My online rocker ass
Would you believe it’s Sam writing this week’s introduction? You probably do believe because why would Josiah put a sweaty glamour shot of me right up top (he still put that photo there, to be fair). I’ve been in England for a week of shooting and after clearly struggling with my overwhelmingly negative feelings towards “Great” Britain I am pleased to offer an update: it’s kind of charming from certain very specific angles! I met up with some classic pod-era pals and ate Roti King and got Monster Munch from a corner shop and a guy at a pub asked me if I smoked so I said I usually have a lighter on me but I didn’t right now sorry then he told me he was actually trying to offer me a cigarette because I looked so stressed. Pubs are so sick. In the above photo I am looking like I need a cigarette standing in for a major “only in the UK”-type celeb while staring intensely a blank space where a director will eventually be sitting; in the below, I am backstage at a music festival we were filming at being very amused that Tom Jones clearly needs FT access to a porta potty whenever he is on stage. No dignity in getting old.
Here’s some stuff we’re thinking about this week.
Lil Uzi Vert “The End” (feat. BABYMETAL)
Sam: I have been on the internet enough to see any of the discourse around this album, but I was online just enough to see that one of the guys from Paledusk (who I have written about at some point in every iteration of this newsletter) wrote and produced a song on it and smashed that mfing add to library button. I mean, this is so fucking sick. The opportunity to utilize the expanded palette of that both Lil Uzi Vert and BABYMETAL represent is fully exploited on a song that sounds v v Paledusk but with that kawaii-ass twist and hip-hop backdrop. I love everything about this. Music is so good.
Jos: I think I saw discourse about this album too, but it was people talking about Bring Me the Horizon methinks?? This is way cooler. I love how it sounds like I have two YouTube windows open at the same time by accident. Babymetal definitely seems like music for the flat-brim hat Funko guys that Sam pretends I am but he secretly is. But fuck, this is awesome. Goddammit Sam you’re right. Music is so good.
Flowerbed “hide”
Sam: Okay this is basically a lost Around the Fur track, probably my favourite Deftones era. It also reminds me of By a Thread (love this album but also still funny to me that Revelation put it out). Love that snappy snare sound. Every crack makes me feel like I’ve got a gigantic discman shoved deeper and deeper into my jean pocket. Every pinch harmonic (is that what that is?) makes me feel like the 49 bus is taking a little bit longer to get me out of Etobicoke. It’s cool that I’ll never die.
Jos: Sam is so back. Look at that last sentence he wrote. He’s thriving. Okay I wanted to be mean about this but I like that he mentioned By a Thread because I love the youth-large hoodie era of Vancouver the most (even though I hated By a Thread a lot when I saw them as a teen, because they were too “clean” sounding). The art on this is sick as hell, but even though I’m an elder millennial former blue check podcaster turned current Substack-haver, my online rocker ass never really got down with Deftones. Still, that’s more of a me problem because this is pretty sick.
MxPx “Find a Way Home!!”
Jos: Maybe I’m secretly trying to turn this newsletter into a nefarious music marketing wing for disgusting record label freaks, or maybe I just feel nostalgic for the days of listening to RealAudio clips of The Moon & Antarctica on the Epic Records website long before the album came out, but both of my picks this week are snippets. It seems MxPx are about to release a new album, and I’ll always listen to new MxPx even though it goes against at least two of my beliefs (being a hipster and still believing in God). This snippet is cute because it has them all hanging around wearing different microbrewery shirts while they giggle and record the album, and it also has a snippet of another slow-burn MxPx song that definitely sounds like Sam music. But I mostly love it because of Mike’s spoken-word poem at the start. I really hope there are long passages of spoken-word on the new album.
Sam: It’s very funny to me that all the attempts to get me to listen to MxPx never succeeded but it turns out I love new MxPx so everyone just needed to wait a few extra years. Now that they’re old and I’m old and they don’t just sound like a Christian version of things I like, I’m ready to open my heart to Josiah’s best friends. They seem so nice. I like that.
Mod Sun “Strangers”
Jos: This is an old snippet of a new Mod Sun song, but the song will be out by the time you’re reading it. I’m including it here because I love this snippet so much. It has all the makings of perfect Mod: incredibly stupid lyrics that feel like wordplay but aren’t (“strangers to lovers to strangers again”) pulled directly from his personal life. How many songs has he written about Avril Lavigne now? But best of all, the music has finally caught up with his bizarre noughties pants choices, replacing mid pop-punk with an incredibly jaunty break beat. This is straight up CD wallet music. I love Mod Sun so much, fuck. (Also I just came out of pod retirement to guest on Fortune Kit, where I dropped a whole Mod primer. It’s one of two pods I’m guesting on this summer… the other one will take place… in the sky).
Sam: Wow it’s snippets week. I love that TikTok brought back the snippet nostalgia that Josiah and I clearly both share. I will listen to this once when it comes out. Mod Sun has become a true tragic hero in my mind and I love that he makes Josiah happy. I bet he and MxPx would get along. We should all become friends.
Social media update
Jos: While Sam has been traveling the globe in the name of filmmaking, I had a brief moment where I thought I’d just peace out of social media altogether. I was hitting my rate limit in the wee hours of the early morn, wondering what I’d do with the rest of my scrolling power and truly considering touching this grass that everyone is apparently so fond of. Instead, I started posting on Bluesky, which is an amazing app because the early adopters are the kind of corny ass Favstar people that you forgot even existed. You know the ones. And the best part is, they get so upset when you steal their jokes. I’ve just been going onto the What’s Hot page, copying posts verbatim and adding “A Jozza Skeet” to the bottom, and people are freaking out getting so mad at me. The audience for this is very small, and most of my bullshit is really going unnoticed. It’s such a colossal waste of time that I think it must be deep somehow.
But I still can’t quit Twitter, either, because I keep finding posts like this:
Sam: After realizing I didn’t have to sign up for Threads and never receiving a Bluesky invite, I made the empowering decision to remain loyal to Twitter until it does and never post anywhere ever again. Josiah is right — the stupid bullshit that compels me to be online only exists on one beautiful blue website. But let it die so I can let that part of my life die. Please. Even though I will still need somewhere to promote my burgeoning career as a DJ that started with the pod night and has led me to this sequel with Chayne (Josiah is not invited) where I will be playing slightly less Barenaked Ladies and slightly more Stars on 54.
