From Blown Speakers

Sunday, June 29, 2025
late great love songs I can't remember/they say "love songs follow the weather"

I got swooped by a crow today. In the fucking yard of my house too. Also, the farmer's market finally had fava beans. Both things that feel like they should be ushering in spring, but here we are creeping up on July.

Maybe it was because I was out of town for a lot of May or maybe it's because the winter weather was so mild, but it hasn't really felt like we had much of a spring at all. I guess that's okay, because this is really a summer town.

Mercifully, we don't suffer through the kinds of winters that the rest of the country gets, but it's still always felt like the dreariness of November to February and then most of the spring is something you simply endure to get where we are now.

In university, I had friends from Ontario who called the summer tours that UBC ran for prospective students "the great betrayal" because you show up when Vancouver's impossibly beautiful, commit to 4-years of being here, and then after two weeks in September, everyone you know is suffering from SAD.

But we made it to summer again. Something that's always felt like a time of rebirth in Vancouver. You made it through the hard part, here's your reward. Take a new path.

Album of the week

Laura Stevenson - Late Great

Sorry, if you tried to contact me over the last 72-hours. I was busy listening to this Laura Stevenson "I broke up with my partner/the father of my child" record and letting it hold me down like a weighted blanket, thanks very much.

This one came billed as a break up record and while lead single, "Honey," pointed at what we were getting ourselves into, I wasn't ready for just how intensely fucking sad this thing is.

The follow-up single, "I Couldn't Sleep" (linked above), is about building up a new romance in your head so much that you're tossing and turning at night with anticipation, but still being so fucked up that you're actually relieved when it ends up being underwhelming. Very fucking sad!

But the one that really broke me in half was "Middle Love," which is a song going to sign divorce papers. I would say it was the "click of a pen and the stroke of a hand and there's no longer you and me" part that got me, but I think it's actually that it just ends so abruptly after the second refrain of "I can't fathom how I'll get to the car." There's a piano line that just cuts off, half finished. It's a neat little arrangement trick, but it's also a devastating one.

Emerging from all the melancholy is Stevenson's most sonically beautiful record to date. The instrumentation runs the gamut between extremely sparse (like just the piano and Laura's voice on "Middle Love") to these full, lush orchestral numbers (like on "I Couldn't Sleep"), but it all fits--every song sounds like it's dressed up (or dressed down) just the way it should be. To hear her describe it, this record was the first time she took full control of how all her songs should sound:

“It’s a document of loss for sure, but it also draws the map of this exciting precipice that I’m standing on. I am making my own life now. With the record, with everything, this is the first time I get to call all the shots.”

Late Great starts and ends with the same song... sort of. "#1" kicks the record off and "#1 (2)" ends the album like a little postscript. They both start with the same verse, but the first version builds with a big, full arrangement behind it and double tracked Lauras belting out the refrain of "baby, you're the one" to close it out. The second rendition features just an acoustic guitar, some soft sounding horns, and a really close mic'd, single vocal line that more or less sums up the album's previous 37 odd minutes: it wasn’t easy, but she's still here.

It’s the little things that come first

Like the struggled closing of a dress

But it gives a little comfort when they start dissolving in the mess

Heavy like a year

Slung low, the sunflower heads

Standing there all soaking wet

Say their prayers and go to bed

Late Great is out now on Jeff Rosenstock's Really Records

Song of the week

Sprint - Descartes

Sprints singer, Karla Chubb, said this song is about how she uses songwriting as a tool to process the world, which makes sense because the world currently seems like it's bursting into uncontrolled flames in many different places at any given moment and this song sounds like it's burning with the heat of 100 spontaneously combusting Teslas. A real fuckin' ripper.

"Descartes" is the lead off single for Sprints' forthcoming sophomore LP, All That is Over, out September 25th.

Classic of the week

Carly Rae Jepsen - All That

Carly Rae Jepsen's E•MO•TION (I'm going to avoid typing that title out again, cause what the fuck) turned 10-years-old last week. Grace Robins-Somerville wrote a nice piece about the whole album for Stereogum, but I wanted to zone in on "All That," the record's shimmering centrepiece and still very easily my favourite CRJ song.

Co-written with Dev Hynes, it's this synth driven throwback ballad that feels like it was beamed straight from the 80s. It's slinky and sexy sounding, but that sound is also a bit of a ruse.

There are so many love songs about "I need you" or "I want you"--songs about yearning. And while a little of that yearning's still here, the central theme of "All That" isn't about what you want from someone, it's about what you want to be for someone: a support, a lighthouse when they're lost at sea (lost at sea), someone to help navigate, well, everything.

Sonically, it's screaming Prince, but the desire's not that kind of desire, there's no aura of confidence, and there's definitely nothing playful. In fact, the lyrics build to this extremely earnest climax of "I will be your friend."

Maybe that's not as cool as "I wanna be your lover," but it might be more romantic. You can't start a fire without that first spark of lust but there's so much more depth to the invitation: tell me that you want me, show me that you care, and I'll try to give it back ten fold.

