@biffwalkuswritesamusicblog-blog
“Cool Slut” Chastity Belt Time to Go Home, 2015
“Cool Slut” is one of the coolest songs to come out this year. I’d say it is the anti-slut-shaming anthem (although Girlpool’s “Slutmouth” could give it a good run for its money). The rest of Time to Go Home I could kind of take or leave, but “Cool Slut” is a triumph.
Check out this video too, I love it, it’s like an episode of the fucking Babysitters’ Club.
“On the Regular” Shamir Ratchet, 2015
Ratchet is one of my favorite hip-hop (is it hip-hop though?) records to come out in a while, due in large part the unshakable confidence with which he delivers his clunky, somewhat awkward rapping. Definitely doesn’t sound like any other rap album out right now at any rate.
“Colors” Genevieve Show Your Colors EP, 2015
As mentioned previously, I have a lot of friends who were really into Company of Thieves. In fact, Company of Thieves were really huge in Columbus circa 2011. I get the feeling that outside of 270 people don’t even know who they are, but there for a while, they were playing sold out shows a couple times a year here in Columbus.
They were okay. Had a couple good songs, but overall weren’t setting my world on fire. I saw them at CD102.5 Summerfest in 2011 (headlined by Cake that year) and thought their set was pretty dull, honestly, but my friend Jeff, who saw them later that same year at the CD102.5 Holiday Show (headlined by Cage the Elephant that year) said they rocked his world and were the only band he was really concerned about seeing at that show. And my friend Liz, who saw them twice the next year (once at the Newport Music Hall, and once in an “intimate, acoustic performance” at the A&R Bar) said she found them similarly mesmerizing.
And then around the end of 2012 they suddenly broke up, and my friends were heartbroken. I thought it was a fitting end for a flash-in-the-pan-in-Columbus-OH phenomenon who only had like three good songs over two records anyway.
So this year, former Company of Thieves’ vocalist Genevieve Shatz re-emerges as “Genevieve”, promising new solo material, and a show in Columbus (originally to be located at Rumba Cafe, until she was apparently nabbed away by PromoWest Productions and moved to The Basement, as the LC Pavilion complex). I was orginally planning on going to this show with my friend Liz (tickets were cheap, and it was February, when not a lot of great shows are happening here) but somebody gave me free tickets to see Fleetwood fucking Mac in Cleveland that very same night, so I told Genevieve she could kiss my ass.
Liz came back from the show pretty disappointed. Genevieve alone is apparently no Company of Thieves. The EP she just put out is pretty vapid pop music. It seems she’s making some sort of grab for mainstream success--which, you know, good for her, gotta make that money, and I heard an interview with her on the radio some time back that she was living in L.A. renting a shitty studio apartment from a drug dealer, so she obviously needs some help. Last I heard she was opening for The Plain White T’s... which sounds utterly appropriate for the type of music she’s making, so good for her.
“The Knock” Hop Along Painted Shut, 2015
Hop Along is a band I’ve been trying to push on a bunch of my friends who were really into Company of Thieves a few years ago, and were initially very excited about the prospect of Genevieve’s solo output, until they heard it.
Q: Does Hop Along sound like Company of Thieves? A: Yes.
Q: But not as good as Company of Thieves, right? A: Wrong.
“Bad Believer” St. Vincent St. Vincent (Deluxe Edition), 2015
It’s a shame this song didn’t make the initial, proper release of St. Vincent, because it’s a fucking banger and probably would have made for a better single than “Birth in Reverse” or “Digital Witness”. Then again, I guess it’s a little more raucous than the rest of the songs on St. Vincent and probably would have clashed with the overall aesthetic of the album.
“Mr Noah” Panda Bear Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, 2015 I don’t care if you can’t understand what he’s saying, just fucking dance!
“Only God Knows Why” Kid Rock Devil Without a Cause, 1998
Allow me to get really uncomfortably personal here for a second.
So today is June 27th and it would be my brother Collin’s 23rd birthday. He passed away back in March (a week before my birthday, no less). He wasn’t sick, he wasn’t on drugs, he was doing really well and seemed really happy, for the most part, and all the sudden he was just dead: no warning. It’s really be most difficult, painful thing I’ve ever had to deal with. I cried for like a week straight after it happened, and I still get really choked up if I let myself think about it too hard.
