We had a lovely 30 minute hang out in Toronto over the weekend. And yet Sam didn’t deem it worthwhile to include as an intro he should write? He really hates me that much? And my family? (He met my brother and sister-in-law.) Who even cares. I’m back at home, back wasting away on the computer, up to my old tricks without a mic in front of me.
Here’s some stuff we’re listening to this week.
SOFT PLAY “Everything and Nothing”
Sam: They’re gentrifying folk punk – and I love it! Like all gentrified thing (tacos, dive bars, my entire neighbourhood), this improves on the unlistenable foundation of Plan-It-X bands by turning a generation’s entire identity into a Noah Kahan song sung by Frank Carter (but really it’s just Sleaford Mods if they sold out and covered “Losing My Religion”). If any of this doesn’t sound positive that’s entirely your problem because I love this song and can’t stop listening to it. Struggling to figure out how popular this is because it’s actually Australian and this is their Friday??
Jos: I’m starting to notice that Sleaford Mods is a point of reference that Sam leans on a lot, which is neither good nor bad but just interesting. This actually just sounds like High Vis veering dangerously close to Mumford/Lumineers territory. The mandolin was really pissing me off a lot, but then this bloke with a funny haircut and sick chain showed up and started belting it out like a proper lad. Now there’s some guy playing violin and a bunch of graphic designers who dress like soccer hooligans are having a nice day in the park. OMG I just looked them up and this is the band that used to be called SLAVES. Hahahaha. Damn I should’ve pressed play on more stuff back then.
Sect “Drowning in Sorrows”
Sam: As the absolute bullseye target demo for Sect, I was initially like “oh, cool, right, yeah, okay” when I first put on Plague Upon Plagues. “Dirgey!” I exclaimed to no one, because we don’t have a podcast anymore. As much as I love to feel depressed with my best friend Chris Colohan, I’m partial to more jaunty side of his oeuvre - it’s probably why I’ll never admit to anyone that Burning Love is my actual favourite band of his deep down when I’m alone with my own thoughts shouting “dirgey” at the dog. But then! Three songs in! “It’s wrecking time, pals!” (still alone). This kind of sounds like Converge’s “Reap What You Sow” for about three seconds, which is enough for me to declare it “the song I’m putting in the newsletter this week.” Fuck, I’m so glad Chris Colohan isn’t online.
Jos: Maybe if this band was on TikTok they’d be called s3ggs. It’s really weird to hear something that sounds like this in the year of our Lord 2024, like isn’t everyone doing the Locust worship or skramz or music that sounds like Sleaford Mods? I only use context clues because Sam’s links are truthfully some of the only ones I click. Anyway playing like “black silkscreen on black t-shirt” style hardcore is so quaintly outdated at this point, it’s basically classic rock. But it’s also very Toronto to love this kinda stuff. Sam should get a “Hail Seitan” t-shirt.
MCVERTT “Hate the Real” ft. 41 (Kyle Richh, Jenn Carter, Ta-Ta)
Jos: There was a time very long ago when I’d spend my days poking around websites like DatPiff, digging into mixtapes and discovering so many great new rappers and producers. I’ve completely fallen off of that, and I’m pretty sure DatPiff hasn’t existed for like a decade, but I’m back. Well, I want to pretend I just found this stuff on my own but the truth is so much more dorky. One of the few great 2010s music writers Andrew Nosnitsky continues to drop knowledge with things like his semi-regular mixtapes. I’ve been listening to “new rap may 2024” all week and literally Shazamming every song like a fucking dweeb. I love this one, it’s such a perfect mix of suave and aggro. Just like me.
Sam: Shazam is so sick and we just made fun of it so now we can’t admit to using it but we should be grateful. I was in Shoppers picking up toothpaste and I Shazammed this incredible “bop” that I only didn’t include here because it seems like she’s actually quite famous and I didn’t want this be an all-Australia newsletter, but that song rocks. This one rocks in addition to sounding really cool so I can see why Josiah included it even if he needed to be embarrassing about it in the process.
LAZER DIM 700 “Bragging Rights”
Jos: Another highlight from the Noz mix… I’m getting the same feeling I get when I listen to techno or IDM or experimental music, like there’s a whole deep world of insanely cool content on the internet that I could discover forever. It’s so genuinely exciting. This song is so hard, the beat sounds like dogshit in the best way, and LAZER DIM 700 looks cool as all hell while delivering the song, which is in itself the perfect length. This is the kinda stuff that brings me joy. And I don’t have to get some dumbass publicist emailing me about it or see that the bass player has been in my other DMs asking for a followback like I do with emo bands or whatever.
Sam: This is so sick, I’m listening to his 2024 album Injoy now and it sounds even more haggard, like he’s rapping into the built-in mic of the earbuds that came with cell phones 10 years ago and possibly cannot hear the beat. This is the punkest shit I’ve heard in ages! (I don’t listen to punk shit!)
Mod Sun “Sunshine”
Jos: I can’t just show you cool rap songs. That would be dishonest. I also need to show you the music that I discovered without the help of a clouted up music expert. And yes, that means both of my M boys are back this week. In the “Sunshine” video, Mod Sun looks possibly the most he ever has like Johnny Depp spliced with Mickey Rourke, which is interesting because he’s been working on that look ever since Avril ditched his ass. And this seems to be another “Avril dumped me” song, but it’s not nearly as good as “Strangers.” It’s also built around a truly awful “You Are My Sunshine” sample, and has sub-Macklemore raps that reference Jay Z and Gotye. Mod Sun, you whiffed it on this one. But I believe in you, and know you’ll be back.
Sam: “Men will get divorced by Avril Lavigne and think it’s an entire personality” or whatever. I clicked over into another window to let this play and see if I had anything to say about it and forgot for about 10 minutes, YouTube has just been autoplaying something called “Moshumentary” which is the only thing that might be worse than this song. Sampling “You Are My Sunshine” is so horrible I almost respect it but I cannot muster the respect. Back to Moshumentary.
mgk “BMXXing”
Jos: There are few things where I actually believe you need to go back and do your homework, but I do believe that my mgk fandom means I should probably go back and listen to his whole pre-pop-punk output. Should that be my next pod? Someone said this sounds like the old mgk. Well, if he used to sound like Vanilla Ice collaborating with Souls of Mischief, colour me impressed! This song is about BMXing. Or is it about a BMX crossing, hence the extra X? Anyway, I kinda love it. It sucks so bad and it’s so cool. I could imagine myself absolutely crushing the Zumiez shift schedule with this in my Skullcandies. Also Mod Sun is here, too, and he has one of those insanely stupid looking bikes with giant tires. There’s also a prolonged skate video at the end (mgk almost lands a kickflip, and he also says “The crib is Dogtown today”). It’s hard to imagine what skaters would risk their entire career by sharing their clout with mgk, but more power to ‘em. Maybe listening to cool rap isn’t for me after all. I love this embarrassing bullshit.
Sam: “I handle my emotions like I got PMS” is so good. Josiah I really appreciate that despite being over a year out from ending the pod I still know everything about mgk and Mod Sun thanks to your tireless efforts. Otherwise I’d never hear the line “Actin' like I'm Leo, if you all ask me, I am Great Gatsby” which is also amazing. Thinking about Thursday working a reference to the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg into “War All The Time” (just checked and this is NOT annotated on Genius???) and a decade later having the a tangential wave of punk-adjacent music be like “ayyyyyyy Baz Luhrmann getting nasty with it.” Still, pretty fun!