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Hello!! Welcome to the music page. I am by no means a music journalist, nor do I claim to know shit about shit, but listening to music and going to shows is the single most important thing for my mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. If I am ever majorly down in the dumps, going to a show usually provides me with immediate relief. I’ve been making an effort to go to shows at least once a week, if not every other week, and to be very intentional with my music listening. I turned off autoplay on Spotify so that I am forced to actually think about the music I want to listen to. Now, I must use my brain to intentionally recall what I enjoy listening to and what I desire in that particular moment instead of being fed the same algorithm slop over and over again. If I don’t know what I want to listen to, I tap into one of the many music newsletters I subscribe to on Substack (maybe I will throw in some recommendations at a later date), I listen to playlists curated by artists I love, I ask a friend for a recommendation, I listen to NTS or Montez Press Radio or KEXP, or, I opt for silence.
I know many people feel frustrated with the Spotify algorithm and the app’s general unusability. Turning off autoplay has REALLY helped me. One of my project goals for the summer was to do something about my music library and my dependence on this app and corporation whose values are fundamentally opposed to my own. I’m still working on that part, but turning off autoplay was a big step in the right direction.
Anyway, when I do post about music, I’ll post a three part recommendation:
I’m not really interested in “reviewing” music, but rather, sharing things that moved me, sparked joy, inspired me, or just made me feel generally excited about being alive. I have a tendency to feel very overwhelmed by my relationship to music (a little more on that below), and I am trying to use this framework as a way to prove to myself that yes, I love music, I know some things about it, and I have tastes that are appropriate and perhaps even desirable to share with others.
It’s been music summer for me!! I’ve been seeing a shit ton of shows lately!! On Tuesday (6/16), I saw my favorite band Wednesday at Nevermore Hall in Baltimore. Tombstone Poetry, another epic Asheville band, opened for them. I’ve never been super crazy about Tombstone Poetry’s recorded music, but I LOVED seeing them live. Pedal steel plus screaming is kind of the perfect combination of sounds for a gal like me. That’s also part of the reason I love Wednesday so much! All this pedal steel in Wednesday and Tombstone Poetry reminded me that there are many experimental pedal steelists (i guess the proper terminology is pedal steel guitarist but whatever i like my word better) that I’d been meaning to check out! This week I focused on Susan Alcorn’s first solo record Uma.
It’s so fucking beautiful. I recommend listening to this on the Amtrak while the unassuming blonde woman next to you listens to heavy metal really loudly, so loudly that you can kind of hear it over the noise cancellation on your Airpods. You’re going to be a little annoyed the whole time, because it’s distracting you from listening to that eerie Hawaiian instrument, but it will also add to the ambiance in a way you find endearing and a little heart wrenching. I always cry on Amtrak, I can’t explain it.
I guess it’s been a big week for North Carolina bands for me (it kind of always is, I romanticize the fuck out of that state). I’ve been listening pretty much non-stop to Hiding Places’ new album The Secret to Good Living. I am especially obsessed with the songs Holy Roller and the title track. I initially felt very weird about loving this album so much because I once kissed someone in this band and then kind of avoided hanging out with them again because they are so nice and I am #emotionallyunavailable! But I think it’s okay and perhaps even cool that I appreciate their art respectfully from afar. I like to listen to this first thing in the morning when I’m walking to City Fresh to buy milk or eggs or some other type of breakfast product.
Okay, this might be more than three recommendations. I am going to mention a few things that were in my heavy rotation this week but only actually embed one album for listening. First, I must shout out moe.’s album Sticks and Stones which I listened to front to back (on vinyl no less) for maybe the first time ever, or certainly since I was very young, after they opened their set (also at Nevermore Hall in Baltimore!! The day after Wednesday played!!! Which felt very special to me!!!) with the song Cathedral, which I guess they hadn’t played in awhile. I have also been listening to A LOT of Sleigh Bells (Treats and Texis are all time favorites of mine), and Animal Collective (Strawberry Jam is just really a summer vibe for me, especially the song For Reverend Green).
Side note on the Animal Collective piece - I was hanging out with my friend Jack over the weekend. Whenever Jack and I hang out, we always have an emotionally resonant hang that rocks my world and makes me wish that we lived in the same city. Our conversations flow seamlessly between music recs, our feelings, and our dreams for the future, and I always leave feeling super inspired by Jack and all of the cool shit he's working on. Jack has also always been incredibly supportive and encouraging of my passion for music. I feel a deep shame for giving up on being a musician and a kind of pervasive cringiness and self-doubt regarding my secret desire to pursue music in a more real way. I have always felt that I will never know enough music to know what I am talking about, but Jack always reminds me that I do, in fact, know so much music, and love music in a way that makes me just as qualified as any other guy to talk about it, and even, to try playing it again. Anyway, Jack and I were lounging in Irving Square Park, and I said possibly one of the realest things I’ve ever said in my life about how a lot of the shame I feel about music would have been solved if I had just started listening to Animal Collective earlier in life. The exact association between Animal Collective and this particular brand of shame is like too fucked up for me to even go into in any detail here, but dear reader, just trust that this little worm in my brain really wrecks me from time to time. Sharing this thought and laughing about it with Jack released some of that shame and I just wanted to name that funny little memory here for posterity <3
ANYWAY. Lol let me get to the damn point! The album I’ve chosen for revisit is Spooky by Lush. I love shoegaze. SUE ME! Also, I think it is extremely epic when chicks make rock music! Lush is the sexiest band name maybe ever, and Spooky features some of my favorite cover art of all time! Listen to Nothing Natural → Tiny Smiles on a beautiful morning walk from Ridgewood to Bed Stuy while thinkin about something that’s been bothering you. You might have a breakthrough or you might not but I think you will feel better regardless!
That’s all for now. If you listen to any of this shit, let me know what you think. I’d love to chop it up with literally anyone and everyone about what they’re listening to these days.