10/18/24: I Got New AirPods
Hey there! It’s been a pretty eventful two weeks since I put out the first entry of this project, in terms of music stuff anyways. Chat Pile released a top 2 album of the year (maybe my favorite, time shall only tell). Geordie Greep came out with a really fuckin weird and fun record. I’m not really a black midi guy, I respect it but it’s always kinda seemed overly pretentious just for the sake of being pretentious, but I feel like with The New Sound I kind of “got it”, and I’ve been meaning to get around to relisten to some of their stuff. Haven’t gotten around to it yet though, and who’s to really say I ever will. Oh well. Charli XCX is still riding high on brat and came out with a remix album with a bunch of really cool new takes on tracks featuring artists I really love like Bladee, Yung Lean, Caroline Polachek, The Japanese House, The 1975, and Julian Casablancas, kind of like a “who’s who” for insufferable people. I love it. The Jules track is probably my favorite of the bunch personally, it sounds like they took the original Mean Girls track, threw it against the wall, then basically tried to put it as if they never heard the original. It kinda strikes me as a modern day Instant Crush, one of the best songs of all time. I’m not going to be going any further in depth on these new releases, but felt like they were still worth noting. I will say though, there was a secret fourth project that came out recently that I will be talking about in a bit. Put your bets in now for what it is.
Okay, without further ado, these are 5 songs that I’ve been thinking about this week:
#1. Dance and Sing - Bright Eyes
Another entry, another Bright Eyes song. Down in the Weeds was the first Bright Eyes record I was able to experience the release of in real time since I had been an active fan of them, so it’ll always hold a special place in my heart. It also helps that’s it’s an absolutely fantastic record.
Dance and Sing has been on the forefront of my mind lately. There’s really something to the titular phrase that gets repeated throughout the song, “now all I can do is dance on through, and sing” that has really stuck with me as of late. The idea that the only way to cope with life, through the hardships, through the grander questions, through the awkward moments, is to do nothing more than dance and sing, has been pretty potent for me lately. Because really what else is there to do? I don’t really know. To me, it’s seemed like a sort of positive thing. When I don’t know where else to turn to, I go to music. Dancing around like an idiot has been a nice relief of tension for me. But I recently watched a video of Conor performing the song live, and there’s an air of sadness to the song when he performs it. The “all I can do” becomes more apparent. The exaggerated dancing seems more desperate. It’s all fun and games when you’re young, but when you reach your 40s and you still feel the same way, is it still fun? I’m not so sure. It’s been weighing heavy on my mind. After everything that’s happened with Bright Eyes and Conor this year, it’s really got me reading deeper into this sort of thing. I really hope he’s okay.
Okay, enough with the sad, existential stuff. The song itself is also just great. The verses on this song are some of the most rhythmic I can think of in terms of Bright Eyes songs, in part due to Conor’s writing, in part due to the particularly strong performance from the rhythm section. The drums sound fantastic here. The bassline is remarkable. They’re so deep in the pocket here there might as well be a hole in it. And like I said, Conor’s writing here is just… damn. Lyrics like “Got a diamond cold heart and I got it in spades, with a Walkman fading like an audio slave, it’s a self induced seizure like a kid at a rave, smeared in day-glo paint/And all the popular prophets wanna take me to task, well it’s just your opinion, so I’d rather not ask. But I got me a cane and I’m spinning it fast, as the band plays” leave me with no choice but to think HOW THE HELL DID HE COME UP WITH THAT. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m no longer remotely surprised when it comes to hearing Conor sing insanely creative lines, but sometimes it’s hard not to get taken aback. I think it’s the best lyrical performance on an incredibly stacked album, competing with the likes of Stairwell Song and Persona Non Grata. Incredible lyrics paired with an incredibly powerful vocal performance, a true Bright Eyes staple. I’ll try not to put a Bright Eyes track on here next week, but I refuse to make any promises.
#2. Why Are Sundays So Depressing - The Strokes
So, I recently got a new pair of airpods. 3rd gen. I had had my last pair for quite a while, and after my 3rd pair of either gen 1 or gen 2s (I still don’t really know the difference), I’ve realized that since I use them almost every day, I tend to blow them out pretty easily. This new pair has been life changing. The 3rd gen come with spacial audio, which might be my favorite invention of all time actually. Why Are Sundays was the song that got me to truly appreciate the miracle of modernity that has been presented to me.
The mix on this song is frankly unbelievable. It’s so clear, there isn’t a single second where any single part unnecessarily overpowers the rest of the track, and with the spacial audio I mentioned early, it presents such a cool soundscape. Each guitar track is in a separate channel so I get one track in my left ear and one in my right, and the drum track sounds like it’s somehow behind me? It’s so damn cool. Jason Lader absolutely knocked this song out of the park.
In terms of the content of the song, well, it’s a Strokes song. This may sound derogatory, but I promise it’s not. The Strokes truly excel in the pocket they’ve built for themselves, to the point where they’re one of the few bands I can think of where I genuinely never want them to change what they’re doing. And when they do try and experiment, it usually ends, well, rather interesting (insert Comedown Machine album cover). With that being said, Why Are Sundays does add some interesting new elements for the New York City rockers, for instance it’s slower in tempo than the average track of theirs. Instead of operating at breakneck speed like the majority of their tracks, this track lightens up and sounds a lot more relaxed. I don’t really know where I’m getting this pull from, maybe because Julian Casablanca’s does a pretty good Lou Reed inflection on the track, but it kinda strikes me as a modern day Velvet Underground cut. I really enjoy this track. One of the best tracks off the fantastic The New Abnormal.
#3. Elephant - Jason Isbell
Jason Isbell is one of the best songwriters working right now. It’s nice to see the former Drive-By Trucker get a bit of the recognition he deserves, especially when it comes from some of the bigger names in modern popular country like Zach Bryan and the Turnpike Troubadours. I feel like people throw “authenticity” around pretty casually, but Jason has a serious talent for putting himself in the shoes of the people he writes as. He makes these songs feel real, whether they appear immediately autobiographical or not. Elephant is a prime example, if not the single best. The writing here feels so true to the situation that’s being presented. It’s the perfect balance between being extremely well written and perfectly unpolished. Jason does such a fantastic job of making the narrator Andy feel like a real person to the point where it’s almost easy to forget that this song isn’t drawing on his own experiences. I’m trying very hard not to spoil this song in the slightest for those that haven’t heard it, cuz I am seriously of the opinion that this might be one of the best tear jerkers that has ever been written, and I think it’s best if went into blind. One of the best country tracks of the 21st century.
