For the six or so people who were genuinely asking for an unboxing video, this letter is for you. It will not c…

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I got hooked on the band Dazy within the first 30 seconds of hearing their 2022 collaboration with Militarie Gun, the insanely catchy song “Pressure Cooker”. It’s medi…

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Happy Monday, and welcome back to Monday Mixtape. This week’s guest is John Ross, the songwriter behind Wild Pink, a band I was put onto by , who I must legally mention in every single newsletter. I put on the new album Still Coming Down on when I was in Scotland a month or so ago, and it was such a beautiful companion for my lightly melancholy liminal walks around Edinburgh (until I got closer to the jugglers and shouting magicians of the Fringe festival and had to switch to Slayer to drown them out).

I don’t really mind being late to stuff especially when I get to go back and listen to five albums of some of the loveliest indie rock of the past decade. (It’s like when you start watching a new TV show and you’re like omg there’s NINE seasons hell fucking yes).

This new one is big and loose and emotionally cavernous (Friday Night Lights? If we’re sticking with the TV show comp). I really love it. They made the whole album in a single week in Asheville with producer Alex Farrar, with help from some greats: Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, plus MJ Lenderman and his bandmates from The Wind.

Wild Pink is currently on tour.

Here is John’s Monday Mixtape:

John Ross
Sagittarius 
Queens, NY

How do you find/discover music?

Whatever is playing at the venue during load in

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

“Achy Breaky Heart” - Billy Ray Cyrus

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

“The Cutter” - Echo & the Bunnymen (ed note: god tier song)

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“My Guy” - Sam and Louise Sullivan

A song off your work out playlist:

I don’t have one of those but “Nothing For Ye” by Joshua Burnside is an emotional workout (ed note: in this house we love Joshua Burnside and low key I could see myself bench pressing to this song)

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

“She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” - Sammy Kershaw

What is an excellent walking song?

The greatest walking song ever is “In Another Life” by Sando Perri

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“Heart Shaped Box” - Nirvana

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“An Ending” - Brian Eno

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

“Rainy Night In SoHo” - The Pogues

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“The Whole Of The Moon” - The Waterboys (ed note: oh okay John knows ball)

What is your favorite cover song?

“My Life Is Wrong” - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (originally by East River Pipe)

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

“Minor Place” - Bonnie Prince Billy

(Almost) all of the songs on John’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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Happy Wednesday everybody. This is real mixed bag of a letter: some great stuff to read, a little new music to listen to, some thrilling news, and a holy grail skincare product for the 10% of you who care about that sort of thing. Also I think we’re going to start a book club? Maybe? Let’s get on with it:

• The most important news of all: Souplantation have confirmed they are reopening in California. Our long national nightmare is over! If anyone at Sweet Tomatoes headquarters is reading this, I am more than available for any activations or ribbon cuttings or attendance at a soft launch dinner etc. Perhaps , the preeminent Southern California newsletter, could put on an event? Just spitballing here. Call me!!!

• Speaking of No Bad Days, continues to run one of the best newsletters around. Her latest, an interview with the great Brooks Headley of Superiority Burger (or if you’re me, you think of him first as the great Brooks Headley of Wrangler Brutes), is just a phenomenal read at the intersection of loving Los Angeles and loving food.

• I also learned about this compilation, Tehrangeles Vice (Iranian Diaspora Pop 1983-1993) from Tasbeeh’s newsletter because there was a listening session for it at Huntington Rose Garden this past Sunday which I missed (good job me). Still thrilled to know of it - it’s fucking rad.

• Bradford Cox, stone cold musical genius and purveyor of two of the greatest bands of my lifetime, Deerhunter and Atlas Sound (both criminally underrated imo) has been on extended hiatus since the release of the 2019 Deerhunter album Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? However, he seems to be if not so back at least somewhat back: Atlas Sound performed at the Making Time festival in Philadelphia last month and has been announced as part of the Primavera Sound lineup in 2027. Plus! Core Deerhunter players Cox and Lockett Pundt are playing Big Ears Fest together in April of next year. We as a society deeply need this (and also maybe new music? Please?!?).

• did a great interview for his magazine with Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts about his new band Iconic Fugues (fab name). I need to hear it yesterday (I quite liked the A. Savage records he put out prior). One thousand years ago my friend Shannon Cornett and I DJed a Parquet Courts show here in LA and I can’t be sure (drunk) but I faintly remember playing my green Gin Blossoms 7” like four times (“Hey Jealousy” naturally). So, sorry about that or you’re welcome, if you were there.

• This is a pro Shaad D’Souza newsletter so I would remiss if I didn’t also mention the fantastic long form interview he did with the brilliant, compelling, and complicated Nirosta Steel for Pitchfork. There have been some really great long form features on there lately. I really enjoyed this one on Dinosaur Jr by , the profiling goat.

Sex Happens

Yasi Salek will clown you (lovingly)

This is POV: I’m Your Girlfriend, where you find out what your favorite people are really like when no one’s around except their better half. It’s a relationship speed run — you better buckle up. The latest to join our extended girlfriend family is Los Angeles-based (physically) and London-based (spiritually) writer…

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17 days ago · 7 likes · sex happens and Yasi Salek

• featured me in their POV: I’m Your Girlfriend series and reading over my answers it seems I need to date a chef with a very strong nervous system? Much to consider.

• Because he is the coolest, made me a tape where the a-side is all covers of “Everything Flows” by Teenage Fanclub (one of the best songs of all time). I am now hyperfixated on this Afghan Whigs live version. Is “Everything Flows” the most October ass song of all time?

• If you are in London, I’m the guest on the first Talk 90s to me live podcast taping on October 15th at ICMP. The subject is the enduring cultural impact of one Miss Courtney Love. Tickets here.

• I finally found a Vitamin C that doesn’t break me out? Because it’s an oil? I’m not a woman in STEM I don’t know why but it’s fabulous. Prakash Organics Brilliant C + E + Ferulic Unrefined Complex. I was put onto it by Jennifer Garace aka the Beverly Hills Skincare Muse (the skin whisperer of Los Angeles). Run don’t walk.

• There’s a new daine single. It’s called “Wishing Well” and it’s a totally different speed from the previous singles: jangly acoustic guitar, pretty vocals, textural production. I love it.

