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I donât remember exactly when or how I stumbled onto Push Ups, I want to say it was Jake Lazovick of the band Voyeur's fabulous no-notes âdowntown emoâ playlist. This is the kind of music I'd play for you if I was outside of your window with my radio. I caught them open for untitled (halo) a few months back, and twice since then, making Push Ups my most attended act this year. Angsty, pining, nostalgic but still inventive, play it in your Skull Candy headphones, long sleeve t-shirt under a short sleeve. These tracks make me feel so âlovelornâ âyou wouldnât get itâ âI am so young and so misunderstoodâ which is not intended to be reductive, itâs more complex than that. All that to simply sayâ these tracks make me feel exactly how I want music to make me feel (most of the time). Grey is also the best. I walked up to him at a function super intensely, youâre my fave band in NYC rn blah blah I Am Number One Push Ups fan love the tunes and he handled it real nicely (sent me a shirt that I will treasure 4ever/ you should totally cop one for yourself). It is rare that I am inflamed enough to do the fangirl public humiliation thing, but hey⊠DraG Ur TIGHtROPE ThrOugH my wiNDPiPE XxX
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The first single from Winter Boyfriend from the upcoming album set a, frankly, very different note. 'anx/bodies' is an outlier for us, musically and lyrically, but when putting the final touches to the album it was one of the songs that people seemed instinctively to engage with if they weren't broadly invested in our main thing, essentially indie/indie-punk made by a would-be emo band. At the very least it provoked a reaction.
It's a song inspired by a very specific series of events but is not specifically autobiographical. Outside of the world of this song i am much less forward about sex. I enjoy being 'too much' with friends but i really don't want it going anywhere my family might hear it. Repression is fun! I often wonder if that's similar to what actors feel when doing nudity or whatever. It's a case of, "I don't want to know you've seen me experience that?" Anyway, honesty can help in art, but also maybe so too does a little internal repression.
It was written about a memory of going to a university disco, arriving at the club where everyone was looking hot and cool, and i suddenly becoming very aware of my inability to be calm. It is essentially about over-stimulation and amorousness and the confusion of that smashing like a wrecking ball through any semblance of chill i might have had.
The verse bass riff is really old, easily over 10 years old. I wrote it for a different project, a Death From Above 1979 rip-off thing, and my pal Martin played bass, while i sang and drummed. The song was unremarkable but the riff was cool. There was no way i wasn't keeping it. Also, it explains why it's the only song that uses a fuzz bass tone. Yet.
I have no idea when i came up with the guitar riff but it's one of my favourite parts i've written. It's rythmic and a little bit dissonant, but i think the G# implies an E Major chord, making it A minor natural (sorry music theory experts, probably butchering this).
I was also unsure if i could allow myself to write the chorus which used power chords. It always feels too basic. But it worked in the context of the song. I finished it years ago aside from a few lyrical tweaks and the introduction sound (chord played, tremolo arm depressed as it fades out, recorded and reversed). Also when mixing the song my references were very different and included a lot of 00s and 10s music, including bands that have been grandfathered into the whole 'indie-sleaze' thing, and it made me realise the second verse needed, nay demanded!, a cowbell and some percussion (the other percussion is drumming on glass bottles fyi).
I feel like 'anx/bodies', and the song that follows it, 'on our way home', are two sides of the same coin. One uptight, repressed yet explosive, and the other unrelenting, desperate and flailing. You could almost imagine the latter being later in the same night, getting existential when worse-for-wear. More on that one later.
Jun 19, 2024
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The days I donât want to kill myself
are extraordinary. Deep bass. All the people
in the streets waiting for their high fives
and leaping, I mean leaping,
when they see me. I am the sun-filled
god of love. Or at least an optimistic
under-secretary. There should be a word for it.
The days you wake up and do not want
to slit your throat. Money in the bank.
Enough for an iced green tea every weekday
and Saturday and Sunday! Itâs like being
in the armpit of a Hammond B3 organ.
Just reeks of gratitude and funk.
The funk of ages. I am not going to ruin
my loveâs life today. Itâs like the time I said yes
to gray sneakers but then the salesman said
Wait. And there, out of the back room,
like the bakeryâs first biscuits: bright-blue kicks.
Iridescent. Like a scarab! Oh, who am I kidding,
it was nothing like a scarab! It was like
bright. blue. fucking. sneakers! I did not
want to die that day. Oh, my God.
Why donât we talk about it? How good it feels.
And if you donât know then youâre lucky
but also you poor thing. Bring the band out on the stoop.
Let the whole neighborhood hear. Come on, Everybody.
Say it with me nice and slow
âââno pillsââno cliffââno brains on the floor
Bring the bass back.ââââno ropeââno hoseâânot today,
Satan.
Every day I wake up with my good fortune
and news of my demise. Donât keep it from me.
Why donât we have a name for it?
Bring the bass back. Bring the band out on the stoop.
Hallelujah!
Jul 4, 2024
My Jeans is probably the best of its kind â by which I mean the batch of 2010s crappy electro teen pop a la Friday and Chinese Food. Completely cheap but perfectly catchy beat, utterly frivolous concept, kinda goated outfits, some weirdly incredible lines (feels like heelies are racing down my spine), but for me the best part is Baby Triggyâs TWO verses that sandwich the songâs bridge. Itâs a take on the hip hop feature craze that was taking pop music by storm at the time, an honestky underrated aspect of the era, but its outsider nature lends it Some really fun quirks. theres so much: the structural weirdness already mentioned, where he low-key goes bar for bar with Jenna before he gets into his verse proper; his hype man who honestky could be twice his age; and the repetition of the line âwoah, Trigg got a new blackberry?â perfectly dating the entire piece. thatâs not even mentioning his basic but smooth flow, and the way his lyrics referring to male celebrities (MJ, Jay-Z) wearing his jeans parallels Jennaâs own comparisons to Hannah Montana and Ashley Tisdale
Feb 13, 2025
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Like Bruce Springsteen
Jan 24, 2024
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When the bar or venue or whatever is underground and you have to descend into the place because you can say some shit like âWe are entering the seedy underbelly of this wicked cityâ âYou know,â *cig drag* âcrime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.â
And then your friends can be like âViv, you canât smoke inside Dude also where the fuck did you find a pipe and a fedora What are you even sayingâ Giving you the opportunity to respond with a
âBeat it toots, youâre too pretty for these streets anyhowâ
Then you remember your friend already offered to pay for the Uber XL home and you have like 11 bucks so you drop the bit but the sentiment is still there below the surface
Jan 29, 2024