Top8 - 04/14/2025 - WTSQ 88.1 FM

April 14, 2025 - 08:48 PM

Welcome back to Top8. Before we talk about anything else, I want to throw a giant thank you out to everyone who contributed during WTSQ's 2025 Fund Drive. $30K and change goes a long way toward keeping the station on the air. It's also one of our most successful drives so far. Thanks also to all the cool people who worked so hard to make this work – our pals at Kinship for the really cool shirt designs, everyone who contributed perks and gift cards, and our truly wonderful family of DJs.

Ten years of WTSQ. I'll be honest, I never thought it would happen. I can't say what exactly I thought would go wrong, but I never thought it would keep going so right. You all know this is more than a radio station. It's a community of people who decided to make the world a little bit cooler than it was by creating, supporting, and sustaining something beautiful. We did this together. Here's to another decade of community radio.

As I write this, the station has collectively lost its mind to the madness that is Vinylthon. I'll be honest, I really don't understand why we do this. Vinyl is, objectively I think, the worst way to listen to music. What sane person would choose to listen to a vinyl record, with all of its fragility, inconvenience, and imperfections when they could easily listen to a digital file that suffers from none of these? But it's still music, and music is magic. And big cover art is cool. And vinyl seems to make people happy. So, fine. Go enjoy what you love. I will still make fun of you, but I'm glad you have it.

I can assure you that not a single vinyl record was injured (or used) during the creation of this blog. Send your favorite anachronisms to wtsq.org/contact.

Wet Leg - Catch These Fists

Starting out this week with new stuff from Wet Leg. If you don't like this band, you're wrong. Wet Leg is brilliant and I think it's awesome that a band that basically started as a joke went from their first single to Glastonbury in about a year. The band is back with a new album due out in July and a new single called "Catch These Fists". This is the sort of shimmying, upbeat pop adjacent rock track that you expect from Wet Leg. There's an undercurrent of nonchalant disdain for shitty dudes in bars which suits me just fine. Looking forward to the new record.

S.G. Goodman - Fire Sign

There's not much I like as much as I like S.G. Goodman. On "Fire Sign" Goodman makes the collision of Appalachian class identity personal. This is familiar territory for Goodman whose last two albums have shown the same defiant and unapologetic spirit. This is a single released ahead of an album coming out soon.

Glare - 2 Soon 2 Tell

I'm not going to lie, I kinda hate that this song's title does the whole number 2 for the word(s) "too/to" thing. But I forget that as soon as it starts. This is quality shoegaze that brings a Ride-esque feedbacking crunch to the loud parts and a gossamer breeze to the verse. Just how I like it.

Say Sue Me - Vacation (ft. Kim Hanjoo)

The best band out of South Korea is Say Sue Me. They are back with a new EP and a sauntering indie bop called "Vacation" featuring Kim Hanjoo of Silica Gel. Turns out that Silica Gel is also pretty great. They probably planned for me to find that out. There is really too much great music out there.

Ron Gallo - Jesus Was a Radical

Ron Gallo is probably familiar to WTSQ audiences from headlining one of our specially curated Live on the Levee nights. While those are long gone, Ron Gallo is still out there making music. Gallo makes a lot of solo tracks and a lot of political tracks and this is both. Also, yeah, Jesus was a radical.

Dead Pioneers - Love Language (ft. Petrol Girls)

Dead Pioneers are an extremely angry Native American punk act. Petrol Girls are an extremely angry British punk act. "Love Language" combines both of their powers and yeah, it's pretty pissed off. Dead Pioneers have just released "PO$T AMERICAN", an excellent new album. Two of the best bands going right now.

Florry - First it was a movie, then it was a book

I don't always associate twang with Philadelphia, but I do think of great bands in general. I am not sure any state is going as hard as PA these days and we are all the richer for it. Florry brings a sort of bar band swagger. Think Black Crowes but (probably) not weird dad-rock assholes. I love the recent wave of Americana/alt-country adjacent acts. "First it was a movie, then it was a book" is a nice long track too. Think of rolling down the windows on a long haul down the road. Cool.

Fiona Apple - Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend

When I sent "Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend" to my friend Andrew he replied with "Holy shit". Yeah, this is that good. Apple is the center of the track with her piano and vocals starkly solo. The performance is gut-wrenching and angry while also measured and pensive. Mike Scott from The Waterboys penned this track which appears on their new record "Life, Death and Dennis Hopper." The lyrics are written from the perspective of a girlfriend who is very much the worse for wear after an abusive and cruel relationship. It's Apple's performance though, and it's scorching.