RC Halloween round-up: Doja Cat went as Haitus Kaiyote, Kelly Clarkson went as Olivia Rodrigo, Post Malone went as Rod Sterling, Dolly Parton went as the Paradox of Tolerance, and Taylor Swift went as a giant pumpkin. I personally wore my Phoebe Bridgers skeleton onesie for the fourth year in a row. Now that Halloween is over, it's time to celebrate November's big holiday: November 11th, a.k.a. the eighteenth anniversary of RC alumna Reba McEntire starring in Reba Season 5 Episode 8: "Grannies Gone Wild." Less importantly, we're gonna have the Christmas album poll up by the end of this month. Lots of RC shit going down soon. Keep hanging around, it'll be fun.
NATE'S COMMENTS: "underscores's last album, Fishmonger, was an out-of-nowhere surprise that helped fill the void left in my soul due to the absence of my beautiful 100 gecs. They became, in my mind at least, a member of the hyperpop vanguard, along with gecs, glass beach, and Dltzk (now Jane Remover). All three of those acts are now, in one way or another, disowning hyperpop. In the interest of transparency, I will say that I have already listened to Wallsocket and find it interesting as hell. I hope you do too."
Record Club:
WEEK 249 — November 5-11, 2023
Wallsocket
by underscores
LISTEN:
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PICKED BY NATE
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ALBUM DETAILS
GENRE: (per RYM) indietronica, indie rock, electropop
RELEASED: September 22, 2023
LENGTH: 54:55
TRACKLIST:
- Cops and robbers
- Locals (Girls like us)
- Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
- You don't even know who I am
- Johnny johnny johnny
- Shoot to kill, kill your darlings
- Horror movie soundtrack
- Old money bitch
- Geez louise
- Seventyseven dog years
- Uncanny long arms
- Good luck final girl
LYRICS: Genius.com
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ARTIST DETAILS
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ABOUT: April Harper Grey was born on April 21, 2000, in San Francisco, CA. She has said that she first became interested in making music at age six, and counts Skrillex as an influence from that age. Her professional stage name is underscores (all lowercase letters). She started releasing music under that moniker in 2013 on SoundCloud. As indicated above, there is some question as to how to genre-label her music. The Atlantic described it as "music that is nonbinary both in form and in content." underscores is a trans woman. She is currently touring to promote her brand new album.
DISCOGRAPHY: Wallsocket is underscores' second studio album, after 2021's critically acclaimed Fishmonger. Five EPs were released between 2016 and 2021.
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ADDITIONAL INFO
READING SOME SHIT: interview with DIY Magazine
WATCHING SOME SHIT: full show in NYC from almost exactly one month ago
PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: As noted above, underscores have connections to 100 gecs, even beyond their shared genre (or shared disdain of ostensible genre label). 100 gecs' Dylan Brady did production work on the non-album single "Count of three (You can eat $#@!)," and underscores toured behind 100 gecs in 2021.
On the album's Wikipedia page, underscores names her "key influences" for the album, and the list includes four RC alumni (Sufjan Stevens, Beck, Bruce Springsteen, the Raconteurs), plus two friends of RC (Lucinda Williams was featured on Steve Earle's I Feel Alright, and Jason Isbell is married to a Highwoman and was famously covered by Noah Kahan).
On the album's Wikipedia page, underscores names her "key influences" for the album, and the list includes four RC alumni (Sufjan Stevens, Beck, Bruce Springsteen, the Raconteurs), plus two friends of RC (Lucinda Williams was featured on Steve Earle's I Feel Alright, and Jason Isbell is married to a Highwoman and was famously covered by Noah Kahan).
At 248 albums and counting, it's getting difficult to remember connections off the top of my head. Eventually, we might have to say something like "Hey, here's one single connection, let's see if you can find any more" in this space. Like, I was trying to think if there were any other RC alumni besides underscores and 100 gecs who didn't have any capital letters in their name (I'm talking about artist, not album title), but I couldn't think of any. But so I scrolled through the big list and found four: 340ml, alyona alyona, long odds, and boygenius. That list is getting unwieldy, and it's going to continue to get harder and harder to recall these types of things at will.
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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
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