Great Songs of Q2 2023.

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Nyck Caution — JET-LAGGED

What a cool song, man. Brings me back to what I loved about Kanye West’s original work with that classic sample looped forever and the smooth hip-hop flow centered on top of it. As ever, a big fan of the Chuck Strangers verse on here. (YouTube)

Tim Hecker — Monotony

I love Tim Hecker, but he’s a hard sell. Sometimes his work is purely atmospheric, fading way deep into the background. You talk about it like a fog that you had to drive through to really get a feeling for, describing it to someone only an hour later as if you’ve made up the mist of a legendary haze. Sometimes it coats the mind in a blanket of fuzz and sound, sometimes to others it might just sound like radio static, a radio tuner left to sit on the far right of the AM dial for too long. This song has a lot more body to it, a lot more water to wade through. It still has a little bit of the elements that make him one of my favorite artists… the bouncing electronics, the phantom warbling, the overwhelming NOISE of it all. But it does have a bit more of the sense of a movie score, the music of a big discovery, like passing the threshold between dimensions, like staring too long at an organic television screen. I love the idea of Hecker making this music, eyes closed, holding keys for too long, trancing deeply into the spiral of undernoise. (YouTube)

Covet — Bronco

One of the coolest bands I’ve found in the last few years making their cool brand of wiggly and noodly guitar music. Pedals that hold the reverb for just long enough before it gets cut to jump back into the hoppy and high energy groove that they’re known for. Covet always has such a sunny disposition, never getting too moody for dreary for the listener. Always effervescent as ever, spirited and dynamic. (YouTube)

Wednesday — Hot Rotten Grass Smell

A song that shreds from one of my favorite records of the year. The guitars sound nice and big and full like songs from early Citizen or Balance and Composure records, drowning us with massive fuzz and distortion, as accent guitars play on the peripheries. Vocals scratch at the door begging to get in or to get out. (YouTube)

Blondshell — Kiss City

Another one of my favorite records of the year, this one has a little bit more of the stark and static sensations of a chrome and sterile lobby pop track from the mid-80s, but that builds into something more sensual, more deliberate. Something to wrap your fingers around, especially once it gets enormous with the guitar run, with the big vocals that bloom out of the modesty that the song was birthed with. (YouTube)

JJ Lin — In the Joy (feat. Anderson .Paak)

This is very much not my favorite style of music, but I’m a huge .Paak fan. This kind of sits in the pop realm somewhere near a Pharrell Williams hit. It was just so catchy and it felt so good that I wanted to share it. It has a time and a place, and I’m truly not too sure when and where that is, because I don’t find myself there often. It’s just a great song that I believe has a lot more soul, a lot more life than a lot of other pop songs in this same vein. (YouTube)

The Paper Kites — Till the Flame Turns Blue

Love this modern take on a sad old western track, something that meanders along the outskirts of the dimly lit cabin, along the dawning of a wide open vista. It’s that big and melancholic guitar that gets me every time, that big bending lap steel. (YouTube)

Thy Art Is Murder — Until There Is No Longer

Sick metal song with one of the worst band names of all time. I honestly don’t think anything on there is new or unique or innovative, but it was great to hear a heavy song that I was really feeling. (YouTube)

Balance and Composure — Last to Know

Super cool to hear Balance and Composure come back with a couple of songs this year. I will still hold Separation in such a special place in my heart, but the rest of their library is still of such high quality throughout. The vocals are always so unique, so deliberate and earnest. This song shows off a lot of what defined the B&C standards, like the twinkling production alongside sharp and precise drums with heavy distorted guitars. Love hearing new material from a band I thought we’d lost. (YouTube)

MUNA — One That Got Away

Nothing wrong with a little bit of that 80s sounding pop, man. I love it. Just a classic sound, dude. What a blast. (YouTube)

Thundercat — No More Lies (feat. Tame Impala)

Thundercat always drops songs that feel so timeless, so funky. But there’s a weird sensation around him, some kind of detachment like we’re lost somewhere in his own private daydream. To combine his loose and casual cool with Tame Impala’s detached and ethereal chill is such a beautiful marriage. (YouTube)