#4. THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS - Bon Iver
To be completely honest, I had no idea this EP was coming out. It somehow slipped right under my radar. But oh man, waking up and seeing this project on my Spotify home page felt made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I love Bon Iver. From the more folky earlier stuff, to the more experimental releases, I eat it all up. I think Justin Vernon is a creative genius. Fun little anecdote real quick. My roommate and I have a tradition of sorts whenever we hang out where we’ll play Call of Duty or a different game and we’ll switch off and show each other albums until we inevitably get frustrated with the monstrosity that is Call of Duty BO Cold War. I think that to this day, 22, a million is the only album I’ve shown him that has actively made him say “dude turn this shit off.” To be fair, 22, a million isn’t the best introduction to Bon Iver’s catalog, that one’s on me. My bad. Phenomenal album though.
This EP strikes me as a combination of the For Emma era stuff and the songs he made with Taylor Swift off of Folklore and Evermore in 2020. The first time I heard him sing on Exile, I just thought to myself “YES. GIVE ME MORE OF THIS.” I love Justin’s falsetto and his pitch shifted vocals, but there’s something about his baritone that just really does it for me. The atmosphere of the project, specifically the song THINGS BEHIND, is just perfect. It feels like when the weather finally starts getting colder. The beginning of Fall. It feels like I’m wearing an unnecessarily heavy jacket. It feels like I was cranking the heater in my house, then I stepped outside and felt a cold, crisp breeze hit me in the face. It’s wonderful. I feel like I’ve made a lot of comparisons over the course of this entry, but to me this song really reminds me of modern day, less restrained Nick Drake song. I really love this song. I think this song, and the EP in general, are going to be constantly on repeat for the rest of the year for me.
#5. There’s No ‘I’ In Team - Taking Back Sunday
The world needs more beef between bands. The world needs more diss tracks! I feel like that doesn’t really happen as much anymore, maybe since the advent and popularity of Twitter and Instagram, its way easier to tell someone you dislike “fuck you” with a couple beeps and boops instead of having to go through the lengths of writing a song. It’s way less fun though! I can’t really think of a modern rock beef, the closest I can really think of as of late would probably be Jason Isbell calling Jason Aldean out for that shit Try That In A Small Town song, and even that was just over Twitter. No songs written. What a shame.
I’m sure some people are already familiar with the circumstances around the track, but I’ll give some context regardless. Taking Back Sunday was originally formed by Eddie Reyes and resident piece of shit Jesse Lacey. After they brought John Nolan into the fold to play lead guitar, Nolan and Lacey would have a falling out that lead to Lacey leaving the band and forming Brand New. From there, the bands were constantly taking shots at each other, most famously through songs such as Seventy Times 7, There Is No I, Timberwolves at New Jersey, and Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t. They also went on tour together while they were in the middle of the beef, which is just straight up hilarious. A lot of it seemed like it was kind of played up at a point, but towards the beginning, the animosity was seriously there.
There’s No ‘I’ is SCATHING. There are so many quotable lyrics that are just straight up funny, such as “I’ve got a twenty dollar bill that says you’re up late night starting fist fights verses fences in your backyard, wearing your black eye like a badge of honor, soaking in sympathy from friends who never loved you nearly half as much as me”. Like DAYUM. That’s so good. It also helps that the song just sounds really damn good. I honestly think it’s my favorite TBS song. Adam’s vocals sound so good here, his vocal dynamics are so interesting, and his screams sound cutting. It’s a perfect pop punk track. I’m really glad this sound is having a bit of a revival, with fantastic bands like Sinema taking certain elements and making it into something new (check out the track On a Broken Edge, great stuff).
10/04/24: Birthday
This is always something I’ve wanted to do. I love music. I love listening to music, I love thinking about music, and I love talking about music. I’ve always wanted to create a platform of sorts to where I could basically just talk to myself about stuff I’ve been listening to and be able to get the ideas of WHY I like certain things out of my head instead of just thinking “hmm I like this!” This seemed like a pretty apt way of doing that, so here we are.
With today being my 22nd birthday, I figured it might as well be the birthday of this too! It seemed fitting. So today, I’m going to ramble about 22 of my favorite songs right now, and why I think they’re all very nice and cool. It’s all going to be a bit eclectic since I haven’t really be listening to one singular style or genre lately, but hey, it makes it fun. I hope you’re able to read about something here that sounds interesting to you and you’re able to find a new song or band/artist you really enjoy, or you’re reminded of a song you haven’t heard in a really long time. With that being said, here’s the first song:
#1. Waste of Paint - Bright Eyes
I figured it’s only right that the first song would be the one that inspired the name of the site you’re on right now. Bright Eyes are of my absolute favorite bands ever, probably Top 2, maybe my favorite depending on the day. Conor Oberst is the best songwriter I have ever heard. The way he’s able to channel his feelings of inner pain into lyrics that are not only emotionally devastating but UNIVERSALLY emotionally devastating is honestly shocking. I can’t think of another artist that I’ve heard more songs from where it felt like he wrote it specifically for me. Up until a couple months ago, Lifted was always one of those albums where I had listened to it, but aside from some of the more popular cuts (Lover I Don’t Have to Love, Bowl of Oranges, You Will. You? Will, etc.), it never stuck with me the way records like Fevers and Mirrors or Letting Off the Happiness did.
