Look, it would be foolish to run a newsletter with dozens of weekly readers and not use it to heavily promote my new album that no one asked for. Well, today it’s out. 0 Views by SILLY. I’ll talk about it more at the end, but until then watch another lyric video I made:
Here’s some other stuff we’re listening to this week.
Mediocre “Litterbug!”
Sam: This kind of reminds me of SS Cardiacs, which is one of the highest compliments I can conjure from a brain that forgot about SS Cardiacs until hearing this. Damn this album was amazing. I didn’t keep up with Jessie Stein except having a vague sense she was enjoying a successful career in indie rock that didn’t interest me, and it turns out that’s true! Good for her. This is like if SS Cardiacs played Fest instead of Sappy Fest.
Jos: Every once in a while you pull out some reference that no one’s ever heard of, and it makes me understand how it must feel when people hear me talk. And honestly? I kinda like it. I’m not gonna figure out what SS Cardiacs is because not knowing just means there’s still a bigger unexplored world out there, and that’s nice. This is a pretty nice song too, the guitars feel nice and warm, but it also feels like a song I’ve listened to too many times.
Public Opinion “Some Don’t”
Sam: What if Big Star played Fest instead of uh a festival that Big Star would have played? Not strictly a throwback power-pop thing but definitely a throwback power-pop thing, I wish I had more to say about this. The band name is good! I think the drum beat used here is underutilized as a way of letting you know the song has places to go and people to meet. The vocals initially didn’t turn my crank but I think I was just expecting someone singing like Bob Mould. But it’s good!
Jos: What’s going on with all you professional office building freshly laundered punk guys? Why am I seeing a guy in a Botch t-shirt playing some kind of pop music? Did you all get bored of trying to make good metalcore and accidentally making the same metalcore everyone else is making? I don’t think this is power pop at all but I don’t really know what it is either. I think it’s just a sign that the Sams are branching out.
VVIP_Network “VVIP24 Afterimage”
Jos: I’ve often said that I don’t like local bands, but instead my favourite genre of music is “my friend’s bands,” and that’s still very much true. My baby boy from way back in Abbotsford, Adam Fothergill, is my friend who’s played in some of my favourite friend’s bands (Fun 100, B-Lines, even Raised by Wolves for a spell), but he’s also always cooking some genius shit up in his apartment. He just made a new dance music project called VVIP_Network and there’s like hours of vibey outsider electronic music on there. Sometimes it sounds like Kompakt, sometimes it even sounds like Moby or Underworld. But it’s always my friend, and I love him.
Sam: Extremely sick. More stuff should sound like Moby. Sometimes when I’m doing the dishes I’ll put on Play and even though you’re not allowed to like it because of all the problematic stuff but if you just wipe your mind clean, there’s exactly enough great songs packed in early on that album to get your kitchen spotless. I’m glad this doesn’t seem racist.
sparkling Caleb “Russian roulette” [UNCOMFORTABLY INTIMATE VERSION COVER]
Jos: One thing that happened in the last few months is I briefly became unbelievably obsessed with Porter Robinson’s SMILE! XD because of how proudly cringe and addictively good it is. Simultaneously, I’ve had a group chat going while working on the SILLY album with Caleb and Ned. And their willingness to just cover whatever song at any time was totally addictive, so we’ve covered most of the album, among many other things. I can’t believe how good Caleb sounds here. It’s a truly beautiful uncomfortably intimate cover of the Porter song, which is already pretty uncomfortable.
Sam: Yes. Everything about SILLY is so good. I always intend to listen to more Porter Robinson after Josiah writes about him but the thought never sticks. I’m having it again but maybe I should just be listening to more sparkling Caleb instead. If I’m going to be uncomfortable, it might as well be maxed all the way out.
SILLY ‘0 Views’ album
Jos: It’s kinda hard to explain, and Caleb actually explained it better in a comically long academic essay that you can read on Bandcamp right now. Maybe that’s because something like this does require more of an outside read to make sense of it, because it’s really quite personal. Anyway, when I moved to Montreal I didn’t bring any of my instruments with me. I thought the Pre Nup song “Life in Hell” was a perfect cap for decades of playing in bands, and I was done with it — the indignities of trying to get people to care, all the annoying parts of the communal aspect, the general disappointments at every turn. But I had written one song on a bass right before I sold it (the song would become “Bozos (on the Bus)”), and then I wanted to play guitar a couple years in, and then I wished I could add bass to my Hinder cover but I didn’t have one so I bought one. And then I slowly chipped away at some songs, and then when I no longer had a pod, I was trying other projects that weren’t working, and kinda came back to writing songs. But being old AF and not interested in playing shows, I figured I would write the sad slowcore album I always wanted to write and release it as like a solo “Josiah Hughes” album. So I was demoing songs that sounded like The Microphones and Julie Doiron and of course Pedro the Lion. But then I thought of the band name SILLY like three years ago, and I thought okay, maybe I’ll make some joke punk songs after I’m done my old man solo album. Whenever Sara was out of town on business trips (she travels four times a year), I’d work on these serious old man solo album riffs. And then one day I thought, what if I just add NOFX MIDI drums to this? And it was kind of a miracle. So then for over a year I had all these songs with fake MIDI drums, but I hate fake MIDI drums and couldn’t figure out how to add real oompah skate-punk drums or who to ask. So the project was stalled, but Sam said, “don’t let this stop you from finishing a project, that’s just an excuse.” He was right by half, but it still needed real drums — I wanted it to sound organic and warm, not like some nasty new Fat Wreck album. Eventually I reached out to Caleb, and he and Ned masterminded the drums across the album. At the same time, I reached out to Shoes Robinson, who patiently went through dozens of mixes and edits and hundreds of words of notes to make it sound exactly like I imagined it in my head but better. Without those three, Caleb, Ned, and Shoes, and of course without Sam challenging me again, this wouldn’t exist, because I would have just left it on my computer with all my other half-finished projects. I’m so grateful to Caleb, Ned, and Shoes for their help! Not Sam. But yeah, this is definitely the best music I’ve ever made, and I truly couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks of it because it was something I just had to make, even when I was trying to not make music anymore.
Sam: Wow I can’t believe I figure in this story, but I’m glad I played a small but clearly essential role in this album’s creation. If I’m reading this right, I actually am the MOST essential part of this story. So everyone – you are so welcome, because this album is truly amazing and I did it.