Plus it makes me want to put my arms around someone and dance her around the living room and that's just a nice feeling, man.

More heat

Blood Orange - The Field (feat. Tariq Al-Sabir, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, and the Duretti Column)

Speaking of Dev Hynes, here he is back with a host of friends in tow (one of them, Caroline Polachek, put out a nice little one off from the Death Stranding 2 soundtrack last week as well). I read someone complain that this song "is pretty but it doesn't go anywhere." And it really does just feel like a series of textures. But it sure sounds good swirling around itself.

Clipse - So Be It

It's not really surprising that Pusha Terrence came with grade A bars, but Malice sounding so good after a decade and a half away is a true delight.

Folk Bitch Trio - Moth Song

10/10 band name obviously. And I liked the first two singles fine enough. But this sparse, drum-less number finally has me really excited for the album. Around 3:50 when the violins start swelling up behind the harmonies? Give me that all day.

Madi Diaz - Something to Burn

Almost every Madi Diaz song is about heartbreak and they can all pretty much be filed under either "I fucked up. Fuck me" or "You fucked up. Fuck you" (complimentary). This one's the latter.

Slow Crush - While You Dream Vividly

A song that's best described by the band's name. Bury me at M~~akeout~~BV creek.

Bruce Springsteen - The Little Things

Oh, and also when you get an extra 5-hours, there's 83 previously unreleased Springsteen tracks that are mostly way too good to be throwaways.

now playing: Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire

posted by Quinn @ 10:03 p.m. Comments:1

Friday, December 27, 2024
and sometimes it's over before it gets started, so call me when the coast is clear

Here is some music I loved this year. And here's a link to all of it.

Albums

Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood

Saint Cloud was very clearly ushering in a new era of Katie Crutchfield's Waxahatchee project. You could finally hear the alt-country influences (most notably Lucinda Williams) that she often mentioned in interviews, but certainly weren't overt previously. The songs were lush--about as far away from the claustrophobic sounds of American Weekend as you could get. And while part of my brain will always associate Waxahatchee with those scratchy bedroom recordings, the sound of Saint Cloud really suits her best.

Tiger's Blood took everything a step further into pure Americana territory and boasts Crutchfield's sharpest songwriting to date as well. There's so many bands/artists that seem to appear more or less fully formed, bursting out of the gates with one, maybe two albums that end up defining them, but Katie's on LP six and still getting better and better.

Pissed Jeans - Half Divorced

Dave at Red Cat was so pleased that someone came in to buy this on release day that he got his daughter (who works at the store now) to give me a discount. Just a couple of grey haired guys being dudes about this band of grey haired guys who've been dudes on six straight LPs.

Rosali - Bite Down

Steven Hyden opened his Bite Down end of year write up with a question: the best singer in indie rock? My #1 might change on any given day, but she's definitely up there. Bite Down features songwriting worthy of those vocals and a brightness that stands in contrast to the tunes on No Medium. There's still plenty of melancholy, but there's also a feeling of lightness that carries through the record's 45-minute run time.

Why Bonnie - Wish on the Bone

The P4K review of this record contains the line, "On 'Wish on the Bone,' thwacking drums and squawking guitars establish a sound somewhere between Songs Ohia and Hop Along." And I can't think of a description of something that's more my shit than that. It's everything I loved about 90 in November but it's all a little bit better.

Ekko Astral - pink balloons

DC punk is never going to die and hearing these kids for the first time reminded me of hearing Priests for the first time. It's pretty unfortunate that there hasn't been a decline in things to be absolutely frothing at the mouth livid about, but at least there are still bands doing an incredible job of soundtracking--and pushing back at--all the terrible shit in the world.

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

I'm sure there's some irony in the fact that my biggest gripe with Lenderman's music was that everything had to be a clever little joke. But all the little jokes are so damn clever on this one that I finally gave in and docked my houseboat down at the himbo dome (they rejected me for not being handsome enough).

Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past is Still Alive

This record sounds like if the weirdest punk kid you knew growing up told you they were going to write their own version of After the Goldrush or Blood on the Tracks, but actually succeeded. It's the most classic sounding Americana, told through the lens of someone who came up in the 00s and it's absolutely wonderful.

Sleater-Kinney - Little Rope

"Return to form" might be a bit of an overstatement, but it's their best since No Cities. That's a bit of a backhanded compliment, but the 8th best S-K record is still better than the best record 90% of bands put out.

Shellac - To All Trains

It was stupid to think Shellac would just sporadically put out albums forever, but I kinda felt like Shellac would just sporadically put out albums forever--that every 5 or 10 years, I would be delighted by a new album and then the trio would go back to their lives in between records. That there'd be at least one joke I'd giggle about (on To All Trains it's the opening track's imagining of the "World Series of Dick Sucking" and also "Scrappers" and also the "pow, you're pregnant" line on "Scabby the Rat"). That there'd be a dozen or so instantly familiar, but just different enough riffs that would bury their way into my brain. And that we'd be blessed with a couple weeks of the Steve Albini interview circuit. Over half a year later, it's still a bit wild to think about how that won't be happening. But what a way to go out. RIP, Steve.

Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer

I don't think I'm supposed to love this record. There's a decent amount of what I can only describe as "spoken word." There's more ironic jokes than that MJ Lenderman LP. And the instrumentals kinda sound like Enya. But just like on 2021's An Overview of Phenomenal Nature, it all comes together in the most perfect way.

Songs

Bully - "Atom Bomb"

On paper, this probably shouldn't work. For a decade, Alicia Bognanno's music has been defined by her raspy croon straining against 90s power chords. This one sounds like she's giving herself the Cat Power Covers Record treatment, with those down stroked guitars replaced with plunking piano notes. If you listened closely, this kind of raw vulnerability was always there, but it sounds even better when it's got nowhere to hide.

Waxahatchee - "Tigers Blood"

This could have been "Right Back to It" or "3 Sisters" or "365" or "Crimes of the Heart," but I love the way those gang vocals swell up at the end of this one. A perfect closer for a damn near perfect record.

Camera Obscura - "Big Love"

Approximately two decades ago, I talked about the members of Camera Obscura looking like they were "pushing 40," but still writing songs that sound like they were 20 and I can't think of a more "quote from man stabbed" situation than me writing that then and me writing this now. Also, Tracyanne Campbell was only 32 at the time (and she absolutely did not look 40--very rude of me).

This sort of song never goes out of style and it's so, so great to have them back, especially after the tragic loss of Carey Lander in 2015. A lot of 00's reunions have been tours only and in most cases, that's been merciful, but Camera Obscura showed they had so much left in the tank with this year's record.

Madi Diaz and Kacey Musgraves - "Don’t Do Me Good"

I'm sure it sounds disrespectful to say that the best song Kacy Musgraves sang on in 2024 wasn't one of hers, at least until you hear this stunner.

Japandroids - "Chicago"

For one last time: dudes rock. I would've loved one more hometown show, but "here's the album, sorry that's it" is so Brian (I think Dave might have entertained a little swan song) that I'm not even mad about it. I can still remember the very first time I saw them--something I talked about on the podcast I'll maybe start doing again in 2025--and "Chicago" captures the feelings those songs sparked in me 17(!) years ago perfectly.

Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"

I didn't really think there was a way to make talking about killing people or "I had sex with your wife" (not in those words) sound quaint, but credible assertions that the guy you're talking about is a kiddie fiddler might do it. We're galaxies away from "you're 36 and do Tae Bo," that's for sure. There's something unsettling about this beef going back and forth when the back of my mind is constantly "look ACAB, but somebody should arrest Drake." Still, this was an easy pick for one of the songs of the year and I almost got tickets to Kendrick in Toronto to see him perform it (probably 3-4, 5, 6 times) there.

Anika Pyle - "Arizona"

From Chumped to Katie Ellen to their solo stuff, if Anika Pyle puts out music, chances are it's gonna be up there with my favourites for the year.

Tyler, the Creator, GloRilla, Sexy Redd, Lil Wayne - "Sticky"

What a wild ride from Bastard, which came out on Christmas 15-years ago, to CHROMAKOPIA. It's hard to believe that the angry (but also immensely talented) little fucker on those Odd Future records would become rap's most exciting voice, but a new Tyler record's truly an event these days. Also, we get Weezy rhyming "sticky situation" with "discombobulation" like a Carter III outtake on this one.

Fontaines DC - "Favourite"

It feels like "Starburster" is the consensus pick from Romance, and like, I like that song, but it also gets a little too far into "white guy rapping" territory for comfort. This one though? The best riff on the album powering a little 80s UK indie throwback was bound to be my favourite.

Kylie V - "Wish I Was in Bed"

I'm very upset that the 90s are back in vogue from a "grappling with my own fragile mortality" perspective, but pretty stoked that they're back from a musical perspective. This one reminds me of one of my favourite songs from 1994.

The Menzingers - "Second City"

"The back booth of the bar again with all of my friends all crammed in, but these days I only wanna party with you."

I think I'm too old to love a couplet like that, but I think these guys are too old to be writing a couplet like that. Yet, here we are.

Why Bonnie - "Three Big Moons"

If you were the protagonist in that Menzingers' track, this is the song you'd make your partner dance with you to right before the 4am bar closing time.

Ekko Astral - "Head Empty Blues"

No thoughts, just vibes. But the vibes are immaculate.

Rosali - "Rewind"

An arrangement plucked straight off of The Last Waltz and a vocal performance that supports Hyden's "best singer in indie rock" statement. A refrain of "I love you and I know you love me too" could sound terrible in the wrong hands, but it sounds defiant and powerful here.

