Former Buddyhead enthusiasts just living amongst us

This week from Sam and Josiah.

Turns out Seamus was an industry plant all along 😒

For the first time in what feels like years, I actually feel too cold today. Can you believe it! It’s certainly weird that we’re not preparing to do a stupid month of podcasting called like Oct Time Low or some shit. That’s a relief in every possible way. But I do find myself getting very bored and constantly checking the Reddit of a certain band I hate to find out when their new music will drop. What will we do when they release new songs?

Here’s some stuff we’re thinking about this week.

mclusky “the digger you deep” 

Sam: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. You’ll need to visit Bandcamp to hear this song properly, but mclusky is BACK and fuuuuuuuuck. I have genuinely loved some Future of the Left. Sometimes I think I liked Future of the Left MORE than mclusky. But then THIS song reminds of my favourite FotL song, only better. When I was younger and a terrible neighbour I would put that song on SO LOUD whenever I got home from the bar (every night of the week) and I’m glad I’m chill adult now so I’m just listening to this chilling now. Very cool to come back and be this good. I guess that’s why they did it! Fuck! I have only listened to this for a half hour now!

Jos: Oh my goodness. First of all, the album art has major “CD-R being sold for $32 to direct relatives and  coworkers who couldn’t think of a reason not to come to the battle of the bands” vibes. I pressed play on the first song and it was kinda sassy yet cheugy in a sort of Hot Snakes way, but then I saw you wanted me to play this other song that has like, nasty blues bends and a real stanky bass tone. Mate this is disgusting as hell. It makes me think about how I went to the pharmacy the other day, and the pharmacist was wearing a new DFA1979 t-shirt under his unbuttoned Jean Coutu shirt. There are former Buddyhead enthusiasts just living amongst us, embedded in society. Terrifying. 

Blind Equation “you betrayed the ones you loved”

Sam: I’ve already written about Blind Equation but their album comes out today and I’m so psyched to hear the whole thing (I am writing for the past, Thursday). Post-155 bump, Blind Equation seem to be making the most annoying people in the comments section of metal websites angry, proof of their power and our reach. I truly love this shit and everything surrounding it. Young people are cool, I’m sorry, it’s just how I feel.

Jos: I think last time you wrote about this band, I believed that they were like trve nerds and not meme metal guys, but then I think they went mega viral for like doing a concert inside of, like, a bouncy castle or something? A Walmart? IDK it’s all becoming the same MetalSucks headline to me. Anyway, even though I’m firmly in my “avoiding bands with social media” era, and they’re clearly aware of “the lulz,” I can’t really resist them. They’re great. 

forever ☆ ”Shine Your Eyes”

Jos: For some reason, I’ve always been very hesitant to get into the Spotify algorithm. I’m not entirely sure what the reason is, but it’s almost definitely a bad one — I don’t want someone else to dictate what I’m listening to or use trickery to show me a new artist that I might like. It fucks up my whole contrarian game. So I just stop listening if an album ends. But that does mean my discovery of new music is limited to… what this cool designer at my work who I don’t know at all shares on Slack sometimes? I mean, this band name and aesthetic and the combination of fuzzed-out brit pop with Amen breaks is really scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. I should toss him one of these on Slack: 🙌

Sam: Big “end of a 90s movie” vibe here. Our protagonist is on his way to the manic pixie dream girl he has been estranged from for most of the third act. He’s changed the way you’re supposed to change in those movies, by putting on a nice shirt or remembering her birthday by making a card. I love the curation on Apple but damn Spotify coming with the heat! (I’m really sorry about that sentence.)

Marika Hackman “No Caffeine”

Jos: Being old as hell is starting to get really funny, because whenever I’m in line at the post office or wandering around the mall, I’m usually hearing surprising-to-me needle drop. In my mind Phoenix is still a highbrow, Maison Kitsune-adjacent (Maison Kitsune also still being cool in my mind) band and not the ultimate benign normie music. No clue who this lady is, but this song perfectly fits that vibe because it’s both beautiful and normie as all get out. The lyrics about sipping tea and going on your phone too much are like borderline mommy blog fodder, but the song is sooo good to me, the vocals are perfect, the drums are bumping, the strings are lush. I’m trying to remember some of the cooler stuff I used to like so I can compare it to something other than Peter, Bjorn & John or Come on Feel the Illinoise or that kinda crap. It sounds like, uh, Laura Veirs.

Sam: All songs should be required to have a guitar part that goes like “dickadickadickadickadickadicka” at some point. What a cool thing a guitar can do. Was going to say that this also is “giving” soundtrack vibes (sorry) but I am realizing that I might just have film fest brain — that’s right folks, it’s the festival of festivals here in Canada’s culture capitol, the 6ix! TIFF has taken over my life and yet I’ve seen very few good movies so my feeble mind is crafting nostalgic feelings for fake ones. Incredible stuff. 

Hotline TNT “Thought You’d Change”

Jos: This one dropped while we were prepping the newsletter last week, but I had already included like 25 Peter Gabriel songs for some reason (?) so I thought I’d hold off. I always loved the band Weed, and have not really listened to Hotline TNT much but I’m glad they’ve signed with Third Man Records because my inkling that Jack White is actually cool continues to blossom. Anyway, the real reason I’m sharing this is that the video, directed by the funniest man alive Eric Rahill, is packed with former pod guests. Eric himself, plus Mel, Caleb, and in what will hopefully be the first of many starring roles, Seamus, plus plenty of other homies from the pod extended universe. Wonderful. 

Sam: Hahaha holy shit this is so great. Seeing Eric Rahill in a slightly broader context than straight-to-camera monologues has real Muppets Take Manhattan energy. He’s in the real world! What a huge tune, too. But I really cackled watching this alone at 8am which is a powerful statement. Seamus is a star. Just listening to the song now as I write this because I think I was too distracted by the laughs and yeah it rocks.