• I added it and a few other new songs to the F&L October playlist.

• Okay so F&L Book Club? Should we? There seemed to be a decent response to this timid proposition in the chat. How do we feel about Chuck Klosterman’s new one, Rock*? It’s speculative fiction based on the following premise: What if The Beatles had only developed a cult following while the Velvet Underground emerged as the most popular band in the world? (Fun!). I’ll let you guys decide (and in the meantime try to figure out what having a book club here actually looks like?):

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The Dead Venue Sessions

Marshall (yes, the amp people - I once attended a party they did where Dinosaur Jr performed with like one hundred amps and they had to pass out ear plugs at the door and the sound still removed my arm hair, it was epic) have released a new three part series where they send young bands to play the sites of legendary venues that have since closed, ones that once hosted some of the greatest bands of all time and have since been paved over or turned into something else (they tore down paradise and put up a parking lot fr).

They tapped the absolutely iconic documentary filmmaker and photographer Cheryl Dunn to capture them and released these films as a three part series: Philly gets Sweet Pill playing the old Stalag 13, now a bodybuilding gym. LA gets the Linda Lindas at London Fog, the room that launched the Doors (the first punk band, real ones know) and is now a barbershop. But the first episode, and the one probably nearest to my heart (or at least most destructive to my lungs), is the New York one which features the Bronx duo Planta Industrial, whose music is a fascinating mix of punk, metal, darkwave and Spanglish rap), at what was formerly China Chalet.

If you never went to China Chalet, I’m very sorry because you missed something truly special. Let me try to explain. What’s that place in Denmark? Freetown Christiana? It was kind of like that. A Cantonese banquet hall at 47 Broadway in the Financial District that opened in 1975 that by day served dim sum to finance guys and by night became lawless. You could kind of do whatever the fuck you wanted in China Chalet? You could smoke, you could drink, twenty people could fit in a bathroom stall. The wall was lined with skate decks. The air was murky. It smelled of life being lived. It had floral carpet, pagoda paintings, pink light, and decades of indoor cigarette smoke I’m fairly sure was load-bearing.

It cost $1500 to rent out China Chalet for the night and have an art show, have four bands play, have a high fashion magazine party, whatever you wanted. I saw Danny Brown and Gang Gang Dance play there (separate nights). My friend Rachel swears we also saw The Virgins there but I don’t remember that at all (which does not mean it did not happen). I wasn’t there but there was a legendary Salem show there. Opening Ceremony had their holiday party there every year. It was always one thousand degrees inside no matter the season, and the age range of attendees seemed to span thirty years at minimum.

Later on, it hosted the packed and iconic Club Glam parties, and was frequented by A-list celebs and Supreme employees alike. Like many great things (I’m thinking of you, Souplantation), China Chalet didn’t survive the pandemic. It closed in 2020, and the space is now a food court and an arcade.

What made China Chalet special was not the dim sum or the cool carpet. It was cool because it was cheap enough to rent that people without a lot of money or a fully established scene could build one there, and it became known for parties that were full (always full, though sometimes your friend could sneak you in the side door) of all kinds of people, from every part of the city, skaters and celebrities and graffiti writers and models and even some normies, all types, all ages, a real Benetton-ass ad of a venue.

For their Dead Venue Session, Planta Industrial brought some life back to the space, taking over the food court to debut a new song called “MIA.” You can watch it HERE. To support existing musical locales, Marshall sends 1% of online purchases, plus every dollar from this limited edition t-shirt they released, to independent venues.

If you really really care about this kind of thing, try this: go to a show at a small venue in your city or town. Buy some merch. Maybe tip the sound person (is that weird? Feels nice!). If you’re in LA, I’m partial to the Lodge Room in Highland Park, which has many gorgeous shows coming up. (I’ll probably be at YHWH Nailgun with @ this Friday). China Chalet isn’t coming back but there are probably one hundred sort of China Chalets out there (you probably can’t smoke in any of them which I guess is good) and if people don’t frequent them and make them viable, there won’t be any left in the end and the only shows left to go to will cost you minimum $68 (fees not included) and will provide a much lower chance of creating lifelong memories and friendships just saying.

See you next week xx

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I’ve been in on Lennon Stella ever since she was harmonizing with her little sister Maisy on my beloved television story Nashville (to me you are perfect Deacon Claybourne; Gunnar Scott however should be in prison). Since the show ended in 2018, she’s become a full adult and made one of the honestly more underrated pop records of 2020. Her second album, Sleeping Lion, out October 23rd, is more my speed though. It’s wholly produced by the great Andy Shauf (have you heard this song I die) and from the sounds of the two singles that are out now, “Comedy Show” and “Unforgivable Things”, she’s stripped down her music quite a bit, imbuing it with personal details that give the songs texture and draw you in. She has also cut bangs. Both suit her.

Here is her Monday Mixtape:

How do you find/discover music?

Movie soundtracks, through friends, my family does a lot of music sharing, Spotify shuffle sometimes gives me real gems

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

“Are You Leaving for the Country” Karen Dalton

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

“Don’t Be Cruel” Billy Swan

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“Can’t Keep Anything” Cameron Winter

A song off your workout playlist:

“Cosoco” Juana Molina and/or “This Must Be the Place” Talking Heads

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

“Dirty Work” Steely Dan

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“Lost in the “Light” Bahamas

What song reminds you most of home?

“Slip Slidin’ Away (demo)” Paul Simon (my parents used to cover this when I was little)

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“Zé e Paraná” by Azymuth and/or “Homesickness” by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

“Sparks” by Coldplay

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“Place To Be” by Nick Drake

What is your favorite cover song?

“Everyday” by Fiona Apple, Jon Brion

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Sorry for the most on the nose answer but - “Both Sides Now” Joni Mitchell or “Migration of Souls” M. Ward

All of the songs on Lennon’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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Regardless of if you share this background, if you like Cameron Winter, you will like this film. (If you do not like him, you will probably find it unspeakably boring). It is beautifully shot (on 35mm), the colors are gorgeous and lush, and the lack of bells and whistles makes it totally spellbinding. Even better, PTA really captures the unique mix of reluctant virtuosity and Schroeder at his toy piano perfectly. It will undoubtedly make thousands of men who love Bob Dylan and Harry Nilsson and Leonard Cohen and Letterboxd extremely happy. (Women will love it too of course, for sometimes the same and sometimes different reasons, don’t beat me with ukuleles). I do wonder why god so often chooses as his instrument handsome twenty-something year old men who (maybe, probably) ruin a lot of girls’ lives, but who am I to question the workings of heaven.

