Baker's Dozen: Palehound, POORSTACY, and a Really Long Song
Baker's Dozen is a weekly thing for paid subscribers where I share some music I've been enjoying as well as some thoughts around that music.
Moneybagg Yo, "Ion Get You"
Another track from Moneybagg Yo's catalog, which—as I've talked about on here before—is packed with sturdy and reliable street rap with a melodic edge not unlike fellow street rap titan Kevin Gates. I recently saw a headline that Moneybagg Yo gave up drinking lean. That's good! Lean seems bad.
Noods, "Always on My Mind"
Wasn't too into this album from this NYC crew as a whole, but I think this song is lovely and yearning like the best indie-pop. (The rest of the album leans in a decidedly pop-punkier direction.) Some quick research says one of their first shows was on a bill with Speedy Ortiz, that's some good company right there.
Ilsa, "Shibboleth"
Another good cut from an album I wasn't otherwise too into! Love the thrash-slash-hardcore energy of this, ILSA seem to try to do a few different things on Preyer, shame not all of them work as well as this.
Palehound, "Black Friday"
Black Friday is probably the best Palehound album to date, I love this song in particular. Something about Ellen Kempner's singing voice—intimate, fragile-sounding but very strong regardless, some other adjectives my morning brain can't reach from right now—is very appealing on a basic level.
CHIKA, "CINDERELLA PT. 2"
CHIKA put out a pretty solid album last year, and then she got cancelled? Soft-cancelled might be a better way to put it, for bullying or something? I tried to understand what went on and couldn't quite get it (maybe I just didn't have the patience in the moment). Seemed Tiffany Haddish-esque, not 100% sure it's any of my business, maybe I have the wrong info entirely here. Anyway! ONCE UPON A TIME is, as I said, pretty solid, great song here.
Bicycle Inn, "Full Blossom of the Evening"
On the indie-to-emo scale, Bicycle Inn tip things pretty hard in the "emo" direction—but, like, you've been reading this newsletter regularly, right? That's kind of what I'm into.
Bad Books, "Army"
Speaking of emo! At my first media job I had a manager who was obsessed with both Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra, to the point where both played in the office at separate points. I wasn't nuts about him, so naturally I took a disliking to both bands at the time. I'm still neutral about Devine, have since come around hard to Man Orch though. The Bad Books album was nothing to write home about to me in the end, but I thought this closing song had a very elegiac vibe to it that felt a little like something an alternate-universe version of the National would've pulled off. Anyway, Kevin Devine just announced his first album in six years, we'll see how that is (still haven't listened to the latest Man Orch LP yet).
Robag Wruhme, "Venq Tolep"
Not a shock that ambient-not-ambient techno vet Robag Wruhme's latest non-mix LP came out on Pampa—I mean, just listen to it. The closing song even has Koze giving a shout-out on it! Very squishy, lush electronic music, he knows how to do it well.
Car Seat Headrest, "Famous Prophets (Stars)"
Yeah, yeah, I know, 16-minute song, you'll survive. Funniest thing in several years has been seeing the assertion amongst younger people that liking Car Seat Headrest is squarely in the "red flag"/"male manipulator" category of fandom. Maybe it's true! Also, the biggest Car Seat Headrest fan I know is my wife, so, like, not a ton of empirical evidence over here to prove the assertion. Whatever. That last Car Seat Headrest album wasn't too good, huh? I'm sure he'll be just fine regardless.
Guilty Simpson, "Could've Been" [ft. Gensu Dean]
Haven't thought about Guilty Simpson in a minute—a decade, even, back when he put out a Madlib-produced album that got him attention when "a Madlib-produced album" could get him attention. Nice track.
Ride, "Catch You Dreaming"
I remember the Ride EP from 2018 getting some confused reactions and negative attention, and now that I've given it a close listen I realize why. It's chillwave! You don't go to Ride for chillwave, obviously—but, also, I've never held Ride in massive esteem the way some have, so I'm not as particular about what I want from them. La-di-da. Cool song, this could've obviously been made by any synth band from the last decade but instead it was made by some shoegaze legends from the '90s. Not everything has to make sense.
POORSTACY, "The Devil Wears Prada"
Sent this song to a friend recently and he said that at first he thought I was trying to send him a song from the band The Devil Wears Prada. Nope! Not terribly far off though, I guess. POORSTACY is another Tampa kid, hovering in the Iann Dior/XXXTentacion universe, most of his music sounds godawful to me (Yungblud considers him an influence, of course). But this song basically sounds like a SoundCloud rapper collaborating with The Soft Moon, so I'm not mad. Very indie sleaze, actually! Blech. Sorry.
We Are Scientists, "Pandemonium"
Bet you never expected to see these guys around these parts! That's what this column is all about, my friend—surprises. Buried in the trenches of the latest We Are Scientists album is this excellent, if slightly generic power-pop gem. But, then, power-pop is by and large generic by design at this point, right? Who's done it in a fresh way? Sheer Mag, probably? This is not a fresh take on it, just a good reiteration—and with power-pop, "a good reiteration" is really all you need.