Hello!
Tis the season of rich people bouncing on New York City on the weekends - if not permanently - meaning they leave the city for the rest of us plebes to celebrate what they seem to have forgotten: New York in the summer is amazing. Every suddenly-open reservation, chill bike lane, and empty subway car is a reminder to stick around, even when it hits 90. Have a caviar bump! Get that awful haircut! Jorts only!
Anyways, here are the Good Links of the week:
25 years of Socrates’ Philosophies - If Paul Thompson on the 25th anniversary of Wu-Tang Forever doesn’t make you immediately re-listen to Ghostface’s “Impossible” verse, I don’t know if we can be friends.
A Critical Shriek-consideration - Kaitlyn Tiffany talks about the legacy of the screaming teenage fan for the Atlantic - stick around for the second half on “transformational fandom” and what happens when the shrieks turn to smart, weird remixes on Tumblr
The future of music is the CD club??? One time I signed up for the Columbia music club to get a bunch of cool rock records, and forgot to cancel before getting a POD album in the mail. Anyways, Jaime Brooks goes long about how record clubs and CD services might be a better model in a post-streaming future.
And now, on to this week’s tracks - as always, you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
UNSKIPPABLES #39
FREE* - Dream
I discovered this EP through Dublab’s “Sounds of Now: 185” playlist on Buy Music Club, and couldn’t find much else other than this was put out by Australia’s exxy label. Not that more of a bio would matter - the three-song EP is solely made up of big, open-hearted edits built around tender samples - “Godspeed” is an edit of the James Blake song of the same name - anchored by huge, soaring breakbeats. If you were looking for closing credits music for your own personal Hackers, you’re in luck.
Lil Silva - Another Sketch
Another near-perfect slide of futuristic R&B from Lil Silva’s upcoming debut album Yesterday Is Heavy. The song’s effervescent verse slide reminds me of early Usher singles (“U Remind Me” pun not intended, but I’ll take it), served with an undercurrent of modular swooshes and blips underneath. It’s charming and sleek, making the surging instrumental bridge even more of a surprise, blooming in half time to give the song’s final choruses an elegiac lift.
Healing Potpourri - Wind
This song answers the important question: what if Christopher Cross wrote “Sailing” in the East Bay with help from a Stereolab member while dealing with a global pandemic? This song, taken from Healing Potpourri’s upcoming 2nd album Paradise, is equal parts smooth rock - I would LOVE to hear Michael McDonald sing this - and paisley post-COVID paranoia. Produced by one of my all-time favorite Bay Area musicians, Jason Kick, Healing Potpourri turn fear into fuzzed-out bliss, never quite settling but also never boiling over.
!!! - Man On The Moon
Initially released as a single last year, !!!’s cover of REM was included on their ninth(!) studio album Let It Be Blue, which came out a month ago, and on every level overdelivers. The album shouldn’t be so filled with absolute heaters, and this song shouldn’t work as more than a lark, but it does! Kind of like the Glimmers’ cover of “Physical,” there’s something about a blunt-force so-wrong-its-right cover of something pristine and beautiful. It’s ugly, just like us, so shut up and dance.
Lou Reed and John Cale - I’m Waiting For The Man (May 1965 Demo)
In May 1965, Lou Reed mailed some recordings of his songs to himself to document them for copyright purposes on the cheap. Future bandmate John Cale helped play along, and in August, we all get to hear them for the first time. This version of “I’m Waiting For The Man” sounds more like a Gram Parsons demo than a future art-rock masterpiece, and Cale’s loose harmony adds to the country-western vibe of the early demo.
THROWBACK CORNER
Betty Harris - Ride Your Pony
Posting this for no reason other than it’s a truly great backyard party soul stomper, a perfect back pocket deep cut for playlists for whatever you get up to this summer. Harris only recorded from 1963-1970 before retiring from performing, racking up a discography of peak Southern soul while operating out of Florida and New Orleans. “There’s A Break In The Road” is also an incredible cut, with Harris backed by drummer James Black and the Meters around a circular, powerhouse groove.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!