Just when I thought I was done with merch, the game dragged me back in. Well mostly because I thought it’d be fun to make SILLY hats as a commemoration of the album 0 Views being out for 1 month. And this time I’m selling merch the normal way. You don’t have to meet me in a dark alley and hand me a handwritten address and an envelope full of cash. You can just go to Bandcamp and buy one there.
Here’s some other stuff we’re listening to this week.
Tiger Village “LETM COOK”
Sam: One of the all-time greatest Blink-155 discoveries was Enema Of The State+ by Les Cousins Dangereux, a beautiful, deconstructed work of art both fully glitched-out and extremely accessible. It turned out this was one of 1000 amazing projects from Tiger Village, who just released an amazing new album, GRID WORK. I have no idea how to write about this kind of music because it’s not based around pop songs I already know, but I can tell you that it sounds VERY cool and makes me feel like NEAT GUY listening to it. I think this is “breakcore” but I tuned out or just pretended I understood every time Josiah talked about that. Incredibly sick music.
Jos: I recently bought a very sick Japanese cassette player, and I’ve been slowly but surely amassing some cassettes again (well, I kinda stopped once I found the Counting Crows’ August and Everything After, because I don’t really need anything else). One thing that’s staring back at me from my tape pile is the aforementioned Enema of the State+ release (I use a different house style than Sam for capitalization), and I’m tempted to listen because I know I loved it, but I don’t listen to blink-182 anymore. So thankfully I can listen to this instead. I don’t think this is breakcore, but it’s definitely some wonderful bleepy bloop music. I used to write for the revered electronic magazine XLR8R as my first freelancing job, and they pretty quickly figured out that I have no clue what I’m talking about but they still kept giving me work.
Vincenzo Salvia “The rise of the dough”
Sam: The sleek black soap dispenser in my bathroom has been swapped out for the dollar store Frankenstein one. The rubber duck in my bathroom – also swapped, for one that’s painted like a spooky duck skeleton. I watched the first forty minutes of House of 1000 Corpses last night before I started to fall asleep. I’m listening to the audiobook of Dracula on my increasingly chilly bike rides to and from work. This weekend I’m putting the severed arm in the planter out front and hanging the bat (skeleton) from the porch light. I’m sorry that it feels like everyone gets more annoying about it with each passing day, but that’s not my fault. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Jos: You can’t say “sorry everyone’s being so annoying, not my fault!” about this kinda stuff when it’s so clearly exactly your fault! This is all your fault! Even the fact that this delicious sounding fake synth soundtrack now reminds me of the sad pre-roll before a leftist shitposter Twitch stream instead of a sick and grimy neo-giallo slasher movie that has a different title on the poster and in the film itself. It’s probably going to be like 30 years until music like this is cool again.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples “The World Doesn’t Need Another Band”
Jos: I got to hang with Chris Dadge for one delightful afternoon on the weekend, and it was really just about as great as I could’ve dreamt, just two nerds tripping over each other to talk about stuff. He told me about this band called The Tubs, which is ex-Joanna Gruesome and literally sounds like Hootie and the Blowfish sometimes (and I love them now), but then he mentioned that when he listens to music digitally (his least favourite), he gets so mad when the algorithm autoplays something else. I feel the same way so hard, but then when I listened to The Tubs it recommended me this and now it’s my new favourite. The Reds, Pinks and Purples is the project of San Francisco indie pop lifer Glenn Donaldson, and he seems to just constantly drop song after song. I obviously love the sentiment behind this one, but I also love how the vocals are like beyond indie to the point of almost sounding like Coldplay or even deleriou5? and the guitars sound underwater, like they’re drenched in an un-wah’d wah pedal. I love it!!!
Sam: Since I can’t go back and change it without wrecking the entire first half of the newsletter, it’s important for me to state that I agree with the house style of writing it out as Enema of the State but evidently I was worried about misspelling… enema? so I copied and pasted the title right from the Tiger Village Bandcamp page. Actually, does that make me right? Since that’s the title of that particular album? Almost got away with not saying anything about this song, but it’s so good that I should add that I love it! What a wonderful tune!
princess520 “Ow”
Jos: The world doesn’t need another band, but I needed to start one. The truth about SILLY is that I just listen to it all the time because it’s my favourite. If your own band isn’t your favourite then you should probably delete it. But it’s sometimes fun to see what Spotify plays when the album ends. I was expecting it to play some disgusting Fest style pop-punk, but it’s actually really smart at knowing what I would like. That’s how I heard princess520, an artist who seems to also be really good at skateboarding. When it’s on, this song “Ow” is basically the best music I’ve ever heard in my life. It somehow sounds like Flyswatter and twee and a teensy bit of shoegaze all at once, but with the delicious lo-fi sound that I thought people had moved on from but I’m so thankful they haven’t.
Sam: It’s funny how besides known brave soul Josiah and myself, the only people who I have ever heard admit that they listen to their own bands because it makes sense that you would love it are Mark Hoppus and Jacoby Shaddix. Good company! Honestly Josiah’s description of this sounds great but I’m trying to eavesdrop on a conversation next to me at the office. It’s about Pedro Almodóvar so it can only be so spicy but I’ve spent five years in a gossip desert (working from home). Okay I’m going to dip in real quick. Amazing. Perfect Josiah music. This is incredible. They’re talking again so I need to take my headphones off.
Jelly Roll & mgk & Travis Barker “Lonely Road” (live on Fallon)
Jos: Sorry but I love the “Third thing” so I’m always going to add one, especially when it involves Travis Barker drumming on a prop trash can while mgk and Jelly Roll sing their impossibly successful John Denver interpolation “Lonely Road.” It’s also great when they perform at Jimmy’s desk, like it’s their show now. There’s a good chance my Q4 is all about developing a parasocial obsession with Jelly Roll.
Sam: Everyone stopped talking so I listened, is this what Jelly Roll sounds like? I never thought too much about it but I imagined something more like Action Bronson doing “What It’s Like” by Everlast. I am looking for to learning more about Mr. Roll every week thanks to what does not feel like an empty threat from Josiah. All his threats are full. Bursting, even.