Failed attempts at corralling bodies for a podcast has left my energies elsewhere. But also I work on my own time anyway so what does it matter lol. This batch is stronger than most, nothing under a 3 which means there’s probably something for everyone. As always, I’m continuing my journey through the Drive-by Truckers, Sleater-Kinney, and Jay-Z and am pleased to note I’ve hit the point when both the latter move from Talented to Important. Elsewhere, Sarah Tudzin’s Illuminati Hotties delivers the one we’ve been waiting for after label woes and puts herself into a Venn diagram with both Alvvays (lots of song-by-song genre pastiches) and $ilkMoney (sounds like a cartoon character).
And there’s even more surprises along the way, let’s begin:
$ilkMoney – I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore [DB$B 2022]
I don’t know where the music press was on this one; a single song write up from RS, a retrospective listicle mention from BV, no Source, no Complex, no p4k. From Richmond VA and keeping his identity secret, the polysyllablist $ilkmoney starts off with “This the phonemic orthography” on the first track and finishes it with the post-gangsta rallying cry “BitchI Don’tNeedAPistol/It’sJustMeAndMyNiggasVersusThaAlgorthims/AndIKnowTheyOutToGetUs” four times just so you know he’s worth your time. All in 1:45. It certainly helps that both his voice and all of Khalilblu’s immersive backing tracks sound like the post-ironic post-kitsch Adult Swim fest that $ilkMoney probably grew up on, making the cultural references (Osmosis Jones) and jokes (xD Rawr) go down easier. In a way the whole record could be seen as the rougher psilocybin equivalent to Acid Rap’s own pleasant psychedelics from almost a decade ago. And his points are certainly just as rough; “fuck Black Lives Matter let’s take it back to Black Power”, “the price of pussy has skyrocketed”, “any takers for Negro soup?”. 4.2/5
Alvvays – Blue Rev [Polyvinyl 2022]
A rave magnet for sure thanks to its mild genre touches permitting folk to take comfort since there’s something for everyone (“There’s the shoegaze one! Now there’s the 80’s new wave one! Golly this reminds me of my youth!” says the middle aged music writer). It also lets listeners think they’re smarter than they really are for liking it. Molly Rankin’s narrow soprano and her capable bandmates craft pointed and longing tales of Millennial romantic melancholy with some truly sharp burns in the process, like “Is she a perfect 10/Have you found Christ again?” and “He’s a very online guy”. Maybe I’m reading as a hater, which I’m not, these are perfectly serviceable songs for the boho-adjacent master’s degree holders that will identify with it. But it’s not earth shattering. Not even close. 3.5/5
No Age – Weirdo Rippers [FatCat 2007]
It’s really just a collection of singles but guitarist Randy Randall and singer/drummer Dean Allen Sprunt’s arty noize is so aesthetically cohesive that even something this loose has a strong throughline of ennui and contemplativeness. That being said this is music for listening – despite its energy, no sing alongs, no air guitar worthy solos or riffs, probably a result of their performance circuit almost exclusively in galleries and LA’s since foreclosed venue The Smell. But there’s aural tickles and thoughts and itches that get scratched that could inspire hope, chuckles, and even respect. 3.8/5
Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South [New West 2004]
Another concept album about The South is basically asking for scrutiny only 3 years after the last one but somehow these guys pull it off. Partly it’s the trio of rotating vocalists, Hood’s rasp gives way to falsetto, Cooley’s outlaw gunslinger drawl seems revved up, and Isbell’s aching tenor laments – each one commiserates and reconciles at varying times anger, nihilism, and poignancy. Partly it’s the tunes, the mainstream has been bereft of guitar licks and organ gothics like this for so long that it’s not much of a stretch to include the Truckers in that wave of formalist revival bands who cropped up about the same time they did. But partly it’s the subject matter, which Christgau correctly identifies as “class warfare meets gangsta-rock” – The Dirty South, Breaking Bad, and The Fast and The Furious franchise have in common strains of a contention that in order to be upwardly mobile monetarily one’s gotta work outside of a system with too many policy barriers meant to insulate the already privileged. While gangsta and conscious hip hop have most potently focused on the Reagan and post-Raegan hollowing out of Black communities, the Trucker’s go even further back, before they kill a lawman in the 70’s they tell tale of when labor was still used on building railroads and point out that the one guy who could keep up with the machines threatening to replace workers up and dies after matching the machines’ speed. ACAB and automation fears? In THIS economy? 4.2/5
The Perceptionists – “Black Dialogue” [Def Jux 2005]
Partiers, lovers, and jokesters each in a pointedly leftist-cum-masculine way Mr. Lif and Akrobatik are The Perceptionists. The Bush-Era references will seem dated because of the name dropping if you’re looking for something more current, but as a reminder of the closest the neo-cons came to ruling with an iron fist it’s worth hearing. Being older means that they have an inclination towards bars over beats, by DJ Fakts One and the label’s owner and his friends. Lif is the Q-Tip disciple who’s a political philosopher at heart and Akrobatik is the proto–J. Cole type, a good-hearted jock who knows Langston Hughes perfected the very culture they’ve seen commodified over and over and over by masses who aren’t just white. Once and again, they’ve been solo acts, only the worsening political situation the America got them back together one time and one time only in 2017. 4.3/5
100 gecs – 10,000 gecs [Dog Show/Atlantic 2023]
