THE REPORT: 1/31/25
CHIPPING AWAY AT MY SCREENPLAY
Longtime readers of the blog know all about the middling A24 rave movie I’ve been writing in my head over the past few years. Hell, I even mentioned it last week. I don’t think I’ve ever brought it up with Jubilee, though. She grew up raving in Florida and probably has enough anecdotes for a whole movie and a sequel. Her new single, which marks ten years of her label and party Magic City, is a breakhead’s delight. All sorts of breaks. No break left unturned. Breakbeat majesty.
A few days ago, while killing some time before attending a play, I popped into a McNally Jackson, and they were playing Radiohead, and I was kind of fucking with it, more so than usual at least, and this is an insane sentence for me to be writing. I know I retired the cursed and stupid term “backpack drill” from the John’s Music Blog glossary, but if the genre were to exist—it doesn’t—EvilGiane and Goner’s new Radiohead-sampling tune for Slimesito might be in the canon.
Is there a throughline that connects That Dog to Swearin’? No doubt, and I found proof: the new single from San Jose melodic rockers Star 99. They are a band I was not familiar with until recently, but now I’ve been chugging their small discography like a bottle of cucumber lime Electrolit. It’s snappy and scrappy basement pop, the kind that conjures complex emotions in me.
Negashi Armada “Liars & Fornicators”
Former interviewee Negashi Armada put out this new song today, off of a new record released by D.O.T. Audio Arts. Armada’s sound, a synthesis of unimpeachable rap formalism and skewed fidelity play, is in fine form here. Pockets and punchlines glide over time-stretched DX keys. There’s something for both the old heads and the moody London art school kids.
“Morning Mood” hit my ears thanks to a tip from friend of the blog Pete G, who dropped it on me real cutty style one day over SMS text message. Taken from a new reissue, it’s a perfect piece of breakbeat indie pop, sounding like a more Teutonic version of classic Saint Etienne—not a bad thing.
MASH-UP OF THE WEEK: Benzi “Diet Pepsi the Casbah”
And, finally… A mash-up. Aging Millennial Hipster here, reporting for duty! I feel like I listened to hundreds of “Rock The Casbah” flips in 2005; somehow, that was 20 years ago, so it’s really only right that someone is putting Addison Rae over The Clash in the year of our Lord 2025. It’s the first—and maybe last—Mash-Up of the Week, and it was discovered via a great Lot Radio session by Ela Minus. This is why we listen to internet radio, people.
brb printing up tshirts that say I WAS RAISED ON MASH-UPS