Monday, March 09, 2026
cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-champion/you'll get yours
Sunday, March 01, 2026
it’s true that I told a lie or two/only once or twice, and just for you
Mitski - That White Cat
Hey, it's one of those bands from Salinas Records' heyday. This one's a loosie that first appeared on The Le Sigh, Vol II, the--as the name would suggest--second compilation to the gone, but fondly remembered music website that lived from 2012-2017.
It's my favourite All Dogs track.
Monday, February 16, 2026
i'm not sure what i'm afraid of/maybe love is a selfish game
Their best album and maybe the best pop-punk album of the year so far (which is saying a lot, even though we're only a month and a half in).
Monday, February 09, 2026
whiskey in the summertime/the bugs are writing books with their еyes
Ratboys - Singin' to an Empty Chair
Monday, February 02, 2026
and when I think about your face, there's always something hard to place/the way the light would hit your features when we were hanging by the bleachers
Saturday, January 24, 2026
you hear the cheers from the rafters/like when vince was on the raptors
Sunday, January 18, 2026
i start by holding your hand/and taking advice from the songs I like
Nearly every time I get on a plane, I put on Barwick's 2011 masterpiece, The Magic Place. It's not like I'm a nervous flyer (the only mode of transportation I love more than a plane is a train), but there's something so soothing and so fitting about hearing her disembodied voice hanging in the air as you're hurtling through it. I've liked or loved all of her other work, but this is the first one that comes close to capturing that same feeling for me.
Remember Sports - Nevermind
Cashier - Like I Do
Jody Glenham - Overtime
I'm a simple man: if I hear a new Jody song, I post the new Jody song. This one's my favourite from her forthcoming EP, Still Here (she's still here and I still get those ex-bandmate advance listening privileges), out on April 24th.
cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-champion/you'll get yours
Album of the week
Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds - Mutiny After Midnight
This one got announced as a physical media only release (which is still cool as hell), but last Monday it just showed up on YouTube.
I have never been much of a Sturgill Simpson guy, but I don't mean that as any sort of commentary on the quality of his musical output (which is insanely good).
That said, Sound & Fury is very easily my favourite Sturgill release. And while this doesn't have the exact same sound, it has the same swagger to it.
Song of the week
Juvenile feat. Megan Thee Stallion - BBB
I saw some comment about this song that was something along the lines of "Megan's back on her one note again" and motherfucker do you think that's a bad thing? Megan hits that one note like a 90s Neil Young solo, my guy.
Classic of the week 1
Fugazi - Albini Sessions
There were bootlegs out there, but for whatever reason, even though I have a hard drive full of the most niche remixes, live recordings, alternate versions, etc, I'd never bothered to track this down.
But also, who knows how those mp3s would've sounded. And now we get to hear them in all their perfectly produced glory.
Of course, the thing about the sessions that Fugazi did with Steve in '92, is that the band wasn't particularly thrilled with how they played most of the songs, which is why they scrapped the recordings and re-did everything that would eventually become my personal favourite Fugazi album.
I'm glad they did what they did--the version of In on the Kill Taker that we got was better. But what a treat to hear these songs the way they were put to tape the first time, after all these years.
Some things are notably worse. The version of "Smallpox Champion" falls pretty flat the way it's played (it still fucking rocks though, ofc). But it's got that classic Albini production sound, including the snare drum that sounds like it's being played from the direct centre of your brain. And onthe flip side, the version of "Public Witness Program" absolutely rips.
If you love Fugazi, this is a must listen. And it's exclusively on Bandcamp with all the proceeds going to the Letters Charity that Steve was so involved in, so it's also a must buy.
Classic of the week 2
Fontaines D.C. - Black Boys on Mopeds (Sinead O'Connor Cover)
It was a great week for cover versions, mostly driven by the release of the Help (2) benefit for War Child.
The covers (there are also some originals mixed in there) run the gamut from "fun enough" to "stunners," but in an era when compilations don't even make a ton of sense, it's amazing how essential everything sounds as an album.
The good Irish lads in Fontaines just play it straight on this Sinead O'Connor all timer, but that's really all they had to do. Grian Chatten sounds great and it's lovely to hear the band, who really carry the torch of political activism that Sinead did, do this song by this artist.
Classic of the week 3
Olivia Rodrigo - The Book of Love (Magnetic Fields Cover)
69 Love Songs was much more of a songwriting exercise for Stephen Merritt than any sort of confessional, but that doesn't mean that some of the songs don't sound like they've got someone's entire being buried in them.
This one's been done a lot, but Olivia put together what's arguably the best cover by pinning her heart right to her sleeve and sanding away some of that big pop sheen.