New music I love:

• New Spike Fuck album evidence is very compelling and very, very good. It sounds like the past not reimagined but rather hallucinated? More people need to get up in their Roy Orbison bag. Anyway I love it.

• I got served Sunsick Daisy algorithmically and it does seem that bitch knows me pretty well. Also I keep finding new bands that rip and when I check they are almost always from Australia? Something for me to look into.

• New Lime Garden “Moving Target” song is very cute. Rob Mahoney called them the contemporary Strokes on the Bandsplain Indie Sleaze draft and I was into that tbh.

• new DAZY song!!! In this house we love DAZY.

• The Greg Freeman album All Set The Bone is visceral and jangly and frenetic and poetic and quite good.

• The new Romy Mars single “The Rage.” Does she reference her famous family in the funniest way possible and also rhyme “lasted” with “casted” (as in the past tense of “cast”)? Yes, she does. It’s like if Lana Del Rey was lobotomized. I’ll take twenty more.

• And if you are looking to throw ass, look no further than the new track “I’m Alive” from HANK.

• Plus some more all here in the F&L playlist (should I make these monthly or keep a super long ongoing one??? U tell me babe)

BUYING STOCK IN DAINE

Okay so typically my algorithm (depending on the app) is some combination of the following: women pranking their husbands (I live for this it makes me desperately want a bf), questionable but intriguing biohacking tips (maybe I WILL try eating exclusively potatoes for a while), unhinged astrological omens, and women deep cleaning their all white apartments on Sunday nights, Then one day, seemingly out of nowhere: daine. daine daine daine. A clip of them, gorgeous, blonde, singing straight into the camera, then someone’s fan edit, then she went on , my friends Ben and Ione’s great pod (big Australian link).

So of course I did what I do, which is…investigate. Since then I’ve had “Product of Profit (P.O.P.)” pretty much on repeat daily. I think my first thought when I heard it was: welcome back Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity! Which initially I was like bro you’re tripping, but then I was like no there’s definite emo undertones here and then duh: it’s the fucking glockenspiel. Bells against fuzz, you had me at hello.

Speaking of hello (proud of myself here), seemingly right after I became aware of this person, boom: the amazing triple J “Like A Version” session where daine covered Martin Solveig & Dragonette’s “Hello” (inspired, genius, perfect).

Then I remembered “It’s You,” their collab with Ninajirachi which I had really liked but not clocked the secondary artist (that whole album is so good). And THEN I found this song they did with my beloved Kreayshawn like two years ago that seems to be about doing too much ketamine at the club (not my area of expertise per se). But I love that they worked with Kreayshawn, an undersung genius.

Anyway daine’s debut album, In Endless Awe & Agony, will be released November 6th. There are four singles out now and they’re all great (though “Product of Profit” is still my fav). I’ve heard the whole thing (I have my ways) and they’ve definitely pulled away from the maximalist, Auto-Tuned pop of yesteryear. It’s really fucking good. Taps into emo, god, Jungian psychology, amongst other things. It’s kind of like they custom made a pop star in the lab tailored to my interests?

So (and not that she needs it because she’s gonna be a star) but here in print is my daine cosign.

Enjoy:

See you next week xx

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Cain Culto is the project of Andrew Estevan Padilla, an artist with one of the more intriguing backstories I’ve come across. He grew up in a Colombian and Nicaraguan household, raised on salsa and cumbia, then moved to Kentucky, where he learned bluegrass fiddle and eventually became an evangelical worship leader (stay with me). After coming out, he left the church, packed up his Christian band Ecclesia, and came back as the artist now known as Cain Culto.

Probably due to this network of complex inputs, his music is borderline impossible to describe? There’s the fiddle of course, strains of vallenato, bullerengue, and hip-hop, some dark wave in there too? Songs that tackle the spirit, witchcraft, identity, capitalism, politics. His biggest song is called “KFC Santería,” (undeniably amazing name) and has been remixed by Sudan Archives and Peaches. He’s also covered “Like a Prayer” because he just plain has good taste. His latest, CULTO, came out this past Friday.

Here is his Monday Mixtape:

Cain Culto
Libra sun, Taurus rising, Virgo Moon
Los Angeles

How do you find/discover music?:

Random user curated Spotify playlists

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

They got me unfortunately, my vocal stim, “Hootie Frutti” by KATSEYE

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

“Drone Bomb Me” by Anohni

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“Gentri Fire In The City” by Flagboy Giz

A song off your work out playlist:

“In This Bih” by Chris Lorenzo and Kah-Lo

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

“From This Moment” by Shania Twain

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“Beez in the Trap” by Nicki Minaj

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“La Vaca” by Mala Fe

What song make you feel hot?

“Azz-N-Tiddies” by DJ Assault

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

Lorde - “David”

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“The Obvious Child” by Paul Simon

What is your favorite cover song?

“I Need to Know” by Mark Anthony

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

“528 Hz Aura Cleanse” Spiritual Frequencies

All the songs on Cain’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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This gave me the idea to use this week’s letter to put you onto a bunch of other bands who carry the band’s DNA forward, including established ones you might have missed and very new ones you might not be aware of yet. But first a little housekeeping (hate myself):

London! October 15th - Miranda Sawyer’s excellent podcast Talk 90s To Me is doing a live event at ICMP Queen’s Park and I am the guest. The topic is Courtney Love. Tickets are available HERE.

I’ll be in London (on and off) between October 14th and November 5th so as usual this is your chance to invite me to fun things, ask me to host/present things, give me a gift, point me towards the best sausage roll in town, etc. Respond to this email or send me a note at fastnloosexo@gmail

Okay let’s get into the list (playlist at the bottom):

Slayyyter

Okay hear me out. The latest incarnation of Slayyyter is so good, and a big part of that is the sleazy, who-gives-a-fuck, girlish raunch vibe of her new album WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, which sounds at many points very what if Sleigh Bells was legible and by the transitive property (not using this word right I fear I’m not a woman in STEM), very YYYS.

