Quick Note: I’m thinking about doing a “reader mailbag” edition of John’s Music Blog. Will anyone write in? Hard to say… Send your question, if you have one, to jchiaverina@gmail.com and put READER MAILBAG in the subject.
I’ve said it before: There’s a lot of kids out there messing with breakbeats and getting compared to Beck. I’m all for it, but on a deeper conceptual level, Lucy is more of an heir apparent to the Hansen throne than anyone copping a surface Odelay attitude. Or, actually, is the Cape Cod native the SoundCloud Jonathan Richman? That’s a dumb sentence, but I’m trying to connect the dots. Whatever the case, when Cooper pulls out that harmonica, it’s just the icing on the cake.
AyooLii “Crying In The Shower”
Here comes another blast of extremely online twee courtesy of a Milwaukee kid who has had a good year. “Crying in the shower/Because I miss my fuckin’ auntie.” The melody here would make Dntel blush. (As long as we are talking about Milwaukee… The new Certified Trapper song is one of the more catchy and insane things he has done in a minute.)
Hystric hardcore whose almost three-minute length is justified by a fire tempo switch that goes down big time in the song’s final minute; it flips from ultrafast to just normal fast—still maybe too fast to do the creepy crawl or whatever it is the cool punk people do nowadays. God knows I’m no expert.
Lana Del Rey “Unchained Melody (Live at NBC’s Christmas at Graceland)”
I like Xaviersobased and all that just as much as the next net-rotted music fan, but this is pretty good, too.
Fredo Bang “Act Like You Can’t Think”
Fredo Bang has been on a little bit of a run in 2023. He’s tapped into the more cheerful end of the Baton Rouge sound, at least musically, and he’s not afraid to write in a hooky style. Put it another way: I doubt Fredo Bang is a Mormon or has any plans of becoming one. It’s the John’s Music Blog Louisiana Pick of the Week.
Best Green Day song in a minute. Kind of sounds like Lit.
In my debut Nina column, I talk about how I’m not interested in checking for jazz, which is funny because I’ve been listening to a fair amount as of late. I mean, I don’t know all that much about jazz. That’s what I like about it! (To recap today’s blog post, things that I don’t know all that much about: jazz; the dancing style of young punks.) The masterful late loping drummer Paul Motian has been in my ears recently thanks to recommendations from my friend Margot, which led me to an inspiring three-hour celebration of both him and the British guitar player Derek Bailey (RIP). Bailey’s psycho jungle radio improvs are a favorite of mine, and this sampling of the scope of both is stirring. But then I gotta put on some happy hardcore.
(Shout to the legendary Guy Kozak for that Lucy picture.)