Kitchen - “Real Estate Agent”
I checked these guys out after seeing a post about them from Rochester, NY bedroom auteur A Wonderful last month, an endorsement I'm glad I took seriously. Blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on gray on white does a lot of different stuff across 20 tracks and 77 minutes but when it hits it really fucking hits. It’s gonna be tough to beat “Real Estate Agent” for song of the year for me, a simple but perfectly executed indie rock gem that has been stuck in my head for weeks.
I checked these guys out after seeing a post about them from Rochester, NY bedroom auteur A Wonderful last month, an endorsement I'm glad I took seriously. Blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on gray on white does a lot of different stuff across 20 tracks and 77 minutes but when it hits it really fucking hits. It’s gonna be tough to beat “Real Estate Agent” for song of the year for me, a simple but perfectly executed indie rock gem that has been stuck in my head for weeks.
The Velvet Rope is one of those like, canonical works of 20th century progressive pop music that I never actually think to go back and listen to all that much, despite my famous take that “Together Again” is one of the best songs ever (real freaks should check out the blissed-out eleven minute long Tony Moran club mix). Any time I do throw The Velvet Rope on, a new track blows me away; this time the sparse, ethereal production and obtuse samples on “Empty” really did it for me.
Lael Neale - “Tell Me How To Be Here”
Lael Neale’s 2023 LP Star Eaters Delight was such a charming surprise and has stayed in pretty regular rotation for me the last few years. Her recently released follow up, Altogether Stranger explores similar territory: hazy, slow motion alienation bangers cribbing textures from midcentury pop music 👍
Crisis Actress - “Wanted to Cry”
Rowan from Hell Trash told me I would like these guys and they were right. Anxious, moody Modest Mouse worship (down to the slurred, double tracked Brockalike vocals) recorded at Electric Audio. Nobody does it like Chicago, baby!
fantasy of a broken heart - “Star Inside The Earth”
Over the last few months I have become fully fantasy of a broken heart-pilled. I’m listening to their debut album from last year, Feats of Engineering, and the new EP Chaos Practitioner several times a week these days. So few modern bands dare attempt a Prefab Sprout type of thing and even fewer successfully pull it off. I am happy to announce these guys are the real deal.
Neu Blume - “Mitsubishi - II”
Neu Blume’s new album Let It Win brings to mind a bunch of bands I've been obsessed with at different points in my life, from the sunny guitar rock of Real Estate to the Silver Jews' fried, plainspoken wisdom to their fellow Detroiters Bonny Doon's aloof Americana. This record’s going to get a lot of play on my balcony this summer, some real mf “havin a cocktail outside” type of music.
Lael Neale - “Tell Me How To Be Here”
Lael Neale’s 2023 LP Star Eaters Delight was such a charming surprise and has stayed in pretty regular rotation for me the last few years. Her recently released follow up, Altogether Stranger explores similar territory: hazy, slow motion alienation bangers cribbing textures from midcentury pop music 👍
Crisis Actress - “Wanted to Cry”
Rowan from Hell Trash told me I would like these guys and they were right. Anxious, moody Modest Mouse worship (down to the slurred, double tracked Brockalike vocals) recorded at Electric Audio. Nobody does it like Chicago, baby!
fantasy of a broken heart - “Star Inside The Earth”
Over the last few months I have become fully fantasy of a broken heart-pilled. I’m listening to their debut album from last year, Feats of Engineering, and the new EP Chaos Practitioner several times a week these days. So few modern bands dare attempt a Prefab Sprout type of thing and even fewer successfully pull it off. I am happy to announce these guys are the real deal.
Neu Blume - “Mitsubishi - II”
Neu Blume’s new album Let It Win brings to mind a bunch of bands I've been obsessed with at different points in my life, from the sunny guitar rock of Real Estate to the Silver Jews' fried, plainspoken wisdom to their fellow Detroiters Bonny Doon's aloof Americana. This record’s going to get a lot of play on my balcony this summer, some real mf “havin a cocktail outside” type of music.
Memory Pearl - “Music Travel III”
You listen to enough Destroyer and Spotify starts recommending you literally anything his frequent collaborator Joseph Shabason shows up to honk his saxophone on. Also featuring The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop and Berlin composer Moritz Fasbender, this Memory Pearl track is a standout from their latest high concept LP, which recasts dollar bin New Age soundscapes as the soundtrack to an imagined experimental LSD program.
Casino Versus Japan - “Blue Vacation, Pt. 4”
For some reason I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for Chillwave and I saw these guys mentioned as a key influence on a genre I don't particularly care about all that much among a bunch of other bands I was more familiar with. I threw on their self-titled debut album to get a taste of what their whole deal was and was pretty into it. The Books made an impression on me as a young music fan and I've since been partial to instrumental music riddled with oddball spoken word samples, so this track in particular stood out for me.
You listen to enough Destroyer and Spotify starts recommending you literally anything his frequent collaborator Joseph Shabason shows up to honk his saxophone on. Also featuring The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop and Berlin composer Moritz Fasbender, this Memory Pearl track is a standout from their latest high concept LP, which recasts dollar bin New Age soundscapes as the soundtrack to an imagined experimental LSD program.
Casino Versus Japan - “Blue Vacation, Pt. 4”
For some reason I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for Chillwave and I saw these guys mentioned as a key influence on a genre I don't particularly care about all that much among a bunch of other bands I was more familiar with. I threw on their self-titled debut album to get a taste of what their whole deal was and was pretty into it. The Books made an impression on me as a young music fan and I've since been partial to instrumental music riddled with oddball spoken word samples, so this track in particular stood out for me.
Barker - “Reframing”
This new Barker record, Stochastic Drift, has been another go-to soundtrack recently when reading in the morning before work. Really nice ambient techno with just enough going on at any given time to stay engaging while blocking out the outside world.
Here’s the full playlist, will be sharing thoughts on the remaining third soon.
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