Wet Leg

This is a bit of a duh but if you, like me, were erstwhile a non-participant in Wet Leg fandom only to discover far too late that they are simply phenomenal (especially this second album) then it will be worth it to bring that joy to a few more people.

Bimbo

Not a single solitary idea how I happened upon this band from Marquette, Michigan. I do love a sibling duo. This one is Gretchen McKenzie (vocals/guitar) and Dawson McKenzie (drums), and they make mathy, freewheeling rock that Buffablog (a blog about music in Buffalo, naturally) likened to “a disjointed Emily Haines fronting Pavement.” It’s so good - all elastic riffs and dark humor.

Lex Walton

Now here’s where it gets interesting. I’m pretty sure Lex Walton is in her 20s, and her music is heavily referential of a time before her own (on multiple levels, there’s a song called “Hipster Runoff”, the album is produced by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner, whose band formed when Walton was like two years old) but also somehow thoroughly modern (Emily Green of Geese plays guitar on the incredibly vital track “USA = FAG NATION”, Ivy Wolk is sampled on the same song), both in themes and feel. Walton’s a razor sharp wordsmith, and her stance is one of smirking confrontation. To me, it’s adjacent to Karen O’s frenetically sexual posturing, different but just as mesmerizing.

Mannequin Pussy

You know how much I love these Philly angels who whiplash between tender melody and full-throttle noise, often within the same song (and who does this sound like?). Missy Dabice is one of the coolest front people we have right now and it’s been such a pleasure to watch her grown and expand her musical and performance palate these past ten or twelve years.

Water From Your Eyes

Man I love this band. Experimental pop duo Rachel Brown and Nate Amos (who is being feted at the moment for his new album under his other moniker, This Is Lorelei), making genre-shizo, dance-adjacent art rock that to my ears pulls from New Order, Talking Heads, ESG, and Deerhoof, amongst others.

Ganser

I love this Chicago post-punk quartet who are named after a rare dissociative disorder (DSM-5 core). Moody and noisy, they’ve drawn comparisons to Fugazi, Sonic Youth, and Shellac, which if that sentence doesn’t have you saying “you had me at hello” this might be the wrong place for you.

Lime Garden

I’ve talked about this Brighton, UK four-piece on here a few times because they’re just really good. They bill themselves as “wonk pop,” blending disco, surf and indie rock with incredibly dry lyrics, all observational wit. People have compared them to The Strokes but you know what I think…

Lambrini Girls

Not sure what’s in the water in Brighton, but here’s another band worth your time (and one of Iggy Pop’s favorites, if you’d like to argue go tell it to a wall). Duo Phoebe Lunny and Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez are sort of a riot-grrrl-adjacent act known for no-holds-barred political lyrics (tackling transphobia, misogyny, lad culture, etc) wrapped up in elbow sharp humor. They called their 2025 debut Who Let the Dogs Out which is like, okay be more perfect.

The Velveteers

Again no clue how I stumbled across this Boulder, Colorado power trio fronted by Demi Demitro (guitar/vocals) but guess what they have TWO drummers, Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig (something I have always fucking loved since I saw the Ohsees do it over a decade ago) who play on a conjoined kit. (Another band that sort of lives in the YYYs lineage but predating them is Delta 5, who had two bassists and ripped). This band was discovered by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys but we don’t have to hold that against them.

CS Cleaners

I definitely have put this Brooklyn art-punk/no-wave band (Adam Sierz, Ben Petrisor, Jacob Saxton, Sergio Falvo) on a playlist here in the past. They are making what they call “weirdo punk that comments on existential dread and corporate greed” which it’s like, I’ll take two. A big strain of the YYYs is that dance punk element, and CS Cleaners’ songs are more ass jerkers than circle pit starters.

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah (a playlist)

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writes my favorite newsletter , a love letter to Los Angeles. She sees the city differently than most people, often on foot or via public transportation (she’s one of the greatest advocates of riding the bus in LA, something I’ll admit I’ve only done one time when I was assigned to write about it for a now defunct Kinfolk-esque magazine), and really brings to life what actually makes it so special here, outside of the Sunset Tower and Gjelina industrial complex. She’s a brilliant writer with excellent ethics and perfect hair, and I love and admire her very much. We’ve been friends for nearly a decade and I actually know very little about her music taste so I was excited to get into her mix (which is way less “basic” than she thinks it is).

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No Bad Days

A guide to LA's own "Habibi City"

Last week, we took a little train ride out of the village to check out Oviedo, where, I learned from Wikipedia on our commute, there is a statue of Woody Allen in the middle of the town’s shopping square. The statue gets vandalized so often that the city government put a limit on the number of repairs they could make it to annually…

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2 months ago · 79 likes · 24 comments

Here is her Monday Mixtape:

Tasbeeh Herwees
Aquarius moon, double Scorpio
East Hollywood

How do you find/discover music?

Through reading Fast & Loose :). Honestly, it’s a lot of Shazaming music in TV/movies or outside in the world. I also read a lot of magazines.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

I didn’t play any music this morning because I went to a workout class first thing (virtue signal) and I like walking there with no headphones on (virtue signal) (Ed note: lol). My instructor this morning was a Gen X guy named Dustin who loves playing Millennial emo music like Brand New and Dashboard Confessional, which I love and respect. The last thing I played on Apple Music (virtue signal) was “Roslyn” by St. Vincent and Bon Iver from the New Moon soundtrack when I was really stoned on an edible last night.

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

“Jeep” by Kim Petras. I can’t stop telling people about “Jeep” by Kim Petras. It’s kind of like if a German person wrote country music lyrics but played them in the style of Avril Lavigne. I love it soooo much, it’s so fun.

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“Jeep” by Kim Petras????

A song off your work-out playlist:

“Titi Me Pregunto” by Bad Bunny

What’s the best song to listen to on public transit in Los Angeles?

This was soooo hard because it’s really whatever you’re in the mood for. Maybe “Them Changes” by Thundercat or Sade’s “By Your Side” or “Devotion” by Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf.

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

There was a season of my life where I could not stop requesting “Love on the Brain” by Rihanna, which is not an easy karaoke song and I am not uniquely capable of singing it. Sorry to everyone involved.

