Welcome back to Top8.

I really need to learn how to mend clothes. Both pairs of leggings I have have, seemingly overnight, developed holes – one of them catastrophic. Given that I really can't sew or mend or anything, I was thinking that it would be rad if I could just pay someone to do it. But that would end up being $50, and for $29 I can buy a new pair. I can't fix the throw away, disposable society by myself, so I try not to be too critical of my own actions or inactions here. Still, it's frustrating. I wasn't really taught how to do these things, and I am not sure why. Probably I didn't care about it at the time, but it's also possible that no one took the time. I really didn't learn much growing up. 

Music is like this sometimes. It's something playing in the background of a Tiktok. It's on when you go into a store. It's something on in the car so you don't have to be alone with your screaming thoughts. Weird, slow, covers of songs we know, sung by icy children's voices, play ironically with a movie trailer because something in the chorus of the song vaguely applies to the plot of the film. It's just there to take up aural and mental space, not to be engaged with by your heart or your mind. It doesn't talk to your soul.

That's not what we're about her. Music isn't a generic quantity for us. It's not disposable and easily replaceable with whatever the new thing is. At WTSQ, music is our lives. So we say thank you for caring about music. Thank you for choosing music. Thank you for supporting WTSQ. We can't do it without you.

The WTSQ member drive is October 17 - 24. Fund drive is earlier in the year. That's where we ask you to give us just one sum of money. Member drive is when we ask you to chip in a few dollars every month over the course of a year. You get perks for signing up, and everyone who is already a member automatically gets the new shit. Sustaining members are a regular, reliable source of funding for the station and they are one we cannot do without. If you're not a sustaining member, you can join up now. It's simple and easy and most people won't miss $8 a month. Some of you are so caked up you can definitely come up off of $20 a month. Tell me I'm wrong.

Anyway, if you've been a sustainer for a while let us know why you signed up. Send your WTSQ story to WTSQ.org/contact.

Let's get into it.

Dick Move - Scared Old Men

We just had a Dick Move song here back at the start of September, and I don't really care because I love this band.

New Zealand's Dick Move is pretty pissed off. And with good reason. "Scared Old Men" have ruined the world. It's fair to say that successive generations of them have a well established tradition of this going back to, probably, the beginning of time. That said, they have really made a mess of it in the last 50 years or so. I'd say that Dick Move has captured some of my rage in this song. This is a pummeling straight ahead punk rock track and I am here to jump in the pit. Songs like "Scared Old Men" don't burn this evil world down, but they do remind you to stay angry about the old bastards and also that you're not alone. We are in this together and songs like this are our soundtrack for the apocalypse.

M.E.L.T. - Ride 

Pittsburgh strikes again. M.E.L.T. brings a raging neo-acid-psychedelic vibe here. You'll think of bands like King Gizzard or The Osees. Maybe a little High on Fire. This is the song playing as you run from the house of the crazed killer who hacked up all your friends. Who will survive and what will become of their favorite radio station? Become a sustaining member today or face acid rock chainsaws.

Snuggle - Driving me Crazy

I literally thought this song was "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins when it came on. But that's fine, because I love that song. This isn't that song though. Snuggle is from Denmark, and what I know about Denmark is that Hamlet is set there. Hamlet, a guy who didn't exist, and was written by an English guy.

This is a charming indie track with a weird bass line that's kinda like wub wub wub. The whole album is good enough that I had a hard time picking which track to share with you. Check the whole thing out.

Geese - Husbands

I am not even certain I like Geese. I do know this band isn't boring. I probably like them. The new album is called "Getting Killed" and it reminds me a lot of Silver Jews for some reason. There's also something here that reminds me of the moments where My Morning Jacket is a good band.

Speaking of these weird comparisons I make, here's another – "Husbands" has a sort of Rube Goldberg machine cum Tom-Waits-Mule-Variatons vibe. I will allow the filthy minded among you to look up "cum" on your own time.

Rocket - R is for Rocket

Rocket is great. Earlier this year, I covered a single they released. In the meantime, they've released a few more singles ahead of a new album. The album and song we are talking about here are both called "R is for Rocket." There are some shoegaze and 90s elements here. I really like about halfway in where it sounds like a child is just destroying a guitar and then it all comes back into the rhythm of the song. I can't say enough good things about this band or their new album. This is meant to be played on the radio.

Guppy - Back to the Thing

A band called Guppy had better be fun. And this single "Back to the Thing" is that. Kinda stoned and chill. Think about WTSQ favorites like Suggested Friends or Partner. I guess I am saying get blazed and drop the needle on this track. Proverbally of course. No sane person uses a record player to listen to music.

Thou - Suck (NIN cover)

I truly do not know if I would survive a Thou show. They are invariably loud at a level that is just crushing. They have some of the downright violent atmosphere of death or black metal. They are kind of genuinely scary.

That said, the band is actually a very punk DIY kind of outfit and seem like super cool people. And they haven't met a cover they don't like. Thou have TONS of covers. A whole album of Nirvana covers.

And now they have this NIN cover. And it fucking rips. I haven't stopped listening to this.

Glaascats - Self Concern

Glaascats is a band out of Switzerland. There's something post-punk here in the vein of Fontaines DC. And I love Fontaines DC. "Self Concern" maintains this growing tension through the whole song by repeating a pretty short and simple riff all the way through. It becomes hypnotic and by the time it breaks loose it feels kinda huge. This is a classic minimalist music strategy. If Philip Glass was in a

Swiss rock band, maybe it would be this one.

And this week's extra innings. A few other things I have been listening to. I heard two live tracks this past week that really blew me away – one from CCR and one from The Smashing Pumpkins. In both cases these tracks serve to remind people who have only ever heard the albums that these bands were dynamic and exhilarating live performers. Hell, this Pumpkins track sounds positively vicious.

Creedence, performing here at Woodstock, is a bit of a revelation. I've always known they were good enough to create some of the load-bearing pillars of classic rock. Performing live here, they are vibrant, swaggery, and at times even incendiary. The story I've heard is that Fogerty held a grudge over being forced to play in the middle of the night, way after they were supposed to, and so refused to be included in the Woodstock movie or ever release this recording. About five years ago, it finaly came out. Fogerty is both brilliant guy, and also kind of an asshole, and he really fucked up with this because his band have NEVER sounded better than on this live recording of the Woodstock performance.

And just for the hell of it, I'll throw in my all time favorite live track, The Who's "Magic Bus" from the Live at Leeds album.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Geek U.S.A. (Live In San Diego, 1/30/96)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Suzie Q (Live At The Woodstock Music & Art Fair / 1969)

The Who - Magic Bus (Live at Leeds, 1970)

And a playlist with everything – 

Plus, for the second time in a row, a second playlist of leftovers too good to throw out. 

Thank you all for reading and listening,

-emily