Sl*p content-free track reviews
Carlos Truly! Channel Tres! Flaccid Mojo! Isn't Ours! Bright Eyes! NEIL DIAMOND!!
Happy day after the takiest day that ever taked from us at the Unskippables!
Honestly, I feel like yesterday we all had a Thanksgiving-sized portion of internet, so I’m going straight to the tracks and of course the Goodest Links
Trombone in a swimming pool about to get a glowing Resident Advisor review
A Pirate Looks At 55 And Over - Nick Paumgarten’s piece on Margaritaville-themed retirement communities is worth reading if only for the very satisfying closing/kicker
In honor of Taylor Hawkins’ death (RIP), here is a very funny pro-smoking PSA from him and Dave Grohl in the 90s that has never really left my brain
Joy Orbison has a really fun new DJ mix for Mixmag that joyfully (pun intended) traverses a bunch of genres
On to the tracks! You can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #29
Carlos Truly - 108th
Right before I moved to New York, I obsessively checked out Brooklyn bands, thinking I was going to meet and befriend every one of them - and Ava Luna was a band I loved from the get go after listening to the creeping funk of “Clips” in 2010. More recently, their lead singer/writer Carlos has been at work producing bands like post-punk darlings GUSTAF, so it’s great to hear his voice again for the first song off his upcoming NOT MINE solo LP. The song is a dimly lit, slightly out-of-focus R&B song, co-produced by his brother, but it’s Carlos’ nervy delivery and falsetto that hones the song’s edge as it opens up with a lush string arrangement in its second half.
Channel Tres - Acid In My Blood
My friend Nick, who co-wrote and co-produced this track with Channel Tress, talked to me recently about trying to figure out when a bassline has too many notes, the cardinal sin of basslines. Luckily for us, his time spent picking only the right notes is on display with this bruising and insistent new single from Channel Tres. You can feel the sweat coming off the track, the sparse, spiky bassline leaving plenty of space for visions of dark, packed dancefloors where the song will bloom.
Flaccid Mojo - Slow Psychics
Flaccid Mojo are Black Dice's Bjorn Copeland and Aaron Warren, and “Slow Psychics” is the first track from their upcoming debut LP on Jon Dwyer’s Castle Face imprint. If you’re imagining a Black Dice project that would interest the lead singer of Thee Oh Sees - you’re probably not far from the mark! There’s a grim, determined pace to “Slow Psychics” that feels as much industrial rock as it does the concrete psychedelia of Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow. Along with this year’s excellent Black Dice LP, it’s good to hear so much noise (literal and metaphorical) coming from their crew in 2022.
Isn’t Ours - Sigil
Another new LP from my favorite new techno imprint kshack, Vermilion is the latest from NYC artist Isn’t Ours. Their latest album moves from style to style, but I found it the most evocative on “Sigil,” whose brusque all-elbows bass groove uses the album’s slightly dank and grimy tones best. The rest of the album ranges from electro, IDM, gabber - unified by the project’s urgent and probing energy.
Bright Eyes and Phoebe Bridgers - St. Ides Heaven
This cover of Elliot Smith’s “St. Ides Heaven” isn’t a revelation, but the heavy bar band energy when Oberst hits the “HIGH ON AMPHETAMINES” pre-chorus reminds me of his unhinged joyful performances on the first Desaparecidos album. It won’t make you rethink either artist, but it’s a fun and dirty take on the Smith album cut - and the abandon it’s performed with earned it repeat listens from me.
THROWBACK CORNER
Neil Diamond - Crunchy Granola Suite (Live At The Greek 1972)
I grew up in a firmly pro-Neil household; he wasn’t on that often, but we did not speak ill of Mr. Diamond. For a long time I pushed back on the music, thinking of the soppy choruses and his giant hair - but re-listening to his live 1972 album, it’s amazing how much he believes the shit out of these songs. And he sings the hell out of therm! The grunting, the yelling, the ad-libs - he really seemed to feel every word, no matter how ridiculous, even when he didn’t have to. His soft rock hits may get flack, but I dare you to find a current pop rocker who would grunt one out like Neil did.
That’s all for this week - thanks as always for reading, and if you haven’t please subscribe. I swear my writing is *even better* when it’s in your inbox.