Top8 - 07/08/24 - WTSQ 88.1 FM

July 07, 2024 - 02:48 PM

I hope everyone had a good time going to or avoiding the Regatta. I have spent a substantial amount of the last couple weeks sitting completely naked four feet away from a fan on full blast. I am sure that one day it will be safe to go outside again, but I may need someone to give me a heads up first before I dare get dressed and pop my head out. Send all weather reports to wtsq.org/contact

Let's get into some music.

LIINES - Holding On

The first time I heard LIINES, I thought the vocalist was Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney (one of my all time favorite bands). I should have known that it wasn't because LIINES is better than anything that S-K have released in about a decade. Those vocals actually belong to Zoe McVeigh. Her band, LIINES have been around for a minute and exist in the same orbits as bands like Big Joanie. I am a tremendous fan of the way this song starts out at a trot but quickly becomes an impassioned plea. This might be my favorite track this week. I am really excited for more new stuff from LIINES.

Real Fake Flowers - Misbehaving

Real Fake Flowers is an emo music project based in Charleston for… checks notes... about another month. The new single "Misbehaving" is a perfect example of the project. Seriously check out the listens this is getting on Spotify – one track with over a million streams, many with tens of thousands. This is the work of Kiff whose tender and vulnerable voice was born for this kind of music. They are also a fine musician playing reverb and tremolo laden dream pop guitar over carefully constructed tracks. Real Fake Flowers is also more than just microwaved Pinegrove or whatever. Kiff obviously has a ton of influences distilled into this project. He's also, unless I am mistaken, playing or programming everything on this track. Emo is stereotyped by people who don't really pay attention as whiny sadboi music. That is not at all what he's up to here. There's an almost anthemic quality. You can imagine emo kids singing this together in a car on their way to Taco Bell or something. The choruses are catchy and the verses tug on your heart while also making it soar. It's unapologetically sincere with a hint of optimism. I needed a song like this this week.

Heartworms - Jacked

Heartworms is a music project created by Jojo Orme. If you look into her much, you'll find a lot about her visual idiosyncrasies and penchant for military clothing styles. That's all fine, and while I really do enjoy the visual element to a band, the only thing that really matters is the music. And the music is fantastic. The new track "Jacked" is solidly in the modern post-punk revival, but manages to evoke everything from Interpol or The Cure to Savages. There is a bit of the coldness of darkwave, but nothing so stilted or postured.

Little Simz - Mood Swings

A confession – I was wrong about Little Simz. I don't remember what it was, but when I first heard her, it just didn't land for me. I think I found her persona to be a bit of an affectation. Whatever it was, I didn't even really think about her again until earlier this year when my dear friend Bug played one of her songs. This kind of stuck in my brain. Generally speaking, Bug is worth listening to about music (except in regard to Steely Dan). Maybe I wasn't getting something. Then, a couple weeks ago, Idles released a new track that mashed up Little Simz with Peaches which I really liked. I thought it was about time to go back to the source again.

And dammit, she's pretty good. I am featuring that song that Idles covered, "Mood Swings", which is found on the EP "Drop 7" which came out in February. This is urgent in a way that would probably seem breathless with another artist, but here feels controlled and even a little laconic.

Music is a big world. Sometimes it can feel intimidating to get into something outside your comfort zone or something you previously made up your mind you didn't like. If streaming services have one real benefit though, it's that they make it really easy to just see if you like something. So, give something a second chance. Or try something crazy you never thought you'd like. It costs exactly the same as listening to the same 12 playlists over and over until you die.

Idles - Mood Swings / Fuck the Pain Away (Live Little Simz & Peaches mashup)

…Which brings us to Idles. In the years since I started at the radio station, Idles has been one of my absolute favorite bands. Their progressive politics, their sense of community with their fans, and their contempt for toxic masculinity made me a fan for life. And the albums were good too – that is until this year's "Tangk" which was mostly dull and boring. As if they were reciting something they'd learned by rote. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when they released this really excellent and fun mashup of Little Simz' "Mood Swings" and Peaches "Fuck the Pain Away". This is fun, furious, and catches the band sounding tight and lively. Maybe the "Tangk" thing was just Nigel Godrich's fault. I still love this band, and I love this weird and crazy cover.

Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe!

Something happened in the last five or ten years while we were all paying the electric bill: pop music got way better and much more queer. Mind you, the majority of the top 40 stuff is still terrible, but more and more often you see someone like Chappell Roan turn up. This is aggressively, unapologetically queer music for queer young people. (By reckoning, this really starts with Lady Gaga, goes on to Janelle Monae, and eventually winds up with artists like Billie Eillish, and today's subject.) If you're a cishet person, spare a thought for queer kids here. We grow up in a world of music we love, but may not entirely identify with. Yeah, we like "Take on Me" by A-ha as much as anyone, but we never saw ourselves in that video.

As cool as this is, I wouldn't ask you to listen to it if it wasn't good. But Chappell Roan's new single "Good Luck, Babe!" is good. There are big Madonna vibes on this track which starts with a bouncy 80's synth before breaking out into a dancy modern sort of bop. The music is light but effective. The lyric is where the magic is for me, as she describes a relationship that never quite existed, because the subject could never accept that her feelings for the speaker were more than physical. Chappell seems to think that she'll never find what she's looking for by "kiss[ing] a hundred boys in bars". I suspect she's right.

Melt-Banana - Flipside

About 30 years before Otoboke Beaver became the breakneck speed, punk rock darlings of Japan, there was Melt-Banana. They have been battering eardrums for longer than some people reading this have been alive. So, it's good to see they can still do it. If anything, "Flipside" sounds better than expected because it's well recorded and lacks the blur of murkiness that noise bands sometimes end up with. This song is being released ahead of a new album this year. Stay tuned for more.

Cornelius - Quantum Ghost

Cornelius is a legend in the Japanese music scene going back to the 90s. You really never know what you're going to get with this guy. It could be twisty, virtuoso guitars, it could be something more ambient and shoegazy. "Quantum Ghost", off the new album "Ethereal Essence" is somewhere between Brian Eno and the Wendy Carlos interpretation of a Bach fugue. Really wonderful stuff. It's worth mentioning that Cornelius is, apparently, a horrible person. I wouldn't hang out with him, but I will probably listen to this album a few hundred times.