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes… oh she was moody.

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“Stars Are Blind” by Paris Hilton, which also another karaoke favorite. (Ed note: god tier lobotomy song)

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

“Say It” by Maggie Rogers because it came across my desk right when I’d started to fall in love with my fiancé who is not Muslim or Arab so it indulged my emo fantasies about us being star-crossed lovers. (But it turns out my parents love him, so. I’m simply a moron.) Also I love belting out “Praying” by Kesha. (Ed note: this song remains criminally slept on imo).

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“Love Me” by Lil Wayne ft Future/Drake.

What is your favorite cover song?

In case it hasn’t been apparent to you how much of a cornball I am it’s Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River.” In the words of Yasi Salek, I am cringe but I am free.

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Depends on how I’m dying, but “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the Sinead O’Connor version. (With respect to Prince obviously.)

All the songs on Tasbeeh’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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I used my mind to conjure “Plainsong” as the opener (soul left my body) and even though Patrik said they wouldn’t, they did play “Close To Me” (soul returned to my body in pulsing, joyous triumph).1 Robert Smith’s voice sounds like it has not changed an iota since 1981. They played “A Forest”!!! (Can you even). I will forever cherish my visual of Patrik, eyes closed, emanating pure bliss, dancing to “A Night Like This.” A perfect, perfect night like this. Did we wander the edge of the airport for an hour afterwards, trying to find a way home? Maybe! “You never looked as lost as this” - me to Patrik. “I’m coming to find you if it takes me all night” - our Uber driver, a beautiful ending.

I do forget sometimes how alchemizing live shows can be. The frequency (doing woman in STEM cosplay here) of the sound waves physically washing over you, the energy crackling between you and every other person (generational goth) in the room (or Scottish field next to the airport, as it were), it’s beyond language really. Downing Aperol Spritzes and dancing dancing dancing for hours, you loosen your spirit and your fascia. You access another dimension of the self (and Self).

Occupational hazard I suppose, but throughout, I kept thinking of The Cure in contrast to The Smiths. I’ve obviously never attended a Smiths concert but it struck me that of course The Cure concert put me squarely back in my body; The Cure’s music is earth-bound. Robert Smith is famously a Taurus, and his love is tactile, enduring, grounded, rooted in the quotidian. It’s such a gorgeous sight, to see you eat in the middle of the night. The Smiths made music about longing in the abstract, yearning without much skin in the game. Morrissey is a Gemini, he deals in the airy intellectualizing of love, love as theory, as concept. He (mostly) centers himself. Life is happening to him. But he does want! Behind the hatred there lies a plundering desire for love. Still, the other seems incidental, transient, interchangeable even. Robert Smith is (mostly) orbiting the other, noticing her, admiring her, trying to understand her, reacting to her. He is projecting the divine and seeing it reflected back in her eyes. You, strange as angels.

I love both bands so much I could puke. But if life is always pulling you toward something and away from something else (isn’t it?), I hope that I’m (bit by bit, back and forth, in no linear fashion) moving away from the intellectual and towards the physical, out of the brain and into the body. Oddly the lyric echoing around my head afterwards was a Smiths one, from one of my favorite songs, “Rusholme Ruffians.” But my faith in love is still devout…

I’ll be back next week with new music recs for you but in the meantime I think this song from 2023 is really slept on and definitely a child of The Cure xx

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This week on Monday Mixtape, we've got Squirrel Flower, the project of Chicago songwriter Ella Williams, whose fourth studio album, Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going, came out August 21st on Polyvinyl. She wrote it during a relentless touring stretch between 2024 and 2025 and the record sounds a bit like a travelogue - unending stretches of highways, the feeling of being untethered, fleeting encounters, ambivalence, freedom. Each song seems to reflect a different landscape, all of them beautiful, each reflection reverent in its own way, the whole album containing one through line: the inertia of motion. I love it.

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Here is her Monday Mixtape:

Ella 
Leo sun, cancer moon, scorpio rising, cancer venus, cancer mars…. Eek! 
Chicago, Illinois, USA

How do you find/discover music?

Lately I’ve been discovering music by reading zines, going to shows, getting recommendations from friends.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Tammy Wynette “Stand By Your Man”

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

Madonna “Live to Tell” (ed note: LFG)

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“My Friend’s an Entomologist” by Sweeping Promises

A song off your workout playlist:

I don’t work out like that but when I bike around Chicago nothing hits like “Arm Around You” by Arthur Russell. Or “Don’t Forget About Me.” anything by Arthur Russell really. OH or “Reckless” by Kassie Krut.

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“Untouched” by The Veronicas

What’s a song you play when you want to cast a spell into the world?

“Horses” by Sea Oleena

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“Double Dare Ya” by Bikini Kill. Nothing like feminine rage to get you out of depression + apathy! CHOOSE LIFE!!!! Revolution girl style nowwwwwwww

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

“Heart like a Wheel” Linda Ronstadt

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“A New Day” by ESG (ed note: the fucking best)

What is your favorite cover song?

Anything by Springsteen

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Deep and dark and beautiful question... Probably “Grove” by Elysia Crampton…or any recording of my family making music together.

Almost all of the songs on Ella’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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I’ll send out a more thorough recap of this trip and all the brown sauce I consumed after I return next week but in the meantime here are five new(ish) songs I’m really liking right now:

lifepath99 - “Misfortune”

I wonder what it’s like to live my dream (American girl who has relocated to London and taken on a new identity in pursuit of artistic greatness)? lifepath99 is the nom de plume of Asheville, NC native Bex Vines (an already incredible name tbh) and it seems she has one single song out and it’s this one and it bangs. It’s sort of pop girl TAGABOW? She told Line of Best Fit: “‘Misfortune’ was born of a narrow path I had to walk down every day, and the fear that someone would be lurking there," Vines says of the song. "The broader reality is that many people carry this awareness with them every day, especially in the political climate today. Writing this song became a way to process this fear and take some of that power back; while I can’t change people’s behavior, I can decide how much psychological power I let their presence have over me.” Amen.

