Liner Notes (June 5th, 2020)
Some weeks feel like years. This was one of them. In this week’s newsletter, I look at music and entertainment I enjoyed last week, share a playlist of ten songs I liked, and all the other usual stuff. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
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Four Things
This was an extremely tough week. Not only are we still in the middle of a global pandemic, but once again, the stain of white supremacy and police violence is on full display. On Tuesday, I shared a post on the website full of various resources and reading material I’ve found helpful over the years. I think this post about non-optical allyship, and this thread about police violence, are straightforward to digest and understand. There are links to places to donate, articles, and more in the original post, some of it’s a good starting place, some of it’s for beginning a deeper dive. I am begging everyone to spend some time learning and listening right now. Other things I’ve come across this week that I found helpful include:
You can download these books about police violence for free right now.
A history lesson detailing the long history of oppression and racial violence in America.
This month is Pride Month, and so I have put all of the rainbow Chorus logo merchandise back into our store for all of June. This year we have stickers, magnets, and pins available as well. All proceeds from anything ordered in the store over the next month will be donated to charity, so if you’re looking to pick something up, now’s a great time to do it.
For my weekly article, I decided to go back to 2005 and take a look at the best of lists from that year. I start by looking at the staff list and trying to give some context about what was on it (and what wasn’t) before diving into my list from 2005 and doing a full re-ranking of where I would put everything today. I think 2005 is one of the cornerstone years for our little music scene and one of the best for pop-punk/emo music in my lifetime. It’s just classic after classic being pumped out in those 12 months. I also included a playlist of some of my favorite songs from 2005 as well, so if you want a massive nostalgia hit, give that a listen as well. While doing this for 2005 was a lot of fun, I realize if I continue with this project, not every year will be as enjoyable to look back on. The music scene has a lot in its history that is going to be painful to re-examine.
I ripped Phoebe Bridgers’s cover of Bright Eyes if anyone wants this rendition for their collection.
In Case You Missed It
Music Thoughts
I’m a big fan of the new album from Momma that came out today called Two of Me. It’s been on constant rotation this week and gives me a little Now, Now Threads-era vibe or maybe Daughter. I was drawn to the lyrical wordplay. It’s definitely worth your time.
The new Run the Jewels album out today (well, technically earlier this week) is the big release of the week and it lives up to expectations. I love the energy here and how propulsive the songs are. Pissed off and aggressive RTJ reminds me a lot of P.O.S.’s Never Better, which is still one of my favorite albums of the past decade. Wait, that came out in 2009. Oh my god, why do things keep making me feel ancient and old?
I’ve only had time to listen to it once so far, but I liked this new release from Katie Malco that’s out today. I saw someone mention it in the Phoebe Bridgers thread, and I can see that comp at times, but it has a little more of a rock vibe to it at times, not quite Alex Lahey, but a mixture.
That Lady Gaga album got a few more spins this week and my biggest complaint with it right now is that it drags. It starts feeling a little too generic, and I think it would have benefited from a tighter sequence. I think that’s what I love so much about that Dua Lipa album from earlier this year (which now feels like it might as well have been a decade ago), that album feels perfectly tight and concise.
Big thanks to everyone recommending the NNAMDÏ album this week. It’s exceptional, creative, and the kind of record that demands your attention while listening to it. The type of art that benefits from active engagement.
This Airborne Toxic Event album has surprised me. I didn’t expect it to grab me as much as it has, but I keep finding myself wanting to reach for it.
I saw a playlist shared this week that is full of punk bands with POC members. You can find it on Spotify and Apple Music, and there’s a lot of excellent stuff in here. I also found myself getting back into Straight Line Stitch and Meet Me @ the Altar this week and I’m going to keep pushing Meet Me @ the Altar on everyone until you’re sick of me.
Entertainment Thoughts
I adored the anime, Your Name, so I was highly anticipating his next film,Weathering With You. It didn’t reach the heights of the previous film by a long shot, but it was still pretty good. Some of the animation is gorgeous. I liked the soundtrack, but I was never pulled into the story in the same way. Not bad, I just had higher expectations.
I got Hannah hooked on Dark this week, and we binged the entire first season. I watched it a few weeks ago, so this was my second time through. It’s incredible TV and holds up even better on the second viewing. We started season two last night, and I expect we’ll be watching a whole lot of it on Saturday.
Harley Quinn is still my happy place.
We watched all three of the Middleditch and Schwartz improv specials on Netflix. I think the second one was my favorite, but they’re all good. I think I’m so impressed by improv because it feels like something I would be horribleat, just downright embarrassingly bad, so I am enamored with the brains of the people that can do this well, and be funny at it as well.
I finished the second and third book in the Shades of London series and enjoyed them for what they are. I didn’t know I would have to wait for a fourth book or I might have spaced these out differently, I thought I could finish the series and move on, but alas, I now am stuck in cliff-hanger-hell. Fun little distracting teen-sci-fi-ghost series. After that, I plowed through Blake Crouch’s Recursion, and to the surprise of no one, loved it. He’s got this Christopher Nolan storytelling weirdness with the ease of Michael Crichton’s writing style thing going on, and it’s very much in my wheelhouse. It was a new and unique take on time travel (I guess we can call it that) that I hadn’t seen explored before. Would recommend. I’m now a few chapters into The Cactus League, and it’s making me miss baseball.
Random and Personal Stuff
Not a whole lot to share in this department this week.
Ten Songs
Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.
Meet Me @ The Altar - Garden Song
Momma - Biohazard
Straight Line Stitch - Out of Body
NOW.HERE - My Wonderland
A Place in Time - Cakewalk
POS - Purexed
Run the Jewels - Goonies vs. E.T
Big Joanie - Fall Asleep
Katie Malco - Fractures
NNAMDÏ - Price Went Up
This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Community Watch
The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:
The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by Wharf Rat in the “General Politics Discussion VII” thread.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. I know things are really rough right now, but I just keep telling myself to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.
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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.