THE REPORT: 1/17/25
SPANISH RICE SAYS: “TURN YO PHONE UP”
Another friend of the blog—and former interviewee—Flannery Silva (F.G.S.) lost nearly everything in the Los Angeles wildfires. Her friends set up a Gofundme to help her get back on her feet. Flannery is also raising money for her neighbors: The multi-family property she lives in lost half of their units to the fire, with the other half smoke damaged and uninhabitable.
Spanish Rice “Turn Yo Phone Up”
Spanish Rice is behind the pre-pandemic Milwaukee rap classic “Dodging Spike Sticks,” but he hasn’t necessarily been at the center of the city’s conversation over the past few years. He dropped a new project last week, and one highlight is the grumbling “Turn Yo Phone Up.” Urgent music that I am going to play the next time I am waiting in line in the Culver’s drive-thru. God willing, it will be soon.
The Cool Horse Man of the Apocalypse “Man Up Khalil!”
One half of former JMB interviewees The Dallas Cowboys has a new solo project, and it runs along the general lines of the Cowboys, which is to say that it reminds me of that moment in the 2000s when everyone had a computer music project of some sort, no matter what subculture they incubated out of. It’s electro-pop, I guess is what I’m trying to get at.
Crochet “My Russian doll forever”
More contemporary white belt action. Crochet combines tappity tap guitar with rolling-around-on-the-floor screamo frenzy. Hearing the band’s possible Hella influence makes me think that we are only a year or two away from a rainbow rock revival; if there is one person in the world that would try to will that non-genre back into non-existence, it would be my dumb ass. When is Numero Group going to step up and do a rainbow rock comp?
The latest batch of Horsegirl singles for Matador have been cool, especially the shambly “2468,” which, as others have pointed out, rocks with that Raincoats violin pressure to nice effect. Now the Oak Park-incepted—what’s up, Leon—zoomer trio is back with another hypnotic burner, and it even comes with a video directed by blog favorite Guy Kozak. The result: 100 Percent Pure Indie. Rarely do I think that two songs need to get a seven-inch release, but these would make for a pretty good double A-side.
Baton Rouge update: TG Kommas gives us a dose of Louisiana-style reality rap over a Louisiana-style 83 BPM bounce track. It's some of the better, more expressive Baton Rouge rapping I’ve heard in a minute. I'm not really an expert on the subject, but any idiot can hear that Kommas catches a special pocket at around the two-minute mark. It makes me pine for the glory days of 70th Street Carlos, just a little bit. When the guy was on, he was on.
Good to see some young musicians rocking with the elusive “knee noise” performance style, as previously discussed in my interview with Marcia Bassett, of Double Leopards and Un. (A lot of interview links today.) Plus it’s going down in Hong Kong? OK! Though the two musicians are dressed like they might pop out at a Drain Gang gig, the music here hits like some funhouse mirror version of the decimated mystery sound that defined an era of sub-underground music, reconfigured with the help of time and geography.
Hella were never my jam but I'm all for a rainbow rock revival if I'm understanding the genre tag correctly. Maybe a potential subject for a "John's Guide" a la the egg punk post?