Truman Beck - “Baby Blue”

This song came out in 2025 and I honestly could not tell you how it came across my desk but I find it so beautiful, there’s something devastating about the guitar, the vocals are so quiet and the guitar is loud, it’s all perfect. It gives me the sense that I’m hearing something I’m not supposed to? Like I’m sitting on a creaky wooden floor and the music is coming from the apartment below. I’m charmed by the way it just sort of abruptly ends with him saying in his normal speaking voice “oh yeah okay.” I can’t find shit about Truman Beck on the internet besides his IG, the three songs he has up on Spotify, and his Soundcloud where this other beautiful song called “I don’t wanna die” from last year lives.

double date - “new performance!”

This is a cutie Australian post-punky band from Brisbane. Song rips.

Sharp Pins - “Live Without Her Love”

I tend to prefer Lifeguard in terms of Chicago wunderkind Kai Slater’s projects but maybe it’s being here in Blighty (is Blighty capitalized?) and the tattered Union Jack flag scarf wearing vibe of this song that’s like a minute and a half of cute power pop love song and two and a half minutes of 60s psych freak out.

hey, nothing - “Hound”

These kids are 20 years old and they seem to be doing great, as this album is on Interscope (or Music Soup, an imprint thereof and home to another band I quite like, Wisp). I believe they’re from Atlanta? Just two best pals making music together. This song in particular is fantastic, though I do enjoy the whole album (of the same name). They’ve studied in the library of Midwestern emo but seem to also have a fondness for Kurt Vile and understand pop music better than they may let on.

hope you enjoy these songs xx

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Today we have Rohnert Park’s finest - American (punk/hardcore/secret third thing) rock band Ceremony. They recorded their first demo 22 years ago and put out their seventh album, Tell Me Your Dream, three weeks ago. I believe I referred to it then as a self-contained Eras tour of sorts, in which the band revisits all of the sonic styles that have made them so great over the last two decades, balancing the raw, direct hardcore that put them on the map with darker, more atmospheric stuff and jangly, angular post-punk moments. It’s a fantastic record. I have listened to the song “Dark Summer” a wellness-check number of times since it came out.

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I’m so excited to have three members of Ceremony - Anthony Anzaldo, Ross Farrar, and Andy Nelson - contribute to a mega Monday Mixtape:

Anthony Lynn Anzaldo
"My star sign is Cancer, but my big three is Prince - Depeche Mode - The Cure"
Los Angeles

How do you find/discover music?

The Great Plains and Vast Cosmos; both analog and digital.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Terror “What I Despise.”

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

Erykah Badu “Next Lifetime.”

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

Nilüfer Yanya “Like I Say (I runaway).” Is that new enough? (ed note: yes. Also love Nilüfer)

A song off your workout playlist:

Kylie Minogue “Love At First Sight.”

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

David Bowie “Space Oddity.”

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

Prince “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold.”

What is a song that makes you feel pretty?

T. Rex “Children Of The Revolution.”

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

Does anyone not answer “Ramones”? (ed note: you’re the first babe)

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

Stevie Wonder “Blame It On The Sun.”

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

Joni Mitchell “California.”

What is your favorite cover song?

Sinead O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” or This Mortal Coil “Song To The Siren.”

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

This Mortal Coil “Song To The Siren” or Sinead O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Ross Farrar
Virgo, Pisces Moon
Bay Area

How do you find/discover music?

Record stores, friends, YouTube music discover, Shazam.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Vince and Bola

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

The Incredible String Band “Job’s Tears.”

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

The Drin “Full Moon Natural Sickos.”

A song off your workout playlist:

Larry June “Organic Motion.”

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

? & The Mysterians “96 Tears.”

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

I was big into “underground” hip-hop then, so prolly anything off “Uptown Saturday Night” by Camp Lo (ed note: I added “Luchini” bc obvi). Also, The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

What is a song that makes you feel pretty?

Lip Cream “VX-2”

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

RABIX “All I Feel is Hate”

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

I refuse to wallow.

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

Eddie Harris & Les McCann “Set Us Free.”

What is your favorite cover song?

Spiritualized “Any Way That You Want Me.”

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Biff Rose “Fill Your Heart.”

Andy Nelson
Leo
Los Angeles, CA

How do you find/discover music?

I’m always looking in any conceivable place music can be found. But there’s still nothing that touches the most tried & true method: friends.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Young Marble Giants “Final Day”

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

Tatsuro Yamashita “Ride On Time”

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

Eliana Glass “On The Way Down (E At Home Version)”

A song off your workout playlist:

Paperclip Minimiser “II A1”

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

David Bowie “Let’s Dance”

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

Beat Happening “Jamboree” (Ed note: omg same)

What is a song that makes you feel pretty?

I ever feel pretty, I’ll be in touch.

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

Brainbombs “It’s A Burning Hell”

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

Antony And The Johnsons “Hope There’s Someone”

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

Infest “Behind This Tongue”

What is your favorite cover song?

Grace Jones “Love Is The Drug”

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Brian Eno “By This River”

Most of the songs on Ceremony’s Monday Mixtape are HERE

I can’t do a particularly well formatted version of this due to the circumstances but here’s a nonetheless meaty list of probably not accidentally free-wheeling, horizon-seeking new music I’m loving for the weekend, and a of course, a little playlist (sorry for the typos):

• I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a week. (I’m fine).

• New Fontaines D.C song “Marianne” is good! Bodes well for the forthcoming album.

• My friend Adrien put me on to this Atlanta band called Ricochet Star and when someone sends me something like this (gauzy, layered, dreamy) I feel seen and known. Their EP, Every Other Moon, came out in June.

• She was the subject of our last Monday Mixtape (“our” hallucinating collaborators now) and I said it then and I’ll say it again - Grace Cummings is the musical offspring of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey.

• WiFi went out and I fell asleep but I’m back.

• (I can’t explain it fully but these next few albums feel linked to the Traveling Wilburys music video I watched while sitting at “Rock and Brews” at LAX this morning):

• I’m really loving the new Wild Pink album Still Coming Down. Hat tip to D’Souza for texting me about it at 5am my time (I was up, as per my rigid jet lag avoidance protocol).

• Afghan Whigs have a new album and I guess because they always sort of made whiskey-soaked jawline-forward older Man music it just keeps working? Dulli’s softened a bit with age (the album is in fact called Soft Control which I’m sorry but that’s so hot) and his voice still sounds stellar (Chris Ryan and I went to see them play last month and it was awesome).

