Wow. Hell of a month, emphasis on the HELL!!! Election was bad and I also got sick. Despite that, though, there was a lot of great music and new releases to get me through my most emo moments. 2024 is ramping up to be quite an excellent year musically.
Favorite Album That Came Out This Month: “Lily of the Valley” by 22º Halo
Spent a while debating between this album and Mount Eerie’s “Night Palace,” but ultimately I’ve decided on this one, the main reasons being 1) my favorite songs off of “Night Palace” came out as singles before this month and 2) I had crazy high expectations for that album and kinda no expectations for this one. “Lily of the Valley” is a great example of an album that grows on you exponentially with time, which I always love. On first listen I was like okay this is fine and maybe overhyped, but as I’ve listened to it a lot over the last month, I’ve come to really love the singularity of 22º Halo’s style of indie folk, difficult in a crowded genre. A really pleasant surprise for me.
Full review here.
Favorite Album That Didn’t Come Out This Month: “Live in Los Angeles” by Purity
Okay I stumbled upon this 30 minute track, the only thing released by Purity on Spotify, a few weeks ago and was just blown away. I just found them on bandcamp and this is the description: “Purity is a project composed of members of Behavior and P22. It takes the form of a cover band with a limited repertoire. This LP, originally released in 2016, represents their live set, which has been repeated in different venues with regularity since 2014.” It is a blend of covers of the following songs over a drum track. It’s frikin awesome. Didn’t review it on my blog, but would probably give it an 8/10.
Behavior “Black Dog”
Rudimentary Peni “1/4 Dead”
Negative Approach “Ready To Fight”
Minor Threat “In My Eyes”
Flux Of Pink I****** “Sick Butchers”
The B-52’s “Dance This Mess Around”
Fav Live Performance I Saw This Month: Her New Knife, Frost Children, and julie at the Independent
Okay I expected my fav performance this month to be the Swirlies concert, which I was soooo stoked for, but was ultimately disappointed by!!! Swirlies have been a fav of mine for a while, but idk they were just old white men mostly w bad vibes. Julie, on the other hand, was wayy better than I had anticipated, and I had pretty high expectations. Her New Knife and Frost Children opened w such awesome energy that the room was hyped for julie, and man they just ripped. Dillon, the drummer, especially is just wild. I think part of the reason for julie’s meteoric rise is that they are actually just very good. They make so much noise for a three piece without a backing track. While I think they are maybe overhyped in the sense that there are a lot of great and similar bands (Hello Mary, etc.) with a fraction of the following, I do think the hype is substantiated by talent. I’ve never seen the Independent that crowded.
Fav Book I Read This Month: Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer
I’ve had the wonderful privilege over the last month of being in Sophia Dahlin’s generative poetry workshop on Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer. Embarrassing as it is, I have really little experience with Mayer, and this is actually the first full book of hers I’ve read. And what a joy it’s been! The conceit of the book is that it was written over the course of a single day, Dec 22 1978 (my birthday, 20 years before my birth). And I think that’s all very awesome, but what’s especially awesome is the writing. Here is a sweet little taste, the last page of the first section.
Monthly Reviews Wrap-Up
Songs of a Lost World, The Cure (6/10), darkwave/synth pop
Night Palace, Mount Eerie (8/10), noise pop
Seed of a Seed, Haley Heynderickx (6/10), indie folk
Trilogy, Hotline TNT (7/10), alt. rock/shoegaze
TRANSA, Red Hot Org (7/10), compilation/indie folk
GNX, Kendrick Lamar (6/10), rap
Live at Julie’s (EP), Hovvdy (6/10), live/indie folk
Nobody Loves You More, Kim Deal (7/10), indie rock
headbanger (EP), untitled (halo) (5/10), shoegaze
Midwinter Swimmers, The Innocence Mission (7/10), indie folk
Monthly Playlist!
xoxoxoxoxo