And then I randomly decided to relisten to it. Past me was WRONG. Lifted is incredible, and Waste of Paint might be the best song on it. The first two verses detail individuals suffering in their own personal ways, an artist whose self hatred mars everything he creates and a woman who had dedicated herself completely to a man to the point where after they separated she does not know what to do with herself. The song then takes a turn to being more personal to Conor himself, detailing his brother drinking and driving and getting caught by the police, and how living with a couple in a beautiful, healthy relationship has made him consider if he would ever find that same sort of love that he deems “the prize that was promised by all the fairy tales that drugged us.” And then we reach the songs climax. A verse where Conor sings about watching people go on about their lives at a train station, and in a need to project his own sorrow feels the need to tell them everything is pointless. This then sends him on an inward spiral which eventually leads him to say “But just then my knees give under me, my head feels weak and suddenly, its clear to see it’s not them but me who’s lost my self identity, as I hide behind these books I read, while scribbling my poetry, like art could save a wretch like me, with some ideal ideology that no one could hope to achieve, and I’m never real, it’s just a sketch of me, and everything I’ve made is trite, and cheap, and a waste, of paint, of tape, of time.”
Despite this song instrumentally just being one man, an acoustic guitar, and three chords, it is one of the heaviest songs I have ever heard. It’s emotional vulnerability is a marvel, and there is something cripplingly sad to me about hearing someone seem to recognize things like that in themselves, and feel unable to find a way to reconcile with that, as shown in the last verse of the song. (I wanted to talk about it as well but I fear this already getting too lengthy). Waste of Paint is a feat in songwriting, being able to completely flesh out so many characters and ideas in only a 6 minute song. Conor’s words come to life, and this song has had a massive impact on me since I’ve revisited it. It could just be a “right place, right time” kind of thing, but I choose to believe this song is eternal.
#2. Velocity Girl - Primal Scream
Now, on a much lighter note, this is Velocity Girl by Primal Scream. Velocity Girl was the B-side on the second Primal Scream single, and the first that was released after Bobby Gillespie left the Jesus and Mary Chain. I honestly cannot believe this track wasn’t the A-side. This has to be one of the most infectious pop tracks ever. It honestly might be the perfect song to throw on repeat and go about your day. Chalking in at a measly 1:25 run time, this is the kind of song where you feel like you HAVE to run it back as soon as you hear it. I listened to it for almost two hours straight the other day. It’s an automatic mood lifter. The combination of the super jangly, driving guitars and the earworm of a vocal melody courtesy of Bobby is just addictive. It really reminds me of Twisterella by Ride, in terms of both sound and just how happy they both make me whenever they come on. Just an absolutely perfect pop song, not much else that really needs to be said to be honest.
#3. Title Track - Death Cab for Cutie
I am frankly almost at a loss of where to even start with this song. There are so many incredible small little moments that add up to make this one of my favorite album openers of all time. The main riff the song opens with is so unbelievably sticky. It feels almost like a sped up slowcore riff (I understand the oxymoron) in the way that it has a certain kind of bounce to it that you see in a lot of the best Duster riffs. It really helps cements the melancholic tone that Ben Gibbard sets with his lyrics and most importantly, his delivery. I am a massive sucker for creative vocal melodies, and the way Ben ends each line in the verses by almost saying the last few words instead of singing them adds an extra sense of punctuation that really has a way of making you feel the retrospective disappointment of his lyrics. The feeling of losing a friend over a lonely, misguided hook up turned relationship that wouldn’t, and couldn’t, last is so palpable. The rhetoric of it is flawless, and the way he phrases it sounds damn good on the ears. Win-win in my eyes. Oh yeah, there’s also this moment where after the first chorus, the song really kicks in gear and transforms the track from being noticeably lofi into what sounds like a studio recording, which always makes exclamation points shoot off in my head like I’m one of the bad guys in Metal Gear Solid when they see Solid Snake. Great stuff. We Have the Facts is a masterpiece.
#4. Colorado - The Hellp
The Hellp are an enigma. But I am completely, 100% here for it. I am of the opinion that music needs villains. I am using that term very loosely, not in an actual “they are bad people/have done bad things” kind of way, more like a Heel from pro wrestling. Music needs characters that allow you to get yourself invested in them. It’s one of the reasons the Jesus and Mary Chain are one of my favorite bands ever. Music needs the kind of people who, when asked why they’re having so much success, will look you dead in the eyes and say “because we are the best band on Earth, and everyone else sucks, so you have to pay attention to us.” To have the audacity to be overly pretentious and act like they are doing something that has never been done, whether it has or not, and to have complete and utter confidence in themselves. That only works, however, if the music is good enough to back it up. And the Hellp have released my favorite song of the year.
The Hellp are currently at the forefront of the current New York “Indie Sleaze” revival, despite having very little to do with the original “Indie Sleaze” wave in the early 2000s (ala The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, etc.) besides maybe their look. Clad in skin tight leather jackets and even tighter skinny jeans, if you saw them walking on the streets, you could be relatively easily convinced they just walked straight off an Hedi Slimane runway. Their sound has a really interesting mix of early 2000s electronic influence mixed with very modern production choices. The closest thing I feel like I can adequately compare it to would be the Postal Service, which might be one of the reasons I love it so much, because the Postal Service are incredible. One of the biggest things that make them really intriguing to me and really set them apart are Noah Dillon’s vocals. They sound perfectly out of place. They have an odd folky inflection to them. It isn’t as apparent on Colorado, but if you listen to songs like SSX, he brings an almost Springsteen-esque approach to vocals that you don’t hear often in pop music. Chandler Ransom Lucy is also a magician when it comes to piecing instrumentals together, meshing sounds that theoretically should not work together at all into one extremely tight composition that manages to scratch my brain in all the right ways, and Noah somehow always manages to sing the exact right way to piece it all together.
That all brings it back to Colorado. Sometimes you hear a pop song and it just has that “it” factor. I believe with this song, it’s its composition and mixing. This mix is PERFECT. Everything is exactly where it needs to be. Aside from the main synth/guitar line and the vocals, you not only hear but feel every pulsing drum beat and every additional synth that pops in for just a split second. It’s so clear. It’s such a rich instrumental with so much going on, but it does feel muddied for a second. It’s incredible. And Goddamn is it catchy. I am not a party guy in the slightest, but if I ever do go, this is what I would want to soundtrack it. Which is a little silly, because the lyrics are actually kinda sad if you read into them, but man, this song is just so infectious, whenever I hear it I just want to move. If any band right now has a right to act like they are the only band that matters right now, it might as well be the only band that does.
