Liquid Mike is a likable ‘90s-style power pop band from the frozen Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They’ve put out five good records in under three years. It’s music to play at the college town sandwich spot, the one that sells a little weed on the side. You know the one. Now I’m hungry for a pasty.
I can’t get enough of that RealYungPhil flow. It’s somewhat uniform on every track, and it can feel downright classicist when juxtaposed with the kind of online beats he often raps over. Here, he goes on top of a plodding, triumphant Gud track that shmacks like slow motion footage of a triathlete crawling to the finish line. Or, as SoundCloud user starfall puts it: “This beat is like my cats marching into my room to get fed at 5am.”
It’s another excellent video collaboration between Flannery Silva and Guy Kozak. I won’t spoil much about the clip, in which Silva plays both the hunter and the hunted, but I will say that few are doing it like this, with the same combination of humor and aesthetic focus. One of the few productive things I did last year was introduce these two to each other.
G40 has a relentless style. It’s one long run-on sentence. Boosie-esque in its energy—he’s from West Palm Beach, but he sounds a bit Baton Rouge—the guy’s performance on “REDZONE” is the perfect early morning compliment to the bitter instant coffee that you choke down before starting another psycho day in Anytown, USA.
We kicked off The Report with some small town rock and roll, so I guess we should end with something from the big city. NYC’s Voyeur released a satisfying five-tracker earlier in the week; my pick of the lot, other than the lead single “Ugly,” is the EP’s closer, a slow-burn dual-vocal chugger firmly in the lineage. They play a free show tonight at Baby’s All Right, actually, and I’m going to try to muster the energy to go. It doesn’t get easier; it just gets harder.
MIX OF THE WEEK: Dakota Velasquez “Bring In The Breaks!”
Let’s stay in the city. Dakota Velasquez is the co-founder of Helltekk, a New York crew that, over the past few years, has been throwing some of the most exciting raves in town. Speaking of mustering energy: Last fall, I made the hour-long trek to a secret, wooded outer-borough location to scope a Helltekk function under the stars, and it did not disappoint. On this mix, Velasquez slams an hour of jungle, breakbeat hardcore, and a little gabber. I mention Helltekk in the rave revival report I did for Nina a few months ago; check that out if you are looking for a cheeky weekend read.