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Friendship is probably my favorite band. This record is like hiding in the closet as a kid and smelling your parents’ clothing in the dark. And sometimes whiffs of these songs bring back big memories, some really hard to revisit, some really buzzy and shiny. I dunno if there’s another band that quite captures what it’s like to be alive as Friendship does for me. They are wood grain warmth and waffle syrup sweet. I hope they become your favorite band, too.
Mar 4, 2025
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Phony ppl is one of those bands that can only be described as anointed. A four piece collective whose limitless melodies and prescient lyrics feel extraterrestrial, they're a band whose music resonates with me on a higher frequency. 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of their album, Yesterday's Tomorrow: the release that made me fall in love with them in the first place. It's fitting to love a project just as much today as when I heard it a decade ago, the music animated around that very truth: time is circular—yesterday is tomorrow is today.
Even though the group vibrates on a frequency so high, it's like they're from another world—they're as Brooklyn as it gets. I once met the group's frontman, Elbie Thrie, on the street in Crown Heights. It felt like divine intervention. I had just gotten my heart broken for the hundredth time by the same guy (a guy who, btw, had put me on to their bandcamp project Phonyland). What were the chances of meeting the musician who had penned so many songs that revolved around right person, wrong time? I mustered enough courage to let him know what the music meant to me, to ask him if he got stopped in public a lot, how it all felt. He was as disarming in person as he was on stage. I'd see Elbie again, along with the rest of the band, at their show at the turn of the new year in 2022. They'd indulged the crowd with a few tracks from YT. Maybe it was the shrooms I was on, but I swear when they performed HelGa., Elbie looked directly into my eyes and sang it straight to me. It was an experience that later inspired one of the first personal essays I ever published.
There are dozens of other significant moments I've lived with Yesterday's Tomorrow. Its tracks have held me down through heartbreak and longing, and then given me the courage I needed to take a chance on joy again. Tonight, they play the first of three shows at my old favorite bar in Brooklyn in celebration of the last ten years of YT. If I had one shot at teleportation I swear I'd use it to see them play again, easy. Because like the album's ultimate track knowingly croons, there are just some things that you love forever.
THREECE.
Jan 14, 2025
from the minds of the chicago wunderkinds who went on to form deerest friends, sharp pins, lifeguard, post office winter, and other hallogallo/related-teen-indie-rock-brilliance came this delightful project
wonderfully meshes together eras of indie rock/pop to create something so unique and magical, haven’t stopped thinking about it for a while
this is one of those records that gets people to get their friends together to start their own band
Sep 18, 2024
It can be hard to give a recommendation when it comes from such a special place (as it does in this instance) because I run the risk of the recommendation losing the meaning I applied to it (once, a friend described a similar process as "don't worry, the lamp you made is now a chair, this is ok, this is supposed to happen"). But I'm trying to open my heart up to vulnerability and get back in touch with the thrill of letting the world react to me
so, Battle Trance: 4 saxophonists, led by the inimitable Travis Laplante, explore the outer limits of both A) the relationship between musician and instrument as well as B) endurance, performance and composition. Three albums released over 8 years, that weave visceral and soulful and grating and stunning moments together.
I experienced a live performance of their second album Blade of Love, not knowing what I was in for. Sitting in the front row in the Red Barn at Hampshire College, the physical impact of the music and the performers' exertion was a physically exhausting and life-giving experience. I think it's cool to sit through the albums sequentially, each of which I try to love equally but definitely find myself enjoying Green of Winter and Blade of Love over Palace of Wind.
I know this is a little over the top of a recommendation, but just feel compelled to go overboard and hype up this quartet
Apr 28, 2024
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Jul 16, 2024
This is just hitting the spot this evening! Absolutely amazing mix. Feels like everything I could ever ask for in this moment.
Feb 28, 2025
I’ve been pretty obsessed with this baby tapir from a Washington zoo that I came across on Instagram. I probably share new photos/videos of it to my story every other day and I hope my followers are not fed up yet! She will lose her stripes and spots soon, and then, I fear I will move on…
Feb 24, 2025