#5. Stare Spells - Infant Island
Switching it up a bit, we now have probably the most devastating vocals I have ever heard on any track so far in my life. This track is so damn brutal. It is a prime example of juxtaposition. This opening of this instrumental is beautiful. The guitars almost have a weird sort of shimmer to them that feels like a sonic representation of sitting down in the shower and just letting the water fall onto your head (I don’t know if this makes sense, but it makes sense to me so I’m keeping it in.) Then the vocals kick in. Oh boy. It sounds like they physically HURT to perform. Their vocalist first screaming “I TRIED” always manages to give me goosebumps. As he screams, the drums start ramping up and the guitars become distorted and it, I don’t want to say devolves because saying it devolves feels discrediting, but it emotionally devolves into a full blown melt down where the vocalist switches from long, painful screams to short outbursts that feel equally as painful, only to bring it back the beautiful guitars that starts it all, and then repeat. It feels like a cycle of pain, one moment feeling relatively alright but still aching, and then reaching a tipping point where everything feels like too much. I don’t know if it was intentional, but it feels like it to me. Then, after the second verse and an extra painful sounding scream, there’s a bridge of the intro guitars and drums that grow more and more frantic as the vocalist seems to grow antsier and antsier, that launches into my favorite breakdown I have ever heard in a screamo song. I know I said I said the song was brutal before, but it reaches a new height here. It is truly insane. All to come back to the beautiful, shiny, melancholic guitars for an outro that slowly fades out. Ready to repeat the cycle again. It is a truly devastating track, full of misery and false comfort. Infant Island is a criminally underrated band, if you’re into screamo, I couldn’t recommend them more.
#6. Starting Over - LSD and the Search for God
An absolute shoegaze classic. In terms of the shoegaze revival from the 2000s, this is probably the closest I have heard a track straight up sound like they were contemporaries with My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush, that lot. It has the spirit. It has the sound locked down. If I hadn’t heard this song before and you told me this was an unreleased Slowdive cut, I wouldn’t think twice about it, in the best possible way. It’s a perfect song. I love how their vocalists go back and forth, each telling their side of a seemingly messy break up. One of the coolest elements of the song is how at some points, the vocals almost get overpowered by distorted guitars in a way that completely sums up the feelings of confusion and loss that occurs in a split from a partner where both parties felt they were done wrong. It’s really interesting. With that being said, the most important thing about a shoegaze song is if it sounds good, and brother, this is one of the best. Everything is perfectly dialed in. It feels massive. It feels like your ears are getting hugged with a nice, warm blanket. I’m not the best with technical music terms so I’m not going to try here, but the effect pedal on the guitar that kicks in right after the second chorus sounds gives me a sense of pure swirling bliss. And don’t even get me started on the “ooh aah’s” during the chorus. S tier track, one of the best shoegaze songs ever. Unfortunately LSD and the Search for God didn’t release a whole lot while they were originally around, only their self titled EP from 2007 (which this track is on), and another EP in 2016, but I’ve heard they’re coming out with more music soon due to them having a surge in popularity, and I can’t wait to hear what they come out with next.
#7. April Ha Ha - Nothing
Nothing are the best band of the 2010s. I truly believe they are responsible for the newer “heavy shoegaze” trend that seems to encompass most of the bigger modern shoegaze bands that have been coming out over the past couple years (Glare, Trauma Ray, Leaving Time, those sorts of bands.) Without Nothing, I would guess most of those bands wouldn’t be as big, if they would be around at all. Funny enough, I think their 2020 album The Great Dismal is the magnum opus. Every single song hits, whether it be the gloomy, drowsy opener A Fabricated Life, the punch-you-in-the-face ripper Famine Asylum, or the driving, anxiety riddled first single Say Less, just to name a few. There’s a looming sense of anxiety all over this record, given the fact that it was released at the tail end of 2020 in the middle of the newly pandemic crippled world. They didn’t know how the world was going to look when things finally started opening up, if they ever did, and it is written all over this LP. April Ha Ha might be one of the biggest examples of that, both sonically and artistically. The track opens with a MASSIVE sounding drum fill, which is immediately met with a spanning guitar riff that makes me feel like I’m being hit and overtaken by a massive title wave, and it never lets up. It doesn’t even let up on the vocals, which once they come in feel like they’re just below the surface, barely loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to be listened to. The only thing with enough power to make it through are the drums, which sound like a gunshot with every hit. Eventually the song lets up, and comes to a bridge with a nice jangly riff that allows the vocals to heard clearly for the first time, in which guest vocalist Alex G (!!!) repeats the refrain “Isn’t it strange watching people try and outrun rain?” a few times before being met with swelling guitars and an insanely nasty drum fill that brings a massive wall of distorted guitars and harmonics that feel make me feel like I myself am trying to outrun rain. It’s an incredible outro to an amazing song. In the music video of the song, members of the band walk around a noticeably bare New York City wearing a sign that says “The End is Near” for most of the video, before cutting to Alex G walking around a bare field wearing the same sign, which then splices between them all once the outro kicks in. It sticks out to me as a sign of the times, a memento of an era I would rather forget. Great song. Nothing are the best.
#8. The Birthday Party - The 1975
Remember how I said music needs villains? The 1975 are very likely my favorite band of all time. It depends on the day, but more often than not, they’re right up there at the top. Matty Healy is an asshole. But Goddamn that dude can write a song. The 1975 are the ultimate music nerd band in my opinion. They know their history, they know what’s good, and they know what makes it good. Notes on a Conditional Form is an incredible album, because they prove that here. There is no genre. There is no cohesion. Every song on this album is a different style, and they did it because they wanted to do it. On this album there is a sequence of tracks where they bounce from post hardcore, to ambient, to garage, to an ambient track that leads directly into The Birthday Party, which I don’t even know what genre I would call that song, to garage, to shoegaze, to indie folk, to alt country, to jangle pop. I’m sorry, that was excessive, but like, WHAT. I LOVE that. What other band is doing that? And in my opinion, it’s all pulled off pretty well. I think it’s so cool to see bands experiment with different sounds simply for the love of the game. That’s so rad to me.