Classic of the week 4
Turnstile - I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses Cover)
Turnstile simultaneously keep things very faithful to the original and also make this sound like it's a Turnstile song and sometimes those are the very best covers.
Also, depending on the day of the week, I might tell you that this the best bass riff of all time (on another day of the week, it might be a different Roses one).
More heat
Greg Mendez - I Wanna Feel Pretty
Ronboy - I Am Only Playing
Sprints - Trickle Down
now playing: Ratboys - The World, So Madly
Sunday, March 01, 2026
it’s true that I told a lie or two/only once or twice, and just for you
Album of the Week
joyride! - joyride and friends!
joyride! has a Bandcamp page, but as far as I can tell, no website or Instagram, so I had no idea this was coming out and didn't find out about it until a week after it did.
They put out three LPs in pretty quick succession in the from 2013 - 2016 and two of them were part of the wave of Salinas Records releases from last decade (see also: All Dogs, Swearin', Radiator Hospital) that I absolutely loved. And then they sort of disappeared until 2022's Miracle Question (that I also loved).
And then it was radio silence again until joyride and friends! appeared.
Even though they've got an extended musical family along for the ride, this certainly isn't a reinvention of their sound, which is great. They're doing what they do best and this is another helping of perfect NorCal pop-punk.
Song of the week
If you asked me "was that last Mitski album good?," I would universally say yes, but for whatever reason, none of her releases have really grabbed me since Puberty 2, but Nothing's About to Happen to Me might end that streak. This one's my favourite of the bunch.
Classic of the week
All Dogs - Georgia
now playing: Sturgill Simpson - Mutiny After Midnight
Monday, February 16, 2026
i'm not sure what i'm afraid of/maybe love is a selfish game
Album of the week
Remember Sports - The Refrigerator
If you don't already have Wednesday tickets, catch 'em at the Wise on April 24th.
A contender for 2026 pop-punk album of the year.
Song of the week
Gladie - Brace Yourself
Classic of the week
Fugees - The Score
Happy 30th birthday to this perfect record.
More heat
Kevin Morby - Javelin
Cashier - Part From Me
now playing: Pavement - Spit on a Stranger
Monday, February 09, 2026
whiskey in the summertime/the bugs are writing books with their еyes
Album of the week
Every Ratboys album is a good one, but it really felt like they leveled up on "The Window" and this one seems like another massive step forward for a band that was already great.
I have a pretty wide range of genres and styles of music that I like, but this kinda indie, kinda pop, kinda emo, a little bit country stuff is really my wheelhouse and Singin' to an Empty Chair feels like a canonical entry into that loose catalogue of music.
Pitchfork gave it Best New Music. They also assigned Ivy Nelson to do the review and they basically only give her heavy hitters.
Tom Breihan interviewed Julie Steiner to do a track-by-track breakdown over at Stereogum as well.
Song of the week
Chat Pile - Masks
The boys from Oklahoma bringing their absolute best (like, for real, this might be their best song) for this one-off Sub Pop 7" that features a Nirvana cover--of Bleach's closer, "Sifting"--on the b-side.
I didn't get into Cool World nearly as much as God's Country, but this one's an absolute ripper.
More heat
Alexis Taylor - For a Toy
Hot Chip guy, I was unfamiliar with your solo (moving, sad balladry) game.
Weird Nightmare - Might See You There
Alex Edkins (who was one of the dudes in Metz) said he was listening to a lot of Undertones when he wrote this song and that checks the fuck out.
Friko - Seven Degrees
Big Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust vibes ("Life On Mars" in particular).
Mandy, Indiana feat. billy woods - Sicko!
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart - dawn | pulse
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart's forthcoming BODY SOUND features the three multidisciplinary artists on viola, cello, and violin, respectively, while they share wordless (very Julianna Barwick-like) vocal duties.
"dawn | pulse" is the official first single (and lead off track on the album) and follows last year's equally gorgeous "stone | piece" (here's a live version of that).
now playing: Blondie - Call Me
Monday, February 02, 2026
and when I think about your face, there's always something hard to place/the way the light would hit your features when we were hanging by the bleachers
Album of the week
Joyce Manor - I Used to Go to This Bar
For a long time, I didn't think I liked this band. And then when I started to second guess that, I went back to listen to their really early stuff and I remembered right--I, in fact, did not like them much at all (sorry to anyone who likes that lo-fi shit the best).
But after "All My Friends Are So Depressed" floored me last year, I went a little less far backwards and turns out that I would've loved them if I'd given them a second chance starting from Million Dollars to Kill Me onwards.
