Sunday, August 24, 2025
keylime pie and frampton live/wish that I would fucking die
Hand Habits - Blue Reminder
Pina Chulada - Someone Like You
Sunday, August 17, 2025
but you got her, and I got him/and I got morals that are peeking in
The Bel Air Lip Bombs - Hey You
Sunday, August 10, 2025
'cause baby i've never seen brown eyes look so blue
All the previous Ethel Cain releases hinted at the promise that Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You fulfills.
Sunday, August 03, 2025
fools, liars, heathens, traitors/repent, be saved
keylime pie and frampton live/wish that I would fucking die
I'm going to Toronto... or I guess when you read this, I will be in Toronto. And I was going to say, "I'm going to see LCD Soundsystem (and also Oasis)," but when you read this I will have already seen LCD Soundsystem (but not Oasis yet).
The first time I saw them was over two decades ago.
Then there was 14-years ago when it could be the last time. And when I thought it was, it was something I thought would be etched in core memories forever. I mean, as much as something can be when you're too-many-drinks-to-count deep. But I had the time of my life at that show: my first time in New York City seeing one of my favourite bands. At the time, I called them "my favourite band of the last decade" and they definitely were. They still might be.
While I came home from that trip in 2011 and was still at peak "guy in his 20s who loves LCD Soundsystem" (pejorative) for another six months or so, it sort of felt like the beginning of the end of a particular chapter of excess that James Murphy soundtracked. Me starting to grow up a bit coincided with this band going away. And while I bought that Christmas single and then preordered the actual comeback album, I didn't jump at the first opportunity to see them like I did with Sleater-Kinney.
I had this weird "what's done is done" feeling and I still kind of do.
It's funny, because I hear about the Hold Steady doing a handful of shows a year for their middle aged fans to keep themselves from having to get real jobs and I think it rocks. But there's something about my personal experience with LCD Soundsystem that makes me feel a bit blasé about them being on the nostalgia circuit.
I finally caught them in 2022. I was in New York again and they were too. I actually really wanted to see Hop Along that night (and still wish I did), but I mentioned the LCD show to the friends I was with and suddenly we were going to see them.
Our group had a little Covid exposure scare and I spent the entire show stone cold sober with an N95 plastered to my face.
I did not have a good time.
This time around is a bit similar (minus the Hop Along thing and hopefully minus the Covid thing). I was going to fly into Toronto on Sunday, see Oasis on Monday, recuperate/shop for clothes and records on Tuesday, and zip home on Wednesday. But LCD Soundsystem are doing Friday and Saturday in Toronto, so why not show up a day early?
This one. This one could be the last time too. They all kind of feel that way now.
But also, maybe there's a chance that I'll find that spark and dance myself clean.
I've been feeling a bit like a kid again for various reasons lately, so there's a chance.
Album of the week
It took a few singles--til that one above, to be exact--until I started to get excited about this record.
This is lazy as hell, but also, I don't think I can say anything intelligent about this record that wasn't already said more eloquently in Marissa Lorusso's P4K review, so go read that.
Song of the week
Joyce Manor - All My Friends Are So Depressed
This band has never been my thing, but this song sure is. Maybe you're all "dude, they're just ripping off the Smiths so hard here," and to that I say "yes."
From the Marr riff to that just-a-lil' twangy chorus, what a goddamn gorgeous little pop song.
Classic of the week
It used to feel like the internet was forever, but there's actual media that's just sort of lost. There's an increasing number of things I've read, listened to, and really fucking loved. Gone. Less important, but there's also some stuff I've written that has just disappeared into the internet aether.
My friend Maegan seemed kinda taken aback when I said there was some stuff that I wrote that I just don't have copies of. "That's art too. You have to keep it."
"Art" might be too kind of a descriptor, but she's right (of course she is--she's a very smart lady). When it comes to all of those lost articles/blogs/etc, I wish I'd held onto something, even if it was just a .doc file.
I guess this video being on YouTube still means it's not lost yet. But it's not on streaming. You can't find a live download link (although I have some really dodgy quality mp3s somewhere?). And the band's MySpace, where this was originally hosted, obviously doesn't exist anymore.
But man, what a beauty of a song. And what a shame it'll be if it just up and disappears one day. There's probably already a lot of great songs that have.
More heat
Wednesday - Bitter Everyday
The fourth and final advance single from Bleeds is another ripper, but they put it out on Tuesday and should've waited 24-hours imho. This album is gonna be so good.
