April 2025 Recs

Lily Seabird, Noah Ross, This is Lorelei, and more

Happy belated May Day!! Didn’t get to post yesterday bc I was too busy, but I’m excited to get around to it as this month was probably my favorite month of new releases yet this year.

Favorite Album That Came Out This Month: “Trash Mountain” by Lily Seabird

This is an absolutely beautiful new album by Lily Seabird named for her pink home in Vermont and recorded over four days. After spending nearly half her time on the road touring as a bassist in bands like Greg Freeman and Liz Cooper, this album takes an intimate look at her interiority and exteriority. As a young artist trying to balance what feels like several different lives, myself, I find so much pleasure in the rawness of her lyricism, of her hopes and desires and quotidian life (remembering to do taxes sigh). I was absolutely thrilled when I first heard this record and there are multiple songs on it that will surely make my Best of the Year List. If you can’t handle a crackly and raw voice, you might not want to listen, but if you like that in indie rock/folk, I can’t recommend enough.

Full review here.

Favorite Album That Didn’t Come Out This Month: “Oceanside Countryside” by Neil Young

Okay this is kinda cheating since this album was released just last month, but also not really since it was originally recorded in 1977. It’s a collection of songs, many of them featured on other albums over the years, that Young recorded between May-December of ‘77 in Florida. As a fan but not connoisseur of Neil Young, it was still delightful as many of these were new to me and often more playful and raw/stripped back than some of his other stuff. Fair warning there is a song called “Pocahontas” and many mentions of indigenous culture which might not go over well today, but there are still some great songs on here. I also got to see Neil Young’s wife’s latest tour documentary this month (thanks Kirk!), so that probably inspired this pick as well.

Full review here.

Favorite Live Performance I Saw This Month: This is Lorelei at Cafe du Nord

Ugh. So good. Love Nate Amos in all of his projects. Was so fun and good with a live band and tiny venue. And Cairo came!!! Danced my little heart out. <3 Will see him live at every opportunity I have.

Favorite Book I Read This Month: Active Reception by Noah Ross

Finally got around to getting my Oakland library card!! Woohoo!! So my first check-out was the e-book version of Noah Ross’s Active Reception (Nightboat 2021). And it was pretty darn amazing. Ross does an incredible job of weaving together the individual and the collective in a way that always feels politically urgent and somehow makes rhetorical and conceptual sense even as he zooms in and out rapidly. The book is also super formally expansive and innovative and inspired me a lot to push my thinking about how text can look on the page. So cool that so many of my favorite writers are in the East Bay community. Excited to see him read at Tamarack tonight :)

Monthly Reviews Wrap-Up

Choose Myself (EP), Jessica Lea Mayfield (6/10), indie rock

star, 2hollis (3/10), electronic

Chaos Practioner (EP), fantasy of a broken heart (7/10), prog pop

Resonance, Bill Fox (7/10), indie folk

SABLE, fABLE, Bon Iver (6/10), indie pop

80’z, Bb trickz (7/10), rap

Gingko, Panchiko (2/10), indie pop

Revengeseekerz, Jane Remover (3/10), electronic

Welcome to My Blue Sky, Momma (7/10), indie rock

And my favorite monthly playlist I’ve made in a long time :D

xoxo!