Cardi B - "Like What Freestyle"

At this point, it feels like Cardi might never put out a second album, but all the loosies are so good, who cares. Plus, proper records need singles and sometimes concepts and I just wanna hear her talk shit for 2-minutes.

Charlotte Day Wilson - "I Don’t Love You"

Rosali might be the best singer in indie rock and CDW might be the best singer in the whole city of Toronto. She's a helluva producer too. And right around 3:20 when all the backing drops and the vocals dry out shows off both.

E L U C I D and billy woods - "Bad Pollen"

Underground rap's dynamic duo didn't have a whole album in them in 2024, but they still blessed us with a couple of tracks on Elucid's solo joint. It's a privilege to live through Armand Hammer's imperial era. It also seems like it's never going to end.

Frances Quinlan - "Another Season"

Hop Along started out as a Frances Q solo project, so with all due respect to the three guys in the band, this is more or less a new Hop Along track and I am fucking here for a new Hop Along track.

Cassandra Jenkins - "Omakase"

I went to Japan at the end of summer and the fruit there, while excellent, is spendy as hell, so I bet "お任せ berries" would cost you a small fortune. This song really exemplifies everything I said about this album though.

Piss - "Time Loop at Hot Slit"

This song makes me want to forget I'm middle aged, drain six beers (PBRs) on a Tuesday, and ask someone to hold my glasses, so I can get into the pit. It's nasty, brutish, and short (complementary) and the exact type of music that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. As music has understandably shifted so much over the last couple of decades, it warms my heart to know that this kind of discordant, heavy post-hardcore still has legs in Vancouver.

Shows

Waxahatchee w/Woods @ the Orpheum

Not a surprise that one of my favourite artists performing my favourite album of the year would be my favourite show, but man, what a showcase of the current era of Waxahatchee. I wrote about this show in August.

Bry Webb w/Cots @ LanaLou's

After I got a copy of my cousin's ID (thanks, Jeff!), the Constantines at the Brickyard was the first show I used it to get into. I've seen the Cons or Bry Webb more times than I can remember since then, but I also thought that I'd never see Bry play music again. He'd more or less quit making it before a song quietly showed up on streaming services at the end of 2023. And then in the Spring he--without much fanfare--dropped into LanaLou's of all places to play. I wrote about this show in May.

Militarie Gun w/Pool Kids and Spiritual Cramp @ the Rickshaw

Militarie Gun were about as good as I expected (which was very good) live, but Spiritual Cramp blew me away. I liked their 2023 self-titled record, but they turned it way, way up in the flesh and they're a band I'll drop everything for to see live going forward, although I did have to miss them at the Fox in July, because I was sick.

Sleater-Kinney w/Black Belt Eagle Scout @ the Vogue

They're no longer America's best rock band, but they still might be America's best live rock band, even without America's best drummer.

Kim Gordon w/Moor Mother @ the Commodore

This year I found out that Kim Gordon is only 5-years younger than my mom. And my mom is a pretty cool lady, but respectfully, she's never been the coolest lady on planet earth. Kim Gordon still might be.

now playing: Why Bonnie - Rainbows and Ridges (Blaze Foley cover)

posted by Quinn @ 3:56 a.m. Comments:0

Saturday, August 17, 2024
but if you wanna buy a round, we might hang out

I made it down the Orpheum to see Katie Crutchfield's Waxhatchee last night.

It's about a 10-fold jump to the nearly 3,000 seater from The Plaza (RIP... I guess) and I was kinda curious how things would feel in a much, much bigger room.

It felt great. Really, really great.

The band kicked things off with "3 Sisters," the opener to this year's fabulous Tiger's Blood, with Katie starting sans guitar, decked out in a pretty sick looking Royals trucker hat that was flung into the crowd as the band crashed in behind her and they didn't let up from there. There was sparse stage banter and only the briefest of pauses between each song as they tore through all of Tiger's Blood, damn near all of 2020's Saint Cloud, three tunes from 2022's Plains' record, and one brand new song.

Maybe it's just me, but when it's an artist I've been following for along time, my brain paints a picture of a certain--usually early--point in time. And in my mind's eye, Katie Crutchfield is still cramped in a dingy bar playing very close, almost claustrophobic sounding songs with very minimal backing.

This was anything but.

Her band, that notably features Jeff Tweedy's son, Spencer, on drums, made Crutchfield's songs sound big and expansive, just like they sound on the most recent two records. They stayed close enough to the album arrangements, but they also coloured outside the lines a bit, in the best way--songs were instantly familiar, but the other band members made their presence felt too.

They also looked like they were having the time of their lives and that kind of energy is infectious. There's a lot of harmonies on Tiger's Blood and Saint Cloud, but it seemed like the entire band was mouthing the words 90% of the time whether it was their turn on backing vocals or not. The lead guitarist, at one point, ran over to one of the two multi-instrumentalists for what I can only describe as a secret handshake, and the two walked off stage with their arms around each other to end the night. They all clearly love playing these songs together.