Anyways, back to the Birthday Party. Like I said, I genuinely do not even know what genre I would call this song. It’s like kind of alt country, kind of indie rock, but it doesn’t really rock? I don’t know. It has synths, guitars, a slide guitar, a banjo, a saxophone, I don’t really know. It’s an amazing composition. There’s so much going on but nothing feels out of place, and it all adds up to a really nice, smooth, enjoyable listen. But the real star of the show are Matty’s lyrics. This is a perfect example of nothing songwriting. That sounds like an insult, but I promise, it’s not. It’s a song about nothing really in particular, there is a constant through line, but for the most part it is comprised of a bunch of one liners and small stories that serve no bigger purpose than just sounding really good lyrically. The 1975 excel at this brand of story telling, with songs like Paris and Part of the Band following the same kind of formula (ironically enough, all three of these songs also kind of detail bits and pieces of Matty’s drug addiction). The Birthday Party’s main overarching theme is sort of exactly what the title infers: Matty is detailing random things at this birthday party he attended. These random one offs include a group of girls attempting to give him drugs at which he declines out of fear of cheating on his girlfriend, being stuck in a boring conversation with a girl called Mel about her friend in Cincinnati called Matty as well, things of that nature. The thing that makes it all work is the actual writing itself. I’m trying to not give actual examples because I feel like it’s the kind of thing that should be experienced firsthand. It’s smart, it’s quippy, and the rhymes he pulls off just flow effortlessly. It’s such a fun song to listen to. And it ends with a sick saxophone solo. The world needs more saxophone solos in pop music. God bless the 1975.
#9. Is This All That We’ll Be? - Catalyst
Catalyst are one of the biggest names in the newer screamo revival scene that’s been popping up over the past couple years, and there is absolutely good reason for that. They’re probably my personal favorite of the newer bunch. Is This All That We’ll Be? is an absolutely gut wrenching song. Their vocalist Connor puts so much emotion into his screams on this track, which I feel like that kind of comes with the territory, but man you really feel it here. When he yells “Open me up, just to slam the door, say that you love me, I don’t feel it anymore,” I have no choice but to be like “damn, why did she do us like that?” He makes it impossible not to resonate with him. I really love the way he performs vox. Instrumentally, everyone is completely locked in. the band sounds super tight here, everything feels like it’s hitting exactly when it needs to. Also the drummer does this really cool drum roll type thing where he hits the rim of the drums during the intro and the bridge after the verse that sounds really nice. Perfectly executed song.
I’m really excited to see where these guys go from here. The evolution they’ve had from their first Self Titled album to this EP is amazing. They’re really starting to find their own sound. I would really love to get the chance to see them live, but the couple times they have came to Dallas (the closest city I think I would be able to see them, I doubt they ever come to Oklahoma City lol) I’ve either been out of town or had to work. Oh well, we’ll get ‘em next time.
#10. In Dreams - cursetheknife
Oklahoma City baby, let’s go. There is a shocking amount of great music here, more than I ever really would have imagined when I moved. Especially in terms of alt rock/shoegaze, we have cursetheknife, Mad Honey, Downward (technically from Tulsa, but I’ll allow it,) Money, Photocopy, Some Fear, Bliss, and many more. Those are just my personal favorite rockers off the top of my head, if I counted other genres the list could go on and on. There’s something about the cesspool known as OKC that just breeds talented musicians, I guess. But cursetheknife are probably my favorite of the bunch. Especially their latest album There’s a Place I Can Rest, they changed up their sound to be a bit more slowcore-centric that did a fantastic job of encapsulating the feeling of underlying feeling of dread at least I get sometimes of not only living in Oklahoma City, but the world at large at this point in time. Fantastic album, everyone should listen to it.
However, I’m not gonna talk about that album right now! I’m going to talk about the track In Dreams off their first record Thank You For Being Here. MORE BREAKBEATS IN SHOEGAZE PLEASE AND THANK YOU. It sounds so unbelievably good. The intro gets me every single time, hearing that breakbeat kick off into that massive wall of guitars, I feel like I have no choice but to lose my mind. Every. Single. Time. It never gets old. Besides that, the rest of the song is phenomenal as well. The vocals sound perfectly lowkey and moody in the verses, and explode into an incredibly sweet melody for the chorus. I adore this song. One of the best songs to come out of Oklahoma City since I moved here.
#11. Masc - Chat Pile
In terms of bands from Oklahoma City that are not alt rock, there is none better than Chat Pile. I feel very lucky to exist here the same time they do. If you asked me to create the perfect heavy band, I would say give me 50% Jesus Lizard, 25% The Birthday Party, 25% Big Black. If you put that combination into the almighty band creator of my dreams, it would spit out Chat Pile, and immediately start gagging. They make horror movie music. Their frontman Raygun Busch is a big movie guy, and it inspires him to write stories that would even make Wes Craven say “oh my.” Every single member of the band play their part to perfection. Stin, their bassist, has one of the gnarliest bass tones I’ve ever heard. Luther Manhole, their guitarist, consistently comes up with incredibly haunting parts. Captain Ron, their drummer, plays like he’s trying to rip through his kit every time he plays. They’re incredible. Ever since I first saw them, I haven’t missed a show they’ve played here, and I’ve seen them a couple times out of state as well. I think my count now is 10 or 11 now, I honestly can’t remember.
Masc is the second single off their upcoming record Cool World, and what a single it is. This track is really sad, in a way that a lot of Chat Pile songs haven’t been before. They have their fair share of sadder tracks for sure, but this feels different. It immediately opens with classic Chat Pile drums that sound like they’re trying to beat you up through your headphones, which then instantly catapults into a revving guitar riff with the bass sounding absolutely filthy. The rhythm section really kills it on this track, perfectly in time to where the bass almost sounds like an extra drum set. It is heavy. When the first verse kicks off, the guitar switches to an interesting off kilter tapping that sounds just off enough to get under your skin, as Raygun starts singing some of his most disparaging lyrics yet. They’ve tackled self hatred before in their lyrics on songs such as Pamela or grimace, but this just feels different. Where those songs eventually transformed that self hatred into anger, this track just lets you sit in it. It sounds like you’re witnessing a defeated man, too used to feeling this way that he can’t even get himself to feel angry about it. It is an excellent vocal performance, especially combined with the instrumental that fits the song perfectly. It feels like a musical expression of the feelings of the vocalist. Everything ends up leading to the last 40 seconds of the track, where they finally give you a sense of release in the form of an incredible breakdown where all the tension is cashed in and all the instruments reach a crescendo and Raygun yells the phrases “IT’S YOUR WORLD” and “CUT ME OPEN” over and over in one last crushing moment. This song is phenomenal. I heard the new album in full during the album premier show last month, but man, I need the whole thing now.