• The new Westside Cowboy album is out today. My Anglophilia is no secret so this is sort of catnip to me but I like how their college rock is also kinda like elevated pub rock (to these American ears anyway). That being said it’s called It Goes On and I think it would make a Wilbury smile.

• I’m not sure how I came across Slumped (fronted by Nathaniel Thomas Punty) but this song came out in 2024 and no one told me about it which makes me feel not seen and not known tbh.

• I also found a few other great new singles and they are on the playlist…

• Which is here, I’m going back to sleep now

• Way up high or down low…will be waking up in Edinburgh if all goes to plan.

• Have a great weekend (I’ll go wherever you will go) xx

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This week on Monday Mixtape, we've got our first Australian1 (I think?). Grace Cummings is a Melbourne-based singer-songwriter with an absolutely devastating pair of pipes and a spicy pen (My god is a devastating creep is just one of the fabulous lyrics off her new terrific new album Bloodhorse!). There’s a theatricality to her music that feels more Nick Cave than Glee (she was a former theater kid, more the kind who did Shakespeare monologues than Annie Get Your Gun) but it’s Cummings’ voice that is really the star of the show. She’s been compared to Nico and Nina Simone, amongst others. It’s throaty, commanding, somewhere between Dylan and a hymn. Listening to her music feels a little like going through an emotional exorcism (once again, I am FINE).

I’m thrilled to have her do a Monday Mixtape for us:

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Grace Cummings
Libra
Australia

How do you find/discover music?

The radio, talking to friends… Stumbling across people by chance at festivals. Recently discovered YHWH Nailgun ‘cause they were playing in a concrete pit in a park in London. That was the best way to find music.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Morphine “Bo’s Veranda”

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

Serge Gainsbourg “Melody”

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

Alex Cameron “Jesus Never Had No Porno”

A song off your workout playlist:

….. ummmm. Hahaha. Don’t have one but I’d chuck George Michael “Freedom” on it probably.

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

Lots… I get stupid at karaoke and usually try to sing shit that I can’t come close to

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

Captain Beefheart “Ashtray Heart”

What song reminds you most of home?

The Beatles “Two of Us”

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

That is my literal worst nightmare.

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

Music is the opposite of wallowing, So if I wanted to indulge it would be nothing at all.

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

The Gloaming “Samhradh Samhradh”

What is your favorite cover song?

Hmmm I don’t know… Elvis Presley’s “Unchained Melody”

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Everybody I love singing anything they want all together.

All of the song’s on Grace’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

Bandsplain is now on YouTube. It would mean a lot to me if you “liked and subscribed.” Right now there are like four episodes there, including the latest one, the Music Biopic Hall of Fame with Sean Fennessey, but all the back video episodes will eventually be up in there (including all six Madonna ones for those of you planning gay guy music video nights).

I’ll be in the UK later this month, in Edinburgh for a few days during Fringe (terrified of jugglers) and in London from August 25-31. This is primarily news for people who want to invite me to fun things or shower me in gifts or provide me a guest pass to their fancy gym. I’m also looking for a really great lymphatic massage. Email me! D’Souza and I might throw a casual little pub hang or we might not, follow us on IG to be informed about that. Speaking of, it was my honor and pleasure to be the first subject in Shaad’s new Shaad Magazine (my favorite publication) column about etiquette.

That’s all for housekeeping. Let’s get to sadness.

I’d been wanting to do something about sad songs ever since I went on Rob Harvilla’s fabulous 60 Songs podcast to talk about one of my ultimate and most enduring crying songs, “Glycerine” by Bush. I’ve kept lists of songs to cry to for as long as I can remember; in college I recall typing one out into a Word document as a guide for my Napster activities (I get misty-eyed just thinking about it, the desktop PC and the dial-up). “Lady In Red” by Chris de Burgh was on that list and you know what, it still goes. I am normal and fine.

It just happened to work out perfectly that the reigning queen of sad songs, Phoebe Bridgers (but Lana! you scream and to you I say: Lana is the queen of sad-horny songs, they are certainly both reigning, sadness-wise), put out her long-awaited new album Lost Weekend today. I've cried to many Phoebe Bridgers songs over the years, and as a former shower beer aficionado, I've always felt quite seen by her. I think she's a brilliant lyricist and a deceptively great songwriter. I wasn't over the moon for the "Lost Boys" single (I find the chorus trite), but when I listened to the album this morning I was blown away. People are making a lot of the sonic innovations or explorations or whatever (which are cool!), but I think I'm most into how, while of course she can still make music from a place of heartbreak/pain/grief (put it in my veins), but that she's also able to absolutely fuck my shit up with songs about being in (happy, healthy) love — for example the gorgeous, cathartic "Bobby" (featuring inspired guitar cameos from Mike Kinsella of American Football and Justin K. Broadrick of Godflesh), which made me quietly weep this morning while walking my dog (This could be the end of wanting? Bye!).

There are so many incredible lyrics because she's Phoebe Bridgers, but the one stuck in the craw of my brain is surviving my gift until I get shot. Bruh. It strikes me that it’s the kind of album you make after age thirty, when that bitch Saturn done returned, things are still painful and the horrors persist (your father dies, you call off a wedding, fame is a knife, your house burns down1), but not only do you know now that you can endure it, you also know all that fuckshit comes with a heaping side of beauty and joy (and love). This is banal to say, but it is also true. You won't have to open a heart that's broken / Water's gonna flow in either way.

Anyway August is really the Sunday afternoon of summer, an ideal time for bittersweet music. You still have the thing but it’s slipping away and maybe that’s all you can think about (see: what makes a perfect summer song). Here are three other albums that fit this particular mood:

Hovvdy Big World

Woozy, catchy, yearning, sometimes upbeat, but then not, what can I say - I love hushed-voiced men in pain strumming their little sad guitars.

Power Snatch EP2

I’m so into Power Snatch, Williams’ project with producer Daniel James. I kind of think she can do anything with those pipes, but this particular brand of mostly restrained, lightly menacing, occasionally trip-hop-adjacent indie rock just really tickles my fancy. I also love when Hayley pokes at spirituality and religion in her lyrics - there’s so much grist for the mill there I think for her in particular, and for me, a person preoccupied with God. There is certainly a through line of “r u ok” melancholy in this EP - What would I wear to my funeral? Saint Laurent from the thrift is a lyric from “NEW LEGS” - which qualifies it for this summertime sadness round up.

