NEW SONG! NEW TOUR! NEW VIDEO! NEW YOU!
HEY I’M A PLANE IN THE FUCKING SKY AND I’M WRITING YOU LITTLE NEWSLETTER MESSAGE LET’S GO BABY
LIKED U BETTER! THE SONG! THE VIDEO! THE MAGIC!
LUB LUB LUB LUB “LIKED U BETTER” is a brand new song from the Death Rosenstock band! God it felt good to get out of caps lock, but now am I stuck on exclamation points?! NO. The cybergates have opened just a crack and this lil’ song scampered on out. Listen to it and watch it all at at the same time through the magic of video!
What do you ya tell people about a new song? We’ve seen bands recording more songs all these years and decided to give it a shot ourselves and record another song. This one was recorded by Jack Shirley at the legendary EastWest Studios in LA - the place my orchestral virtual instruments get made! The video was directed by Ryan Baxley, made by the good people at Mind Palace Studio. Brandon Schwartzel was doin’ a lot of work muppeteering all day, running around on his knees n shit. There was muppet fur everywhere. A very nice time had by all. And you too will have one, if you watch this video. If you don’t? No nice time sorry bro LUB LUB LUB LUB LUB LUB LUB
STRUTTIN’ ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA’S DUMB FACE
TOURTOURTOURTOUR YESSSSSS We’re going back out again! It’s been a minute since we’ve been in a lotta these places doing our thing (Like, almost 2 years in Atlanta! Damn!) and we’re psyched to come back through. And with great bands/solo artist! Sidney Gish and Gladie on the first part, mystery band and Small Crush on the second half - I SIMPLY CAN”T TELL YOU THE”LYL TAKE AWY MY PASSWORD
TICKETS ON SALE THURSDAY MAY 25TH 10 AM BUT you can
purchase *pre-sale* tickets thru the megalink (just hit sign up and you’ll get a password/it’ll tell ya how to do it)
Save yourself from the embarrassment, shame and relief of missing out on these great gigs, gigs that some of your friends might also do. Tickets went fast in a lot of these cities last time, so ya know, it is only empathetic and kind for me to tell you to spend your money, buy now now now now no won wnownwo wnownow lub lub lub lbu lub…..
BEST OF 2021
You may or may not have been wondering what the hell happened to this newsletter! Well, I’ve been making playlists - collected throughout, but mostly cobbled together at the last second - of my favorite songs and records of that year, as well as some songs that I’ve played on. I planned on posting ‘em here and writing about them but hit two roadblocks, so I did nothing! Easier, that’s for sure!
One roadblock is that I don’t love transmitting a Spotify link to the world. I feel conflicted promoting a company that pays musicians so poorly, I feel like that’s going to lead to less underground bands being able to go on tour while the big big acts with millions and millions of plays are the only ones getting paid anything substantial. I dunno. Just seems like a bad system to me, especially when it all lurks in the shadow of an era where the music industry was filing lawsuits for peer-to-peer sharing claiming to be supporting artists. They just wanted the control back, right?
Anyway, life is pain, here’s a Spotify link. SHUFFLE IT UP! I figured this would be a good excuse to write about a few standouts on the playlist… it was a year unlike any other musically, some music came out that bands held back from 2019 as they waited out the pandemic, some stuff was recorded in the midst of all the fire and frustration 2020 had to offer, and some seemingly was just made like how people make records during normal times. It’s interesting to hear how they all butt up against each other. I figured this would be a good excuse to write about a few standouts on the playlist. So onto roadblock 2…
WILLOW lately i feel everything
There was a lot of pop music in 2021 that really surprised me, as that kinda stuff has generally not been my thing over the past buncha years. This record is one of those - I didn’t really think Willow Smith was going to burrow into my brain via headphones late at night with a record that has several near-cringey Evanescencesque moments but I really like this record. Enough that I could not decide what song to put on this PLAYLIST FOR NO ONE for years and it stopped me from continuing a newsletter. Even still, I ended up with two because “don’t SAVE ME” came on as my plane was taking off, the song got loud just as the plane was taking off and (I convinced myself) my low-grade weed mint had kicked in. Had to leave it on. The combination of Willow’s melodic instincts, lush instrumentation and laid back feel that regularly breaks into loud guitars and Matt Chamberlain rocking the shit out of the drums… it’s a cool thing she’s doin’ just sayin’.
EVERY TIME I DIE Radical
This record kicks ass. I definitely haven’t liked an ETID record as much as Hot Damn until this one and honestly, I haven’t really liked the ones in between all that much (I’M SURE THEY’RE FINE IT’S JUST NOT FOR ME he screams in fear that someone from Every Time I Die subscribes to this newsletter.) Kieth’s screaming is on another level on this one, and the band is kinda just doin’ the stuff I loved about them at the highest level yet - playing fast thrash with weird riffs, huge breakdowns and good lyrics. Not that much of the kinda singin’ swarthy rock shit (that can’t be right) and I’m good with that. Bummed they split right after this one, would have been sick to see it live.
