I spent an hour photoshopping Liquid Death cans into classic punk photos for some reason.
There’s another new blink-182 song this week, which means our big Blink-155 Las Vegas residency just got extended by a night. Truthfully, we will review the entire album in here when it comes out. At this point I have such a sick (derogatory) relationship with this band. I don’t want to listen but I even opened the YouTube link in time for the little countdown of the premiere.
Here’s what we’re thinking about this week.
Koyo “Postcards”
Sam: I saw Koyo a year ago opening for Drain as part of a baffling lineup that also included Wild Side which meant that no one in the room was stoked for a very sincere, very ’90s emo band. At the time they had an EP and some singles that did not bang (imho), but this new full length is incredibly fucking sick. It’s cute to pretend Koyo is doing “Silent Majority worship” when this band just sounds like Taking Back Sunday. And that’s okay! Not sure where we’re at with Where You Want To Be revisionism, but let Koyo lead us into a brighter future where we can all admit that “This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)” is an all-timer.
Jos: I’ve been pretty stressed about going away on vacation next week, running errands and tying up loose ends at work and doing other forms of “adulting” to get ready. And it’s been another heat wave here, even though I put the portable AC unit away for the season. So I haven’t been sleeping, and when I’m not sleeping and feeling stressed, my trauma response is to post tons of bait on the website formerly known as Twitter. This week, I’ve been getting music fans all riled up with posts like this and this. That first one elicited reactions like “I swear Twitter people get more stupid every day,” while the second had someone named “mayor of mosh” tell me I was wrong to say “Hot Mulligan is this generation’s Descendents,” instead saying that Koyo was a better example. So that’s the context in which I’m about to listen to this band for the first time. It kinda sounds like the Smash Mouth guy (may he rest in peace) covering the Ataris.
The Replacements “Can’t Hardly Wait (Acoustic Demo)”
Sam: Last weekend I was visiting pals and found myself monologuing (maybe I should find an outlet of some kind??) about how annoying the excessive (Gen X-led) online discourse around the Tim reissue was and everyone needed to cool it with their histrionic proclamations about how “if only we had this mix at the time indie rock would have been completely different!!!” and SURE “Can’t Hardly Wait” maybe ended up on the wrong album but WOULD it have changed the band’s career trajectory REALLY and why can’t everyone stop talking about it PLEASE and was wisely told that I was, in fact, being this guy at great length. Anyway look I love everything about this release and I wish it had twice as many versions of “Can’t Hardly Wait” but this is probably the best one, unless it’s the cello one, or it’s the alternate Tim mix, I’ve actually changed which one this entry is about several times. At some point this was going to be about “Swingin’ Party.” Might change it again.
Jos: I’ve seen people talking about this Tim thing quite a bit. Which reminds me, have you seen that Tim Hortons makes streetwear now? I think you like, pick what drink is your fav and then shop the collection. I can’t find it now but I kept getting an ad for an awful letterman jacket that said “LATTE” on the back. Now I’m reading like, Canadian marketing strategy press releases about it. There’s a whole bunch of new Timmies merch. Tim Hortons tastes worse than ever though. Also I had a single sip of a vanilla McCafe iced coffee this week and it tasted like cake batter and phlegm. Cheap coffee has never been worse. Anyway I’ve never gotten into the Replacements, but this particular song proves that people who pretend they don’t like Wilco will reverse engineer music that sounds exactly like a shittier Wilco for themselves to enjoy. I’m gonna check out the new Wilco instead.
Tirzah “2 D I C U V”
Jos: I don’t think I’ve listened to too much Tirzah in the past, but the new album is insanely cool. Almost the whole thing has the same drums and sparse piano, although this particular tune has like, a dumpstered twinkle emo riff behind it all. The album was produced by Mica Levi (who also reteamed with Jonathan Glazer on Zone of Interest, which I’m soooo excited to see this month), and it kind of sounds like a broken hard drive, like the digital edition of a cassette that fell into a puddle. I’m kind of loving this new wave of albums that sound like someone aimlessly singing to themselves (see also last year’s Sent from My Telephone by Voice Actor, which I can’t stop playing).
Sam: Oh damn this is so sick. I can’t explain why because it’s not a direct comparison but this makes me feel like I’m listening to “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” but I’m older and wiser and into things that aren’t on the radio now. How do you even make music that sounds like this anyway. I only know how to Koyo.
Minor Science “Life Texture”
Jos: It’s safe to say that I’m trying my hardest to get out of the whole “OMG mall music was lowkey bops” discourse and firmly back into my wanker era, but I don’t always know where to look. I’ve been poking around (reading different blogs than usual) and finding some cool stuff. Absent Friends Vol. III is a really nice listen with bleeps and bloops aplenty, but I’m still a sucker for some epic melodrama, and this song “Lift Texture” is basically a Sigur Ros anthem turned all the way down. It’s really just glitches and wide open organs, but when it hits that minor note at 1:22 it feels extremely existential. I’m a wanker with heart.
Sam: This is objectively good and neat but I find myself wanting to just skip ahead and see where it’s going already. It’s killing me to just sit in this moment. I’m so bored. Something is happening now but not enough. I wonder if having some degree of artistic patience is a key difference in our tastes that we never explored on the pod? Or maybe we did and I forget? I feel like I’m stuck in traffic right now and everyone is turning left. I’m skipping to U2 knowing I won’t like it, sort of like making some weird turn that you know will result in you being in different traffic at another point but at least frees you from a temporary hell.
U2 “Atomic City”
Jos: All of the plugged-nose discourse lovers were sharing their various different takes about U2’s sphere debut this week, and they were all going the long route to just admitting that it looks really cool even though it’s annoying. But I think U2’s new single was lost in the bombast. The art for this song is hilariously heinous, but the song isn’t quite as bad as it should be. In fact, there’s a new sorta tele-coded tone on the Edge’s guitar that adds some nice power pop vibes to the lead, and there are some interesting vocal melodies even though the big, open chorus doesn’t hit (and this style of chorus never really hits for U2). But what I really love is how bad and good the lyrics are, often at the same time. Verse 2 is stupid and good and stupidly good in a way that only U2 can be:
Come all who serve above and below
Come all believers and all who don't know
Come quick, come soon, comme ci, comme ça
Then you dive into your eyes and blah blah blah
Guitars, she pulls the strings et cetera
Sinatra swings, a choir sings
Love is God and God is love
And if your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough
Sam: The pod reunion at the sphere is going to sick. Imagine all of Josiah’s sick lil vids enveloping you completely. Living inside of a snake’s funeral or some backyard dentistry. Art is evolving. I will go to the sphere and I will love it, but I will not love this. It’s impressive how unambitious this is, just kind of middling in a way that is actually admirable for a band where the stakes should be so consistently high. I respect these boys, but I do not like them.
