Baker's Dozen: Sally Shapiro, Jimmy Eat World, and Ridiculous Name Changes
Baker's Dozen is usually for paid subscribers of Larry Fitzmaurice's Last Donut of the Night newsletter—but this installment is free for all to read. All newsletter revenue continues to be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds; we've raised $3,313.73 so far.
Great Grandpa, "Treat Jar"
Great bridge. I suppose this is indie rock, right? I have the tendency to hear something like this out of context and think "Well, this sounds a lot like emo to me"—specifically the strain of emo that also closely resembles college rock circa late '80s-mid '90s—but I typically don't associate "emo," per se, with Double Double Whammy. Yet another reason why genre labels are, more often than not, totally meaningless.
LUCKI, "Last Time Mentioning (Good Riddance)"
From 2019, not to be confused with Lucky Daye and formerly known as Lucki Eck$. Haven't heard the record that came out this year, his first in a minute, but I'm always drawn to this sound in general.
Grafh and DJ Shay, "Bellini"
Some low-stakes fun going on here, in the back half especially. Grafh's record with late Buffalo producer DJ Shay, Stop Calling Art Content (fair enough), is about exactly what you'd expect from something executive produced by Benny the Butcher—familiar, comfortable, maybe verging on anonymousness one too many times the way many Griselda-affiliated projects seem to be.
Surfbort, "Open Your Eyes"
Hey, if you can get Tony Hawk in your video, you might as well go for it. These guys are from Brooklyn?!? I suppose registering surprise is a bit ridiculous, there is just something more specifically California to "this" sound...I didn't love Surfbort's 2021 album Keep On Truckin' (produced by Linda Perry, btw???), in fact I didn't really like it at all. There's a song where Dani Miller sings "Hold me closer, Tony Danza," which is stupid and has somehow remained lodged in my head since hearing it. There's another song about how billionaires are ruining the world, which while true is fucking hilarious coming from a band who's been in a Gucci campaign. Wouldn't be the first Brooklyn act to radiate pure hypocrisy! Certainly won't be the last, either. Something very Best Coast-y about this song in an appealing way, everyone stumbles on a good hook now and again I suppose.
Brett Eldredge, "Sunday Drive"
Unbelievable song, call me a corny motherfucker or whatever but I think it's hard to pull off this type of earnestness and make it sound so wide-eyed and widescreen, almost as if you're joining in the protagonist's perspective of being mystified by new discoveries within the world's simple pleasures. Whole album is rock-solid songwriting and production-wise, my wife asked me to turn this off in the car this morning because it was too distracting which is also understandable.
Sea Power, "Two Fingers"
There is nothing—NOTHING!!!!—funnier that's happened in the past few years than British Sea Power changing their name to Sea Power because of "the rise of nationalism." OK...??? Very reminiscent of this tweet, from me, that I did (I can link back to myself here, it's allowed). Thank god the record was good, at least—maybe one of the year's most surprising "comebacks" if we're being real, what Sea Power (lol) are good at has never been the most original thing in the world but they do a solid job of the aping regardless.
Sally Shapiro, "Love in Slow Motion" [ft. Electric Youth]
Speaking of comebacks...gorgeous song, Sad Cities is a very nourishing record from Sally Shapiro as a whole, their sound is simply timeless to me, the type of stuff I never get tired of hearing when it's done right. Side note, I only recently realized that Electric Youth's "A Real Hero" is inspired by Sully Sullenberger? That's hilarious.
Kate Ceberano, "Mirror Ball" (Elbow cover)
I thought this was an interesting and sort of nice cover of one of my favorite Elbow songs from what is probably my favorite Elbow album, 2008's The Seldom Seen Kid. I just listened to the latest Elbow album yesterday actually, and I think it's great—I'll feature a song from it on Baker's Dozen, like, six months from now, lol.
Le Ren, "Dyan"
Le Ren's Leftovers is possibly an underrated album from last year, something simple and naked about it (and the type of music it is) that doesn't typically call too much attention to itself, but it's lovely regardless. Produced by Chris Cohen, who himself is an excellent musician and songwriter. This song is a tribute to Lauren Spear's mother, which is very sweet.
Jimmy Eat World, "Delivery"
My unabashed love for Jimmy Eat World has extended towards their late-period work, which has been far more hit and miss than, like, Clarity (little if anything compares to Clarity) but still yields passionate, pulsing, and melodically skyscraping rock music like this. I suppose enjoying this is not unlike someone much older than me continuing to listen to Journey, with a big difference being that Journey are awful and Jimmy Eat World are awesome.
Curren$y and the Alchemist, "Obsession"
Two artists firmly in their pocket here, just impossibly effortless how pretty and dreamy this sounds. Beyond rapping about weed all the time, what makes Curren$y one of the ultimate weed rappers in recent memory is the way his voice and flow basically embody smoke curlicues, lingering in the air and taking forever to disappear in front of your eyes. After years of tuning out around the mid-2010s or so, I've come to very much appreciate his continuing body of work and its reliability, which is a quality you can never take for granted.
And So I Watch You From Afar, "IV In Air"
"And So I Watch You From Afar" is the type of band name that you either bestow upon, like, a screamo quartet, or a Do Make Say Think-y post-rock act. It's firmly the latter here! I think this sounds cool enough, their whole thing steers a little more towards jam-band territory than I'd prefer, but I'm sure their listeners enjoy that too (not hating just saying).
Enchanting & Gucci Mane, "No Luv" [ft. Big Scarr and Key Glock]
Another one from the So Icy Gang: the Reup compilation, I enjoy Gucci's verse on this and also I will listen to almost anyone over that "Move That Dope"-y beat, it sounds huge even out of iPhone speakers.