cocaine, two ways!
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cocaine, two ways!
steely dan, conway the machine, blonde redhead, moneybagg yo, patio, and teezo touchdown.
Helloooo welcome to the start of summer, when this newsletter is at least 30% songs I hear blasting out of cars that I try to Shazam as quickly as possible (see today’s first track).
“Monogram,” the Conway the Machine song below, is easily the best entry of the summer so far. I knew it as soon as I heard the hook “I WANNA SELL COCAAAAAINE FOREVER” drifting across an intersection in Bed Stuy. It was like the world’s bleakest vision board heralded by angels across the hot pavement.
I also spent the weekend laid up on the couch due to a back injury, giving me the time to read all of Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay’s excellent Steely Dan tome, Quantum Criminals, which is just as much about the fine Columbian, if not more so, than “Monogram.” The book is part biography, part mythology, but entirely about the weird dudes – real and imagined – of the Steely Daniverse. The book takes its time in exploring the transition albums between “Steely Dan the band” and “Steely Dan the insular world of Becker/Fagen,” not skimping on their underrated (and my favorite) album, Royal Scam. It’ll make you love Steely Dan’s strange world even if you’re not deep on the album cuts, but best lines of the book might be Pappademas on Michael McDonald:
But he also comes back for Steely Dan sessions any time they need a voice that sounds like crushed diamonds mixed with silt. He’s the guy the call when a song needs a high part that’s out of Donald’s range or a color that isn’t on his palette. Donald can sing to Rose Darling all night long but only a voice like Michael’s can write her name in gold across the sky.
Anyway, that’s where I was at all weekend, musically. You can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
Conway the Machine – Monogram
This is the aforementioned cocaine-selling anthem that caught my ear last weekend. I dragged my dog as I pointed my phone eagerly at the car blasting “Monogram.” Conway’s entire record WON’T HE DO IT is filled with more killer lowkey summer bangers, including the diet Just Blaze (complimentary) groove of “The Chosen,” meaning this probably isn’t the last time I’ll be lured across Stuyvesant and Greene to Shazam another Conway verse.
Blonde Redhead – Snowman
Blonde Redhead are incredible at setting out their intentions on the opening track of their records. “23” was gunmetal grey cotton candy, like the album’s slick melancholy; “Elephant Woman” showcased Misery Is A Butterfly’s dense psychedelia – and is there any better summation of the stilted, paranoid energy of Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons than “In Particular?” “Snowman” opens BR’s upcoming album Sit Down For Dinner, and like the band’s best tracks, there’s a loping, slightly foreign logic to the song that blooms slowly and deliberately, a rising progression that neither opens up or dead-ends, like a musical Penrose stair.
Moneybagg Yo – Ocean Spray
This is just an excellent, highly quotable ode to lean that is destined for heavy radio rotation. “Yesterday's ice, not today's ice” – incredible.
Patio – En Plein Air
My favorite post-punk music often has the energy level of a half-filled balloon – the slight sag of the bass and drums providing an instrumental insouciance to the song’s groove. “En Plein Air” sways perfectly in dead air, not building as much catching a current at all the right times.
Teezo Touchdown – Rock Paper Strippers
I’m not including this song because it’s good (it’s not!), but because I wasn’t ready on any level for what happens in this song musically. Whoever on Teezo’s team told him to go all-in on a Black Eyed Peas meets Egyptian Lover electro banger…we need to talk. Even if it’s atrocious, is it still more interesting than Kendrick and Keem’s art-house “I Love It”? Definitely!
throwbbaaaaaack
Waylon Jennings – Do It Again
I found this in the aforementioned Steely Dan book – but I would have missed it if my friend Joe didn’t shout it out on the group chat. Waylon plays the song straighter than the Dan, but his arrangement only highlights the song’s sun-dried desperation, especially when the melody rides out on slide guitar. This is begging for a prestige TV needle drop.