Baker's Dozen: Water From Your Eyes, Bnny, the Cure

Huge milestone today, as July 7, 2025 marks the five-year anniversary of when I started this humble newsletter. Maintaining this newsletter as a fully-functioning and 100% independent publication—no ads, no investors, no staff, just me in my couch, or the front seat of my car, or the Dunkin on the corner of Flatbush and Knickerbocker—has been one of the greatest pleasures in my life, as well as the most worthwhile thing I've done with my career.

Along with the myriad artists who have done interviews for this newsletter, I owe a lot to my readers as well as my paid subscriber base for sticking with me over the years; it's been a real treat to write for an audience that's actively invested in what I'm putting out there. If you've ever shared a link from this newsletter or even reached out to say that you enjoyed something I've published, I'm more grateful for the connection than you could ever know.

To commemorate the anniversary and offer an opportunity for those who haven't pulled the paid-subscription trigger yet, I'm running a month-long sale from now until August 7. On the monthly level, I'm offering a 25% discount on the usual rate—that's $2.25—for the first five months, which you can grab right here. If you're looking for an even bigger deal, I'm also offering a 25% discount on annual subscriptions—$22.50, specifically—which you can grab right here.

And to give those paid-subscriber-curious types a taste of what you get when you fork over the dough, I'll be periodically running free Baker's Dozens across the next month. If you pay for a subscription, you get one or two (usually two, if I can swing it) of these every week, and you even get the right to email me to give me your own thoughts on, well, my thoughts. So let's get into it:

Palmistry, "fk a deal"

I've never really liked Palmistry's whole "Y'all mind if an Irish Catholic white boy speaks a little patois for a second" gambit, even under the most open-minded of conditions when it comes to notions of the identity-aesthetic intersection his stuff has more often than not come across as genre-based cosplay to me. I did find this track from his 2021 album Wyrdo (the title of which immediately makes me think of the Mario Kart World character Birdo, a sure sign that I've played a fair amount of Kart recently) to possess a bit of raw, uncomplicated appeal, possibly because it's pure glitch-hop material and not, like, "dancehall but make it explicitly Caucasian."

Don't Worry, "Doctor Doctor"

These guys actually have a new album out literally next week, and if you're a longtime paying subscriber you probably remember when I shared a song from their 2022 album Remorseless Swing. This one's from their 2021 three-tracker Sideways Rain, I hear a little (not a lot) of Frightened Rabbit in this one, who were probably more impactful on the emo side of things UK-wise than has been acknowledged.

Bnny, "Dreaming"

Jessica Viscius' first album as Bnny, 2021's Everything, is so Mazzy Star-ish in its smoke-curlicues dream-pop aura that it's actually kind of astonishing that it works at all; getting this close to sounding like the source material is real third-rail shit in my book but she makes it work. Her second record came out earlier this year, I need to check it out; you could conceivably imagine her nabbing a plum opening slot for a much bigger act considering that this sound seems somewhat in vogue with younger slightly-left-of-center pop people in general.

LiL Lotus, "Romantic Disaster" [ft. Chrissy Costanza]

Clearing out a lot of 2021 cobwebs in this BD installment, probably will be doing so in the next one too...LiL Lotus, honestly, when I came across this guy I thought he was a Twitter personality that had somehow gotten a Fueled By Ramen deal (remember LILINTERNET?!?), he has some vague and tenuous GothBoiClique affiliations but nothing that legitimizes the gilded-turd pop-punk on his debut ERRøR BøY. This is one of those songs where I swing back and forth between "This is AWFUL" and "This is FINE," what pushes the needle slightly into the latter territory is Chrissy Costanza's diet-Halsey contributions...a quick Wiki search shows that she went to Immaculate Heart in high school, real Northern New Jersey heads will recognize that name almost immediately of coruse.

DARE, "Better Off"

Excellent cover art for California hardcore act DARE's 2021 record Against All Odds, so colorful and vibrant...the music is solid too of course, what typically elevates this stuff amidst the rest of the genre is the strength of the hooks and you can hear the melodic burn just below all the lurching intensity that's going on in this track.

Molly Burman, "everytime"

Molly Burman's 2021 EP Fool Me With Flattery is very "Tell me you're from North London without telling me you're from North London," and I swear that isn't a slag...she hasn't released anything since which seems like a bit of a shame, the sound isn't terribly distinctive but I think there's enough charm and personality going on here to build on top of.

