inside you there are two bruces
everything that dies someday DOES come back!
“Bruce has to think about his entire life before he plays"
Amidst titans of musical genius passing on, and political goliaths getting toppled, two artifacts from Bruce Springsteen feel like they’re totems of the two opposite directions culture in 2025. Firstly, a trailer of an almost parodic biopic dropped, stacked with character actors but embroiled in the “Walk Hard” tropes of genius auteurs overcoming their past – a story we don’t need told to us anymore, especially in Serious Oscar Contender color-grading. What are we doing here?
At the same time, Springsteen dropped Albums II, a collection of unreleased tracks that includes a shelved LP from when he wrote “Streets of Philadelphia” that’s basically a trip hop synth pop record. It’s amazing to hear, and disappointing to know that the project was shelved in favor of a greatest hits collection and an E Street Band reunion. It’s not surprising, especially in light of the biopic, that something this naked and raw got shelved in favor of a rehashing of his hits. More importantly, the album shows an artist not comfortable in basking in his own mythos, let alone okaying a middling biopic about his life and times.
Now more than ever, the people beholden to the myths of the late 20th century are at odds with those interested in what else might be possible, embracing the strange and awkward instead of the tried and true. This dusty set of demos might be my summer soundtrack, if only because it still sounds like possibility 30 years later.
Anyways, here are the good links:
Within The Margin of Jiggy – The new Will Smith song may be a dud, but on Twitter people figured out he’d have a banger if it was either 25% slower or faster.
Hotline AMA – Hotline TNT talked to Larry Fitzmaurice about signing to a label, shoegaze, and self-releasing their first record on YouTube
Deerhoof vs. Evil – Deerhoof is taking all their music off Spotify after Daniel Ek’s investment in an AI defense company. Buy their records on Bandcamp this week!
Spirit Ditties With No Tone – …but if Spotify can get 300k+ plays for a fully AI band and their soulless vibe music, do they even want artists on their platform anymore?
If this guy can credibly do this over your music, you should rethink all of your artistic choices.
Sisqo, Defying Gravity – Cynthia Erivo on the power of the end of the “Thong Song”
Now off to the best of the week! As always, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update (usually) every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy!
Lifeguard – A Tightwire
I’m a few weeks late to this record, but Chicago’s Lifeguard make simple, sloppy and life-affirming post-punk music. There are bits of Times New Viking, some spiky post-emo chant-alongs, and a wooly hue to their tightly-wound arrangement that feels worn-in and welcoming despite the angular shifts in each song.
Crushed – Starburn
If Crushed’s 2024 EP tktktk was all black-lit, dusty trip-hop, “Starburn” ditches the breakbeats and samples for brighter tones and more widescreen pop. The result is still a swaggering 90’s-indebted pop gem, but the angles are rendered cleaner, the ache less put at arm’s length by smart signifiers and more drawn in close and in bright fidelity.
Jeanines – What You Do
If you know Slumberland Records, you may alread think you know what this sounds like, but Jeanines spin classic jangle-pop tropes into something fresh, lithe, and slightly strange. Singer Alicia Hyman’s pointed voice and the band’s whip-quick writing feel like they leave you with a head-spinning amount of personality and hooks in each song on How Long Can It Last, and there’s a strain of foggy melancholy underneath the shining brightness of each song’s chiming refrain.
The Interlaken Tapes – Roter Mond
Fuzzy, loose krautrock from Bottrop, Germany. If you’ve ever wondered what Michael Rother would sound like if he was camped out on a laptop in his apartment, this is close.
throwback
Kelley Stoltz – Ever Thought of Coming Back
I was in a band in SF during the heydey of Stoltz and his fellow Tascam 388 alcolytes, but I admit I was too mired in the white belts and tight pants of dance-punk to appreciate his local genius. “Ever Thought of Coming Back” still sounds like getting lost on the MUNI and suddenly coming up from underground to the other side of the fog line, and I’m nostalgic for a sound I didn’t even appreciate when it was right under my nose.