Illuminati Hotties – FREE I.H.: This is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For [Tiny Engines/Self-Released 2020] The backstory, which is quite explicit in the lyrical content, is that her label wasn’t paying her and in order to release herself from her contract Sara Tudzin released these 12 songs in 23 minutes. Her voice now …
Continue reading “If You’re Reading This, You Should Watch Road House (1989)”
Benjamin Booker – POWER [Fire Next Time Records 2025] Eleven years after his debut as a garage/blues wunderkind backed by a Jack White co-sign, Booker sheds his traditionalist skin by consciously corrupting his sound with the aid of underground hip-hop architect Kenny Segal. It’s a move that obsessives might’ve read in the tea leaves – …
Previous industries – Service Merchandise [Merge 2024] In the age of Divorced Dad Rock’s return why not add Divorced Dad Rap too? Against a production backdrop of wheezy cold sweat loops the cast is three Chicagoans who’ve known each other for decades and who’ve both hit 40 and moved to the City of Angels in …
Continue reading “We Watched Dinner In America the Other Day, Good Shit”
Illuminati Hotties – Power [Hopeless 2024] More difficult because it subverts expectations, Sarah Tudzin’s follow-up to her breakthrough is also much quieter and more ruminative. Her mother’s death, the subsequent workaholism that arose as a form of denial, and her (now) wife’s ability to change Tudzin’s life by slowing down and not putting up with …
JPEGMafia – I Lay Down My Life For You [AWAL 2024] Black Ben Carson, Black AOC, Black Marjorie Taylorie Greene…really he’s running out of comparisons. And with enough built in pop culture references to make Dan Harmon cream himself. Always the scarer of hoes and never the hoe, eh? 3.2/5 https://open.spotify.com/album/1ezs1QD5SYQ6LtxpC9y5I2?si=fh_YRZZBQB6H_EucuHtTwA Big Thief – Two …
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