#12. For The Stewards - Photocopy
Oklahoma City rock band Photocopy recently released their second full length album Weakness Beyond Control, and Goddamn, this project is really good. There’s so much here, they were able to take elements from a bunch of different genres and spun them all through their own unique lens to create something that I don’t really know how to classify. Maybe like noisey pop rock? I don’t really know to be honest. What I do know, however, is that this really damn good. It’s such a fun listen front to back. There were a couple songs I was debating talking about, but it came down to either the Red House Painters-esque closer Memphis or the track I ended up going with, For The Stewards.
This cut opens up with a very striking first lyric, “I saw it in the stars, if you’re into that sort of thing” while being accompanied by shoegazey guitars and a really punchy drum track. Johnny, their vocalist, sounds really good here. His baritone on the opening bit of this song reminds me a bit of Matt Berninger of The National. After the opening verse, it blasts into an insanely catchy chorus that feels like it would be the perfect soundtrack to driving down the highway with an Autumn sunset in your rear view mirror, crisp breeze blowing through your rolled down windows. I kinda mentioned it earlier but it feels really apparent on the chorus, but if this song was mixed differently, it would be a straight up shoegaze song. I really like the direction they went with it, I think it makes for a really layered, vibrant alt pop track. After the first chorus wraps up, the track moves to a feedback laden breakdown, and when the song shifts back in gear, Johnny unleashes some seriously phenomenal screams that I genuinely was not expecting at all. They sound like they could have been lifted straight off a Knumears track. It’s so sick. They’ve implemented screams into their tracks before, such as one of their previous singles Stay a While, but it’s never been done quite like this. And they pull it off flawlessly. Especially when the sung vocals come back into the track and they harmonize with the screams, so damn good. This is one of my favorite tracks of the year, easily. Check out the new Photocopy album if you get a chance, you won’t be disappointed.
Okay, that was the end of my Oklahoma City tangent. There’s a lot of seriously great music here. It was honestly hard just holding myself to 3 tracks. If you ever have the chance to see an OKC band on tour, take it. You won’t regret it. It’s a scene.
#13. Wristwatch - MJ Lenderman
Speaking of favorite songs of the year, this has to be up there for me. I bought into the Manning Fireworks hype hard. To be completely honest, I wasn’t super familiar with MJ’s solo stuff before the album came out. I love Wednesday, the band he plays guitar in, and I saw him play drums for Indigo de Souza in her Audiotree, but I am admittedly late on his solo stuff. This album was my introduction to his solo work, and what an introduction it was. I had been on a big alt country kick (Jason Isbell, Songs:Ohia, Son Volt, that sort of thing), so hearing this was like “YES! This is what I want!!!” This record feels like if Son Volt was fronted by Stephen Malkmus. Warm guitar melodies, pedal steel, and a boat load of sarcastic wit. It’s addicting. Last.fm tells me it’s my most listened to album since it came out.
Wristwatch is my favorite song off the album. I love the lyrics on this track. They do such a great job of portraying a man who, for all intents and purposes, has little going for him, and feels the need to justify himself with rather ridiculous displays of wealth and material goods to try and make himself feel as if he does in fact have something. But at the end of the day, he knows just as much as the listener that it’s all superficial. “So you say I’ve wasted my life away, well, I got a beach home up in Buffalo, and a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cellphone. And a wristwatch that tells me ‘you’re all alone’ ” It’s incredible stuff. He really excels at making the most of relatively little, the song is pretty bare bones both in structure and lyrics, but he is able to perfectly paint a picture of this certain type of guy, all with a wink and a sly smile to let you know that he is completely aware of the absurdity of said picture. I feel like his voice is an acquired taste, as he is not a particularly great vocalist, but he does everything he needs to in order to really nail the tone he seems to be going for. Plus, the song just straight up sounds great. I know I mentioned Son Volt earlier, but this instrumental really strikes me as if it could have came straight off of Trace. The guitar solo that closes the track out is badass.
The whole album to me really nails the feeling of trying to find your footing in the time we live in now, especially in a ‘smaller’ Southern city. Full of absurd cultural references, masking how you really feel with a hearty dose of sarcasm, and an inherent yearning to do nothing but stay in your room and play Guitar Hero, it really resonated with me. There’s an overarching feeling of sadness and dread surrounding the whole project that never really bubbles up the surface fully. The closest he really comes to outward sincerity comes on the track You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In, and even then, its vailed in metaphor, with the main direct admittance being a refrain that was ripped from the old The Band song The Shape I’m In. This album has really struck a chord and stuck with me. Probably my favorite record of the year.
14. Forever Well - Full of Hell & Nothing
A collaboration that was always meant to be. When I saw this project was happening, it immediately became one of my most anticipated albums of the year, and after the first single Spend the Grace released, it was the clear #1. These two bands perfectly compliment each other, like a yin and yang. Two complete opposite sides of the spectrum that when met in the middle creates a gloomy, sobering experience that has exceptional moments where the tension is cashed in with massive almost sludge-like riffs and Dylan Walker’s distorted screams. This isn’t a hot take by any means, but Walker is easily one of the best vocalists working right now in my opinion. I can’t even think of anyone I could really compare his vocal style to, because, for the most part, anyone who’s coming out that sounds similar is just taking direct inspiration from the man himself. Insanely brutal stuff that never fails to make me furrow my brow any time I hear him.
Forever Well is one of the biggest stand outs on a relatively short track list full of stand outs. It perfectly exemplifies everything that makes this record great. The track opens with a bassline that sounds straight off the first Eyehategod record. It sounds downright menacing. Even as a beautiful, ambient like section starts surrounding it, the bassline keeps this underlying feeling of something just being wrong. It turns a feeling of calm into a feeling of dread. Eventually the track builds to almost a breaking point, with waves of feedback, driving drums, and emergency service sirens, before exploding into a wall of distortion and Dylan’s almost growl. Even with this explosion, it still feels restrained. It feels like a release with no pay off. Like the sense of dread is more palpable than ever. It leaves me with an extremely uneasy feeling deep in my gut, which is further exemplified by the outro consisting of nothing more than feedback, pounding drums, and the same bassline as the intro. There is something wrong, but I don’t quite know what, which makes the feeling even stronger. I love this track.