I Used to Go to This Bar sees them tinkering around the edges with their sound, sometimes to great success (the aforementioned Smiths tribute "All My Friends...") and sometimes less so ("After All You Put Me Through"), but the low points are buoyed by the high points of classic California pop-punk.
The title track opens with a brief Sum 41 homage of all things, before it shifts into "Blink 182 sings a Craig Finn song" territory (complimentary). And absolute ripper, "I Know Where Mark Chen Lives," simultaneously alludes to Television Personalities and the now enigmatic So-Cal pop punker via the title.
Song of the week
Slowlight - Cruel Morning
I feel like the target market for this late-90s/early-00s kinda shoe gazey indie pop stuff, but when it hits, it really hits.
Classic of the week
Danzig - Twist of Cain
A PSA to let you know the first (and easily best) Danzig solo album is back in print on LP.
More heat
Sluice - Beadie
Probably kinda rude to say "I like this because it sounds like Bill Callahan" without posting any of the new Bill Callahan songs, but here we are.
Dutch Interiors - Ground Scores
"It's so silly [listening] to loves songs, while we teeter at that edge."
now playing: Bully - Milkman
Saturday, January 24, 2026
you hear the cheers from the rafters/like when vince was on the raptors
Album of the week
Roc Marciano - 656
I don't really know what there is to say at this point. Marci's output has been so consistently great and here he is at his best--when he's doing almost all the rapping and all of the production. Every time I listen, there's another line that jumps out at me as the best one and the beats are unimpeachable.
Song of the week
Mitski - Where's My Phone?
MFW I see a cat on the street doing something cute.
"Where's My Phone?" is the first single from Nothing's About To Happen To Me out February 27th on Dead Ocean
Classic of the week
Joyride! - Emergency Broadcast System
I'm not sure what made me put on this perfect slice of NorCal pop-punk this week, but I ended up listening to this album about six times in a row.
More heat
Snail Mail - Dead End
All the really good Snail Mail songs sound extremely similar to me (complimentary because I want more of them)
True Green - Italian Lightning
An entry into the canon of modern classic American indie singer-songwriter jams and all the proceeds go to mutual aid operations in the Twin Cities. Fuck ICE.
Lightning Bolt and OO|OO - Cloud Core
The boys from Lighting Bolt and YoshimiO from the Boredoms coming together for an absolute noise-punk masterclass.
Doll Spirit Vessel - Kissing My Cup
I go back and forth between, "this 90s revival thing is out of control" and "hell yes. fuck yeah." This one inspired the latter.
now playing: Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
Sunday, January 18, 2026
i start by holding your hand/and taking advice from the songs I like
Album of the week
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore - Tragic Magic
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have both been making impossibly beautiful, atmospheric music for many, many years. And while they've collaborated in the past both live and in the studio, this is the first time we've been treated to an entire album.
Lattimore's harp keeps everything tethered to the ground, while Barwick's signature, delay soaked vocals, swirl up around everything, like they're reaching up into the heavens.
Nearly every time I get on a plane, I put on Barwick's 2011 masterpiece, The Magic Place. It's not like I'm a nervous flyer (the only mode of transportation I love more than a plane is a train), but there's something so soothing and so fitting about hearing her disembodied voice hanging in the air as you're hurtling through it. I've liked or loved all of her other work, but this is the first one that comes close to capturing that same feeling for me.
I can't wait til the next time I hop on a plane, because I know what I'm putting on.
Song of the week
How the fuck is it possible that Remember Sports is actually playing here, but it's the same night as Wednesday/Gouge Away?! Why do I have to choose between hearing my second favourite record of 2025 live or hearing what's shaping up to maybe be my favourite record of 2026? The world is more of a tire fire than it's ever been in my (at this point pretty fucking long) lifetime and I didn't need this insult to injury, frankly.
Anyhow, I love this song a lot, but the thing I love the most about it is that "so, I heated pizza for dinner/let the pizza get cold again" couplet and the way it perfectly captures a feeling that--if you've ever felt it--you'll recognize instantaneously.
"Nevermind" is the fourth and final single from The Refrigerator, out on February 13th. Remember Sports play the Wise on April 24th.
Classic of the week
MJ Lenderman - A Long December (Counting Crows cover)
More heat
Ratboys - The World, So Madly
Ok, maybe this one's going to be my favourite record of 2026.
Real Dinosaur Jr. hours. Who's up?
Modern Woman - Dashboard Mary
Early contender for album cover of the year and an absolute banger of a lead off single. This one builds and builds until it explodes and when it explodes, it's sublime (uhhh like the verb, not the band--no 3rd wave ska here).
now playing: Haybaby - Pig