A brief aside on Spencer Tweedy. I'm not going to get into nepobaby discourse. One, because I don't think it applies here. And two, because it's the most tedious thing I can think of. But growing up around Wilco's Glenn Kotche, certainly seems to have its advantages. Spencer definitely has his own style, but like Kotche, he's melodic without being showy, definitely knows when not to play, and he's like a human metronome back there on the kit.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd heard that this tour didn't dip into anything that came out before Saint Cloud, and honestly, I was a little disappointed at first. I love those songs. I love American Weekend. I really love Cerulean Salt. But Katie Crutchfield's changed so much in the last decade plus and those songs would've sounded out of place last night. While not necessarily "better," she's certainly moved on to bigger things and "Hollow Bedroom" would've sounded like it was from a different planet, butting up against "Witches." Also, in the moment, I didn't think about "Coast to Coast" or "Air" once. I was too caught up in how great all the songs from the last 4-5 years sounded.

The set closer, "Fire," featured Crutchfield with just a microphone again and she really took advantage of the Orpheum's big stage, strolling out to either side to acknowledge the crowd, who were all on their feet at that point. I was struck by how natural it all looked. Sometimes you see bands make the jump from bars to theatres (or even stadiums) and they, unsurprisingly, look a little out of their element.

Katie looked like she was ready for an even bigger stage.

now playing: Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes

posted by Quinn @ 11:38 p.m. Comments:0

Saturday, June 01, 2024
this is my farewell transmission

I already shared this first part on Twitter, but I remember bussing down from Richmond to Zulu Records. I had read somewhere that the guy who produced In Utero had been in a bunch of bands and I wanted to go check them out, because I loved In Utero and before there was even Napster, let alone streaming, you could go to Zulu, grab a stack of CDs and they'd let you listen to them with headphones from one of the small army of discmans at the front counter.

I picked Big Black's Songs About Fucking. I think I picked it because I thought the album title was funny (it still is). But I remember putting the headphones on and this came blaring out and I had my wallet on the counter before the song was even halfway through.

After that, I started checking out anything Steve Albini was involved in. But I also started finding out that so many albums that I already loved had his hands all over them: Surfer Rosa. Rid of Me, Goat, Pod, to name a few.

I started paying attention to what Steve Albini said--and he was a good quote, so even before he became kinda omnipresent on Twitter, you could read what he said. I digested "The Problem With Music" and quoted parts of it like it was the gospel (it still kinda is).

I gravitated towards his brand of nihilism.

There's a sample of a JG Ballard quote on one of my all time favourite albums, the Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible (Albini engineered The Holy Bible's spiritual sequel A Journal for Plague Lovers 15-years later): "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit and force it to look in the mirror." And all the nastiness in, not just his songs, but what he said in a lot of interviews seemed to capture that sentiment. It underscored how I felt as well: there's so much ugliness in the world and it's unfathomable, how can everyone just go about their lives like nothing's wrong?!

There's still something to that. You know, recently, I caught myself lamenting the fact that I was sick and had to skip Pearl Jam, but also there's a fucking genocide happening, so who gives a fuck about not hearing "Black" live for the 10th time? It was the kind of thought that left me angry. At myself. At **gestures wildly**. At everything.

The difference between now and then is that, instead of lashing out everywhere, that kind of realization makes me at least try to lash out in a slightly more focused way.

In one of the many pieces remembering Albini, Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz said this:

He wisely grew out of a lot of the sort of dumb shit that we all do when we’re young. But then he replaced it with really smart shit. He was an extraordinary human being in terms of sheer intelligence and the power of how he would focus that. Everything was quick. And I knew him when it was all brutal. What’s interesting to me is that as he grew older and softer, he didn’t lose any of that edge. It just was put to better use.

And, obviously along with his insanely consistent musical output, that is one of the reasons, I've continued to hold him in such high esteem, long after I'd become wary of having any "heroes" to speak of. I've luckily changed a lot since that afternoon at Zulu and Steve Albini is one of the people I'd admired partially for some wrong reasons that changed along with--or perhaps more accurately ahead of--me.

My favourite character in Ted Lasso is Roy Kent, because I don't think there's a lot of value in being nice, but there's certainly a lot of value in being kind.

I imagine Steve Albini would hate that comparison, but he's one of the people that helped me form that conclusion.

Rest easy, Steve. But stay angry.

now playing: PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me"

posted by Quinn @ 1:27 a.m. Comments:0

Saturday, May 25, 2024
still living so young

Before last year, Bry Webb's last recorded material was released in 2014, the same year the Cons got together for a brief reunion tour, and honestly as the years went by since then, I just kinda figured he'd moved on to other things. Apparently, about 5-years ago, he'd not just quit playing music, but went as far as selling most of his instruments. And then in the Fall of 2023, a couple weeks after Shine a Light's 20th birthday, "Thunder Bay" quietly showed up on streaming services.

It was like he never left.

