Liner Notes (May 15th, 2020)
I’m writing this week’s newsletter on not much sleep, but that doesn’t mean I’m short on opinions. In this week’s issue you’ll find thoughts on music and entertainment I enjoyed this week and a playlist of ten songs I loved. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Two Things
This week was both exhilarating and stressful. Early this week, I launched the new design of the website. I wrote a whole bunch about my thinking behind the site, what’s changed, and all of that, here. I think it was the most positive redesign I’ve ever had in my entire career. Virtually all of the feedback was positive, and I am incredibly proud of the new website design and everything that comes along with it. I look forward to publishing content on it every single morning now. But, with any new launch, comes the stress as well. No matter how hard you try and squash bugs before launch, there’s always something, and there were some smaller bugs that were easy to fix right away, but one pretty significant bug that was impacting logged-in users for the website. This is the worst kind of bug because it directly impacts supporting members of the website, and it was, at random, logging them out of the website—my nightmare scenario. I had a couple of sleepless nights, but as of this morning, it looks like I’ve got that basically fixed going forward. (Members may need to login once again to clear everything and reset it.) So, fingers crossed, I’ll be back to working on smaller bugs for the next week! I’d much rather deal with those than ones that have me deep in a terminal stressed out until 3am. By and large, I’m celebratory. This was a huge undertaking; the entire website was written from the ground-up. But it’s been successful, and the response has been very positive. Thank you to everyone for dealing with some of the bugs, and for all the kind words, you’ve gotten me through the week. And, a huge thank you to every supporting member for making it possible for me even to do this.
A few minor things on the new website I’m especially proud: the new features page that puts together all of the big stories on the site and has specific links to things like our End of the Year features (which are now way easier to sort) and a fancy new page for all the Liner Notes. Tag pages for artists are now way better (and were one of the things that took me the longest to get right). The new sort menu for news articles and being able to track what stories are trending on the website. And, really, just the mobile experiencing feeling first-class and expansive.
Sponsor
MxPx have returned with the new song “Worries,” which is now out on all digital platforms. The band have also released a music video for the song and posted up some special merchandise in their webstore.
Mike Herrera will be doing weekly livestreams every Friday on the MxPx Facebook page throughout all of May. Make sure you check that out each week at 6pm PT.
In Case You Missed It
Music Thoughts
The new Charli XCX album came out today and I’ve only had time to spin it once so far. There’s some cool stuff on this, and I’m more instantly connecting with it than I did her previous release. Songs like “Claws” and “Detonate” are fantastic. The whole album has this glossy glitchy pop feel, and I could see this getting quite a few plays in the next few weeks.
Taurids, the new project from Will Pugh of Cartel, have released their new EP to all streaming platforms. Will could probably sing the phonebook, and I’d be into it so that I like this isn’t a surprise. It’s got some nice electronic furnishes, and to me, it feels like a groove album. Something that I find myself just vibing with and being pulled into the mix of sounds. I miss Cartel, of course, but this is a great debut EP on its own.
While catchy, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed in the new LANY single. It feels shockingly generic, which is really saying something for a Nice Guys™ anthem. I’ve enjoyed most everything else they’ve put out so far, so I’m hoping there’s a whole lot more on the album, but this didn’t do much for me on the first listen.
They’re sponsoring the website and newsletter this week, but I would have talked about the new MxPx singleanyway. It’s a nice little one-off song that turned out damn good for being recorded with all the members in different places. One other thing I have to say: When this entire pandemic started, and we all started quarantine, and the online ad market plummeted, and things were horrifying. MxPx and those that work with them reached out to see how I was doing, holding up, and said they wanted to sponsor the website one week to make sure we were doing alright in these crazy times. It honestly knocked me on my ass and hit me on an emotional level. They were one of the first bands I ever loved, as I detail in my podcast with Mike, but to have someone reach out like that … I dunno, in a world where I’m cynical as hell and always expecting the worst, it was a shocking reminder of the good in humanity. It’s something I won’t soon forget.
I plan to listen to the new Jason Isbell album when I’m done with this newsletter. The review from Craig Manning sold me on it. I’ve always considered myself more of a casual Isbell fan, so I’m hoping this will be the album that grabs me. And after that, I’ll be moving to check out the new Perfume Genius album.
Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the O Brother album, You and I, that is on all streaming platforms now. If you haven’t checked this out yet, and are looking for something in the more ambient/rock genre, you should give this a listen.
Lights & Motion do what they do very well. The new album, The Great Wide Open, is no exception. It’s driving, atmospheric, theatric, instrumental music. I think I described one of the early albums as if Yellowcard focused more on the big anthematic part of their songwriting, without vocals, you’d get something like this. This album feels airier on first listen, and I expect it to be a big part of my background listening in the next few weeks.
Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio recorded the song “Sounds Are Fine” with his daughter, Sophie Moon, and it’s incredible. Just a flat out great track.
Entertainment Thoughts
Most of my TV watching this week was spent on Normal People. I’m on episode eight, and I think this is one of the more real feeling shows about teenage love and relationships that I’ve seen in a while. It’s not as “talky,” but it kind of reminds me of a youthful version of the Before Sunset trilogy of movies. Stories about love and misunderstanding, the relationship between two people, and how they mold and shift over time. Oh, and it’s very horny.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always was a tough watch. It’s meant to be, and it’s extremely good, but it was a film that left me emotionally exhausted by the end.
The remake of Valley Girl is silly. It’s a musical, not all of the cast can sing very well, and it’s ridiculous ’80s nostalgia bait at its finest. And yet I had a lot of fun watching it last Friday night and have no regrets. The perfect pizza and beer while shutting off the world kind of movie.
I decided to revisit a few comic book movies this week and discovered I liked Spider-Man: Far From Home even less than I remembered, and Aquaman a little more. Both are flawed films, but at least Aquaman didn’t make me actively groan. I love the Spider-Man character like he’s a part of my family, and I struggled to even finish Far From Homethis time through.
Random and Personal Stuff
My college roommate had to come down to the city to get something from work this week so I met up with him in the empty parking garage, and we sat 6-feet apart and had a couple of beers for an hour. It was one of the best parts of my week. Just seeing and talking with a friend in person again was badly needed.
My new weekly tradition of ‘Pizza Fridays’ is continuing this week. I’m eying something called the “Napalm Breath,” and no one can stop me.
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.
Sophie Moon - Sounds are Fine
Taurids - Double Vision
Charli XCX - Detonate
O’Brother - Slipping
Night Stone - Rocks
MxPx - Worries
Lights and Motion - Glistening
James Vincent McMorrow - Headlights
Jealous of the Birds - Dandelion
Max Richter - Vladimir’s Blues
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 Jason Tate in the “Q&A and Chat With Jason Tate” thread.
OK, I gotta get back to bug squashing! I hope everyone has a great weekend.
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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.