typically gravitate towards weirdness, but I think it's all the weird little experiments that get jammed between his best songs that have turned me off really diving into his catalogue.

This one's got a couple too--I'm not sure who the vocal affection on "Far and Wide" is meant to sound like, but I don't care for it--but most of the little idiosyncrasies generally seem to add colour to the songs without distracting from them.

And there are some songs on this record.

Opener, "June Guitar," is this bittersweet, but gorgeous little love song with a chorus that seems aimed directly at the "I'm not into emo, but I am very emo" adult man demographic (hi, it's me):

love ain't for the young anyhow/something you learn from falling down

And "Afterlife" is going to land near the top of a lot of song of the year lists in December.

On this week's Indiecast, Steven Hyden compared it to REM's great major label records, and as a New Adventures truther, I'm inclined to agree.

Even though none of his previous albums really grabbed me, I respected how he wasn't afraid to throw anything he felt like on them. He's probably still doing that here, but it all sounds so much more cohesive and whole.

Song of the week

Winter - Without You

I'm kinda getting burned out on how every second band seems to be a shoegaze band these days, but I constantly seem to dig the acoustic ballads that the same bands put out. This one tries to capture the feeling of the Portuguese word "saudade." Apparently it can't be translated to English, but from what I understand after a quick Google, the line about an ex-love "who are you when I'm not with you" sounds like it sums it up pretty well.

Classic of the week

The Weakerthans - Night Windows

I was walking around listening to Fallow the other day and it sort of struck me that I continued to care a lot about the Weakerthans past Left and Leaving, but I, relatively speaking, started caring way less about their recorded output after Left and Leaving.

I definitely bought (and before that probably eagerly downloaded the leak of) Reconstruction Site as soon as I could, but for whatever reason, it didn't grab me like those first two records did.

But this song always stuck out as their "late" period masterpiece.

There's maybe no Weakerthans lyric that screams "THE WEAKERTHANS" more than opening line to this one and while it's a song about longing and losing someone, the descriptions of modern life that fill space in the verses make it feel political in the way a lot of the band's songs do, without ever being explicitly about politics.

It sort of feels like John K's talking to that person from "My Favourite Chords" a decade later or something.

Sidebar, but, it's real Roughriders hours that the Weakerthans have a song called "Tournament of Hearts" and the Cons have an album called Tournament of Hearts.

More heat

Jeff Tweedy - Enough

I still love Wilco, but it feels like there's this weird samie-ness with Jeff Tweedy songs (solo or with band) these days. And this one kinda starts like that with the riff, the guitar tone, and the bouncy, but understated verse. But then the chorus opens up and it's a reminder that this guy's been one of planet earth's greatest songwriters for my entire adult life.

Spiritual Cramp - At My Funeral

This sounds a lot like "Slick Rick" (one of the standout tunes from their last record, not the guy), but that also means it reps Spiritual Cramp's hardcore-by-way-of-GbV vibes perfectly.

The Armed - Sharp Teeth

I have a feeling I'm going to be writing about this whole album next week, so I'll just say that this fucking rules.

DJ Haram feat. Armand Hammer - Stenography

Armand Hammer sound good over anything, but this beat is something else too.

Eliza McLamb - Like the Boys

If I'd written a single song with a line this cool at 24, maybe I'd still be writing songs:"I like the boys like the boys like to shoot their guns/something I can hold in my hand pretending to be someone."

now playing: Great Grandpa - Kid

posted by Quinn @ 1:03 p.m. Comments:0

Sunday, July 13, 2025
catch me in the kitchen where the dope is/with an apron that's whiter than the pope's is

Listen, I'm as big on nostalgia as the next person (probably more so), but what the fuck are we doing here?

I can put aside that we were only 8 or 9-years past the end of "indie sleaze" when people started lamenting the days of the Libertines and American Apparel tights, since it was the pandemic and, hey, we were all looking at our tiny screens for literally anything that sparked joy.

