TORCH LIKE A DYING SUN
What a week. We lost Chadwick. We lost Riley. We’re losing our souls. Fires and hurricanes. I know I’ve been very Jerry Springer “take care of each other” lately but I mean it. Every year since 2016 has felt more insurmountable than the last. Give what you can and stay safe. The hits have kept coming and we all cope differently. I’m playing a lot of DOOM Eternal, for what it’s worth.
Archers of Loaf - Dead Red Eyes
Smashing Pumpkins - Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)
Run The Jewels - out of sight (Feat. 2Chainz)
Otis Redding - Cigarettes and Coffee
Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap (Feat. Stacey Barthe)
Box Car Racer - Cat Like Thief
Every Time I Die - Idiot
The Japanese House - Lilo
Bad Religion - My Sanity
Prune Deer - By Air (Feat. Ashley Tsang & LK-072)
I was as surprised as everyone when Archers of Loaf reformed like Voltron. I, like most people, didn’t think they had anything else left in the tank, and to a certain extent, the new singles haven’t been incredibly inspiring. But they did make me revisit their final album, White Trash Heroes. Decidedly less of a “guitar” album, and employing more textured synthesizers and glacial arrangements, White Trash Heroes feels like it has more in common with progressive rock instead of punk. No matter. As with most things, time has proven it’s value in the Archers of Loaf catalog. “Dead Red Eyes” is a good summation—full of insistent keyboards that push against churning bass work and hypnotic hooks. If the ‘Loaf are truly here to stay, I hope they revisit some of the textures on this album instead of trying to rewrite “Web in Front.”
Billy Corgan has dragged the Smashing Pumpkins’ legacy through the mud so badly that it when he accidentally remembers how to write good songs, it’s an actual revelation. I say this as a staunch defender of both Machina (Volumes I and II), as well as Zeitgeist (Which is an incredible metal record that people continue to sleep on. I mean, c’mon, this whips.). That said, Corgan has rarely delivered on the promise of the the group’s 90s heyday. “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)” is one of the post-reunion exceptions, a love child between “Tonight, Tonight” and “1979,” with its nocturnal new wave and orchestral swells offering the brightest spot on the often exhausting Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. What the song gets right is the breathless grandeur that made the Smashing Pumpkins stars in the first place, which even the band has trouble repeating. The Pumpkins just released a set of new singles for their follow up album, so here’s to hoping the next go around provides us with Billy the Dreamer and not Billy the Curmudgeon.
It was only a matter of time before a proper Run The Jewels song made its way here. I could go on and on about how good RTJ4 is, but the thing that sticks out about “out of sight” is how ridiculously smooth it is in contrast with chopped up b-boy beat (never mind the wonderful 2Chainz feature). This thing is mean, recalling the hard 808s of LL Cool J’s Radio and the lyrical gymnastics of Run-DMC’s Raising Hell. The thing I appreciate about Run The Jewels is that their songs are never dour, never bitter, despite the very real injustices they address. They are able to effortlessly oscillate between joy ride and getaway, in a way that leaves other rappers in the dust. Menaces to sobriety, indeed.
My wife and I celebrated our anniversary this week. 8 years together, 3 of them married. I was reminded of this Otis Redding song because it’s hard to imagine how we got here in the blink of an eye. “Cigarettes and Coffee” crystalizes that feeling of being up all night, together, sharing the gratitude for what you have and the prospect of what’s to come.
Nipsey Hussle’s life was cut tragically short. We will only have glimpse into the artist he would have become but that glimpse was bright. The first time I spun Victory Lap’s title track, I knew it was special. The Arctic Monkeys interpolation is so savvy—it’s not that hip-hop borrowing from indie or rock is anything new but putting it together with Stacey Barthe’s reverb laden vocals turned a sexy song into something menacing. Lyrically, Nipsey is preoccupied with the price of progress and the weight that comes with success. It’s rare to find an artist that operates with pure control over their abilities. With Victory Lap, Nipsey has added his name among the greats.
Tim Armstrong, Tom DeLonge, and Jordan Pundik on the same track in 2002 was like the past, present, and future of pop-punk in a singular moment. It’s unrepeatable. You would never know it by listening to “Cat Like Thief,” which plays out like a flange soaked duet between Armstrong and DeLonge, but the interesting thing about this song is that it’s something of a tension ballad. DeLonge’s nasally register perfectly complements Armstrong’s two-tone drawl. Box Car Racer was something of a vanity project for DeLonge but it allowed him to come into his own as a songwriter and add atmosphere, dread, and ambiguity to blink-182’s relentless hooks. “Cat Like Thief” never really explodes the way the rest of the album does but I love the vulnerability and the notion that DeLonge felt comfortable enough to share this kind of longing after blink’s previous record was titled after a masturbation joke.
“Idiot” is absolutely savage. Keith Buckley spins a surreal and terrifying tale of disassociation, set against relentless thrash and burly hardcore. You’d be stupid not to spin it.
The Japanese House’s Amber Bain marries analog longing with synthetic production to create a mind bending dream. “Lilo” is off her breakthrough debut Good at Falling and presents something that is smooth and harmonious, but aches with cold clarity. The end result is feeling adrift in a digital sea. There’s no shortage of people currently making smart, bedroom synth pop, but “Lilo’s” cyber sway puts The Japanese House in a class of their own.
I know Bad Religion may not be fashionable in 2020 but I wonder if they were ever fashionable outside of 1988 and a brief moment in the 90s. Who cares? “My Sanity” is taken from last year’s Age of Unreason and it finds the band mining Greg Graffin’s Americana fascinations alongside Brett Gurewitz’s love of driving power chords. For a group that is openly skeptical of religious ideaology, it’s interesting to watch them basically write a gospel song that ascends towards the sky. “My Sanity” has ascending choruses, slide guitar, and incredible metaphors about universal convergence: “My life is a song / A short melody / Harmonizing with reality…” Sure, they might all be dads at this point but who can argue with punk rock this heady?
My new favorite discovery is Prune Deer. “By Air” is a drifting slab of shoegaze by way of post-rock, from the nimble guitar lines to the glitchy keyboard blips and ambient sound collage. Airports present fertile ground for transition, to consider leaving your old life behind and to embark on something unknown. This song is as weightless as mid-flight drift. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Originally published August 29, 2020 as part of Hella Vibes.