The Constantines are one of my all time favourite bands and I've seen them or Bry solo more times than I can remember, but I still wasn't sure what to expect. It'd been almost an entire decade since I last saw him. And while the Biltmore--where he played back in 2014--is pretty cozy, LanaLou's is like a really big living room.

I often--and this isn't on purpose--see shows now and think about how things feel now and how things felt "then." I'm not sure where the dividing line for "then" is, but this is the first show in a long time that felt like it did back then.

I love his solo records, and the set featured highlights from all three, but I'd be lying if I said that "Young Lions" and "Time Can Be Overcome" weren't the songs that made the evening feel really special.

The former is one of my favourite songs, but the latter hit hard. Sonically, it was the only song where we got to hear Bry get really get loud with is voice. But after ten years, quitting music, and what sounds like a pretty tumultuous time that eventually pushed him to get back to writing songs again, the refrain really hit home.

Tomorrow's no burden. Time can be overcome.

now playing: The Constantines - Soon Enough

posted by Quinn @ 12:35 a.m. Comments:0

Wednesday, January 10, 2024
i came prepared for absolution, if you'd only ask

Here's some music I loved ~~this~~ last year:

Albums/EPs:

boygenius - The Record/The Rest

The first EP was (what I assumed was going to be) a cool little one off: three friends who managed to find the time to bring a couple of songs each and record them together and then use it as an excuse to tour. The Record sounds like a real band. You can mostly still tell whose songs are whose, but there's a cohesiveness to the whole. But you probably knew all of that, because between 2018 and now Phoebe Bridgers blew up and then Boygenius really blew up. The Rest was technically the leftovers from the LP sessions, but they sound just as good as the main course.

Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun

One of my favourite music writers, Tom Breihan, described this as "Agnostic Front trying to become Guided By Voices," and it turns out that rocks as much as it sounds. Catch them in March at the Rickshaw with Spiritual Cramp (who you could describe the same way as Tom described the Gun).

Earl Sweatshirt and the Alchemist - VOIR DIRE

There's been rumours of an Earl/Alchemist collab for years but also as those years passed Earl's music's got so weird (and wonderful) and abstract, I figured it would just never happen. I definitely didn't think it would sound like this if it ever did happen. The Alchemist at his best and Earl at his most accessible since I Don't Like Shit...

billy woods and Kenny Segal - Maps

I think I've probably said that billy woods "could rap the dictionary and make it sounds fascinating" and this isn't quite that, but the depth and colour he brings to the least glamorous parts of being a touring musician on Maps is about as close as you can get. He's been making incredible records for much longer, but the frequency of releases since Hiding Places combined with an unwavering quality release over release since then is amazing.

Jess Wiliamson - Time Ain't Accidental

Maps is an airplane record. One about jet setting around in a blur and how sharp the sounds and smells of home are after you've been gone. Time Ain't Accidental is a road trip record--an album that captures the American ideal of soaring down the highway. About getting away from where you were to make something new. It feels like that opening riff from "American Girl." It feels free.

Sun June - Bad Dream Jaguar

If Time Ain't Accidental's about new beginnings, Bad Dream Jaguar's about holding old things together. That's true, but also wouldn't it be annoying if I kept doing this for each subsequent album on this list? Catch them with Slaughter Beach, Dog in a couple weeks.

Miya Folick - Roach

I didn't really get the release strategy for this record--lead single "Oh God" came out way back in April of 2022 and by the time the record came out over a year later, ten of the thirteen songs we're out. But also I didn't get sick of any of them.

Wednesday - Rat Saw God

Maybe "diverse" is the wrong word, because it's all indie rock, but it runs the gamut from songs that would fit on a Gillian Welch record to moments that could be plucked off of an 80s Sonic Youth album and everything in between. They didn't grab me when I saw them live this year, but Rat Saw God's been in constant rotation.

Ratboys - The Window

Still disappointed that Rat Tally record came out last year and ruined a shot at a 2023 rat trifecta.

Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

I'm sure I'd seen the signs before, but I never noticed them before this album was announced and I looked it up. And then I noticed them--at least in certain neighbourhoods--in every American city I visited this year: we buy diabetic test strips. A reminder of the truly bleak state of American health care--and that's saying a lot because BC's sucks. Maps found billy woods rapping about the minutiae of his every day life, but his other 2023 release dives headlong into the darkness from the album title down (that's not to say that Maps is particularly easy listening). Elucid and woods always seem to push each other and various times on their latest it sounds like they're going to push themselves into a void. If you passed out and woke up in some kind of Mad Max future, "Trauma Mic" would be the first thing you heard.

Songs:

Olivia Rodrigo - "get him back!"

This could've just as easily been "bad idea right?," but I'm a sucker for gang vocals on a chorus and the gang of Olivia's sound deliriously fun plotting their revenge together.

Chapell Roan - "Red Wine Supernova"

Speaking of deliriously fun, Chapell Roan crams more punchlines into 3-minutes than Donald Glover does on all the Camp songs, except it doesn't sound like she's trying really hard to do it. She fits just as many hooks in as well.