Water From Your Eyes, "When You're Around"

I suppose I am officially caught up with really familiarizing myself with Water From Your Eyes' catalogue after being smitten with 2023's excellent Everything's Crushed...I think their older material is honestly even better and I'm very much looking forward to the new record, something I appreciate about them is that they're very good at doing the type of zonked-out indie (I'm thinking Deerhoof, High Places, etc.) that I grew up on but can also just spin out a really lovely Carpenters-esque tune like this one from 2021's Structure, bonus points for dropping the name of the band in this one, love when bands do that.

Trippie Redd, "Betrayal" [ft. Drake]

Longtime subscribers know this is, improbably, a Trippie Redd-friendly space; I consider him something like the court jester of rage rap, but then again I consider everyone in rage rap court jesters of some sort. Unfortunately an excellent Drake feature here, practically ripped straight from the mid-2010s; he floats atop this really well, and I also think it's very funny when Trippie Redd says "Say one thing to me/ You Texas Toast/ No Raising Cane's." Not the best song on Trippie's 2021 record Trip at Knight, ultimately; that'd be the Carti collab "Miss the Rage," which is also honestly maybe the best rap song of 2021 period (shout out to Mario Judah, of course).

Steve Gunn, "Other You"

Steve Gunn, always remained at arms length with his stuff mostly, don't think it's bad but one of those guys where I assume you have to be a huge instrumental guitar head to really "get it"...he's got a new one in that vein out later this year but I thought his singer-songwriter record Other You from 2021 was surprisingly straightforward and lovely, the robust production really helps this music sing as well.

Chynna, "s&m" [ft. A$AP Ant]

Absolutely tragic what happened with Chynna, one of many examples of rap careers cut too short in this decade, and Drug Opera is one of many examples of said careers receiving posthumous releases that receive a relative amount of attention compared to what they were doing while they were alive. There's lots of dark shit on this record undeniably made darker by how she passed, which kind of underlines the tricky and inherently unfair nature of posthumous releases to begin with...this track stuck with me though, her cadence on the chorus is undeniable, I also like how A$AP Ant says "She gon' rub me like a ducky," which is not really how rubber duckys work, but hey.

The Cure, "Alone (Four Tet Remix)"

I'm no Cure superfan even as I can see myself getting deep into their catalogue in the years to come, but I loved the latest album and found it exquisitely sad and gorgeous; that said, the accompanying remix album that just dropped is terrible. TERRIBLE! Even Trentemøller, who is very underrated (especially considering the current all-shoegaze-everything nature of zoomer aesthetics) and is good in a pinch for a gauzy remix, somehow shits the bed...of course it's no surprise that Kieran Hebden puts in a very serviceable over-the-plate pitch when it comes to his contribution, the worst you could say about this is that he's making it sound too easy but that's no great crime in itself. I may feature another remix from the collection that I didn't hate next time around, we'll see.

Torment & Glory, "All Men Forever"

What about not all men, forever? (Sorry, you know I had to do it to 'em.) This 2021 solo record from Brian Cook, who you've undeniably heard in other acts like Russian Circles and SUMAC, is Peak Sargent House in its melding of heavy music and slightly more indie sensibilities, it also bears the mark of his involvement in Russian Circles as well...this track in particular kind of reminds me a little (not a lot) of "Here Come the Warm Jets."

CHVRCHES, "He Said She Said"

Conventional wisdom is that Death Stranding 2 stars CHVRCHES rebounded hard with their latest record to date, Screen Violence; indeed, the melodies were as strong and the synths as sharp as they were on their instant-classic debut The Bones of What You Believe in 2013. The worst thing you could ever really say about this band is that they are industrial-strength synth-pop, an approach that has been cheapened over the last decade-plus by the fact that everything was synth-pop from, say, 2015 to 2021 (now, of course, everything is alt-country, which is a different problem entirely), so it was nice to hear them do their thing so well here. I also saw them on this tour and, considering how shaky they were live in the early days, was very impressed by how rock-solid they sounded; I also saw people in the audience doing poppers, which is a hilarious thing to witness at a CHVRCHES show. I'll be honest, I really enjoyed talking to Lauren Mayberry last year but when it came to her future with CHVRCHES, she did sound a little dissatisfied with her time in the band at large; you can read the interview and decide for yourself, I would hope that they soldier on regardless, no real reason not to in terms of popularity at the very leaset.