So I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge him. When he was in second grade, he fucking loved Kid Rock. This song was a huge hit that year and he was fucking obsessed with it. (We had moved to Charleston, WV that year and it was around this time that I had my first incling that we may be white trash).
R.I.P. Little Bro
Collin Russell Bigger 1992 - 2015
“Can We Still Be Friends” Tobias Jesso Jr. Goon, 2015
You know how in cartoons of a bygone era (mostly in the 80′s and 90′s) there would be like, the main character, and then there would be another character with practically the exact same personality and appearance, except they’re the opposite sex? The best example of this I can think of is from Tiny Tunes, there was Buster Bunny--a blue rabbit--and then there was his female doppelganger, a pink rabbit named Babbs Bunny (no relation).
Tobias Jesso Jr. is the Babbs Bunny to Natalie Prass’s Buster (or maybe it’s the other way around, but whatever, the point is, I like Natalie Prass better). They both made the same kind of whimsical, endearing folk record. They are each other’s opposite-sex doppelgangers.
“Why Don’t You Believe in Me” Natalie Prass Natalie Prass, 2015
Natalie Prass is not the kind of singer I would expect to get excellent reviews--but she does. Natalie Prass is not the kind of singer I would expect to love unapologetically--but I certainly do.
There’s a singer-songwriter resurgence going on right now, and Natalie Prass has a lot of peers: Sturgill Simpson, Tobias Jesso Jr., Jessica Pratt, Will Butler, etc. etc. And generally I don’t ever give anyone a chance if they just record music under their real name (or a name that could easily be misconstrued as their real name)... because that’s boring, I’m sorry, it is; that doesn’t grab me at all. I especially wouldn’t listen to a musician who just records music under their real name, and then releases a fucking self-titled record. But “Why Don’t You Believe in Me” and “Bird of Prey” kept popping up on Slacker Radio (for the uninitiated, Slacker Radio is like the poor man’s Pandora... though admittedly it provides much better variety than Pandora) and I just fell in love.
Natalie Prass is an excellent record though. Sparse, only nine tracks, all great melancholy pop-folk tunes. Her voice is incredible, and incredible in a way that still sounds unique. I love that she’s not trying to sound like Zooey Deschanel--because that’s something a lot of female, folksy, alternative singers do, and it makes me crazy.
My only concern is that her sound could go two very negative ways in the future: 1.) she could keep doing the same sort of thing and get really stale, or 2.) she could take the “adult pop contemporary” route and turn into the next Sara Bareilles--a fate worse than death, if you ask me. St. Vincent is the posterchild for getting around this: Marry Me was a solid “adult alternative” record, she had a great voice, she very easily could have become boring white lady music, but she a veered left and took it in a prog-rocky sort of direction and it paid off great for her in the long run.
So it’s hard to tell what the future holds for Natalie Prass, but for now I’m really into her.
“Grand Inquisitor” Surfer Blood 1000 Palms, 2015
Surfer Blood’s been around for a while now. They’re very listenable; I played their last two records plenty when they came out; I saw them in concert, opening for Foals a couple years ago, they were good. But they’re not a super standout band. Like, they make music that is pleasant, but they rarely make waves in the industry. So it’s a real shame that now that they’ve made a truly interesting and engaging pop record, nobody’s talking about them anymore.
Their debut, Astro Coast, was kind of try-too-hard-indie-buffoonery (but “Swim” was a jam, I must admit), and Pythons, the follow-up, was much the opposite: a slickly produced, cleaned-up version of their sound, neatly-pressed and ready to impress record execs and make some money. The problem with Pythons was that, even though any one of the songs from that record could have been an alternative radio hit, they all sounded kind of average. A good kind of average, a relatable kind of average--and “Demon Dance” really was an alt. radio smash. But the record wasn’t memorable.
What makes 1000 Palms easily the best record of their career so far is that it combines the noisiness of Astro Coast and the catchiness of Pythons to create an album that really sounds interesting and engaging at the same time. It’s the record where, I believe, Surfer Blood has finally found “their sound”, as they say.