Living Hour - Waiter
From Wednesday, to this band from Winnipeg that sounds like Wednesday. That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I love this shit.
End It - Could You Love Me?
I was already excited for End It's debut full length (Wrong Side of Heaven out this Friday). And what I was expecting was 20 or 30-minutes of the kind of nasty, brutish, and short hardcore that they've become known for.
They're actually covering another hardcore band here--now defunct New York thrashers, Maximum Penalty--but this is a straight up 60's pop song with a the distortion turned up a little. I knew this record was going to be fun, because banging your head while getting crushed by punk riffs is fun, but this is a type of fun I wasn't expecting.
Also, you could already kinda tell Ekil Godsey could sing even when he's usually yelling, but dude can sing.
now playing: LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Sunday, August 17, 2025
but you got her, and I got him/and I got morals that are peeking in
I made the first tomato sandwich of summer with tomatoes that I grew in my little community garden plot.
I used to do a BLT every year with the first garden tomatoes and lettuce from the garden, bread I would bake, and bacon I'd cure. But it started getting so hot in the summer that I gave up on turning my oven on as hot as it goes for the bread part. The bacon part felt like a pain in the ass after awhile too. And, it's not like it was terribly difficult, but there was the whole timing fermenting dough and curing bacon and tomatoes ripening.
Last summer I was in a weird place and I just kinda forgot. If I'd remembered, I don't know if I would've been up for the whole ordeal anyways. My garden tomato plants sucked too, so there were less homegrown tomatoes to be had.
I mean, I'm sure I ate a sandwich with tomatoes in it last summer, but I didn't do it consciously and I didn't really think about that until this year, when I did.
It was early, but I went to water the garden last week and there was a lone, perfectly ripe tomato. A nice little surprise during a summer where I've been lucky to have a few nice little surprises.
The sandwich was just salted tomatoes and Hellmann's mayonnaise on milk bread that I bought.
It was simple, but it was perfect. I've been trying to let myself experience more things like that again.
So far, so good.
Album of the week
Pool Kids - Easier Said Than Done
I saw Pool Kids last March and couldn't tell you anything about their performance other than I wasn't particularly moved either way. They were sandwiched in between Militarie Gun and Spiritual Cramp--two bands that bring the same kind of sonic fury live--and Pool Kids sound nothing like either of those bands, so maybe that was part of it.
Apparently, their other records could be described as emo/math rock. "Tinted Windows" definitely has the drums and bass of the latter. And the lyrics fit the emo mould. But this one's pure pop.
"Leona Street" could've been a 90's radio hit and "Bad Bruise" sounds like it could fit somewhere in Pool Kids booster Hayley Williams' oeuvre. But even when they slow things down a bit, like on the brooding "Sorry Not Sorry," there's hooks to spare.
If you'd ask me last year if I'd ever see this band live again, I wouldn't have hesitated to say no, but I've been listening to this record so much that I'm thinking of checking them out in October at the Fox now.
Song of the week
Skullcrusher - March
"I saw the future in an afternoon/I saw it in you/And now I feel forever pressing into me/Beautiful and terrible."
There are times in my life when that would've destroyed me and I'm glad I didn't hear it during any of them. But also, what a beautiful way to be destroyed.
You can say this about a handful of Skullcrusher songs, but this is proof that you don't need to be loud to be heavy as hell.
"March" is the second single from And Your Song Is Like A Circle, out October 17th
Classic of the week
Ryan Adams - Oh My Sweet Carolina
Obviously there are way worse things that this guy has done, but the Spotify Release Radar served me up the "25th Anniversary Version" of this song the other day and I guess Ryan Adams decided to re-record this whole album.
No one's going to sing better at 50 than they did at 26 for starters. But also, there's probably no way he's working with Emmylou Harris anymore and she's very noticeably absent on the re-recording. The real crimes are the arrangement and production though. There's some schlocky sounding strings and too much reverb or something. It's like watching those Star Wars remasters where George Lucas added all the stuff he couldn't do the first time around--it really makes you question if either of these guys understand what made their art so good in the first place.
When he reviewed Heartbreaker's 2016 reissue for Pitchfork, Ian Cohen summed up the album's appeal: it’s actually enjoyable knowing you can hit bottom for 50 minutes and still appreciate the view.
This whole re-recording thing makes it sound like Ryan Adams is back down there, but he hasn't come up for air again.
More heat
Militarie Gun - B A D I D E A
There isn't anything notably different from most other Militarie Gun songs and frankly that fucking rocks. OOH OOH.