It’s impressive how much they imbue, like a tidal wave of sonics just pouring down with such force that there’s nothing to do but give up resistance and see where the journey leads, and what sights there are to behold(!). Over distortion, slap bass, and electro screaming, in these hyper-present times what results is oddly enough a rock album. By now gec’s effect on white queer youth has been documented most succinctly by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and the Discord chats that revere them as a result of their dynamic: Dylan Brady is the architect, Laura Les the hero. It ain’t set in stone though, both produce cubist (deconstructionist? gross) conceptions typified by the edgy sounds that middle schoolers derived pleasure from back in the day with a quality redolent of vitality. After camp claimed the synths of the 80s and distorted guitar signified being in on the joke of the ‘save our children’ hysteria of the 90s it’s not just interesting but inspiring to see irony used in such a refreshing way, this time around maximalism. It’s certainly front loaded, but there’s still so much to parse – a Limp Bizkit rip, Fueled by ramen choruses, an anime intro, and the clarion call “mememe”. Patrick Bateman’d correctly point out it’s a personal statement about the band itself, directed at those not In The Know. Per Laura Les: “Could you explain it all away?/Like it was all so clean?”. That one’s for the critics attempting to artify every fart they put out. “Now if I think of a joke when I say goodbye/I put my palms on my face and pretend to cry/But I’ll laugh too fucking hard you’ll prolly think I’m so mean/But I don’t even know you and now you’ll never really know (me)”. That one? That’s their thesis. 4.4/5
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Illuminati hotties – Let Me Do One More [Hopeless 2021]
Some backstory for context: Sarah Tudzin is primarily a behind-the-board audio expert, on her wiki is a list of the things she’s engineered, mixed, or produced and some are enough to make you go “huh, that’s pretty cool”. Now with the hotties she’s behind the mic with a guitar-bass-drums-keys setup, and all the drama that it brings; after putting out one record with a previous label her contract was held hostage, so she released some schlock to free her for this record’s emancipation. Tale as old as time, remember Blonde? Tudzin’s cartoon character voice – always nasal, and expressive, able to shift quickly from sardonic to vulnerable to sneering to exhausted – along with her adept homages to the 90’s/aughts allow her vignettes of uncertainty to shine incredibly brightly. And with every “uh-HUH” she strikes you as the kind of protagonist who deserves not just the love she conceptualizes so accurately, but a happy ending. 4.2/5
Plains – I Walked with You a Ways [Anti- 2022]
Jess Williamson turns out to be the secret weapon, though not by much considering how comforting Katie Crutchfield’s weary soprano is, on these on-the-road vs. love vignettes. If anyone needs quiet, ethereal, country pomp with the forthrightness of Southern folk songs, this is your ticket. I liked it so much I bought it on Bandcamp for $8. 4.0/5
Brian Eno – Another Green World [Island 1975]
Typically, it’s difficult to listen to something nearly half a century old (modern production makes a younger ear curdle at the ancient stuff) and find meaning that hasn’t been spat out by someone who was in their 20s when it first came out (hi Boomers). British singer of a new wave band begins his descent into the mental wallpaper that would go on to define the rest of his career as he then helped Talking Heads, U2, and David Bowie define a strain of the 80’s sound. On the record itself are a bunch of skilled players whose names you might recognize if you googled performing on instruments described jovially – “uncertain piano”, “unnatural sounds” – and making one hell of a trip record that neither shrooms nor acid would do much justice enhancing. How the human mind could conceive of these sounds out of what was then rock and roll with minimal computer usage is in and of itself a thing to behold. The fact that songs like the wordless “The Big Ship” still sound ahead of their time should be enough of a case to listen, closely. 4.7/5
Jay Z – Vol. 3…Life and Times of S. Carter [Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam 1999]
If his rapping’s gotten better it’s only marginally, where he improves is concepts and hooks. Which is what you’d want to do if you were already god-tier like him but still wanted to stay commercially relevant, make your shit catchier. The streets at the time lambasted him for going commercial and a mere 3 years after his debut they weren’t wrong, it’s just that he’d won the war over it. Jay-Z The Brand was now shelling out hip hop as a form of capitalism and gaining a different type of credibility, artist as ambassador instead of crack dealer. The Mariah Carey and UGK songs are most likely to ingrain themselves on grey matter, but it’s his prosecutor-defendant roleplay in “Dope Man” that asserts his greatest point. No matter what legal controversy comes his way Shawn Carter will always be known for using his network to push his sound for clout. All while during a stabbing trial. Ballsy. 4.2/5
Sleater Kinney – Dig Me Out [Kill Rock Stars 1997]
Somehow they keep getting better, and I listened back to their first two just to confirm. Call it the addition of new drummer Janet Weiss or the newfound confidence of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s vocal interplay if you want. All I know is that even on the sapphic breakup tune and the sparse adulation parody that there’s a joy of friendship and camaraderie underlying every note. Can anyone listen to those handclaps on the chorus of “Turn it On” without feeling like Corin Tucker’s sexual enthusiasm is contagiously world-conquering? Or the emotional complexity of the guitars on “Things You Say”? I ask you. In a time when the Spice Girls preached Girl Power and failed to deliver, Sleater Kinney never stops impressing and never quits feeling. 4.6/5
MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs [Dear Life 2022]
Southern crunchy granola Asheville denizen who writes best on smirky-observational short songs (“Hangover Game”) and plays best on life-affirming medium ones (“You Are Every Girl to Me”). Alt-country but make it shoegaze, and an 8.3 from Pitchfork too. Good for him. 3.5/5
Cosmic Hero 