And even though throwing back here feels like throwing an 80s night in 1998, there's also been some fun looking throwback parties (shout out to East Van's best bar and one of the guys who was throwing some the original parties).

But who's going to party to not-even-that-old ass songs at an arcade inside the movie theatre inside the suburban mega mall?

During the Four Nations Cup, I tried meeting some friends to watch one of the games there and the vibes were so bad, we audible'd into a different bar. And that was just to watch hockey! There is a special opportunity to truly marry the spirit of late aughts hipsterdom with the "unique" venue and do a bump of coke off of a Mario Kart steering wheel or something though.

Album of the week

Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

Speaking of cocaine. Here's a blow adjacent comeback I can get behind.

Push never left, but he's finally reunited with his brother, who finally dropped the "No" and became just Malice again. They called up their buddy Pharrell. And somehow we've been blessed with a new Clipse record, a decade and a half after Til' the Casket Drops.

I didn't think we'd ever get another Clipse album. I definitely didn't think it would be this good, if it did happen.

Again, no surprise that Pusha T is dropping bars all over this thing, but his great and, at this point, lengthy solo career, kind of made me forget just how good these guys sound together. Recreating that magic really hinged on Malice still having something left in the tank. But apparently dude still has gasoline to spare.

What else is there to say? It's a classic Clipse record. It's Push and Malice swapping shit talking verses back and forth and aside from the opening--and truly heartwarming--tribute to their deceased parents, they don't really stray from the old formula.

The guests all bring their A game, but Clipse superfan Tyler, the Creator absolutely spits on his "POV" verse:

My only (minor) complaint is Pharrell's production work. It's mostly great and at least good in the worst moments, but it felt like every Clipse record had at least one track that I'd have to excitedly wind back to answer the question, "what the fuck was that sound?!" and that doesn't happen here. Someone has to broker peace between Pharrell and Chad in 2026 or something.

Universal wanted to erase the extremely good Kendrick guest verse on "Chains & Whips" because of Drake's lingering lawsuit, so Push bought the Clipse out of their record deal with Def Jam(!) and Let God Sort Em Out is out now on Jay-Z's Roc Nation.

They also blessed us with one of the best Tiny Desk's of all time this week.

Song of the week

Jay Som feat. Jim Adkins - Float

No matter what Melina Duterte does, my brain will always think of the claustrophobic bedroom recording sound of "I Think You're Alright," a song I still love as much as the first day I heard it.

She's done so much since then, from her own songs to producing other people's songs to slinging bass in the touring version of Boygenius. And the distance between how "Float" sounds and how "I Think You're Alright" sounds is about 8,848.86m in elevation.

Her newest single's aptly titled, soaring along with the kind of radio ready punch that's worthy of the Jim Adkins guest spot. I'm not gonna tell you it's "the Middle" or "Sweetness," but Jim sounds like he's ready to devour planets again on the chorus and the power chords behind him really sound like they're bleeding American.

"Float" and b-side "A Million Reasons Why" are both on Belong, Duterte's first album in 7(!) years. It's out on October 10th.

Classic of the week

New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream

Okay, fine. You want a little indie sleaze as a treat? If put those skinny jeans down, you can have this skeezy little dance tune that's got all the Gang of Four guitars, but none of the pesky Gang of Four "thinking about serious things." It's got those non-chalant, too cool for ~~school~~Union Pool, grew up in Long Island voca... hold up. This lady's from fucking England?!

If you really wanna go back, the ever wonderful Matthew Perpetua put together a pretty definitive indie sleaze playlist.

More heat

Syd - Die for This

BBQ season music (complimentary) that's got enough bounce to get some dance floor mileage after summer's over.

