Sunday, October 19, 2025
what do i sing for? who do i sing for? don't ask me anymore
Almost every review of a Skullcrusher release touches on the fact that, on first blush, Helen Ballentine doesn't make music that sounds like it was made by band called "Skullcrusher."
Sunday, October 12, 2025
i used to think that every word you said/was a little gift that I'd unwrap/and then start dreaming about the next one i might get
She's got a knack for speaking in really plain language, but delivering the words in a way that somehow makes them seem poignant. Everything is simple and raw and if you're caught in the right (or wrong?) mood, it'll hit like a truck.
Stella Donnelly - Year of Trouble
Sunday, October 05, 2025
i'm glad that we stayed here for awhile/that we were here for awhile
Idlewild - Idlewild
what do i sing for? who do i sing for? don't ask me anymore
Album of the week
Skullcrusher - And Your Song is Like a Circle
"Skullcrusher" sounds like it should be black metal outfit, which is sonically about as far as you can get from the actual Skullcrusher. But Ballentine's sparse, soft, and gorgeous music is still heavy as hell.
There's a grief that hangs over everything--a darkness. While it's not a ten ton riff hitting you over the head, the piano line at the end of "March," the one that comes after the lines "and now I feel forever pressing into me/beautiful, terrible," hammers down like it's trying to push you into the abyss. And even the lilting backing vocals on "Red Car" can't hold up the weight to keep the lead vocal afloat--it eventually fades out into the sound of waves crashing against the shore.
What a beautiful way to drown. I've been letting it wash over me all weekend.
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Super Nintendo
Wednesday - Game of Pricks (Guided by Voices cover)
Song of the week
We've been blessed by Alchemist beats for nearly three decades. And it seems like we're blessed by an Armand Hammer release every two years. What a time to be alive (minus the rise of American fascism, the impending end of the world accelerated by war and intense power use so the hugest nerds alive can talk to their AI girlfriend or make the worst "art" I've ever seen, and every-fucking-thing else).
Classic of the week
Obviously, I was going to love this, but Karly Hartzman really does sound fucking perfect singing it--one of the all time great pop songs.
She wrote an incredible piece for Vulture on "The Way Love Goes" from my current record of the year, Bleeds, that nearly broke me in two as well.
More heat
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore - Melted Moon
For the forthcoming Tragic Magic, ambient music's version of billy woods and ELUCID got hooked up with their version of the Alchemist: the thousands of historical instruments housed at the Philharmonie de Paris’ Musée de la Musique.
"Melted Moon" is our first preview from the record, out next January, and it's soaring, expansive, and beautiful. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from these two.
runo plum - Pond
I find this song so sonically sooting even though:
This song came from feeling really stuck in a slump, feeling the height of the absence, the pain, and the loneliness. Wondering how there will ever be a time where it didn’t feel like this, and fighting with the internal voice that was telling me my best option was to not be on earth.
now playing: Wilco - Open Mind
Sunday, October 12, 2025
i used to think that every word you said/was a little gift that I'd unwrap/and then start dreaming about the next one i might get
Album of the week
Madi Diaz - Fatal Optimist
Madi Diaz's last record, Weird Faith, didn't exactly boast lush instrumentation, but just a year later she's back with Fatal Optimist, an album that's stripped right down to the studs--just Diaz's voice and acoustic guitar.
If you've listened to any of her records, you have an idea for what you're in for here. These are broken heart songs. Fuckin' dirges.
I had a few too many beers watching the Canucks on Thursday night and came home and put this one on and it felt like being run over (a thing I actually have first hand experience with).
Madi's at the Biltmore on November 15th.
Song of the week
Lande Hekt - Favourite Pair of Shoes
Going all the way back to that first Muncie Girls record, if there's a Lande Hekt song, chances are I'm going to love it.
There's less power chords nowadays, but no matter how the songs are dressed up, they still soar.
More heat
Jay Som w/Hayley Williams - Past Lives
It's weird to say "Hayley Williams is finally getting her due," cause Paramore wasn't exactly unpopular, but it does seem like Hayley Williams is finally getting the respect she deserves. And it seems like she's celebrating by showing up everywhere she can and it fucking rocks.
This one's the last pre-release single from an unsurprisingly wonderful new Jay Som album.
Ragana & Drowse - Ash Souvenir
This album is going to be heavy is hell. The lead off single already fulfilled that promise, but this song is what I was really hoping for when I read about the collab between the black metal duo and the ambient noise guy. Maria Stocke finally breaks out into a scream in the final minute of this one, but it's a lot more of the drone-y Drowse side of the collaboration for the first 6-minutes. I guess it's still heavy as hell, but in the kind of quiet way that I love so much.
Weird Nightmare - Forever Elsewhere
I'm so here for one of the dudes from Metz doing his best Cloud Nothings impression.
Since you've closed off to me, I've been on a lonely ride.
Sunday, October 05, 2025
i'm glad that we stayed here for awhile/that we were here for awhile
A short one this week.
Album of the week
If I'd been in a different headspace, I might have talked about the frenetic pop-punk that Snõõper put out on Worldwide this week. But Idlewild, at this point, feel so familiar that this one hit me like a warm hug. I'm actually not much of a hugger, but it's finally fall and it felt good to bundle myself up in something.
Remember Sports - Across the Line
Song of the week
The emo-pop/punk thing this band does so well, paired with the lil' twang in Carmen Perry's voice is my kryptonite.
Classic of the week
The Constantines - Young Lions
I've loved this song for so long. There's so much meaning packed into it and so many moments from years gone by crammed into the 4-minutes for me. Pretty recently, it started to make me think of something different and it's just weird to think about how something that's been a certain way for so long can suddenly become something else entirely.
More heat
Suzie True - Every Dog
"We used to drink at house shows/just to feel like we weren't alone... chain smoking in the backyard/fingers barely touching/I look up at your face/and I wish that you would touch me."
The first verse of this one really made the nostalgia machine fire into overdrive for me.
Dorothy - 50s Song
A pretty little tune that's true to its name.
Jennifer Walton - Miss America
Thanks to the great music writer, Laura Snapes, for tweeting for the first time in almost a year to give props to her current song of the year, this devastating ballad about how Jennifer Walton found out about her dad's death while in an airport hotel room.
now playing: The Get Up Kids - Holiday