BACHELOR Bachelor
This is such a cool project, I wish I’d gotten the chance to see the band play. I hate background indie rock music that can be ignored, and I think sometimes people assume that means I don’t like quiet music or that I only listen to The Suicide Machines or something. But I think that so often that kind of sleepy indie rock feels flat and boring to me, like literally nothing is going on. Bachelor does the right thing (the thing I like) with those quiet moments, letting the perfect little noise or shaker or synth creep in there which encourages you to listen closely, discovering new things every time. Then they’ll wallop you over the head with a giant grunge pop chorus. Fuck yeah, Bachelor.
SLANT 1집
I might say this is my favorite record of the year 2021. I don’t know what the title of it means and I don’t remember any of the song titles cuz I just to listen to this one straight through. Fast kick ass thrash hardcore, played well, recorded well, super fucking good. Love ‘em.
MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND: “SAD BUT TRUE”
We started our first tour since the pandemic by driving up through California towards Chicago listening to the entire Blacklisted tribute album from front-to-back. For those of you who don’t know, Blacklisted is a Metallica curated tribute to their chart-topper Self-Titled. Instead of choosing one band to cover each song, seemingly every band that was asked got a chance to participate - including some bands I really like! But make no mistake. This thing is hot trash. The format is spicy to say the least. We go one song at a time, through each of the bands that covered them, SEQUENCED ALPHABETICALLY, in a row, then move onto the next track ONLY AFTER we also hear Metallica’s version. It is a difficult listen, something we all cherish at different times from each other. The hours of “Nothing Else Matters” was a particularly bleak moment of that tour.
But even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? This version of “Sad But True” isn’t a cover, but a remix! Sure, I’ll take it. You don’t need me to tell you it rips, take a listen and try to hold onto your hands when that second verse drops because they might just go FLYIN IN THE AIR ?!
REMEMBER SPORTS Like A Stone
This band is cool and good. A lot of super fast nervy power-pop-punk bangers balanced with more contemplative moments, but they never stop kickin’ ass for too long. They are one of those bands that has only made good records, and when you get the new one you’re like “Yep, this kicks ass and I’M NOT SURPRISED.”
HALSEY If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power
Before writing this I was like, what’s up with Halsey? People know who she is? I’m an idiot. She’s got literally billions of plays of some of her songs. I don’t know much about her music except stuff I’ve heard in passing, thinking “she’s got a good voice!” and moving on to my smoothie or single-origin-Cold-Brew Can or whatever the fuck.
The big thing with this record is that nine inch nails produced it. This is very clear as things are sonically different. It’s cool to hear that dark, moody, claustrophobic palette that nine inch nails generally works with melded with the voice of a pop star doing exactly the thing she wants to do, even if it puts off her fanbase. I’m not sure if it did, I hope it didn’t - shit’s good! It’s cool to hear these artists come together and occasionally they incidentally land on pop-punk & weezer vibes, filtered through nine inch nails turning everything up to ten. This record is cool as hell.
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZZARD Butterfly 3000
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - we are lucky to be living in the age of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard, a psychedelic band with punk-spirit, doing everything themselves, doing seemingly whatever they want as hard as possible all the time, experimenting with Eastern scales, rock operas, and then shifting to synth-pop for Butterfly 3000. Sometimes I get a little skeptical that it’s for the surprise element - “oh, they’re doing this sound now? Wow!” but the thing is that they’re really good at basically everything they approach. I think Butterfly 3000 is one of their best. Keyboard World King Gizzard make light music that bounces and rolls along, never loosing the krautrock jam band backbone that has long been their identity. I think. I don’t know, I haven’t listened to all their records past, or the 10 records they’ve maybe put out since I’ve been on this flight.
As it happens, King Gizzard’s Omnium Gatherum kind of broke my brain when I was trying to write about it for my 2022 playlist, which I guess will be finished in 2025 so I look forward to seeing you then. If you read all the way through this - cool, thanks! Hope you liked it! Forgive any typos, I am late to band practice and gave up on the proofread. If you’ve got a question, ask in the comments and I’ll try to reply if the question is good and I know the answer. Low bar to clear, but a bar nevertheless.
I HOPE YOU SPEND THE REST OF YOUR DAY HAVING A NICE TIME AND DON’T FORGET TO STREAM AND WATCH AND SUBCRIB AND LIKE IT ALL!!!!!LUBLUBLUBLUBLUBLUBLUBLUBLUBLUB
— Jeff