👨‍🎤🎙✊
I’ve recently become obsessed with finding songs that fit into this category, which I’ll explain: these are songs that are anthemic singalong songs, but different than an anthemic pop song. These songs are usually dense and layered production-wise, tell a story, and are more lyrical than a standard pop song. The sentiment of these songs are bigger and more sprawling than a typical song’s subject matter. When I brought this up on the pod, KJ came up with the term “raconteur anthems,” and someone else said I was referring to “we anthems” instead of “I songs,” and I think that’s the perfect way to describe it. I think that when this type of song is done perfectly, it probably makes for the best music ever written. “Like A Rolling Stone” is the archetype of this type of song. Other main examples include “Common People” by Pulp, “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem, “Born In The USA” by Bruce Springsteen, “Heroes” by David Bowie, “American Pie” by Don McLean, and this list goes on. A song is probably the most accessible art form there is, and achieving this level of universality in something that short and contained is an amazing feat, and I’ve gotten really obsessed with trying to figure out which songs fit the bill.
Aug 17, 2023
Related Recs
Mostly because of the movie Stick It, but also because of the lyrics, I have been inspired by this one of late. Especially as a teacher, I am filled with rage and hope as I listen to this on the way to work to remind the students that they have rights.
Jan 24, 2025
“I haven't found any music in a while.”
This is something people say to me fairly often. Friends, family, even other musicians. Curious, this line of thinking, in an era of total comprehensive availability. Every song written since the dawn of creation, just a quick search away - the cannon at your fingertips and yet...Â
Maybe it’s a conundrum of choice. Maybe you’re like me, standing in the shampoo aisle at CVS, thinking to yourself, “Okay, I understand intellectually that I’m looking at colorful plastic tubes of post-capitalist chemical gloop, all of which serve a nearly identical purpose. I understand intellectually that the architecture of this moment is deliberate, that the sheer volume of product is meant to make me feel as though this decision matters greatly. I understand intellectually that in fact, this decision doesn’t matter in the slightest, and yet, here I stand, staring, “shopping.”
Author’s Note: Please allow me to check my privilege here. I am lucky to possess what I have been told is “easy hair.” I wash it maybe once a week, and I am plagued by zero scalp-centric struggles. I do not wish to offend any readers by calling their post-capitalist gloops post-capitalist gloops. If you need a specific gloop to keep your noggin tip-top, I levy neither judgment nor verdict. I may be more empathetic to your plight than you imagine- I am exceedingly particular about deodorant. Rite Guard makes a very good gloop.
And so, I step warily forward toward total personhood by way of scalpal salvation, and I pause. “This time you’ve gone too far,” rasps over the pharmacy speakers, a warm, familiar gravel to the sung phrase.
No matter- important choices are to be made. Labels must be read and considered- words like jojoba and keratin could be the keys to finding meaning in this life, so we must think carefully!
And then, another pause. “Wow, that guitar tone is gorgeous, even in this CVS. Maybe a strat through a JC-120, hell yeah.”
And just like that, I am awake again. A sheriff of songs in the days of dueling, I am quickest to the hip and smoothest with the draw. My revolver is my iPhone, and it’s loaded with the most underrated ammunition that many of us forget we have in our arsenal.
I aim, cock the hammer, pull the trigger, and blast a cold chunk of leaden Shazam into the heart of the buzzing speaker. I rarely miss my shot, and the payment of bounty pings my account instantaneously. “Of course!” I cry out in rapturous ecstasy, “Peter fucking Gabriel!” I add it to my latest heard in the wild playlist, I grab whatever shampoo is on sale, and I clear just a little bit of the post-capitalist gloop out of my brain.Â
I am of the opinion that music is meant to be heard in the wild. When I’m looking forward to listening to something, I’m thinking mainly about the context I will attempt to create around my listening. Where can I walk around where these songs make sense? When it works, it works, but it’s nearly impossible to engineer. As a person of Scottish descent with no real cultural ties whatsoever, I can’t even begin to describe what it was like, discovering Frightened Rabbit while playing a festival with them in Leeds, and then accidentally ending tour with a week off in Edinburgh, spent oscillating between hammered and hungover wandering the endlessly weaving city with “The Midnight Organ Fight” blaring in my headphones.
Author’s Note: I didn’t mean it when I wrote “I can’t even begin to describe what it was like…”. What I actually meant was “I’m not going to describe what it was like in this essay. I’m going to write an entire essay on this, which you will be able to read soon. Look at me, I am doing internet things.
So, here we stand, in the most infinite aisle of the most infinite pharmacy, trying to find something new to listen to. We have the world at our fingertips, but the world is too noisy, so we put on the noise we’re most comfortable with and we “go on about our business.”
