Happy Saturday everyone. I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall concert film the other night and predictably I loved it. Did I cry? The answer is yes. (We don’t have to get into the tiny violin of how I pretty much was only able to listen to Heavy Metal in the month after my house burned down on endless walks around my parents neighborhood but I’m sure that did heighten the experience).
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 Weirder Together, 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
I liked the Spike Fuck record. Thanks for the rec
I had alerts set for the Spike Fuck and Greg Freeman albums and they are so good (the number of times I have listened to Indu is…a lot). Also enjoyed the new Wishy album and I love the new Hermanos Gutierrez that came out the week before.