THE REPORT: 6/21/2024
LUCY AND SURF GANG, A MATCH MADE IN BLOG HEAVEN
Here is a meeting of two certified John’s Music Blog all-stars: Lucy (some have called him the SoundCloud Jonathan Richman), and Surf Gang founder EvilGiane (quite possibly the best producer in New York City). And that’s not even to mention a third producer, ccured, a person I do not know much about but definitely helped to lace the track—a skippy shmacker with a proper topline. “I’m feeling different / but I dance the same.”
Going Off is a hardcore band from Manchester, England. Their singer has a phlegmy kind of Mancunian bark that really sells “Mind Over Matter,” a groovy 58-second blast of windbreaker mosh. I never got any tattoos. What does that say about me? I could leave this all behind.
Extreme Animals “The Spark Remix”
There is a certain kind of cultural content that will be forwarded to me by multiple friends on the same day. The news that the legendary competitive eater Joey Chestnut dipped out of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest because he signed a lucrative deal with the meat substitute brand Impossible is one example. Another one is the song “The Spark” by Kabin Crew & Lisdoonvarna Crew, a rave rap track made by Irish schoolchildren that I resisted at first but definitely lives up to the hype. Here, Extreme Animals provide their signature take on what might be a classic.
Bay Swag “Nothing Last Forever”
We don’t post that much “sexy drill” on John’s Music Blog, and there is no real reason for that other than the simple fact that there is too much music in the world and I can barely keep my shoes tied. Cash Cobain flips a Jamie Foxx tune, and Bay Swag locks in. “Nothing Last Forever” has a tunnel vision intensity that would sound good blasted out of a car at a rest stop somewhere in the Tri-State.
Angelwings Marmalade “Wifesmell”
Do you remember MIDI grind? I do. Heads in American Apparel short shorts wrestling on a basement floor; drum machine blast beats; horrific vocal screeches. If “Wifesmell” by Fire-Toolz alter ego Angelwings Marmalade isn’t MIDI grind, it’s something like a cousin, amended for a post-vaporwave landscape. I have already gone too deep, and I apologize.
MIX OF THE WEEK: MAEBH “ASMR to help you rave”
One late afternoon, zooted on Dunkin’ (I slipped), I zoomed over to the SoundCloud account of recent JMB interviewee XXHARDBIT3S. That is where I found a link to this mix, which rides an effective ASMR intro into an hour of post-everything pummel. It’s fast, but it still has feeling. It might even be a little funky. And it’s the mix of the week.