SHUFFLIN ALONG 07 - To ease the loss of youth / and how many years I've missed you

I am having fun doing these, so I'm just going to keep doing them. Plus, it's easy to bang out these kinds of entries at my desk at work. Just let the music play and typedy-typedy when I'm supposed to be doing something else. It's been that kind of week/month/year.

OUTLAW HEART by TIGER ARMY

My relationship with Tiger Army goes way back. I think they're more compelling when they're doing this sort of "outlaw ballad" gimmick as opposed to their standard super-fast "Tiger Army Never Die!" psychobilly hot rod stuff. They also dip their toes into Maracahi-style music from time to time, and that's probably what I dig the most from them. I think that Nick 13 has a nice voice and he was quite the punk-rock heart throb with his cheekbones and pretty-yet-bad-boy style. Nick 13 was a butterfly's wing flap away from mainstream super stardom. I could see an alternate universe where Tiger Army got super popular on the back of Nick 13's run on some shit like The Voice or his performance as the lead in a remake of CRY BABY. There is a world where Nick 13 became what Orville Peck is now, but with a rockabilly haircut instead of a sweet mask. You put a guy like that on a big stage in front of some tatted up straight suburban moms or gay suburban dads and let him play slide guitar while singing about his broken heart, then you just kick back and let nature take its course while you cash the checks. That was a big time missed opportunity for some bloodsucking producer in my opinion.

GRAVE FILLED WITH BOOKS by GILES COREY

Giles Corey makes some really beautiful and strange music. The primary word that comes to mind is "haunting." Like, Giles Corey may perhaps be a ghost who is also somehow still alive and making interesting music. I love the ecvocative connotations that come with a title like "Grave Filled With Books." I like this song a whole lot, and every single time I come across any of their work I always think about how interesting and mysterious a figure Giles Corey must be. Of course, in reality, he is probably just a very talented fella with a history degree who just lives a regular ass life. That instinct to transform artists into "stars" is a bitch sometimes. I am a big fan of when musicians have the courage to give their songs a lot of space, and this song is really big on space.

HANDWRITTEN by THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

These guys are great if you're into very earnest blue-collar emo punk songs. I find them charming. This isn't my favorite song of theirs (that would be Here Comes My Man) but it's good. I have a pal who is a professional audio tech, and he's in love with this band. He told me once that The Gaslight Anthem is our generation's version of Springsteen. I can see why somebody would think that, but I'm not sure I'd go that far. If you're interested in the idea of a very midwestern version of Social Disortion with a little touch of The Mountain Goats; well this is your band. I will not deny that on the right day I will absolutely catch some feelings from their songs. There's like, zero cynicism or experimentation to these guys. They just want to sing catchy, well-written punk-ish songs about young love, heartbreak, ice cream shops, and how cool our grandparents probably were. Sometimes you need a little wholesomeness in your life. I mean, y'all have seen the other kinds of shit I have popping up in the algorithm. I need some dang ice cream shop songs to break up all the drug abuse and despair and overt Satanism. Yes. They are cheesy songs. But they make me smile and my kids like to dance in the kitchen to them, and that will make me very lactose tolerant.

KIM & JESSIE by M83

Saturdays = Youth is a fucking cool album, man. I always thought that album was trying to capture how it might feel to live inside the last 10 minutes of The Breakfast Club, and they nailed it. It's soooo nostaglic that it's kind of painful sometimes. These songs will always remind me of going to debate tournaments in high school. Like, you show up at another high school way early in the morning, and you're all full of fear and excitement and hormones. Maybe you've got a sweetheart from another school who you might get to see, and you're hoping she likes the tie your mom bought for you on sale at JC Penny. You get to eat fast food with your buddies, and you get to be in a different place around different people for a little while. I think that most people have youthful experience like that, and you get older and live with the knowledge that you may never feel that way ever again. This album and these songs feel a bit like an attempt to hold on to that. Which is funny because I was done with high school debate tournaments years before M83 did this. Is this the root of the Synthwave thing? I mean, in addition to Hotline Miami and Drive. I feel like it probably played a part. Anyway: one of my faves and it deserves the hype it got.

SPACE AGE LOVE SONG by BRIEF CANDLES

I am impressed and grateful that we got to play shows with this band. They are really very good and nice and generous folk. This is a really great cover with some neat ideas, and I have never once not lost my shit when they played it live. In general, I think that Brief Candles really nailed the wistful and sweet elements of shoegaze while retaining the ability to just absolutely pummel you into dust with noise. That's actually a tough road to walk, and there aren't a whole lot of bands I've ever seen who can consistently do it they way these lovelies can. They really figured out how to claim a corner of the scene for themselves, and they made a lot of really good music that I enjoy very much. I think they easily make the Mt. Rushmore of midwestern shoegaze bands, which is a funny idea that I'd like to think about more often.