Can I call myself a DILF?
One of the main reasons we had to stop doing the pod was our whole dynamic got upended when I left corporate life for the grim neverending terror of trying to do a thing myself and Josiah got a fancy job involving attending “a dinner” and always being available on Slack. Because film is the slowest and stupidest medium to try and make a living it, it’s taken almost two years to finally announce the first film from a company I own, but we did it this week - Disco’s Revenge, the story of how I learned that early Punk magazines were so homophobic that they won’t actually let you licence them to show how homophobic they were. We just announced our first festival screening, but the proper details on how everyone in Wodonga can see it will be coming soon via Paramount, which I like to say, obviously.
Anyway, here’s what we’re listening to this week.
Ergo, Bria “Heavenly Touch”
Sam: I felt similarly when writing about Gonemage’s Spell Piercings last week - there’s an intangible element that seems to be missing from the revival of nu metal, or shoegaze, that I only notice when I hear a song like this and think “yo this could be older.” The vocal treatment is simple, the snare is compressed in a non-Travis Barker way, the guitars shimmer. Going to start saying that one more, I forgot about shimmering guitars. This is just really great shoegaze and if you want to hear that, now you have.
Jos: Since I will not break our unspoken rule and stand up for myself within the confines of the intro, I will instead use this section to clarify that I have, in fact, NEVER attended “a dinner,” likely even to the detriment of my professional life in any and every capacity. Now, onto this section, I just want to say it’s really funny to realize so late in the game that Sam is constantly saying “yo” to himself in his inner monologue. Okay now I’m listening. I love that, even while shoegaze is the most normie and popular and marketable music you can make nowadays, Sam still somehow found one that sounds janky (in a good way) and has a homemade Cowboy Bebop music video. Yo!
Barely Civil “Floating Again”
Sam: More than a pop-punk dirge, I loooooooove a pop-punk shuffle. The second this song started and I heard that dotted eighth note I knew this was going in the newsletter. Why is no band brave enough to write a whole album like this? I’d easily pay $10 for it. I like this song but I will admit I’m blinded by the groove. I have a playlist called “GREAT SHUFFLES OF ROCK” and this is at the tippy-top now.
Jos: Okay my friend, I agree with you that I love a good shuffle. I used to absolutely gobble this song up as a child. I was also pretty stoked about the aloof, gentle vocals, but then they started doing background yelling vocals that sound a lot less like Bane and a lot more like a youth group sleepover. Definitely not fucking with this as a whole, but there’s some cool guitars.
Rosali “Hills on Fire”
Jos: Every once in a while, you just gotta settle into a heather grey T-shirt music dad choice, like the kinda tunes Ethan Hawke in a Bikini Kill t-shirt would be Shazaming from NPR while driving his comically large EV to Trader Joe’s. I drive a Chevy Spark and don’t really wear band T’s, but I fuck with the vision. When I first saw people buzzing about Rosali, I thought they were talking about the Spanish pop star who I think everyone was mad at for some reason. But Rosali is actually just some sick rockin’ singer-songwriter music that barely even sounds like indie rock, it’s almost in the adult contemporary zone. And there are so many great guitar noodles all over this gentle lil album. Playing this shit has me feeling like an alt tote bag DILF. Can I call myself a DILF?
Sam: I think you’re in the DILF zone but maybe it’s stealing parental valour to identity that way. You’re really just a RFTBG (regular fuckable tote bag guy). Loving the noodles, but do wish I was listening to Rosalía, which isn’t Rosali’s fault, but is her problem now. I’m just staring at the grey sky as these noodles unfurl and I’m not hating it but it’s making me really tired and I have to finish sending a lot of emails so I’m excited to move on.
Future “Everyday Hustle” (ft. Rick Ross)
Jos: We went on a last-minute trip to NYC last weekend for two reasons: to meet a life-sized Monchhichi mascot, and to see a somewhat disastrous live Taskmaster Q&A at Rodney Dangerfield’s comedy club. I have so many funny things to tell you about from it, yet I have no outlet to blab away, so they have to merely stay as thoughts. But we kept listening to the new Future and Metro Boomin album. The whole thing is amazing, but “Everyday Hustle” is an interesting outlier because it has a sort of “boom bap” production style that these guys don’t usually embrace. It would be terrible if the whole album sounded like this but it’s cool as one song.
Sam: “Boom bap” is a term I wish we had made each other say on the pod. This is fucking sick. My emails won’t know what hit them when I start responding “with the quickness.” Josiah road tripping to New York to meet Monchhichi playing this on repeat is such a lovely moment to luxuriate in. Is it illegal to make a song where the beat doesn’t switch up now? It should be I love it.