When No Birds Sang is a very heavy concept record based on the 9/11 attacks, and Forever Well is presented as being from the perspective of someone who is stuck in the towers as they begin to fall. It’s heartbreaking. It is exceptional at portraying the feelings of desperation and fear with the knowledge there is likely no reprieve. It’s an incredibly hard listen, but one that is completely worth while. Amazing stuff.
15. Extinct Californians - White Lighters
White Lighters was one of my favorite discoveries I made last year, one that I honestly kind of bummed I didn’t know about sooner. White Lighters is the solo project of Brandon Setta, former guitarist of Nothing. He left the band in 2019, at which point he devoted his musical output to two solo projects, You Wish and White Lighters. You Wish is more directly shoegaze related, with some really great pedal effects and cool electronic drum loops, and White Lighters was a really pleasant combination of singer-songwriter, dream pop, and indie folk that really did it for me. Brandon is one of my favorite songwriters I’ve ever heard. He is an absolute master of coming up with insanely pleasant chord progression, the type that just hit my ears in the best way I can possibly imagine. Songs like Extinct Californians are incredibly hard to quantify. I don’t know if there are any words in the English language that can properly sum up how beautiful this song is. It is a culmination of so many amazing small things, from the exact tone of the guitars, the perfect chord progression, the incredible vocal melody, the tone of his voice and the reverb that drenches his vocals. I know I used a similar comparison earlier, but this sounds like it would perfectly soundtrack the ending scene of a movie where the main character drives off into the sunset. It is an insanely perfect song. Matter of fact, Breaker Boy is an insanely perfect record in general. It has to be up there in terms of my favorite albums of all time. There is just something about it that defies words. Insanely beautiful project. Brandon has since retired the project, but he’s still releasing music as You Wish, including dropping an album today!!! I couldn’t recommend checking out basically everything he has ever done enough. Genuinely one of the best songwriters making music today.
#16. Will is the War - Dead in the Dirt
Holy SHIT. This is how I want all heavier music to sound. This sounds punishing. This sounds disparaging. This sounds hopeless. This just sounds flat out mean. Dead in the Dirt is one of my favorite grind/powerviolence/sludge bands (genre labels are so dumb sometimes), and this is their best cut in my opinion. The vocals here are NASTY. The combination of Blake Connally and Bo Orr trading off, with Bo taking the high shrieks and Blake taking the low growls, is just disgusting. Their vocal styles compliment each other perfectly. I’m a bit more partial to Bo’s vocals to be completely honest, the pained yells, especially over the intro and bridge sequences, feel like a man truly on the brink of collapse. They’re some of my favorite vocals I have ever heard. Another one of the coolest parts of the track is that the dynamics on this track are just perfect. They transition from low and slow to break-neck speed on a dime, giving the track specific sections that are each as interesting as the last. Everyone sounds completely locked in, and a big part of that is due to their absolute beast of a drummer Hank Pratt, also of Foundation and Slow Fire Pistol. He is just absolutely ridiculous on this track. Every beat is exactly where it needs to be, and he takes on the role of the backbone of a track that has five jarring tempo changes over the course of a three minute track. It’s seriously next level stuff.
Please send me more stuff that sounds like this. Please make more stuff like this. One of the best to ever do it. It seriously bums me out that they had broken up long before I ever had the chance to see them. I would kill to get to see them live. Oh well, ball up top.
#17. You Should Be Hated Here - Carissa’s Wierd
Songs About Leaving is my favorite record that came out the year I was born. It’s an absolute slowcore classic, full of pretty, picked guitar riffs, beautiful string arrangements, and extremely sad vocal melodies. The lyrics and vocals are definitely the project’s strong suit, though. There are so many incredibly powerful lyrical moments all throughout the album that paint such a vivid picture of the emotions that come along with a failing/failed relationship that only grow more palpable with the dejected deliveries from Mat Brooke and Jenn Champion. I think the strongest example of this is shown on the opening track of the album, You Should Be Hated Here.
The song does a fantastic job of illustrating a situation where both parties in a relationship know they are on a sinking ship, but are both ultimately powerless to do anything that could be enough to save their partnership. The song opens with both vocalists harmonizing while singing the same lyrics that show they both have recognized the predicament they’re in before splitting off and both singing a different set of lyrics over top of each other, making each set borderline unintelligible. It is such a perfect sonic representation of neither party feeling as if they’re being heard, ultimately showing in real time one of the fatal flaws of the relationship. It is flat out incredible songwriting. The whole idea is summed up in the last lyrics of the song, where Mat and Jenn collectively sing “And it all comes down to composure that’s been lost" in an incredibly demoralized tone. Carissa’s Wierd were an absolutely fantastic band. One of my first “go to” bands for incredibly sad, beautiful songs.
#18. drive it all over me - my bloody valentine
To be completely honest, I would feel a little odd not having a my bloody valentine song on this list given that, well, I have basically ripped them off completely for the name of my vintage page (mybloodyvtg). I feel like this band doesn’t really require much introduction. The greatest shoegaze band to exist. The pioneers. Loveless is a classic, an absolutely perfect record. None of these are new or groundbreaking statements. But I would like to take a second and talk about one of my favorite 80s tracks of theirs, one that I think is relatively underrated.
drive it all over me is probably the closest thing mbv have to a straight up pop song. If you take away the noisier elements (I don’t know why you would want to, but I digress), the melody and structure here feels like it would be right at home with the UK pop scene that was going on at the time. It is so ridiculously catchy. But that’s not what they made, and if that was what they made, they most likely wouldn’t be nearly as heralded as one of the most innovative bands of the 80s/90s. There is a thick layer of distortion all over the track that almost makes it feel like the song is melting. I don’t know if that makes any sense but that’s the best way I can put it. The track feels like it’s disintegrating as it’s being played, kind of like how the original Panchiko EP was found rotted. It sounds like a pop song had a really amazing night out and we get to listen to it have a pretty rough hangover. It’s awesome. Anyways, Belinda sounds fantastic here, as always. Her vocals effortlessly glide over the driving, distorted instrumental. The melody she uses on the chorus is so sticky, I have spent many, many days with that chorus just revolving around in my mind. What a track. What a band. One of the greatest to ever do it.