Neko Case - Winchester Mansion of Sound
I don't like this one as much as "Wreck," but I like that Titanic sized love song a lot. So this still feels like it's going to be my favourite Neko record in a long time.
Chief Keef and Mustard - Shake Dat
The quality of this song is inversely proportional to the quality of the band's name.
now playing: Songs: Ohia - Two Blue Lights
Sunday, August 10, 2025
'cause baby i've never seen brown eyes look so blue
I went to Red Gate on Thursday to see Colleen Green. It was one of those weekday shows, where I for sure wanted to go, but I was planning to just putter around at home as long as possible, sneak in and sneak out. But I've also been trying to spend less time doom scrolling and I managed to cobble together dinner at a reasonable time, so I made it down in time to see Sleeping Bag's last song and all of Rozwell Kid's set.
I didn't catch enough of the former to pass judgement, but Rozwell Kid plays that kind of "dudes' pop punk" (see also: Pup, Jeff Rosenstock) that young men fucking love. That sentence sounded like a criticism, but even though I'm an old man now, I also dig it. They were reminiscent of Pinkerton era Weezer too, but, crucially, without the Drake vibes on the lyrical side.
I love Colleen Green's music. I love the early power chords/drum machine/big girl group melodies thing the most. But I still love her more "recent" output a lot. And, especially considering the economics of touring in twenty twenty five, it was a treat that she brought the 10th anniversary tour of I Want to Grow Up here.
Rozwell Kid did double duty serving as a very good back up band for Colleen's set, where she ripped through I Want to Grow Up's ten tracks and then encored with "Time in the World," "I Wanna Be a Dog," and "I Wanna Be Degraded."
The latter two really underscore a big part of her appeal to me--songs that are nakedly and purposefully so referential, but turned on their heads enough to avoid being simply derivative.
It's the kind of music I was really enamoured with for a period of time and ultimately ended up making (or at least trying to make), so it was a pleasure to see one of my inspirations from that era wind the clock back for an evening.
Album of the week
Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You
Obviously, "American Teenager" is it's own beast, but this really feels like the synthesis of what she was doing on the EP and Preacher's Daughter and what she was doing on Perverts.
There are moody, experimental instrumentals--sometimes as their own tracks, sometimes dispersed within the sprawling runtimes of what would otherwise be "pop songs." There's the Southern gothic story telling (and it's even sharper here than on previous efforts). There's big, big melodies that sometimes carry through an entire number and sometimes burst out of some wall of noise. And there's one of indie rock's best singers doing what she does best.
About the latter, the songs here are great, but they also wouldn't quite be the same in someone else's hands with someone else's voice trying to propel them forward. Hayden Anhedönia makes them soar.
You should also check out Cat Zhang's Ethel Cain profile in The Cut.
Song of the week
Lucy Dacus - Bus Back to Richmond
If you're of a certain age, you're used to getting bombarded by nostalgia. I mentioned my friend Lindsay's party photos coming back up online last week as part of the whole indie sleaze revival.
When I think of the actual artifacts of that time, it makes me feel about the aughts like Craig Finn's narrator in "A Multitude of Casualties" feels about the 80s though. Obviously, there's some stuff (some music especially) that I don't just think back on fondly, but still love. But it's the experiences that really made everything surrounding it feel special. And the experiences are why some of it still does.
It wasn't fun because my pants were too tight or I wore a sloppily tied tie or a fucking bandana around my wrist. Or because of whatever was happening in the bathroom. And it definitely wasn't the majority of dance punk tunes in a vacuum.
It was fun because I was at an age where I was nominally an adult, but I still didn't feel like I had most of the responsibilities of one. It was fun because my body still let me stay out all night without being too angry at me in the morning. And it was fun because all my friends at the time were in the same place.
In a weird way, this song makes me think fondly about that period between 2006 and 2013 or so way more than "House of Jealous Lovers" or Spank Rock does, because even though it takes place during a different time, it's about one of those nights.
Partying all night, dancing yourself clean, and crashing out crammed in someone's crappy apartment, plus that little spark of romance.
Sometimes the latter goes away and sometimes a little something finds a way to stay with you. I've been thinking about that a lot lately too.
Classic of the week
Dum Dum Girls - Heartbeat (Take It Away)
This was one of the other bands that I was listening to a ton of right before Pleasure Cruise became a thing. And I hadn't listened to them in ages, but I've been on a bit of a kick since Thursday.
