Hey y'all, it's been a minute—y'know, life—new job, moved, which seem to be two of my favorite pastimes these past couple of years. Anyway, I miss publishing on here regularly, so here I am with a batch of songs and albums I've been obsessed with over the past month.
Black Hole Superette
June kicked off with a bang. My all-time favorite artist, Aesop Rock, came through with this new record and
dare I say astonishing?
Fuck it, I'ma say it, it's astonishing
from Bird School
I was working near Grand Forks, ND when it dropped. I was a bit of an impatient boy so I used a VPN to connect to an Australian server to listen a day early. Luckily, I had to drive from Grand Forks to Fargo for some work supplies, a convenient 1 hour and 15 minute-ish drive for my first full listen. Then the drive back was listening to my initial favorites about 3-5 times each before moving on to the next ones.
Picking a favorite song on any Aesop Rock project is usually an exercise in futility because I love all of the songs for their own reasons but here were my initial standouts:
Ice Sold Here
Snail Zero
The Red Phone
A friendly reminder (and shameless self plug), I did a deep dive into Aesop's entire discography and compiled every pop culture reference he's made. I still need to add this album to it, but until then, there are over 400 songs already in there to peruse.
There's also companion interactive game experience where you can explore the Black Hole Superette yourself. You can check it out here.
TOBACCO
One of Aesop's many collaborators with 2019's Malibu Ken, but that's not the record I want to talk about today.
I was doing some research into vocoders and how to incorporate them in some songs I'm writing and remembered that Tom Fec of TOBACCO (and Black Moth Super Rainbow) uses them extensively. I came across a Reddit comment that suggested to listen to his Song Exploder episode on his song Gods in Heat and I've had it on repeat since. I checked out the rest of the album, Sweatbox Dynasty, but that track captured my attention the most.
I also decided to check out 2014's Ultima II Massage because I think I remember seeing it in a friends vinyl collection (but it might've also been Fucked up Friends, I don't remember) Anyway, Eruption (Gonna Get My Hair Cut at the End of the Summer) has me in a stranglehold. It's one of those special tracks I have to listen to several times in a row before I can move on to something else.
The lyrics are unsettling and a tad murderous but in an oddly satisfying a way, here’s some choice examples:
I can't be myself
When you're twisting on your hair, it's like freeing myself
You give me one more chance to be someone else
Twist it like a pigtail
I can make your heart fail
Gonna get my hair cut at the end of the summer
Wear your sister's fur
You can brush it 'til the motherfucker starts to purr
And in six more months you can be like her
Tell me this isn’t exactly what would happen if Buffalo Bill had some analog synths, drum machines and a vocoder.
I love the contrast between upbeat high energy beats have dark lyrics on top—think Semi-Charmed Life, the catchiest radio hit to mention crystal meth, or Pumped Up Kicks, the most danceable song about a kid stealing his father's gun and well, y'all know the rest...
Same Logic/Teeth
On the topic of mild body horror, particularly involving skin, this song also found itself in my regular rotation this month.
And you've got your kind of brand new face on
Where all the skin's pulled thin and taut
And every kid you see starts crying
So you stop going out for walks
I was back in Denver in time to catch Brand New at Mission Ballroom. I never got to see them in high school so I'm glad I finally got the chance. I primarily only listened to Deja Entendu and The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me back then, but after the show I decided to revisit Daisy and Science Fiction and liked both quite a bit more than a remember, particularly the ladder. I only listened to Science Fiction a couple of times when it came out(mostly as background noise while doing something else) so I never really connected with it. But upon revisiting, I've enjoyed it quite a bit.
Diva
This new Model/Actriz album came across my radar. I knew the name after seeing their previous record Dogsbody make the rounds on year end lists and other "I only listen to real music" type places on the internet. I still haven't listened to it but Pirouette here sure is something and Diva is by far the standout track for me.
The best way I can describe it is "if Jeffree Star's- Beauty Killer listened to more Radiohead," which is probably not an apt comparison but I don't mean it in a bad way, there's just some context and other influences I'm missing. I'm a fiend for that mid to late 00's scene kid music and Diva has a similar, albeit more “artsy”, energy to it. The song and vocal delivery also reminds me of Lealani- Dirge Lord or Björk- Crystalline.
Not unlike how some people like trash reality TV, I like terrible MySpace era music. Ain't no such thing as guilty pleasures babe.
Circa Survive- Descensus
Another high school favorite I revisited this month, listening to later entries in their catalog that I previously overlooked. I fired this one up for the first time since it came out, hell maybe even for the first time in full, since I don't remember if I checked it out in 2014 or not.
I've spent the second half of June in and around Flagstaff, AZ, so the desert and the sun have been at the front of my mind. I appreciate that as a theme (at least in title) on a couple of these songs, Child of the Desert and Only the Sun. Now I'll always associate this album with driving through the desert.
On that theme, Through the Desert Alone from their 2010 record Blue Sky Noise also comes to mind. Maybe the desert is a common theme in other Circa songs, too. I'll have to dive in a bit further.
Listen to Descensus here.
The not music part
Like I just mentioned, I’ve been in Arizona the past couple of weeks. This is my real first time in the state, and I've enjoyed it a lot more than I would've expected. Despite it being right next to Colorado, I've never found myself here other than passing through briefly while driving from Las Vegas to St. George, which I didn't count as having really been here.
I normally avoid touristy things while traveling, but I indulged a bit this time:
I went to the Meteor Crater, drove by the corner in Winslow, and of course, saw the Grand Canyon.
I also finally got to see The Summer Triangle in all its glory. The stars that make up the asterism are bright enough to be visible back home in Denver despite the light pollution, but I wanted to finally see them with the Milky Way separating Vega and Altair. There’s a folk tale about the stars that I discovered from this La Dispute album loosely based around it, which of course I had playing on the drive out.
Damn Arizona, you really surprised me. I can't wait to be back. Until then, I'll enjoy my slightly cooler Colorado weather.