you should buy your friends' art

plus the week's best from matthew danger lippman, two shell and more!

Hey! So prices are still up and…going up? And we’re about to enter a recession, maybe?

Hopefully you aren’t reading this newsletter for economic advice (don’t buy crypto!!), but in these troubled times, I can offer one piece of advice for what to do with your money that will help your community, make sure the freaks keep being freaks, and make you a better person: buy your friends’ fucking art.

This is, unfortunately, my go-to rant after 3+ beers, so apologies to the friends who have heard this before, but you should absolutely, by policy, spend money on your friends’ art whenever possible.

What all your friends who are musicians or artists or filmmakers or writers or painters or animal balloonists don’t tell you, their friend, is how few of their friends actually put down cash money when push comes to shove when they drop a new project. I’ve been on both ends of the deal, and it’s amazing how far the gap is between “oh hey that’s so cool you’re doing that” and “yes I will pay you $25 for this record you made.” You'd be surprised how many people that love knowing artists, or having “creative communities” actually show up with money, either online or IRL. Does it feel cool to be on the guestlist? Sure! Does buying a ticket, no questions asked or no prodding necessary, make you a better friend? Absolutely.

I've had friends ask to get on the guest list for shows on a Wednesday in a room that barely fit 50 people and you never really forget that. On the flipside, I’ve had friends I’ve never talked to for years see an Instagram post about a new record and ch-ching they hit the Bandcamp without hesitation and you deifnitely never forget that feeling.

Don’t be the friend who waits til the record blows up, or the film is selling out screenings. I don't want to tell you what to do with your money other than don't buy crypto but this is a newsletter about consuming art and music so I need to tell you the one ethical thing I think you should do and that is you should buy your friends’ art.

And on that note I'm excited to pick up a copy of Jeremy Gordon See Friendship out this week. No cash? Well here are some Good Links, for free!

• Skaturday is for the (Rude)boys – Someone get Carson Daly on the horn for an oral history of MTV’s Skaturday special from 1997.

• Enough to make you Delirious – Ezra Edelman goes long on what happened with the Prince Estate and why his 9+ hour Prince doc will never see the light of day. A tragedy.

• Broke not Baroque – AI-generated classical music absolutely still sounds like dogshit.

• “You know what’s cooler than a Menson Moone?” – I worked at Facebook for a few years during Trump I, back when it seemed they wanted to work on misinformation and supporting new outlets, and I will say every single thing I saw of Zuckerberg was consistent with a dude with terrible ideas and absolutely zero taste so this Benson Boone thing is totally unsurprising

• Hey fuck Eric Adams AND Andrew Cuomo – NY Dems, don’t forget to DREAM when you fill out your primary ballot, Don’t Rank Eric (or) Andrew (for) Mayor

ANYWAYS here’s the best of the week. As always, you can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy!

Matthew Danger Lippman – Unattended

I got a sneak peek at Matthew Danger Lippman’s new album Nirvana last year, and it’s filled with wry, brilliant pop songs that share DNA with Jonathan Richman and Ben Kweller. Lippman has a way with writing story songs in miniature, giving just enough detail to feel lived-in but not in a cloying or heavy-handed way. It also helps that he’s a superb power pop hook writer – get excited for Nirvana when it drops May 9th!

Two Shell – Oops…

My favorite part of the best of digicore/hyperpop songs is the anti-drop. The drop, one the stupidest elements of modern pop music, made even dumber on purpose to only heighten the silliness of the track’s build. “Oops” hits like three of these in a row, and I can only imagine how annoying this would be on the dancefloor if it wasn’t totally grin-inducing.

Matt McBane – Gleam

Matt McBane calls his latest LP Buoy an album of “patterns and ambiance” which undersells how many of the tracks on the record are delightful, yet minimal, bops. “Gleam” has a swung arpeggiated bounce that begs for a 4/4 kick but remains drum-free, instead opting for a rolling bass counterpoint but still pulses and drives, not settling for background music. “Patterns and ambiance” might be the scope of the record, but ebullient energy and motion shine through on every track.

DARKSIDE – S.N.C.

Listening to Darkside’s new LP Nothing, even if you hadn’t seen the news they added drummer Tlacael Esparza, you’d be able to tell something upped the physicality on this go-around for the electro-jam outfit. The exploratory sonics and jammy, searching playing remain, but there’s a grounded urgency that gives each song a heavy pulse. The songs sound built for festival stages, especially the funk face-inspiring “S.N.C.”

Tunde Adebimpe – God Knows

“God Knows” is the first single from Adebimpe’s upcoming solo LP Thee Black Boltz that grabbed me – it’s mostly cool hearing his iconic voice over pedal steel and sepia-tinged reverbed bass and drums. For a singer most known for riding on top of a massive wall of noise with TV on the Radio, it’s a delight to hear him atop something that simmers instead of boiling over.

throwback

Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You

This was my first introduction to Angie Stone during my peak “recording MTV2 on to VHS tapes” phase in high school. I was still a nascent R&B fan, deep in indie rock, but “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” absolutely captivated me, with Stone’s vocal sailing over the lifted groove from “Backstabbers.” I still almost prefer it to “Backstabbers,” mostly thanks to Stone’s vocal hooks and performance. Her death last week at 63 is a huge, unexpected loss, and it took me back to how even as a teen indie rocker, I was stopped by her powerful artistry and instrument. RIP.