The Acacia Strain — SINKHOLE

These guys dropped two records this year, one of which was more of that in-your-face, kinetic and ever-advancing punishment, the other one was more of a subtle and slow drip, one that mashed you by degrees, sending waves of heat and indiscriminate fury in a low simmer. This song is from the latter, inflicting damage slowly over a long period of time. This is from the record I enjoyed far more, something that showed a level of restraint and heft that simply could not be touched. Sure enough, I like the fast record as well, but there’s something so much more effective to me, when a band doles out the wickedness in a slow drip. (YouTube)

Arlo Parks — Blades

Over several singles, I was already so excited about this record, the second from Arlo Parks but when the full length finally dropped, I knew she had done it once again, dropping an absolute masterpiece on us. It’s subdued and restrained and… honest? Parks is a poet who has found a way to distribute her verbal beauty in delicate and pastel intimate pop hits. Hits. I cannot get enough of everything she releases, and this is probably my favorite song from the record right now but there will be many changes of the songs which I fall in love with (again and again). Get on this one with haste. (YouTube)

Clark — Clutch Pearlers

I thought I was so clever when I sent this record as a recommendation to a fellow Radiohead fan, prefacing the share with “we don’t know if we’ll get another Radiohead record, but I think this one might get us close enough to the same style of music without the legacy.” I spoke way too soon as I later heard that Thom Yorke actually makes a cameo on the record towards the end of it. Oops. I really love this album, and it’s hard to pick a single song from albums that come together so ecclectically and work to form a single phalanx of music by way of individual expressions. This one stood on its own the best? I guess? But I think this is an album that you should sit with in its entirety. So much going on, layered and layered over and over, so much post-production. Big fan of this one! Will definitely talk about it a lot towards the end of the year. (YouTube)

Surprise Chef — Friendship Theme

I’ve sung the praises of Surprise Chef for a couple of years now. Love their groovy style of funk and jazz and it seems like they are masters of songwriting, churning out hit after hit over the last few years. Would love so much if these dudes came through so I would be able to catch them do their thing live. Just an absolute great time every time I hear them. (YouTube)

Teenage Wrist — Still Love

I loved this band’s album Chrome Neon Jesus, and while the album that followed it was pretty widely beloved, I never really got too deeply into it. That being said, I could hear the quality, and will always be eager to hear what the band puts out. I just found out, actually, that an old member of the band went on to create his own separate band called Heavenward (worth checking out as well!), and I think that might have been what separated me from the last record. This song, however, seems to bring back something special about their grunge revival sound, and what’s more, they brought the band Softcult on board to assist with this track. It sounds so thick, so heavy for this genre, but also has a beautiful blend of the two bands’ vocals making use of the dynamics of both. So great. Can’t wait to TW’s new album (August 4th!). (YouTube)

Loma Prieta — Circular Saw

This is one of those bands that always seemed like it has been a ‘legacy’ band in the heavy and ‘screamo’(?) genre, and it’s so rad to hear them coming back with new stuff again. This song starts off with that circular guitar loop that drags you in like some herculean undertow, a siren’s song to lure you into a low vibration, only to then pull the cord and spin the blades and slice and cut and slice. Stoked for the new album (June 30th). Should be out by the time you read this! (YouTube)

Pupil Slicer — Terminal Lucidity

This record rules. Heavy and fast and menacing and horrifying. I love their last one and I love this one. Just like what I loved about their last album, this song on its own runs through different styles like a rolodex, landing on whichever version of themselves you ask of them and they crush you with the weapon of choice. Even the singing part (which isn’t my favorite?) has something unsettling and sinister about it, summoning something dark from within it to make it even worse, even more vile. God, when I heard this record, I wanted more and they kept folding the origami, kept squeezing the tube to find more. (YouTube)

Chamber — Hopeless Portrait

Good old beatdown/nu-metal hardcore. Give me more of this. New album drops in July. Pumped. (YouTube)

Spoon — She’s Fine, She’s Mine

I am still upset that their Charleston show sold out so quickly. Lucifer On the Sofa was an unexpected hit for me last year, and this EP this came off of is a nice little surprise as well. This is a bit more of a stripped down, delta-inspired track and resonates with their stripped down guitar rock that I never knew I wanted but absolutely adore. Happy with this little extra heat they dropped this year. (YouTube)