More heat
Bananahaus - Black Hole
A local band?! We're so back. I first saw Bananahaus when they played with one of my friend Lindsay's bands at not Toast and not Take Your Time, but whatever it was called between that and I was smitten after the first few bars. When I think of watching Vancouver bands in quasi-legal venues, this is the sound I think of and it's so heartening to this middle aged man to hear someone carrying this specific torch (Piss are doing it very well too)
Casey Dienel - Your Girl's Upstairs
I've been blogging about Casey Dienel for nearly two decades(!) and apparently I'm going to keep doing it, because she's going to keep writing great songs. Casey's style has shifted around a lot over the last 20-years and this electric guitar driven "if that's your boyfriendgirlfriend (s)he wasn't last night" song is such a far cry from "Frankie and Annette"
Big Thief - Los Angeles
I've found Big Thief really hit or miss for a pretty long time now, but this one's a hit.
Jehnny Beth - High Resolution Sadness
An absolute fuckin' ripper from the Savages frontwoman. It does not, in fact, sound like she wants to feel sadness, it sounds like she wants to feel blinding rage.
now playing: The Get Up Kids - Holiday
Sunday, August 03, 2025
fools, liars, heathens, traitors/repent, be saved
Two months after it was published, I finally got around to reading this "Jenn Pelly gets in the tour van with Waxahatchee" piece in the Oxford American.
Pelly jokes about Almost Famous in the article, but especially because of the Pelly twins' friendship with the Crutchfield twins, there's an interesting feel to it.
It also mirrors the last two Waxahatchee records a bit, in that it's joyous and at times and also immensely sad at times.
Most importantly, it's one of the greatest contemporary music writers on one of the greatest contemporary songwriters.
Album of the week
The Armed - The Future is Here and Everything Needs to be Destroyed
When I interviewed Japandroids for the first time, I asked Brian what he did at his day job. It felt like a pretty mean nothing question to me--something that I asked just so I could add a little colour about who these two guys were.
He paused uncomfortably and after awhile said, "I'm a scientist. I drop science."
It wasn't until we wrapped up that I understood why he was so hesitant and why his answer was so vague. They were still such a small band, but if they ever did "make it," he didn't want to be Brian with the office job from Vancouver, because Brian believed (and probably still believes) in the theatre of rock 'n' roll.
We ended up finding out a lot about Ozzy (belated RIP), but there was a long period before the reality show where he really did seem like the Prince of Darkness. And it's a lot cooler to think of Bowie as an alien than as David Robert Jones.
Which brings us to the Armed. The Armed believe in the theatre of rock 'n' roll.
The sprawling hardcore(ish) collective has some number of members, some number of which are named Dan Greene, one of whom is the guy who first writes the songs (but never finishes them and rarely performs them). Most of them live in some weird compound. It all sounds like some cult, except I kinda want to join the cult.
Dan Ozzi wrote an incredible profile on them for the Fader in 2023 and after reading it, I would say that I was hooked, but there was one problem. I thought the actual music was just pretty good.
I loved the idea of the Armed so much, but their songs never clicked with me.
Until now.
The other Armed albums had all the elements that are present on The Future is Here, but it finally feels like everything is there in the right proportions. It's relentlessly aggressive like their earlier albums, but the "that's not hardcore" experimentation is still there too. It just feels like it's in perfect balance now.
It's a brutal, beautiful half hour of music and I'm finally ready to refract.
Song of the week
The Berries - Angelus
Every part of this song is so subtle and understated, but it all comes together to make such a satisfying whole. The vocal hooks are never huge, but they come one after another, only taking a break for the guitar solo, before they come back in the bridge. And those guitars, man. Both the playing and the production sound so good. It's like Matthew Berry harnessed all the best parts of 70s classic rock radio and then let them loose for five near perfect minutes.
Classic of the week
The Walkmen - The Rat
Linds put her old party photo website back online, which made me think about the chorus to this one.
Here's a photo from a decade and a half ago where I'm probably telling Neil he should play something that no one else but me will enjoy.
More heat
Hayley Williams - Love Me Different
Apparently, "it's not an album," but Hayley Williams released 17 songs last week. This one's my favourite (although this one that's really giving T Swift is pretty great too).
Dovetail - raining here, too
The debut single from two kids from Vassar that met at an open mic night and bonded over their shared love of Elliot Smith. It's got that dreamy, lush thing that Beach House used to do so well, with the dueling vocals really taking things to another level.
Golden Apples - Mind
A bouncy little garage pop anthem about trying to exist when everything around you is terrible.
now playing: Songs:Ohia - Hold on Magnolia