Neko Case - Wreck

Neko Case also hasn't put out a record in 7-years, except unlike those early Jay Som records, Neko Case's records all sound massive, because Neko Case's voice is massive. It's so easy to get fixated on Neko's voice, that I kinda missed what this song was even about through the first couple of listens. But it's this gorgeous ode to new love and how scary it can feel when someone starts to feel like the centre of your universe (or solar system, I guess). It also features 2025's second best line about freckles (the best one is that "say I wanna have your baby/cause I freckle and you tan" one from Wednesday's "Elderberry Wine").

End It - Life Sublime

Really "quote from man stabbed" hours to talk about how becoming a hardcore guy at this age would be a midlife crisis for me last week and then find myself walking around East Van in the summer heat, dressed like an absolute dirtbag with the song cranked in my headphones this week.

Shame - Quiet Life

I think it's a symptom of being old and cranky, but I haven't been able to get into the post-punky thing these guys have been doing (even though they do it well). This bouncy little rockabilly number though? It's a proper choon, innit?

herbal tea - Seventeen

This song makes me want to lie down in the sun, close my eyes and let the day float away. Helena Walker (who records as herbal tea) had this to say about "Seventeen":

There is a section halfway where the chaos stills and the piano and vocals re-emerge. It’s one of my favourite moments on the record.

Same.

now playing: the Weakerthans - Night Windows

posted by Quinn @ 11:07 p.m. Comments:0

Monday, July 07, 2025
these birds not meant to fly alone

I made my annual trip to the beach today. I've never been terribly outdoorsy. Like, call me up for a good park hang, but I don't hike, I don't really even look up at the mountains much, and I have a Darth Vader-like aversion to sand.

But I get it. I guess I still live here because of a combination of inertia and hating actual winters (but also too-hot summers), but I understand that everyone else sticks around because of nature.

The other thing about the beach is that unless you live right by one, you're going out to Kits or the West End and sometimes that feels like it might as well be a mission to Mars, man.

Still, as much as I complain about it, that trek across the city's a nice one when the city's really alive. And people were out in enough force that I had to double check to see if it was a holiday tomorrow.

Album of the week

Turnstile - Never Enough

For a couple years, I've been making the joke that I'm about to become a hardcore guy, if it weren't for the fact that would count as a midlife crisis at my age.

I think it started with this absolutely ferocious End It single, and then there was this Dan Ozzi profile on the Armed, and then getting going backward to listen to Turnstile's 2021 album, Glow On.

I really love Glow On.

And, like, one band doesn't make you a genre guy, but also depending on who you ask, Turnstile can't make you into a hardcore guy because Turnstile isn't hardcore anymore.

The 16-year-old me that briefly cradled a copy of Maximum Rock n' Roll under one arm at all times and railed against "fake punk rock" is happy someone's waving the flag for genre police (but also sorry ACAB counts here too).

Plus, those cranky dudes (guarantee they're 99% dudes) have a point, cause Turnstile's new one sure doesn't sound like a hardcore record.

Yeah, there's some sick riffs and that kick drum thing, but there's also a fucking flute. Indiecast also pointed out--and I don't love this revelation--that they kinda sound like Perry Farrell fronting Incubus some of the time. Somehow it all works though.

There's a lot of little flourishes--that flute, synths, weird new age interludes--around the edges of Never Enough's 14-tracks, but at its core it's the kind of pump your fist, stage dive, scream your fucking lungs out music that makes you feel like this band could be your life.

I'm too old for that too, but also I'd sure love to be in Seattle in October when Turnstile inevitably destroy the WAMU Theater.

Song of the week

Ethel Cain - Fuck Me Eyes

After Inbred and Preacher's Daughter, I figured that Ethel Cain had her sound figured out and she was fine staying in that lane (which wouldn't have been a bad thing). But then in January she dropped Perverts on us and all bets were off.