“The Shade” Metric Pagans in Vegas, 2015
Dude, you guys don’t even understand how stoked and relieved I am that the new Metric song does not suck. Alls I’m sayin’ is when one of your longtime favorite bands, who has consistently released quality material their entire career, suddenly embarks on a tour opening (opening... fucking opening) for Imagine fucking Dragons, (this, after late in their last album cycle, they made a lot of appearances of VH1--purveyor of all things tasteless in the music world--doing half-assed renditions of Blondie and The Smiths songs) you have cause for concern.
No, but the song is good--really it reminds me a lot of “Stadium Love”, but that’s cool, I really like that song, so it doesn’t bother me. And the album’s called Pagans in Vegas which is I think is the coolest album title they’ve ever come up with (beats “Fantasies” by a wide margin, at any rate).
“Trying” Bully Feels Like, 2015
Feels Like is probably my most anticipated album of 2015 that hasn’t already come out (hmm, except for maybe the new Metric album).
Anytime this song comes on the radio I fucking rock out. I really, really, really enjoy singing “been prayin’ for my period a-a-all week” at the top of my lungs.
“Bunker Buster” Viet Cong Viet Cong, 2015
I mean, culturally appropriative band name aside, I really dig what these guys do. Psychedelic-tinged punk music. Highly listenable.
They really should think about getting a different name though.
“Broken Necks” Eskimeaux O.K., 2015
Back in February I had the pleasure of seeing these guys here in Columbus at Space Bar, opening for All Dogs. I’d never heard of them before but the show was great and I made sure to find their page on Facebook when I got home. A few months later, their album comes out and Stereogum names it best of album of the week. So it’s cool to see that they’re getting some national recognition.
“Broken Necks” was a highlight of their live set and is definitely my favorite track on the record. It’s a tremendously sentimental song, but it’s easily the least sentimental song on the album. The rest of O.K. really tows the line between being heartbreakingly sentimental, and being overly emotional and saccharine. But it’s that in-your-face softness, and unapologetically big feelings that lend the record its charm, as it all sounds starkly authentic.
“Emily” Girlpool Before the World Was Big, 2015
Girlpool is the perfect balance of sweet and sour. This song has become my latest put-this-song-on-repeat-and-get-real-sad-but-don’t-ever-stop-listening-to-this-song-on-repeat-because-it-fucking-gets-you jam.
“Ripe 4 Luv” Young Guv Ripe 4 Luv, 2015
Although I think Algiers is the most intellectually stimulating album of 2015, the most indulgently delicious album of the year so far is definitely Young Guv’s Ripe 4 Luv, and this song is the thirsty summer jam of 2015.
Who’da ever thunk this dude plays guitar in Fucked Up?
“Black Eunuch” [Liars remix] Algiers 2015
And once you’ve sufficiently taken in Algiers’s album, check out this bitchin’ remix of “Black Eunuch” by Liars. I get so excited when an older act that I love remixes a track by a newer act I’ve just discovered I love.
“Irony. Utility. Pretext” Algiers Algiers, 2015
So far, the must-hear album of 2015, in my opinion, is Algiers’s self-titled debut album. They are the most unique-sounding band I’ve come across in a long time. Afropunk meets gospel meets gothic chaos noise weirdness. Absolutely satisfying album from start to finish.
My older posts on this blog are very embarrassing. I’ve been writing this thing since college. That’s like five years. The fact that the last post I made was over a year ago, and was about Ariana Grande is also truly, truly embarrassing.
"Break Free" [featuring Zedd] Ariana Grande My Everything, 2014
The media has made it their primary concern to point out that Ariana Grande is basically a mini-Mariah Carey, citing that not only does she sound like her (not really, I mean maybe a little bit, but she lacks Mariah's breathiness and she can't do the Mariah Carey signature dog whistle squeal) but she looks like her too! (she doesn't, no I'm not even going to entertain an argument over this; Ariana Grande does not look like Mariah Carey).
Okay, so there's all that crap, but I've not heard anyone else mention that Grande's most recent hit, "Break Free", featuring EDM bigshot Zedd, is the same song as Rihanna and Calvin Harris's "We Found Love". Seriously, "Break Free" is just a tweeny reinterpretation. I mean, not gonna knock it, it's a catchy song anyway, and if you're gonna rip off a dance-infused mainstream pop track, "We Found Love" is pretty much the best song that qualifies as such.