End It - "Familia Finito"

After I read Dan Ozzi's incredible profile on The Armed, I started joking that this was the year I became a "hardcore guy." And while that hasn't happened and that Armed record didn't hit me as hard as I wanted it to, this song sure did.

Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and the Alchemist - "Mancala"

Earl and Vince have been a dynamic duo since the Odd Future days and they blessed us with two collabs on VOIR DIRE. This one's my favourite because of the gospel sample and the little "speak to Vince 'bout it" ally oop at the end of Earl's verse.

Hotline TNT - "If We Keep Hanging Out"

The shoegazey stuff is all well and good, but this lo-fi, mostly acoustic non-album loosey is my shit.

Ratboys - "The Window"

Julia Steiner wrote this song after her grandmother died in June 2020. She didn't die of Covid, but because of Covid, her grandfather couldn't go in person to say goodbye, so he stood outside her open window to do it and a lot of lyrics are direct quotes from what he said to her that day. I can't imagine how painful that must have been, even if it made sense from a scientific perspective. To be with someone--to love someone--for so long and to be present, but not able to be by their side in their last moments is truly heartbreaking. So even though I adore this song, sometimes I have to turn it off, because it makes me want to bawl my eyes out.

Jenny Owens Young - "Knife Went In"

It's probably not healthy, but who hasn't been in a place at some point in their life where they want to be with someone who has the same scars as them? I definitely don't want that now, but this captures that feeling pretty perfectly.

BigXthaPlug - "Texas"

This sounds like it could've come straight off of Who is Mike Jones? and that's about the highest compliment I can think of.

The Menzingers - "Hope is a Dangerous Little Thing"

I can't believe that no one told me to listen to this band, because if I had to describe them, it'd be "music for old guys who love the Hold Steady and the Weakerthans."

Samia - "Honey"

Obligatory do you wanna get emotional and hang out in New York? song. Also, name checking Porches and following that with a cover of "Country" was pretty cute.

billy woods and Kenny Segal - "Soft Landing"

billy woods' ability to absolutely cram a song full of "if you know, you know" references while simultaneously conveying exactly what he needs to even if you don't get any of the in-jokes is fully on display here. You probably loved it, if you caught the Prodigy (the Mobb Deep guy, not the electronica guys) lines, but if you didn't you could still relate to that moment of peace when you're looking out the plane window over flyover country. It's a quiet puzzle.

boygenius - "Cool About It"

This record, err I mean, The Record, has Julien songs and Phoebe songs and Lucy songs and then there's a couple that just sound like boygenius songs and those ones are the best.

FIDLAR - "Centipede"

There was that period where FIDLAR stopped writing songs like this and then all of a sudden a few of years ago they started again. And like, I get thinking you can't do the same thing forever, but also what if you're really really good at it? The boys are back.

Domo Genesis, the Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and Action Bronson - "Elimination Chamber"

These guys could've really phoned it in and it still probably would've been passable. Instead they all dropped one of their best verses of the year (and at the end of the song you know that they know it). I'm a mark for a pro wrestling sample on a rap song too.

Miya Folick - "Get Out Of My House"

The hookiest song off of one of my favourite records of the year and maybe the best song from her live set too.

Dim Wizard w/Superviolet, Jeff Rosenstock, and Illuminati Hotties - “Ride the Vibe”

David Combs, who also plays in Bad Moves, uses Dim Wizard to put out the occasional tune with a rotating cast of collaborators. Basically, he writes a song and then goes through his indie rock rolodex and invites whoever he thinks fits best to jam (see also: "X-Games Mode" featuring Ratboys and Mike Krol).

This one's about a friend coming into a bar he was working at to share an early recording of Babies' "Breakin' the Law" with him (the Kevy in the chorus is Kevin Morby) and listen I don't now how fucking bad this song would've had to be for me to not make myself love it. Turns out it's excellent on its own merits though.

Fatboi Sharif, Roper Williams, and ELUCID - “Scrabble Board Pieces”

My music taste really runs the gamut, but if I think back to periods where there was one genre I was really into, rap and noise stick out and this one marries the best of both.

Maple Glider - “Don’t Kiss Me”

Here's one that simultaneously bleak (but also probably very familiar to any woman) and beautiful (which anyone can lean into).

Thrash Palace - “Go”

I kinda thought we'd heard the last from EMA, since she hadn't really put any original music out for over half a decade, but then all of a sudden there was this song that answered the question, "what if EMA fronted a 90s Sub Pop band?" that came out as via the Sub Pop Singles Club. 10/10, I'll never doubt you again, Erika.

Boldy James and Nicholas Craven - “Brand New Chanel Kicks”

When I got out of the hospital from a car accident that sounded many magnitudes less bad than the one Boldy was in, all I could do was get ripping high on oxy and watch Archer. Instead of lying around, he recorded some of the best bars of the year from a wheelchair the day he got out.