It's one of my favourite records of the year so far and it kinda flips the sound of Preacher's Daughter on its head. The latter was a collection of these cathartic anthems that were snapshots of middle American life (at least the darker parts of middle American life), but there were smatterings of experimentation on the fringes of some of the songs. By contrast, Perverts is basically an ambient noise record with the odd Daughter-esque tune sandwiched between the sprawling, often discordant sheets of sound.

Preacher's Daughter sort of launched Cain into the stratosphere (...in an indie sense, so maybe more like low-earth orbit) and there was a lot of talk about how Perverts was a rejection of her new found fame. It sure sounded like she alienated some fans with it, but then as quickly as March, along came the announcement for what's being called her "proper" sophomore record, Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You.

Lead off single, "Nettles," (which will almost surely stick around as one of my favourite songs of 2025), seemed to split the difference between Preacher's Daughter and Perverts. The track's core is an atmospheric, but also twangy little love song, but it takes about a minute of instrumental to get started and stretches out over 8-minutes by the time it's done. Apparently, it was one of the last songs that was written for the album.

By contrast, "Fuck Me Eyes" was originally conceived 5-years ago, and the synths that dominate the instrumentation would make it sound like a completely different act, if it weren't for Cain's voice and her trademark Gen Z does American Gothic quips ("boy, if you're not scared of Jesus/fuck around and come find out").

Perverts shocked me when I first listened to it. But even the contrast between "Nettles" and "Fuck Me Eyes" hints at, not just a great forthcoming record, but what will hopefully be a long run from an artist who seems like she's going to keep pushing in different directions whenever and however she pleases and that's pretty exciting, if you ask me.

Classic of the week

Oasis - Some Might Say

As funny as I still think it is to tell people that "music's objective actually," obviously that's not the case. That said, there's a general cultural consensus about some of the tunes that belong in the pretty wide swath of music that makes up the "best songs of all time." We're talking "Be My Baby," "God Only Knows," "What's Going On," "Like a Rolling Stone."

Most people wouldn't even put "Some Might Say" in the top 5 Oasis songs. It is not, by any measure, one of the best songs of all time. Except when it feels like it is.

And this past Friday in Cardiff, when Oasis kicked off their reunion tour, it sure looked like 75,000 people felt like "Some Might Say" was the best song ever written for the entirety of its 5 1/2 minute run time.

The last time it felt like that for me was when I was holed up in a little bar in Tokyo where the back wall's lined with CDs. When you sit down, you're given a catalogue of all the albums they have and a flashlight. You can pick whatever you want when it's your turn, but they also have a sheet in the front of the binder that lists all the bartenders and their favourites, and after a little back in forth with my terrible Japanese, I was able to figure out that that evening's barkeep loved: "Liam. Noel. Oasis!"

There were approximately 74,992 less people in attendance that evening than in Cardiff, but she cranked up "Some Might Say" for me like we were all live at Knebworth. Maybe it was the half dozen Asahis, but it felt like all of Shinjuku could hear it and in my head everyone was loving it as much as we were (minus some German tosser who wouldn't shut up about the fucking Scorpions).

Oasis are the ultimate vibes band and there's no song that's more "no thoughts, all vibes" (what the fuck does "she's got dirty dishes on the brain" mean?) in their catalogue than "Some Might Say."

There's a lot of things I'm looking forward to when I finally see Oasis again in August, but none more than the five odd minutes when "Some Might Say" becomes the best song ever written.

More heat

Shelly - Cross Your Mind

I already really like Clairo, but--shocker--turns out I love Clairo fronting what sounds like a DIY pop-rock outfit.

Editrix - Flesh Debt

Thank you to the band for summing this one up better than I ever could:

"The internal band nickname for this song is 'Horny Jail' and that should tell you all you need to know. ;-)"

Debbii Dawson - Gut Feelings

Shimmering 80s pop that kinda reminds me of "Physical" if you bumped up the BPMs or maybe (another throwback) "Back of the Van."

now playing: Plumtree - I Could Draw a Line

posted by Quinn @ 12:33 a.m. Comments:0