#19. Epilogue of a Car Crash - Orchid
Orchid was one of the first bands I got into when I started exploring screamo more. I mean, to be fair, I feel like they’re one of the Big 3 in terms of good ol’ fashioned emoviolence: Orchid, Pageninetynine, and Jeromes Dream. While I am slightly more partial to pg99, Orchid are legends for a reason.
Epilogue of a Car Crash is the closing track of their debut full length record Chaos Is Me, my personal favorite of theirs. The track is unlike most of the rest of their catalogue. While most Orchid tracks go straight for your throat right off the bat, Epilogue is more of a slow burn. The first half of the track kicks off with a single repeating guitar motif with little accompanying it besides a really nice drum track. It’s a really nice way of building tension. Eventually though, that tension is released, and the track goes from 0-60 in a blink of an eye. Everything kicks in all at once, with Jayson Green giving my favorite vocal performance of any Orchid track. The vocals combined with the double kick the drummer is using and just the sheer force of the rest of the instrumentation honestly almost give it a bit of a black metal feel. It’s really interesting. Jayson is great at portraying break ups with just the most pain and anger possible. It’s really hard not to let out a small frown when he screams “WE WERE NEVER HAPPIER, we were never happy.” Not only is this one of the best closing tracks for any screamo record, it’s one of the best closing tracks in general. A true pinnacle of the genre.
#20. Boo - Pinback
This might be one of the happiest accidents I’ve ever experienced in terms of just stumbling across a song. About two years ago, I was scrolling through instagram, and I saw someone post a picture they took at a Pinback show, and it was of Rob Crow standing in front of screen with the lyrics “someday I will sail again, to a distant shore far away” on it, and I was immediately curious what song it was from. At this point, I was only really familiar with Pinback through their self titled, so when I listened to Boo for the first time, I was just floored.
This song ended up being very personal for me. If there’s any song I could pick to sum up my 2023 experience, it would be this one. Which, in retrospect, isn’t actually great because this song is terribly sad, but it just felt fitting. There is something about that refrain that was projected on the screen that stuck with me. It felt hopeful and hopeless at the same time. Like no matter how bad things are, there might be somewhere else to go. The whole song feels like drowning, whether it be the opening refrain that almost sounds like raindrops, or the imagery that is directly used in the song (“Inside this leaking submarine, the hull is closing and the water is above my ankles” and “Something’s tugging on my leg, and there it goes, shallow water must be on the horizon but still too far to go”, just to name some examples). The song opens up with a sample of Orson Welles’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, in which a man wonders if he is the only man on Earth, and asks if there is anyone still out there, and this sample comes back during the outro in which Crow repeats the phrase “Sorry, sorry, can’t go no more.” Despite the terribly depressing lyrics, the music itself is quite beautiful, to the point it almost lifts the song up. I didn’t know this until I watched videos of this song performed live, but the opening refrain is actually played on a bass, which is crazy to me, because I didn’t really know basses could sound like that. It’s really damn cool.
This song means so much to me. It was a tremendous source of comfort in a rather turbulent year. This song felt like the distant shore in the hook. I owe a lot to it.
#21. champagne problems - Taylor Swift
Okay! Pop music! I love Taylor Swift. I think she is a tremendous song writer with an incredible sense of melody. cowboy like me is a track off of evermore, Taylor’s second surprise album from 2020. Those two albums are my two favorites records from her, trading in her typical electronic pop style for more a indie folk inspired sound, and wow, she does it so well. I really wish she would do another full record with this sound, it really suits her.
champagne problems is one of the highlight tracks for me off those projects. An incredibly well written song, it tells the story of a woman turning down her would-be-fiance’s wedding proposal and the fallout that comes with it. The main reason this song is a standout, however, is the bridge. Taylor excels at writing incredible bridges, but champagne problems has to come in as one of her best. I never fail to get goose bumps whenever I hear it. The way it subtly ramps up until it reaches it’s peak, the lyrics “ ‘She would have such a lovely bride, what a shame she’s fucked in the head’ they said. But you’ll find the real thing instead, she’ll patch up the tapestry that I shred.” Like Jesus Christ. The intensity she brings to her performance almost made me shed a tear while writing this right now. She is that good. What a song.
#22. She Blows Blasts of Static - The Grifters
What a weird track. I LOVE this. The Grifters are a band I honestly know very little about, besides the fact that One Sock Missing is a fantastic album. This song is probably my favorite off the album. It really strikes me as a Frankenstein of the Gun Club, Sonic Youth, and Unwound, all in the best possible way. The Unwound elements have probably the strongest pulls out of the three, which does make sense seeing that the two bands were direct contemporaries, and both of them had music featured in the fantastic movie Half Cocked. Some of the members of The Grifters actually even played in the movie if I remember correctly. Honestly, Half Cocked is probably the best music related movie I’ve ever seen. There are so many small things that you’ll catch if you’re into noise rock and enjoy going to small DIY shows that I really appreciate.
This track is so insane. I have no idea what it’s about, or even what’s going on most of the time, all I know is that it fuckin bangs. It has this intangible sense of groove to it while seemingly doing everything in its power to be as non-musical as possible. That’s probably thanks to the killer bassline that still manages to cut it’s way through angular guitar riffs, layers of feedback, their vocalist’s Thurston Moore-esque talk singing, and a breakdown that sounds like a quite literal breakdown, full of maniacal laughing and their guitarist tremolo picking a dissonant riff that frankly I’m not even sure could be called a riff. It is quite literally just noise. It is AWESOME. This track is so badass.
Thank you for sticking around and reading! There’s going to be more to come, and they’re all going to be a lot shorter than this, so I appreciate your patience. This was a lot of fun to write. I hope you were able to find a song you enjoy! Thanks again! See ya next time!