Shows:

Laura Stevenson plays The Wheel with Completions and Katie Malco @ the Vera Project, Seattle

When I was walking from my hotel to the show it seemed like I was going to the same place as an increasingly larger group of younger women (which would check out) who were dressed vaguely like cowgirls (which doesn't, but what do I know about youth fashion?). Turns out Shania Twain was playing at Climate Pledge Arena which towers over the Vera Project. I wrote about this show here.

The Walkmen @ the Showbox, Seattle

I'd been approaching 00s bands getting back together with increasing trepidation. The shows have all been at least fine, but I think my nostalgia for seeing a lot of these bands was more about what it felt like at the time and--this is on me--it does not feel like that now. The Walkmen really seemed like they were thrilled to be playing together again though and that joy was contagious. Contagious enough that I had to catch myself and remember I was pushing 42, not 24. I wrote about this show here.

boygenius with Carly Rae Jepsen, and Illuminati Hotties @ PNE Amphitheatre, Vancouver

It's still very fun to see a band that the vast majority of the crowd absolutely adores. I wrote about this show here.

Lingua Ignota with Chat Pile @ the Rickshaw, Vancouver

This whole show was dark and loud and weird and wonderful. It's the kind of thing I would've crammed into the Emergency Room or some other quasi-legal venue to see 10 or 15-years ago and it was awesome that they packed a 600 seater instead. Chat Pile put out one of my favourite records of 2022 and managed to translate the dense, heavy vibes of God's Country to a live setting.

There's no other way I can think of to describe Lingua Ignota than powerful. Kristin Hayter's been quoted calling her songs "survivor anthems" and her performance was simultaneously deeply captivating and deeply uncomfortable. Musically, and artistically it was incredible, but it also felt unsettlingly voyeuristic to watch someone express the pain of past abuses on stage with such raw emotion.

It was the last tour for her Lingua Ignota songs with Hayter explaning that "this music has been excruciating to perform, and I know that what is healthiest for me is to stop performing it." It was a privilege to experience her doing it for one of the last times.

Miya Folick @ the Rio, Vancouver

I've fallen in love with a lot of Miya Folick songs over the last decade or so and she played exactly zero of the ones that came out before her most recent LP, but this show still rocked. Folick can really wail when she feels like it. And while there's less of that on Roach, it was still a treat to hear her sing live for the first time.

now playing: most of this stuff up there

posted by Quinn @ 11:45 p.m. Comments:0

Friday, September 29, 2023
maybe you're right/we're gonna have a good time tonight

I went to Seattle last weekend to see the Walkmen.

They occupy a similar space as Spoon for me, in that, for a long time, if you'd asked me who my favourite bands were, they wouldn't have been on the tip of my tongue, but also I own every one of their records, love them all (although I guess I grew to love a few that I didn't love at first), and saw them basically whenever they headlined a Vancouver show. Over a decade after their last show here though, I know what I like. And I like the Walkmen.

That said, all these 00s reunion gigs have been kinda hit or miss and when I bought the tickets, it was with the thought that maybe I'd go or maybe I'd just sell the tix. But I'm sure glad I went.

They would've been there for hours if they played everything I'd wanted to hear, but they played a big chunk of what I wanted to hear and even snuck in a Jonathan Fire*Eater cover (two if you count "Little House of Savages"). The latter came in the encore was dedicated to Fire*Eater bassist, Tom Frank, with Hamilton Leithauser joking that he might have turned in for the night already, but he "could watch it on YouTube with his kids tomorrow." It was a little jab that it seemed like the entire crowd could relate to, as it didn't seem like the band's been discovered by a new audience at all. Everyone there looked like they knew them from the first time around.

That was part of the reason that I wasn't sure how things were going to go. It was a Sunday night on the nostalgia circuit and the crowd and the band--save for Leithauser, who hasn't seemed to have aged--didn't seem like a group that really exerted a lot of energy on Sunday nights, myself included.

But it sure didn't feel like I was in my 40s on a Sunday.

"What's in it for Me" got things started with a slow simmer, but once they tore into "Wake Up" for song two, we were off to the races.

I'd forgotten how much I love how Paul Maroon's guitar sounds live, like it's ping ponging all over the place, sounding totally wild, but somehow like he's in control at the same time. And maybe it's kinda stupid to say "I love 'The Rat'." But I'd forgotten how much I really love "The Rat" when it's turned up loud--louder than I ever manage in headphones these days and much, much louder than I'll ever play over speakers in our sedate apartment.

It seemed like they'd forgotten a couple of things since they called it quits too, most notably, how much fun it is to play in a band with your some of your favourite people in the world. Maybe near the first ending it wasn't anymore. But on Sunday, they looked like they remembered again and were having the times of their lives. And Leithauser made sure he let everyone know just how happy he was to be there again. Up there on stage, but most importantly, up there with his best friends.

now playing: Wilco - "Ten Dead"

posted by Quinn @ 12:21 a.m. Comments:0