Raffaella — Maps (feat. Hippo Campus)

I’m usually not a fan of covers if they follow the path directly to the source, so when this song showed up on a playlist, I was a little hesitant. They did change the song up enough though that I did fall for this timeless love song once again. The song in its original form often does a lot of the work for artists who step up to the plate, though this one shows a lot of interesting ways to expose the beauty of it in different volumes. (YouTube)

NewJeans — Zero

YO a K-Pop song!! I initially heard this song because JID did a remix of it, and I wasn’t too sure if I was into it, but the Coca-Cola hook was so deep in my head that I looked deeper into it and this is the single in its pure state. So sick, dude. I love the idea of pop music from another country coming here (especially making it all the way to me) and having NO CLUE if this song is one of those inescapable and insufferable “Hits” (think ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams) or if it’s just a quality and cool pop song that lands just right. End of the day, I don’t really care… this song is added to the list. (YouTube)

Boyish — Kill Your Pain (with King Princess)

Possibly one of my favorite tracks of the year? I’m already a major King Princess fan, love what she can become on any of her given best days… but this song’s daydream indie guitar sound wormed its way directly into my ribcage and will not get its fingers away from all of my insides. I love that this song builds into some kind of incredible fuzzed out jam around the two minute mark, swelling so massively that it feels like the planet has flown too close to some other sun. Bless this song. (YouTube)

Circuit Circuit — Deleted Skin

Wicked, buzzsaw sharp grindcore adjacent hardcore. I don’t know much about this band, but I love the lengths they’re willing to go to to express their distinct brand of violence. Especially when this song builds into some kind of Hives/Queens of the Stone Age modern rock examination as it descends into its climax. Fuck yeah. (YouTube)

Johnny Booth — Full Tilt

This band is far beyond due for their major label debut, for their massive head turning nationwide tour. I can’t believe another band hasn’t taken note and brought them aboard. They’re heavier than so many bands trying to do the same shit, more technical than so many bands trying to lean on the skill-based hardcore. And they’ve been doing it for a long time! This is a band doing things their own way, making music in their own inventive and experimental way when necessary, but also knowing when to feel the hammer in their hand and use it for the blunt metal object that it is. This song is such a great example of their versatility, utilizing keyboard and synths to draw out the beckoning desperation, voices appearing and panning left and right, catchy electro loops taking up big stretches of audioscape, only to melt back and reveal the crippling weight of the core the song has been spinning around the entire time. Oh my god, someone please find this band and show them to the universe. (YouTube)

The Smile — Bending Hectic

I still can’t believe Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are coming to stupid Charleston, SC this weekend. It blows my mind. And I can’t believe I didn’t get tickets for SPOON but I was able to get tickets to see THESE GUYS. Stoked. This song is a slow loss of control, especially with the repeated theme of letting go of the wheel, and the extraordinary build of terror, that ringing tintinabulation that swells and erupts into a new plane of sensation, something psychedelic with clashing and ringing and electronic buzzing. Just more of the sonic genius that these guys are capable of, something that sounds so great on headphones during its sonorous collapse. (YouTube)

Cole Pulice — If I Don’t See You In the Future, I’ll See You In the Pasture

Wasn’t sure whether or not to include this on the playlist, but I figured I’d put it at the end for anyone who didn’t want to sit in for the 22 minutes of noise. It’s such a cool song, an entire mood. There are movements within it, landscapes, environments within it, all held together by a blossoming gravity in some profound and invisible orbit. I think this is one of those experiences where you really need to let go and find the pieces of yourself disintegrating, leaving just the spiritual center, the miracle ion, the shivering and vibrating electron that is able to translate all the vibrations that are without into something that we can consume within, and I think this is one of those compositions that is better felt than examined. Just going to leave it at the foot of the bed for you to hold on to with whatever small magnificent attraction you can summon within you, to allow its pull to guide you in or tune you out. It’s up to you. Find this entire final 22 minutes in brackets, find it as a footnote, find it or don’t. (YouTube)