Oxis Oxis 9

I happened upon this album poking around my Spotify homepage this week (it came out in July) and it’s really hitting for me. Emotionally-bare indie-pop (is that a thing) with lots of guitar, glitchy beats, and really fucking cool vocals - it’s a yes from me dog. Also obsessed with her artwork which seems to be wholly preoccupied with fish and various marine life:

And last but not least, here is a 3 hour playlist of songs to cry to:

Given the audience of this Substack I’m guessing for many of you the band Citizen needs no introduction, but I won’t lie to you - I personally was quite late to this band. In my defense I haven’t been to a Warped Tour since 1997 and spent the bulk of the mid-2000s in a time warp listening almost exclusively to Dipset mixtapes and The Smiths. However, Run For Cover is another of those record labels that has a 99% hit rate with me so it’s unsurprising that the band’s latest release, their fifth album Halcyon Blues, has been getting a lot of airtime on my (corded) headphones. The band has been somewhat quietly and stubbornly great for nearly two decades now, and crucially they have spent those seventeen years refusing to make the same record twice.

On his now-defunct personal website (I have the Wayback Machine babe) frontman Mat Kerekes “credits Third Eye Blind as having a big influence on his writing” and you already know how I feel about 3eb (as well as my theories around their self titled album being a seminal emo album, I said what I said). I’m also personally partial to the ineffable vibe siblings bring to a band, and we grabbed one of the brothers who make up the nucleus of Citizen, guitarist Nick Hamm, to give us his Monday Mixtape:

Nick Hamm
Capricorn
Toledo, Ohio

How do you find/discover music?

I try my best to keep my ear to the ground, but when that doesn’t work, my friends and girlfriend put me on!

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

Bob Dylan “Too Late”

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

Gary Stewart “I See the Want to In Your Eyes”

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

Institute “The Shooter” (ed note: god tier band and song)

What’s a song that reminds you of where you come from?

Pat Dailey “Put In Bay”. Hyper regional Parrothead shit.

A song off your workout playlist:

Unified Right “So It Goes”…if I had a workout playlist…

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

Last time I did karaoke was “The Weight” by The Band and we got thru it.

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

Green Day “Having a Blast”

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

Bad Brains “Stay Close to Me”

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

Bill Fay “I Hear You Calling”

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

Webb Pierce “I Ain’t Never”

What is your favorite cover song?

Donny Hathaway “You’ve Got a Friend (Live)”

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

Chuck Jackson “Any Day Now”

All the songs on Nick’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE

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Was really sad to hear about the passing of William Orbit, the man behind one of the greatest Madonna albums of all time, Ray of Light (as well as the god tier song “Beautiful Stranger”), plus a whole lot more incredible music (including a personal favorite of mine, the Blur song “Tender” that reduces me to tears every time I hear it). The Guardian did a nice write up of his musical legacy and some of this best tracks.

Last night I attended a rock n’ roll show at one of my favorite venues in Los Angeles, the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever (which is almost certainly haunted), to see one of my favorite bands, Iceage. Their electric new album For Love of Grace & the Hereafter came out at the end of May and I’ve been listening to it pretty much nonstop since. I think they’re one of the greatest bands of my lifetime?

The way they’ve continued to morph and expand their music since they were a volatile electrifying teenage band has been thrilling to watch, and following their trajectory over the past decade or so has been so gratifying. I have loved every album but they really got with me with 2021’s incredible Madchester-summoning and gospel-choir-laden Seek Shelter, produced by Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3. And then they hit me with this new one. I feel about For Grace the way everyone seemed to feel about Geese’s Getting Killed last year. I discover new things every time I listen. I’m so invigorated by it - it gives me at various points the same feelings I associate with listening to Pavement or The Replacements or even Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s romantic and violent and wild-eyed and, as the name implies, spiritual (it’s actually a nod to Hamlet1 - we stan a literate king).

is an incredible lyricist who only gets better as he goes - each line is more unexpected and beautiful than the last (like…With every new asphyxiation/Comes a greater gasp for air is crazy good). And to my eternal delight, he’s incapable of not using holy imagery throughout these songs, which while short, catchy, and fun are never saccharine or rote due in large part not only to the lyrics but Rønnenfelt’s delivery of them, which is ragged and immediate and somewhat menacing. It’s a magic trick to make songs that read as simple but contain within them universes. What a fucking album man.

A beautiful video I shot (PT Anderson over here) at the show last night

What else to listen to this weekend:

Ceremony Tell Me Your Dream

I got to hear this album a few months ago and I was blown away by how much range it contains. It’s like Ceremony is doing their own eras tour within one record, and since every era has been pretty fucking amazing, you can guess how good this album is. I’ve been posting ad nauseam about the catchy as hell “Dark Summer” and I’m really loving the groovy starkness of “10 Planets” but the standout for me might be album ender “Paradise” which is giving Ceremony-plays-the-Hacienda-in-1989.

god of war molly picture

I think this is sort of a supergroup made up of Douglas Dulgarian (They Are Gutting A Body Of Water), Scott Turner (Hooky), and Sam Silbert (Hooky, Circle of Fire)? I fucking love TAGABOW as you probably already know and I was super into that EP Hooky put out with Winter last year called Water Season. Julia’s War is one of those labels that has like a 99% hit rate with me. This record has a lot going on (acoustic guitar, vocals that sound like they were recorded underwater, tons of texture, sad clown pop vibes, gazing at shoes) and all of it is awesome.

School Fair Unexpected Violence

This album actually came out in May but it’s new to me so here it is. It’s so cool and weird and great - plucky yet vibey, kinda heady, great bass lines, cool vocals. I believe they’re from a place called Dunedin in New Zealand and are very spiritually in line with the 80s Flying Nun of it all that preceded them in that gorgeous country. Also this thought process gave me a great excuse to return to The Bats which is always a delight.

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Here’s a playlist of 20 or so newish (okay there’s one from 2025 SORRY) songs to cruise through Sunday with:

SING WITH THEM IN THE TREES THAT’S THE PLACE I WANT TO BE