Thankfully, my shampoo analogy is about to fall apart, here’s why:
The songs aren’t the gloop, your algorithm is. It is a useful and elegant marvel of technology, to be sure, but its methodology is no longer a thing of great mystery, and its goals are clearly defined. Streaming algorithms have been optimized to deliver you more of what they know you like, with the express intent of keeping you on their platform for as long as possible.Â
Here, we arrive at the dingey bottom shelf of the most infinite pharmacy aisle. Here lies the downside of having every song ever released wading patiently just upstream of your algorithm. You know that album you love, the one you had on loop back in the day? There are hundreds of thousands of songs that sound a lot like it. A reeking landfill of .mp3s that you will probably like, that will also, crucially, not pull at your attention or challenge you in the slightest.Â
After years of streaming, we’ve effectively self-reported what we think we prefer, what we know we have always liked, what we probably want a lot more of. And yet,
“I haven’t found any music in a while.”Â
And so, I propose a new approach, one I have found helps me to transcend this dynamic- pay attention to the music you notice in the wild. Not the music you hear in the wild, as there are shards of song flung at us from all directions, all the time. I’m not talking about the cliche smooth jazz punishing you from the elevator speaker, I’m talking about the 1992 Peter Gabriel masterpiece “Digging In The Dirt” that reaches out from the heavens to give you a gentle, loving tap on the shoulder to remind you that you are alive. I’m talking about the not-so-rare piece of music that can remind you that life is short and capable of intense beauty and that you might not want to waste too much time on gloop in CVS.
Make sure you don’t stop at the Shazam- add that song to your heard in the wild playlist.
Maybe, like me, you can’t help but notice music erupting from car stereos at near-impossible volume 20 times a day. Usually, it’s background noise, but occasionally you’re dodging wild chickens while prowling the streets of Ybor City at 2:30 am on the fourth Friday of a five-week tour, the clouds part, and the god of bangers reaches downward with a shimmering Sistine finger outstretched. In a world of trunk-rattling 808s, one melody cuts through, for whatever reason, and thanks to your deftness at coming up off the hip before the red light can turn green, you’ve captured something real from your moment. A piece of art now belongs to you just as much as it belongs to anyone else.
If you’re anything like me, you will probably enjoy revisiting this song for years to come, not because you love the genre or tend to listen to similar artists, but because this song, at least to you, is powerful enough to steal your attention away from all the other stimuli without even trying. You’ve already unwittingly pressure-tested the song’s ability to whip you into presence, now get to know it a little better and see where it takes you.
These songs may also gain geographic significance as you continue to develop the habit. Anytime I listen to “Love & War” by Lil Poppa, I’m back in Ybor City, and I’m enveloped in this memory thanks to an artist from Jacksonville with 386k monthly listeners that the algorithm wouldn’t have served me in a million years.
The geography doesn’t even need to be interesting to stick, and although I can mentally retrace countless adventures through my playlists, if I’m honest, a lot of the songs take me back to CVS or somewhere like it.
That is also okay with me, because at least it means I walked away with a bit more than the post-capitalist gloop I came for.Â
(this is a pi only preview of a newsletter i'm launching this month. the newsletter is part of a larger project that includes original music (bangers) and youtube docs (about making / playing / loving bangers all around the world. if you've got any notes, i'd love to hear em, and if you like what you've just read, we should be friends. if you made it this far, i appreciate you genuinely and deeply. the world is crazy, but i've been working hard, and i'm excited to share everything. the newsletter site isn't live yet and none of the copy is final, but if you feel compelled, hit the link and signup pre-launch. <3. ok sick cya l8r.)
photo by ashley gellman.
Apr 8, 2025
🎧
It's a podcast - celebrating its tenth anniversary - that functions more like a puzzle being pulled apart, in reverse. This one, about R.E.M.'s "Try Not to Breathe," marries insights about musical composition (dulcimer, not guitar!) and lyrical inspiration (singer Michael Stipe "sees" music more than hears it, so his lyrics tend to reflect a cinematic frame for a song -- Grandma Stipe was nearing the end of her life and Michael inherited her "shiver," which dominates here). "These are the eyes that I want you to remember."
Jan 26, 2024
Top Recs from @curtis
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If your band name doesn’t have a The in it, I don’t even know what to tell you.
Aug 17, 2023
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Especially late at night, but it works during the day too. I think because you’re not on the move but you’re also not at a destination or at home. It’s kind of like the ultimate in-between state. There’s something very romantic about it to me, and I like other “in-between” settings for the same reason, like airports and rest stops. I think it’s because your thoughts appear more naked to you when you don’t have something familiar around you to latch on to. And you also aren’t in a position to take any kind of action at the present moment, so it’s easier to confront your thoughts. There’s a book called Non-Places: An Introduction to Super-Modernity by Marc Augé that kinda speaks on this. So I’ll recommend that too.
Aug 17, 2023
🕵
Randonautica is an app that generates a “quantumly random” point on a map which you go to. You’re supposed to set an intention, however vague you want, while it generates the point and see what you discover with regards to that intention on the way to the point and then at the point itself. Then you can set another point from the first point and keep this process going as long as you want. I guess it was a thing on TikTok for a while but I swear it isn’t corny. I did it by myself out of curiosity and had a really crazy experience that’s too complicated to explain. No one I told seemed phased by it until I forced my friends to do it when we were in London and we had an equally crazy experience. I know it’s annoying that I’m not giving details but trust me, it’s too complicated to explain. But we found something so related to our intention that kinda freaked out. I love the idea of playing with reality, becoming hyper-aware of your environment, and seeing what’s around you in a different light. Even beyond the eerie metaphysical element, it’s a really interesting way to explore your environment.
Aug 17, 2023